Have you ever noticed how Israel’s history was full of bad kings? It seemed like they couldn’t string together two good ones in a row, but how many times does it sound like this:

“He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, following the ways of his father and committing the same sin his father had caused Israel to commit.” — 1 Kings 15:26

They would lead the people into idol worship, or getting killed in battle. The Israelites would get punished directly by God, or by the surrounding nations.

Sometimes God would intervene and remove the bad king, but more often than not he would just let it play out. Seems crazy. This is your chosen people! Do something! The Israelites would pray similar things. And the decades would go by. What’s up with that?

When I look back at my own life, I have had a similar mix of good and bad leaders as teachers, coaches, bosses or pastors. And a similar response to my prayers for God to remove them. And similar suffering because of their bad behaviour. And I’m part of God’s chosen people.

Surprisingly, I have to admit that I have grown more through the bad leaders in my life than the good ones. The good ones show me the target, but the bad ones force me to change. It’s not pleasant, but it’s effective.

So maybe we need to pray less about being saved from bad leaders, and spend more time being transformed through the trial. It’s not a bad plan. We can trust that God knows what he’s doing with his loved ones.