Did God Use Evil People in the Bible?

And does this tell us anything about who we should support politically?

Feb 03, 2025

I’m not a political commentator, and it’s not my intention to opine on the political developments of the day. There’s nothing wrong with political commentary, of course. It’s just that—as a pastor—it’s not what I’m called to do. But when people are misusing Scripture to justify support of certain political leaders, then it becomes something I need to address as a pastor. I’m not writing to affirm or refute support of any specific politician, but only to clear up some growing confusion regarding biblical principles. So let’s begin with some misguided claims we’ve been hearing too often:

God used imperfect people in the Bible to accomplish his will—so it’s okay for me to support my politician.

Did God use imperfect people in the Bible to accomplish his will? Yes, he certainly did. Of course, God uses the actions of everyone to accomplish his will. That doesn’t mean he approves of their actions or supports their leadership. Let’s consider some examples. Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, and lied to their father saying Joseph was dead. Much later, God put Joseph into a position of great power in Egypt, and he was able to provide food for his family during a time of famine. This is what Joseph told his (justifiably) frightened brothers:

You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.
Genesis 50:20

Does this mean God endorsed the actions of these brothers? Absolutely not! What they did was blatantly evil. But God used it for good anyway. This shows the wisdom and power of God; it doesn’t—in any way—justify the actions of these men.

God decided to judge the nation of Judah, and to destroy the city of Jerusalem and the temple. He used Nebuchadnezzar to accomplish his will. Does this mean he was calling his people to support and even celebrate the Nebuchadnezzar Administration? Of course not. God used the actions of Judas Iscariot to accomplish his will, leading to the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. So should we all be on “Team Judas”? I don’t think so.

We’ve heard a lot about Cyrus the last few years. Who was Cyrus? God revealed through his prophet Isaiah that someone named Cyrus would one day give the command for the people of Judah to be restored to the land, and for Jerusalem and the temple to be rebuilt. This prophecy was later fulfilled, and it would have been very appropriate for the people to give thanks to God for the way he worked through even a pagan king to restore Judah. But notice the text says nothing about the character of Cyrus. God didn’t endorse the reign of Cyrus, or call his people to support or praise this pagan king. This story shows the goodness and power of God, not the goodness and power of Cyrus.

So does God work through the actions of politicians to accomplish his will? Sure, he does. Which ones? All of them. God is constantly at work, weaving together every decision and action—good or evil—to ultimately accomplish his will. To say someone is a “Cyrus” is not much different than saying they’re a “Nebuchadnezzar” or a “Herod.” God used the actions of all of these kings to accomplish his will, but this says nothing about the character or suitability of anyone to be king. The focus here is on a God who can work his will through anyone, not on any human leader.

But David was horribly sinful—and so was Paul—and God used them!

Paul committed horrible atrocities against the church before he came to faith in Christ. This was before Christ called him to serve as an apostle. He experienced the forgiveness of God, yes, as we all can. But he repented of his past sin, dedicated himself to Christ, and lived a life marked by dramatic transformation. He was obviously not the man he had been before. To use the backstory of Paul to defend supporting a certain politician, you would need to be comparing Paul to someone today who experienced the same dramatic change in lifestyle and behavior, someone whose transformation is evident to all, someone who’s obviously not the same person they were before.

“But what about David? David committed adultery and then murder, but God didn’t remove him as king.” This is true. But the people using this as a defense aren’t recalling the whole story. First, through most of David’s life he showed the most incredible passion for God. Just read some of his psalms to see how fervently he sought God. If you’re going to compare someone today to David, they should have a comparable passion and overwhelming desire to serve God. They need to be like David in their passionate devotion to God, not just in the heinousness of their sin!

As horrible as David’s sin was, it was an anomaly in a life that had been devoted to God, even if imperfectly. The overall pattern of David’s life was not grotesque sin. This doesn’t excuse or justify his sin, but it does put it into perspective. Does the person you seek to compare to David have a generally sterling reputation morally, but marked by a brief, horrendous exception?

Next, we need to understand the consequences of David’s sin. Yes, God forgave him and left him as king. But he allowed David to experience the full force of the natural consequences of his sin. First, he and Bathsheba lost their child that was conceived. And from that point on, there were horrific incidents of sin occurring within David’s own family, with his sons following the toxic example of David. The family was ripped apart; the rest of David’s reign was troubled; he lost his moral authority to act decisively against what was improper—even in his own family; he suffered horrible, public shame and humiliation; and he became, in essence, a lame duck king. So—no—God did not continue to blithely use David as king just as he had before. It was most definitely not business as usual.

And there’s one more problem with using David to justify a politician today. David publicly humbled himself and repented before God with all his heart. (Read the beautiful, moving Psalm 51.) If you’re seeking to compare your chosen politician to David, has this politician acknowledged their guilt before everyone, showing great remorse and repentance?

Some will respond to this by saying, “Well, we’re all evil.” And this sounds very humble and spiritual. Scripture is clear that none of us, on our own, stand faultless before God. But if, by this, you mean we’re all equally evil, this is simply not true biblically. Read through 1 and 2 Kings, and see how many times the Word of God evaluates the moral condition of the various kings, describing some as (relatively) good, others as evil, and some as more evil than all those who had gone before. The Bible absolutely does not treat everyone (even every government leader!) as evil.

King Ahab was said to have “sold himself” to what was evil (1 Kings 21:20, 25). This cannot be said truthfully of every king of Israel, let alone everyone today. So to shrug our shoulders and say, “Well who isn’t evil?” is to be unbiblically cynical. It’s a moral cop out.

God forgives—and we should, too!

This is very true. But, as we just saw with David, God requires that we confess what we’ve done, and repent of our sin. Much of this is done in our private lives, of course, but public sin requires public confession and repentance. To speak as Christians of forgiving and restoring a leader (whether a president or a pastor) before there’s any hint of sincere confession and repentance is grossly inappropriate and unbiblical. It makes a mockery of both God’s holiness and his grace.

Does God use imperfect people to serve him in ministry and leadership? Yes, he does, and thank God! None of us would be able serve otherwise. But he also holds us accountable, to be upright and moral as leaders or ministry workers. Even if someone has genuinely repented, this doesn’t mean they should necessarily be restored to a particular role in ministry or leadership. If someone has abused children, for example, they can be forgiven and restored to fellowship with the body. But they should absolutely not be restored to ministry with children. Just because someone has been forgiven doesn’t make them qualified for any particular leadership role or position. Even if you forgive someone, that doesn’t mean you’ll hire them to babysit your kids!

At this point, many will remind us “we’re talking about a president, not a pastor.” And this always tickles me. Someone can be quick to try to draw from the Bible and refer to David or Paul or God’s grace when they think it furthers their case—and immediately drop any biblical standards when they’re no longer helping win their argument! Here’s the main point we need to see: None of the claims above justify or excuse Christians actively supporting blatantly evil politicians. And that brings us to a couple of clear biblical principles we do need to faithfully obey:

Don’t seek deliverance from the world

God expected his people, the nation of Israel, to turn to him for help and deliverance. But over and over and over again, he had to rebuke them for turning to someone else to deliver them.

“What sorrow awaits my rebellious children,”
says the LORD.
“You make plans that are contrary to mine.
You make alliances not directed by my Spirit,
thus piling up your sins.
For without consulting me,
you have gone down to Egypt for help.
You have put your trust in Pharaoh’s protection.
You have tried to hide in his shade.
But by trusting Pharaoh, you will be humiliated,
and by depending on him, you will be disgraced.
For though his power extends to Zoan
and his officials have arrived in Hanes,
all who trust in him will be ashamed.
He will not help you.
Instead, he will disgrace you.”
Isaiah 30:1-5

What sorrow awaits those who look to Egypt for help,
trusting their horses, chariots, and charioteers
and depending on the strength of human armies
instead of looking to the LORD,
the Holy One of Israel.
In his wisdom, the LORD will send great disaster;
he will not change his mind.
He will rise against the wicked
and against their helpers.
For these Egyptians are mere humans, not God!
Their horses are puny flesh, not mighty spirits!
When the LORD raises his fist against them,
those who help will stumble,
and those being helped will fall.
They will all fall down and die together.
Isaiah 31:1-3

King Asa was a faithful king of Judah. When the nation was attacked by an overwhelming enemy force, he put his trust in God, and they were delivered. Later he faced another attack, but this time he called on another king for help, a pagan king. He was confronted by a prophet of Yahweh who rebuked him for placing his trust in the king of Aram rather than God (2 Chronicles 16:1-10).

We see these kinds of stories all through the Old Testament. It’s very clear God did not want his people turning to someone else for help or deliverance. No wonder Ezra later wrote:

And there by the Ahava Canal, I gave orders for all of us to fast and humble ourselves before our God. We prayed that he would give us a safe journey and protect us, our children, and our goods as we traveled. For I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to accompany us and protect us from enemies along the way. After all, we had told the king, “Our God’s hand of protection is on all who worship him, but his fierce anger rages against those who abandon him.” So we fasted and earnestly prayed that our God would take care of us, and he heard our prayer.
Ezra 8:21-23

So to whom do we, as Christians, look to protect us from our enemies? Who do we trust to fight our battles? God? Or someone else? What will God say to us if we’re the ones looking to “Egypt” (Trump, Biden, or whoever) to deliver us, trusting them to bring about in our nation the kind of change that can only come through the transforming Spirit of God? The concern is even more relevant, because we’re also given this clear principle in Scripture:

Make no alliance with evil

Jehoshaphat was a faithful king of the southern kingdom of Judah. But he entered into a formal alliance with King Ahab (who, remember, had sold himself to what was evil). He did this by marrying his son to Ahab’s daughter. This alliance was so firmly cemented that when Ahab called on Jehoshaphat to help him in battle, Jehoshaphat responded, “Why, of course! You and I are as one [1 Kings 22:4].”

Hear that clearly. This otherwise godly king was claiming to be one with possibly the most evil king in the Bible. What’s the danger of this? When we partner with those who are evil, we begin to ignore the evil. At Jehoshaphat’s insistence, Ahab consults with a prophet of Yahweh, who reveals to Ahab this attack will result in his death. At this, Ahab has the prophet of Yahweh arrested and thrown into prison. Yet even this isn’t enough to wake up Jehoshaphat, and he inexplicably continues into battle—the battle Yahweh had just warned against—with Ahab, the king who had sold himself to what was evil (but with whom Jehoshaphat had entered into covenant alliance).

Just as Yahweh had said, the battle ended with the death of Ahab. When Jehoshaphat returned home to Jerusalem, he was confronted by another prophet of Yahweh who rebuked him for allying himself with an evil king: “Why should you help the wicked and love those who hate the LORD? Because of what you have done, the LORD is very angry with you [2 Chronicles 19:2].”

We see this principle all through Scripture. We may have to work with or for a blatantly evil person, or live close to someone who’s evil. Sometimes the kings of Israel and Judah might have made temporary treaties with pagan kings. But they were absolutely never to ally themselves with evil, to enter into alliance or partnership with someone who is evil or who worships false gods.

Political bribery

Some will say, “But look what this politician has done for us! Look at how they’ve addressed our concerns or advanced our causes.” They approach politics as a transactional arrangement. “If they do what we want them to, then we’ll support them.” But if we’re talking about supporting a leader of poor moral character, then this is a form of bribery. It’s persuading us to do something we know we should not do because of what we’ll be given in return. Even if the politician does for us what they promised, that just means they paid their bribe!

Hear why God told the people of Israel never to take bribes:

Take no bribes, for a bribe makes you ignore something that you clearly see. A bribe makes even a righteous person twist the truth.
Exodus 23:8 (emphasis added)

When we enter into some kind of partnership with someone, we begin to identify ourselves with them and their cause. We see ourselves more and more on their side. We begin to instinctively defend them—no matter what they do—and we automatically attack their enemies (who are now our enemies). We can find ourselves ignoring what we clearly see and twisting the truth, all out of a misplaced loyalty to an unscrupulous leader.

Jesus himself was tempted to partner with evil. Someone who lacked moral character offered to help Jesus do good, to give Jesus the power he was supposed to have. But Jesus rebuked him, and flatly refused to have anything to do with him (Luke 4:1-13).

If Jesus was tempted in this way, won’t we be as well? Won’t we hear the voice whispering in our ear: “Come on, don’t you want to do good? Are you really committed to accomplishing all the good things you talk about? Don’t you want to change the society around you? Well, I can help you do it! Just ignore a little, inconvenient, blatant evil here and there, and we can make this nation what it’s supposed to be!” Just as he did with Jesus, the devil is always waiting for the “next opportunity” to tempt us.

We can all too easily sell our Christian birthright for a deadly bowl of moral and spiritual compromise. This not only ruins our witness to the truth and love of Christ, it will ultimately poison and corrupt the church to the point we’re no longer characterized by Jesus’ gospel of love and grace. We can see in church history how the “church” of Jesus can become harsh, unloving, even malevolent, decidedly on the side of evil.

But there’s plenty to be concerned about in the current life of the church. When asked if an elected official who commits an immoral act can still behave ethically and fulfill their public duties, in five short years evangelical Christians went from the demographic with the least number of people saying yes (30%) to the most number of people saying yes (72%). This is a shocking change of heart, and we can’t fail to see a growing willingness to partner with evil to accomplish our desired outcomes politically.

God shows us throughout his Word that to have this kind of perception and attitude is to be unfaithful to him. Who do we trust to fight our enemies? Who do we trust to bring about needed change in society? Are we too quick to take a side (on the right or the left), and then close our eyes to what is blatantly evil on our side, ignoring what we should clearly see? We are to make no alliance with evil. We are not to partner with anyone who is unscrupulous or of poor moral character. As Scripture tells us: “How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness? [2 Corinthians 6:14].”

Let’s make sure we don’t identify with our political leaders more than we do our Lord. Let’s not be so committed to our political cause we close our eyes to what is clearly evil. Let’s hold our political affiliations loosely, and be fiercely loyal to what God has called us to be: a voice of conscience to both sides (especially our own side), shining the light of Christ’s truth and love to everyone. Let’s not excuse or justify anything that is blatantly evil—no matter who does it. And let’s not give our support to anyone who is obviously out of harmony with the way of Jesus—no matter what they promise us. The followers of Jesus must never partner with evil.