Does God control heads of state? Even when heads of state execute ethnic cleansing? The Book of Proverbs says, "Yes."

Proverbs 21:1 -- In the Lord’s hand the king’s heart is a stream of water that he channels toward all who please him.

The nine European Monarchs who attended the funeral
of King Edward VII of Britain,
photographed at Windsor Castle on 20 May 1910.

Proverbs makes no attempt to explain the paradox of divine mastery and responsible human freedom

"Departure of the Israelites", by David Roberts, 1829.

Proverbs makes no attempt to explain the paradox of divine mastery and responsible human freedom (see 21:1; Phil 2:12-13).  Several stories illustrate the issues of this saying.  In Genesis, Joseph's brothers plan and execute evil against Joseph for their own purposes, but their actions ultimately serve God's good purposes of salvation (see the paradoxical formulations concerning "who did it" in Gen 45:5-8; 50:19-21).  In other cases, Yahweh "hardens" Pharaoh's self-hardened heart (Exodus 5-11) and ordains that Absalom choose the wrong counsel against David (2 Sam 15:31; 16:23; 17:14).  Proverbs 21:1 against raises the issues of 16:1, 9 and 20:27.  Its main thrust, however, is positive, because irrigation waters, like royal wisdom, cause the land and the people to flourish (see 18:4).

Practically, 21:1 gives hope to those who pray for rulers and all in positions of authority


An atheist election poster, United States elections, 2012.

Practically, 21:1 gives hope to those who pray for rulers and all in positions of authority (1 Tim 2:1-8) -- hope that God will guide and move them to act in wisdom for the common good.  In evil times, this proverb may comfort those whose lives are afflicted by capricious tyrants or cruel magistrates.  The Lord can indeed turn the hearts of the wicked to do what is right, thereby working God's own good purposes even when human beings intend evil.

Why has God not made good the hearts of the mighty and the common folk alike?

A boy at a grave during the 2006 funeral of genocide victims
in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Yet in our reflection on the genocidal "ethnic cleansing" perpetrated by the Nazis, by the warring factions in Bosnia, by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, by Amin in Uganda, and by opposing sides in Rwanda and Zaire, we ask the anguished question, Why has God not made good the hearts of the mighty and the common folk alike?  "Why, O LORD, do you make us / stray from your ways / and harden our heart, so that / we do not fear you?" (Isa 63:17, NRSV).  Perhaps the most terrible judgments of God are those in which God confirms the hardness of human hears and leave us to our own devices:

Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save,
    nor his ear too dull to hear.
But your iniquities have separated
    you from your God;
your sins have hidden his face from you,
    so that he will not hear. (Isa 59:1-2 NIV)

Source: Van Leeuwen, Raymond. “Proverbs.” In The New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 5:17-264. (Nashville: Abingdon, 1997), pages 195-196.