Mojtaba Khamenei: How the “Shadow Prince” became Iran’s new leader

Iranian state TV has announced that Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the country’s late supreme leader, has been named his successor. Shortly thereafter, Iran launched more attacks on Israel and Gulf countries. In Bahrain, for example, the health ministry reported that thirty-two people were wounded overnight by an Iranian drone attack, including a seventeen-year-old girl and a two-month-old baby.

Such aggression on the heels of the younger Khamenei’s election should not surprise us. In fact, Iranian state media showed a projectile said to have been launched at Israel bearing the slogan, “At your command, Sayyid Mojtaba.”

Mansions on “Billionaire’s Row”

Mojtaba Khamenei reportedly owns a string of mansions on a street in London nicknamed “Billionaire’s Row.” In total, he owns eleven properties worth more than one hundred million pounds. His wealth in the West reminds us of the billionaires who lead Hamas while living far from Gaza and the suffering their corrupt jihadism continues to cost its people.

Paradoxically, Khamenei is also known in Iran for emulating his father’s hardline Islamist politics and policies against Israel and the West. Dubbed the “shadow prince” of Iran for the way he’s largely worked away from the public eye, Mojtaba has cultivated close relationships with conservative clerics and elements of the Revolutionary Guards. He has also reportedly participated in the oppression of his own people, playing a role in the 2009 crackdown that followed mass protests.

As one scholar of the Middle East said following the younger Khamenei’s election, “Having Mojtaba take over is the same playbook.” According to Reuters, analysts say the choice means “Iran’s leadership has rejected any prospect of compromise to preserve the system and sees no path forward except confrontation, revenge, and endurance.”

Calvin Coolidge observed, “Character is the only secure foundation of the state.” As the leader goes, so often his followers will follow. And while many—perhaps even a majority—of the people in Iran do not seem interested in following another Khamenei, enough do who hold positions of power that his selection will dramatically impact the country’s direction.

Jethro wisely advised Moses, “Look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens” (Exodus 18:21). This is because the character of the leaders plays a crucial role in forming the character of the people.

This principle is as relevant to American politics and elections as it is to Iran or anywhere else in the world. Accordingly, let’s take a moment to consider character in a larger biblical context. Out of my personal Bible study today, four practical principles emerged.

One: Biblical morality is the foundation of personal morality

Solomon observed, “The stupid ridicule right and wrong, but a moral life is a favored life” (Proverbs 14:6 MSG). To build such a life, it is imperative that we choose the proper foundation.

Jesus closed the most famous sermon of all time with this metaphor:

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it (Matthew 7:24–27).

According to our Lord, “Until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished” (Matthew 5:18). God’s laws of morality are as immutable as the laws of gravity. The former will be no more outdated than the latter.

Jesus added: “Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (v. 19).

Will you be called “least” or “great” today?

Two: Character is an investment that pays more than it costs

The Lord announced through the psalmist, “To one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!” (Psalm 50:23). David therefore rejoiced to testify, “The righteous shall be glad; they shall exult before God; they shall be jubilant with joy!” (Psalm 68:3).

Here we see the urgency of choosing present righteousness to receive future blessing. Character is an investment, sacrificial today but beneficial tomorrow. It is also beneficial today in that it keeps us from that which is harmful in the present while building discipline and character for the future.

This is why temporal wealth can be perilous: “Let not the greatness of the ransom turn you aside” (Job 36:18). Moses similarly warned the Israelites not to allow their future prosperity in the promised land to lead them to “forget the Lᴏʀᴅ your God” (Deuteronomy 8:14).

Suffering can turn us from character as well: “Take care; do not turn to iniquity, for this you have chosen rather than affliction” (Job 36:21). If iniquity can relieve our affliction, it seems a fair trade at the time, especially if the iniquity offers pleasure in place of our pain. This is one explanation for the pandemics of opioid and substance abuse, pornography, and marital sins today.

Satan knows that the result of temptation will be worse than the cause; otherwise, our enemy, who hates us, would not offer such a trade. But every day we choose character is a day we position ourselves to be blessed by God in the present and in eternity.

Three: The morality God teaches requires the power God offers

Jesus’ first beatitude was foundational to the Sermon that followed: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). “Poor in spirit” can be interpreted as “those who know how desperately they need God.”

The Anglican Book of Common Prayer, therefore, offers this intercession today:

Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves. Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Billy Graham observed:

The soul requires as much attention as the body. It demands fellowship and communion with God. It demands worship, quietness, and meditation. Unless the soul is fed and exercised daily, it becomes weak and shriveled.

Wise, then, is the person who openly confesses their lack of spiritual wealth and in humility cries out, “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” (Luke 18:13 NKJV). In God’s economy, spiritual emptiness comes before filling and spiritual poverty before riches. Happiness, Jesus said, comes from admitting our spiritual poverty, and then asking him to come into our lives.

Has this happened to you?

Four: We need to seek God’s help with character daily

David testified, “Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up” (Psalm 68:19, my emphasis). Jesus similarly taught us to pray for our “daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). Our souls need daily spiritual bread as urgently as our bodies need daily physical bread.

The great preacher John Claypool told of a group of monks living in a monastery on a high mountainside. One day, one of the monks came down into town for supplies. A townsperson saw him, ran and fell before him, and said, “Oh, exalted brother, what do you and your fellow holy men do up there so close to God?”

The monk smiled, pulled the man to his feet, and said, “We fall down, and we get up. We fall down, and we get up. We fall down, and we get up.” All by the grace of God.

In today’s My Utmost for His Highest reading, Oswald Chambers advised, “Never try to live the life of God on any other line than God’s line, and that line is absolute devotion to him. . . . Our Lord wants us to be yoke-fellows with him.” To be his yoke-fellow, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25).

In today’s First15, our ministry’s devotional resource, we read:

The leadership of the Spirit is in direct opposition to the lifestyle of the world. His desire is always to lead us away from sin that entangles us in the perspectives and pressures of the world toward a lifestyle of peace, joy, and intimate relationship with our heavenly Father. All of his leadership is purposed toward the goal of abundant life in God, of the fullness of satisfaction in God rather than the weak and fleeting pleasure in things of the world.

Is God’s goal your goal today?