I know you were just chomping at the
bit to get into taxes (everybody’s favorite subject), but I thought we need to
spend one more day contemplating some of the deeper implications of a simple statement
that Paul makes here: “[There] is no authority except that which God has
established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.”
Does Paul only mean the national government
by this statement? No. In verse one he says that we must be subject to the governing
authorities, but the reason he gives for our obedience is because every human authority has been placed
there by God. If someone has been put in authority by another, he’s been placed
there by the Almighty, and rebellion against that authority (with the lone
exception of when they command us to do something contra
Scripture) is rebellion against God.
But we live under a system of rule by
law and in a democratic republic. What about bad government? I mean really
really really bad government?
Was Adolph Hitler “established” by
God? Stalin? Pol Pot? Fidel Castro? The Ayatollah Khomeini? The death toll, the
mountains of corpses that number in the millions (about 100 million killed in
the name of Communism alone) would seem to bring that proposition into
question.
Let’s get this out of the way. Yes. All of these monsters in human form were put into their place of authority by
the Almighty. It wasn’t chance, and it wasn’t contrary to his will, and it wasn’t
just him passively letting it happen. Paul’s pretty explicit here. Around the
time he wrote these very words, they had Nero as Roman Emperor. Look him up if the name doesn’t
mean anything.
But we need to ask some clarifying
questions. Does that mean that the Lord who placed them there agreed with everything
they did, that he smiled upon their policies? When Hitler was planning the Holocaust,
or Stalin was inflicting mass starvation on millions of Ukrainians, was God
smiling on them?
To ask is to answer. If you hesitated
for even a moment on those questions, something’s wrong. You know him better
than that, or I hope you do.
Just because God puts someone into a
position of authority has no bearing on whether or not (or how much) he agrees
with their policies. The same Bible that gives us today’s readings gives us plenty
of examples to make this clear. Think about Pharaoh. This monster murdered thousands
of little Jewish babies. He then oppressed millions of more Jews, forcing them
into backbreaking labor for his personal building projects. And of course the
Lord expressed his hearty disapproval of these actions by destroying the nation
that did it and which refused to let them go. But the Lord gives us insight into the
purpose behind all of this. This was not an accident. The Lord didn’t just
passively sit by and watch Pharaoh rise in power. He specifically says
that “I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my
power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
And this isn’t the only place the
Scripture proclaims this truth. The Psalmist said “No one from the east or the
west or from the desert can exalt themselves. It is God who judges: He brings
one down, he exalts another.” In the right way and in the right time, the same Lord
who raised them up will remove them. And he will judge them for everything they
do.
Why does God do this? Why doesn’t he
give us leaders like David or Hezekiah, like Winston Churchill or George
Washington all the time? It seems like really bad leaders outnumber really good
leaders by about a hundred to one. For every David, you get about a hundred
Ahabs. I don’t know why. But I know he knows what he’s doing, and I’ve chosen
to trust him. The Bible proclaims it, so I can either whine in ignorance of his
sovereignty or I can trust him.
There’s another point to consider. I
really haven’t touched much upon the passage in Peter, but there’s something
there really worth observing. For the most part, he’s echoing Paul here: “Submit
yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority.” But he goes out of
his way to go down the list of authorities: Kings down to local governors. This
means two things we should observe.
First, this includes local governing
authorities, not just national ones. Your city council and mayor are over you
in authority. Police are over you in their official capacity as law enforcers.
This would also include employers
and bosses. If you’ve taken a job, you’ve volunteered to be under the authority
of your employers. If your boss tells you to do something, you do it. Show proper
respect for everyone. We love other believers, fear God, and honor those in
earthly authority over us.
I’d like to remind you (and me) that
this is not an option. These are not suggestions. These are commands from God
Almighty. And we should not be obeying just because we’re afraid of earthly
consequences. Like it or not, whether we agree with them or not, whether they’re
good leaders or not, our Father has placed them in the spot where they are.
Once again, it all comes down to one question: “Do I trust him or not?”
Yes, I trust you. But the world gets so dark sometimes, and so often it looks like Wrong is on the Throne and Right is on the gallows. Please help me to trust, and to obey, and to wait.
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