The
Dangers of Centralized Power. 1 Sam 8; 1 Kings 12
Chapter twelve introduces the new king, the son of Solomon by the name
of Rehoboam. There is a fascinating situation take place immediately as is
faced with a challenge to his leadership by the leaders of the ten tribes in
the north, and this takes the form of at least a challenge to the taxation
policy of his father Solomon.
There are several key chapters in the Bible that address various aspects
related to politics. We are really running into challenges today in our
contemporary political environment (ever since the early sixties) about just
exactly how we express the role religious belief in government. There are those
who want say things along the line of religion has no place in politics. Can we
really keep religion out of politics? If the Bible truly tells us how things
are then as a Christian can we make decisions in the political realm, either as
a voter or as a legislator or leader, that doesn’t take into account what God
says in His Word? As a citizen we can’t not take this into account; we have to
take this into account. Otherwise we are basically saying that Christianity
just deals with some very subjective, isolated and compartmentalised area in
our life that only deals with God, salvation and the spiritual life. But the
inclusive idea there is that if Christianity and the Bible doesn’t teach us how
we are to think and act in relation to government, the basic foundational
principles of political science and social organisation, then what we are
basically saying is that the creator of mankind, the creator of the universe,
doesn’t have anything to say about the organisation of society and the relationships
of man. This just flies in the face of much of Scripture.
So we have to think about this also from the viewpoint of the role of
government. Is it the role of government to implement a religious system? Is it
the role of government to support a religious system? Where do you draw the
line? Anybody who is governing is going to govern from some worldview, and that
worldview is either going to be one that is informed by the Bible or it is
going to be informed by something other than the Bible. In other words, it is
either going to be divine viewpoint or human viewpoint and there is no other
option.
We have said several things about the
It is only reasonable for us to believe that the God who created all
things, created man (male and female), designed the entire social concept which
includes marriage, family and government, and that He would also address from
Scripture principles related to each of these. What we see in the first set of
divine institutions are institutions that established before the fall, before
sin. The post-flood institutions of judicial authority and national
distinctions are designed in an evil environment to protect the first three.
Without a protection of the first three divine institutions—individual
responsibility, marriage and family—the entire social structure will erode and
collapse internally. That is why this full issue related to gay/homosexual
marriage is such a crucial thing to understand.
Now what appears what appears on the marriage licenses in
If as Christians we believe that God is the creator and that He created
all things, and this is our view of reality, and that God has addressed all of
these social issues, then we should also believe that He addresses principles
related to government as well. If we are going to develop a view of government,
a view of leadership, then our starting point as a Christian is going to be the
Word of God and not political science down at the local university, or civics
class in high school.
The Noahic covenant and the establishment of judicial authority in
Genesis chapter nine was quickly followed by the first subversion of judicial
authority and government by the tyrannical kingdom established by Nimrod for
the purpose of challenging God. This is where we see for the first time in
history the development of the kingdom of man, and throughout history there is
going to be this challenging—the two threads that run counter to one another—of
the kingdom of man (Satan through man) seeks to establish his own domain and
kingdom on the earth versus God who is seeking to move into human history and
to establish His own King, who is the promised Messiah from the Old Testament,
who will finally then establish His kingdom on the earth and rule man as only
He can rule man, and as man only should be ruled. So there is the beginning of
this conflict that runs as a thread all the way through the Bible from Genesis
11 until there is the destruction of the Antichrist in Revelation chapter
nineteen. In the Tribulation period Satan gets as close as he can get to
establishing the universal kingdom of man on earth. He just about gets there
and then everything just falls apart, and Jesus Christ comes back and is
established as the true divine King. So this conflict between God and Satan is
played out within the realm of human politics and human kingdoms. We can’t look
at human history and divorce it from that.
There are several things to note here. Government (Genesis 9 and Romans
13) is related to protection of people in terms of protecting them from criminality
and from external enemies. This idea comes from the idea of the sword which is
developed in Romans 13, and the sword is always a metaphor for power to
determine life or death, either in terms of execution of criminals or in terms
of warfare.
Romans 13:1 NASB “Every person is to be in subjection to the
governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God…” God is the
one who overrules history, the one who raises kings and removes kings. “… and
those which exist are established [appointed] by God.
The reason authority is such an issue all through Scripture is because
that is the core issue in the angelic conflict. Satan subverted the authority
of God. This is why the Scriptures make it such an important issue to obey
authority, because once a person sets up in his mind the mental framework that
“I’m the one who really judges whether any authority is valid or not” it is
easy to take that same mentality to God and say “I’m going to judge whether or
not God has the right to tell me to do this or that.” So authority orientation
is foundational in the angelic conflict and for the believer.
Romans 13:2 NASB “Therefore whoever resists authority has
opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive
condemnation upon themselves.
This shows the limitation of government. There are limits in Scripture
for government. God institutes government and then He says there are limits for
government. It is not the role of government to take care of the spiritual
needs of people. That is just one aspect and it puts a line between religion
and politics.
Our view of authority must come out of Scripture; our view of government
must come out of Scripture; our view of the extent or limits of government must
also come out of Scripture. This is because our understanding of government is
going to be directly related to our understanding of man’s basic nature—is man basically
good or basically evil? The two elements of the judiciary and the military are
both embedded in this concept of the sword, and so from one perspective
religion can’t be divorced from politics because it is the revelation of God’s
Word that helps us understand who man is, what society is, what absolutes are,
and how they should come together. On the other hand it is not the role of
political leaders to address or impose religion upon a society. Also we have to
factor in the fact that from the viewpoint of government itself it can’t be
totally devoid of religion. You can’t come into a judicial body or a
legislature and say you are going to set aside your Christian [or Islamic,
Jewish or even secular atheist] convictions. But at the same time we can’t let
a religious system come in and be dictated to the people at large.
In Deuteronomy chapter seventeen God described the limits of
kingship—that the king is under the authority of the law. If we look at
parallel passages of Scripture such as Proverbs 1:7 we understand that the fear
of the Lord from a biblical viewpoint is the beginning of knowledge. Learning
to read and appreciate
No other civilization than
The Enlightenment period tried to come to truth apart from any kind of
revelation. A lot of Enlightenment thinking influenced the founding of the
Deuteronomy 17 says that the king is not to multiply wives to himself,
he is not to increase his wealth at the expense of the people, he is to under
the authority of the law, and we see that Solomon failed on all these counts. 1
Samuel chapter eight says is that it is almost the inevitable trend of fallen
man in governing positions to take advantage of the governed. Up to the point
of 1 Samuel 8
1 Samuel 8:5 NASB “and they said to him, ‘Behold, you have
grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to
judge us like all the nations.’” Part of their problem was that they wanted to
have a king like all the other nations. All of the other nations are modelling
kingship according to the pattern that started at Babel with the kingdom of
man, a kingship that wraps up religion and autocracy, is tyrannical at the
expense of the people, and these kingdoms are attempting to do for them people
what God says only He can do. They are trying to bring in health and happiness
and prosperity without being dependent upon God.
1 Samuel 8:6 NASB “But the thing was displeasing in the sight
of Samuel when they said, ‘Give us a king to judge us.’ And Samuel prayed to
the LORD.
What is God reminding Samuel of there? He was reminding him that if the
people would exercise the faith-rest drill toward God that God would protect
them from their enemies. God protected them from the most horrendous tyrannical
government possible under the Pharaoh’s when they were in
Kingship in the Old Testament is related to God who is the initial King
of Israel, and the kingship in
When we look at the success of
So in 1 Samuel 8 God is going to give the people what they want so that
they will learn and develop the capacity to appreciate what they need. It is in
Saul’s failure that the people learn what they should have and what God gives
them in David, so that they can appreciate David. So God installs Saul for a
reason and it is to prepare them for His choice. In this section God is going
to give them fair warning, and in that warning which they reject they take on
their own condemnation. The irony in this is that God gives them everything
they need but they constantly just reject it and it just comes back upon them.
In this chapter God points out the danger of human kings and that that danger
resides in their desire for autonomous power which is used by them to enhance
their own standing, their own wealth, their own power base, and to expand their
own kingdom for their own agenda. One of the prime moving forces in human
kingdoms is power and a desire to establish man to solve his own problems in
place of God.
We see in Deuteronomy that the divine ideal for human government is
limited government. When we read through the Mosaic Law it is a government that
is designed to preserve property and property ownership which is the foundation
for liberty. Basic rule of thumb: If we see somebody running for office and
they want to take away anybody’s money they anti-liberty, because the more we
get the keep the more liberty we have, and the more options we have in life.
When we look at the principles laid out in the Old Testament the king was to
preserve freedom and property because property is directly related to liberty,
but we also see in Deuteronomy 17 and subsequent chapters that the king does
not function in the same realm and the same role as the prophet and the priest.
The king is under the authority of the prophet and the priest. It is Samuel the
prophet who anoints Saul as king; it is Samuel the prophet who anoints David as
king. The king does not get over into the religious field, there was a complete
separation between the religious responsibilities of the priest and the prophet
and the leadership and ruling responsibilities of the king in
But in the kingdom of man what we see from the
1 Samuel
What is the result of this? The people are going to cry out and
complain: We need a different king, a different government. 1 Samuel
All of this focuses on the dangers of central governments and the
dangers of large governments, and how centralised power ultimately destroys the
basis for liberty ands property.