That’s right.
So many people read the Bible and its accounts about earthquakes, famines, floods, and pestilence, and think they’re bad things.
How silly!
You see, every time God unleashed these so-called “disasters” against His people, it was done to serve His purpose, every time. That can only mean these sources of destruction, suffering, and death have been God’s plan and intent for us all along!
Okay – as the apostle Paul might say, “I speak as a fool.”
Of course no sane person would make the above assertions. Plagues, war, drought, locusts, etc are awful events, and in fact God warns us against sinning against Him precisely so He isn’t compelled to send those things on us. They are punishment for sin. He doesn’t want to make us suffer. But just like a parent,
He who withholds his rod hates his son,
But he who loves him disciplines him diligently.” — Proverbs 13:24 (NASB)
Yes, bad events do indeed serve the purpose of the sovereign God. They serve as a rod of correction.
I’ve been told multiple times during my efforts to point out the wickedness of seeking any kings other than King Jesus that, “God has used kings for His purposes many times.”
No argument there. In fact, I would say he’s used every single one of them. Heck, he even calls Nebuchadnezzar “My servant” (Jeremiah 25:9, 27:6, 43:10), Cyrus “My anointed” (Isaiah 45:1), and Assyria “the rod of My anger” (Isaiah 10:5). God also used Titus to destroy Jerusalem in 70AD. He used the Muslims to hammer the Eastern Roman Empire. He used the international banking cartels to destroy the West’s economies
He’s also used fires, starvation, disease, and more to accomplish His ends.
So the argument that “God has used kings for His purposes” (and therefore, it is implied, they are His intention for us in general) is a weak argument. Of course He uses kings for His purposes.
The question is: What purposes, exactly?
These days I sometimes feel like I’m beating a dead horse when I make this upcoming point, but it seems people just. Don’t. Get it.
Or rather, won’t.
God was not pleased with the Israelites for demanding a king over them “like all the nations” (I Samuel 8). They were talking about a physical king. A man to rule over them. And “all the nations” they were talking about were heathen nations, including the very Canaanites whom they’d been ordered to destroy lest they be influenced by their idolatrous ways. They liked the idea of God ruling over them only insofar as He was just a concept or an idea – but not literally and truly.
Oh no. That wasn’t good enough.
They needed a mortal, finite, sinful man to rule over them.
Yes, that would be so much better.
God even warned them that the tyranny of human rulership would be worse. He warned them they would be oppressed, robbed, and used in every possible way if they got this king they wanted so badly.
Apparently, that didn’t matter to them. They demanded it.
Leading up to the days of the Assyrian captivity, God says through the prophet Hosea:
It is your destruction, O Israel,
That you are against Me, against your help.
Where now is your king
That he may save you in all your cities,
And your judges of whom you requested,
“Give me a king and princes”?
I gave you a king in My anger
And took him away in My wrath. — Hosea 13:9-11 (NASB)
He reminds them that He gave them the kings and rulers they demanded, not because He was pleased with them, but “in My anger”. And when they’d become dependent upon those kings, in His wrath He removed them and left the people listless and wandering, just as He described Israel after the death of Ahab: “. . . scattered on the mountains, like sheep which have no shepherd.” (II Chronicles 18:16)
God gave them the State, with its earthly rulers and kings and princes and all its inherent consequences, as punishment for their statism.
He gave them human rulers as punishment for wanting to be “like all the nations”.
They demanded a king, and so He punished them with a whole line of kings.
So yes. Humans kings and rulers and princes do indeed serve God’s purpose.
And that purpose is to punish His people for wanting them in the first place.
“But what about the righteous kings?” I’ve been asked. “Look at all the great things they’ve done!”
Sure, okay. Let’s talk about them.
David was a “man after God’s own heart” (I Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22). High praise. David was indeed a very godly man. He wrote most of the Psalms in our Bible and conducted himself in a very righteous manner.
Most of the time, that is.
But when he goofed, boy did he goof. Uriah and Bathsheba ringing any bells?
But notice that when he sinned, the people suffered as well. As a result of his sin with Bathsheba, not only did David suffer the loss of his infant child, but his son Absalom mounted a rebellion against David and plunged the kingdom into civil war, in which 20,000 men died (II Samuel 18:7).
Likewise, when David violated the Law and conducted a census of the people, Israel suffered for that as well. God’s response was to strike Israel with pestilence, which felled 70,000 (I Chronicles 21:14).
So we see the death count of those who served under the rule of David, whom God loved, comes to a total of 90,000 Israelites.
And then there was Solomon. Yes, his reign saw an economic boom and expansion of power such as the world had never seen. He wrote Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, and was given immense wisdom. But by the time his reign came to an end, Israel groaned under heavy taxes and Baal worship had made its way into the realm. Immediately after that, the kingdom split in what was essentially a tax protest.
Asa, though he conducted reforms, raided silver and gold out of the temple to pay the Arameans a bribe, and imprisoned Hanani the prophet for calling him out on it. We’re also told he oppressed the people (II Chronicles 16)
Jehoshaphat got Judah involved in wars he had no business getting them mixed up in (II Chronicles 19) and made alliances with wicked kings (II Chronicles 20).
Joash abandoned his reforms after the high priest died, and not only returned to the worship of Baals, but murdered the priest’s son for calling him out on it. As punishment, God allowed the Arameans to come and sack Jerusalem (II Chronicles 24).
Amaziah led his people to victory against the Edomites, and then brought the Edomites’ idols back for his people to worship. So God pitted him against Israel in war, in which Judah was defeated (II Chronicles 25).
Uzziah built up his standing army and eventually defiled the house of God (II Chronicles 26).
Jotham mounted large construction projects, which of course meant taxing the people (II Chronicles 27).
Hezekiah, a great reformer, still sealed Jerusalem’s fate at Babylonian hands when he foolishly showed Babylon’s ambassadors his treasures and the treasures of the land (II Kings 20).
Josiah, also a reformer, wrapped up his career by, like Jehoshaphat, getting his people involved in wars that weren’t any of their business (II Chronicles 35).
In every single case, the people suffered for the bad deeds of their kings. Even under the righteous kings. Whether taxation, war, or just overall oppression, the people paid the price for their desire for a human king, even under the “righteous” ones.
We don’t read of any of the righteous kings lifting the tax burden. We don’t read of them ceasing to draft young men and women to serve in the army and palaces. We don’t read of them disbanding Israel’s standing army. We don’t read of any of the warnings in I Samuel 8 being lifted.
Because that is what kings and rulers and princes do. As God said they would.
And I’d like to reiterate, these things kings do were not mentioned as good things in I Samuel 8. They were bad things.
And yet, after all these years of living under the State, we keep on demanding more.
There’s something seriously wrong with us.
God has consistently used kings and rulers to oppress His people, as punishment for their rejection of Him as King and their insistence on men as kings. That has always been the purpose of human kings and rulers – to prick us with a goad and strike us with a rod until we return wholly to Him and truly hold to the declaration that “There is another King, Jesus.” (Acts 17:7)
People hold these “righteous” kings up to me like they’re the epitome of great leadership and government, and in fact, they just simply weren’t as bad as the other kings. Still bad. Just not as bad.
Remember,
They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt;
There is no one who does good, not even one. — Psalm 14:3 (NASB)
However, Jesus reminds us:
And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.” — Mark 10:18, Luke 18:19 (NASB)
Being God incarnate, Jesus was in fact the definition of good.
For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. — Hebrews 4:15 (NASB)
And this same sinless High Priest is also King:
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they. — Hebrews 1:1-4 (NASB)
As I mentioned earlier, every time their king sinned, the people suffered as well. This is easily demonstrable throughout Scripture. On the surface that seems unfair, but they asked for this king – nay, demanded this king. And so, because they called for this king, they shared in his sins (I Timothy 5:22).
And because there is no one good or sinless except God, the people will suffer no matter who rules over them. That ruler will sin, and the consequences will be shared by both the ruler and his subjects. This is how it has always worked and always will work.
So . . . here’s a novel idea: How about we give up the notion of asking for, voting for, and supporting human rulers and thus signing up for the consequences of their sins? What if we – and this is gonna be crazy, but hear me out – threw ourselves fully and unequivocally behind the one and only sinless King, Jesus Christ? What if we said, “No King But Jesus” – but actually meant it, without hypocrisy?
That would be a sinless King, and thus, no consequences from having an imperfect human ruler.
Yeah, I’ve heard it before: “Nobody’s perfect. You can’t expect perfection from a man.”
That’s my point, you statist dimwits. Stop ignoring and excusing the wickedness of your favorite political figures and call it for what it is: Trouble for anyone over whom they rule.
I mean, personally, I’m not into the whole masochism thing, but hey, whatever floats your boat. The traits of human rulers are the same today as they were in I Samuel 8. Maybe you get off on that sort of thing, like the gutless bimbo who clings to and makes excuses for her abusive boyfriend.
Count me out.
“If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” — Joshua 24:15 (NASB)