Setting a Foundation For Why God in Creation Gave Us Secular Authorities
Good Morning,
As we begin on this Tuesday prayer and worship help to reflect on what a Christian attitude towards civil government should be it would be good for us to think a little bit about what we should expect from that part of life we call politics. It kind of does not matter what form our particular local authorities (even that word needs some explaining) take, if they are voted in, gain that position by birth, or by brute force. What are they doing there to begin with! Men will tell you that someone has to be in charge. In charge of what? Society? Interpersonal interactions, etc…? That is the question we’ll deal with today. Understanding what God designed the civil magistrate to do and to be in His world is an important dynamic for this conversation.
The city of Enoch is the first mention in the Bible of something different from merely a family group residing in the same place. Prior to Cain going into the land of Nod there is little idea of any other humans on the planet except Adam, Eve, and their sons. It is evident that in the space between Abel’s murder and Cain’s dislocation from the area East of Eden there has been a rapid growth in the population of the earth. We know this not only from the fact Cain has a wife and kids, but by the time Lamech comes around there are multiple wives to be had. In some ways the building of the city of Enoch is a direct act of rebellion against the authority of God to be in charge, and we see that primarily in the name Cain gives to this location. It is a flag in the ground declaring Enoch to be greater than Adam, who is still around at this time. While that may be the first use and purpose of a city we can without much difficulty declare towns, villages, states, etc… to be far more than that today, despite what some Agrarians may say.
For our purposes the Hebrew word that we translate as city is used elsewhere like in Job 8:6 to mean: to protect. The idea then for what Cain is doing is seeking to provide a place of safety for his kinfolk. We can all I think identify with the desire of Cain here. Ironically, that whole concept of needing a place for protection is born out of the fact that the murderous rage of Cain is what humanity now needs guarding from. When we as people living in 2024 consider government how far down the list do we need to get to see our local government as primarily there to protect?
It seems like they’ve taken on a lot of tasks and authority that don’t really have a lot to do with it.
Due to the fact that I’ve watched too much television my mind directly goes to the motto of the Los Angeles Police Department, To Protect and to Serve at this point. I can hear the opening chords of Dragnet as I write those words. If the first duty then of a city is to guard and provide a place of safety for the people who live in the midst of it we can generally make sense then of a lot of other aspects of civil governance that we not be super fond of at the moment. If we are going to not have chaos then we need to agree on how to go about securing that for everyone who is a part of the situation. Those agreements on how to proceed are what we are talking about when we mention things like laws.
Most of the laws we have on the books, if not all of them, came to be there because there was a concern to grant assistance to the weak, the vulnerable, or those unable to care for themselves either by reason of physical, mental, or financial feebleness. If you go and read God’s laws for the city, those statutes that we in the Reformed faith refer to as judicial laws it will soon become apparent that our Lord likewise is concerned that men and women as they live among one another do not take advantage to use the stronger man’s liberty to exploit those without the same freedoms. While Romans 14 and similar passages concern themselves with this kind of spiritual circumstance inside the church, it is not a stretch to notice the same need in wider society.
As we examine the questions I raised at the beginning of today’s Tuesday lesson we start seeing an answer come to pass. The Lord’s purpose in creating civil government is to protect His people, both those who are His in the covenant of grace, and those who are engaged with Him still in the covenant of works. Every human being is by virtue of their very existence to be humbled in the face of the Creator. I believe it to be something that we all can agree on that the biggest issue with our politics today is that so many, if not all, if we are being cynical, of those in authority over us in that civil realm do not even think about what God wants for them to be and to do in their particular office nor do they understand what their main purpose is. It is part of the reason why to the writing of laws, there is no end, for they do not comprehend that that they are not called to make it up as they go along, to add law upon law as those parmesan commercials witness to us. They don’t know when to say when. Government grows because it does not see that it’s reason for being is limited, though I don’t think they have eyes to notice it either.
In closing, and in order to land the plane a little bit and to set the stage for the next part of our conversation we need to now seek to be at peace with one way to help our lost political class better see what our Heavenly Father, and His Son, the one who is head over all things for the blessing of His bride, the church (Eph. 1:22), would have them to be and to do for the glory of God and the betterment of all of our lives. First of all heeding the warnings the Holy Spirit gives throughout human history, and testifies to in the Bible would be a great place to start. However, it may be that what they need more than anything today is a Church which preaches prophetically about the Leviathan which has engulfed our society. We’ll talk some more next week about what God’s purpose is for the civil government past a mere need for protection.
Here’s a last word:
Blessings in Christ,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church
