Benevolent Dictator: Wonderful Counselor

God has built authority into his creation. It originates with him, and is mediated through others. The Bible, and history, record the often ruinous ways in which God’s authority has been wielded by those who have had the privilege to possess it. Ahaz, the king of Judah at the time when several familiar prophecies were given, is an egregious example. In an attempt to preserve his power, rather than trusting Yahweh he sought to make an alliance with a pagan ruler, sending him the gold and silver stored in the Temple. Additionally, he sacrificed his son to a pagan god in an attempt to curry its favor. He then shut up the temple and set up alternative altars in Jerusalem. And most foolishly, he discounted the signs and ignored the stern, yet gracious, warnings from the God who had placed him on the eternal throne of David. Ahaz was a monumental political disaster. 

Yet, in the midst of this debacle, Yahweh offered a vision of political power that would be wielded with perfection. “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder . . .” Here is one who will rule with all authority and will do so with wisdom, justice, and righteousness, for he will be the “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6,7) What an extraordinary hope to set before us!

We can be grateful that in our country we have not had to suffer the sorrow and heartache of a despotic ruler, such as Ahaz. The framers of the Constitution were wise enough to understand that tyranny results when a person, or particular faction, is allowed to have absolute authority. The separation of powers effected by establishing three branches of government has proven to be a hedge against such an accretion of power. But it is a sad commentary on the untrustworthiness of fallen man that a such form of government was thought necessary. As Lord Acton famously observed, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Advent is the season when the church looks backward and forward, simultaneously. We look back to the fulfillment of the promise of a coming deliverer, and forward to the fulness of his deliverance. And that fulness entails his assuming the role of benevolent dictator. During his brief earthly sojourn, Jesus inaugurated his rule, but he promises that one day he will return to establish the envisioned peaceable kingdom. We pray with faith and live in hope of his return. May God hasten the day. 

I Pledge Allegiance?

“Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Mark 12:17

Those who wield political power have a just claim upon our lives and energies. They serve as God’s agents in the world, exercising his authority. We are instructed, therefore, to pay taxes in their support and to show them honor (Romans 13:6-7). Praying for them, we lighten their load, and this has the benefit of bringing blessing into our own lives (1 Timothy 2:2). Those in authority have every right to expect from us willing and diligent service in support of maintaining an ordered and just society. We must not, then, resist their rule but accept it as a manifestation of God in the world. This is rendering to Caesar the things that are his.

However, as C. S. Lewis observes, “He who surrenders himself without reservation to the temporal claims of a nation, or a party, or a class is rendering to Caesar that which, of all things, most emphatically belongs to God: himself” (Learning in a Time of War). When we do not maintain an inner loyalty to God we fall prey to seducing patriotism, tradition, social status, or some other of the many worldly values that seek to rule us.

The ability of Daniel and his friends to prosper while in exile was because they seemed to understand what Jesus was talking about. They would give to Nebuchadnezzar what he had a right to expect, but they would not allow him to possess their souls. Throughout their captivity, they remain “inner strangers to the life and culture in which they are outwardly and fully involved” (Ronald Wallace, Daniel, p. 39).

Here is a model for us. We, too, feel the loss of the familiar as we sojourn in what seems to be an increasingly foreign land. Yet, as did the young men of the exile, we can learn the language and wisdom of those around us without forsaking our allegiance to the One who has placed us here.