God's Creation of Government

[Read Judges 21:25 & 1 Samuel 8:1-22]

One of the clearest truths to prove to any parent is that you do not have to teach children to be bad, you have to teach them to be good. You do not have to teach your child to hit someone when they steal your toy, they do that very naturally. This flip side is also true, you don't need to teach them how to steal either. If they see a toy they want, they take it, not caring if it belongs to someone else. You don't have to teach your child to lie when they are caught doing something naughty, they do that naturally. You don't have to teach your children to do stupid, dangerous things, they also do that very naturally. Much of what we do as parents is focused on preventing our children from doing what they naturally want to do. We are trying to keep them alive and teach them what it looks like to live properly.

You know another thing you don't have to teach your children? How to make a mess. They do that very naturally. They walk through the house and things seem to explode behind them as they go. When we were first married, I was running the dock business and Rachel was finishing up her LPN degree. I remember one of the days Rachel was at school and I was home watching Olivia. I left to go to the bathroom and came back to a living room that was complete chaos. There were toys everywhere. She had gotten a box of something out of the cupboard and dumped it all over the counter and the floor trying to "feed" her dolls. I still have no idea how she did it, it seems humanly impossible to create that much chaos in such a short time. She's just that good. We don't have to teach them to create chaos, they do it naturally. Rather, we have to teach them how to do things orderly, and we spend the rest of our lives trying to teach them that.

All of this is evidence of our sinful nature, or of what we call it in the Reformed Tradition, Total Depravity. This sinful nature has been handed down from generation to generation ever since the Fall in the garden. From the point of conception, every human being is sinful at their core. It's there. That's why the Heidelberg Catechism says it so strongly, "I have a natural tendency to hate God and my neighbor." (HC Q&A 5). There are many different ways to describe sin, and the Bible uses various images to help us understand what it is. Many people are familiar with the understanding that sin is "missing the mark" or "falling short" of a standard. Yet, there are some other images that I think are very helpful for us, especially as we dive deeper into our topic of the day. Sin is often described as "lawlessness" and as "disorder/chaos". We read in 1 John: “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.” (1 John 3:4, ESV). There's a deep connection between lawlessness and chaos because wherever there is lawlessness, there is chaos and disorder.

And when you begin to think about that, it's helpful to ask an obvious question: Who is behind lawlessness and disorder? Satan. We read this in 2 Thessalonians: “For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders,” (2 Thessalonians 2:7–9, ESV). This lawlessness is by the activity of Satan and it creates chaos and disorder.

Yet, our God is not a God of chaos and disorder. We read in 1 Corinthians: “For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints...But all things should be done decently and in order.” (1 Corinthians 14:33, 40, ESV). The word "confusion" in that passage could also be translated "disorder" and the word "peace" is most likely referring to the idea of "shalom" which is connected to things being rightly ordered. So, part of what this passage is saying is that God is a God of order, not disorder, which is why his people and his church should do things decently and in order.

We also see this truth about God in the first few chapters of the Bible. We read, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:1–2, ESV). The picture at the beginning is this thing that is formless and void, or the picture of the waters which have connotations of chaos. And what do we see God do to this formless, disordered, chaos? He puts it all in order and creates a universe that functions in an orderly manner, with the sun rising and setting and the seasons coming and going. All of this points to this fact that God is a God of order and Satan is the god of lawlessness and chaos.

So, the question is: What happens to humanity after sin enters into the world and infects all of humanity? What happens when humans, who are born with a sinful nature that is lawless and disordered, are left to their own devices? It's not a hard answer, is it? When sinful humans are left to their own devices we see lawlessness and chaos. That's basically the summary of the book of Judges. It's a book that can easily be described as lawlessness and disorder. And there's this repeated refrain throughout the book that says, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 21:25, ESV). Everyone did what was right in their own eyes, everyone lived and acted according to their disordered and lawless sinful nature, and the result was lawlessness and chaos. And this passage is making the point that there was nothing on earth to restrain them because there was no king. If there would have been a king, there would have been some force on earth to restrain the lawlessness and disorder. Judges ends this way as a set-up for the next portion of Israel's history, when they would get a king.

Here's what's interesting, though. We read this portion of 1 Samuel before my sermon about Israel asking for a king. Notice what God says about it right away at the beginning. Samuel is frustrated and offended by the request from the elders of Israel. They are requesting a king because they believe Samuel's sons have failed. Yet God tells Samuel: “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you.” (1 Samuel 8:7–8, ESV). Now, there's a lot in this to talk about, more than I can unpack right now. And I think there's some misunderstandings about what God is saying in this passage. Some have thought that God is saying they are rejecting him BECAUSE they are asking for a king, but that's not quite right. In Deuteronomy, God has already told them that he would give them a king. So, it wasn't a rejection of God to ask for something he promised. That has caused other people to explain that this is a rejection of God because they're being impatient, not waiting for God to give them what he promised in his timing. That may be true, but I want you to notice something else in this passage. Notice what God says about Israel. He says they have rejected him as their king, just like they've always done. From the day he brought them out of Egypt they have been forsaking him and worshiping idols. Another way of saying that is: from the day he brought them out of Egypt they have been lawless and disordered. So, he says, give them a king.

All of this is pointing to this morning's portion of the Belgic Confession. It begins by saying, "We believe that because of the depravity of the human race, our good God has ordained kings, princes, and civil officers. God wants the world to be governed by laws and policies so that human lawlessness may be restrained and that everything may be conducted in good order among human beings.." (Article 36). This is answering the question, "Why do we even have government in the first place?" Is it because God looked down on the earth and thought, "Wow. Those people are so smart and good and strong and powerful. I should really let them run things''? No. Instead it was more like, "Wow. Those people are so messed up and disordered and lawless. I need to institute something to keep them in check and restrain their wickedness." That is really important to understand. God instituted government because of the depravity of the human race, not because of our innate goodness.

R.C. Sproul has a really good explanation of this in one of his talks on civil government. He asks a group of people when God first instituted government in the Bible. Can you think of it? Some people would look to this passage in 1 Samuel where there's talk of a king. Some would maybe look earlier to Moses and the way he ruled over the people and served as a judge, and even delegated that judgment to other qualified men. Some would look to Noah, when God told him to carry out capital punishment--to bear the sword--upon anyone who destroyed the image of God. That's pretty early on in the Bible. But Sproul says, rightly, that God institutes a form of Government much earlier than that. What happened immediately after the Fall, when sin entered the world? God kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden and did what? He placed an angel at the entrance with what? A flaming sword to prevent them from returning. The sword is always an image that points to a form of government. So, when did God institute some form of government, immediately after the Fall of humanity. Why? Because sin had entered the world and needed to be restrained. God instituted government because of the depravity of the human race, not because of our innate goodness.

So, God created government because of our lawless, disordered nature and so that that lawless, disordered nature would be restrained. That's the second part of this morning's portion of the Belgic Confession: "God wants the world to be governed by laws and policies so that human lawlessness may be restrained and that everything may be conducted in good order among human beings.." (Article 36). This all connects back to what I was saying at the beginning. Our God is a God of order, not lawlessness. As a result, God desires that things are done in good order, which means there needs to be restraint on wickedness and laws and policies to help things to be done in order. If there is no restraint, there is no order. If there are no laws, there is no order. If there are no policies, there is no order. Since God is a God of order, and we are a disordered people, he created government to help bring about restraint and to help us function in a more orderly fashion.

This brings us back to something I said last week: that there is a fundamental goodness to government. There's a fundamental goodness to it because it brings about some level of order in the midst of chaos and it brings about some level of restraint to evil and wickedness in the world. That's why RC Sproul can say this, "So that God Himself stands behind world governments using them for His ends and for His glory, but principally as an instrument of the restraining power of evil. No matter how evil that government is, things can conceivably be worse. If God removed all human restraints, life would be intolerable. And therefore He has instituted government and given that government the sword...and even though governments may be oppressive and exploitative and corrupt, the worst government is still better than no government" (RC Sproul, Christian Worldview: Government). The worst government is still better than no government.

Yet, even with all of that said, and said in very strong language, we know that the law is not enough. The law is limited in its ability to bring about order and restraint in the world. Why? The law can only control us on the outside and can only force a shallow version of order in the midst of chaos. The law can never change a heart. And as long as hearts are not changed, as long as hearts are full of lawlessness and disorder, actions will be full of lawlessness and disorder and society will be full of lawlessness and disorder. The only way for there to be true peace and order is for hearts to be changed through Jesus Christ. That's why Romans says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1–4, ESV). This is why we must be thankful for our government and recognize its fundamental goodness, while also not putting our hope and trust in the government. The government doesn't ultimately bring about peace and order. That only comes from hearts changed by Jesus Christ and the preaching of the Gospel.

Here's what this means in very practical terms. As you relate to the government as a Christian citizen, you will work toward a better functioning government that does a better job of restraining evil and creating order in society, and you will vote for candidates that you believe will help lead our government in restraining evil and creating order in society. However, you will also realize that if we truly want to see evil restrained and order in society, we must see hearts changed. So we will not only vote and advocate for policies, but we will work diligently in preaching the gospel to the world so that some may believe, and their hearts may be changed, and they can begin to live in true peace and order--a peace and order that can only come from Jesus Christ.