God and Government, episode 2

Episode 2 of this explosive study of God and government starts now!
Imagine you are a member of the two million plus Israelites, you have defeated the most powerful army on the earth by doing absolutely nothing! You have crossed the Red Sea by the power of God and have seen him drown more soldiers than you could ever count! Then you hear these words:

"And God spake all these words, saying,  I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.  Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:  Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;  And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. 

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:  But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:  For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. 

Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. 

Thou shalt not kill. 
Thou shalt not commit adultery. 
Thou shalt not steal. 
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. 
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's." (Exodus 20:1-17 BFV)

This was not comforting to a people that had lived under the thumb of supreme Pharoahs for 400 years! They responded in a way that did not please their Creator:

"And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.  And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die."
(Exodus 20:18-19 KJV)

The people had no desire to obey God directly. They wanted to obey man instead. They were so used to obeying a man, namely Pharoah, that they wanted to continue in that comfort zone. My grandpa loved to discuss this issue. If he were on this earth today, he would have 2000 words to say on this passage, and he would make a lot more sesnse. Interesingly, God allowed Moses to be His mouthpiece and did not speak to the whole congregation much afterwards. This leads to several principles.

First, God expected this new nation to obey Him. He laid doown the Ten Commandments to give them guidelines on how to comply. The next three chapters expound upon these rules and how they are to be understood in daily life. God required obedience.

Second, however, God knew that man is exceeding sinful. These commands existed to show man's shortcomings. The typical man falters in every one of these guidelines. We all have problems with worshipping God, obeying parents, and loving our neighbors. We fall short of God's standard. This is why Christ came to die. He died for the sins of the world and offered to salvation to all those who will believe in Christ as their only salvation (John 3:16, Gal. 3:23-4:7, James 2:10-13). A correct view of government hinges on the gospel. One day man will have failed the age of grace too often. Jesus will come back and defeat all the forces with one word and set up a government that few of us will recognize (more on the Second Coming later).

Third, God uses man to inform man of His expectations for His creation. God used Moses to deliver the rest of Law and made Moses a one-way mediator between Him and man. This also happened with other leaders including Joshua, Samuel, David, Hezekiah, Josiah, and Ezra. God also uses man to execute (pun not fully intended) justice. As mentioned in the first principle, the Decalogue does not stop at Exodus 20:17. God explains how to use the Law in specific situations in Exodus 21:1- 23:33. If we fail to link the two parts of law together then it becomes some lofty set of regulations with no way to actually implement.

Fourth, the Ten Commandments are a reflection of God's character to all the world. The Israelites were to be a light to the world by obeying the Law and standing out among the other nations and peoples. God held Israel to this standard throughout its national history (Joshua 24:15, Judges 6:8-10, II Chron 34:24-25).

Finally, the Ten Commandments do not allow for the failed governments of man including Nazism, socialism, communism, libertarianism, democracy, and republicanism. Instead, the Ten Commandments tend towards a type of theocracy.

Putting our first two episodes together, we see that the Scriptures teaches capital punishment and theocracy. I told you this was explosive!