Put Not Your Trust in Princes
We are blessed immensely in this time and this age. The comforts and security we enjoy compared to most people on the earth, and especially compared to the people in the past, are in many ways unsurpassed. The thing about blessings, is that they are not guaranteed, and can come to an end. It can be a fearful thing to realize the stability and economic security of our time and place is simply a fortunate blessing we enjoy that can end at any point. In fact, given the way history moves, it is destined to end at some point. It cannot and will not continue forever. But we become attached to such comforts of life, and understandably we seek to keep them as long as we can. One of the things we look to to maintain and improve our lives are governments and leaders.
Governments are not a bad thing in and of themselves. We are told by the apostle Paul that, “there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God” (Romans 13:1). And further on he explains some of the things God empowers governments to do: “he is God’s servant for your good… he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience” (Romans 13:4-5). God intends for governments to be for peoples’ good, and to punish the wicked on earth. Clearly, a government that pursued such things would establish security and comfort for the righteous on the earth.
But governments are run by fallible, sinful people. And the power and authority of government can be corrupting. Governments often abandon their God-given responsibility to uphold righteousness and punish wickedness for self-seeking corruption. We can think of many examples of such governments through history that did more harm to their people than good.
Considering this, there are two equally dangerous attitudes we can take toward governments and government leaders. One is that we place our faith in a strong good leader to give us the comfort and stability we want. This may sound odd to say this is dangerous, because is this not what God intends government as it should be? The government in Romans 13 is still called God’s servant and minister. The problem arises when we take God out of the equation and we start to believe that it is not God who prospers a nation, but the leaders who prosper a nation.
Solomon warned: “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stay awake in vain” (Psalm 127:1). So too it is with leaders. Unless the Lord builds up and preserves a nation, it will not matter how capable and sound a government may be.
“Put not your trust in princes,” the psalmist says in Psalm 146:3, “in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth: on that very day his plans perish.” It does not matter how good a leader we might have in a moment of time. He or she is mortal, as we all are. Their plans are destined to end and will fade away when their influence inevitably ends. But most important, “salvation” cannot come from them no matter how good they might be. We must understand the limitation of our leaders, even the good ones, that without God behind them, their plans will be as nothing.
In part, this was the folly of the Tower of Babel. “Now the whole earth had one language… and they said to one another, ‘Come let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves…’” (Genesis 11:1-4). The people after the flood gathered into one city (a government) for the purpose of making a name for themselves by building a magnificent tower. The language of the tower topping the heavens was not just physical, but spiritual. With a tower “in heaven” the people of Babel would replace God with themselves. This is the danger of putting too much trust in government. Such projects are doomed to fail, as the Tower of Babel itself was thwarted, for man is not in control, but God.
But an equally dangerous way to treat government leaders is with fear. Knowing that governments may not always be led by good righteous people, and that leaders have the ability to make our lives miserable, some people react to such possibility with fear. This is an unacceptable attitude for a Christian to have. For while it is true that governments may abandon their God-given ministries of righteousness, and poor leadership can lead to a dissolution of the comfort and security we currently enjoy—the Christian must always understand that such blessings were always temporary, and that our trust is not to be built on comfort, but on the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We are told by Peter (after he too tells his readers to be subject to the governing authorities) that our example is Christ: “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:21-23). Christ was abused and unjustly mistreated by the governments and leaders of his time. How did Christ persevere through such bad governance? By continuing to entrust himself to him who judges justly. Even if we are living under the worst, most evil, most oppressive government imaginable, as Christians we know—let me repeat—we know that God is more powerful than any man or system devised by man. We know that the kingdom of God has been established, and it shall never be moved. We know that Jesus rose again and is living forever at the right hand of the Father. We know that we have been saved by him, not merely saved from the wickedness of other men, but from our own wickedness, and from death.
“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell,” (Matthew 10:28) Jesus told his disciples. Let us neither place too much hope in government, nor too much fear in government. Let us instead entrust ourselves to the one who has command over both our bodies and our souls. And let us pray we have the faith to withstand whatever may happen in our short time on earth, and that we might be found living out the example of our Savior, Christ Jesus.
