When Governments Go Bad, Ruin Soon Follows…

Word-of-the-Day: ‘(9) Hear this, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of Israel, who despise justice and distort all that is right; (10) who build Zion with bloodshed, and Jerusalem with wickedness. (11) Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money. Yet they look for the LORD’s support and say, “Is not the LORD among us? No disaster will come upon us.” (12) Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.’ (Micah 3:9-12)

My previous Word-of-the-Day dealt with why we Christians must, up to but never crossing into the point of disobeying God, obey our government and its edicts.  Jesus paid taxes, and even obeyed and followed the ruling of Pontius Pilate in his ruling ordering the crucifixion for Jesus (on behalf of the Jewish Sanhedrin’s demands).  Jesus could have obviously stopped His trial, abuse, and execution with a single word, but willingly went to Golgotha.  Using His example, we should also follow, within reason, most government rules and regulations.

The flip side to this is God often had displeasure with how governments ruled over their people.  Both the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah had kings and administrations, and later when ruled by the Greeks and the Romans, that greatly oppressed the people and often tried to keep them from freely worshipping God or to express Righteous behaviors and thought.

Today, we find such governmental policies in Canada, Europe, and even in some American states.  In Great Britain, a pastor was arrested for ‘inciting religious fervor’ and threatened with years of imprisonment for preaching the Gospel in public, a crime in England as it could upset the Muslim immigrants who are overrunning the Anglo population with crimes and harassment there in the name of Islamic culture, often with little or no punishment for horrendous acts committed in the name of ‘Allah’.  In another part of England, a Sikh stabbed a young person mortally; the young man, not the Sikh, was arrested as he laid dying on the crime of allegedly ‘offending’ the Sikh with something he said, and bled out without treatment for this ‘egregious’ act.

The laws of Canada make, when quoting Leviticus 18:22, Romans 1:26-27, or 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 to provide God’s disapproval of the LGBTQ lifestyle, illegal to provide in church sermons and are chargeable offenses with large fines and jail terms.  Moving to California, one may be arrested for the crime of using an improper pronoun when encountering a transgender, or parents can have custody of their children revoked for the offense of attempting to stop their young child from transitioning. 

In the above examples, the laws and edicts of these governments are unrighteous and capricious among the people they lord over.  A bureaucracy of over-regulation and cumbersome rules lay a heavy burden on people, especially those who follow Jesus.  The book of the prophet Micah speaks about God’s desire for the proper administration of justice; what is fair and equitable for all people.  There are a series of checks and balances God lays out for blessings and woes, when an individual or a people do right or do wrong. 

During Micah’s lifetime, roughly 740 BC to 680 BC, he lived through the reigns of both Ahaz and his son Hezekiah over Judah.  Micah likely wrote his prophecies during Ahaz’s rule as he provides God’s Word on corrupt politicians of Ahaz’s rule, where the king closed the Temple and led Judah into the child sacrifices of Molech and Baal.  He promoted the worship of false gods and suppressed the worship of God in Jerusalem and throughout Judah, building altars and erecting ‘poles’ in honor of pagan deities.

There were also burdens placed upon the people, such as taxes and suppression of movement and thought, something repeated over and over in the history of Israel and Judah, up to and past the time of Jesus’ ministry.  Some of this was improperly justified as being done under the idea that ‘it’s what God wants us to do’ or ‘God led me into placing you under my thumb’.

But God answers this in Micah 3; perverted justice is injustice that is distorted for a sinful need of a man or a group, like a ruling oligarchy.  In Micah 3:9-12, through Micah, God lays out the sins of the leaders; a two-tiered justice system of injustice – one tier for the wealthy who can ‘buy’ favored rulings from judges, (false) priests and (false) prophets, all while given the ‘green light’ of legitimacy as ‘God is OK with this’.  The other tier, following Righteousness, is told they are wrong and punished for following God and not the edicts of the ruling elite.

But God is not ‘OK with this’, as is written in the passage.  Not following God’s Truth in His Word as written leads to ruin.  Following Ahaz’s rule, under Zedekiah at the time of the Babylonian exile, and much later the rule of the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin along with Herod under the Romans that eventually led to the Diaspora, God took His hand off Judah and Jerusalem several times.  Jerusalem was sacked and overrun several times, with the city and the Temple burned and pillaged, and the people experiencing great hardship, as Micah 3:12 spoke of.

We can see God and His statement is still true today, as it was back then; ungodly nations, states, and cities are overrun by ruin and squalor.  The Righteous are suppressed and criminalized, a two-tiered justice system has developed, and the people have become burdened by the yoke of bureaucracy and edict.  Even in the ‘free state of Florida’, there are still many rules and regulation that handicap those who simply want to accomplish what is right and proper.

Those of us who are Righteous and are Americans, though, still have the opportunity to change and redirect the United States away from the ruins of ungodliness and woe, and back onto the pathway of Righteousness and blessings.  Speak up against government overreach, use the public soapbox and the ballot box to keep our republic under the static and never-changing rule of God’s Word and the US Constitution written under His guidance.  Never let the ‘wrong-think’ overrule the ‘right-think’ God has provided! ‘Be courageous!’ (Joshua 1:9)