A RIGHTEOUS GOVERNMENT
by William M. Wachtel
From antiquity comes the famous saying that “man is by nature a political animal” (Aristotle). Since politics is the science and art of government, I suppose Aristotle meant that man is perpetually interested in and committed to the establishment and direction of an orderly society. From earliest times men have followed chiefs, patriarchs, kings and other leaders, hoping that this would ensure a stable and predictable way of life—peace and prosperity for the law-abiding, punishment and/or correction for the law-breakers. Laws, of course, are the expression of the various kinds of govern-ments men have devised or chosen.
The
founding fathers of this country were deeply concerned with the problem of
establishing a just government, and the U.S. Constitution was the result of
their delibera-tions and theories of government. It is a truism that almost any kind of
government is preferable to the chaos and anarchy that prevail when law is
ignored or rejected and political leaders become powerless to supply direction
and guidance.
God
established government in the beginning.
Genesis 9:6, with its provision of capital punishment for the murderer, presupposes
the establishment of an orderly system to seek out the criminal and deal with
him on the basis of accepted legal procedure.
This, in essence, is government. By the time of Genesis 11, a unified society
has emerged in
The
Apostle Paul made the classic statement about God’s part in human govern-ments:
Everyone must submit himself
to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God
has established. The authorities that
exist have been established by God.
Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against
what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on
themselves. For rulers
hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one
in authority? Then do what is right and
he will commend you. For
he is God’s servant to do you good.
But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for
nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent
of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.
Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only
because of possible punishment but also because of conscience (Romans 13:1-5 NIV).
Paul
had already told the Athenians that God “hath
made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth,
and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their
habitation” (Acts 17:26).
When
God separated the family of Abraham from the other families of the earth, he
said, “Abraham shall surely become a
great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in
him. For I know him, that he will
command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way
of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham
that which he hath spoken of him” (Gen. 18:18,19). God’s intention was to establish a righteous
nation, with a righteous government, in the midst of all the corrupt nations
and governments of the world. It was
because of God’s exclusive choice of
Hear this word that the LORD
hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I
brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, You only have I known of all the
families of the earth: therefore I will
punish you for all your iniquities. Can
two walk together except they be agreed? (Amos 3:1-3).
Through Moses he had told them:
Thou art an holy people unto
the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath
chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon
the face of the earth. The LORD did not
set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any
people; for ye were the fewest of all people:
but because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which
he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty
hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh
king of Egypt. . . . Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes,
and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them (Deut. 7:6-11).
Earlier, when about to give them the Ten Commandments, God declared:
Now therefore, if ye will
obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar
treasure unto me above all people: for
all the earth is mine: and ye shall be unto
me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.
These are the words which thou shalt speak
unto the children of
This
kind of government is called a theocracy—a
government God has estab-lished and authorized and is
actively directing. When we say that
This
did not change the fact that God still reserved to himself the right to choose
their king and to oversee and judge his reign.
So
Some of the most amazing promises in Scripture were made
to King David. Not only were his family
to constitute a royal dynasty that would rule for centuries in
And it shall come to pass,
when thy days be expired that thou must go to be with
thy fathers, that I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy
sons; and I will establish his kingdom.
He shall build me an house, and I will
establish his throne for ever. I will be
his father, and he shall be my son: and
I will not take my mercy away from him, as I took it from him that was before
thee: but I will settle him in mine
house and in my kingdom for ever: and
his throne shall be established for evermore (1 Chron.
17:10-14; compare 2 Sam. 7:12-16; Psa. 89:19-37; 132:10-18).
The
Prophet Isaiah, living several centuries after David’s time, did not consider
these promises fulfilled, either in Solomon or in any other descendant of David
yet born. Rather, Isaiah looked forward
to a “child” who would later be born,
a “son” who would be given—
…and the government shall be
upon his shoulder: and his name shall be
called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The
everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace
there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order
it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for
ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will
perform this (Isa. 9:6,7).
The theocratic kings who descended from David and who
ruled in
Moreover all
the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the
abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the LORD which he had
hallowed in
God’s solution was to bring an end to the theocracy, to
destroy
And thou, profane wicked
prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end, thus saith the Lord GOD; Remove the diadem, and take off the
crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is
high. I will overturn, overturn,
overturn, it: and it shall be no more,
until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him (Ezek. 21:25-27).
After
the fall of Zedekiah’s government, no king from the line of David ever ruled
again in
The
very first thing the New Testament records about Jesus Christ is that he is “the son of David” (Matt. 1:1). To Matthew’s Jewish readers, this was a most
significant statement! When Jesus was
about to be conceived in his mother, Mary, the angel Gabriel told her:
Thou shalt
call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and
shall be called the Son of the Highest:
and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father
David: and he shall reign over the house
of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end (Luke 1:31-33).
There
had been an end of the first theocracy because of wickedness and
disobedience. It had been overturned,
and had not yet been restored. When
Jesus’ first disciples began to follow him, it was with the understanding and
faith he was indeed “the Messiah” (John
1:41), the one promised by “Moses. . .and the prophets” (John 1:45), the expected “King of
After
his resurrection, Jesus spent forty days with his apostles,
“speaking of the things pertaining to the
They
knew that the Davidic kingdom, the theocratic monarchy, had long since been
overturned. They also knew that a
restoration of that government was implied in the promises that the Messiah
would someday sit on the throne of David.
Jesus
is sometimes depicted by Bible interpreters as rebuking them for misunder-standing the nature of his kingdom. A careful reading of the text, however, will
show that it is these interpreters who need to be rebuked! Christ’s reply reveals that he simply
clarified the time element—it was not
for them to know “the times or the
seasons” (Acts 1:7) for the promised restoration. It was rather for them meanwhile to carry the
gospel to “the uttermost part of the
earth” (Acts 1:8)
The fact that there was no misunderstanding on their part regarding the literal restoration of the Davidic theocracy is evident from Peter’s declaration sometime later, under the guidance of God’s Spirit:
He [God] shall send Jesus
Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until
the times of restitution (restoration) f all things, which God hath spoken by
the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began (Acts 3:20,21).
In
these words Jesus is represented as being required (“must”) to remain in
heaven until a certain time is reached.
At that point God will “send”
his Son from heaven to bring about the restoration of all things prophesied
from the beginning. We have already seen
that these things include the re-establishment of the Davidic monarchy or
theocracy. Jesus himself had promised, “When the Son of man shall come in his
glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of
his glory” (Matt. 25:31). In light
of Luke 1:32 and Isaiah 9:6,7 we must conclude that the
“throne of his glory” is none other
than “the throne of David”—which
Christ will inherit and occupy
as
King “for ever”!
While
Jesus remains in heaven, the throne of David remains unoccupied and the
theocracy remains overturned. In the
meantime Christ is seated with his Father on his Father’s throne, awaiting the time when he will be given his own throne—the
throne of David:
To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even
as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne (Rev. 3:21).
Here
there are clearly two thrones
mentioned: that of the Father and that
of his Son. The throne of the Father is
in heaven. Christ promises to sit on his
own “glorious throne” (Matt. 25:31)
when he comes with all the holy angels (see RSV). The throne of Christ, inherited from David,
must therefore be on the earth, as
the throne of David always was! So Jesus taught his disciples to pray: “Your
kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10
NIV).
There
is no evidence in Scripture that the Kingdom comes or is established at any
time before the King returns to restore it.
There are many promises of Christ’s second coming as a literal event to
transpire in the future (e.g., Acts 1:11; 1 Cor.
15:23; 1 Thess. 4:15,16; 2 Thess.
2:1; 2 Tim. 4:1; Heb. 9:28 et al.). The
Parable of the Nobleman depicts Christ as going away to a “far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return” (Luke
19:12). He did go away—he went to
heaven; there he receives the royal authority (compare Daniel 7:13,14), and then returns, “having
received the kingdom” (Luke 19:15).
This is all very clear and plain, without complicated or ambiguous
language.
This earth has known very little righteous government in
all its history. A succession of corrupt
rulers and ungodly nations has appeared on the world stage, as players in a
drama. But in the pages of Scripture a
brilliant description is found—in many texts—foretelling the rise of a
government that will be world-wide in extent, peaceful in character, righteous
and just, and centered in
It shall come to pass in the
last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the
top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all the nations
shall flow unto it. And many people
shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the
house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk
in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD
from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among
the nations, and shall rebuke many people:
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation
shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more (Isa.
2:2-4).
There shall come forth a rod
out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots. . . . And he shall not judge after the sight of his
eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears. But with righteousness shall he judge the
poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of
his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. . . . They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain:
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea (Isa.
11:1-9).
I will cut off the chariot
from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut
off: and he shall speak peace unto the
heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river
even to the ends of the earth (Zech. 9:10).
At that time they shall call
Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all nations shall be gathered unto it, to
the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the
imagination of their evil heart (Jer. 3:17; compare Zech.
12:6).
Give the king thy judgments,
O God, and thy righteousness unto the king’s son. He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment...He shall come
down like rain upon the mown grass: as
showers that water the earth. In his
days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so
long as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea,
and from the river unto the ends of the earth (Psalm 72:1-8).
The
four Gospels mention over and over again the “
Nebuchadnezzar’s
famous dream, interpreted by Daniel, foresaw the succession of world empires—
…a kingdom which shall never
be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not
be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these
kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever (Dan. 2:44).
…kingdom and
dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be
given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an
everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him (Dan.
7:27).
The
Kingdom is coming! Christ is
coming! And he bids his people to be
ready, “for ye know not what hour your
Lord doth come” (Matt. 24:42).