- I say: Keep the king’s command, because of God’s oath to him. -
Hey now, what’s this bit about a king? I thought Jesus was an American and republican! Doesn’t anyone read the King James anymore?!?
Alright, bad jokes out of the way, we still need to answer a question raised by these jests. What does this verse have to do with us (Americans) seeing as we don’t have one of those kings anymore?
Maybe even more importantly, why are we even raising the question? Well, the next few verses are going to directly speak to this topic.
If we don’t address it, discussing the next group of verses will be a waste of time.
We will endeavor to argue that this bit in our Bible is indeed the Word of God, despite its references in regard to our own government being a bit out of date.
Like many instances in the Bible, there are lessons for us to learn from stories that do not specifically reference us.
The parables are indeed the most obvious form of this. They do not even refer to real people, yet Jesus intends for those listening to learn something important from these fantasies.
I believe this is true even of stories not told for our moral benefit, such as when Nicodemus visits Jesus in the night.
What is the lesson? Come to God, even poorly, and He will converse with you if you ask genuine and honest questions.
It’s one of the reasons why we read stories in the Bible beyond knowing the story of God. He wants us to engage with the Bible so that we might better know and serve Him.
All that may seem painfully obvious, but I want you to understand something important about the Bible: it contains truth of multiple types, including narrative.
That is not to diminish the truth in anyway, rather it is to show the multiple ways in which the Bible proves its point.
It can be right in a whole set of arenas, as one would expect from the Word.
Now that that is out of the way, what can we learn from these passages on kings? Perhaps we need a better understanding of the Hebrew here.
This verse reads as if God has made an oath to the king. That’s not exactly wrong or right. This verse might be better understood as an oath we make before God.
What does that mean? We are to honor the king not necessarily because he is king, but because we have pledged to do so before God.
This is a verse more about keeping one’s word then it is about government, which means we can safely now ignore it.
Except for this pesky little thing called the pledge of allegiance.
Now, I know this is a somewhat fraught topic as the pledge has been accepted and changed many times, but I’m not here to discuss any of that.
Let’s agree on this: the pledge of allegiance, like the national anthem, is a declaration of loyalty to the American government before some higher power, possibly God or society.
I don’t think that is asking too much.
We have a duty to the governments we pledge ourselves to, undoubtedly. What are the limits of that promise?
Thankfully, the remaining verses provide helpful answers.
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