- Be not hasty to go from his presence. Do not take your stand in an evil cause, for he does whatever he pleases. For the word of the king is supreme, and who may say to him, “What are you doing?” -
One piece of this puzzle we did not answer in the last post is a pretty important one. What do Americans pledge themselves to?
Well, it is the country itself which is a democratic republic. What does this mean? We pledge allegiance to the legislation produced by representatives of the people’s will.
Now of course that doesn’t mean these individuals rule with an iron fist, but on matters of the law, the law defeats our desires if we mean our pledge.
The king has much more rights than those encapsulated in the will of the people. Why? Because the people desire to be protected from the people as well.
One of the representatives of the people’s will that we can easily see and come to face with is, of course, police officers.
Their job is to protect the people from the individual’s will. There only method for this enforcement is of course the agreed to laws.
To be desirous to leave a king’s presence is to communicate you are hiding something. To act the same way to a police officer can arouse suspicion.
Why would you desire to flee? To do so is to say that you do not wish to be subjected by the will of the people, the very thing you have pledged to.
As with the king, take your time to be assessed. Try your best to answer their questions as honestly as you can, knowing it is this structure that provides you rights and protections as well.
The next phrase is a warning, not an admonition. This is not the part of the Bible where we learn that it is wrong to pursue evil.
When you disobey a king or move against him or his people, what and how can he respond? In whatever way he desires.
He can take your head, condemn you into exile, and additionally make your family participate in the punishment.
A police officer is bound by the powers given to him by the people, but there is still some liberty within there with how he can treat you.
What does this mean? Has it ever bothered you how God allows Israel to be destroyed by other nations? If not, you need to go back and reread those stories.
God uses the instruments of this world to carry out his wrath, including kings and the police. Who knows whether that is a mercy or not.
Most of the time, I think it is a mercy.
God also uses the Israelites to exact punishment on certain nations whose wickedness God abhors. Does it not say that the hearts of kings are in His hands?
What am I saying? The tools and punishments within a government are God’s tools, not their own.
Should we then cower before kings like the medieval serfs did? No. This to recognize our place in time, and to that which we bind ourselves, allow us to be bound by it.
Now, I know this whole post raises a host of questions. The most obvious and pertinent ones can be summed up in the following:
When do we not do this?
That’s quite an American question, and one not made less important by my observation.
The answer is this: when they go wrong.
I hope in the next verse to expound upon that answer.
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