The Limits of Politics (3)

“Therefore, O king, let my advice be acceptable to you; break off your sins by being righteous, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. Perhaps there may be a lengthening of your prosperity.” Daniel 4.27

A collision course with God
Nebuchadnezzar was on a collision course with God.

He had become the most powerful politician of his age, and he was feeling his oats about it all. As he had done with Israel, so he did with other nations, defeating them militarily, destroying their seat of power, humiliating and enslaving them, then carrying away their treasures and the best of their population, to resettle and re-educate them in the ways of Babylon, leaving the poorest and most miserable to fend for themselves back home under harsh native governors.

Nebuchadnezzar had established an order for his empire, and it was designed primarily to advantage himself, his family, and his inner circle.

He subdued nations and spoiled them of their wealth in order to enrich himself and his native subjects – buying their loyalty on the backs of oppressed peoples. Meanwhile, he worked to deprive those oppressed peoples of their culture and history through exile, thievery, and re-education, and by spreading them out from one another in distant cities throughout his empire.

This was an order that worked well for Nebuchadnezzar – until, that is, it became a stench to the God of heaven.

Politics and the terms of social order
What Nebuchadnezzar shows us about the limits of politics is that, while politicians have a duty to establish and maintain order, you cannot and must not trust them to define social order.

Politicians, as they acquire or experience power, can begin to think that all power – or at least, more power – is, or should be, flowing toward them. Given the opportunity to define the terms of social order, they will do so with such a vision in mind. It is the great temptation of political power, not to be satisfied with power lawfully given by God, but seek more power than what conduces to the public weal.

We’re all the same way, at least to some extent. We want to maximize our personal advantage and wellbeing, and if that means others don’t come off quite as well, well, that’s life.

But this is not what God intends for social order. The power to establish and maintain order must not become power to acquire more power. Politicians must be subject to some standard for defining social order that does not emanate from themselves.

Constitutional power
This is why in America we have a Constitution, and why, when the Constitution was being written, our Founding Fathers drew from the best thinkers and sources to forge a document that would ensure the creation of social standards and political boundaries that were clear, fair, and enforceable at local levels.

The men who prepared our nation’s Constitution were well aware of the human tendency toward corruption and self-service. This is why they created courts, to maintain right relationships between neighbors at the local level. It’s why they built a system of checks and balances into the Constitution itself, to guard against any of the branches of government misusing its power with impunity.

The idea that a society needs defined boundaries, checks and balances, and local means of enforcement of those boundaries was not a universal political sentiment in those days. At the same time the United States was putting together its orderly society, France was being savaged by a totally different view of social order, one without any sense of the idea of sin, except as something the elites should be able to define as they saw fit.

We take for granted the way our society is organized to ensure order, but ours was very much a “new order of the ages” when it first appeared in 1789. And the order, and the maintenance of order, which our Constitution defines is in many ways the product of an intellectual and political consensus that grew out of the soil of Biblical teaching, and not out of the soil of the human lust for power.

Politicians who seek to define order apart from divine revelation will find themselves, sooner or later, on a collision course with God. Government fulfills its proper calling when it listens to the voice of the prophet and secures order in society according to the revelation of God, and not the whims of men.

There are limits to what politics can achieve and government should do. But only when those limits align with the teaching of God’s Word can we expect the blessings of God on governments and those they govern.

For reflection

1.      Was Daniel out of line trying to apply God’s standards to a pagan king like Nebuchadnezzar? Why or why not?

2.      How does the system of checks and balances, written into the American Constitution, demonstrate an awareness of the temptations of political power?

3.      Besides Deuteronomy 17 and Daniel 4, what are some other places in Scripture you might look to gain a better understanding of the limits of political power?

Next steps: How do your church leaders work to equip church members for responsible citizenship? Ask a few of your leaders. Is your church doing all it should be in order to help ensure an orderly society according to the teaching of God’s Word?

T. M. Moore

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This week’s study, The Limits of Politics, is part 3 of a 5-part series on The King’s Heart, a Biblical view of government and politics, and is available as a free download by clicking here. We cannot understand God’s view of government, or how to function in a political environment apart from faith in King Jesus and His rule. Order T. M.’s books The Kingship of Jesus  and The Ground for Christian Ethics to supplement our studies of God and government..

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.