KINGS

There are some Bible verses which, if understood in their strict literal sense, tend to say that every person that ever becomes a king or ruler was appointed into that position by God. And this has been the belief of many people, including Christians. The following are some of such scriptures:

“Daniel said, ‘May the name of God be blessed forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to Him. It is He who changes the times and the periods; He removes kings and appoints kings; He gives wisdom to wise men, and knowledge to people of understanding.’” (Daniel 2:20-21 NASB2020, bold emphases added throughout).

“This sentence [vv.13-16] is by the decree of [or announced by] the angelic watchers, and the decision is a command of the holy ones, in order that the living may know that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind, and He grants it to whomever He wishes and sets over it the lowliest of people.” (Daniel 4:17 NASB2020). See also Daniel 4:25; 5:18-21.

“Let everyone be subject 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, whoever 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 you will be commended. For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents 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 as a matter of conscience.” (Romans 13:1-5 NIV). See also 1 Peter 2:13-16.

If we conclude from these passages that every king or ruler is installed by God, we are wrong. One message that is clear from them is that the Most High God is the Sovereign  One who has the supreme authority over all of His creation. He has the power to enthrone anyone He wishes. He can also remove anyone from office through any means, including death. He chose the Israelites as His firstborn and intended to use them to show the human race how to govern the people with equity and righteousness. He appointed judges for them beginning with Samuel. But Samuel’s two sons did not follow the godly example of their father when they were playing the role of assistant judges. This made the Israelites ask to be ruled by a king just like all the other nations have done (1 Samuel 8:5). What was God’s response to their demand? God granted their request even though it meant their rejection of God as their King (1 Samuel 8:6-9).

Although God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, as their first king, His action was based on what is known in some theological circles as God’s permissive will. The enthronement of Saul as their king at that time did not get God’s perfect approval. And it was not God who installed the kings of the other nations for them. These nations were pagans. They therefore did many things which cannot be said to have been dictated by God.

Right from the time of creation God has given mankind the free will to choose between good and evil. This free will is given mankind to enable him have dominion over the earth (Gen.1:26-30). The first exercise of this free will was the naming of all the creatures by Adam. Even after the first persons fell into sin God did not remove from them the exercise of the free will. We see God, throughout the pages of the Bible, pleading with His people to obey Him and earn for themselves blessings and life. God told them in clear terms that if they choose to disobey Him, the result of their disobedience will be curses, pain and death. See, for example, Deut. 11:26-28; 28:1-68. Throughout human history, it is the exercise of the free will by humans that have too often caused the difference between the people who are prospering and those who are backward, disgraced and hated. The difference is summed up in these words:

“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.” (Proverbs 14:34 NASB2020).

God’s Nature/Character

God has set up many kings on earth to show the world that He is Sovereign over all of His creation. But to believe that every king or ruler is put in office by God is to make the good God an unjust and a partial God. This is totally opposed to God’s character. He is an impartial God (Deuteronomy 32:4; Romans 2:11; 1 Peter 1:17). Why would God give many countries in Europe, Asia, North America, et al, good, responsible, competent and progressive leaders but continues to give almost all the countries in Africa corrupt, wicked, good-for-nothing leaders, some of whom import terrorism into their own countries? Why would God be so unkind as to give us leaders who grind the faces of the people (Isaiah 3:15), feed on their flesh, strip off their skins and break their bones (Micah 3:3) in order to make these rulers live in extreme wealth and affluence? Is it God who, with one hand, is installing these evil men as leaders in Africa, while with the other hand, is giving responsible, patriotic and good leaders to the developed countries? Is God responsible for this unfairness? No. It is the people themselves who install the kind of leadership they want. It is Africans who, like the hen stripped of all its feathers by Joseph Stalin, still followed him because of the few grains he threw on the ground, after it had suffered such a monstrous cruelty from him. It is we, Africans, who are always ignoring to apply the best standards of choosing leaders who rule over us. We, not God, are the ones giving the corrupt and wicked political class the opportunity to subvert our lives and future every four or five years. It will be very wrong for us to say that God is the One who hates us so much that He is always giving us uneducated and incompetent men as leaders. We are the ones who have allowed our enemies to continue to rule over us.These sons of the Devil, who we carelessly choose as leaders, have mastered the art of weaponizing poverty and are always using it against us. The result is that those who have brazenly and shamelessly looted the public treasury become so powerful that they  cannot be brought under any law of their countries. It is the innocent, law-abiding ones that are made to bear the burden which the bad rulers heap on them. What we have allowed to thrive in our electoral processes are the things that have made life so harrowing for us. It is not because God loves the Europeans, Americans, Singaporeans, Malaysians, Chinese, Japanese, Canadians, or the  or Middle Easterners more than He loves Nigerians Zimbabweans, Cameroonians, Gabonese, or other African nationals.

Where Is the Proof?

God is omniscient. He knows all things before they take place. But His foreknowledge should not be taken to mean His approval of all things. Only those things which conform to His will gets His approval (John 8:29; Matthew 26:42; 1 John 5:14-15). Therefore, it is not all the people who ascend the thrones that got God’s approval to sit on them, no natter how long it took them to sit on such thrones. A typical example is Saul, the first king of Israel. God anointed him as the king. But God later said this about him and some other kings:

“You are destroyed, Israel, because you are against me, against your helper. Where is your king, that he may save you? Where are your rulers in all your towns, of whom you said, ‘Give me a king and princes’? So in my anger I gave you a king, and in my wrath I took him away.” (Hosea 13:9-11 NIV).

Here, God is saying He was unhappy when He gave the Israelites their kings, with the exception of some, especially David. This agrees with what He told Samuel in 1 Samuel 8:7. Unfortunately, it didn’t take Saul long before he began to do his own will instead of that of God. God regretted that He made Saul king over Israel (1 Samuel 15:35).

God Himself said that there are people who became kings but He played no role in their ascension to the thrones. Hear what God said:

“Put the trumpet to your lips! Like an eagle the enemy comes against the house of the Lord, because they have violated My covenant and rebelled against My Law. They cry out to Me, “My God, we of Israel know You!” Israel has rejected the good; the enemy will pursue him. They have set up kings, but not by Me; they have appointed officials, but I did not know it. With their silver and gold they have made idols for themselves, so that they will be eliminated.” (Hosea 8:1-4 NASB2020).

The New Living Translation (NLT) renders the four verses thus:

“Sound the alarm! The enemy descends like an eagle on the people of the Lord, for they have broken my covenant and revolted against my law. Now Israel pleads with me, ‘Help us, for you are our God!’ But it is too late. The people of Israel have rejected what is good, and now their enemies will chase after them. The people have appointed kings without my consent, and princes without my approval. By making idols for themselves from their silver and gold, they have brought about their own destruction. (Hosea 8:1-4 NLT).

If this was true of Israel, it was truer of the other nations. In today’s so-called democracies which, in Africa, are arrant kleptocracies, we have seen unbridled show of fraud and brigandage over and over again. The situation has degenerated to the point that powerful individuals boast that whether they are accepted by the people or not, they must rule over the people. And the state institutions which are supposed to ensure that rules are followed and that the Constitution is upheld display their regrettable helplessness in upholding and enforcing the laws. In Nigeria, what we practice today is not democracy at all. I therefore find it hard to understand how a rational person will ever imagine that the holy and just God, whose eyes are too pure to look at evil things, will dare look at these heinous crimes against the people let alone be an accomplice in the crimes. The Almighty God has no hand in these evils. He is Supreme. But He has put a lot into the hands of men who were created in His image and likeness. Those nations that uphold equity, justice and meritocracy are reaping the good blessings of what they have sown. But in countries where wanton corruption, fraud, and all sorts of criminality are allowed to have a stranglehold on the electoral process, life will continue to get worse for the people. What we allow is what enslaves us. What we sow is what we harvest. Let no Christian misinterpret the Bible and fool himself or herself by thinking that God is the one giving us corrupt and wicked leaders.

Paul’s Charge to Christians

All Paul was saying in Romans 13:1-7 is that whichever king is in power, whether appointed by God or by the people or got to power by any other means, must be obeyed as long as he is giving rules to maintain law and order. This is because every good and just rule comes from God. Christians must never be found on the wrong side of the law. Therefore, even if the ruler is a tyrant, that does not give us any freedom to act unlawfully. That will bring the way of truth into disrepute.

When Jesus told the Jews to pay their taxes as levied by the Roman Emperor through the Governors, He did not tell them to do so  because the rulers were good men. They had to do it so that they’d live in peace. Same way, any ruler in power must be obeyed as long as he is giving rules that promotes law and order.

All authority comes from God. But it is not all those in authority that have been appointed or approved by God. They are called servants of God because they are being used to ensure orderliness in society. To disobey them means to be lawless and enthrone anarchy. And there can be no peace where anarchy is unleashed. 

Conclusion

There are many passages of the Bible that have been misunderstood by men (2 Peter 3:15-16). The Sovereignty of God mentioned by Daniel and Paul have been given narrow interpretations without considering other factors which are adjuncts to it. The free will which God has given mankind from the beginning is one of such factors. Although God is Supreme over His creation, He does not impede upon man’s exercise of the free will. The free will entails great responsibly on the part of man – to take rational, righteous, sober and godly decisions like God who gave mankind the privilege. That is why God will reward everyone at the end of time for whatever they did with the will.

Mankind has so much failed God in the administration of the Earth. That is why God has decided that He will eventually take the rulership of this world from human kings and give it to His only begotten Son who will rule over it with utmost justice and righteousness for ever and ever when He returns to the Earth, at God’s own appointed time. Right now we are witnessing a steady deterioration in the moral and spiritual standards of the nations and their leaders. It is not God who made it so. We are the ones who allowed the stakes to be lowered to such an extent that many of our rulers in Africa have become petty or notorious criminals. We are the ones who made these unworthy people have a chokehold on our lives. We should stop accusing God for the evils we allowed to plague our social, economic and political lives.

God allows human governments to exist because peaceful and orderly coexistence is assured where governments are in place within national boundaries. It is therefore important for Christians to obey the rulers. The other alternative to governments is anarchy that has nothing good for anyone (Judges 17:6; 21:25). But the writings about the Supremacy of God over all kingdoms of men cannot and should not be interpreted to mean that every king or ruler who gets into power, by whatever means, was put there by God. God guides humans by His word and spirit. But many people refuse God’s guidance. Being the gentlest of beings, God does not force His will on mankind. All the people and nations who neglect to follow high ethical standards in choosing their rulers usually reap backwardness, disgrace, pain and death as natural consequences of their actions. The seriousness or otherwise with which we choose our rulers play important roles in what we get out of life. If we join hands to ensure that only the best are put in positions of rulership, we are the ones that’ll reap the dividends of good leadership. We suffer when we allow corrupt and incompetent men gain power in our countries.