Who is in charge?

Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. (Romans 13:1)

Watching the news lately, specifically what’s been happening with Russia & Ukraine as well as Israel and the middle east. It’s clear that life there is terrifying, and the average person in those countries have little or no say in what their government does, even though the decisions by their leaders affect them deeply.

We we read the Old Testament, do you ever try to imagine what life was like for people back then as well? For the most part life was hard and most people lived under a king they had no choice in selecting. There were some horrible kings, and even those in Roman times lived under horrible persecution by the Roman government.

Did God tell the people his view on this? There are quite a few verses on this:

• “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. ” (Romans 13:1)
• “Jesus answered [speaking to Pilate], “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.” (John 19:11)
• “By me kings reign…” (Proverbs 8:15)
• “…he removes kings, and sets up kings…” (Daniel 2:21)
• “Then God removed Saul and made David their king…” (Acts 13:22)
• “No one… can exalt themselves. It is God who judges: He brings one down, he exalts another.” (Psalms 75:6-7)
• “…the Most High has power over human kingdoms. He gives them to whomever he wishes.” (Daniel 4:17)

To us today in America the thought not having a say who our leaders wlll be is such a foreign concept. Even if we don’t end up with the leader we voted for, we still (at least for now) have the right to speak out with our opinions even though at times it doesn’t feel like we can. We must remember that we still have unheard of freedoms compared to times past, or even current times in other parts of the world. All you have to do is look at social media sites to see the wide variety of opinions being expressed. Those types of public discussions didn’t happen in the Old Testament or Roman times. There was no public place to go and complain about how unfair the king was being.

God has made it clear that those who are in authority over us were placed and established there by Him. How does this change our outlook on life and how we should be directing our thoughts towards our leaders? As Christians, we believe that He is ultimately in control of everything, not just some things. He is in control of the weather (Psalm 148:8), life and death (Psalm 104:29-30), and even seemingly inconsequential happenings (Proverbs 16:33).

When Paul wrote Romans telling us that there is “no authority except that which God has established” we don’t blink at that, but remember WHEN Paul wrote this. The emperor at the time was Nero, a decidedly evil ruler. Nero led one of the severest persecutions of Christians in the history of the church. When Paul wrote this portion of Scripture, he was aware of Nero’s wickedness, yet he does not question why God put him in power.

In general, we as Christians tend to seek Him and His guidance when things are going bad or times are hard. When things are going great we have a tendency to forget about Him. That is the current danger for the church and those who feel we have entered a place of peace and safety. We don’t know where the future is headed, and how America fits into His plans for humanity before Christ returns. But we trust the One who is in charge. Christ has promised He will return and establish His kingdom. It’s not a question of IF, but of WHEN.

Also remember that God doesn’t say that those in authority won’t be judged for their conduct, actions and choices. Human rulers are not omnipotent, they are not eternal, and they are not immune from punishment. There will be a day of reckoning.

What then in the meantime? Therre will be times of trouble and turmoil, no matter how rosy things may look, and He desires a people that would seek him with all of his heart, and those that would pray for their leaders, even those they don’t support or choose every one of their decisions. He wants His people to have a mind centered on Him, not on what is happening around us.

Remember that you cannot control the events and circumstances of life, but you can control your reaction to those events and circumstances.

We are lucky as a country that we enjoy the freedom of speech that we have – there are countries where Christians not only have leadership they don’t agree with, but they don’t have the freedom to express their opinion, to meet publicly to worship and pray or to have a public discourse about their leaders and have open discussions.

The sinful nature of the world never changes nor do the goals of the enemy. If He can’t have us, he seeks to make sure that our Christian life isn’t as purposeful as God intends, and better yet he loves it when Christians don’t appear any different than those of the world. Are we using dark times to display our faith and where our ultimate hope is?

These are times of opportunity for Christians to show that we are indeed different people. For many of us my challenge would be to have our speech, our conduct (and our Facebook posts!) set us apart from those who live without eternal hope.

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DISCLAIMER: I read several sources, commentaries, devotionals, etc., when I study the bible. Some of what I write is heavily inspired by what I read, and some sections may not be all my own words. I try to distill and paraphrase but there are way too many great writers who know the depths of God’s Word more than I ever will. I try to give credit where possible, and I don’t want anyone to think that everything I write comes straight from my brain – it’s all inspired by God and others He has chosen to write through. I encourage you to look to those who have also studied and written about Scripture, while at the same time remembering they are only men, and the ONLY true standard is the Word of God – everything written by me or any other human MUST be measured against that standard.