Let’s lay politics aside for a moment, and just consider the Word of God. Politics, of course, is the backdrop to this article. A person cannot be completely apolitical, no matter how hard one tries, but political positions shift, evolve and change, while the Word of God is eternal. Therefore, we should put the Word of God first over our political inclinations.
If you believe your Bible, the Word of God existed before God made the universe, and all of creation was made through the Word of God. (John 1:1-3) God spoke the entire universe into existence (Genesis 1) and made all things by His very command that are seen from what cannot be seen. (Hebrews 11:3)
Of course if you are a Christian, you believe that the Word of God became flesh. (John 1:14) The Word of God who became flesh is Jesus: God with us; God incarnate; God who became man. He proved himself by what he said, by the miracles he did, and by rising from the dead after he was tortured, crucified, and buried.
The Word of God (at least some of it) is preserved in writing for us as it was spoken to and through people who heard God’s voice and responded in faith by preserving it. Jesus, Himself, quoted extensively from the books of what we call the Old Testament as authority for what he said and did. (Interestingly, he never quoted from apocryphal texts.)
Thus, Jesus, who we believe was God who became man and who rose from the dead, treated those Old Testament writings with great deference – as the word of God.
Jesus quoted Scripture often from Genesis to the Prophets. When Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, he quoted scripture, including Deuteronomy 8:3: “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” When Jesus began his ministry, his first public statement and description of his ministry according to Luke came from the prophet, Isaiah, which he told the listeners was fulfilled by him that day in their hearing (Luke 4:18-19):
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
After Jesus had risen from the dead, he explained how the Scriptures from Genesis through the Prophets were about him. (Luke 24:27). Jesus was both the Word of God through whom God made the universe, and he honored the word of God preserved in the Bible – calling it his daily bread. It defined his purpose; and it is all about him.
With that set up, my theme today is the Prophets and what they said about how God’s people should act in the world, especially rulers who wield governmental influence and power. Our political views, how we conduct ourselves in politics, and who we champion as our rulers should be informed and driven by God’s Word.
“‘Hear the word of the Lord to you, king of Judah, you who sit on David’s throne—you, your officials and your people who come through these gates. This is what the Lord says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.’ ”
Jeremiah 22:2-3 NIV
The Prophet Jeremiah spoke these words to the King of Judah, the equivalent of a president or prime minister of the nation of Judah. Judah was comprised of God’s people, so this is specifically a word to the leaders of people of God, and that word is:
“Do what is right and just.”
God tells the rulers of His people to be obedient, not to be expedient, or strategic, or protective of their own interests. God didn’t even tell them to protect the land He promised and gave them. God’s emphasis is, “Do what is right and just.” That is the most important thing.
The verses that follow indicate that God will prosper and protect the people whose kings do what is right and just. They also warn the rulers who ascend to the throne of David: “But if you do not obey these commands, declares the Lord, I swear by myself that this palace will become a ruin.” (Jer. 22:4-5)
(Before I move on, I think it’s helpful to note that present prosperity and protection is not a sign that rulers are doing what is right and just and that God approves of them. God is long-suffering and patient. He made Abraham’s descendants wait 430 years before he drove the indigenous nations out of the land for their evil. Between 400-450 years passed after Saul became king with many warnings from the Prophets before God pulled His protection from the nation of Judah, and they were exiled. The United States by comparison is not even 250 years old.)
The Prophet Isaiah does not leave us guessing what it means to do what is right and just. It isn’t some mystery we have to figure out. Rescuing the oppressed and doing no wrong or violence to foreigners, orphans, and widows is doing what is right and just: caring for and protecting the vulnerable people in the nation is what God means when He says to do what is right and just.
Even if the Prophets did not tell us, any grade school child could tell us that these things are right and good. All people, Christians and non-Christians alike, know these things. We have a movie industry that makes a lot of money off of the theme of justice because people instinctively know that protecting and caring for vulnerable people is right and just.
It isn’t any wonder, then, that doing right by widows, orphans, and foreigners is a recurring theme in the Bible, particularly in the Law (Exodus, Deuteronomy, Leviticus), the Psalms, and the Prophets (Jeremiah, Zechariah, Malachi). The Bible repeatedly affirms God’s heart for vulnerable and marginal people who are represented by these categories, and God repeatedly instructs His people – and the leaders of His people – to care for them and protect them.
The combination of widows, orphans, and foreigners appears approximately 30 times in the Bible. The theme of God’s heart for widows, orphans, and foreigners who represent vulnerable people runs throughout the Bible. Here are just a few examples of what the Bible tells us about this vulnerable triad:
“Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt. Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry.”
Exodus 22:21-24
“He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.”
Deuteronomy 10:18-19
“So that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.”
Deuteronomy 14:29
“Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge… When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow.”
Deuteronomy 24:17-22
“The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.”
Psalm 146:9
“If you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place… then I will let you live in this place.”
Jeremiah 7:6-7
“Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.”
Zechariah 7:10
“‘So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,’ says the Lord Almighty.”
Malachi 3:5
I am sometimes tempted to gloss over quotations in articles, but I hope you have not done that. The theme of doing what is right and just in the context of widows, orphans, and foreigners is clear and runs deep in God’s Word.
Should we not also have the priorities? Should not the leaders we support and who represent us have the same priorities and mindset?
I understand that people who deny God in their speech or actions and who express opposition against God’s people are dangerous. I understand the confusion when these same people express sympathy for the cause of vulnerable people in our country. We want to reject them and what they say because they don’t honor God in their beliefs or actions. (God has even spoken through a Donkey before.)
I understand the desire to be protected and championed by a fierce leader who promises to advance the interests of God’s people. We read through the stories of King David and the other kings who sat on David’s throne who variously succeeded or failed in protecting Israel and Judah against external enemies. We want our leaders to be strong like David, and not weak like some of his successors.
It’s easy to miss the forest for the trees, however. It wasn’t their strength that caused them to succeed. It was God’s promise and blessing that gave them success, and that promise came with a stern warning: that failure to love God and love people would lead to the removal of His blessing.
Indeed, warnings against idolatry and injustice are the two key themes of all the Prophets who God sent to Israel and Judah in the years of that long, spiraling decline from King David to King Zedekiah when God let His people be overrun and exiled to Babylon. The Prophets warned the people not just about their idolatry, but the injustice they committed and allowed to flourish.
We do not have a theocracy in the United States like the nations of Israel and Judah. Those were the only theocracies ordained by God. Even those theocracies were allowed by God because “the people wanted a king”. It wasn’t God’s choice for them but their demand to God, “Give us a king like the other nations!” (See 1 Samuel 8)
If Israel and Judah did not escape God’s judgment for their idolatry and refusal to do what is right and just, what hope do we have to ignore God’s clear commandments in our time?
People are naturally afraid of foreigners. We want to be protected and to guard against those who are not like us. But, God says we should not give in to that strong inclination to protect ourselves at their expense.
Jesus preached an upside down kingdom in which the first would be last and the last would be first. He said the poor, and the meek, and those who mourn will inherit His kingdom. He told his followers not to be like worldly leaders who lord their power over those subject to them.
Yes, it does get political, but what is driving our politics? Is it our own desire to be protected in all of our comforts? Is it our desire to have a place at the tables of influence?
The Bible does say a lot more about many things, but we cannot choose the things we want to honor and follow. We cannot ignore God’s clear command to care, protect, and provide for foreigners along with widows and orphans. Our worldview and political views should not have a big hole where God has given us such clear direction.
I have had to come to terms with these things in my own life, and my own heart, and the way I think as I have read my Bible daily over the last however many years. I am a long-time conservative, orthodox, born again Christian of the evangelical variety. I have not come to this place where I can write a piece like this quickly or easily.
I come to this place through of years reading the Bible and taking it seriously. All of it. That I find myself at odds with some fellow Christians now that I love and respect affects me deeply and causes me to doubt my thinking at times. When I go back to Scripture, though, I cannot unsee what is there and the clear threads of God’s priority for righteousness and justice in how we care and provide for vulnerable people.
Jesus even said how we treat the least of the people around us will be pivotal in our relationship to him. It will separate sheep from goats. It may even determine our eternal destiny. Many of us may hear the words from the mouth of Jesus, “I never knew you!”
We need to take these things seriously, even at our own earthly expense…. Actually we need to take things seriously especially at our own earthly expense, lest we lay up treasures only earth.
The kingdom of God and His Word are eternal. We do not want to gain the world and forfeit our souls. Therefore, we need to be careful about the rulers we support who will rule over us and make sure, to the best of our ability, that they do what is right and just.
Postscript:
“Listen to what the Lord says:
Micah 6:1,2,8
“Stand up, plead my case before the mountains;
let the hills hear what you have to say.
“Hear, you mountains, the Lord’s accusation;
listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth.
For the Lord has a case against his people;
he is lodging a charge against Israel.
….
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.”
Navigating by Faith 