A citizen of a country who fears God?

[Proverbs 24:21-26]

Not long ago, there was a story about the impeachment of President Obama in the US CNN news.  The reason for the story was probably that the Republican Party, which took control of the House of Representatives, was a problem, and that President Obama was abusing the presidential powers.  In other words, the Republicans thought President Obama was making a lot of executive orders.  For example, in the course of implementing the 'Obama Care' (Health Insurance Reform Act of 2010), it was alleged that the president's powers specified in the Constitution were abused.  In other words, President Obama intentionally delayed the key provisions of Obama Care through an executive order.  However, as this concern was raised that if this provision was implemented as scheduled, it could cause enormous damage to small businesses and increase the number of companies firing regular employees.  It is said that President Obama randomly issued an administrative order in February, delaying the application of the provision to small businesses with 50 or more and less than 100 employees to 2016 (Internet).  In addition, President Obama introduced an executive order to raise the minimum wage that the Republican Party opposes, and it is said that the executive order will also take relief measures against illegal immigrants in September (Internet).  So on July 30 last month, the US House of Representatives held a plenary meeting and passed a resolution that would allow President Obama to sue 225-201 in favor.  How should we react as these American citizens when we hear this news?  If we are Korean citizens, not American citizens, how should we react when we think of the President of Korea right now?

When asked such a question, I think one of the Bible passages we can think of is probably Romans 13:1-2: “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.  Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.”  If we apply this word to us, it means that if we are those who fear God, we must obey the governing authorities.  What is the reason?  The reason is because all governing authorities are ordained by God.  However, we must keep in mind that this doesn’t mean that we must obey the governing authorities unconditionally.  In other words, when the government authorities are corrupt and contrary to God's word and commands all citizens to follow it, we cannot yield to such command.  An example is the attempt to institutionalize same-sex marriage.  If same-sex marriage is made the law of the country, what should we do with that law?  Obviously, this is the law of the country that violates God's law (the word of God).  Do we have to follow this law of the country?  We must obey the governing authorities that are ordained by God, but we must obey the laws of the country within the boundary that doesn’t violate the laws of God.

 The Bible Proverbs 24:21 says, “Fear the LORD and the king, my son, and do not join with the rebellious.”  Focusing on this word, I would like to receive the lessons the Lord gives us while meditating on two ways how a citizen of a country who fear God does.

First, the citizen who fears God fears his president.

Look at Proverbs 24:21a – “Fear the LORD and the king, my son  …..”  The Bible tells us to fear God and kings.  If we apply this to us, it means that we must fear God and also the president of our country.  Of course, the “king” that the Proverbs writer refers to in today's text refers to the ideal king that God uses (Prov. 21:1) (Park).  Therefore, the president we should fear is the ideal president that God uses.  So who is the ideal president?  Looking back on the words of the Book of Proverbs we have meditated on so far, the ideal king is like this: (1) There are three “ideal king's heart” that we meditated on in Psalms 101: (a) First, the ideal king's heart is a heart that yearns for God’s love and and justice.  (b) Second, the ideal king’s heart is humble heart.  (c) Third, the ideal king’s heart is far from perverse heart (cunning heart, a life that is different inside and outside).  (2) The next word I meditated on is “An ideal king” centered on Psalms 72. I meditated in two ways: (a) First, the ideal king judges by the judgment of the Lord.  (b) Second, the ideal king satisfies the Lord's people because he judges with the Lord's righteous judgment.  (3) The next word I meditated on was “A good king who pleases God” centered on Proverbs 16:10-15.  I meditated on the good king who pleases God in three ways: (a) First, the good king who pleases God makes right decisions with God's wisdom.  (b) Second, the good king who pleases God detests wrongdoing.  (c) Third, the good king who pleases God is well advised by loyalists.  (4) The next words I meditated on was “An ideal president” centered on Proverbs 19:12 and 20:2.  I meditated on two ways: (a) First, the ideal president rules the country with justice.  (b) Second, the ideal president rules the country with love.  (5) Finally, when we think about the words of Proverbs 21:1, the ideal king that God uses is the king who is guided by God as the king in God's hand.  Such a king is a king who obeys the will of the Lord when He leads him according to His will.  (6) In addition to these words, one more Bible passage I would like to see is Deuteronomy 17:19-20: “It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.”  Here, the Bible teaches us three things about the ideal king in God's sight: (a) He learns to fear God by reading the law of God (His word) all the days of his life. (b) He carefully observes all the words of this law and doesn’t turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left.  (c) His heart isn’t lifted up above his countrymen. 

                In today's text, Proverbs 24:21, the Bible says that the king who should be feared as the citizen of the God-fearing nation is a king who establishes justice.  Look at Proverbs 24:23-26: “These also are sayings of the wise: To show partiality in judging is not good: Whoever says to the guilty, ‘You are innocent’-- peoples will curse him and nations denounce him.  But it will go well with those who convict the guilty, and rich blessing will come upon them.”  Here, the Proverbs writer tells us how the king who establishes justice doesn’t do and does.  The first thing that the righteous king doesn't do is that he doesn’t show partiality in judging or says “You are innocent” to the wicked (v. 23).  Can you imagine?  How the Israelites reacted when the wise king Solomon judged the two prostitutes if he show partiality in the judgment, or if he ruled a fake mother saying, 'You are a real mother, so take a living baby with you’?  Would the Israelites really fear King Solomon? (1 Kgs. 3:28)  Had King Solomon judged so wrong, he would have been cursed by the Israelites, as Proverbs 24:24 says, and would be denounced by them.  However, as we already know, King Solomon judged correctly and judged with the wisdom that God gave him.  He discerned the real mother of the living child from the fake mother and ruled that the real mother should be given the living child (1 Kgs. 3:26-27).  At that time, when the Israelites heard King Solomon's judgment, they feared King Solomon.  The reason was because they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice (v. 28).  In Deuteronomy 1:17, the Bible says, “You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike You shall not fear man, for the judgment is God's ….”  The king who doesn’t fear men doesn’t justify the wicked and condemn the righteous (Prov. 17:15).  The reason is because he knows that he who does so is an abomination to God (v. 15).  This is what Proverbs 18:5 says: “To show partiality to the wicked is not good, Nor to thrust aside the righteous in judgment.”  Also, the Bible Proverbs 28:21 says: “To show partiality is not good, Because for a piece of bread a man will transgress.”  What does it mean?  This means that the righteous king doesn’t show partiality to the wicked, or deprive the innocent of justice.

What, then, does the righteous king do?  If we look at Proverbs 24:25, the Bible says that the king who establishes justice convict the guilty.  The righteous God is the God who rebukes the king if he show partiality when he judges (Job 13:10).  In particular, God rebukes the king who judges unfairly by adding to or subtracting to God's word when judging (Prov. 30:6).  God does this not only because He is just, but because He loves the king (Rev. 3:19).  Furthermore, God not only rebukes sin (Ps. 39:11), but also rebukes the wicked (Jude 1:9).  Therefore, the righteous king must rebuke the wicked like God, the King of kings.  He must rebuke the wicked boldly.  Therefore, he should show justice and set the order of the country.  Also, the righteous king answers honestly (Prov. 24:26).  In other words, the king who establishes righteousness makes a legitimate decision in the judgment seat.  And the legitimate verdict that is given is that it satisfies it like a kiss to righteousness (Park).  Therefore, Proverbs 24:25 says that the king who establishes righteousness will go well and rich blessing will come upon him.  In other words, the ruler who punishes the wicked fairly receives God's blessing (Park).

This is what 1 Peter 2:13-14, 17 says: “Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.  …  Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.”  The Bible commands us to fear God and honor the king.  If we apply this word to us, we must fear God and honor the President of our country.  To apply this from the perspective of Proverbs 24:21, as we fear God, we must revere the president of our country whom God has established.  Of course, the president of our country that we should revere and respect here is not any president.  He is the President who does righteousness.  The Bible says that if we are truly God-fearing people, we, as citizens of our country, must fear the President, who establishes righteousness which God established.

Second and last, the citizen who fears God doesn’t join with the rebellious.

Look at Proverbs 24:21b – “…  and do not join with the rebellious.”  The Bible not only tells us to fear God and the king God has established (v. 21), but it also tells us not to join with the rebellious.  That means don't join the rebellious people who take away the kingship.  The reason is because the rebellious people or those who join with them will soon be destroyed by calamities (v. 22).  If this word is applied today, an example would be the country of Syria.  The Syrian President now is Bashar Al-Sad.  According to the US newspaper Washington Post weekly, Bashar was once ranked 12th on the World's Worst Dictator.  As part of his anti-Israel policy, Syria is said to have explicitly supported Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and has been designated as a terrorist support country by Western countries (Internet).  Now Syria, as we know it, continues to fight government and rebel forces because of the civil war.  If so, the citizens of that country may like the country's president, Bashar, but there will be many citizens who dislike him as a dictator.  In that case, how should Christians who believe in Jesus among those citizens obey the word of Proverbs 24:21?  Do they really have to fear and respect the President?  No, isn't it?  If it's not the ideal president mentioned in the Bible, nor the president who practices justice, are they supposed to fear and respect the president?  But what we have to think about at the same time is that ‘Can Christians among citizens living in Syria join the rebels and fight the government forces to take the president down from the spot because their president is a dictator and evil ruler?’

Dr. Yoon-Sun Park has three things to say on this subject (Park): (1) It is a matter of believer's belief in the wrong government and conscience.  Although Proverbs 24:21 forbids personal rebellion against an evil ruler or an unrighteous government, it doesn’t mandate the people's unrestricted obedience to such government.  Even if it is a government order, if it is an unrighteous request (such as an order that violates the faith), then as the believers, they don’t have to obey.  We believers must act with the God-oriented in relation to the state.  In other words, we must live for the purpose of glorifying God even in our lives.  (2) It is the attitude of Christians toward unrighteous politics.  As an individual, you cannot eliminate a monarch (even a tyrant) with violence.  However, as high-ranking officials or subordinate officials, they were responsible for protecting the people by preventing the monarch's indulgence, and if necessary, they had the responsibility to eliminate the source of such an evil spirit.  (3) It is the duty of Christian society to prevent the government's mistakes.  Since Christianity doesn’t exist for the state directly, it must be done indirectly when fulfilling its responsibilities for the state.  For example, the church can exert an indirect influence on the state by affecting the conscience of its people and officials.  The more the consciences of civil servants and people become in the Christian spirit, the closer the state becomes to God's law in terms of religion and morality.  This indirect influence takes place in the following ways (H. Meeter): (a) It takes place when the church preaches the gospel.  In other words, when the church preaches the gospel, it teaches the principles of God's word that apply to all human life.  Its teaching includes, of course, the principles of political life.  (b) The Christians must clarify the principles of the Bible that pertain to people's life in educational institutions.  (c) The Christianity should strive to gain public appreciation for the word of God and influence them through newspapers and all propaganda agencies.

                Reading the Old Testament of the Bible, we often see that God speaks of the Israelites as “a rebellious people” (Deut. 9:7, 31:27, Isa. 30:9, Ezek. 2:3, 5, 7, 8; 3:9, 12:25; 26; 24:3, 12:2, 9).  In Deuteronomy 9:24, Moses told the Israelites: “You have been rebellious against the LORD ever since I have known you.”  Also, before he died, Moses told them: “For I know how rebellious and stiff-necked you are. If you have been rebellious against the LORD while I am still alive and with you, how much more will you rebel after I die!” (31:27)  The Israelites always rebelled against the Lord, the King of kings.  Not only they always rebelled, they even forsaken God, who was King, and rejected Him as their their king (1 Sam. 8:7).  So, in the days of Samuel, the Israelites said to Samuel, “You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have” (v. 5).  They refused to listen to Samuel and said, “…  We want a king over us.  Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles” (vv. 19-20).  Upon hearing their request, Samuel prayed to God, and God said to Samuel: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king” (v. 7).  To the Israelites who rebelled against God in this way, God said through the prophet Hosea: “"I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them” (Hos. 14:4).  What a wonderful grace of God?  God promised to heal the Israelites’ waywardness and to love them freely.  This is Heavenly Father's heart for us.  Heavenly Father is the God who heals our rebellion and loves us freely.  Our Heavenly Father is telling us not only to rebel against God any longer, but also not to join with the rebellious people.  I hope and pray that we will be obedient to God's word in fear of God.

We learned how we Christians should live as citizens of a country through the words of Proverbs 24:21-26.  In short, we must be citizens who fear God.  And we, as God-fearing citizens, must revere our President.  Also, we should not join with the rebellious people.  I hope and pray that all of us can obey His word.