For much of my life, I’ve raged against “the system”— powerful organizations that go unchecked and grow to the point of monopoly. Too often, they’re rooted in corruption and serve as the source of so much suffering upon any under their sway. There are so many systems in our world that were built out of lust for power and money, capitalizing off of vulnerability to gain control. Whether it be a government, an industry, a mass corporation, a dictator—history has shown us that men don’t do good things with too much centralized power placed in their hands. More often than not, they cause immeasurable destruction.
Thinking broadly, the unfortunate truth is that most of us live “under” some type of leader who doesn’t have our best interest at heart. Although the wealthy might not experience the repercussions of this as much in their daily lives, many still know what it’s like to be placed under some type of authority they don’t agree with. This can be the case even with leaders who know God (or claim to). Be it a president, boss, director, any kind of superior—there’s no getting around how difficult it is to sit under bad leadership.
As followers of Jesus, we can have a different approach to this issue than that of the world, because we have hope in a King far more powerful than earthly leaders. Scripture has some fairly surprising instruction—and examples—for us when we’re in these situations. There’s no question there will be times we have to defy the rules of earthly leadership in order to obey God, and we have countless examples of that in Scripture. Our world has a long, long history of tyrant kings wreaking all kinds of havoc on the lives of innocent people. Yet the Bible is rife with examples of God’s people finding amazing ways to honor their leaders the best they could, without compromising their faithfulness to God.
Much of the story of Daniel is about people trying to be faithful to God while living under the wicked rule of earthly kings. Nebuchadnezzar was pretty much a psychopath, yet Daniel prayed for supernatural ability to meet his demands, and then testified straight to Nebuchadnezzar’s face about the power of God that granted him ability to do so.[1]
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to bow down to Nebuchadnezzar’s golden statue, and then testified to the power of God that had saved them from the fiery furnace.[2]
Then another wicked ruler came after, and again Daniel disobeyed him. He refused to stop praying to Yahweh when king Darius instated a law against it, and then testified to the power of God that shut the mouths of lions in the den.[3]
The stories go on.
Shiphrah and Puah (the Hebrew midwives) quietly defied Pharaoh’s orders and refused to kill the firstborn sons of Israel.[4] Jochebed put hers in a basket in the Nile river, and had the guts to believe God would spare him.[5]
King Saul’s soldiers refused to kill Jonathan for eating on a day when (unbeknownst to him), hot-headed Saul had randomly ordered the people not to eat. Jonathan recognized what a ridiculous call his father had made, to strip his armies of energy while they’re fighting a battle, and pointed out the king’s failure. [6]
Queen Vashti refused to entertain lust when a plastered King Xerxes ordered her to put herself on display as a sexual object for his crowd of drunken buddies, after their week-long slosh fest. His pride raged, and she lost her position as queen for that—but thankfully she was replaced by someone equally courageous.[7]
Maybe the most prime example of this in Scripture, Esther was somehow tactful and respectful while also fearlessly bold and daring. I don’t know of many people who were able to honor a corrupt leader as well as she did, while she knew she had to defy him. She saved the entire Jewish population in Persia by intentionally breaking the king’s rule not to enter his courts.[8]
Like all nuanced things about obeying the Bible, I think our position hangs in the balance between knowing we are to honor our leaders, and committing to never place anyone’s authority on the level of God’s.
Paul the Apostle is a great example of someone who stated many “rules” definitively in his letters, and then broke those very rules with his own actions. We can either deduce that he contradicts himself so his points are invalid, or we can be a little more insightful—life is simply just not that black and white. Paul often gave guidance that was contextual and specific for a group of people, and he stated guidelines that he knew would have many exceptions. If we are to grasp the heart of the Bible, we have to be willing to hold nuance as we read, so that two things don’t contradict each other when they were meant to balance each other. Paul, maybe our biggest New Testament rebel, was wildly intransigent when it came to following his faith, which was incredibly costly for him. Not only did he openly rebel against the ruling in place almost everywhere he went, but he was unapologetic about it. He refused to bow to civil authority even when it got him imprisoned, beaten, or martyred. The same man who brazenly disobeyed Roman rule is the same man who gave us Romans 13, the chapter on submitting to authority: “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.” [9]
Oof. Sounds like there’s a little more to being a rebel with a cause.
Of course, we are certainly not to obey any and all instructions given by leaders in this life—because they’re bound to interfere with our faithfulness to God at some point. So we’re left with the question, if we’re supposed to obey God above all else, and we’re supposed to submit to our leaders, what do we do when those two things contradict each other? Which is where our most important distinction comes in: submission is not the same as obedience. A submissive heart does not mean we obey every command. Daniel submitted to Nebuchadnezzar with respect, Esther submitted to Xerxes with humility, Paul submitted to the Romans with responsibility for his actions—but none of them obeyed what they were commanded to do. Their obedience to God took precedence over all else, while they did their best to honor people who didn’t deserve it.
Paul isn’t the only rebel who clarified that leaders are appointed by God. After Daniel’s plight with Nebuchadnezzar, he worshipped the Lord: “He changes times and seasons; He deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.”[10] If we believe in God’s sovereignty, we believe in His authority to place or remove any leader from any position. It’s interesting that the Israelites had this stubborn desire to be led by human kings. God was patient and granted their requests, but I can’t help but wonder if He did so purely to show them human kings will always fail. Nothing will make you long for the righteous leadership of the One True King like having a wicked leader here on earth, and suffering because of it.
Don’t hear me saying that God is callous in the matter. Scripture is overwhelmingly clear that God hears the cries of the oppressed, He defends the disadvantaged, He lifts up the weak and lowly, He advocates for the righteous and innocent. In fact, the Bible says He favors those people. When we are in positions of being powerless, our cries reach His ears and He moves on our behalf. When there are powers above us we can’t control, we go even higher than them to the God who acts as our Advocate. We know this world will never be perfect as long as broken people live in it. Until Jesus returns and eradicates sin and death forever, we will have to deal with imperfect leaders and wicked rulers. But we don’t have to wait until then to carry a kingdom mentality about how to respond to poor leadership while we’re waiting. God’s kingdom is out-of-this-world, out-of-the-box, wildly creative. Instead of choosing between honoring your leaders and honoring God, do both. In fact, seize the opportunity to show your leaders (or your peers) what the power of God can do on your behalf. The coolest thing about people like Esther and Daniel is that they didn’t rebel just for the sake of rebelling because they knew their leaders were flawed. They rebelled out of faithfulness to God, staggering trust in His plan for them, and an “if I perish, I perish” kind of commitment. And because God knew their hearts, He showed Himself faithful on their behalf—to the point of their leaders actually turning around and honoring them. Their brave acts of holy defiance were a testament to God’s power that turns the hearts of kings.
It’s hard here, in this broken world led by broken people. There’s so much we have to suffer…for now. But this will not be forever; our King is Jesus. We have this one chance to show the world that there is no leader powerful enough to shake our King and His purpose—for His Kingdom will always outlast empires.
“For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders.”[11]
Autumn Crew is the Managing Editor of FAI Publishing. She lives in the Middle East and serves a number of disciple-making initiatives. She can be reached at autumncrew@faimission.org.
[1] Daniel 2
[2] Daniel 3
[3] Daniel 6
[4] Exodus 1:15-21
[5] Exodus 2:3-10
[6] 1 Samuel 14:24-45
[7] Esther 1:10-12
[8] Esther 3-5, 7
[9] Romans 13:1-5
[10] Daniel 2:21
[11] Isaiah 9:6