Leaving Egypt Ministries, Paul Maitrejean

God wants us to suffer disaster!

That’s right.

So many people read the Bible and its accounts about earthquakes, famines, floods, and pestilence, and think they’re bad things.

How silly!

You see, every time God unleashed these so-called “disasters” against His people, it was done to serve His purpose, every time. That can only mean these sources of destruction, suffering, and death have been God’s plan and intent for us all along!

Okay – as the apostle Paul might say, “I speak as a fool.”

God’s mercy and judgment

Of course no sane person would make the above assertions. Plagues, war, drought, locusts, etc., are awful events, and in fact God warns us against sinning against Him precisely so He isn’t compelled to send those things on us. They are punishment for sin and tools of correction. The evils that come upon us—God typically uses the tyranny of man-made governments to carry out such judgment—are the price we pay for the sin of idolizing men and their political systems.

When we chase after the false kings of the world, we find ourselves living in Babylonian captivity. God gives men the Egypts they beg for.

But God doesn’t want to make us suffer (and nor does He punish arbitrarily). God uses the inevitable disaster that is human government to punish the sin of statism (i.e., supporting political systems), but that doesn’t mean He wishes this upon us or desires that we go in this direction. But just like a parent,

“He who withholds his rod hates his son, But he who loves him disciplines him diligently” (Proverbs 13:24, NASB).

Yes, bad events do indeed serve the purpose of the sovereign God. They serve as a rod of correction.

I’ve been told multiple times during my efforts to point out the wickedness of seeking any kings other than King Jesus that, “God has used kings for His purposes many times.”

No argument there. In fact, I would say he’s used every single one of them. Heck, he even calls Nebuchadnezzar “My servant” (Jeremiah 25:9, 27:6, 43:10), Cyrus “My anointed” (Isaiah 45:1), and Assyria “the rod of My anger” (Isaiah 10:5). God also used Titus to destroy Jerusalem in 70 AD. He used the Muslims to hammer the Eastern Roman Empire. He used the international banking cartels to destroy Western economies (and arguably, even secular economists to explain in great detail the follies of state intervention to those who refused to hear it from God and wanted to think only in terms of logic and reason instead).

He’s also used fires, starvation, disease, and more to accomplish His ends.

So the argument that “God has used kings for His purposes” (and therefore, it is implied, they are His intention for us in general) is a weak argument. Of course He uses kings for His purposes.

The question is: What purposes, exactly?

These days I sometimes feel like I’m beating a dead horse when I make this upcoming point, but it seems people just don’t get it.

Or rather, won’t.

God was not pleased with the Israelites for demanding a king over them “like all the nations” (I Samuel 8). They were talking about a physical king. A man to rule over them. And “all the nations” they were talking about were heathen nations, including the very Canaanites whom they’d been ordered to destroy lest they be influenced by their idolatrous ways. They liked the idea of God ruling over them only insofar as He was just a concept or an idea – but not literally and truly. They didn’t believe that God provides the type of protection (from physical enemies) that state militaries claim to be exclusively capable of providing. They distrusted God’s protection by putting their faith in political systems. Like our people today, they were man-fearers, who said we needed “governments” to protect us, rather than God-fearers who trust in the Lord for all things.

What God says He will provide for us wasn’t good enough.

They needed a mortal, finite, sinful man to rule over them.

Yes, that would be so much better.

The diving warning of the consequences of statism

God even warned them that the tyranny of human rulership would be worse. He warned them they would be oppressed, robbed, and used in every possible way if they got this king they wanted so badly. God always warns men of the political slave society we will find ourselves in if they trust in men to “save” us instead. (And it’s our job today to warn men of the inevitable failure of such systems of men).

Apparently, as today, that didn’t matter to them. They demanded it.

Leading up to the days of the Assyrian captivity, God says through the prophet Hosea:

“It is your destruction, O Israel, That you are against Me, against your help. Where now is your king, That he may save you in all your cities, And your judges of whom you requested, Give me a king and princes?’ I gave you a king in My anger, And took him away in My wrath” (Hosea 13:9-11, NASB).

He reminds them that He gave them the kings and rulers they demanded, not because He was pleased with them, but “in My anger.” God is not satisfied with punishing such idolatrous societies as ours, but does so only reluctantly and after great warnings. As the prophet Jeremiah puts it,

“This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘I will send against them sword and famine and plague, and I will make them like rotten figs, so bad they cannot be eaten. I will pursue them with sword and famine and plague. I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth—a curse, a desolation, and an object of scorn and reproach among all the nations to which I banish them. I will do this because they have not listened to My words, declares the LORD, which I sent to them again and again through My servants the prophets. And neither have you exiles listened, declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 29:17-19).

God does not bring judgment upon men (e.g., by sending an evil state) because He delights in it, but because it’s the punishment men deserve for turning away from God and toward the systems of men.

“O earth! I am bringing disaster on this people, the fruit of their own schemes, because they have paid no attention to My word and have rejected My instruction” (Jeremiah 6:19).

Such judgments do not prove the tyranny of the Lord, as atheists like to point out regularly, but rather the tyranny of men who trust in such systems of men to protect them. The evils of statism don’t come against men because God lacks mercy and loves to punish. In fact, “Again and again the LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to His people through His messengers because He had compassion on them” (2 Chronicles 36:15).

Again, men have been repeatedly warned of the cause and effect reality, i.e., that the sin of idolatry—like the patriotism, police worship, and voting among Americans—breeds tyrannical statist societies. But they never listen.

“The LORD has sent all His servants the prophets to you again and again, but you have not listened or inclined your ear to hear” (Jeremiah 25:4; cf. Jer 7:13, 7:25, 11:7, 25:3, 26:5, 44:4; 1 Sam 8:19).

Men were told over and over (as this ministry risks repeating) to avoid the false god systems of men, but they wouldn’t listen to God.

“Again and again I have sent you all My servants the prophets, proclaiming: ‘Turn now, each of you, from your wicked ways, and correct your actions. Do not go after other gods to serve them. Live in the land that I have given to you and your fathers.’ But you have not inclined your ear or listened to Me” (Jeremiah 35:15).

And when men would become dependent upon the kings God sent, in His wrath He removed them and left the people listless and wandering, just as He described Israel after the death of Ahab: “. . . scattered on the mountains, like sheep which have no shepherd” (2 Chronicles 18:16).

God’s sovereignty over the State

God gave them the State, with its earthly rulers and kings and princes and all its inherent consequences, as punishment for their statism.

He gave them human rulers as punishment for wanting to be “like all the nations” (1 Samuel 8:20).

They demanded a king, and so He punished them with a whole line of kings.

And, as proof that God does not call men to support such systems that He uses to correct us, which arise for that very sinful thought, God turns around and punishes the rulers too. While it may be a paradox, it is not a contradiction that God uses evil states against us (for our statism) but does not expect us to raise them up ourselves. They are used by God to punish the very sin of believing we ought to organize society through political violence, not given by God as part of His perfect will. It is this very problem that men have failed to understand. As the Christian anarchist Kevin Craig explains,

“By His decree, God can be said to ‘command’ nations to do His bidding, carrying out His judgments against covenant-breakers (Isaiah 10:6). The acts of rape, murder, theft, and violence committed by the ‘State’ are nevertheless contrary to God’s written (revealed) commands, and these political machines will be judged for their lawless ‘obedience’ to God’s ‘command'” (Isaiah 10:12).

To say that God is in control of States and uses them toward his ends (e.g., punishing state worshipers) thus does not provide the argument that statist idolaters think it does: that God wants us to support such state systems as godly organizations. As Kevin Craig also pointed out,

“These same ‘ministers’—kings and leaders of political (polis-centered) systems—can also be identified with Satan himself (Isaiah 14:11-15; Ezekiel 28). The ‘State’ is only an unwitting ‘minister’ (Isaiah 10:7). By definition, it is impossible for a State (a system of institutionalized violence and revenge) to self-consciously obey God’s Law and serve Christ (Romans 12:17-21).”

So yes. Humans kings and rulers and princes do indeed serve God’s purpose.

And that purpose is to punish His people for wanting them in the first place. It doesn’t make sense to say that we ought to support kings because God makes use of them: He uses them against men precisely because they believe they should get behind human rulers and support them! They are not do-gooders who “serve” the Lord in the way that statist police-worshipers believe they do, i.e., to bring “law and order” to society. As Kevin Craig summed it up, “The State serves God by sinning.”

The kings in the scriptures

“But what about the righteous kings?” I’ve been asked. “Look at all the great things they’ve done!”

Sure, okay. Let’s talk about them.

David was a “man after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22). High praise. David was indeed a very godly man. He wrote most of the Psalms in our Bible and conducted himself in a very righteous manner.

Most of the time, that is.

But when he goofed, boy did he goof. Uriah and Bathsheba ringing any bells?

But notice that when he sinned, the people suffered as well. As a result of his sin with Bathsheba, not only did David suffer the loss of his infant child, but his son Absalom mounted a rebellion against David and plunged the kingdom into civil war, in which 20,000 men died (2 Samuel 18:7).

Likewise, when David violated the Law and conducted a census of the people, Israel suffered for that as well. God’s response was to strike Israel with pestilence, which felled 70,000 (1 Chronicles 21:14).

So we see the death count of those who served under the rule of David, whom God loved, comes to a total of 90,000 Israelites.

And then there was Solomon. Yes, his reign saw an economic boom and expansion of power such as the world had never seen. He wrote Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, and was given immense wisdom. But by the time his reign came to an end, Israel groaned under heavy taxes, and Baal worship had made its way into the realm. Immediately after that, the kingdom split in what was essentially a tax protest.

Asa, though he conducted reforms, raided silver and gold out of the temple to pay the Arameans a bribe, and imprisoned Hanani the prophet for calling him out on it. We’re also told he oppressed the people (2 Chronicles 16).

Jehoshaphat got Judah involved in wars he had no business getting them mixed up in (2 Chronicles 19) and made alliances with wicked kings (2 Chronicles 20).

Joash abandoned his reforms after the high priest died, and not only returned to the worship of Baals, but murdered the priest’s son for calling him out on it. As punishment, God allowed the Arameans to come and sack Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 24).

Amaziah led his people to victory against the Edomites, and then brought the Edomites’ idols back for his people to worship. So God pitted him against Israel in war, in which Judah was defeated (2 Chronicles 25).

Uzziah built up his standing army and eventually defiled the house of God (2 Chronicles 26).

Jotham mounted large construction projects, which of course meant taxing the people (2 Chronicles 27).

Hezekiah, a great reformer, still sealed Jerusalem’s fate at Babylonian hands when he foolishly showed Babylon’s ambassadors his treasures and the treasures of the land (2 Kings 20).

Josiah, also a reformer, wrapped up his career by, like Jehoshaphat, getting his people involved in wars that weren’t any of their business (2 Chronicles 35).

In every single case, the people suffered for the bad deeds of their kings. Even under the righteous kings. Whether taxation, war, or just overall oppression, the people paid the price for their desire for a human king, even under the “righteous” ones.

We don’t read of any of the righteous kings lifting the tax burden. We don’t read of them ceasing to draft young men and women to serve in the army and palaces. We don’t read of them disbanding Israel’s standing army. We don’t read of any of the warnings in I Samuel 8 being lifted.

Because that is what kings and rulers and princes do. As God said they would.

“This will be the manner of the king who will reign over you: He will take your sons and appoint them to his own chariots and horses, to run in front of his chariots. He will appoint some for himself as commanders of thousands and of fifties, and others to plow his ground, to reap his harvest, to make his weapons of war, and to equip his chariots. And he will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers.He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his servants. He will take a tenth of your grain and grape harvest and give it to his officials and servants. And he will take your menservants and maidservants and your best cattle and donkeys and put them to his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will beg for relief from the king you have chosen, but the LORD will not answer you on that day” (1 Samuel 8:11-18).

And I’d like to reiterate, these things kings do were not mentioned as good things in I Samuel 8. They were bad things.

And yet, after all these years of living under the State, we keep on demanding more. We keep expecting that political rulers will (the next one, if none before) will be our saviors.

There’s something seriously wrong with us.

No King But Christ

God has consistently used kings and rulers to oppress His people, as punishment for their rejection of Him as King and their sinful insistence on men as kings. That has always been the purpose of human kings and rulers – to prick us with a goad and strike us with a rod until we return wholly to Him and truly hold to the declaration that “there is another King, Jesus” (Acts 17:7).

People hold these “righteous” kings up to me like they’re the epitome of great leadership and government, and in fact, they just simply weren’t as bad as the other kings. Still bad. Just not as bad.

Remember,

“They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one” (Psalm 14:3, NASB).

However, Jesus reminds us:

“And Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone'” (Mark 10:18, Luke 18:19, NASB).

Being God incarnate, Jesus was in fact the definition of good.

“For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15, NASB).

And this same sinless High Priest is also King:

“God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they” (Hebrews 1:1-4, NASB).

As I mentioned earlier, every time their king sinned, the people suffered as well. This is easily demonstrable throughout Scripture. On the surface that seems unfair, but they asked for this king – nay, demanded this king. And so, because they called for this king, they shared in his sins (I Timothy 5:22).

And because there is no one good or sinless except God, the people will suffer no matter who rules over them. That ruler will sin, and the consequences will be shared by both the ruler and his subjects. This is how it has always worked and always will work.

Changing our ways

So . . . here’s a novel idea: How about we give up the notion of asking for, voting for, and supporting human rulers and thus signing up for the consequences of our sins? How about we repent from our idolatrous support of man’s political systems rather than continue to participate in them? How about we stop believing the lies of false prophets that they have this rigged socio-economic system, which they manipulate and distort, under control?

What if we – and this is gonna be crazy, but hear me out – threw ourselves fully and unequivocally behind the one and only sinless King, Jesus Christ? What if we said, “No King But Jesus” – but actually meant it, without hypocrisy?

That would be a sinless King, and thus, no consequences from having an imperfect human ruler.

Yeah, I’ve heard it before: “Nobody’s perfect. You can’t expect perfection from a man.”

That’s my point, you statist dimwits. Stop ignoring and excusing the wickedness of your favorite political figures—your false gods—and call it for what it is: Trouble for anyone over whom they rule.

The captivity that we’re under today, and the increasing schemes of those in power, can be interpreted as divine punishment for our sin of ever trusting in these men to rule over us. However, we can look on the bright side, and see them as an opportunity to change our ways and repent.

I mean, personally, I’m not into the whole masochism thing, but hey, whatever floats your boat. The traits of human rulers are the same today as they were in I Samuel 8. Maybe you enjoy that sort of thing, like the gutless bimbo who clings to and makes excuses for her abusive boyfriend.

Count me out. God’s people should want to have nothing to do with the false gods—the kings, presidents, politicians, etc—of the world who pretend to be lords and saviors themselves. God’s people should be able to easily declare where our allegiance lies when we confront this very black-and-white issue of who our king is, when it comes down to the Lord in heaven or the false kings of the world:

“Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:15, NASB).