[This is part 3 in a series on the “King of kings.” See part one, two, four, five, six]

Leaving Egypt Ministries, Obadiah D. Morris

In another article where I pointed out the sinful nature behind acting as kings or supporting them, I focused more on the express references to sin than the false god nature of the kingdoms of men. As closely bound up as these two concepts are, they both deserve individual attention. 

It is worthy to show that the kingdoms of men (the States of the world) are not just sinful per se, and contrary to the Kingdom of God, but that they are sinful precisely because they are false gods who attempt to substitute men for God. As God said, when His people were choosing human kings over the Lord, “They have forsaken me and served other gods” (1 Samuel 8:8). So clearly, God considers choosing man-kings to be forsaking Him, as such an act assumes wrongly that God doesn’t provide protection and that men and state militaries are needed instead. But moreover, it was acknowledged that these men are so-called “gods,” i.e., self-exalted human rulers who, in their pride, believe they’re capable of acting as God in matters of organizing social order.

State rulers have always pretended to be gods, against God’s will. They have always pretended to rule by “divine right.” What one prophet said of “satan” is perfectly applicable to the kingdoms of men, which are animated by evil (Luke 4:5-7). 

“You said in your heart: ‘I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of assembly, in the far reaches of the north” (Isaiah 14:13).

This is also what men do when they take earthly thrones: They seek to reach the heavens, as in Nimrod at Babel, in an attempt to be gods.

Men as false gods

But these men are false gods, and worshiping them or their systems is against the true God. 

The problem facing men—resulting in either liberty or captivity respectively—is who’s your king?: The Lord, or some man? The human rulers claim “lordship,” “kingship,” and “sovereignty” precisely because they attempt to divert man’s worship away from God and toward men as the gods. This was always the conflict between Christians and the State in early Christianity, too, where men claiming Christ to be their King were punished for refusing to acknowledge Caesar as “lord.” 

Many Christian writers have noted this in history. The well-known theologian, R.C. Sproul, explained how, on the Roman scene, “those who were elevated to the role of emperor were worshiped as deities.” The false “gods” of statist society have always been in competition with God in this question of who’s your God? This is a fight constantly playing out among the prophets: God, who brings peace and security? Or men, who bring war and destruction?

But God’s children don’t recognize these men or regard them as “gods.” As one prophet put it, “O LORD our God, other lords besides You have had dominion, but Your name alone do we confess” (Isaiah 26:13). We do not sit around, like the lost masses, voting for new president-kings and hoping they are going to come along and fix our problems and save us. “We wait for You, O LORD; we walk in the path of Your judgments. Your name and renown are the desire of our souls” (Isaiah 26:8). We may not be able to stop the masses from worshiping their political gods, but this should not draw us into their trap and keep us from staying in the Lord. “Though each of the peoples may walk in the name of his god, yet we will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever” (Micah 4:5). Amen.

All too many men are suckered into the sins of the masses—voting, praising men, joining Pharaoh’s gang of law enforcers—because everyone else is doing it, and because they don’t trust in the Lord. “But if we don’t vote the bad guys will take over….you must agree with all the things they do if you’re sitting this one out!”

God destroys the false god-kings

The judgments that come upon the kingdoms of men in the books of the prophets should be proof enough that God is against them, and that they are against God. This is the usual scene playing out in the books of the prophets, as well as many other scriptures. God tears down these human kingdoms and the systems of plunder they have set up precisely because they believe they are gods. Look at Ezekiel’s prophecy against the King of Tyre:

“And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ‘Son of man, tell the ruler of Tyre that this is what the Lord GOD says: Your heart is proud, and you have said, ‘I am a god; I sit in the seat of gods in the heart of the sea.’ Yet you are a man and not a god, though you have regarded your heart as that of a god. Behold, you are wiser than Daniel; no secret is hidden from you! By your wisdom and understanding you have gained your wealth and amassed gold and silver for your treasuries. By your great skill in trading you have increased your wealth, but your heart has grown proud because of it. Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Because you regard your heart as the heart of a god, behold, I will bring foreigners against you, the most ruthless of nations. They will draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom and will defile your splendor. They will bring you down to the Pit, and you will die a violent death in the heart of the seas. Will you still say, ‘I am a god,’ in the presence of those who slay you? You will be only a man, not a god, in the hands of those who wound you. You will die the death of the uncircumcised at the hands of foreigners. For I have spoken, declares the Lord GOD” (Ezekiel 28:1-10). 

“Tell the ruler of Tyre” — It is precisely to kings that God tells the prophets to deliver His message; they are the objects of His scorn. 

“Your heart is proud” — The sin of pride is best expressed in those who believe they have the right and wisdom to rule over other people; they think they are gods. 

“You have said, ‘I am a god'” – The sin of kings is the old sin in the garden of attempting to be “as gods” (Gen 3:5). They think they are on top of the world.

“You are a man and not a god” — God knows that the man-gods who call themselves “kings” are not gods at all, but just men pretending to be gods. They are counterfeit “lords” and “kings.” As the prophets have said,

“The Egyptians are men, not God; their horses are flesh, not spirit. When the LORD stretches out His hand, the helper will stumble, and the one he helps will fall; both will perish together” (Isaiah 31:3).

Far from ruling by “divine right,” as many foolish people believe, God tears them down precisely for such claims! 

Our Lord God is the only one worthy of such a title as Lord, King, God, the Sovereign, hence why God tears down those who try to claim as much. 

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told to you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing” (Isaiah 40:21-23).

God hates these evil systems of men—the man-made kingdoms of the world—and the thoughts of the people who regard them as “necessary” to freedom and prosperity, as most men today still believe. 

“The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saith; Behold, I will punish the multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods, and their kings; even Pharaoh, and all them that trust in him” (Jeremiah 46:25). 

God’s destruction of the kingdoms of men—from the endless kingdoms of the scriptures to the man-made statist systems of our time—demonstrates not just His supreme, but sole, Lordship. He is not just the head-king in a world system of other legitimate kings, but the King who will bring all others to an end. God’s kingship is not a shared one; it is exclusionary. As one prophet book put it, “I am God, and there is no other” (Isaiah 45:22). 

God’s judgment upon the kingdoms of men is precisely to bring them down to size and expose them as nothing more than men claiming to be gods. “Lay terror upon them, O LORD; let the nations know they are but men” (Psalm 9:20). Amen! 

The fall of man-kings is proof that they are not godly men, but nothing more than men pretending to be gods! 

Let the fall of the false gods in history, the present, and our future serve as proof that God is God, that the Lord is Lord of all lords! Amen! Glory to God!

Following God over the kingdoms of men

God says that He brought His people out of Egypt to be their God, (here, here, here, here, etc), implying that not just the pagan gods of these societies, but the kings of Egypt themselves, were the false gods that men weren’t to follow. Indeed, it was always following these man-kings (who aren’t gods at all) that brought men into captivity and which was clearly a sin against God. 

“The people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They had worshiped other gods, and walked in the customs of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the Israelites, as well as in the practices introduced by the kings of Israel” (2 Kings 17:7-8).

We can only have one King

Those who want to hang on to man-kings (presidents, congressmen, etc) and walk in their ways have not yet found God, but are still clinging to their old gods. The prophet Hosea, referencing the first of the Ten Commandments, made it very clear that God was to be our only King. 

“Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no savior beside me” (Hosea 13:4).

Jesus Christ, of course, repeats this idea when He taught that “no one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other” (Matthew 6:24). And this deepens our understanding of the problem. For men who still cling to the notion that they can keep their man-kings cannot also serve God at the same time. Men who still love their man-kings and can’t admit that they are pretend-gods ultimately hate God, even if they see no conflict between the two. Unfortunately this is way too common in our society. “Look, I’m a Christian, but I like President Trump and I’m voting for him again…the other options are worse.”

Men need to choose between God or the false god-men who claim the title of kings for themselves and trick men into worshiping them. This is a one-or-the-other problem, not one where men can choose both. The prophets always made this clear. When Elijah approached the people, for instance, he gave them a choice: 

“How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him. But if Baal is God, follow him” (1 Kings 18:21). 

Joshua also makes it clear that men either choose God, or the false god-men and their false kingdoms. 

“Now, therefore, fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD. And if it seems evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods; For the LORD our God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed: And the LORD drave out from before us all the people, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land: therefore will we also serve the LORD; for he is our God” (Joshua 24:14-18). 

“Put away the gods” — Stop believing in man-kings who set up Egyptian systems of bondage and claim to be gods. 

“Choose you this day” — The choice has to be made. If men reject God, they will be ruled by tyrants. 

“Whom ye will serve” — The choice is between God or false kings, freedom or slavery. 

“He is our God” — Men are not gods. God is a “jealous God” and doesn’t want men to have god-kings for themselves, too. 

Conclusion

It’s time to wise up. God comes to destroy the kingdoms of men. They are not forever, even though they believe their militaries are “the most powerful in the world” and make them unstoppable. Our people need to stop thinking they can be saved, and that they can do any saving. Anyone who thinks that the kings of the earth represent God’s will have been fooled. Those men who take earthly power and lord it over other people have always merely pretended to be gods, or false benefactors as Jesus referred to them. By God destroying these social (dis)orders in the end, we know they’re only fakes.