This article was originally written as an academic article titled: “A Biblical Perspective on the Covenant Community’s Relationship to Earthy Governments“.
There are few things more preeminently on the mind of human societies than human government. The moment you have a community of individuals, the management of that community through channels of authority becomes their chief thought. The human obsession of ordering humanity is not a new development in history, but is an innate drive in the soul of the human made in the image of God, whom Scripture tells us is the high monarch of the universe. If the universe is, as Scripture describes it, ordered by tiers of authority, a human system which maintains that humans are the top-tier authority is destined for ruin. The Hebrew Bible follows the drama of two foundationally opposed rules of ordered human society: on the one hand YHWH’s creation order and the community which builds itself around His order, and on the other the warped human superstructure which assumes authority not granted to it. The Bible, as a whole, depicts YHWH’s covenant community as living under a parallel rule, existing both in and above earthly government.
The gulf between YHWH’s methods for ruling humanity and humanity’s methods for ruling itself is vast. The reason is because the key to ruling human societies is not primarily a question of method, but authority. In Scripture, YHWH is the cosmic King who grants authority, whereas His subjects are without the divine faculties to produce authority for themselves. For the purposes of this paper, let us use a metaphor. Imagine the gears on a bicycle, how they pair together, each transferring energy from on gear to another. Imagine that kinetic energy is authority. The authority is shared throughout the system of gears, but it originates from the bike chain. YHWH’s order can be imagined as the bike functioning as it ought to: from feet, to pedals, to chain, to gears. The order of earthly governments can be loosely imagined as removing the chain and leaning over to force the gears with one’s fingers. Both take advantage of the authority structure, but only one is capable of using it effectively as it was intended.
In the view of Creation Theology, the universe is like the bicycle with all its parts in order—perfectly calibrated for YHWH’s purposes. However, the bicycle analogy breaks down because it is far too mechanical. YHWH presides over His creation, not abstractly as a prime mover, but as a king ruling a kingdom. “The metaphor of God as King lies behind those instances where creation is described as occurring through God’s word of command ([Gen.]1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 24). The greatness of the monarch is shown in his or her ability to issue a command relative only to its outcome”.5 This means that God’s ability to cause a result through simply speaking a command, as we see in the Genesis creation account, demonstrates primarily His worthiness to rule as sovereign. Like many narrative themes in the OT, the primary intention of the narrative is to demonstrate and highlight the supreme authority of YHWH.
However, within God’s perfectly ordered reality, He predestined for there to be a divine hierarchy—the first set of gears turned by the chain of God’s delegated authority. The Bible is explicit that God wasn’t alone when He created the heavens and the earth. Before the stage is even set, there is already a host of characters, namely the “sons of God” or elohim (often traditionally rendered as “angels”). Although the sons of God don’t make their appearance in Genesis until chapter 6, God’s account of creation to Job is reason for reflection (Job 38:4–7).
The same elohim, or “host of heaven” or “divine council” which we read of later in the Hebrew Bible are God’s envoys or ambassadors, doing the will of God within His created order (2 Ch. 33:5; Dan. 8:10; Ps. 89:7). These elohim are not angels or humans per se, and it is certainly not some tricky language about the Trinity. “That the word Elohim was used as a plural of excellence can never be demonstrated, nor can it ever be proved that it hints even remotely at the doctrine of the trinity” (Foster 1887, 241 “The Old Testament Student”). Despite the general confusion surrounding elohim, the concept is indispensable helpful for uncovering the ANE imagination of the nature of YHWH’s created order (Ps. 82). The created order in the biblical narrative assumes that God delegates His authority to lesser creatures, whether spiritual (elohim) or physical (adam) in order to accomplish His purposes. This brings us to a crucial question: does God need His creatures in order for His will to be done? The answer is an emphatic no. “God doesn’t need a council. But it’s scripturally clear that he has one. The question is actually similar to another one: What does God need with people? The answer is the same: God doesn’t need people. But he uses them”.3 Like with Humans, God chooses to give responsibility to elohim within the created order.
But where does this awkward piece fit into the puzzle? According to Scripture, and ANE thought in general, the elohim were inseparably paired with national entities. The elohim were given to be administrators over human communities and nations (Deut. 32:8). God set the sons of God over the nations when they divided at Babel, not as a further judgement, but as a grace to the people, like giving them divine shepherds who would answer to God’s will and lead the people in Torah—i.e. divine instruction.
So from this analysis of authority structures in creation, we see that God created a universe which functions properly when these tiers of authority are drawing from their source: King YHWH. However, as we read on in Scripture it becomes clear that this perfect order did not hold—either in the case of human beings or among the elohim. Both parties fell into the disequilibrium. The damning shift came when both humans and elohim moved to grasp authority not allotted to them, and as a consequence “every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 3:5, 6:5, 11:3–4; Is. 14:12–15; Ez. 28:17).
The result of this disequilibrium is a warped system of authority, resulting in corruptions of the order God had intended for creation. Rather than relational intimacy and the rule of love (Gen. 3:8, 2:23), you have human management and coercion by violence (Gen. 11:3, 4:23–24). Rather than mutual provision and abundance (Gen. 1:29), you have poverty and economic imbalance (Gen. 3:17). Rather than the imagery of the garden (Gen. 1–3), you have the imagery of the urban center (Gen. 4:17–22).
However, YHWH’s ordered creation could not be unmade through rebellion (Prov. 16:3–4; Job 42:2), and in love for His creation He moved to restore humanity to Himself—i.e., back in rhythm with His created order. The way YHWH chose to go about the task of reintegrating humanity into His divine order was similar to how He went about creation—through delegating authority. In this case, He begins by delegating authority to the Patriarchs, establishing a covenant with Abraham.
Genesis 12:1–3 is clearly a pivotal text insofar as the book of Genesis is concerned. Heralding yet another new stage in God’s dealings with humanity, it is set against the backdrop of the primeval prologue (the Babel incident in particular) and fixes the agenda not only for the patriarchal narratives, but also for the rest of the Pentateuch and beyond1.
A covenant is, at its most basic, a relational pact between two parties. God does not force himself on Abraham—the deciding factor is Abraham’s faithfulness in obedience to YHWH (Gen. 26:4–5). God, in a way, comes alongside Abraham and partners with Him to accomplish His will in blessing the nations—which is God’s core agenda (Gen. 22:18). Although laws and statutes make up the body of covenant in the OT, they are not alien meteorites that fall from heaven, crushing weak humans and imposing themselves on people. Rather, they are “light”, “comfort”, and “delight”, as the Psalmist unabashedly praises (Ps. 119:18, 70, 105).
This is the fulcrum on which this Kingdom of God pivots, in both Old and New Testaments, and on which earthly governmental structures crumble: that human beings were made for God’s order whereas human orders were made to fix perceived problems. Human orders, whether it be the Babylonian Empire or the Coca-Cola Company, are only as successful as they are at holding back the waves of problems that come when human beings live counter to the way God intended the universe to function. They are reductionistic by necessity, mechanizing artificially organized bodies of individuals for maximized power and production at the expense of the divine image imprinted on the human individual.
Such reductionism is impossible within God’s order. It’s vision of human beings is irreducible exactly because they are made and energized by an irreducibly complex God. Despite the evident complexity of human brokenness, this did not discourage biblical writers from assuming a way back to God’s order within the context of the covenant community under the rule of YHWH. The method Scripture follows for solving the ills of society are twofold: 1.) by addressing the problems of the community as errors within the individual human heart, and 2.) by recognizing YHWH as their governing authority. In the first case, this is nowhere more aptly represented than in the pages of Hebrew Bible’s wisdom literature.
Jeremiah and many other biblical authors recognized, we have been affected by sin in the very core of our being, with the result being that in both our understanding and our desires, we incline toward rebellion and folly rather than wisdom, obedience to God, and righteousness….Wisdom plays a central role in restoring God’s order, in both the individual and society.2
This was the chief aim of such wisdom books as Provers, Job, and Psalms, to teach and instruct the individual in the order of YHWH within the context of the covenant community, even despite the corruption and sin rampant in the world. The way of wisdom, in the Hebrew Scriptures, was to follow God’s intended order and thereby to establish the health and wholeness of the community under God’s rule. A human society fully inline with the way of wisdom, as represented in wisdom literature, would be markedly different from the earthly machinations of earthly governments—not only because the individual was equipped with virtue and methods for thwarting sin in his or her life, but because YHWH would truly be their King.
A community with YHWH as King, even when still very far from the perfection of God’s order, can be wooed and coaxed toward his kingdom in small and seemingly street-level ways at first. In the case of Israel’s covenants with YHWH, scholars believe even the notion of covenant was commonplace in the ancient Near East. “The cultural pattern of covenant-making to which it [the Hebrew Bible] refers was broad and well-established” (Foster 2006, 37). Rather, it is more true to say that YHWH adopted a societal convention to relationally confer His plans to a human individual—and subsequently, a human community.
Scholar and Political Theologian Oliver O’Donovan comments on this mode of covenant governance in his book The Desire of the Nations, where He writes, “The cry Yhwh malak [YHWH is King!] carried with it….a reassurance about the international political order, that the God of Israel was in control of the restless turbulence of the nations and their tutelary deities and could safeguard his people”.7 O’Donovan illustrates a core truth which allows for a parallel society. It is this: God’s kingdom is not another human nation—it overshadows and transcends nations to the point that the covenant community need not fear earthly governments. Surprising to some, God does not compete with other nations and their patron elohim. Even in such cases as the plagues of Egypt (Exod. 7–12) and the conquest of the promised land (Josh. 1–24), YHWH is not competing against rival gods and nations, but revealing that “kingship belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations” (Ps. 22:28). “Yahweh’s intervention in this misrepresented process [the promise land campaigns] envisages testifying to the world that Yahweh, the God of Israel, is the One true and living God. At the same time it is also a warning to the nations that the establishment of the Kingdom of God annihilates whoever opposes it”.8
Since YHWH has His hand over earthly governments and holds them back or unleashes them as He wills, the covenant community sees that His authority is greater, and to run for shelter under the wings of another nation—as the wandering Israelites sought to do with Egypt—would be to abandon their place in the kingdom of God (Num. 14:4). Earthly governments are not a challenge or rival against God and His kingdom—they are at best scene dressing, or at other times the unwitting dupes of God’s larger plan. In these ways, the covenant community in the Hebrew Bible represents a vestige of God’s original order within the authority sphere of human beings on earth.
Upon this revolutionary foundation of a parallel society with pure hearts and YHWH as their King, the New Testament constructs a palace. In it, we see the fruition of the new covenant which Jeremiah prophesied: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God” (Jer. 31:33). God begins creation anew in a similar way as when he forged His first redemptive covenant with mankind. He bypasses all the earthly power-structures built to cope with and order sin and goes straight for the human individual. He does not entrust this new covenant community to the rebellious elohim as He had before, but provides for us the perfect Son of God, who is also Son of man. Through this new covenant, YHWH does not jettison the original order of the universe, but redeems it, calling those who believe and know his voice to enter into His eternal kingdom (Matt. 4:17, 5:17; Jhn. 10:27, 11:25, 15). This does not detract from the convictions of the previous covenant communities but builds on top of them, maintaining the idea that this new covenant community will be characterized by transtemporal life contrasting, and often conflicting, with a human world order incompatible with the kingdom of God. This new human society gathered around the foundational life of the kingdom of God, known as the Church, is an eternal community, meaning it is as present in momentary human life as it is in the eschatological climax we hope for.
In a holistic eschatology, the kingdom of God is a robust rather than thin concept. And, the person of Christ, rather than being a mystical reductive principle….is seen instead in the full reality of his holistic kingdom, bringing to completion the rich fullness of an inheritance that has been planned, promised, and proclaimed throughout the amazing story of Scripture (Blaising).
Within this holistic, present and eschatological kingdom, we see the reintegrating of humanity with its creator in the uniting work of the Savior. In Him we have a place in God’s new creation order (2 Cor. 5:17) and therefore naturally stand apart from the broken world order of earthly governments (2 Cor. 5:20; 1 Pet. 1:29, James 4:4). To be ““In Christ” is being in that community which shares his spirit and consequently lives out its faithfulness to his will”. 4 It is at this point we must objectively examine the contemporary interplay of Christ’s covenant community with earthly governments, and determine where these biblical truths have either been championed or hushed over.
While it would be easy to harangue the Church at large for not living up to its high calling, it is important to recall to mind that the Church is the bride of Christ (Rev. 19:7–9). The Church, both ancient and modern, deserves greater respect and adoration than many of her well meaning contemporary critics have granted her. In addition to this, we must also recall to mind that not every institutional body that calls itself a “church” is in fact the body and Bride of Christ (Matt. 7:15–21). Likewise, not every institution history has claimed as “the church” is the fellowship of believers living in the present kingdom of God which Jesus inaugurated. Rather, in the eyes of Scripture, “those who receive the proclamation of the Kingdom were viewed not only as the people who would inherit the eschatological Kingdom, but as the people of the Kingdom in the present, and therefore, in some sense of the word, a church”.6
It is this Church, the assembled new covenant community living under God’s rule in His new creation order, that is the object of our focus here. Although this community has always been imperfect and limited, its view of itself has always been a parallel society, an inbreaking of God’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven. This covenant community gives robust shape and life to the negative image of the prophets exhortations to the covenant community of their day, who failed to (Ez. 16:49; Amos 2:6–8; Is. 29:19–21). They practically implement reform to the sin-scarred society around them by turning the other cheek, going the extra mile, surrendering their extra cloak, and living life out of God’s palm in full knowledge that it is His world and He is their King (Matt. 5:38–41, 6:11, 25–34; Lk. 3:11). I do not take for my example the obvious manifestations of this in such historic institutions as the hospital, school, or even benevolence funds—though I do believe these things are worthy contributions to society by the Church. The best example of this healing force in society through the covenant community comes in small, individual, face-to-face demonstrations of God’s kindness through generosity and hospitality. Whether this is housing refugees in your basement, helping someone pay medical debt, or visiting and praying with a hospital patient, these small acts of love from the covenant community reveal it for what we have described it as above: a collection of individuals with pure hearts and YHWH as their King. It is from below looking up—beginning with the smallest unit of society and building organically outward in the order of God.
On the other hand, earthly governments are above looking down—beginning with structures, policies, and programs. While these artificial solutions for human suffering may help in some ways, they leave out the two essential variables for a functional human society in reality—the human heart and the supreme authority of YHWH. Earthly governments, by merit of dismissing the value of the human individual and the supreme authority of YHWH, hold themselves as their own supreme authority. This is as true now as it was with Babylon—no human power structure operates by human power alone, but relies on a higher tier of spiritual authority (Dan. 10:13; Eph. 1:21, 6:12; 1 Jhn. 5:19; Rev. 13).
Those under the banner of the kingdom of God recognize this governmental characteristic as belonging to greater spiritual principalities beyond the material facade. The understanding of the covenant community of the kingdom of God, regardless of the time in history, to align oneself with earthly governments is to forsake the governance of God and to ally oneself to a kingdom both earthly and demonic. It is to forfeit the way of wisdom, the way of God, and to adopt a humanly pragmatic system which dismisses the heart or God from having a seat at the table.
The fatal issue with this approach is, as we’ve already established in Creation Theology, God has ordered creation and human beings function in a very particular way, a way only He can teach. To return to my bicycle analogy, you can only go so far forcing the gears to move with your fingers, and you are destined to crash in the process. God has outlined and demonstrated exactly how society is meant to function within this cosmic order in the life, teaching, and authority of Jesus Christ. For contemporary evangelicals, this has drastic and relentlessly hushed over implications. For the sake of brevity, I will only feature a few in this paper: 1.) The obsessive fervor among professing Christians of every stripe in the west for government policy and legislation strongly hints at a disbelief that Christ’s teaching could have any real and serious impact on society. 2.) The aligning of oneself with a political party or with political ideologies one believes to be “godly” with neglect for one’s own personal godliness assumes impersonal systems and programs are nearer to God’s heart than one human’s loving service to another. 3.) In addition to this, the aligning of oneself with a political faction with the tacit belief that you are not participating in something with spiritual implications is in denial of both Scripture and orthodox Christian heritage. 4.) The lukewarm belief that by aligning ourselves with governmental or even humanitarian groups will produce the same outcome Christ desired to see in His Church through His life and teachings is a fatal compromise to the highly interpersonal and intimately relational community which gathers around the kingdom of God.
In each case, trust placed in policies, programs, and social systems are never without the neglect of both the value of the human heart for enacting change and the supreme governance of God. It would be advantageous to the contemporary evangelical church to reevaluate their own function within God’s created order and where earthly governments differ in the light of Scripture. At present a long heritage of privilege and prejudice stands between this particular body of professing believers and a realized existence in the life and rule of the kingdom of God for which they were created. However, hope is the hallmark of the kingdom of God, as YHWH extends His hand continually for those who still put their trust in the world jump-ship and place their faith on the only rock which will last—the rock on which the covenant community has always been built (Matt. 7:24; Phil. 3:20; Rev. 18:4).
Footnotes
- Baker, David W. and Alexander Desmond. Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch A Compendium Of Contemporary Biblical Scholarship. InterVarsity Press, 2020.
- Curtis, Edward M. and Brugaletta, John J. Discovering the Way of Wisdom: Spirituality in the Wisdom Literature. Kregel Academic, 2004.
- Heiser, Michael S. The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible. Lexham Press, 2015.
- Kaylor, R. D. Paul’s Covenant Community: Jew and Gentile in Romans. John Knox Press, 1988.
- Kessler, John. Old Testament Theology: Divine Call and Human Response. Baylor University Press, 2013
- Ladd, George E. A Theology of the New Testament. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1974.
- O’Donovan, Oliver. The Desire of the Nations: Rediscovering the Roots of Political Theology. Cambridge University Press, 1996.
