“Human
Rulers and Corruption”
A Sermon
on Ecclesiastes 5:8-9
December
8, 2002
by Rev. Stephen C.
Magee
TEXT: Ecclesiastes 5:8-9
8 If you see
the oppression of the poor, and the violent perversion
of justice and righteousness in a province, do not marvel at the matter; for
high official watches over high official, and higher officials are over them. 9
Moreover the profit of the land is for all; even the king is served from the
field.
God's purpose in government revisited
This morning I was reading through
Proverbs 26. This helpful chapter of
divinely inspired wisdom tells us about the fool, the lazy man, the gossip, and
the flatterer. That seems to cover all
of us fairly well. The fact is that we
are sinners. God has determined to give
all of us sinners, other sinners who will be over us in both the church and the
state, for the purpose of restricting sin.
Understand?
Two weeks ago we talked about one
problem with sinful human rulers - arrogance.
Last week we investigated the center of this cycle, where we bowed
before the almighty Ruler of us all, and considered His perfect work for us in
Christ. Now today on our way out of this
cycle we find the parallel passage to that of two weeks ago in our look at the
limitations of human rulers. Here we
find that human rulers, and human governments, in the church as well as the
state, are not only arrogant, they are also corrupt.
Before we proceed further to examine
what the passage says about human corruption, I want you to remember that
rulers are a gift of God for your good.
This is what the Apostle Paul instructs us in Romans 13:4. While rulers are certainly sinners, so are
we. In this sinful world, government -
even arrogant and corrupt government - is better than anarchy, and we must
submit to and honor governments and governors, except where they would try to
command us to sin against God. In that
case, we must follow God, still facing the consequences that come from the
foolishness and evil of human rulers.
But governors, and governments, remain a good gift from God.
But we should point out this: that
while governments are good gifts, that make very bad
saviors. And this is a
point that many need to hear today, who are counting on the power of
government and the reformation of rulers to be their salvation. They are all responsible to God for their
actions, but they are not God.
Oppression of the poor by those who rule
and violent perversion of justice and righteousness in a province
Our text this morning speaks
immediately of the corruption of human rulers.
It refers to the oppression of the poor by those who are powerful. It also speaks literally of the "robbery"
of justice and righteousness in a province.
A province seems to be mentioned that we might think of some low level
of government in a place that escapes the attention of the broader public. In that little place there is oppression that
is taking place. There ought to be
justice performed in the courts of power.
There ought to be righteousness happening by those who have been given
by God to rule the people. But instead
justice and righteousness have been robbed from the people.
Let's be clear about one thing right
away. God does not like this. Let nothing else in this passage or in my
words lead you to the erroneous thought that somehow God winks at the
corruption of rulers, and that it is OK when the rich and powerful abuse the
poor and the weak. Nothing could be
further from the truth. The Scriptures
are full of the words of God on this matter.
God hates injustice and oppression, and He will hold rulers accountable
for the way that they abuse those who they are to watch over.
Do not marvel at the matter. WHY NOT?
With a true biblical awareness of God's heart for the
oppressed, it seems very puzzling to immediately confront the one instruction
for us given in this passage. God says,
"Do not marvel at the matter."
God says that we should not be surprised - we should not be knocked off
course when we see oppression, injustice, and unrighteousness among rulers.
This may seem like a surprising
instruction, but I think that it is a most important and timely instruction for
us this morning. We need to ask
ourselves the obvious question: "Why not?" Why should we not marvel when we see evil
among rulers in the church and the state?
The text goes on to give two interesting answers to that question.
Higher officials
The first answer is given at the end
of verse eight: "... for high
official watches over high official, and higher officials are over
them." There are two ways to think
about this verse. One way is to suppose
that Solomon is drawing our attention to the fact that the corruption exists
not only at the level of the local province, but all the way up the chain of
command. If the verse is understood in
this way, the reasoning would seem to be something like this: Do not marvel when you see corruption in low
level officials, because the whole system is corrupt, and higher officials who
are themselves sinful and corrupt are watching over lower officials, and still
higher officials are watching over them who have the very same problem.
While this is certainly the case, I
believe that there is a second and complementary way of viewing the verse which
gives a more positive reason for not being surprised or knocked off course by
the reality of sinful corruption among rulers.
Here it is: In every system of government there is at least some recognition
of the problem of evil, which causes rulers and others who design systems of
government to put in place some system of oversight, whereby corruption is
actually discouraged in some measure, as higher officials which over lower
level officials, and are themselves observed by those who are above them. In this way you need not think that you need
to personally be the watchdog over all potential corruption in human government
throughout the land. Sinful human beings
watch over sinful human beings who are also watching over sinful human beings,
and through all of this sin is indeed restrained to some degree.
This is certainly the case in the
directives given for church government in the New Testament. Ministers and churches are subject to the
decisions of ministers and churches in larger geographic regions who gather
together to correct error and to encourage right thinking and action (Acts
15). The records of this church are
reviewed every year, and we are corrected on matters small and large as necessary. This is most helpful. In fact, systems of church government that
depart from these principles of necessary biblical oversight are asking for
trouble.
A built-in limit to oppression: The king
needs to eat too.
A second answer to the question of why we should not
marvel at the corruption of rulers comes in the ninth verse. There is a natural boundary to oppression
that is built into the world by God's good providence. The king is found to be dependent upon the
lowest field hand. The king needs to eat
too. He can only oppress his people so
much. It would not be wise for him to
continually cut off the hands that pick his produce. After a ruler has destroyed his people, he is
the king over a damaged and weak nation.
After corrupt pastors and elders have hurt the flock, they may find
themselves shepherding no one.
In this world of limitations, it is
not only our good efforts that produce limited results,
thankfully our evil plans are also subject to the problem of futility. We run into barriers that restrict our
ability to accomplish evil. One of those
barriers is that we can only oppress the poor so much before we lose the
benefit of their services, and find ourselves weaker as a result of our
destruction of the weak.
The Most High
Ruler
Before proceeding to some
applications for us today, there is one other point from the text that should
be noted. There is a Ruler above all
other rulers in church and state. He is
God. He is the Most High of the rulers,
and every ruler must answer to Him.
"The Most High" - that is "God" may in fact be the
meaning of the plural at the end of the eighth verse, where our translation has
"higher officials." Even if
the point is not to refer to God specifically in that verse, there is no
question that the point is correct that God is the one who gives us rulers for
our good, and rulers must answer to God for the way in which they rule. In the case of church rulers, this is well
stated toward the end of the New Testament Book of Hebrews:
Hebrews
13:17
Obey
those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls,
as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with
grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.
The
One that they must give account to is the Most High God, who rules over all.
Application for here and now concerning
human government
This understanding of God's
sovereign and ultimate rule leads us into some very important and timely
considerations:
First, human government, while a great
gift of God, is not worthy of your ultimate trust, nor will it ever
be. It is worthy of your submission and
your honor - Yes... normally, but not of your ultimate trust. We sometimes pretend that the process of
cleaning up human governments is a matter of simply getting rid of one bad
apple. But, since the Fall
of humanity, sin is in the world, and while governors restrain sin, they
themselves are afflicted with the same disease.
Your ultimate trust must be in the Lord our God, and in the Word of His
promise. Your undefiled hope and
expectation is not in the gradual or speedy reform of human government, but in
the resurrection of the dead.
Second, human government, while a
great gift of God, is not worthy of your ultimate affection or attention,
nor will it ever be. Again, it is worthy
of your submission and your honor - Yes... normally, but not of your ultimate
affection and attention. Remember that
your citizenship is elsewhere. You are a
part of a world that is coming into being, a world whose Builder and Maker is
God, a world that shall not be destroyed.
Your ultimate affection and attention must be for the Most High Ruler,
our Sovereign God and King, the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is especially important for us
to realize as our nation moves toward war.
There is great temptation at a time of preparation for battle, or in the
thick of our involvement in some international conflict, to be completely
distracted by the corruptions of this world, and so to be knocked off course
from the important considerations of the
As one example of this, remember
that from the 1740s to the 1770s, the people of this region in which we live
seemed to be consumed with spiritual concerns and thoughts of eternal
truth. This period is called by
historians "The First Great Awakening." But a significant distraction was growing in
the 1770s that eventually became the conflict that we know of as "The
Revolutionary War." By the time the
fighting was over, our region settled into a pattern of extremely spotty church
attendance. I would submit that the
truth of these verses would have been good for Christians of that day to
carefully consider. "Do not marvel
when you discover corruption in the person of the King himself or in the
officials that he sends to enforce the decrees of his government." It is too late for them to gain that insight,
but it is not too late for you who gather here today.
To state the point more generally,
"Do not let the rise and fall of political movements distract you from the
pressing concerns of the progress of the
If distraction and ungodly worldly
priorities are a special danger when our nation is called into an international
conflict, remember that this is not the only thing that causes us to be
distracted from our callings. Anything
that takes us away from the Lord's Word, the Lord's Worship, the Lord's
Sacraments, the Lord's People, the Lord's Gospel, the Lord's
You need not have a looming military
campaign for this condition to take place.
In fact, every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas, there is a great
danger that the people of God can be knocked off course in the midst of
cultural "religious" celebrations.
We can so easily find ourselves overwhelmed by worldliness. We need to be on our guard, and seek a steady
heart with godly priorities, even as our nation moves toward winter holidays of
various flavors.
How Does Christ Reign?
Some 2000 years ago a baby was
born. He is God-Most-High-With-Us,
Immanuel. He is the Most High Ruler of
rulers today. He is reigning and He
shall reign. His pathway to glory was
the pathway of the cross. He tells us
that anyone who follows Him must pick up his cross - they must live the life of
self-denial to the glory of God. This
Great King Jesus Christ has ascended on high, and uses all His powerful
resources in giving His church the Holy Spirit, and in governing all His
creatures and all their actions in such a manner that we might go the way of
the cross in this life, following our now-exalted King.
His reign is not in the way of human
rulers and authorities. His reign is the
reign of the cross by the power of the Spirit through churches filled with
repentant sinners. His reign may seem to
lack sufficient power. The cross does
not look very powerful to the observer, but it is in fact the very power of
God. The reign of Christ does not look
very powerful when you look at the rulers of the state and even the rulers of
the church, and you see oppression, unrighteousness, and injustice. But when the people of God are brought to live
faithfully under such conditions, not marveling at human corruption, but
marveling at the mercy and power of God, then the powerful victory of faith is
displayed to the world. And this is the
reign of Christ among us.
Many people miss this. Many are seduced by the flashier armor of
worldly powers and concerns. But a day
is coming when the power of the Most High King will be unmistakable. He is coming again to judge the living and
the dead. His standard of judgment is
this same way of the cross that we are instructed to follow - to obey. We learn this in Second Thessalonians 1 where
the apostle Paul tells the church that when Christ returns to judge, He will
take vengeance "on those who do not know God, and
on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2
Thessalonians 1:8). The gospel is the
gospel of the cross. We need to obey the
gospel of the cross.
Who is this King who died on a cross
and will come again in glory? He is a
Ruler who cannot be bribed. He requires
no system of checks and balances to keep Him in line. He does not need the produce of the field
hand in order to stay alive. He lives
and reigns forever by the power of an indestructible Spirit. He reigns now, and shall forever reign
without any corruption whatsoever.
There is no person in this nation or
any place throughout this world who can safely ignore
Him. There is no one anywhere who can
safely ask King Jesus to stand in line behind some other powerful nation,
ruler, program, or priority. He is Jesus
Christ. He is the Most High God. He is the King of Glory. Give Him your ultimate trust, your ultimate
affection, and your ultimate attention, and do not marvel or be distracted from
Him when you see or experience the corruption of human rulers.