Godless Government

Isaiah 3:1-9

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“For behold, the Lord GOD of hosts is taking away from
Jerusalem and from Judah support and supply, all support of
bread, and all support of water; (2) the mighty man and the
soldier, the judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder,
(3) the captain of fifty and the man of rank, the counselor and
the skillful magician and the expert in charms. (4) And I will
make boys their princes, and infants shall rule over them. (5)
And the people will oppress one another, every one his fellow
and every one his neighbor; the youth will be insolent to the
elder, and the despised to the honorable.

(6) “For a man will take hold of his brother in the house of his
father, saying: "You have a cloak; you shall be our leader, and
this heap of ruins shall be under your rule"; (7) in that day he
will speak out, saying: "I will not be a healer; in my house there
is neither bread nor cloak; you shall not make me leader of the
people."

(8) “For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen, because
their speech and their deeds are against the LORD, defying his
glorious presence. (9) For the look on their faces bears witness
against them; they proclaim their sin like Sodom; they do not
hide it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on
themselves.”
A mental shift has happened to a lot of Filipinos who have
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experienced working in other countries, which I believe was
something they never expected. Many Filipinos have
experienced firsthand governments that worked well. There
are governments especially in some of the most economically
advanced countries where government systems and services
simply work.

You have countries like Japan where transportation systems

are so well maintained and are always on time, that they make
our heads hang in shame when we compare them with our LRT
and MRT systems here. You have countries like Singapore
where the government bureaucracy are simply so efficient are
is relatively free of corruption, that we shake our heads
whenever we hear about the level of corruption in a lot of
government offices in our country. You have healthcare
systems like that in Canada that is able to provide free medical
care to every citizen and immigrant, and you can only cry out
in frustration at the inadequate healthcare that we provide our
countrymen, that we cannot even get for free. You have some
European countries where their government officials willingly
resign in shame when they get embroiled in some scandal, and
we rise in indignation in the shamelessness of some of our top
government officials who refuse to resign from their posts even
when they’ve already been exposed for corruption.
Overseas Filipinos cannot help but compare our government
with these governments in other countries where they worked.
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Because in some countries abroad, government simply work so
much better that ours. It has given birth to a sense of
dissatisfaction about the way our government works.

Furthermore, the comparative experience has revealed the

inherent hypocrisy in our country. In a lot first world
countries, their people are very secular in their worldviews and
perspectives. Their governments are founded on secular ideas
like liberal democracy and human rights. These ideas are
institutionalized in government in the way they protect these
rights. In comparison, our country prides itself in being the
first Christian nation in Asia. And yet, the Christian faith does
not seem to translate into godliness in governance.

We are revealed ourselves to be hypocrites in the way we

govern. We claim to be followers of Jesus and yet in
government, we act more like servants of the devil.

We have accepted that when a legal dispute between someone

very rich and someone very poor, we already know the poor
person will never have a chance to receive justice. A battery of
lawyers working for the rich man will use all available legal
strategies to avoid indictment or to get what he wants.
Hearings can be delayed. Charges can be drop through mere
technicalities. The lawyer of the other side can be bought.
Judges can be bribed. Favorable rulings come at a price.

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We have pretty much accepted that government projects will
always have as much as 30-40%, even as high as 60% given up
as kickbacks to government officials. We are no longer shocked
that there is corruption. It is all a question of ‘how much will
be stolen, and not IF money will be stolen at all.” That is a
given. A government official can enter into government
service a poor man, and leave it a multi-billionaire. And we still
call them “honorable.”

A huge percentage of our population has accepted the notion

that drug pushers are scums of the earth, and drug addicts are
not much better. In the eyes of many, they deserve to die. And
die they have been doing in the tens of thousands in the last 24
months, with no let up. And with not so much as a whimper of
protest from most people. The idea that these people are made
in the image of God may be seen as a big joke to these people.

But to people who truly love the Lord, to those who follow
Jesus the Messiah, we must appreciate all these things
differently.

These situation that simply cannot be tolerated. These are

situations where the church has to speak out and do something
so that our government may be brought back into conformity
with the will of God; for government to be restored as an
instrument for good, for justice and righteousness to prevail,
and so that peace, truth, equity may be upheld in society.
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Failing to do this, I fear that our country may be subject to

God’s judgment, in the same way that God brought judgment
to God’s people in Israel and Judah for their failure to live out
their faith in governing their nation.

Truth to Power

In a country where the government has become rotten to the

core, the church has a very important prophetic role to speak
truth to power.

Such is the role of the prophet Isaiah among the people of

Judah around 700 years before the coming of Jesus the Messiah.
Isaiah proclaimed the message of God at a time when God’s
people and the leaders were backsliding and had been turning
away from faithful obedience to the laws of God. Isaiah was
chosen by God to be his messenger at a critical time in the
history of the people of Israel.

You know, it must have been a great privilege to be used by

God as his prophet, to deliver God's pronouncements to his
people. But it was a huge responsibility and perhaps quite a
heavy burden. When God pronounces judgment on His people,
a prophet had this heavy burden to deliver news that no one
wanted to listen to or accept.
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People always want good news. We want to hear about

blessings, about how great our nation is, about how progressive
we are, about how fast the economy is growing. If ever we
listen to bad news, we’d rather that the bad news was
happening to other people far, far away, or to people we do not
like, or to people we feel deserve the bad fortune that has
befallen them.

No one want to hear bad news happening to themselves. But

that was precisely what Isaiah was called to do, to pronounce
God’s judgment on His people. He was the bearer of bad news
for the people in Judah.

During the first part of his ministry, Isaiah served under two
good kings, two powerful and righteous monarchs--Uzziah and
Jotham. And during the time of Uzziah and Jotham, there were
lots of good news. The nation of Judah held together and
expanded during the rule of these two kings. People became
relatively wealthy, the economy was good, there was nothing
to worry about with regards to threats from foreign powers.

And then, a third king came along. A bad king, Ahaz ascended
to the throne. He was young and unprepared to rule. And
Isaiah had to endure those years serving under such an
incompetent ruler.

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Judah was a monarchy during that time. Kings pass on the right
to rule to their sons. And often, they never had a chance to
really influence the choice of who will take over after they
died. They were simply not around to settle who takes control.
And in the worst cases, those who took over were not properly
prepared for the immense responsibility given them. They
were more interested in the power and the fringe benefits of
the position.

And I guess that is very much like our situation in our country
today. People aspire for the highest positions in government
not so much for the opportunity to do good, but for the
opportunity for personal gain. The higher the position, the
greater that opportunity.

And I guess that is the reason why God set a standard for the
nation's leaders. Because simply left to themselves, they will
abuse their power. And it is quite clear to God that whatever
happens to a nation depends on what their leaders do with the
responsibilities given them.

Listen to his passage in the Book of Deuteronomy:

Deuteronomy 16:18-20
18 “You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that
the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and
they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. 19 You
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shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you
shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise
and subverts the cause of the righteous. 20 Justice, and only
justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land
that the Lord your God is giving you.

God decreed that the possession of the land that God gave the
people of Israel was conditioned on justice and righteous rule
by the appointed leaders of the nation. The right to live and
inherit the land was conditioned on justice. On righteous
government.

Unfortunately, centuries after the written code was given to

God’s people, Judah failed to meet the requirement. Judah had
turned away from the Lord. They may have continued with
their religious ceremonies, their sacrifices to the temple, their
obligatory prayers, but the hearts of the people of Judah no
longer worshiped God. Worship became a mere formality.

The Philippines calls itself a Christian nation, majority of the

people call themselves Christians, millions go to church every
Sunday, but the very soul of the nation is more akin to the
works of the devil than of God.
We need to remember that a just and righteous government
comes from God. But it begins with the 'fear of the Lord.'

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Proverbs 8:13-16
13 The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance
and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.
14 I have counsel and sound wisdom; I have insight; I have
strength.
15 By me kings reign, and rulers decree what is just;
16 by me princes rule, and nobles, all who govern justly.

When a ruler departs from the 'fear of the Lord,' then evil will
be let lose by the one who holds power and authority. Along
with this is the pride and arrogance of the rulers, and the
expression of perverted speech. This government will shun the
counsel and sound wisdom of God, and therefore it will rule
without the justice and righteousness of God. God will not rule
by the through a godless government.

And this what happened in the case of Judah, when an ungodly

leader rose to the throne.

Consequences of a Godless government:

In the case of Judah, during the time of Isaiah, there were

dreadful consequences to the assumption of a godless leader in
government.
First of all, as we read in our passage, God withdrew support
for the people, in terms of provisions for basic needs such as
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food and water.
Isaiah 3:1 - For behold, the Lord GOD of hosts is taking away
from Jerusalem and from Judah support and supply, all support
of bread, and all support of water;

God promised that the people were to be denied the basic

necessities for life. There would be famine and drought.

Also, respected people that held a society together were not to

be found.

Isaiah 3:2-3
(2) the mighty man and the soldier, the judge and the prophet,
the diviner and the elder, (3) the captain of fifty and the man
of rank, the counselor and the skillful magician and the expert
in charms.

The military, people in the judiciary, and people whose role is

to tell the truth--the prophets (perhaps like the media) and
diviners and elders who give advice to the king; captains of 50
and men of rank, or people who have authority and execute
the law -- all these people will be absent when you have a
godless government.
I guess the reason for this is that when you have a bad
government, good people are either discouraged to continue
serving, or are taken out by the more ambitious and the more
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corrupt.

As a result, the government will be mismanaged.

Isaiah 3:4 - And I will make boys their princes, and infants
shall rule over them.

Instead of respectable leaders, what Judah had were 'boys' as

princes. Young, inexperienced leaders who have no experience
in governance had taken control.

With no effective government in place, lawlessness ensued.

Isaiah 3:5 - And the people will oppress one another, every
one his fellow and every one his neighbor; the youth will be
insolent to the elder, and the despised to the honorable.

As a result, people oppressed one another. One of the primary

roles of government is to ensure just relations among people.
That no one takes advantage of or oppress another. When the
government cannot rule justly, when government cannot
implement rules that prevent people from violating the rights
of others, they evil and wicked people will have free reign in
oppressing others.
Young people became insolent to the elder; the despised
became insolent to the honorable. Respect for the wisdom of
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the elder people in the community, respect for proven
traditions and honorable practices were thrown out the
window. Insolence, disrespect, cursing and vulgar language
became the norm.

All these sound very familiar, right. They all sound so close to
home. And that tells us that just as it was so easy for the gains
of righteous kings to be thrown out the window with the
assumption to power by an unrighteous one, so it is easy for a
godless government to negate all the gains of previous
governments.

In other words, we who choose our leaders cannot be too

careful about how we choose out leaders. We get the
government we deserve. If we are not careful, we may end up
in the same lot as what isaiah warned Judah will happen to its
people.

The nation will become so ungovernable that even authority

in families and households breakdown.

Isaiah 3:6-7
(6) For a man will take hold of his brother in the house of his
father, saying: "You have a cloak; you shall be our leader, and
this heap of ruins shall be under your rule"; (7) in that day he
will speak out, saying: "I will not be a healer; in my house there
is neither bread nor cloak; you shall not make me leader of the
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people."

Families will have no one to take the responsibility to lead.

Households cannot support itself. Good people will refuse to
take leadership positions in government.

Isaiah warned all these would happen, and they did happen
because the people of Judah had turned away from God

Isaiah 3:8-9
(8) For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen, because
their speech and their deeds are against the LORD, defying his
glorious presence. (9) For the look on their faces bears witness
against them; they proclaim their sin like Sodom; they do not
hide it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on
themselves.

When the whole system and culture of governance collapses,

when injustice becomes the norm, then evil will take over
completely.

It happened to Israel, it happened to Judah when God no longer

reigned supreme in the hearts of people. Let us not delude
ourselves that in our country we can escape the same kind of
judgment, perhaps even worse, if we keep being hypocritical
not only in our personal lives, but also in the life of the nation.
We cannot go on pretending to be a Christian nation, and yet
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being godless in government.

Justice and righteousness are the basic minimum in

government. This is what God looks for.

So I believe that we as a church, in a democratic country such

as ours, need to be more bold in calling out the government
when we see it veering away from the justice and righteousness
that God requires. Because who else, but we who have been
entrusted God’s Word, know what is in the heart of God for
how governments are supposed to be run.

If we fail to do this, then we are partly to blame for the failures

of the government. If we keep silent and fail to speak out, then
it would be as if we have given our ascent to corruption, to
injustice to impunity committed by government leaders. If we
do not loudly proclaim the will of God in society when His will
is being wantonly violated by those who are in power, then we
share the blame when the consequences of our tolerance of a
godless government begins to eat away and destroy the very
soul of the nation.

We need to pray that God will give His Church the strength of
conviction to speak out in a loud voice against the injustice and
unrighteousness in government. We need to pray also that the
Lord will give us the courage to act on these convictions to be
a prophetic presence before those who are in power.
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In all of these, may the Lord’s name be glorified.