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Judge, Lawgiver, King


          For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; it is he who will save us. (Isaiah 33:22) 

          When the Founding Fathers sought a model on which to base the revolutionary, new government of the United States, I’m told that they looked to Old Testament Scripture. This may not be a verse they used but it could well have been. And since they recognized that man is inherently sinful and prone to evil, they set up their three branches of government to have the ability to check and balance the others.
          Unfortunately, if you reject God as the true judge, lawgiver or king, what naturally usurps that role is the government. That’s not to say that the government doesn’t have the responsibility to provide leadership in these three areas. As I noted, that is precisely what the Founding Fathers designed. But when you remove God from the equation, the #1 check and balance against abuse of power by the government is also removed. 
          Another negative effect of removing God is that if the people acquiesce to the removal (or if they are the ones demanding it) then there is no higher authority to which people can appeal. The government becomes the nation’s god. 
          That means that every time a new leader comes along, they naturally look to that leader to solve every problem and to be what they imagine God would be if God existed (even though they have rejected God.) In short, they look for a messiah. There are rules beyond “Thou shalt solve all our national woes” that this messiah is expected to follow. The top two seem to be:
          “Thou shalt abide by our philosophical perspective and maintain our worldview.”
          “Thy behavior shalt be polished, refined, and debonair in public. (Not like us.)”
           But there’s a problem. When you remove an organ, or a limb, some other parts of the body have to take up the slack or a replacement/prosthetic must be put in its place. They never seem to be quite as good as the original. Keep that in mind as we head into election season. We already have a Judge, Lawgiver, and King. What we elect is not designed to take His place. When we have a problem with the way things are going in our country, He is the one to whom we should address our concerns.

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