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You will never respond to authority the same after this!
I speak from experience.
This post will be the conclusion of the conversation that we began in the previous post:
This Will Change How you View Authority.
Check it out, if you haven’t already!
It includes valuable information that might help you better understand this article.
I’ll wait for you to do that…
Are you ready to continue?
Wonderful!
Let’s learn
Why God Wants us to Honor Authority!
There is one story in the Bible that perfectly displays how God wants us to handle worldly authority.
This story begins in Exodus 5:1-23.
God sent Moses to ask Pharaoh for permission to worship in the wilderness, along with all of the Hebrew slaves.
Pharaoh declined the request and because they had the nerve to ask for such a thing, he made the labor even more strenuous than it already was!
God sent Moses to ask for permission,
However, God didn’t ensure that Pharaoh would actually give permission.
Instead, pharaoh decided that materials would no longer be provided for the slaves to work with.
Now the Hebrews would have to meet their daily brick quota, after gathering the materials necessary to make the bricks.
It only got worse for them…
Even Moses was confused!
Why would God sent them to ask for permission if God wasn’t going to soften the pharaoh’s heart and make Pharaoh give permission?
If we continue reading in Exodus, we will notice a disheartening pattern.
From Exodus 6 to 13,
God continues to send Moses to ask Pharaoh for permission and Pharaoh continues to decline the request.
10 times, Pharaoh’s heart turned hard concerning this request.
Moses keeps asking and Pharaoh keeps declining.
This causes me to ponder…
Why is God so determined for the Hebrews to get permission from Pharaoh?
God is God!
He has the power to help the Israelites escape into freedom!
They don’t even need the permission of an obviously pagan and cruel leader!
Why would God even want His people to honor a ruler who doesn’t worship Him and has tortured His people for 400 years!
God would still get the glory if He were to shut the eyes of the Egyptians, so His people could have time to escape!
This would have saved a lot of time and heartache.
Why did God want His people to receive permission to leave Egypt?
The answer is quite beautiful!
God was not just teaching Egypt a lesson, He was teaching His people something fundamental.
The LORD is now leading a multitude of people, who had been polluted by the pagan traditions and beliefs of the Egyptians for generations.
The Hebrews are not acquainted with God.
They don’t know Him.
The stories of what God has done through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are not stories that the Hebrews kept close.
God was not just trying to show Egypt who the TRUE GOD really was…
He was trying to reintroduce Himself to His people by giving them a chance to see His character.
Sure God is God and He could sneak His children into safety…
However, He would be building an unstable foundation and setting a poor example for His nation!
God was showing His people that He doesn’t advocate for sneakiness or deceit,
He provides where we honor!
The LORD was teaching His people how to honor ALL authority!
God also showed them that they only need to honor the authority and trust Him to handle the opposition.
Not one moment of this story was a waste of time!
This was a dedicated Father’s way of showing His children what is in His heart!
The children of Israel needed to see that God wasn’t going to just help them slide under the radar, but He was going to help them face adversity and honor authority.
If God helped them sneak away and later asked His people to honor Him as their ultimate authority, they would have no idea what that would look like.
They would do what Adam and Eve did and hide their sin from Him.
God wanted to change how they responded to authority!
He knew that if the Hebrews saw that they could face authority with honor and courage while God handled any injustice that happened as a result of their honor, they would also learn to trust that God would fight their battles if they choose to obey Him.
“The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.””
Exodus 14:14 NKJV.
God was developing the faith of His people!
They no longer had to fight authority or run from it!
He was trying to help them understand that He is their ultimate authority!
God wanted them to remember that He will defend them from any authority on earth because He is the Authority over all authority!
In Exodus, notice how God was the one who hardened Pharaoh’s heart in multiple instances!
God tells Moses this in Exodus 7:3-5.
“And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh will not heed you, so that I may lay My hand on Egypt and bring My armies and My people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.””
Exodus 7:3-5 NKJV.
God was showing His people that He has authority over the hearts of even the most powerful leaders of the world!
God is the Authority over ALL authority!
He wanted His people to get used to this.
If they understood that God is truly God over authority, they could fearlessly face any leader with honor and respect, because they would know that it is God who they will be answering to!
God taught them this in the beginning and His character has not changed throughout history.
For example,
In Luke 2:41-52, we see that Jesus is aware of His responsibility to God, yet He still placed Himself under His earthly parent’s authority.
“His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast. When they had finished the days, as they returned, the Boy Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem. And Joseph and His mother did not know it; but supposing Him to have been in the company, they went a day’s journey, and sought Him among their relatives and acquaintances. So when they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking Him. Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. So when they saw Him, they were amazed; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously.” And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” But they did not understand the statement which He spoke to them. Then He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them, but His mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”
Luke 2:41-52 NKJV.
It was in the seasons of submission that Jesus grew in wisdom!
Another example is when Jesus grew older and still chose to submit to His mother!
“On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece. Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, “Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.” And they took it. When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom. And he said to him, “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!” This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.”
John 2:1-11 NKJV.
He honored His earthly authority without disobeying God!
This is a big deal because as Christians, we struggle to honor some authority figures while still honoring God’s word.
Some authorities contradict the ordinances of God and lead us to frustration.
Jesus shows us that we can honor God while honoring earthly authority, if honoring God’s word is what we truly are seeking to do!
God showed us honor in the Old Testament and in the New Testament!
He remained the same throughout history, so we can be confident that…
The God who delivered His people in Exodus,
is the SAME GOD who walks with us today!
““For I am the Lord, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.”
Malachi 3:6 NKJV.
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
Hebrews 13:8 NKJV.
““God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”
Numbers 23:19 NKJV.
This is why God wants us to honor authority!
God not only wants honor to be established in our character but He wants us to trust Him as our ultimate authority; so that worldly authority doesn’t scare us.
It’s not easy to ask for permission.
To think that your requests will be denied and your plans shattered, is discouraging.
It’s difficult to allow people to instruct or correct you and be in control of your decisions.
I know, it’s frightening.
It doesn’t make sense to let questionable authority determine your future.
God never asked us to do what makes sense.
He asks us to trust Him, regardless of your understanding of the situation.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.”
Proverbs 3:5-6 NKJV.
This doesn’t mean that God wants us to mindlessly go through life…
It means that He wants us to be mindful of His authority over all of the authority that we see in the world.
We do not need to fear what authority figures, leaders, bosses or parents will do!
We can trust that God has authority over our worldly authority and He is faithful to fight on our behalf for what is right!
We only need to hold our peace and continue to honor, as God asked us to!
The LORD will handle the rest.
Photo by Alena Shekhovtcova
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
