The Authority of Government

Review

Turn to Genesis 9:1-6.

When I began this series last week, my first objective was to ensure that we have a biblical worldview concerning the nature of man. Man has a sin nature. This reality is what makes government necessary today. Briefly, we considered what the world was like before human government. We saw that man was exceedingly wicked before God. Man was incredibly sophisticated, but he was also incredibly wicked. He did that which was right in his own eyes. To cleanse the earth of this evil, God sent the worldwide flood, but after the flood, He made some radical changes.

That is where we will continue today.

Message

Read Genesis 9:1-6.

As a daddy to four young children, I am amazed how quickly they grow up. It crosses my mind often how quickly these days are going by. Sometimes they get kind of long, but when I take a step back and analyze my life, then I see how my children age so quickly. With age comes change. As our children’s abilities grow, I as a parent increase their responsibilities and their independence. When my older kids were babies, I didn’t make them clean up their room. I did it for them. But now?! I expect them to clean up their bedrooms. But I also grant them greater independence than when they were younger. Those changes are a natural part of growing older in life.

There is a parallel to this in the Bible. In the first nine chapters of Genesis, we find that over time, God delegates more and more responsibility and more and more authority to mankind.

As the sovereign Creator and king over the earth, God put Adam in the Garden of Eden to “dress it and to keep it” - Genesis 2:15. He also told Adam and Eve to fill the earth, subdue it, and have dominion over it - Genesis 1:28. He granted them authority over the animals. Adam was given the responsibility of naming all of the creatures. They would take care of the rest of the earth on God’s behalf, but that was where the line of their authority was drawn. They could exercise authority over the animals and the rest of creation, but not over mankind. God would personally rule over man. That all changes in Genesis 9:1-6.

Right after the Flood, God gives Noah some new guidelines by which man would now live in the earth. Life on this planet was going to be forever changed.

Read Genesis 9:1-2.

All creatures would now have a respect for and a fear of human beings

Read Genesis 9:3.

Humans would not be limited to a vegetarian diet. They could eat meat now.

Read Genesis 9:4.

Humans could eat meat, but not the blood.

Notice how God is still ruling like a king over mankind? It’s no different than from when God spoke to Adam in the garden or to Cain after the murder of Abel. God’s saying, “here’s how things are going to be on earth. But then we come to verses five and six.

Genesis 9:5 (KJV 1900)

5 And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man.

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Require: to demand, to avenge

We see this usage elsewhere in Scripture:

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Deuteronomy 23:21 KJV 1900

When thou shalt vow a vow unto the Lord thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it: for the Lord thy God will surely require it of thee; and it would be sin in thee.

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Ezekiel 33:6 KJV 1900

But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.

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Ezekiel 34:10 KJV 1900

Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them.

Genesis 9:5 lays out the high value that God places on every human life. God was saying to Noah, “I will demand or avenge the life of every human being.”

Why? Why would God care so much about mankind like this when He just sent a worldwide flood that destroyed countless numbers of them?

Here’s why: because man is made in the image of God - Genesis 1:26-27.

Application: you are precious to God! Every human life is! Why? Because human beings are a totally unique part of God’s creation! They are made in His likeness in a way that no other part of creation is! So they are precious in His sight, no matter what skin color, hair color, or eye color that they are born with! God doesn’t judge how valuable you are based on your abilities. He judges how valuable you are based on the fact that you are made in His image. You are so precious to God that He sent His Son to die on the cross so that you could be gloriously saved from your sins!

Human life is so precious to God that God told Noah, “I will demand or avenge the life of every human being whose life is taken from them.”

If one human being murdered another, it didn’t matter how powerful the perpetrator was, it didn’t matter what title the criminal had, sin had to be judged.

So we see from verse five that justice must be delivered. God demanded it. But as God was speaking to Noah in verse five there was a question that remained unanswered. I could see Noah thinking to himself,

“That makes sense. This was a wicked world back before the Flood, so it makes sense that if any person kills another, than the blood of the victim will be avenged. But Lord, who is going to do this? Who will bring justice? I suppose you will do it, Lord?”

You see, up to this point in human history, God ruled over the earth and mankind was simply His caretakers. One commentator wrote:

Adam and Eve were to act as rulers in God’s stead, as His vice-regents over creation. God delegated to Adam and Eve dominion over the earth, so that they were to exercise authority over the animals. It was not authority over people, but it was authority over the earth and the environs and the creatures therein, over all of the lesser forms of divine creation. - RC Sproul

So in verse five Noah was probably expecting that God would bring judgement in a dramatic way against anyone who would dare lift their hand against another human being.

Don’t miss what God says in verse six.

Read Genesis 9:6a.

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Sheddeth: to pour out

Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament 2444 שָׁפַך

it is the common verb for describing the pouring out of a wide variety of materials. Thus, what is poured may be water (Ex 4:9; I Sam 7:6), broth (Jud 6:20), dust (Lev 14:41), or blood.

The Hebrew word has this picture of taking a basin of liquid and intentionally pouring it out. In context, God’s not talking about a basin of liquid, He’s talking about man’s blood - his life. Now look at verse six again.

Read Genesis 9:6.

God is saying, “whoever intentionally pours out man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.”

Now stop and think about this! This was something entirely new to Noah’s thinking. This was revolutionary to his perspective. It hadn’t been done like this before. Up until this point, any taking of human life was forbidden by God. Only God could take life because only God could exercise authority over mankind. It was God who declared that Cain was guilty and it was God that judged him. So when God told Noah that “by man shall his blood be shed”, this was a radical change.

This wasn’t something that a righteous man like Noah would even consider. For the first time, God was granting authority to human beings to exercise capital punishment for the worst of crimes. For the first time, God was granting authority to human beings to organize themselves, to setup laws, and to govern themselves so that they could lead a quiet and peaceable life. This was God’s authorization for self-government.

Upon this declaration, the law that governed mankind was forever changed. No longer would God, through the person of the Holy Spirit, “strive with man” and judge him for his sin. No longer would the conscience alone serve as the law by which man would be condemned by evil. No longer would God be the only judge of man’s sins against one another. From this moment, humans were granted the authority to govern not only the animals, but also themselves. - Battle For Freedom, page 49

Why is government God’s gift to mankind? Because here in Genesis chapter nine, He gave us collectively the authority to govern ourselves and to right the wrongs of this world. He gave us collectively the authority to restrain or to hold back our sin nature. He didn’t give us the authority to act with vengeance; He gave us the authority to execute justice.

For many years it has been said that “you cannot legislate morality.” That statement could probably be interpreted more than one way, but I think the essential meaning is that law cannot force anyone to become a good person. It cannot change the heart. That is true, but that does not make law ineffective or useless.

During a 1963 speech at Western Michigan University, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said these words:

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“While it may be true that morality cannot be legislated, behavior can be regulated. It may be true that the law cannot change the heart but it can restrain the heartless.”

Over the years, some well-meaning and sincere Christians have thought that since government can’t change the heart, there’s no reason for us to be involved in it. Some of these Christians argue that we should just focus on preaching the Gospel and not involve ourselves with politics. That’s how they frame it. Others go so far as to suggest that government is a wicked institution full of wicked people. Either way, their conclusion is the same: that Christians should not be involved in government.

Application: Church family, God gave mankind the authority to self-govern, right here in Genesis chapter nine. You can build a better case for self-government from this text than you ever can for the divine right of kings or for any other theory of government. That mandate for self-government has never been rescinded. It won’t be rescinded until Christ returns to this earth to setup His kingdom. Then, the Bible says, He will rule and reign with a rod of iron.

But until then, He has given us the authority, indeed, the duty, to govern ourselves so that justice will prevail and so that the sin nature might be held in check.

These are the biblical values upon which our country was founded.

These are the biblical values that birthed one of the freest countries on earth.

These are the biblical values that lead our Baptist forefathers to be involved in the founding of this country.

What has lead to the decline of America? What has brought about the demise of our country in recent years? No doubt, many things, but I would argue that chiefly it has been Christians stepping out of the public square and ceasing to be involved in the government of this land. As Christian influence has declined in the statehouse, biblical values have been forgotten, and freedom has been in decline.

So if you are discouraged about the condition of our government and land, don’t be. Don’t let it discourage you; let it motivate you. Go vote biblical values. Go do your most basic duty as a citizen, learn about who is running for office, learn what they believe, and go cast a vote for those that most closely adhere to biblical values. Go support those that believe in one nation under God. Even better, go run for office! It is ludicrous to think that the God who gave mankind the authority to self-rule would then turn around and say that Christians should have no part in it.

Since God has authorized this institution, it must serve the people. It is an imperfect institution, full of imperfect and sometimes downright wicked people, but that does not make the institution illegitimate. God authorized it and He is sovereign over it.

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Christian, do your part as a citizen to ensure that the authority of government remains under the authority of God.