Anarchy, the Judges, God's Government

GOD'S POLITICAL SYSTEM

Throughout the hundreds of years the Bible was written, only 2 eras followed God's design for government.

The first was the era from Moses to Samuel.  During this 200 year period, Israel had no king except God. The form of government was called a Theocracy. 

Beginning in the desert with Moses, Israel set up a tent for God called a tabernacle.  Whenever Israel moved from place to place, the tabernacle was set up in the center of the camp, which was where kings usually set up their tents.  But there were no kings in Israel because God was their king and that made Israel a Theocracy.

Because there were no kings in Israel's Theocracy, there were no standing armies and no armory to speak of.   As a nation, Israel was supposed to depend upon God for protection and direction.  This left Israel incredibly vulnerable, so from time to time, neighboring nations invaded, took cities, stole crops and cattle and did whatever they wanted.

Israel saw this as a sign that the local gods were not pleased, so they intensified their dedication to these gods only to find things getting worse.  Eventually, when they realized that the local gods were incapable of or unwilling to helping them out, they turned to God who then helped them by raising up a military leader (called a judge) who led them into battles that would help deliver them from the foreign pillages. 

After battles were won, the people served God for the life of the military leader/judge.  When the judge died, the people went back to the gods of the past.  And when the judge died, Israel was without a central leadership until once again a new deliverer would be needed, and was propelled into leadership. 

In this Theocracy, prophets and priests were crucial, because they were God's messengers who gave people and the nation whatever message God had for them.  On the other hand priests took care of the tabernacle, and eventually (in Samuel) took a more prophetic role by speaking for God.  Compared to kings, prophets and priests had very little power.

After about 200 years of this, for the sake of personal survival, Israel began copying the nations around them in 2 consecutive steps:

1.  In Samuel (a priest), they began looking for continuous leadership - expecting that his sons would take his place when he died.  Even Samuel himself accepted this unspoken and unwritten deal by planning and preparing his sons to follow him in leadership.

2.  Realizing Samuel's sons were neither good leaders, nor capable of protecting them from ever growing threats on every side, the people demanded that there would be a king chosen who would raise up a standing army with real weapons that were designed to kill people.  Their neighbors were already building their armies under their kings, leaving Israel legitimately vulnerable and scared.  The people saw the need for the strength that only a king and his trained army could give.  And so after 200 years of Theocracy, Israel started a Monarchy with their first king who was Saul.  And when Saul became their king, God's choice of government ended.

In Anarchy and Christianity, Jacques Ellul points out that this 200 year time period best reflects what we would today call Anarchy which is not the type of Anarchy described by today's conservative radio political blasters.  The Anarchy that Ellul describes is closer to that of the type that flourished in Europe and Russia and somewhat with  many of the U.S. workers almost 100 years ago.

This type of Anarchy seeks to get rid of every part of the political state (whether it is Communist, Capitalist, or Socialist) and give power of political decision making to the people. 

During the time of the Judges, the Bible says that there were no kings, so everybody did what was right in their own sight.  Ideally speaking, during that 200 years, God was their king, with prophets serving as messengers and priests serving as God's house servants; but in reality most of the time, people ignored God and thus were on their own, living very closely to a pure Anarchy.

When the people turned to a king in order to protect themselves, the Bible makes it clear that this was a rejection of God's form of government for His people.  Nevertheless, even though it was not God's will to change governments, God gave in to the people and supported Israel's decision, letting them know that having a king was not the ideal government that they all thought it would be.

This whole episode in the Bible tells me two things:

1.  God wants us to trust Him more than standing armies, nuclear weapons and a strong state.    This is something very few people of today would allow, agree with, or put into place; even though it is in the Bible.

2.  God will support and work with most governmental systems we put in place.  After some warnings and some hurt feelings, God blessed and supported the Monarchy Israel wanted.