Introduction
Deep debt to David VanDrunen: Politics after Christendom: Political Theology in a Fractured World
Review
As we survey the Scripture, we see the Spirit bearing witness to at least four characteristics of government:
- Legitimate – government/ the state has a right and obligation from God to carry out its proper work, which is to promote justice.
- Provisional – Government is set in place for a limited time and purpose until something greater arrives. Human government has an…ahem…problematic history.
- Common – It is God’s will that governments wield authority for the benefit of the entire population, and not just one particular group.
- Accountable – A government should govern people of various and all religious convictions, but that isn’t to say it ought to be morally malleable, catering to the majority opinion etc. Government is accountable to the Creator who defines justice.
OK, so that’s our review of a survey of the Scripture on government. But let’s drill down a little bit and ask some questions: Why do we say that the governments of the world are under God? Is there a list of what they’re required to do and, if so, where are these terms spelled out? We know that there have been various covenants between God and his people throughout much of history, in which he lays out the direction? But is there a covenant between God and the world?
List the various biblical covenants and their locations
- Noahic
- Abrahamic – Genesis 12
- Mosaic – Exodus 20
- Davidic – 2 Samuel 7
- New – Jeremiah 31
The Noahic Covenant: Genesis 8:20 – 9:17
Read – Have people read on their own
Background –
Description: The Noahic covenant is a covenant of common grace that preserves nature. The other covenants God is laying out the tracks toward eternal life for His elect people. In the Noahic covenant he is blessing the world by preserving it.
Three Qualities of the Noahic Covenant
Universal – applies to all of humanity: It involves Noah and his sons/families and offspring – the only people alive at the time; every creature (8:9,10); and the whole earth (8:22; 9:11, 13)
Preservative – not toward the end of ultimate salvation but to sustain and manage the world – 8:21,22; 9:11; 9:15. Just think of what it doesn’t promise. It doesn’t change the human at his center.
Temporary – as long as the earth remains – 8:22 (2 Peter 3:10-13)
So it’s important to distinguish the Noahic covenant from the others. The others are toward the end of eternal salvation and point toward the final age, are for the people of God; the Noahic covenant is for all humanity.
Three Big Terms
- Humans are to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth
- Humans are authorized to eat animals, in addition to plants; though they can’t eat the animal with lifeblood
- There is a responsibility to enact retributive justice. Lex Talionis
Compare this to the Mosaic covenant, and something jumps out at you: this is a thin set of rules. VanDrunen calls it a “modest ethic.”
But even though the framework is very simple, let’s put on our thinking caps and consider what activities will be involved in carrying out this “modest ethic.”
Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth: spreading out, moving, transportation, property, boundaries, adapting to new conditions, developing new things, building, creativity, technology. Family life
Eat plants and animals/ not with lifeblood: work to get the food, cooking, tools, exploring, hunting, planting, planting on a large scale, farming, storage, repairing tools, more technology. Enterprise.
Retributive justice: codes, investigation, outside arbiter; Judicial
Implications
So, we can see that the Noahic covenant contains an outline that in practice will need to be enlarged upon.
Furthermore, we understand that the above aren’t merely individual endeavors. They’ll require cooperation and coordination. Some of these need only be temporary; but some require an ongoing organization and structure and rules. Organizations require leadership. We also realize that the greater the scope of these the more complex they become, requiring expertise, which means education. There will be conflict.
Property. Enterprise. Codes. Boundaries. Ownership. Technology. Rules. Authority. Judgment… … Here comes the Government!
So out of the root of the Noahic covenant – this arrangement between God and humanity by which God rules and preserves the world– comes the flower of government. The government is a legitimate expression of God’s rule over the world.
And to repeat what we said last week, almost immediately the OT confirms that reading of the government’s:
Legitimacy –
Accountability –
Common – “Not a realm of moral neutrality or human autonomy” but then also “not particularly concerned with faith and worship.” There is judgment on the state, but not for idolatry, but rather for 1) injustice and 2) hubris.
Test Case
The fact of government’s legitimacy is strikingly brought out in Jeremiah 29:3-7
When the Israelites found themselves outside their land and in another’s country, they were to pursue strikingly normal things. In fact, the call to have children and multiply, to plant gardens and eat from them, and to seek the peace of the city has an unmistakably Noahic character. Babylon is a legitimate political community, a place for pursuing ordinary human activities, whose peace should be promoted. The biblical stories of how Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Nehemiah, Esther, and Mordechai assumed civil office in Babylon and later Persia confirms the legitimacy of these communities. Daniel even abided so carefully by the laws of the Medes and Persians that his fellow civil servants, when jealous, could find no legal basis for accusing him (Dan 6:4). – VanDrunen (somewhere in chapter 3)
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