Greetings Bible Adventurists!
Today I’d like to talk about the separation of Church and State. I know that doesn’t sound like it relates to our Bible reading and that I might be trying to stir up controversy but give me a chance.
We see the Israelites at the end of the Period of Judges demanding a king. The Israelites had just experienced 300 years of no government or anarchy when “everyone did as he saw fit.” In modern terms, anarchy is an extremely far right type of (small) government. It doesn’t work because there are not enough rules (or none) to keep order in a society and self-discipline doesn’t work unilaterally. Think of the poor concubine of the Levite and the 65,000 people that died trying to bring justice to the situation. It is in our fallen nature to want no limits or to be in control of our circumstances. Who hasn’t said, “If I were in charge things would be different.”? “Hey Eve, hand me one of those apples.”
But a king can make rules (or so many rules) that make life difficult. The Israelites are very aware of the history of problems that can occur with an autocratic government, like a king or dictator (Make bricks without straw!) God (through Samuel) even reiterates these problems in 1 Samuel 8:10-18. Even worse, a king can make rules that conflict with God’s law as the martyrs of history and today will testify. In modern terms, an autocratic system is an extremely far left type of (big) government. This can be appealing though, because with a government in charge, we can pass it the responsibility for our situation. “Wait! What? No, she gave me the apple and you created her. Its not my really my fault.”
Back to our reading. These Israelites did have rules. Samuel reminds them (and us) in 1 Sam 10:17-19 that God was their king, and He had given them just a few simple rules to follow that would have kept their society in order. Left alone, their sinful nature overlooked their king and ignored His rules. Now the disorganized tribes, threatened by invading Ammonites, seek someone to take responsibility for their situation. God, disappointed but not surprised, gave them Saul as a king. He also gave instructions on how to make the government successful. “(1 Sam 12:14) if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the LORD your God, it will be well.” I think this is the most important political point in the Bible. This is not a call for a theocracy, but a recognition that our earthly governments need to actively pursue God’s values. We citizens need to pursue those same values and, in our system, ensure the government does not get off track. The separation of church and state is not in our constitution. In fact, Samuel instructs us that the church (we) must be involved with government to keep God’s rules and allow the earthly government to succeed under His guidance.