Civil Government (26) - Perfect Government

God’s perfect government has two aspects. The first is and most important aspect of God’s government is the law. Every civilised society needs law to function well. However, the problem is that most use human laws. God’s law is holy and good (Rom 7:12). The basis for perfect government is the God’s law.

The second prong of perfect government is wise judges. Law cannot function on its own, but has to be applied. Good law needs wise judges to apply it. At the same time as God gave Israel the laws they needed, he also gave them a system of judges.

The God of the people of Israel chose our fathers; he made the people prosper during their stay in Egypt, with mighty power he led them out of that country, he endured their conduct for about forty years in the desert, he overthrew seven nations in Canaan and gave their land to his people as their inheritance. All this took about 450 years. After this, God gave them judges until the time of Samuel the prophet. Then the people asked for a king, and he gave them Saul son of Kish (Acts
13:17-21).

God gave judges to Israel as they were going into the promised land. This was the second part aspect of God’s ideal government.

They served as judges for the people at all times. The difficult cases they brought to Moses, but the simple ones they decided themselves (Ex 18:26).

When the children of Israel entered the promised land, they had judges to apply God’s law. This makes sense, as God would not give the law, without raising up judges to implement it. Moses gave the judges a “head start” by helping with the difficult cases.

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