Power and Authority

The Bible makes a helpful distinction between “authority” and “power”. Some disagreements would disappear, if the terms were defined more clearly and “power” was more carefully delineated.

Jesus had authority due to the wisdom of his teaching, but he had no power to enforce his decisions. He had the power to force out out demons and heal the sick.

The Jewish leaders had authority over religious issues. They had a little bit of power, due to their ability to throw dissenters out of the synagogue, but people could choose to ignore them if they wanted to. The real power was exercised by the Romans. The Jewish leaders needed Roman power to kill Jesus.

The preaching of the gospel led to a shift of authority from the religious leaders to Jesus. However, Jesus had no power, so he had to use his authority cleverly to influence people and challenge them to change their thinking. The authority that Jesus had been given did not last, because when the chips were down prior to the crucifixion, many people gave authority back to the Jewish leaders.

Death Reigns (2) Clinging to Power

Once the children of Israel had crossed the Jordan, Joshua became vulnerable to the spirit called Death. Maybe he was already susceptible because he had led the Israelites into war on several occasions.

• When the Israelites were close to Jericho, he encountered a man-like being in front of him with a drawn sword (Jos 5:13-15). Clearly, this was a spiritual being. Commentators argue about who this character was, but I believe he was the spirit called Death.

• When Joshua asked if he was for or against Israel, he said “No”. An angel of the Lord would have said “Yes”, because they speak the truth. Death said “No” because he was not on either side. He would work with the side that inflicted the most blood and gore.

• The sword is a symbol of war and Death (Rev 3:4).

• This spiritual being told Joshua to take off his sandals because it was holy ground. This made it seem like a meeting equivalent to Moses encounter at the burning bush, but it was not the same. God spoke to Moses out of the bush, so the ground really was holy. Joshua encountered a spiritual being, not God, so this was the same. Angels do not make the ground holy, so we do not need to take off our shoes for them. The spirit deceived Joshua by appealing to his pride through an experience that was similar to Moses call.

• The person claimed that he was the commander of Yahweh’s army. He was a commander of a spiritual army that had been created by Yahweh, but it had rebelled, so his claim was only a half-truth.

Joshua was deceived by this spiritual being, so he bowed and submitted to him. If this was the spirit called Death, it gave him power over Joshua.

• The Israelites turned Jericho into a massacre after the walls had collapsed, whereas God’s plan was that the residents would panic and flee (Deut 7:1). The blood bath occurred because the spirit of Death had got control over Joshua.

• Joshua pronounced a curse against the defeated city of Jericho, although God had not asked him this to this (Josh 6:26). Joshua declared that the person who re-laid the foundation of the city would lose his eldest son, and the person rebuilding the city-gate would lose their youngest son to death. This curse was probably inspired by Death, but it also increased his power over Joshua.

• The Israelites were defeated in the battle for Ai. Joshua did not seek God’s plan but took the advice of the people and sent only a small army to take it. They were defeated. Joshua did not take responsibility for this mistake. God revealed that Achan had taken some of the forbidden things at Jericho and hidden them in his tent. He said that they could not stand against their enemies because they had become “subject to doom” (Death). God told Joshua that the forbidden things must be destroyed (Jos 7:12). When Joshua spoke to the people, he said the person with them must be destroyed (Jos 7:15). The people went even further than what God had said and struck Achan and his entire family down with stones and burned them. This excess was the influence of Death, but it also strengthened Deaths influence in the new nation.

• When Joshua finally conquered Ai, he blocked off the way of escape and did not allow the people to flee towards the desert. Yet this was what God wanted to happen (Deut 7). The people of Ai were slaughtered instead.

Although God said the people of Canaan would be frightened into fleeing, the taking of the land turned out to be extremely violent. This was probably due to the influence of Death on Joshua. (More at Violence).

Judges
The spirit called Death continued to have a strong influence on the leaders of Israel during the season of the Judges because many of them engaged in violence beyond what God allowed.

• Ehud stabbed Eglon, the King of Moab, who had gained control of Israel after they rejected God (Jud 3:21).

• Abimelech murdered his seventy brothers to become ruler of Israel (Jud 9:5).

• Before going into battle for Israel, Jephthah made a vow that he would kill the first person he saw when he returned. This resulted in him killing his oldest daughter (Jud 11:30-39).

• Samson killed numerous Philistines for very little gain.

• The Israelites fought against the sons of Benjamin and killed 18,000 of them in an unnecessary war.

• The leaders of Israel led with unnecessary violence. This allowed Death to continue reigning, even though the law had curtailed his right to be active in Israel.

Prophets and Power

When prophets become puppets of political power and war,
lies justify murder and violence.

If a ruler listens to lies,
all his officials become wicked (Prov 29:12).

When the prophets of a nation believe a lie,
evil is at the door.

A prophet can be a trumpet that sounds a clear call to a nation (1 Cor 14:8).
A prophet who is a trump-pet leads the people astray.

Bullies rarely generate peace.

Too many prophets trust the power of a gun more than the power of the Holy Spirit.

A prophet carrying a gun will corrupt God's word with violence and war.

Ministry of the Prophet.

Hierarchy of Power

A political-spirit or government-spirit in the spiritual realms controls every town, city, nation and region on earth. Their authority on earth is perpetuated by a hierarchy of power.

• Political-spirits and government-spirits in the spiritual realms control human political powers, such as kings, emperors and other political leaders. The people may change over time, but the spiritual powers remain in control.

• Kings and political leaders have authority over large groups of people, so this gives political-spirits and government-spirits immense authority on earth.

• Most people look to their political leaders to solve the problems that disturb their lives, so they mostly submit to them. They are unwittingly submitting to the political-spirits and government-spirits that control their political leaders. They should be looking to the Kingdom of God for their salvation, and to the Jesus as their king.

• Political leaders and kings use military force and political coercion to control their people. This gives political-spirits and government-spirits their power an point of entrance to control them.

This hierarchy of power allows the big controlling spirits to exercise authority on earth, despite their defeat by Jesus.

Authority and Power (2)

For a Christian, getting rid of sickness has two phases. The first requires authority. We command the sickness to leave. The authority we have in Jesus causes the evil spirit that was inflicting the sickness to leave (Act 10:38).

The problem is that when evil spirits leave or stop harassing, they do not clean up their mess before they go. They leave a lot of garbage behind. They do no kill their viruses, before they leave. They do not take their arthritis with them, when they have been commanded to leave. We need the Holy Spirit to come in and restore the body that was sick to the way that God created it to be. He has the power to do that.

If the junk that the evil spirits leave behind is genetic damage or viruses, they can be passed onto subsequent generations.

In many situations, the command “Be healed in Jesus name” will be sufficient to complete both phases of healing. Sometimes we will need to specifically invite the Holy Spirit in to do the full complete clean up.

More at Healing.

Power in Weakness

From Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Sermon on 2 Corinthians 12:9:

Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness and pride of power and with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear rather than too much. Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power. Christians should give more offense, shock the world far more, than they are doing now. Christians should take a stronger stand in favor of the weak rather than considering first the possible right of the strong."

Big Guy or Bad Guy

If you start with Hobbes, you end with Leviathan.

Modern government is based on the principle that order in society comes through a good big guy beating up the bad guys to keep good guys safe. The problem in a sinful world is that big guys eventually become bad big guys. You always need a bigger and bigger good big guy (world government). However, who will beat up the world hegemon or world government when it eventually becomes a big big bad guy.

Paul and Jesus did not advocate order through big guys beating up bad guys. They advocated a radically different way: good guys turning the other cheek and good guys doing good to bad guys.