For The Judgment Is God’s

So this morning we're going to be studying in Deuteronomy in chapter 1. The last time we were in Deuteronomy, we saw that God had blessed the people, how he had blessed them. That when they had gone into Egypt, they had gone in as 60 or 70 people. And that now, a few hundred years later, they're coming out as, by all accounts, well over 700,000. And so the birth of the nation of Israel... of God's people really was in Egypt. And then they've come out. And so Moses is leading the people out of Egypt and to the Mount of Horeb or Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments and to worship the Lord. And along the way, there's a lot of trouble that Moses has to deal with because along with the blessing of increase in numbers, there was also an increase in trouble. Meaning that as there were more people, there were more conflicts.

I remember one time years ago when Vanessa and I were talking about our household. I'd never thought about it. I don't know if you would, but I hadn't. She had just mentioned to me the number of relationships that exist just in our house. And basically, if there's two people, there's one relationship. And if there's three people, there's three relationships. Is that right? One, two, three. And you keep building this pyramid. And you end up with, now, I think there's... close to 100 relationships in our house or something like that. You can do the math and add it up. There's probably, Daniel Dow probably knows a cool math formula to figure it out without counting on your fingers and toes. But as there gets to be more people in a place, one of the things that always goes along with it is more trouble, more strife, more conflict, more problems. It's unavoidable, and it's not a good reason to seek to be less of a people.

And we saw a few weeks ago that Moses prayed and blessed them and said, The Lord's blessed you. May he bless you a thousand times more than you are. And the point of that benediction or that proclamation from Moses was to say to them, We want to see God's whole will brought to completion. We want to see his will perfectly accomplished. And so he prayed that they would increase. along with that increase was going to be and had already been an increase in trouble, in strife, in conflict. And one of the things that we studied two weeks ago was how Moses was no longer able to bear the burden of the people. He is both thankful for God's blessing on the people and he says, I can't do this. Like, I can't handle all your guys' strife and you're going to get sick of me and I'm going to get sick of you, essentially. And so we come to the text now where, And God, through Moses, through Jethro, his father-in-law, who's not a Christian, will come to that, says what we need to do is actually set up a government to govern these people. And that's the text that we're going to be studying today. It's really God's first institution, as it's recorded in Scripture, of a government and how the people ought to be cared for. And so we're going to be looking at how that was set up, what was specific about it.

What applications there are to our life. And so my hope is that God will help us to see that government or hierarchy in the civil government being ruled over or governed was established by God. Romans 13 tells us that, but here we see the first iteration of it. And that having those rules to govern and to rule and to lead is a good and gracious thing. That if things had continued to go on the way they were in Israel, it would have been a bad thing. for the people, and that the government, the institution of it, was a good thing. And so I realize we're going to be talking about some political stuff today, and my exhortation to you at the very beginning is, if you're into politics, set all of what you think about politics aside, because my job and my goal is not to affirm everything that you think, actually. That's not actually the reason God wrote this stuff down for us. So, humble yourself.

Set aside your Fox News and your news outlets and all of your thoughts and your political science degrees and all that sort of stuff, and let's put Scripture at the top of our thinking when it comes to government. Okay? Some trust in chariots and some trust in horses. And by chariots and horses, we have military force. We have a ruling class that's going to come in and deliver us from the oppression. In our day, we have... a government that many look to for deliverance. And some say, well, that's no good. The government can't deliver them. There are all these poor people and they don't work and they don't all this stuff. I'm convinced that conservatives just as often put their hope in government to deliver themselves. And my goal is not to spend my whole time talking about politics or to say that nothing that you think is.

has any biblical basis. But my point is simply to beat back your strong opinions enough so that maybe I can plant a little bit of biblical truth about it in your hearts this morning. And that that would then become the thing that informs how we ought to live and interact in our society. One other thing I'll say before my sermon is I suspect that you will be tempted to think, that all sounds so well and good, Dave. but that doesn't work where we live. And my question is, do you think I'm that dumb that I don't know that? To be a Christian is not simply to be pragmatic. To be a Christian is to have principles and to have convictions that are derived from what Scripture teaches us. And then we have to do the hard work. It's never easy work. The hard work of figuring out how those principles and convictions ought to influence and shape and undergird our lives in this world. Okay? So,

What I'm going to say as far as what we see here in the Scripture this morning is not an easy thing where you go, yep, we checked all the boxes because that's all the stuff that we want, or that's all the stuff that we have, or even that's all the stuff we're working towards. I expect you're going to hear things and you're going to go, yeah, I don't think we're working toward that, or I don't think that should be a thing that is important enough to be working toward. There's more pressing matters. But I exhort you, you're a Christian before you are an American. Okay? You're a Christian before you're an American. And so scripture ought to take preeminence in your thought. Our text is Deuteronomy chapter 1, verses 13 to 18. Would you please stand as we read the word of the Lord? Choose wise and discerning and experienced men from your tribes, and I will appoint them as your heads. You answered me and said, the thing which you have said to do is good. So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and appointed them as heads over you.

leaders of thousands and of hundreds, of fifties and of tens, and officers for your tribes. Then I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the cases between your fellow countrymen, and judge righteously between a man and his fellow countrymen, or the alien who is with him. You shall not show partiality in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not fear man, for the judgment is God's. The case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it. I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Now starting out just in verse 13, there are a lot of things that we learn about governing officials, judges, those who would be suitable for the responsibility of judging and executing justice.

One of the things that we should be able to observe from the very beginning is that not everybody is capable, qualified, or suitable for this work. In fact, most people don't end up in this work, and many of them because they're not qualified. So what are some of the things that we see here in this first verse in verse 13? Well, the first phrase, the first word is that Moses tells them, to choose from among themselves wise, discerning, and experienced men. It's good for people to have a say in who governs them, okay? If you were to read the account in Exodus 18, where this is the outworking of Jethro's counsel to Moses when he came and observed what Moses was spending all of his time doing. He says, it's not good what you're doing. You need help. And he says, you need to appoint men. And it seemed like Moses, was the one who was just supposed to go through and pick and pick and say, you and you and not you and the other and come over here. But here, Moses tells us, no, actually, though I have the authority to choose and to pick, I've delegated that authority to the people and asked them and told them and commanded them to choose from among themselves men who are qualified. One of the things you have to realize is that when it comes to authority and submission, there will always be some expression of agreement.

with the scenario. People who are opposed to a leader will oppose the leader, and the vote won't change that. And so if you think of exercising authority in terms of being the boss and making the decision and everyone will just fall in line and not stumble over or stiffen their necks to that decision, you haven't been in authority very long. If you think that leading is a matter of causing everyone else to knuckle under your authority, you will have a lot of trouble because they won't do it. And so Moses' counsel here is actually very wise, where he says, if you're going to be governed, you ought to have a say in who does the governing.

Isn't it true that there are people in your workplace that you would rather have as a boss than someone else? The position above you opens up. You find out who's applying for it. Maybe you apply for it yourself, but I may or may not get it. But you're looking at who else is applying and you're saying, I would much rather have that person as opposed to this other. Have you never left jobs or lost your job because of... the person that was over you, either because you got fired or you said, I'm not going to work for them anymore. You see that the governed will always have their say, one way or another, in those that govern over, rule them. And so we shouldn't think of authority as having, simply being this top-down declarations from the top that this is just how it is. Moses is very wise in saying, choose from among your own selves. You choose them and I will appoint them. It's my authority, says Moses,

To a point. I delegate the choosing to you. We see this working out in many places in Scripture. We can see it in our lives. We see it with our officer nominations in our church. We don't come to you and say, he's going to be an elder now. We come to you and we say, this man is eligible. We're putting him forward as an elder candidate or a deacon candidate. And we tell you ahead of time. And there's time to talk about it. And there's time to ask questions. And there's time to pray. Excuse me. Time to pray. And there's time to discuss. Because we know from Scripture that if you have an elder just foisted upon you or a pastor just put over you, what's likely to happen is you will grumble and complain about it or you will leave. There's a lot of wisdom in it. We have the same sort of thing that goes on in our civil government. We have appointed positions that are appointed by elected officials, but the majority of the people who rule over us,

are elected. I don't know if it's actually true that the majority, a lot of them are. Our politicians are. There are a lot of appointed people that work underneath them. But we take seriously our choice in the matter. You see in scripture, time and again, when Saul was chosen to be the king, the people were in favor of him. They lusted for him. They wanted him. It's not a positive example, but they chose him. Now, did they choose him or did the Lord choose him? Yes. And one of the things that you have to understand about, if you just answered that question as yes, one of the things you have to understand is that God is actively involved in the choosing of leaders. Now why might you think that that's not the case? It doesn't take much thought, does it? If the leader you don't want gets chosen, you say, well, there was a mistake. Was there? Well, they cheated. Okay. Was God's will done? Yes. And so there's a tension you have to live in when you choose.

Because you could read this and have, at least if you're like me, you read this and you say, okay, Moses had all these people and he said, you guys go choose from amongst yourselves leaders and I'll appoint them. And that they all went away and they came back with this unanimous choice. We want this, we all, all of us in this tribe, we want these guys. I am positive that is not what happened. Has that ever been what's happened when there's a choice to elect an official or a leader? No. There's always disagreements. There's always conflicts. There's always trouble that goes along with this because they're sinful people. We live it. Why would we think they were so different? And so there would have been people inevitably in each tribe that didn't like someone who was put forward. And so they had their say, but their desire didn't carry the day. And what are they to do now that their desire didn't carry the day?

They're to acknowledge the will of God in the choosing and submit themselves. That's, I say it and none of you are sitting there like, what? But I'm telling you, when you actually come to that fork in the road of whether you got your say and it didn't go your way and now you have to go along, every one of our hearts says, uh-uh, they were wrong and I'm not gonna. That's not how it works. I'm right and they were wrong. Was God wrong? So it's tense here. Is that Hazel? Some other little kid said no. Is that you? Is you Rosina? Okay. Sometimes little kids understand these things better because they're parents. It seems like we understand it when we're the authority and the ones in charge, but not when we're the ones who are on the other end of the relationship of the equation. So Moses delegates to the people the choosing. They come back and they...

Present their men. Does that process always go well? Do the people always choose well? Remember, I just argued and said it was God's will that it was done. And now I'm going to say, are you sure they were right? Did they do the right thing? Here's an example counterpoint. Judas' replacement. Judas Iscariot died, you remember, early in Acts. They say, well, we need another apostle. And so they gather together and they make a decision and they get down to two men. And they cast lots, and they come up with Judas replacement. Were they right? Was he Judas replacement in the end? Did God affirm that he was Judas replacement? No, not in the end. Paul was Judas replacement. But they chose, was it Matthias? Am I remembering correctly? If you knew I was avoiding the name, I was trying to figure out. Was it Matthias? I know he was one of the two. It was Matthias. They chose Matthias, and then God reversed their choice.

so to speak, by appointing Paul. And so this is the difficulty of living as someone governed, is that men make choices. Sometimes they make them and they're being wicked. Sometimes they make them and they're being well-intentioned. Sometimes you agree with the choice. Sometimes you don't agree with the choice. And yet in all of it, God is working out his will through the right and the wrong decisions of the people as they make him. And that's hard. Because all of us are inclined to think that our opinions on the matter are always the right opinions on the matter. I wonder what all of the people who had chosen Matthias thought when it became clear that Paul was the replacement. If I'm not mistaken, we don't ever hear about Matthias anymore. Like he was chosen and then that's all we ever hear about Matthias. Like where'd he go? Sorry, he got replaced. And what would you think if you were the holy ones, leaders of the church, set up to make this decision and then you're like...

We were wrong. This is just the difficulty of living in this world. And I'm only smiling and chuckling about it because it's sort of hopeless to think that you are smart enough to plot your path through it or other people's path through it in such a way that you would avert any of this trouble. It's just ludicrous to think that we would be capable of it. Maybe another way of saying that point is, do you think you're better at this than Moses was? I don't know that any of us would make such a bold claim. So the people are to choose. And then Moses gives them qualifications. Wise, discerning, experienced. This is a reiteration of what Jethro had said, though in slightly different words. In Exodus 18.21, these are Jethro's qualifications. He says, You shall select out of all the people, able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain.

And you shall place them over them as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. And so there's an overlap and there's a difference. One of the things that's prominent that we need to realize is that the first thing they say is that the men have to be wise. So what does it mean to be wise? Well, Moses says wise here in Deuteronomy 1. But Jethro described wisdom as something different in Exodus 18. He said, And remember, Jethro was not an Israelite. We could argue whether he became an Israelite, whether he was a worshiper of God and these sorts of things. But when he came to Moses, there's not an indication that he was like, oh, all of a sudden I'm up to speed and into all this stuff. He came with wisdom from the world, with what made sense to him. And he was a very wise man. And what he understood is he watched Moses and these people and all of the conflicts and difficulties that they were having.

What was the first qualification that he gave? He says that you need to select out of all the people able men who what? Who fear God. Men who fear God. And isn't that exactly what wisdom is? Proverbs 1.7 as well as Proverbs 9.10 say, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. And so, Christian, in choosing those who would rule over you, Is there a place or a checkbox for fearing God in who you prefer? Does it matter if they fear God? And you remember at the beginning, I said, you're going to say, well, this is all so well and... Yeah, it sounds all good on paper, but none of this is possible in reality. Slow down. I am not to the point of what you should do in 21st century America with regard to your place in voting, any of that. It's not actually what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is...

do you want people governing you who fear God, or do you want people who don't fear God? Do you care? You should. You should. You should long for people to lead you who fear God. You should seek after it. Does it mean that if they fear God, they won't be sinners? Does it mean if they're wise, they will never fail? Or they will never fail you? No, it doesn't mean that. Does your fear of God mean those things? That you never fail or that you never sin against people? No, that's not what it means. We wish that's what it meant, and one day it's what it will culminate in, but now, not yet. So when you think of those who are going to rule over you and have say over your life, whether they fear God should matter to you. It should be at the top of the list. And if they don't fear God, you need to not brush past that and say, well, never mind that.

We're past that point. There's a lot of tension or disagreement about how Christians ought to engage in political life. And the point of this sermon or even the next few minutes is not to resolve those tensions. It's a very complex question. And part of the reason it's complex is because the answers have to take into account a person's conscience. And it's not going to be a one-size-fits-all answer. But I am here to say that there are those who might say, I really... If I'm to want someone who fears God to lead over me, and I think that anyone who doesn't fear God, who is godless, is only in the end going to produce harm, and I can't in good conscience support that, that we as Christians ought to have space in our hearts and minds for people who have stood in that place because of their conscience and their understanding of Scripture. You ought not to bully them, is what I'm saying. And you might think, well, you're wasting. It's a vote for the bad guys if you do that. And they go...

Do you think they're idiots and don't realize the consequences? Will you protect their conscience or not? Not if it affects the way I live. Well, then you're a pragmatist and an American and not a Christian first. I mean, seriously, being a Christian in a post-Christian world means that you are constantly and increasingly going to have conflict between the fact that you're a Christian and you're being ruled by and governed by people who are not. It's going to get more difficult. So these men ought to fear God. They ought to be wise. They ought to be discerning. They ought to be experienced. We were recording podcasts yesterday, and at one point in the discussion, I was talking about presidential debates, and it was just a passing comment, and I said, you know, I don't watch presidential debates. It's not because I don't care. It's that I can't stand all of the...

showmanship and the showboating and the lack of any substance in what is said. It's just a fight amongst white-collar men in ties and some women. And I don't care. It's like a really bad movie. It's a waste of time. That's what I think about it. If you want to watch them, I'm not saying you can't. It's a waste of my time for me to watch them because none of the things that matter to me are on display in a presidential debate. Is any discernment being displayed? No, it's a bunch of fighting. Is there any particular meaningful demonstration of their experience? No. If I were going to pay attention to a presidential debate, which when I do, this is how I do it, I'll read the transcript. I can do without looking at you. I can do without hearing all of the bombast. I just want to read the words that actually came out of your mouth and see if there was any substance to them.

Do you have any wisdom? Are you qualified to do the thing you're applying for, so to speak? You're making application to me. I want to know about the substance. I don't care what color your hair is, how long it is, or whether you look nice in a suit and tie, and whether you're loudest and best able to talk over the top of other people. That doesn't mean anything to me as a Christian with regard to who I vote for. I want to know if you're wise, if you're discerning, if you're honest. If you have experience, that would qualify you for the job. That's what I want to know. That's what you should want to know. Because that's what Scripture sets out here for us as being the important things to know. Choose for yourselves wise, discerning, and experienced men. There is a lot of difference between talking about what you would do if you got into the position and being able to show from your past what you have done. What is one of the qualifications for elders?

It's that they have their household in order, that they be able to manage their own household. What is that but experience? You want the men, I mean, we're changing from civil government over to ecclesiastical or church government, but one of the qualifications is that they have a testimony already, not telling us what they will do, but looking at what they have done and say, are they any good at it? Do they have people who love them and who listen to them and follow them or not? It's objective. You can look and you can see. Scripture tells us they ought to have children who believe. Can you tell if someone has children who believe? Yes. That's the sort of experience that's required not just of church officers, but governing officials, civil magistrates. And so you should not put much stock, we should not put much stock in the things that they say they will do.

One of the things that they keep track of with presidents is they keep track of all the things they promise. And then at 100 days, they see how much of those things they've gotten done. And they track. Did they do what they say they were going to do? And what is the overwhelming testimony of all of the presidents? They never do all the stuff they're going to do. Now, is that all their fault? No. Like, they're not able to just unilaterally do stuff. But did they work on it? Did they pursue it? Or were they just feeding you a line? Student loan forgiveness? Or are you just being lied to? We ought to be discerning. And we ought to expect those who rule over us to be discerning, to be wise, and to have a body of work that is their life passed as a testimony of their qualification. You can like somebody. You can appreciate the things that they say. And at the same time say, you're not fit for this job. Dan, have you ever fired anybody you liked? Have you ever fired anybody, Dan?

Have you ever thought, this is not a good fit? Maybe you just didn't hire him. You thought, I like the guy. I appreciate it. There's things like, we can get along, but you can't work for me. You're just not fit for the job. If it was me, you'd be like, Dave, I love you, but you're old, you're fat, and you're not going to do well on my ladders. We'll be good friends, but you're not an electrician. I'm left-handed. There's all kinds of things to go against, right? Does that mean Dan doesn't like me? No. But he would say, you are not qualified to work at my company in the field.

And it would just be a truth, true statement. Same is true when we're dealing with people who look over us. It's not a popularity contest. And it's grievous to me that that's what it's become. That the substance is gone. The wisdom, the discernment, the competence has all been set aside in favor of a popularity contest. It's as though we're back in junior high. So is the man competent for the work? Moses tells the people, choose these sorts of men. He tells them, you're going to need to bring to me men who are competent for the work. Don't bring me the wealthy men. Don't bring me the highly educated men. Don't bring me the influential men or the eloquent men. Moses himself was not eloquent. Bring me qualified men. Why is it so important that they're qualified? Because the work that they're doing is important. And it affects the lives of the people that they govern. It has a real impact.

Is your life not affected by the choices and the decisions and the abilities and the honesty of those who make decisions on your behalf? Whether that's in the civil realm or in the ecclesiastical realm or in your home or in your workplace, are you not directly affected by their ability to do their job well or not? Yes. And when they fail, when they act wickedly, when they screw up and they don't fix it, it's harmful to you. And so in choosing and in deciding, you ought to have your own interests and the interests of those that you love and care about and your fellow man in mind. And if someone, however much you like them and however wealthy or influential or whatever they are, should have no bearing on it. A wise, discerning, experienced man, competent for the job, is far more important than his appearance, his eloquence, his wealth and power.

Consider the men that Jesus chose for his disciples. Paul is the only one who can brag about where he came from. And even Paul himself says, if I'm going to boast, what I'll boast about is my weaknesses. And we would be foolish to think that we're good at being impartial. The older I get, the more I have to be involved in decision-making and hard stuff, which is a fair way to describe what these men are going to have to do. They're going to have to do hard stuff. The less sure I am that I'm good at it and always right. Do you remember Moses, the man who wrote this, when God chose him to be the leader and the judge? What did Moses do? Moses said, uh-huh. God says, uh-huh. And he said, no, I can't. I don't talk well good. You're the one. No, I... Well, I'll give you Aaron. And what does it say that God... How is God...

disposed toward Moses for his unwillingness. So that he burned with anger at Moses because the work was important and God had chosen him. And Moses was like, I don't want to know, no, no, no, no, not me. And yet God was gracious and gave him a mouthpiece, gave him Aaron to speak for him, to hold his arms up, to make him able. Moses was not the wealthy, the influential. He was educated in Pharaoh's house. And then what did he do? Left it all aside. and went to be with his people, tended the flocks. What else can we learn from this passage, moving on from the wise, discerning, and experienced? Well, one of the things is that they be men. Choose wise and discerning and experienced men from your tribes. There's a lot I could spend the rest of my time talking about this. And for those of you who are wondering how we're going to make it through this whole text, my guess is we're not going to. I'm only going to preach about half of the sermon that I prepared because of the time that we have.

They should be men. Okay? Why should they be men? Because men are better than women. No. Men are smarter than women. No. I would say for, here's a few reasons why they should be men. One, and first, the scripture right here tells us so. Should be men. Because the understanding of this as it's worked out, he's like, well, did it mean just men or did it just mean like, was that just like the general, like, it shouldn't be a goat. Like, it should be a... a man or a woman, you know, a human. Let's say, well, what is the testimony of this being worked out in the life of Israel all throughout the Old Testament? Where are the women? They're there. Very spread. Deborah, there she was. We have a couple of other examples where there is a woman. And what did she say when she was raised up to be the judge and Barak, Barak, wasn't going to go do the hard work? She says, they're going to.

Like, they're going to take your glory away. Like, they're going to sink. Like, it's not good for you not to do the work. And he says, yeah, it's okay. And so the argument here is not men are better, men are smarter, men are the best. It's that Scripture tells us that part of the reason men are to bear these sorts of responsibilities and not women is because they were created first and that having being created first, part of their responsibility is to lead, to protect, to govern, to care for, to support. to guide, that these are things that are most especially true of men when it comes to society. Okay? And that when you don't have men doing the work, it's a shame. Isaiah tells us it's a curse that when you have women and children rule over you. It's a curse. Now, that's something that only the Bible says. Americans don't say that. And American Christians don't say that. But Christians who live in America and who are students of Scripture, they do say that. And they say, this isn't a good thing.

This is not how God meant it to be. And here's another reason why. It's nasty work that these men are about to do. It's really nasty work. They're about to get in the middle of the conflicts of a whole nation of people and adjudicate right and wrong. Do you think that they are going to be people who are appreciated and loved and get Christmas baskets for their work? No. They're going to be... Some people are going to like them, but even the people who like them are going to say, well, they just did what they were supposed to do. See, I was right. And then there's going to be people that they ruled against who are not even going to think that fondly of them. If there's heavy lifting to be done, if there's dangerous work to be done, if there's hardships to be borne, it should be the men who do it. It's a kindness to the women, to your women, to your wife, to your daughters, to your sisters, to your mothers, to do the hard work for them. Does it mean that you'll do it better than them?

Actually, it doesn't. It doesn't actually mean that. I can think of couples where generally I would say the wife is sharper than the husband. It's okay. There are situations in every one of our marriages where our wives are sharper than us, where we would do well to learn from them and defer to their judgments, to follow them, if you will, and learn from them. And so in saying that this work ought to be done by men, I'm simply saying what Scripture is teaching us, which is that this is a hard job, a difficult job, a burden, and that it ought to be the men who do this sort of work in protecting and loving both their countrymen and their wives and children. So Moses says, we're going to set up a government here. You guys are going to pick from among yourselves men able and qualified to do the work.

And they're going to rule over you. And they're going to adjudicate all of your fighting. Is there any impulse in your heart to say, I don't want anybody to be doing that for me. I want to be the judge. I think there's a real strong impulse in our hearts to that end. Where we say, actually, I don't want anybody to rule over me. We have a whole book of the Bible dedicated to people having that sentiment in their heart. It's called the book of Judges. And there were no judges in those days, and the people did what was right in their own eyes. And what happened when the people did what was right in their eyes? Time and again, what's the refrain of the book of Judges? They got themselves into every kind of mess and trouble you can imagine. And then God graciously raised up a judge to comb out all their knots and their snarls and put things right. This is the initial institution of it. So we ought to say, along with the Israelites, this thing which you have said to do is good.

Good. It's good. It's good for me to not get my way, but rather for justice to be done. How many of you think that your way is always the just way? I mean, when you ask the question and it's just abstract, we're like, no. But in the moment, do you ever say, you know what, I don't think I'm the one pursuing justice here? Of course not. You're all like, no, I'm the one who's in the right. What I want is just and appropriate and good. And anyone who disagrees with me, let the whole world disagree with me. I'm the only one who's right. And we think it as often as the opportunity arises. I think we long in our minds for a utopia where government, and what I really mean by government is authority, is not necessary. It's not necessary. What we often mean by that, though, is not that there isn't any authority, but simply that we're not under any authority. And in fact, that we have become the authority.

We are at the top of the heap. We are the ones who get to make all of the decisions and always get what we want. And we think the world would be a better place if only I was the judge and the one to adjudicate all of the right and wrong around me. Consider for a moment the size of the government that Moses is instituting right here. I didn't do the math. Rulers of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. 700,000 people. Some of you who are quick with math, maybe at lunch you can tell us. How big was this government? I think we could all agree without doing the math. It was pretty big. Why did the government have to be so big? Because the people were that sinful. That's actually the answer. The size of the government. So if we were to just take a little scenic tour down American history.

The size of government that was capable of ruling 200 years ago is not big enough to rule the country now. And so the idea that big is bad and small is good is not particularly biblical. But the reason we think big is bad and small is good is because of the corruption, not of the people, but of the politicians. And the question... And I think the foundation that that whole thought is built upon is, I would do it better. If we could just make a bunch of me to decide all the stuff, people who have my commitments and have my priorities and shared my beliefs, then everything would be better. Are your thoughts, convictions, or your ability to apprehend them, to accomplish them, that much better than it was at the time this was written? I think we often overestimate.

Way overestimate our own ability to govern and to lead and to deal with life. Never mind how little it takes in our actual lives, how little the trouble has to be for us to just like fall off the horse. It really is quite a paradox that we would think so highly of ourselves when the testimony of our own experience is so checkered. We sound like John Lennon. In his song, Imagine. I'm not going to sing for you because I have a cold and I can't sing. But I'm going to read to you just a section of it. And you'll all go, no, no, no, not John Lennon. No, no, he's hippie and all this. No. But I think he understood something about the human heart when he wrote Imagine that was godless. It was the godless part of it that still resides in all of our hearts. That impulse is still alive. And this is what he says. Imagine there are no countries. Why do we have countries? Why do we have boundaries? Why do we draw a line and say this is ours and that's yours?

Because good boundaries make good neighbors. Imagine there were no countries. It isn't hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for. And no religion too. Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us and the world will be as one. Here's the thing that he got right. As far as you'll ever get down that road is to imagine it. It's not. And you have to give up your dreams of a life where you do not need to be governed. Literally, rulers of tens. Maybe he meant husbands at that point. I don't know. Maybe it broke down into familial husbands and grandfathers. That there was some governance that way, perhaps. But literally, judges of tens and judges of fifties.

We learn a lot about this. One, that the government is enormous because the people are all screwed up. They need that much oversight to keep things going, to keep them from all turning into the book of judges time and time and time again. They need a lot of guidance, a lot of discipleship, a lot of being told no. They need a lot of justice being done because they, in their personal lives and in their affairs, are really bad at it. And we would do well to apply that same to ourselves and say, you know, I'm really bad at it. If we were to look through the past, that's what we would find is a lot of high moral principles and a really big disconnect between those things we say and want and aspire to and our ability to produce them in our own life, much less the lives of other people. So we say big government, though, is bad because of the depravity of the men and the women that are a part of that government. And I say,

We would do better to say, this thing that you have said is good. That actually our society and our religion and our well-being and the welfare of our children and grandchildren depends on justice being executed and not by us because of our inability to do it when we're the ones involved in it. It seems as though we're only convinced of other people's inability to do the job, of their depravity. That their depravity disqualifies them, but ours doesn't. When God approached Moses to set him his head over Israel, I can sympathize with Moses' fear at the work. I can tell you years ago when Abram and Dan and Daniel were being ordained to be elders, they were scared to become elders. And that was one of the things that qualified them for the work, was that they knew their limitations.

At some level, they had a principle of knowing their own limitations and saying, that's a big job. I don't know that I'm set for it. The one who's going to lead ought to know his own weakness and he ought not to believe his own press. If he's to be discerning, he ought to first be discerning about himself. And then maybe God would raise him up and give him the work that he actually, in reality, is not fit to do apart from God's kindness and using broken men. sinful men who make wrong decisions that God straightens out, like Matthias and Paul. This is the best we can hope for. Politically, this is the best we can hope for, is humble men who are going to screw it up, but who've been raised up by God to make those mistakes in pursuit of honoring God. That's what best we can hope for. And even that hope doesn't feel like it's within reach. We'll come back next week to...

the charge that Moses gives to the judges about showing partiality. I want to read to you just a paragraph that I wrote at the end of my sermon about how to take the things we've talked about and try to start on figuring out how to do it, like find some application for it in our lives. And the reason I think this is important is because if we don't try to make some connection, we'll just go back to what we've thought before. We'll say, oh, that was interesting, and yeah, uh-huh, that would be nice if... But the things God's given to us are profitable for us so that we would put them into practice in our lives. So how do we do that? So this is a brief exhortation. The things that we've seen today and heard are not always possible or available to us because our rulers don't fear God or understand their responsibilities in the way that I've described this morning. When we don't have godly men doing this work,

there are a few ways in which we should respond. First, humility. God is active in giving us the rulers that we have, and we can't forget that. This humility requires repentance from us for our own contributions to the situation in which we find ourselves, along with pleading on behalf of our neighbors and those who rule over us. This is the humility that's required of us as we see what God sets before us to desire and to seek after. and we look at what's in front of us. There's not something to do first. We need to humble ourselves before God and ask him to have mercy and to confess our own contributions to it, because we all have in our way contributed. Secondly, we should do our part in responding to this deformity by doing the work of reform. I'm not thinking primarily about political involvement, but growing in holiness and building a community and a network of people who think and live and desire the things that we've seen this morning.

We are a long way away from the stuff that I set forward. It's almost like a fantasy movie. If you had to put a label on the thing I said in terms of political reality, it would be like fiction. Like it couldn't have like future or here's the steps to get to it. It seems so far from where we've come. And the real question that we have to consider is how best are we able to pursue what Scripture lays out for us. There are many, many things you can do. But the top of it, the two that I mentioned this morning, is one, humility and repentance on your behalf along with prayer. And two, working to build and increase the kingdom of God such that these sorts of things don't sound crazy anymore. When they're spoken of in terms of, like, wouldn't it be nice if... And the last thing I'll tell you about it is, if we all give...

All of our hearts to doing this work will all die before we see it realized unless God does an incredible work. And that's okay. That's okay. That would be one expression of you loving your children and your grandchildren and giving them and seeking after giving them an inheritance. Whether they have to live under the oppression of tyranny or whether they, in God's mercy, get to live under a government that has some semblance of the fear of God undergirding it. You build the community in the kingdom in obedience to God, and you trust him to use it as he sees fit. Paul was a pretty incredible guy. He described himself as being poured out like a drink offering by God. Would you have your life and the lives of those that you love poured out like a drink offering in pursuit of obeying God? Then that's our work. And may God bless it. Let's pray.