A Word in Season: God’s Government (Jeremiah 27:4–7)

The World’s Uncertainty and the Need for God’s Rule

I'm almost entirely confident that at least some of us have concerns about the way of the world around us. Perhaps it's for the nation in which we live and the government that is over us, or maybe over us.

It may be a broader geopolitical concern about other nations and the powers that are rising in the world and the impact that that has upon the countries where they are or other countries around them. It may be a specific concern for the way in which the Kingdom of God will be able to continue given the state of things in the world at large.

God’s Sovereign Government in Jeremiah 27

It's good then, under such circumstances, to remember the absolute control that is exerted by the God of Heaven over the world which he has made. In Jeremiah chapter 27, Jeremiah receives instructions from God to make for himself bonds and yokes and put them on his neck.

And these symbols are to be sent by the ambassadors of the nations back to some of the kings around Judah. And Jeremiah is to command these men to say to their masters, I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are on the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it to whom it seemed proper to me.

And now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon my servant, and the beasts of the field I have also given him to serve him. So all nations shall serve him and his son and his son's son until the time of his land comes.

And then many nations and great kings shall make him serve them. You couldn't really get a more absolute declaration than that about the powers and the authorities here upon earth. It begins with the assertion that comes from God as creator that he has made all things that are on the earth as well as the earth itself, and that he continues to govern what takes place on this globe, that he gives power to whom it seems proper to him, that he puts under the authority of some that which he pleases and chooses.

Nebuchadnezzar as God’s Servant and the Limits of His Rule

None of these things are arbitrary or accidental. It seems proper to God to conduct things in this world in a certain way. And as an expression of that proper government, God put these various lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon whom he describes as his servant.

Now that's not a statement about Nebuchadnezzar's salvation, certainly not at this point. It is though a declaration about the relationship which Nebuchadnezzar sustains to God. This tyrant king, this man who seemed so gifted and who had such authority, such power over those who are under his sovereign rule, he is still God's servant.

He is ultimately God's instrument and God's agent to accomplish what God intends to bring about. And not only is the end of his rule and the rule of his dynasty is also established. The time of his downfall is established.

The powers that will come in after him are established. God has ordained all these things. And it is good for us then to remember that whether or not the civil authorities that the Lord has put over any one of us are the civil authorities that we might want or not want, whether or not we see them as instruments more of righteousness or unrighteousness, it remains the fact that the best of them and the worst of them are the servants of God.

Trusting God’s Government Rather Than Princes

He has given them their authority, its scope, its sphere, and its extent. He has appointed the time for which they will have that authority. He has appointed the end of it and he has appointed those who will come in after and exercise that power and authority in their turn.

And so it is good for us not to put our trust in princes but in the God who puts princes in their places and to remember that it is ultimately God's government which we need to see and in which we must trust for the good of his people, the glory of his name and all that takes place in the world that he has made.