Nebuchadnezzar was the man with a spelling-bee name. And he brandished staggering power and authority which he thought he deserved. He had to learn that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes and sets over them the lowliest of men (Daniel 4.17). He learned it when God took everything away and made him eat grass like an animal. Authority wasn’t his reward – it was for order, purpose, and example.
Daniel was the opposite of Nebuchadnezzar; a very godly man, the kind you think of when you think of someone deserving authority. Yet he served under Nebuchadnezzar and in the administrations of several other ungodly leaders. Daniel never went after the authority position. He served in submission – first to God, then even to the people who deported him from his home.
Joseph, another godly guy, learned how to be submissive. He spent years unjustly locked in prison, forgotten by a man who promised to get him out. When he finally had his day with the king, he didn’t say a word about how unfair it all was. He just basically went, “How can I serve you?” His attitude showed he understood and accepted authority, and could be trusted with it. And he was.
If you’ve got it, it doesn’t mean you deserve it – but you might. If you don’t have it, it doesn’t mean you don’t deserve it. But you might not.
It’s not the deserving – it’s the choosing by One who has his reasons and seems to delight in not saying what those reasons are. He also seems to delight in those reasons being accepted even when they’re not understood.
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More of The God Show. We’re on the authority channel. The previous post is HERE. You can find out more HERE.
The God Show is five channels (in addition to the Bible) that don't change over time or according to culture, where God's ways, invisible attributes, eternal power and divine nature are clearly perceived but often missed: 1. Nature, 2. Authority, 3. Family, 4. Marriage, 5. You. Really, he's all over the place.
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