Since civil government is God’s idea and its leaders are accountable to Him, it is vital that a nation’s civil rulers are able to fulfill the responsibilities that God has placed on civil government. Based on the example of Scripture, rulers are established according to the consent of the people (Deuteronomy 1:13-15; 17:14-15; Judges 8:22; 9:6; 11:8, 11; 1 Samuel 8:5; 10:20-24; 11:15; 12:1, 12-14; 2 Samuel 16:18; 1 Kings 1; 12:16-24; 2 Kings 14:21; 1 Chronicles 12:38; 2 Chronicles 23:3). The people are granted this right in order to meet their responsibility to God for the conduct of their government. Just as God directs the hearts of kings (Proverbs 21:1), He also directs the heart of the people to select their rulers according to His plan for judging or blessing a nation. To assist men in choosing their civil rulers, God’s Word lists several qualities that indicate godly leadership with the potential to fulfill civil government’s God-given responsibilities.
In Exodus 18:21-22, Moses’s father-in-law gave him the following godly advice from which we can derive several principles for selecting our own rulers today: “Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.” Here we see that it is advisable to “provide [as rulers] out of all the people able men”; that is, select a leader from among the citizenry based on an evaluation of his fitness to rule. The term “able men” refers to adult males. God’s design is that adult males lead a society (Isaiah 3:12). These men are to be natural leaders based on their distinguished reputation for valor, wealth, skill, etc. These men must also “fear God” (believe in their accountability to God for their actions), be “of truth” (marked by stability, certainty, trustworthiness), and “hate dishonest gain” (personally hate plunder).
Moses, speaking on behalf of God, instructed the Israelites in Deuteronomy 1:13-15: “Take you wise men, and understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you. And ye answered me, and said, The thing which thou hast spoken is good for us to do. So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men, and known, and made them heads over you.” These men were to be selected based on their wisdom (intelligence, prudence, cleverness, and skill), understanding (ability to distinguish between good and evil), and experience (“known among your tribes”—i.e., familiarity with matters relevant to the position).
Proverbs 31:3-5 says, “Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings. It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink: Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.” We see here two additional qualifications for civil rulers: being a one-woman man and refusing alcohol.
Just as God gives us guidelines in His Word about who should rule, He also instructs us how they should rule. By examining the differences between the Hebrew words used for “rule” in Genesis, we can gain significant insight into the responsibilities of a civil ruler. In Genesis 1:28 the word for rule means literally to tread down, to subjugate, and in Genesis 3:16 it means to govern, to manage, to rule. The former refers to mankind being greater than and superior to the rest of creation, and therefore it exists for man’s benefit. This word means to consume and take from. It has the idea of taking bread out of an oven. Mankind is the dictator of creation (though God is still ultimately in control) in that non-mankind creation has no “rights.”
The latter word for rule refers to the accountability of a husband for his wife before God (see earlier in Genesis 3), and he is therefore granted authority over her. However, this authority is delegated as a managerial authority, not as a dominating, consuming authority. The implication is love and caretaking, not selfish exploitation—seeking the good of the subject. This word is also used to describe the sun regulating the daytime and the moon regulating the night, as well as Cain mastering his sin, the management of goods (Genesis 24:2), political rule (Genesis 37:8; Exodus 21:8; Deuteronomy 15:6; Isaiah 19:4; 1 Kings 4:4-21), and self-rule (Proverbs 16:32). It has the idea of effectively managing what you were entrusted with in order to accomplish the will of your higher authority.
In addition to governing for the good of the governed, the civil ruler who would serve as God’s minister must govern in a manner that reflects His nature. Specifically, he must rule according to God’s
A part of ruling according to God’s sovereignty is recognizing that there is a covenantal mutual obligation between the ruler and the people in the sight of God (2 Samuel 5:3; 1 Chronicles 11:3; 2 Chronicles 23:2-3; 2 Kings 11:17; Ecclesiastes 8:2). The people are held accountable by God for their leaders’ failures to fulfill their responsibilities (Deuteronomy 1:16; 16:19; 2 Chronicles 1:2; Ecclesiastes 5:8; Habakkuk 1:4; Micah 3:9-12; Zechariah 7:9; Hosea 5:10-11; Jeremiah 15:4), and the ruler also bears part of the punishment for the wickedness of the people (1 Samuel 12:24-25), necessitating a system of proactive mutual accountability. One or two isolated acts of violating his responsibilities do not strip a ruler of the sovereign powers given by God and the people. In order to annul the covenant with the people, a ruler has to willingly commit such a breach of the covenant that if the people had known about it beforehand, they would have never given him the power in the first place. An example of the differences between the two can be seen by contrasting David (killed Uriah) with Saul (did not destroy the Amalekites, botched the offering, killed the priests of the Lord, and persecuted David).
Two passages of Scripture that describe the ideal Biblical ruler are Isaiah 11:1-5 and Proverbs 29. In Isaiah 11 the ideal godly ruler described is Christ, who fulfills all six responsibilities:
The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge [knowledge and wisdom] and of the fear of the Lord; And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord [sovereignty]: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears [justice and impartiality]: But with righteousness shall he judge the poor [righteousness and goodness], and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth [justice and impartiality]: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked [justice]. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins [righteousness].Proverbs 29 compares and contrasts the type of men who make good and evil rulers, and the qualities they exhibit. The good ruler is said to exhibit the six responsibilities:
Since the people are given the responsibility of establishing their own rulers, God has laid out requirements for those who would lead: citizenship, a distinguished reputation, an adult male, a sense of accountability to God, consistent and trustworthy, hates corruption, intelligent, skilled, experienced, able to distinguish between right and wrong, a one-woman man, and a non-alcoholic. All civil rulers are responsible to govern in a manner that reflects God’s nature.