Power-Grabbing

Steve Corley

 

Given as sermon in Kingsport 8/14/2021

Modified, given as sermon in London/Corbin and Knoxville 8/21/2021

Given as sermon in Roanoke 1/7/2023

 

 

Throughout human history (and even before human history) there have been those who wanted to grab power.  We see this type of situation so often currently in African countries (it is traditionally associated with Latin America, but thankfully has become less common there).  A country falls under the rule of a dictator – usually a corrupt dictator who is enriching himself and his associates at the nation’s expense – and the people eventually get tired of the situation.  A resistance movement grows under the leadership of some figure – whose intentions are not necessarily altogether benevolent.  Eventually the resistance movement succeeds in bringing down the dictator in a revolution or coup.  The leader of the resistance becomes the new head of the nation.  He proclaims his commitment to democracy and for a brief period high hopes prevail.  But he soon shows himself to be corrupt also and starts to assume the powers of a dictator just like the one he overthrew.  Then what was the purpose of the revolution?  So often this has been the sad story of mankind.

In this sermon I would like to look at where power-grabbing originated, go through a number of Biblical and historical examples – and, most importantly, show what God thinks of power-grabbers.  We can title the sermon simply “Power-grabbing.”  (By the way – on this last point – no power-grabber in the Bible ever turned out to be a “good guy,” a true servant of God.  There is not one positive example of power-grabbing in the pages of the Bible.  God hates power-grabbing.)

Power-grabbing breaks at least two of the Ten Commandments – the eighth against stealing and the tenth against coveting.  The would-be power-grabber covets power which is not his, which has not been given to him.  He wants this power so much that he becomes willing to “steal” it by circumventing the established procedures for power transfer.

Where did power-grabbing start?  It predated the history of the present-day human race.  The story is in two very familiar Scriptures.  The cherub Heylel (Lucifer) had been given tremendous gifts – including one of the highest offices in the angelic realm – when God created him.  He was perfect until the point when iniquity was found in him (Ezekiel 28:15).  And what was this iniquity?  It was a power-grabbing attempt.  Lucifer apparently thought he could rule the universe better than his Creator could and hence he tried to take over God’s throne in heaven (Isaiah 14:12-15).  Verse 15 shows the ultimate result of the attempted power grab – Satan will be imprisoned in a symbolic “pit” where he will be unable to influence humans (detailed in Revelation 20:1-3).

What about human power-grabbers?  One who comes to mind is Absalom, King David’s son.  Because of David’s previous sin with Bathsheba, God had warned him through the prophet Nathan that one of the penalties would be that adversity against David would come from his own house – his own family (2 Sam. 12:11).  And such indeed subsequently happened in the form of Absalom’s rebellion and attempt to dethrone his father.  Note that Absalom sweet-talked the people in order to try to get allies for the uprising he was planning, and “stole” their hearts (2 Sam. 15:6).  Yes, God had predicted the rebellion – that He would allow it to occur as one of the penalties for David’s sin.  But did such mean that God approved of what Absalom did?  Not at all.  Such is rather an illustration of the point that God can use evil people to inflict trials on His servants, for their punishment (if needed) and for their training.  Another example of this principle would be the raiding parties who killed the servants of Job and pillaged his possessions (Job 1:14-15, 17) – they were certainly evil people and God did not approve of what they were doing.  However, He allowed Satan to inspire them to plague Job in order that Job might learn some needed lessons.  Remember also that, due to its sins, Judah was punished by the evil Babylonians – who were later themselves punished by the evil Persians, who were punished by the evil Greeks, who were punished by the evil Romans.  God certainly can and does use evil people and nations as needed to serve His purposes.  What was the ultimate result of Absalom’s attempted power grab?  His death (2 Sam. 18:9-18 – note that Joab, who commanded (against King David’s orders) that Absalom be executed, was an evil man himself).  A subsequent attempted power grab from within David’s own house by another of his sons, Adonijah, also ended with the perpetrator’s execution, though for a different reason (1 Kings 2:23-25).  It also led to the execution of Joab himself – who had supported Adonijah’s (though not Absalom’s) rebellion (verses 28-34).

What about Jeroboam?  Was he also a power-grabber?  When they were in the field alone, the prophet Ahijah had told Jeroboam of God’s promise to him that Jeroboam would be king over the northern ten tribes (1 Kings 11:29-35). What happened then?  It is hard to believe that Ahijah then spread the word.  Almost certainly Jeroboam himself started to brag and tell others of the good news (cf. James 4:13-17).  He had to get his rebel group started so he could grab power when the time came!  Of course when Solomon heard about this he was not pleased so he tried to kill Jeroboam (1 Kings 11:40).  (Remember that God had already told Solomon (1 Kings 11:11-13) that most of Israel would be taken from his son.)  Jeroboam did not have to let it be known that he was the one who was to do this!  When he heard that Solomon wanted to kill him (due to his apparent bragging), Jeroboam decided to flee to Egypt (where he then apparently learned pagan ways – including calf worship – with tragic results for the future).

If Jeroboam had kept the information to himself – if he had waited for God to give him power instead of being eager to grab it – he could have stayed in Solomon’s service, likely rising to an even higher position that would have given him an automatic power base later.  He would not have had to start a rebel group.  He would not have had to go to Egypt.  He could have stayed in Israel, having easy access to the temple and the priests to strengthen his knowledge of God’s Law that he would need in his future job as king.  He could have had the chance to start writing his own copy of God’s Law as the kings of Israel were supposed to do (Deut. 17:18-20).  But no.  Jeroboam apparently had to make his first major mistake by bragging that he was going to be king.  Of course when Solomon then tried to kill Jeroboam he had to flee.  And when Solomon died and Jeroboam did grab power, he was so afraid of losing it that he failed to trust God and introduced the Egyptian calf worship in Israel.  Result was that idolatry became deeply embedded in the northern kingdom and God pronounced destruction on the house of Jeroboam (1 Kings 14:14). 

So what happened then?  Baasha became the next power-grabber and killed all of Jeroboam’s male heirs (1 Kings 15:27-30) and subsequently became a king just as evil (1 Kings 16:1-4).  The way in which Baasha grabbed power was not pleasing to God (1 Kings 16:7) even though Baasha carried out the prophecy of the end of the house of Jeroboam (1 Kings 14:14).  A succession of men – Zimri, Omri, Jehu, Shallum, Menahem, Pekah and Hoshea – then each killed the previous kings and grabbed power in their places.  Every one of these so-called “kings” (whom today we would refer to as military dictators) turned out evil.  God was not pleased with any of them – even Jehu, whom God had told Elijah to anoint as future king over Israel (1 Kings 19:16 – it ended up falling to one of the students of Elijah’s successor Elisha to actually perform the anointing – 2 Kings 9:1-13) eventually ended up not living up to his promise (2 Kings 10:29-31).

At the same time God told Elijah to anoint Jehu as king over Israel He also told him to anoint Hazael as king over Syria (1 Kings 19:15).  (Likewise Elisha was the one who was actually able to give the news to Hazael – 2 Kings 8:13).  Did Hazael then wait for God to give him power?  No.  Rather Hazael killed the ill king Benhadad [who may have had no heirs] by suffocating him and then took his place as king (verses 14-15).  As Elisha had predicted (verses 11-12), Hazael likewise turned out to be an evil king who repeatedly raided Israel throughout his reign as king of Syria (2 Kings 10:32, 12:17-18, 13:3, 22).  Subsequently, Daniel 11:21 contains a prophecy of how Antiochus IV Epiphanes would slyly grab power in the Seleucid Empire. (Note that he later tried to destroy the true worship of God, leading to the Maccabean uprising – which itself was possibly referred to in the prophecy of Zech. 9:13).

But the Bible also contains a number of good examples of those who refused to grab power – and all the “good guys” of the Bible who actually came into positions of power fall in this category.  Joseph did not try to grab power – the Pharaoh gave it to him (Gen. 41:38-41).  Neither did Moses, who was reluctant to accept the power he was going to be given (Exodus 3:11ff).  Moses was noted for his meekness and humility (Numbers 12:3).  Christ told us in one of the Beatitudes that the meek will inherit the earth (Matt. 5:5) – and if there is anyone who is far from meek, it is the power-grabber. 

Even though, at God’s instruction, Samuel had anointed David to replace Saul as king over Israel (1 Sam. 16:1-13), David refused to try to overthrow Saul as long as Saul lived.  A key example is in 1 Sam. 24 where David had the opportunity to kill Saul but refused to do so – even though Saul was trying to kill David.  Even after Saul’s death, David waited for the people – first of Judah (2 Sam. 2:4) and later of all Israel (2 Sam. 5:3) to formally give him the office of king.  David even executed the men who murdered his competitor for the kingship, Saul’s son Ishbosheth (2 Sam. 2:8-11, 4:11-12) – a man whom David called righteous even though he was not the one who was rightfully to be given the kingship.

In modern history, we can note that three of the worst mass murderers of the twentieth century “grabbed” power which they had not been given.  Hitler was initially (January 1933) made chancellor of Germany (which was at that time not a particularly powerful position).  However, the following month he used the Reichstag building fire (which he blamed on the Communists, but which the Nazis themselves likely caused) as a purported “threat to the German nation” and a pretext for gaining absolute power.  Lenin and the Bolsheviks likewise subverted the provisional government of Russia (which had been established in the February 1917 Revolution which had overthrown Tsarist rule) in order to stage a coup in October and grab total power – leading to the massacre of millions of those who had opposed the Bolsheviks.  Such was magnified further after Lenin’s death when Stalin (whom Lenin disdained) was able to “worm” his way into absolute power between 1924 and 1927.  Stalin eventually murdered (according to most historians) about seven times as many as Lenin had killed, including very many of the “old Bolsheviks” who themselves had brought Lenin to power.

In the modern history of our country, a sterling example of a man who refused to grab power when he had the opportunity to do so was George Washington.  With the power over the army given him by the Continental Congress during the Revolutionary War, he could have become a military dictator had he wanted to do so.  Rather, after the war he voluntarily relinquished power and returned to Mount Vernon.  He stopped an attempted military coup in 1783 at Newburgh, New York, with an impassioned plea to his former officers to respect democracy.  When called back to the service of his country again in 1789, this time as President following the adoption of the Constitution, he again relinquished power voluntarily after two terms – establishing a tradition which was broken only once, and which was later written into the Constitution as the 22nd Amendment.

Sadly, power-grabbing sometimes appears even among those who call themselves Christians, members of God’s Church.  The apostles, before their conversion, argued among themselves about which one of them should be considered the greatest (Luke 22:24, Mark 9:34).  The mother of James and John asked for the two best places for them (Matt. 20:20).  Jesus corrected her and told her that all offices in the Kingdom will be assigned by God the Father.  Power-grabbing is to be totally forbidden – the way to greatness is to become the servant of all (verses 26-28).  Simon the sorcerer of Samaria did not learn this lesson – he wanted the ability to bestow the Holy Spirit in order to enhance his own greatness, and offered money in an attempt to obtain this power (Acts 8:17-23).  Neither did Diotrephes (3 John 9-10) who “loved to have the preeminence among them.”

After the tragic doctrinal collapse in the previous fellowship which had occurred in 1995, the bylaws of the United Church of God were wisely written in a way such as to make power-grabbing extremely difficult.  Attempted power-grabbers have found that they would have to leave the organization in order to take power.  Furthermore, the concurrence of a very large majority of the elders is required in order for any doctrinal changes to be made – no leader, or small group of leaders, has the authority to do such.

The ultimate positive example of refusal to grab power is that of Christ Himself – in the third temptation, when Satan tried to get Him to take power early (Matt. 4:8-10) and again when the people tried to take Him by force to make Him king (John 6:15).  He was the perfect example of servant leadership (Matt. 20:26-28) – giving His life as the supreme Servant of all humanity that our sins might be forgiven and that we might have salvation and eternal life (John 3:16-17).  But what did this attitude of total service do for Him personally?  The answer is in Matthew 28:18.  All power and authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him.  In His time as a human being on earth (and in how He suffered to benefit human beings), He became “complete” – (Strong’s #5048, verb form of #5046 – τέλειος, “teleios” = “complete”) – fully prepared for the office of King over all humans on earth (Heb. 2:10). 

Jesus meanwhile continues to serve us from heaven as our High Priest (Heb. 6:20 and following four chapters).  He awaits the instruction from the Father to return to earth, actually assume the office of King and establish His Kingdom (Matt. 24:36).  He has told us that the meek (Matt. 5:5) – the servants of all (Matt. 20:26-28), not the power-grabbers – are the ones who are to inherit the earth and are to be given power under Him.  And every sin, in a sense, is a form of power-grabbing in our own lives – to sin is to reject God’s authority over us.  When we were baptized we accepted God as our Master and He has the full right to tell us what to do.  When we disobey one of His commandments we are rejecting Him as our Master and usurping power which we have no right to grab.  We know that in the military, for example, disobeying an order has serious consequences.  So let us not attempt in any form to grab power.  When we do have an opportunity to lead, let it be, following Christ’s example, with an attitude of service toward God and toward our fellow human beings – not with an attitude of self-promotion.  Let us be meekly subservient and obedient to God in all things – let us overcome our sinful tendencies and keep the works of Jesus Christ until the end.  Then and only then, when He returns, will He indeed – as He promises in Rev. 2:26 – give us power over the nations.