Of brambles and men

If oligarchy is rule by a few, and aristocracy is rule by heredity, and monarchy is rule by a king, and democracy is rule by consent of the governed, and anarchy is rule by everyone and no one, then what would rule by inferiors be?

The Scriptures say a people will get inferior rulers if they depart from righteousness:

“If a ruler listens to falsehood, all his officials will be wicked” (Proverbs 29:12).

Choose as a ruler someone who is ethically compromised, and the effect multiplies outward in rippling concentric circles. How does this happen? Perhaps it is that the morally challenged person brings all his morally challenged friends on board and gives them Cabinet positions. Or perhaps his friends started out honorably enough but became corrupted by his own moral inferiority, and by being immersed in a culture of corruption inside the Beltway.

Sometimes a people get an inferior ruler because they want what they want and can’t be talked out of it by reason. The ancient Israelites had nation-envy and wanted a king—any old king—just to have a visible man in a robe and a gilded crown and not merely an invisible God. They nagged the prophet Samuel:

“… Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations” (1 Samuel 8:5).

Samuel said it was a bad idea, but the Israelites blocked their ears and wagged their tongues. God warned them what life would be like under their fancy king, and what he would do:

“… He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and servants. … And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the LORD will not answer you in that day” (1 Samuel 8:14-18).

From time immemorial there have been inferior rulers and controversies over inferior rulers. When Gideon’s worthless son Abimelech muscled his way into power over Israel, the original political pundit taunted him with this parable broadcast to all the men of Shechem:

“The trees once went out to anoint a king over them, and they said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us.’ But the olive tree said to them, ‘Shall I leave my abundance, by which gods and men are honored, and go hold sway over the trees?’ … And the trees said to the vine, ‘You come and reign over us.’ But the vine said to them, ‘Shall I leave my wine that cheers God and men and go hold sway over the trees?’ Then all the trees said to the bramble, ‘You come and reign over us.’ And the bramble said to the trees, ‘If in good faith you are anointing me king over you, then come and take refuge in my shade. But if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon’” (Judges 9:8-15).

In this presidential election season, let us insist on noble men to lead us and not “a ruler who listens to falsehood” and whose “officials will be wicked” as the flame flies upward. Let us pray, in the words of the 10th century B.C. comedian and commentator, for a moral cedar and not a boastful bramble.