Most people consider the inauguration of a new president to be very meaningful. How much more significant will it be when one Ruler is established over the whole world!

Each autumn, members of the United Church of God gather at sites around the globe to celebrate God’s Feast of Tabernacles and review what good government will look like when Jesus Christ returns to rule as king. The messages during this time motivate and give us insights into the millennial rule of Jesus Christ.

Although we cannot see the future (except where, when and as God reveals it), we can read God’s Word and understand the differences between the rule of man and the rule of God.

Some differences

My New King James Version Bible has the subheading “Israel Demands a King” above 1 Samuel 8. 1 Samuel 8:7 then shows God stating, “Heed the voice of the people…they have rejected Me that I should not reign over them.” God was clearly telling Samuel that Israel’s choice or demand for a king was, in fact, a rejection of God Himself as sovereign Lord. But how so?

God continues in 1 Samuel 8:8, “According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day—with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods—so they are doing to you also.” They wanted their own way. They did not wish to submit to God’s rule. They wanted to make gods of their own (Exodus 32:8).

In 1 Samuel 8:9, God again repeats His incredible condescension: “Heed their voice.” Why? Why would God allow Himself to be rejected? The rest of 1 Samuel 8 reveals much about human government and why God allows it, especially in Israelite nations. It teaches us that only the rule of God will bring maximum happiness to the majority of mankind. Only submission to the Eternal will result in true freedom.

Please read 1 Samuel 8:11-22. Notice that not everything the king will do is bad. We could say that being a cook or a baker for the king might be a cushy job. (But remember the baker in the story of Joseph in Egypt? Maybe we wouldn’t want to suffer a monarch’s arbitrary displeasure.) Job titles and duties are not the point.

The point is that in the Eternal’s explanation of the king’s behavior, He showed that in a human government, people always serve the king. As Ronald Reagan said, “There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters but they mean to be masters.” Masters require submission.

There is just no getting around that fact. How many masters can we have?

How does Christ want us to live?

The question is not simply academic. Christians have been called and chosen to become kings and priests. The book of Revelation clearly expresses Christ’s will for His Church. In Revelation 1:6 and Revelation 5:10, the idea is unmistakable that government rulership will be our #1 job in Christ’s Kingdom when He returns to earth.

This passage in 1 Samuel 8 will not be our model for how to rule. There are examples of good rulers in God’s Word. Joseph (already mentioned) and Daniel (a member of the worldly government of Babylon), among others, should be studied carefully. They served in high government positions and also submitted to higher authority.

But let’s summarize Jesus Christ’s method of governing by using one chapter in the New Testament—Ephesians 5. The subhead in my Bible reads, “Walk in Love,” but perhaps it could say, “Govern in Love.” Ephesians 5:1-2 read, “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” These scriptures should be read, understood and followed. Then skip down to Ephesians 5:15-21 and read them as a prelude to good government.

Ephesians 5:22 begins our government treatise. “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.” If a wife submits to her husband, it could be said that he rules over her. He governs. This verse has been used to abuse wives ever since Paul first wrote it. It should not be so used.

If we husbands would simply read Ephesians 5:25, which states, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her”! It is incredible that we could confuse the sequence of loving our wives “as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her” with “let the wives be subject to their husbands.” Although Ephesians 5:22 comes before Ephesians 5:25, Christ sacrificed Himself first before there was even a Church to be subject to Him!

Some human husbands hesitate about which should come first. But Christ would not and did not hesitate to die for all mankind before the vast majority of humans even understood what was taking place.

Without going into more detail, let’s skip to Ephesians 5:32, “This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” I postulate that when Paul speaks of a “great mystery,” part of what he is talking about concerns our future rulership as kings and priests under Christ in the world beyond today.

We husbands are not just being given admonition about how to be good husbands. (Nor are wives just being given instruction about how to be good wives.) We are all being taught how to rule—how to rule as Christ will rule.

Government in today’s world is badly flawed; but it operates by God’s permission. He has allowed mankind this choice, which will reveal that only God’s government will bring true peace and lasting happiness to this world. For now, almost any rule is better than none at all. But the veneer of even acceptable government is stretched thinner and thinner, revealing chaos just below the surface. Satan really wants no other rule than his own, but he will accept chaos as a temporary substitute.

It therefore behooves us to practice and teach good government NOW.

Husbands, love your wives and give yourselves for them as Christ gave Himself for the Church. And wives, respect your husbands. Learn and practice God’s good government by visiting Ephesians 5:21 often. Paul understood the challenge but wrote by God’s Holy Spirit what we all must learn—“submitting to one another in the fear of God.”