Micah 3:1 And I said, Hear, I pray you, O head of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment
Perhaps you have noticed that usually when people are talking about submission to authority, they are talking about authority that ends at their own level. What I mean by that is, usually if someone is talking about submitting to the authority of a preacher, it is usually a preacher saying it. If someone talks about submitting to the authority of a parent, it is usually a parent saying it. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with that. I am a parent, and I have said that children should obey; I will continue to do that. I am also a preacher, and I believe people should be in submission to the Word of God; I’ll continue saying that.
However, a low-level rebel might be justified in thinking that it is oddly convenient for people to be talking about authority only when it really benefits their own authority. Yet, God often addresses the rebellion of leaders, and He often addresses them first as He does in the prophets.
In Micah 3:1 God says, “And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment?” In other words, if anyone should know about justice, the law, and judgment, shouldn’t it be those who are implementing the law, the judges? He goes on to say in verse 2, “Who hate the good and love the evil.” These people were not motivated by what was right and wrong, but what benefited themselves.
Verse 3 says, “Who also eat the flesh of my people.” This is graphic, but He is talking about leaders who basically chop people up and throw them in the pot and make soup of them. They make soup of the people who should be obeying a higher authority. Verse 4 says, “Then shall they cry unto the LORD, but he will not hear them.” So, these leaders cried for their authority, God, and God did not hear them because they mistreated those who were to follow their authority.
Verse 9 says, “Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel.” In verse 11 he goes on, “The head thereof judge for reward.” That is, the princes were not concerned about what was right or wrong, but what benefited them. It goes on, “And the priests thereof teach for hire.” The priests were not concerned about the glory of God; they were concerned about what benefited them. It continues, “And the prophets thereof divine for money.” They were in it for themselves, not for what it meant for God and for the chain of command.” It finishes, “Yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.”
This is a common refrain in the prophets. These people felt entitled, as if the Ark of the Covenant, the Tabernacle, and now the Temple were in their town and country, so God had to bless them. They felt as if authority was an entitlement. Friend, you don’t ever own authority, you steward it, and sometimes that authority can change.
We learn from this that the best authorities lead with submission and they lead in submission. Nearly everyone is some kind of authority, and everyone is under authority. God goes on to say in verse 12, “Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field.” God was sending judgment on the entire nation, but not because of the common people so much as because the leaders of the people were rebels themselves.
We are living in a day where rebels reign and expect everyone to obey them, but they never think about their own submission to the law of God and the law of country. Speaking of pastors, God says in the New Testament, “Knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.” Every master on this planet has a Master in Heaven, and we ought to remember that. We usually break off at our own level. A preacher talks about submitting to preaching. A parent talks about children submitting to parents. It is a little rarer for an authority to preach about the authority that is over his own head, yet the strongest way to lead is to find a way to be in the chain of command.
One of the kings of France said something like, “The state, that’s me,” or “I am the state. I am the end all, the only authority.” That is sorely mistaken. No one person is the authority for everyone and everything. All of us lead and all of us should follow. Today, you are probably leading someone and you certainly should be following. The best authorities lead with submission and they lead in submission.