The concept of power or authority in Jeremiah 22:1-9, 13-23 with implications for Africa

Abstract

God alone is the perfect ruler and his power is dependent upon none. Human beings who possess power can rightly exercise it only if they acknowledge that their power is delegated. God made it clear to the Israelites, even before they asked for a king, what such a king should be and how he should lead his people. Deuteronomy 17:14-20 sets forth a number of limitations placed upon the monarchy. The motive behind these limitations was to ensure that the Israelite king will not behave like the kings of the other nations, but that he will follow the will of God and maintain a society which is right with itself and right with God. 1 Samuel 8 warns the people of Israel against the potential danger of the establishment of kingship. More than a warning, 1 Samuel 8 can also be seen as another guideline which could hel\') the kings of Israel to realize the temptations and dangers they were going to face in the exercise of their authority. From the text of Jeremiah 22, we chose two kings of Judah: Josiah and Jehoiakim as case studies of the use of power or authority in the Israelite monarchy. Josiah understood his task as a king in terms of complying with the standard set in Deuteronomy and 1 Samuel. As a result, it went well for him and for the nation. But Jehoiakim was condemned for his failure to comply with God's standard. Because of the failure of Jehoiakim and many other kings like him, Israel was destroyed and the people ~re) of Judah were taken to exile. This means that the moral, social, economic, and religious conditions of any nation or society depend, in large part, on the kind of leadership of those in power. In the political sphere, the church in Africa has two responsibilities: (1) to teach the nation and their rulers the proper use of power and (2) to help the citizens to understand that they are responsible for the kind of government in power because their destiny is linked to the kind of leadership they have accepted to rule over them.