2 Kings 6:32 - Homiletics

Princes may be resisted when they are bent upon wrong-doing.

There was a time when princes were flattered, by being told that they "could do no wrong;" that "a divinity hedged them in;" that their subjects were bound to render them, under all circumstances, an absolute and unqualified obedience. But this is certainly not scriptural teaching. The higher powers are to be obeyed in their lawful commands, but not in their unlawful ones. When Pharaoh, King of Egypt, commanded the midwives to put to death all the male children borne by the Hebrew women, "the midwives feared God, and did not as the King of Egypt commanded them , but saved the men children alive" ( Exodus 1:17 ); and God rewarded them for so acting: "Therefore God dealt well with the midwives … and because they feared God, he made them houses" ( Exodus 1:20 , Exodus 1:21 ). So now Elisha, the prophet of God, bids the elders resist the king's messenger—"hold him fast," and not let him execute the king's commands. Again, the higher powers, the great council of the Sanhedrin, commanded Peter and John, shortly after the Day of Pentecost, "not to speak at all nor preach in the Name of Jesus" ( Acts 4:18 ); to whom the apostles replied, "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard" ( Acts 4:19 , Acts 4:20 ). Resistance to lawful authority, when it commands unlawful acts, is an important part of a Christian man's duty, and ought to be inculcated just as much as obedience to lawful authority when it commands lawful acts.