Numbers 16:3 "[A]nd they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, "You have gone too far! For all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them; why do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?"

How often do we bristle at authority? I know I do! And I sometimes think that people in authority are exalting themselves! Frankly, they often are! But God puts people in positions of leadership, or allows them to be in those positions, for a reason. Sometimes, as with Moses and Aaron, it is because they truly are the best people for the job. Moses and Aaron were obedient and good men. Moses, especially, was a man God could talk to. He was the only person who could have led the Jews out of Egypt.

Other times, the leaders we have are not good, and they are leading the people and institutions entrusted to them astray. But even then, God is allowing them to be in their positions for a reason, and there is some lesson for us there. We are always called, by the Fourth Commandment, to honor those in authority over us. We do not have to, and should not, be obedient to laws, rules, or even suggestions that are immoral or in violation of our conscience. We should not even allow bad leaders to influence our way of thinking or make us doubt what we know to be true. This resistance can be very difficult, and often results in suffering, but it must always be done in the most peaceful way possible. We cannot let bad leaders lead us astray either by leading us into sin directly, or by our resistance to them becoming sinful in and of itself.

When good leaders, like Moses and Aaron, get us to a safe place, it is easy to become complacent and start thinking that we are just as good as they are (we are, after all, each just as valuable in God's eyes), and we can therefore govern ourselves. That is a recipe for disaster! Every single institution, including the Church, has to have leadership, and its members must show respect to their leaders, or the institution will fall apart. Under bad leaders, the institution may fall apart anyway, and that fall can be assumed, then, to be within God's permissive will, but at least we will not have personally sinned if we showed the proper honor to those in authority.

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Apparently, our new Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, thinks along these same lines! "I believe that scripture, the Bible, is very clear that God is the one that raises up those in authority. He raised up each of you. All of us. And I believe that God has allowed and ordained each and every one of us to be here at this specific moment."