The lie that religion has no bearing on politics has yielded the kind of politics we have now: managerial, sterile, and devoid of moral conviction. The idea that political office could be a covenantal trust or that economic policy might have covenantal implications would strike most technocrats as medieval sentimentality; yet, the biblical worldview insists that public life is precisely where covenants are lived or broken. To rule, therefore, is to bind oneself before God to the care of souls, and resources and legislation define the moral boundaries of this stewardship.
The Hebrew word berith (בְּרִית) ”covenant” appears almost 300 times in Scripture. It is the spine and overarching thread of biblical history. Every political order in the Old Testament was covenantal in form and moral in purpose. God’s covenants with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David each involved not only ritual oaths but public structures: law, land, kingship, and economy.
Read Full Article »