How Should Christians Respond to Tyranny?
By Joel Settecase / January 19, 2021
How should God's people live in the face of tyranny? In Exodus 1:1-2:10, we see the following:
Tyrannical Circumstances
Pharaoh, fearing the growing numbers and power of the Hebrews, denied them their the rights of property and liberty and subjected them to forced labor.
Later, recognizing the danger that boys (who under normal circumstances grow up to be men) posed to his tyrannical state, Pharaoh ordered their midwives to slaughter their male children—he planned to emasculate the entire nation of Hebrews.
Pharaoh's orders grew more and more diabolical over time.
An Example of a Godly Response to Tyrrany
The Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, resisted the tyrannical mandate, refusing to comply, and delivered the Hebrew children, male and female. They lied to the government officials who questioned them about it. In doing all this, they were loving God and loving His people—they were also taking their own lives in their hands.
As a result, God rewarded Shiphrah and Puah with their own families. God approved of their resistance to tyranny and refusal to sell out God's people. They didn't do anything out of the ordinary; they simply kept on doing what they were called to do, namely, serving God's people by delivering babies. Today their names are memorialized forever in Holy Scripture.
The Lesson From Shiphrah and Puah
What does this teach us? God approves of obedience in defiance of tyranny.
Why Tyranny Is Hard to Resist
In our hearts, however, we fear punishment, pain, and disapproval. We want to be comfortable, and, call us crazy, but the idea of continuing to obey God in the face of threats from those in power (whether in government or society) seems to go threaten our bodily comfort.
Furthermore, think of what a bad reputation we'll get if we become known as those who go against the accepted norms and laws. It could damage our evangelism, we think.
How the Gospel Answers Our Fear of Resistance
But look how the Gospel improves our thinking: like those midwives, Jesus faithfully kept on His Father's plan, even in the face of every incentive to stop—including threats from King Herod (Luke 13:31) and rebukes from his own disciple Peter (Matthew 16:22).
In spite of the above temptation, Jesus willingly embraced the shame of his mission (Hebrews 12:2), humbling himself to the point of death by crucifixion (Philippians 2:8), in obedience to God. As a result, He (like the midwives) was "immortalized," in that He literally rose from the dead and received "glory, honor and immortality" (Romans 2:7) and His rightful place as King over all governments.
He will one day judge the tyrants and despots—both ancient and modern—and He is the one we follow.
How Should We Respond to Tyranny Now?
So now what? Now we can be free from fear of punishment, pain and disapproval. Jesus took on all the condemnation this world could muster, and He shook it off. United with Him, we have nothing to fear, and everything to gain by obeying God. Yes, we might die (implied by Jesus Himself in Matthew 16:24), but they can never truly harm us.
Does this mean we will go around looking for laws to transgress, in the name of resisting tyrants to obey God? No. But it does mean that we will faithfully—meaning consistently *and* trustingly—keep obeying God, doing, saying and thinking what He commands, without fear of government, society, or anything else. That's how Jesus won, and that's how we'll win.
"For whoever has been born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith" (1 John 5:4).