Exodus 18: 20,21
Thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt shew them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do. Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): This text is part of the sagacious advice which Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, gave him about the sort of men that he should pick out to be his lieutenants in civic government.
EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): God has plainly described the characters we ought to choose for rulers and magistrates. He has also told us, that “when the righteous are in authority the people rejoice, but that when the wicked bear rule the people mourn,” Proverbs 29:2. If then, we choose different men for our rulers, we slight God’s counsels and disobey His commands.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN: Look first, at the ideal of a politician set forth here—run over the details. They must be ‘able men,’ or, as the original has it, “men of strength.” The statesman is not one that puts his ear down to the ground to hear the tramp of some advancing host, and then makes up his mind to follow in their paths; he is not sensitive to the varying winds of public opinion, nor does he trim his sails to suit them, but he comes to his convictions by first-hand approach to, and meditation on, the great principles that are to guide, and then holds to them with a strength that nothing can weaken, and a courage that nothing can daunt. ‘Men of strength’ is what democracies like ours do most need in their leaders.
EDWARD PAYSON: He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in “the fear of God.”
ALEXANDER MacLAREN: “Such as fear God.” There is the secret of strength…He that would govern others must first be lord of himself, and he only is lord of himself who is consciously and habitually the servant of God. So that whatever natural endowment we start with, it must be heightened, purified, deepened, enlarged, by the presence in our lives of a deep and vital religious conviction.
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Thirdly, “Men of Truth;” men whose veracity may be depended upon, who may be absolutely confided in and trusted, and, consequently, will never deviate from the paths of justice.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): “Truth” is opposed not only to deception and gross falsehoods, but to popularity hunting, flattering promises, and other crooked arts.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN: “Hating covetousness;” or, as it might be rendered, “unjust gain.” “Clean hands,” Psalm 24:4, and that not only from the vulgar filth of wealth, but from the more subtle advantages which may accrue from a lofty position, are demanded of the leader of men. Such is the ideal. The requirements are stern and high, and they exclude the vermin that infest “politics” as they are called, and cause them to stink in many nostrils. The self-seeking schemer, the one-eyed partisan, the cynic who disbelieves in ideals of any sort, the charlatan who assumes virtues that he does not possess, and mouths noble sentiments that go no deeper than his teeth, are all shut out by them. The doctrine that a man may do in his public capacity things which would be disgraceful in private life, and yet retain his personal honour untarnished, is blown to atoms by this ideal.
EDWARD PAYSON: Now, my friends, it becomes us to inquire to whom is the prevalence of these vices to be ascribed?
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “That the hypocrite reign not, lest the people be ensnared,” Job 34:30. By “hypocrite” is not meant a common hypocrite in religion, but an hypocrite in politics, who pretends to great humanity and goodness, to a tender care of the people, and a preservation of them in their rights and liberties, and promises to support and establish the constitution, and observe the laws of the nation, with a show of zeal for the religion professed in it.
EDWARD PAYSON: Subjects who have the privilege of choosing their own rulers and magistrates, make themselves partakers of all their sins, when they give their votes for vicious or irreligious characters. I hope, my hearers, it is not necessary to assure you that this remark has no party political bearing. In making it, I certainly do not mean to censure one party more than another, nor do I intend the most distant allusion to any of our rulers or magistrates; for I am taught not to speak evil of dignities. I merely state it as an abstract principle, which cannot be denied, without denying the truth of Scripture, that when we vote for vicious or irreligious men, knowing them, or having good reason to suspect them to be such, we make ourselves partakers of their sins.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): When we become Christians, we do not cease to have the rights and privileges which citizenship has bestowed on us. Let us, whenever we shall have the opportunity of using the right of voting, use it as in the sight of Almighty God, knowing that for everything, we shall be brought into account and for that among the rest, seeing that we are entrusted with it.
C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Though we cannot be great, let us be honest; and though we cannot be brilliant, let us be genuine.
JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): A man may be a pious patriot, without degenerating into a malignant partisan.
C. H. SPURGEON: Be not a thick and thin supporter of a doubtful cause. Do not vote wrong is right to serve your party.
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): The religion of God says, we must not do evil that good may come, Romans 3:8.
JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): The Bible is my system of politics. There I read, that “the Lord reigns,” Psalm 97:1; that no wisdom, understanding, counsel, or power, can prevail without His blessing, Proverbs 21:30; that as “righteousness exalteth a nation, so sin is the reproach,” and will even totally be “the ruin of any people,” Proverbs 14:34.
J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): The general duty which these words should teach us is very plain. We are to observe carefully the public events of the times in which we live. We are not to be absorbed in politics, but we are to mark political events.
C. H. SPURGEON: And let us remember that we are our own governors, to a great degree, and that if at the next election we should choose wrong governors, we shall have nobody to blame but ourselves, however wrongly they may afterwards act, unless we exercise all prudence and prayer to Almighty God to direct our hearts to a right choice in this matter.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): “Consider of it, take advice, and speak your minds,” Judges 19:30. Let every man retire into himself, and weigh the matter impartially and fully in his own thoughts, and seriously and calmly consider it, without prejudice on either side, before he speaks upon it. Let them freely talk it over, and every man take advice of his friend, know his opinion and his reasons, and weigh them. Then let every man speak his mind, and give his vote according to his conscience.
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): The nation, of which you are members, demands it of you.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN: To judge righteously, to vote honestly, is as much worship as to pray.
