“While the word was in the king’s mouth, a voice came from heaven saying, “King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared: sovereignty has been removed from you.” Daniel 4:31

Recognizing and Honoring Authority

Sovereignty – The book of Daniel is the story about a great man of faith, a great king and a greater God.  The central question of the book is this:  who’s in control?  King Nebuchadnezzar, the great king of Babylon, had a very hard lesson to learn.  It took seven years of madness and humiliation to come to grips with the real authority of the living: God.  But it all began on one single day with one single sentence and one single thought.  Nebuchadnezzar started with the proclamation, “Look at all that I have accomplished.”  Before the words were out of his mouth, he heard God saying, “Today your authority has been taken away.”  When the king refused to see life as a gift from God, God gave him a chance to see what he really was: a crazy animal consumed with himself.

This story in Daniel provides us with an important clue about the meaning of the word “authority”.  Daniel was written in Aramaic, a sister language of Hebrew.  The Greek word exousia is used to translate the Aramaic sholtana in this verse.  That helps us see what the Hebrew concept is all about.  What we discover is that this idea of authority or sovereignty covers the concepts of dominion and power over the whole world.  What the Daniel story tells us is that all human authority originates in supernatural authority.  No man earns authority.  Authority is the gift of God.  Whenever any man treats authority as an earned right, he insults the God who permitted him to rule.

We may not be rulers of great empires, but we still face the same issue.  Every life must deal with the question of recognizing and honoring authority.  God gives authority liberally.  You and I have authority over children, employees, relatives, friends, even those whom we have never met.  Just think about the spheres of influence you have been given.  The question is this:  do you exercise that authority as a way of recognizing and honoring the One Who gave it to you, or are you playing the role of Nebuchadnezzar, the one who thought he had earned his position?  Climbing the corporate ladder has much less to do with you than with God’s desire for you.  Being a proud parent is not about what you have done but what God has put in your hands.

Whose authority do you honor by the way you live?