21 My son, fear the Lord and the king, and do not join with those who do otherwise, 22 for disaster will arise suddenly from them, and who knows the ruin that will come from them both?
One might join Derek Kidner and entitle this proverb: the godly citizen. The son is called by his father to be such a citizen. In a terse positive command, he is enjoined to “fear the Lord and the king.” And negatively, “Do not join with those who do otherwise.” The sentence structure is fascinating. Clearly there is a similarity in that one fears the king as he fears God. It’s not a different fear. “The identification of the king with the Lord shows that the sage regarded the king’s throne on earth as the legitimate representation of God’s throne in heaven.”[1] In the simplest of terms, fearing God is such a reverence for Him that it terrifies you to dishonor and disobey Him. So too to honor the king is to be substantially afraid to disobey and disregard him.
“The word shonim ("the rebellious") has been given various translations. The idea of "change" is caught in the RV's "political agitators." The Syriac and Targum have "fools"; the Latin has "distractors"; the LXX has "do not disobey either of them," referring to God and the king in the first line.”[2]
The word “for” in verse 22 gives the ground for the positive and negative commands. “For disaster will arise suddenly from them, and who knows the ruin that will come from them both?”[3] Disaster or ruin may come from both, if both are dishonored. The rebellious are predicted ruin. There appears to be no redeeming value for those who fail to obey. The rebel’s downfall is certain.
Peter may have been thinking of this when he wrote to Christians under the rule Emperor Nero: “Fear God. Honor the emperor.”[4] Knowing what we know about Nero, this makes Peter’s exhortation quite stunning. Paul in Romans 13:1-7 also picks up the same thought, especially in verse 4: “for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.” (Romans 13:4, ESV)
This
communicates to us a general position that Christians should adopt. Devoid of exceptions or exemptions we are to “fear
God and the king”. Little is stated in
either case about our agreement with them or our liking of their mandates. Submission is the basic premise. In the larger topic we know that when the
king commands what God forbids, or the king forbids what God commands (Acts
5:29) we are to at all cost surrender to God’s will. This means that the godly citizen, upon entering
a decision ought to be predisposed to fear God AND the king. If the weight of 1
Peter 2:13-17 have any bearing on the discussion (and it does), then the
exceptions are not the normal. The
normal posture of godly citizens is submission.
[1] Waltke, B. K. (2005). The Book of Proverbs, Chapters 15–31 (p.
287). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
[2] Expositor's Bible Commentary, The, Pradis
CD-ROM:Proverbs/Notes to Proverbs/Proverbs 24 Notes/Proverbs Note 24:21, Book
Version: 4.0.2
[3] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Pr
24:22). (2016). Crossway Bibles.
[4] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (1
Pe 2:17). (2016). Crossway Bibles.
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