What does it mean Romans 13:1-7? (Part 5)

[Leonardo Von]

What does it mean Romans 13:1-7? (Part 5)

We can see more examples:

3 – The apostles:

•    Act 4:19,20 -> “But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” 

The Sanhedrin enjoined John and Peter (and, by them, all the other apostles), to not preach in Jesus’ name. They disobeyed the order that the Creator established by them (permissive will), became a curse before them, suffered the punishment (Acts 5:40,41).

Nonetheless, this only served to everyone see the true elation that the Creator promotes in the heart of those who are faithful to Him (above all the sufferings which comes for keeping His absolute will). And, for this, the Church increased more and more (Acts 6:1).

4 – Jesus:

For many times He defied the potentates of Israel exposing their crimes before the Creator, calling them hypocrites, whited sepulchres (Mat 23:27), serpents and generation of vipers (Mat 23:33), beyond facing them down in regard to the keeping of the Sabbath and purifying the temple two times (John 2:14-21; Mat 21:12,13).

This behavior made Jesus a curse for the Sanhedrin and, for not submitting to them (whom the Creator “allowed” to be there), the judgment of the cross fell upon Him.

Nonetheless, this was necessary so that we could be saved and the “absolute will” of the Creator could be known to everyone at every time.

5 – Rahab:

•    Jos 2:2-5 -> “And it was told to the king of Jericho, “Behold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land.” Then the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, “Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land.” But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. And she said, “True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. And when the gate was about to be closed at dark, the men went out. I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them.””.

Rahab disobeyed the order of the Creator through the king of Jericho. Only she escaped of the judgment because she lied and her treason wasn’t found out. Although her faith in the Creator and His word was very big (see Joshua 2:9-11) to the point of being considered an example of faith (Heb 11:31), she didn’t reach the fullness of the blessing in virtue of her lie.

If she had simply resisted to the orders of the potentate without lying, for the love of Israel and their guys, the Creator would work something supernatural to free her, her family and the spies. After all, the Creator was in favor of Israel (recollect the case of Lot – Gen 19:6-11). 

It is doable that she didn’t hope that she could be saved in virtue of her past and nationality. The Creator forgave her sin, but she lost part of her blessings.

Tomorrow we will carry on. Have a great day.