How Sarah Palin Fails to Meet the Biblical Qualifications for Civil Magistrates

Earlier this evening Mrs. Sarah Palin, mother of five and Governor of Alaska, accepted the Republican nomination as John McCain’s running mate for the office of Vice President of the United States. Surprisingly, many conservative Christians have embraced Sarah Palin's nomination even though conservatives have historically been unfavorable to women holding civil office. This has struck liberals in America as such hypocrisy that both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times ran cover stories on that subject.

The relief amongst conservatives at Palin’s nomination seems naïve at best. Even if Palin is a wonderful conservative, Christians appear to have forgotten that even if she wins, she will not be running the country. Anti-life maverick John McCain would be President and his worldview and policies would govern the executive office.

However, Mrs. Palin’s nomination is far worse than naïve.

As introduced in my earlier post, Mrs. Sarah Palin is disqualified from serving as a civil magistrate, and no Christian desiring to be true to the Word of God should vote for her. This is true not because of her intelligence or abilities, not because she is married, not because she has children, not because her family may or may not be in disarray, and not because her husband has or hasn't given her permission to serve as a civil magistrate. Mrs. Sarah Palin fails to meet the biblical qualification for a civil magistrate at the outset without need to consider her political platform because she does not meet the requirement given consistently throughout the Scriptures that a civil magistrate must be a man.

The Over-Arching Principle of Male Leadership Throughout the Bible

It should come as no surprise that the Bible requires male leadership in the role of civil magistrate because the Word of God requires the same of church leadership. (See I Timothy 3:2,12; Titus 1:6.)

The requirement for male leadership as it appears in the requirement for church leadership, however, is not a strange and unusual occurrence in the Bible. It is part of an over-arching prerequisite of God’s design for all of life.

The requirement for male leadership in all of life was made clear at the beginning when God created man and woman, before they fell into sin. The text of Genesis 2:7 and 2:18-24 teaches us that man was made first, and then the woman was made to be man’s helper and companion. Adam named the woman. Adam, being the leader of mankind, had the ability alone to commit the sin that plunged the rest of humanity into sin. Eve’s sin did not do this, but Adam’s did because God had made him the leader over the woman. (See Romans 5:14-17.)

In setting forth the authority of the man over the woman in the local church, Paul appealed to the creation order saying, “For Adam was formed first, then Eve” (1 Tim. 2:13). Again, this indicates that the command for women in the church was not unusual but a single application of a larger, over-arching principle going back to the establishment of God’s created order.

Pastor Bill Einwechter further explains:

In another passage, Paul states the divinely ordained order of authority and headship: “But I would have you to know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God” (1 Cor. 11:3). Therefore, the Apostle Paul teaches that God has decreed that the order of authority be as follows: God-Christ-Man-Woman. Each one in this “chain of command” is under the headship (i.e., authority) of the one preceding him or her. Later on in this same text, Paul, as in 1 Timothy 2, calls upon the order of creation to show man’s headship over the woman. He says, “For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man” (1 Cor. 11:8-9). The Bible explicitly states that the man has headship over the woman, and that this headship is not based on cultural factors, or even the fall; rather, it is based on the created order established by God Himself. [1]

Pastor Einwechter wisely goes on to list the three basic God-ordained institutions of society that theologians have observed in the Scripture for generations: the family, the church, and the states. Just as God’s Word makes it clear that male headship in required in the church, so is male headship also required in the family. Ephesians 5:22-24 and Colossians 3:18-21 are among the passages in the Scriptures that require loving male leadership in the home.

As we pull back even more and observe “a bird’s-eye view” of the Scriptures, we should see that the theme of male headship applies to all of the basic institutions that God has ordained. The hierarchy that the Bible describes proceeds like this: “God the Father-God the Son-Man-Woman.” (See I Corinthians 11:3.)

God's Commands for Selecting Men for Civil Magistrates

In Exodus 18:21, God spoke through Jethro to Moses: “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, to be rulers...” We know that this command was instruction from God intended to be part of the Law of God, and not merely subjective counsel from a father-in-law, because Moses later repeats this instruction in the second complete giving of the Law in Deuteronomy. Moses declared to God’s people, “Take you wise men, and understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you” (Deuteronomy 1:13).

Significantly, the Hebrew word for “men” in these passages is 'enowsh. It is not the Hebrew word 'ishshah, the common word for woman, nor 'adam, the word usually used to reference all mankind, nor zakar, the word often used to refer to males in general, including male animals. The word 'enowsh used in both Exodus 18:21 and Deuteronomy 1:13 is in the masculine tense of the Hebrew language and commonly refers to the adult human male. [2]

It is this word 'enowsh that is translated “man” or “men” in passages such as Genesis 17:26-27. “In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son. And all the men of his house, born in the house, and bought with money of the stranger, were circumcised with him.” It’s hard to imagine that word being applied to ladies.

That being said, 'enowsh sometimes is used in the Bible to refer to mankind in general, as is another Hebrew word for “man” 'iysh. As with Genesis 17:27, the sense of the word is made clear by the way in which the commands were applied.

For example, in Deuteronomy 17:14-20, when speaking about the rules for how God’s people could choose a king, the passage repeatedly uses gender-specific words for men such as “king” as opposed to “queen” and “brethren” as opposed to “sisters” or “kinspeople.” But the real clincher is found in Deuteronomy 17:17, where God says of the king, “Neither shall he multiply wives to himself.” Now how would a female civil magistrate be able to “multiply wives”?

Furthermore, every other passage of Scripture dealing with the civil magistrate and his qualifications and duties, men are in view (2 Sam. 23:3; Neh. 7:2; Prov. 16:10; 20:8, 28; 29:14; 31:4-5; Rom. 13:1-6; etc.). Finally, in all the examples in Scripture where God’s people were worshipping and serving the true God Jehovah, men are the civil magistrates. Moses himself applied the command given by appointing a man, Joshua, to replace him when he stepped down from civil leadership. Saul, a man, was appointed by God as the first King of Israel, and he was later replaced by David, also a man. On the other hand, only where God’s people were living in rebellion to God do we find examples of women rising to positions of civil leadership. (See, for example, Jezebel in I Kings 21:5; Queen Athaliah in II Kings 11:1-16; and Isaiah 3:12.)

The Case of Deborah

Deborah has been cited by some as an example of a civil magistrate approved by God in the Bible. But it is unlikely that Deborah was an actual civil official in Israel for several reasons. (1) She “judged” under a tree and not in the gates, suggesting that she was more a prophetess and counselor or mediator than a judge with authority to enforce her decisions (Judges 4:4-5). (2) She did not lead the troops into battle, but insisted Barak perform that task (Judges 5:12). (3) She recognized that there were others at the time who held civil office as “governors” in the land (Judges 5:12).

But there is yet an even more significant reason the case of Deborah cannot be looked to as a positive example of how Christians are to live. That reason is that Deborah lived in a time when Israel was plainly not obeying God. The very beginning of the chapter speaking of Deborah’s story says Israel was doing evil in the sight of the Lord at the time of her influence (Judges 4:1). Men were not being the leaders they were supposed to be (Judges 4:6-9), and the people were doing what was right in their own eyes instead of following God’s commands. (See Judges 17:6; 21:25.)

Also, it would be poor hermeneutics to use the single, non-normative example of Deborah to override the prevailingly consistent commands of Scripture against women exercising civil authority. As John Calvin explained in his commentary on 1 Timothy 2:11-13, it is improper to use the example of Deborah to argue for women holding public office given that such is against the “ordinary system of government” ordained by God and revealed in his Scriptures.

Conclusion

The commands given about picking civil leaders fit cohesively with the directions given throughout the Bible in both the Old and New Testaments that affirm and reaffirm how men are to lovingly lead under God’s authority in every sphere of God’s created order. It is true for the church. It is true for the family. It is true for the state.

Proverbs 31 says that a virtuous woman works so excellently as a help meet to her husband that he is known in the gates of civil leadership, and in those gates her husband praises her. He boast of his wife before the other civil leaders. This is the appropriate and beautiful picture that God gives for the role a woman may honorably play toward the office of civil magistrate.

For a woman to take civil authority over a man, even a man who is not her husband, would be to violate the principle stated in I Corinthians 11:3: “But I would have you to know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.” A woman assuming authority over a man in any context would be as awful as a man seeking to assume authority over Christ, or Christ assuming authority over His Heavenly Father.”

May we learn to adopt the spirit of Christ in our obedience to the Lord and in our submission to the order He in His wisdom has ordained for us. “I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me” John 5:30.


Footnotes

[1] Bill Einwechter, Should Christians Support a Woman for the Office of Civil Magistrate? (July 8, 2004; Vision Forum Ministries).

[2] See Strong's Concordance's notes on 'enowsh H582 contrasted with the other Hebrew words for "man."