Our Lord is the ultimate power--he is the one who places men and women in authority and gives them power, nomatter how much they think they are self-made or self-important. I noticed the phrase "today I have begotten you." My bible (The HarperCollins Study Bible, NRSV) notes that the phrase was part of the adoption of kings, whereby they are made God's sons. But it also points back and ahead to the King of Kings, eternally begotten of the Father, who alone can embody the chronological paradox (at least in English) of "today I have begotten you."
Today may I have the humility to bow before the authorities set over me and so be conformed to the character of Christ, who died for my sins.
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The notion of authority figures being somehow chosen or anointed by God is one I've always had issues with. The whole thing smacks of the Divine Right of kings, and are we to somehow believe that even non-Christian rulers are chosen by God as some mysterious part of His divine plan? Even the genocidal ones? At what point are good Christians to stop kneeling and pick up the sword against a tyrant?
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