The Politics of Rot and Righteousness Text: Proverbs 28:2
Introduction: The Political Is Theological
We live in an age of frantic political churn. The headlines are a constant barrage of crises, coups, and campaigns. The political class seems to be in a perpetual state of agitated turmoil, like a washing machine stuck on the spin cycle. We see a revolving door of leaders, each promising stability and delivering yet another round of chaos. We are told the solution is a new party, a new policy, a new president, a new prime minister. But the book of Proverbs, with its rugged, earthy wisdom, cuts right through our modern political analysis and gets to the root of the issue. The problem is not ultimately political; it is theological. The problem is sin.
Our text today from Proverbs 28 is a diagnostic tool for national health. It lays two paths before us with stark clarity. One path is the way of transgression, which leads to a frantic, unstable multiplicity of rulers. The other path is the way of understanding and knowledge, which leads to enduring stability. This is not a suggestion from a self-help book. This is a divine diagnosis of our political condition. When a nation rebels against the grain of God's created order, the center cannot hold. Things fall apart. The political fragmentation we see is not the cause of our problems; it is the fruit. It is a judgment from a holy God upon a rebellious people.
We have been taught to think of politics and religion as two separate rooms in the house, with a thick, soundproof wall between them. But the Bible teaches that the house belongs to God, and every room in it. Our political life is a direct reflection of our national character, and our national character is a reflection of our national worship. When a people forsake the law of God, they will inevitably praise the wicked. And when you praise the wicked, you will eventually find yourselves ruled by them, or by a whole host of them, one after another, in a dizzying display of divine judgment. This proverb is a bucket of cold water in the face of our secular age. It tells us that political stability is a moral and theological issue before it is anything else.
The Text
By the transgression of a land many are its princes,
But by a man who understands, who knows, so it endures.
(Proverbs 28:2 LSB)
The Fruit of Rebellion: A Multiplicity of Princes
Let us first examine the diagnosis. The first clause is a blunt instrument:
"By the transgression of a land many are its princes..." (Proverbs 28:2a)
The word for "transgression" here is pesha. It doesn't mean a minor slip-up or an oopsie-daisy. It means rebellion. It is a conscious, willful violation of a known standard. It is a nation shaking its fist at Heaven and declaring its autonomy from the living God. This is the original sin of Eden, writ large on a national scale. "We will be as gods, determining good and evil for ourselves." When a nation does this, when it institutionalizes rebellion through its laws, its culture, and its public square, the result is a political cancer. The symptom of this cancer is "many princes."
This can be understood in a few ways, all of them disastrous. First, it can mean a rapid succession of rulers. Think of the northern kingdom of Israel after the split from Judah. Their history is a bloody catalog of coups, assassinations, and short-lived dynasties. One king is overthrown by another, who is then murdered by his successor. This is the very picture of instability. When there is no fear of God, there is no ultimate authority, and every man with a sharp knife and enough ambition thinks he can be king. The land is torn apart by factions, each vying for power. Sound familiar? Our modern equivalent is not so much assassination as it is the constant, frenetic churn of the election cycle, where every few years we lurch in a new direction, tearing up the policies of the last administration, promising a new start, and delivering more of the same instability.
Second, "many princes" can refer to a bloated, over-reaching bureaucracy. When a nation forsakes God, it does not become godless. It simply finds other gods to worship, and the most common idol is the State. The State promises to be the savior, the provider, the source of all security and meaning. To do this, it must grow. It must multiply its agencies, its departments, its regulations, its "princes." You find yourself ruled not by one king, but by a thousand petty tyrants in a thousand different offices, each with his own little fiefdom and his own set of forms in triplicate. This is a curse on the land. It is the judgment of God, who gives a rebellious people over to the very thing they thought would save them. They wanted freedom from God's simple law, so He gives them over to the crushing complexity of man's law.
The Foundation of Stability: A Man of Understanding
But the proverb does not leave us in despair. It presents the alternative, the remedy. The second clause shows us the path to health:
"But by a man who understands, who knows, so it endures." (Proverbs 28:2b)
The contrast is sharp and clear. The chaos of "many princes" is answered by the stability brought by "a man." Notice the singular. This is not stability by committee. It is not stability by focus group. It is stability brought by principled, wise leadership. But what kind of man is this? The text is specific. He is a man "who understands, who knows."
This is not a reference to a man with a high IQ or a fancy degree from a prestigious university. The world is full of brilliant fools. The kind of understanding and knowledge the Bible values is never detached from its ultimate source. "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge" (Proverbs 1:7). "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding" (Proverbs 9:10). The man who brings stability is a man whose mind is anchored in the reality of the transcendent God. He doesn't just know facts; he knows the God who gives all facts their meaning. He doesn't just have data; he has discernment.
What does this man understand? He understands righteousness. He understands justice. He understands that law is not something we invent, but something we discover, because it is rooted in the character of God. He knows that a nation is not a random collection of autonomous individuals, but a covenantal body with obligations to God. He knows that you cannot mock God and get away with it forever. He understands that true prosperity is not built on debt and deceit, but on diligence and righteousness. He knows that the fear of the Lord is the only true foundation for a lasting society.
When such a man, or such a class of men, leads a people, the result is that "it endures." The Hebrew word here means to be prolonged, to last a long time. This is the promise of covenantal faithfulness. When a nation honors God, God honors that nation with stability, peace, and longevity. The frantic, revolutionary churn ceases. The foundation is solid. The house stands because it is built upon the rock of God's revealed will, not the shifting sand of human opinion.
Our Only Hope for Enduring Stability
So where does this leave us? We look around at our own land and we see the transgression. We see the rebellion. And we are drowning in a sea of princes. We have political princes, bureaucratic princes, media princes, academic princes, and corporate princes, all of them clamoring for power and offering their own conflicting paths to salvation. The land is sick, and the diagnosis of Proverbs 28:2 is painfully accurate.
The solution is not to find a slightly cleverer prince. The solution is not a new political strategy. The solution is repentance. The solution is a return to the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of all true understanding. We need a generation of men who understand and who know, but we will not get them until we are a people who want them. We will not get them until we are a people who cry out to God for them.
But ultimately, this proverb points us beyond any mere man. The ultimate "man who understands, who knows" is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one in whom "are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3). He is the one of whom Isaiah prophesied, "And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD" (Isaiah 11:2). The only reason any society has ever experienced any measure of stability or justice is because of the common grace of God, flowing from the throne of this King.
The political chaos we see is a result of our land's transgression against this King. The only path to enduring stability is to bow the knee to Him. The gospel is the ultimate political message. It is the declaration that there is a King, Jesus, and that He demands the allegiance of every ruler, every nation, and every heart. Our task as the church is not to retreat from the public square in pietistic despair. Our task is to proclaim the crown rights of King Jesus over every square inch of it. It is only when a land turns to Him, the perfect man of understanding and knowledge, that its transgressions can be forgiven and its stability can truly, and eternally, endure. For of the increase of His government and of peace there will be no end.