God is Law (2) – Law of National Governance

Ghana is in dire straits. The national debts are enormous.

The physical environment is devastated and sad. Unemployment is eating people up. Financial stress is breaking up marriages and driving people out of the country. Crime has increased. National development has stagnated.

How have we governed the country that we are in such a dire situation?

To answer this question, we look at some basic requirements that a country must meet in order to progress and achieve prosperity and development for its citizens.

We have already established the Bible as God’s constitution for the government of mankind, so that will be our point of reference.

Ghana proclaimed its 1992 constitution with these words: In the name of God Almighty. What comes after that proclamation? Have we formally committed ourselves as a nation to God? Ghana prides itself on being a secular nation! Do we know the implications of that declaration?

The root of Ghana’s multifarious problems stems from the absence of a national ideology that defines our relationship with God who founded our nation. No one should be so naive as to call it democracy!

Kwame Nkrumah founded Ghana on Marxist materialism, and that is still the guiding spirit of the nation! When Ghana formally commits to God, Deuteronomy 11:1 comes into effect:

Love the Lord your God and keep His statutes, His ordinances, His laws, and His commandments at all times.

If that is done, then and only then would the results bring blessings to our nation. Because Ghana has not committed to God, we do not have the confidence and conviction of what is good and acceptable to God and what is not.

The nation has hesitated to ban LGBTQ in Ghana! This shows foolishness and national cowardice! It is a great shame!

Thanksgiving

Again, because Ghana has not formally committed itself to God, we have not designated a day on which the nation would express gratitude to God for Ghana’s natural gifts, and for the relative peace and other blessings that Ghana enjoys. The tendency to take things for granted was expressed by US President Abraham Lincoln in these words:

“It is the duty of nations, as of men, to acknowledge their dependence upon the overruling power of God… and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Scriptures and proved by all history, that only those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord…

(Proclamation of April 30, 1863 for a National Day of Fasting and Prayer)

What God expects from Ghana in thanksgiving is described in Isaiah 12:4-6 (NIV): Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known his deeds among the peoples.

The universal recognition and glorification of God as Creator of the universe and God of grace distracts us from the fact that the universe and humanity are governed by law. God is a God of Law, and Law is Order. The universe has been governed by law for all these countless years.

Judicial integrity

The justice system in Ghana is of great importance to God. He says in Deuteronomy 16:19-20: “Do not pervert justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous.

Pursue righteousness and only righteousness, that you may live and inherit the land the Lord your God is giving you.”

Bribery affects the quality of justice in the country. When the sense of what is just, right, honest or conscientious is questioned, the nation weakens and the people become heartless and dishonest.

Politicians make promises that they break with impunity, and they compromise the law behind the scenes. The consequences are:

Thus justice is driven out and righteousness remains at a distance; truth stumbles in the streets, honesty finds no entrance.

Truth is hard to find, and those who avoid evil become prey. (Isaiah 59:14-15 NIV)

The large number of court cases in Ghana and the slow pace at which cases are being resolved are evidence of declining confidence in the nation and growing hostility among citizens.

As of June 2023, there were 3,928 appeals pending; the District Courts had 30,016 cases pending and a total of 130,262 cases were filed for hearing at various levels of Ghanaian courts. (Judiciary Statistics).

Moral Integrity, Leaders

The sanctity of leadership is defended on the ground that leadership should replicate the divine leadership exercised by God. In other words, the leader is God’s servant on earth and therefore he should govern the nation according to principles favorable to God.

For example, the president is not to “multiply wives to himself, so that they may turn his heart away from God”; nor is he to “increase to himself silver and gold” (Deut. 17:17).

And this is why kings hate injustice, for a throne is established by righteousness. (Proverbs 16:12 NIV)

However valid this warning may be, when Ghanaian and African presidents and their appointees begin to amass wealth and assets, they endanger the nation and cause great unrest among the people.

Some of Africa’s richest presidents have made a lot of money at the expense of their countries.

Examples include: Ali Bongo of Gabon, since 2009, whose wealth is estimated at US$2 billion, while his people live in poverty; Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea, since the 1979 military coup, whose wealth is estimated at US$700 million, and people live in poverty. Enough!

National support

I wonder how many citizens would identify with the statement quoted here: that those in authority are to be seen as servants of God, to whom we owe the loyalty of service and obedience. By these two standards the health and stability and ultimate progress of a nation are assured. (Romans 13:1-2 NIV)

The opposite state of division, chaos, bloodshed and the many damages that a country experiences must then be seen as various stages of regression resulting from the deviation from the principles of loyalty in service and obedience to a government.

We are bound by the inescapable assumption that God is Law because we see God in everything we do and judge ourselves by the extent to which we conform to, or deviate from, the law inherent in every experiential situation.

The writer is a lawyer.
Email address: [email protected]