Under God's reign is freedom
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| King Hezekiah on a 17th century painting by unknown artist in the choir of Sankta Maria kyrka in Åhus, Sweden. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Once again Isaiah speaks of the reign of Hezekiah, which was a type of the kingdom of Christ. After making this point in his commentary on this passage, John Calvin immediately qualifies his statement by assuring his readers that he was by no means “pursuing allegories, to which I am averse, and that this is the reason why I do not interpret the passage as relating directly to Christ.” It begins with Hezekiah, but it points to Christ and the freedom of His reign.
One of the remarkable traits of Hezekiah’s kingdom would be the stress on individual freedom and the centrality of divine kingship. This, of course, is paramount in Christ’s kingdom, where all men worship the Lord as “Judge,” “Lawgiver,” and “King,” where all the people who dwell within its borders “will be forgiven their iniquity.” But in the context of Hezekiah’s reign, Isaiah makes a very significant point concerning a particular freedom that cannot be had under a tyrant: freedom from oppressive taxation.
With the rise of Hezekiah, other nations would be thrown down and the people would witness the decline of tyranny. One dimension of that decline was freedom from heavy taxes. Things had become so bad that a people who had once been free were oppressed by what Calvin calls a “cruel tyranny,” because they had all their property valued and an inventory taken of their houses, possessions, and families. “How grievous this slavery is … when their property is valued to the very last farthing, and a valuation is made not only of their undoubted incomes but also of their expected gains, and not only their money and possessions, but even their names are placed on record while new methods of taxation are contrived.”
Those who collected such taxes were the scribes described in verse 18, and those who examined each person’s house and “counted the towers” were those hired by the tyrant to demand a larger sum of money from the wealthy. Calvin declares that those who maintain their authority by collecting such taxes are tyrants.
Hezekiah’s reign would be free from oppressive taxation as described here. A godly nation, therefore, cannot have such tyranny, for where such tyrants are present, God is offended. But where God is worshiped and served as Judge, Lawgiver, and King, there is freedom.
How would you evaluate your nation’s tax system in light of the tyranny that existed before Hezekiah’s reign brought freedom and prosperity? Do you have freedom from the tyranny of oppressive taxation? If not, pray today that freedom would once again reign under God. Look into ways you can have an impact in this change.
