Now Herod had been very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon; but they came to him with one accord, and having made Blastus the king's personal aide their friend, they asked for peace, because their country was supplied with food by the king's country. So on a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat on his throne and gave an oration to them. And the people kept shouting, "The voice of a god and not of a man!" Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and died. Acts 12:20-23

God ordained government and those who run government (Romans 13). Since God is a God of order, we need some government so that society has a measure of order. Some debate that if there were no sin, we wouldn’t need government to maintain order because if there were no sin we would all get along peaceably. We really have no way of knowing this because sin has been around since Adam and Eve were alone in the Garden of Eden. Therefore, this is is a hypothetical idea.

Ironically, though God has ordained government to restrain evil, like everything else involving sinful human beings, government is often a virtual laboratory of sin. Government corruption may be one of the worst kinds of corruption because government is supposed to be the watchdog over crime, and government controls the courts. It is usually, therefore, unchecked.

Even more ironically, sinful citizens routinely love to deify government and government officials. Acts 12:22 showcases an archetypical example of this as “the people kept shouting, ‘The voice of a god and not of a man!’“ When what God ordains for our good threatens to replace God, that is a most sinister form of idolatry.