In the world of Faith, do we need checks and balances? 1 Kings 21-25

Do all men need to be held accountable?  Or, are there times, when some men are just simply faithful and you can trust them to do their work and fulfill God's mission in their lives? These questions would be answered quite differently by a multitude of people.   We can certainly hear some tell us that all men are evil and all men need to be held accountable.   It was the philosopher Francis Scheffer who said, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely."  His thought would be that "unchecked" power completely corrupts.    That is one view point for our question.   Another view point is that God is the ultimate Person to hold people accountable and He does a pretty good job at it.  We are limited in our knowledge of others and therefore limited in our ability to hold someone accountable.   In our reading today we have an interesting story about a young king (Josiah) who wanted the temple rebuilt.   He instructed his leadership to count the money the people had given and then deliver the money over to the tradesmen who would do the work.   He then makes a profound statement to his leadership about the workers who would do the work:

2 Kings 22:7 - "Only no accounting shall be made with them for the money delivered into their hands, for they deal faithfully.”

Josiah was a man of The Book and of history so he might have grabbed that philosophy from King Jehoash, who was eight kings previous to him.   Jehoash did the same thing with his workers.  Both men felt that the workers were faithful men and therefore were to be trusted.  Their work would stand as a testimony to that faithfulness.   In the world of faith we have to come to the point where we are not so paranoid that we only trust when we have verification.  We live in a very suspicious world today.   We may think that Josiah today would be quite naive.  However, perhaps Josiah understood the principle that God is the ultimate one who holds people accountable with checks and balances.   We are to live by faith and accept that God will reveal the hidden things of darkness and let us know when others are faithless.  It seems in our age today we have come to the point we can't trust anyone.   Let's realize to some that is called prudence and wise.   But, let's also realize that God is the One who ultimately holds others accountable and sometimes we have to trust the faithfulness before our eyes.