Governing is tough.
Even in traditional monarchies, governance has always required a
team, the rough equivalent of a cabinet or executive; the right people in the
right combination. A king needed experienced, mature, educated men to serve as
his administrators and advisors; men able to make policy and to accurately estimate
the short- and long-term consequences of implementing it.
Finding the right people to put in secondary positions of
authority is a critical matter. It has tremendous consequences for a nation. Kingdoms
have been lost because a ruler listened to the advice of the
wrong man or
men, or refused to listen to the advice of the
right man.
Generally speaking, slaves don’t make strong candidates for
such positions, as the writer of Ecclesiastes is about to tell us.