Back to the attitude of those whom we choose to serve us in political office. Although Saul became a grasper after power, an abuser of power, even he was originally reluctant to take office. When they went to find him on the day of his election and coronation, it was said: "Behold, he hath hid himself among the stuff." I Samuel 10:22. So the career politician, the ambitious political animal is not following the biblical model. And, the legislatures which meet part time or that have low paid or unpaid legislators and those jurisdictions with term limits are closer to the biblical model. Still not convinced? Look at God's assessment of big government.
In I Samuel 7, the leaders of the people petition the prophet Samuel for a king, when they came to him "and said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD. And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee. Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them." I Samuel 8:5-10.
Samuel then explained God's view of what the king, whom the people chose to replace God, would be like. "And Samuel told all the words of the LORD unto the people that asked of him a king. And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots. And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day." I Samuel 8:10-18.
He would take from them, he would take their produce, he would build bureaucracies from the servants he created from their sons and daughters, and he would build armies. These servants of the king would end up governing, making rules, applying sanctions to the disobedient, and meddling in the people's lives and families. It was bigger government, bureaucratic control and monitoring, and higher taxes. According to God, this result was its own punishment for forsaking Him.
Before, they were small, geographically-separated tribal entities. They fell to unfaithfulness often, as shown in the book of Judges, and at those times, God punished them with marauding bands and armies from other nations. When they served the gods of other nations, those other nations conquered them.
The regimes of Egypt and Babylon are the models for large, efficient (at least as the goal), powerful governmental bureaucracies. Those nations bent on domination of others, of taking from people through taxation and force, of giving to those whom the king wanted to have stuff and power along with him, of solving everyone's problems, of playing god - these were the heathen nations, not the people of God. Those who argue for trained, professional, full-paid politicians and staff have already bought into the idea of a large, bureaucratic system for solving our problems. Who is the largest employer in the U.S.? Who can shut down for 16 days and run up a 2 billion dollar bill instead of saving money? Who considers itself indispensable to the life, health, and protection of the American people? "Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD." Jeremiah 17:5. The federal government.
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