[8] If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and righteousness, do not be amazed at the matter, for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them.
As for yesterday, today’s pattern also is evil.
Some see here a reference to divine sovereignty, and to be sure, there is ultimately only one LORD.
But more likely: another hierarchy, provisionally tolerated by heaven.
It takes many forms, but all are predatory.
The vampire story is one such: aristocratic, but parasitic, taking life, leaving people neither dead nor living, it is exploitative, even sexually.
Another is Sauron > Saruman > orcs
And in real life, the mafia, including its “protection” rackets.
Pharaoh
Babylon
Rome
All operate by fear, coercion, with ever-diminishing benefits for those at the bottom.
Yet ultimately, this hierarchy is not flesh and blood, but the invisible rulers, authorities, powers of this dark world, the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms, who control those that we can see.
But Christ gives of himself, gives his life, even, to change it all, giving us a new concept of hierarchy, eventually known as “the Servant-Leader.”