Friday, October 9, 2009

Give Us A King

First let me say that I’m an Old Testament guy. A lot of my life is based on the information, and “God Breathed” inspiration from the Prophets. As I tend to have an active imagination, one word will spark at thought which turn into a flood of thinking and you get the outcome.

My text is 1 Samuel 8:4-9 “Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah; and they said to him, “Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord. But the thing was displeasing to Samuel… And the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them. Like all the deeds which they have done since the day I brought them out of Egypt even to this day – in that they have forsaken Me and served other gods – so they are doing to you also. Now then, listen to their voice; however, you shall solemnly warn them and tell them of the customs of a king who will reign over them”.

The essence of the warning was that the king would take their possessions and eventually their children. The king would take their harvest or livelihood for his own purposes…. The peoples response was … that’s ok we want a king.

The Pilgrims came to the New World to escape the control of a king (kingship, regardless of which king it was) who had taken over all the functions of society and controlled life for all people.

Our Founding Fathers saw the past and knew something different and better had to and could be done to make life worth living and give stability to a large group of people. Though not everyone agreed on everything, a solution was reached and the Constitution was established for the new America. And as they say… the rest is history. I don’t think the Founders would recognize the U. S. today, for several reasons. The Constitution was formed to keep the government out of the peoples business. Remember, they left Europe and England because of the suppression of the king (government). Yet, today April 2009, government is encroaching more and more upon the individual’s rights.

As the Israelite’s told Samuel, give us a king, have we not asked for what we want? All along, God was saying, “That’s not a good idea”. The American people were saying, “Give me, give me, give me”, and God said ok.
So… we live with the consequences.

Even though there were a few good kings in the southern kingdom of Judah, the people suffered the consequences of all the bad kings. Even though America has had good leaders and Presidents, we have and will continue to suffer the affects and bad decisions for bad leaders.

Who are you looking to for the essence of life? More properly, to whom are you looking for the essence of life? Who is more likely to tell you the truth about life? Is it not the Lord, God Almighty? He is the One who wants your all. In the text above, God references “out of Egypt”, some 800 – 1000 years after the event, does it even enter your mind, “Why would God reference something that happened ‘soooo long ago’”. They might be saying, “After all we are living in the modern age”.

Are we too saying, “We live in the 21st Century, what does something that happened (now) 2700 years ago have to do with us, we live in the modern age”. I have to inject this, Solomon said, “There is nothing new under the sun”. The basics are these, God is God and we are not; God is perfect in all His ways and we are separated from that perfection by sin (missing the mark of perfection, choosing our own way). Does that make sense in the context of 1 Samuel 8:4 – 9? Does that make sense in light of where we are as a people or as a country? We have grown up in and on our own ignorance about what is real and true. We have been lulled into a false sense of security about what “the king” can do for us that no one else can do. We have released our responsibilities for bearing one another’s burdens, be it physically, emotionally or spiritually, to the government, and they have taken it and are asking for more.

The question is, “Are we going to allow them to take it or are we going to humble ourselves and fall before the Lord, God Almighty and say, “Forgive us, we have sinned against You and You only”? “We don’t need a king, we need Father God, the Lord Jesus and the precious Holy Spirit to rule over us.


Your next question might be, “But, how do we do that, isn’t it too late”? It may be too late for the country, but not for the individual. In that, God will never turn away a truly repentant heart that says, “I blew it, I’m wrong, You’re right, forgive me”. Those leaders (kings) who choose to continue to go their own way will reap the rewards of their sowing. You’ve heard, “I keep digging but I can’t seem to dig myself out of this hole”. You’re right.

As we see in the rest of the Old Testament, those who said yes to God knew His blessings, but those who didn’t saw the consequences of their own decisions. Even in the New Testament the facts remain the same, grace to those who repent and consequences to those who went on in their own ways.

It’s time to repent; turn away form whatever is taking you away from God.
Repent for your own sin and then repent as a family. Next, repent as a local church body.

Following the Shepherd,
Ron
reskew@aol.com