Whose King?

The Preacher writes about whose King.Preface With some messages, I am uncomfortable when they come, yet I have to receive and convey them.  This feels like one of them.  I prefer to deny that I understand what it means. 

1. Three Kinds of Kings 

Is every ruler endorsed by God merely because they were approved (or imposed) by men?  No. Whereas Paul admonishes us to be “subject unto the higher powers” of civil authority because they are “ordained of God” (Romans 13:1), it would appear that God does not approve of every government He allows.God ordains human rulers, but some are the people’s insistent choice allowed by Him until those people should learn the implications of their choice.  In the institution of marriage, for example, ordained by God like that of government, God has said that a priest might not marry a prostitute, nor the Christian marry a sinner (Leviticus 21:14; 1 Corinthians 6:14), yet if a pastor should go out of the way to be married to a street prostitute, God will not, therefore, say that it is no marriage.  The pastor and the harlot will be legally and spiritually man and wife, allowed by God even though not ordained by Him (1 Corinthians 6:6).  If the choice had been God-consciously otherwise, the Lord should be involved in their cause.Some kings are made by God (Psalm 89:20), some are made by men (Hosea 8:4), others are candidates of Hell fronted by men (Revelation 13:2; Isaiah 14:13-16; Judges 9:4-6).  Strangely, sometimes, they all get anointed with the oil of God – which yet does not mean endorsement by God.

2. The People’s Popular King 

When the Jews insisted on a king, God said to Prophet Samuel the electoral returning officer, “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” (1 Samuel 8:7).  The prophet proceeded to warn them of how that king would exploit them to the point of enslaving them: “And you yourselves will become his slaves” (1 Samuel 8:17, Good News Translation). Worse still, “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” (1 Samuel 8:7, 18).  Alas “in that day,” the belated prodigal prayers that God would not hear, let alone answer; the cries that won’t move Him; a “day” when God would be strangely adamant against the tearful prayers of His own people…  Do such ‘days’ come?Saul was a product of “the voice of the people,” not the voice of God; he was “YOUR king which YE shall have chosen,” not the choice of God.  He was today’s pleasant king programmed to inflict tomorrow’s bitter pains against which collective national cries would be futile … “in that day.”I find an irony in 1 Samuel 12:13: “Now therefore behold the king whom ye have chosen, and whom ye have desired! and, behold, the LORD hath set a king over you.”  Saul was a “the king whom YE have chosen”; he was the king “whom YE have desired.”  God was absent from the equation, yet the same verse declares that man as a king whom no other than “the LORD hath set … over you.”  How could God thus ‘support’ a candidate He did not recommend?  Does ‘setting over’ mean divine approval?

3. Divine Gifts in Anger 

Saul became king of Israel through popular agitations against divine prerogatives.  God respected the people’s rebellious choice.  After all, “the earth hath he given to the children of men” (Psalm 115:16), so He would hardly interfere in how they run their earth space, unless invited by them (Genesis 18:25-26; Daniel 10:12; Ezekiel 22:30).  The choice of Saul was men’s, yet the oil that came upon him was God’s, by the hand of His holy prophet (1 Samuel 10:1).  That was not without implications, as prophet Hosea was later to echo in the voice of God: “I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath” (Hosea 13:11).Reading Hosea 13:11, you might ask, If God were the giver, why His anger?  Why so furiously take away what HE gave?  Why and how did He give it?  In His pleasure or in His anger?  Is Prophet Hosea here suggesting that God sometimes gifts kings and things to people in His anger – rather than in His pleasure?  If a gift emanates from God, need I still worry?  Can a gift be so regal and velvety, proceeding from God, yet it is a token of divine anger?  Have you ever given a gift in anger, or received one thus?O God, whatever You have given us in Your anger, whether a king or a thing, please, forgive our foolish and stubborn choice, and take them away now in your holy wrath. Amen.   Alas, the opulence of a gift does not measure the approval of God.  Sometimes, even ‘given by God’ does not mean ‘approved by God.’  Today’s pleasant wrappings of a gift are not always a promise of future bliss.  When there is a nervous disruption, sensations could be delayed, and feelings arrive moments after the impact.  The sensations from some present pleasant prickings could be future and fatal. “… And the LORD will not hear you IN THAT DAY” (1 Samuel 8:18).God called Saul “YOUR king,” not His; a king “which YE have chosen,” yet God proceeded to anoint ‘their’ king with His holy oil by the hand of His holy prophet.  Why?

4. Landslide Victories against God 

How did the people respond to that warning by God’s prophet?  Strange.  The elaborate warning had little impact.  The prophet told them that the king they were choosing would recruit their sons to war and their daughters to slave; would take away their farms “and give them to his servants”; that he would severely exploit them economically and politically to the point of making them “his servants,” and that The Day would eventually come when he would make them cry for help that only God can give: “And ye shall cry out in that day because of YOUR KING which YE SHALL HAVE CHOSEN” (vv.12-18).  Strong and clear was the warning, “Nevertheless THE PEOPLE refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us” (1 Samuel 8:19).Prophet Jeremiah once had a similar national congregation that said to him, “As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the LORD, we will not hearken unto thee” (Jeremiah 44:16).  They did not doubt that Jeremiah was a prophet of God or that he had spoken the words of God “in the name of the LORD.”  All the same, for whatever ethnic or denominational or material or other considerations, they announced vehemently to that prophet, “We WILL NOT hearken unto thee.”  Case closed, and the heavens did not fall promptly in defence of the scorned prophet of God.  Sometimes people rebel for other deliberate reasons than because they did not understand the voice of God.

5. Conclusion 

While God might anoint many a king, not every king is His king. Some are the kings of men allowed by Him – sometimes until He might remove them in wrath similar to the anger in which He had ‘given’ them to their people.  The Prophet Hosea laments,THEY have set up kings, but not by me: THEY have made princes, and I KNEW IT NOT: of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off (Hosea 8:4).God is not aware of every king or prince whom we set up.  Emboldened by our abundance of silver and gold, sometimes, we install whom we idolise, which opens the door to the next thing – the cutting off: “that they may be cut off.”O God, whatever You have given us in Your anger, whether a king or a thing, please, forgive our foolish and stubborn choice, and take them away now in your holy wrath. As You take them away in Your wrath, O Lord, in Your love, send us a saviour – the king and thing after Your heart. Amen.   From The Preacher’s diary, September 22, 2020Also read: Waken to Hear