God to Samuel: THEY WANT A KING? THEY WANT A RULER? THEY HAVE REJECTED ME!

There are some Christians who think politics is a dirty business, and prefer to speak about more “spiritual” things.

Well, tell you what, there are a lot of things in 2012 that the rulers of this world have told us are “political” issues that do not belong as issues in any government philosophy.

Christians are becoming increasingly aware that there is something wrong with what they’ve been told by the world’s news and information media complex and the government’s indoctrination machines, but they can’t quite articulate it.

In the United States they get some information from talk radio shows and from Christian broadcasting networks. Unfortunately they get very little education from the pulpits, especially from most of the bigger mega-churches that preach a feel-good message and lots of self-esteem and how to cope.

Most Christian leaders have dropped the ball when it comes to protecting their flocks. My grandfather’s and my father’s generation were already stunted by the dirty-politics idea, and some radio preachers today make a virtue out of saying Christians should stay out of politics and just concentrate on the Gospel. But they don’t do very much about making sure their own audience does much to win others.

Far too many flocks of God‘s sheep are watching their lunch eaten by money changers and getting picked off by robbers of sheep while the leaders are often sharing the spoils.

The message of the love of God is all about the individual person, and God’s love for that person. Each of them and all of them. God is not willing that any should perish.

Jesus loves all the children of the world.
All the children of the world,
Red and yellow, black and white,
They are precious in his sight.
Jesus loves all the children of the world.

This should say something.

“Love thy neighbor as thyself” says a LOT about how to use whatever power you may have over another. That is, it says a LOT about what a Christian should do in government.

Almost the entire natural law can be deduced from the “Golden Rule” in fact.

If you are an individual, and it would be wrong according to the Golden Rule to do something to your neighbor, or not do, then it is wrong if you are any government to do it to any individual person or group.

Okay, let’s get started.

YOU WANT A KING? YOU WANT A RULER? YOU REJECT GOD!

This passage from I Samuel chapter 8 tells what kind of government God likes best:

CHAPTER 8

1 And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel.

2 Now the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abiah: they were judges in Beer-sheba.

3 And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment.

4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah,

5 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.

6 ¶ But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD.

7 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.

8 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.

9 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.

10 ¶ And Samuel told all the words of the LORD unto the people who asked of him a king.

11 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.

12 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.

13 And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.

14 And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.

15 And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.

16 And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.

17 He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants.

18 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.

19 ¶ Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us;

20 That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.

21 And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of the LORD.

22 And the LORD said to Samuel, Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king. And Samuel said unto the men of Israel, Go ye every man unto his city.

Now look at that. Even though Samuel had made his sons judges, and the sons were corrupt, God said here that the people had rejected HIM for wanting a king “to rule over us”. And what else? What’s this? “And fight our battles for us”.

God would rather rule the people directly, with a people who want to live the laws of love, than have some government in the middle messing it up. At this time, remember Israel had no government at all. What they did have were the laws of Moses, enforced on the honor system, but always tempered and mediated by the two greatest commandments, Thou shalt love thy God with all thy heart and with all thy mind and with all thy soul, and, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. And refuge cities. And other pressure release valves. The authority in matters of arbitration and mediation were handled by the Levite priests.

So they had no army, and self-defense was handled by God’s calling to special anointed ones who were called “judges”, whence the name of the book of judges. But they didn’t rule, they just served as judges in matters of disputes among the people.

Saber-rattling to protect Israel is one of the biggest reasons some “Christian” media personalities say we should have a strong military and a strong government.

God said that was rejecting HIM. Nevertheless, he said Okay, give them want they demand. That goes along with the principle that the people get the government they deserve. Samuel warned them.

It’s like Samuel said, Listen you guys, you think my sons are bad judges, you are going to go from bad to way, way worse if you have a king.

Remember, in the times before Israel got a king, God rose up judges from time to time to rescue them from their oppressors when they cried out to them. There was no standing army, so some of the lands around them thought they were easy pickings. Except they only invaded the land when the “chosen people” went astray and started following the gods of those around them and forsaking God, and abusing their neighbors. God used their enemies to subdue them again.

That’s why David called Israel’s enemies “thy sword”, meaning God’s sword that he used against them.

Wait a minute! You mean Israel was not supposed to be going and waging battles against the pagan nations around them that would later attack them and subjugate them?

Later on, Nebuchadnezzar was called by God in the book of Jeremiah, “My servant”. In Revelation 18, there are ten kings that ally themselves with the Antichrist in the time leading up to the worldwide rule of the Antichrist himself, and they help him into power. And yet the revelation says that “GOD shall put it in their heart” to destroy Babylon the Whore with fire.

So to make a correction to Roosevelt’s famous line, “We have nothing to fear but God himself”.

http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/when-governments-fear-people-there-libertyquotation

• “When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”

Let’s look at 1 Samuel 8 again. Samuel told them that this ruler they wanted would take their sons and use them to escort him everywhere, he would take their daughters to serve him and his cohorts in cooking, baking, everything. And these rulers would take their fields, vineyards, and olive groves, the “BEST of them” to his government workers. He’ll take “a tenth of your sheep”. And with a government, you’ll all be his servants!

Man, did Samuel’s warnings ever come to pass, with a vengeance! With a handful of good exceptions, Israel’s kings were evil and ungodly and oppressive.

Even the wisest man who ever lived turned out to get his heart turned to evil by his pagan wives, and he was a tremendous burden on the people and his taxation was itself so unbearable that the kingdom was divided when the people demanded tax relief of the son.

Related articles

• Your Kingdom Come (faithfamilyto.org)
• Here Am I (seashoremary.wordpress.com)
• I Samuel 16:12-23 God’s Favor By Association (recoveredheart.wordpress.com)
• King David’s Life (ptl2010.com)
• How God chooses a Leader: A reflection on David (thoughtsonscripture.com)
• 1 Samuel 12:24 (godschild1960.wordpress.com)
• Listening for the Kingdom (bslchicago.wordpress.com)

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