A King Like No Other
Tuesday (September 23)
A King Like No Other
1 Samuel 8:10-11,13, 17-18
So Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking for a king from him. He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen. … He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. … He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the LORD will not answer you in that day.”
It behooves linguists and biblical scholars to say with precision whether Samuel’s declaration of “in that day you will cry out because of your king” is an eschatological prophecy of some specific day, or a general principle that covers many eras of failed leadership to come, or both, but the over-arching principle seems like a more practical application to discuss at present. Do you remember what those scribes and Pharisees and corrupt crowds proclaimed to Pontius Pilate when Pilate expressed hesitation at crucifying Jesus? What was their instinctual, immediate reply when he gave them a second chance to let Jesus go? “We have no king but Caesar!” Mull that over, friend. It’s no triviality. Had they been genuinely religious at heart, they would’ve at least responded the way Gideon responded to those men who wanted to hail him king, “The LORD alone is king”! But that’s how sin deteriorates our affections. We attach our God-given affinity toward Him to base objects and set mere men on the throne that only God can inhabit.
Oh, but look closely at Caesar and King Arthur and Nebuchadnezzar and Alexander the Great and David and Solomon and George Washington, et al. Look at their hands and feet. Look past the crowns and the constitutions. Do you see something missing? Look at your sports heroes and favorite authors and spiritual mentors, and you’ll find the same lack. Only one King bears the wounds of your sin and sorrow and salvation! Only one King has worn a cross for you! And in your darkest hour, in the trenches of your deepest agony, He’ll be there, by your side, reaching down to take your hand, as only He can.