God’s Rebuttal pt. 2
Monday (September 22)
God’s Rebuttal pt. 2
1 Samuel 8:9
“Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”
At times in our lives of faith, trying to spot the shimmering, golden strands of Providence is like trying to find the sunlight in a dense forest during a rainstorm. But other times, Providence shines so effervescently before us, bathing all the crevices of our common lives in radiant glory, that the only way we could miss it is to shut our eyes. That’s how 1 Samuel 8:9 appears to me upon reading it. This Scripture provides us a panorama of Providence, with a view so wide and so full and so high, that parsing out the meaning of each letter is like trying to paint every speck of golden light during a Grand Canyon sunset.
When the LORD tells Samuel here, “Obey their voice,” He means in effect, “Give the people what their hearts are pining for—give them a king.” Oh, but this isn’t the heaved sigh of a God Who is fed up with his discontent people. This is the hint of a sovereign plan that has been rising ever since the dawning of time—and long before. See, friend, these backward chiefs of Israel might only desire a king so that they can fit in with the surrounding nations, but kingship was never man’s idea. It was God’s grand idea all along. Kingship was a desire He imprinted on the hearts of men, from Amazonian jungles to Persian palaces, in the same way He imprinted Himself there. The staunch monarchist will say, “That guy is king,” and the staunch aristocrat will say, “Those guys are king,” and the staunch democratic person will say, “The people are kings,” and the staunch anarchist will say, “I am king,” but no matter how we construct the polity nor what name we give the office, that inborn longing has only one true form: a throne and a crown.
From the moment we were born to the day we die, we’re all subjects. And no man can serve two masters. And the King of the cosmos, the Author of every atom has shown us the Shepherd we’re all pining after. And our error isn’t in wanting a king to rule us, but in wanting one too small—one who can’t bear the weight of glory.