For most of us in the United States, the idea of a king is at the very least a foreign idea. But for many of us, predicated on our history and a cultural antipathy of most forms of authority, we reject the idea of a king. It is an offense to us, to imagine bowing down for to any man. The American experiment was first and foremost an assault on a particular form of government. We as a people rejected the authority of King George, of the British crown in fact.
When Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence, we as a people were declaring our independence from the British form of government; a monarchy. In so doing, the nature of the contents of the Declaration dealt entirely with the issue of how people are to be governed in light of certain facts. We are all familiar with Jefferson’s brilliant words, in the second paragraph of the declaration: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights…” We are less familiar with the next sentence: “That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Jefferson’s point was a direct assault on the notion that had driven the British and most European kings for many years: The divine right of kings. (for more information on this doctrine please see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_right_of_kings)
This form of government taught that kings of Christian nations had a right to rule over their subjects based upon an understanding that God had instituted governments among men to defend, protect and provide for Christendom (anyone living in a ‘Christian’ nation). This doctrine taught that these kings derived their right to rule over their lands from God Himself and thus were not subject or bound to the will of the people. Jefferson, a deist (distinctly not a Christian man), along with many others could not abide a king who was not accountable to the people. We are all familiar with the American Revolution.
Our founders built this nation on the idea that we had no king but Jesus. I whole heartedly agree with this notion, as a patriot. Nonetheless, in so doing, we forever banished a cultural artifact that is critical in understanding, the Biblical concept upon which Jesus’ throne was built. That is the idea of a sovereign authority, whose authority is not derived from men, but from God. In the 8th chapter of 1 Samuel, the people of God reject the authority of God’s kingly reign and demand for themselves a king, like the nations around them. So it is that God sends them an earthly king. He details the tyrannical rule and authority of the king that he will send.
Your homework is to read 1 Samuel 8:1-22 and think on what it means to have a king.
