The roots of this go back to the first book of the Bible. Here is the ultimate irony of American life today: Believing as we do that absolute power corrupts absolutely, we give absolute power to ourselves! Decide what is right for you (be your own judiciary).” What are these, but directions for becoming your own king! Follow your own desires (be your own executive). Our postmodern culture says to every individual, “Write your own rules (be your own legislator). We have created a culture in which every individual is king in his or her own life. Here is the great irony of our culture: Having believed so strongly that absolute power corrupts absolutely, having planned so clearly that there should be a separation of powers, having discerned so wisely that there should be no king, we have proceeded to make kings of ourselves! Our natural reaction to this is that it would be a complete disaster. In ancient cultures, the king held all three powers together. The judges determine when the laws have been broken and the consequences that should follow. The executive branch puts them into effect the role of the president is to lead within the law. The legislators write the laws they decide what the laws should be. We believe that absolute power corrupts absolutely, and therefore it is for the good of the people and for the health of government that there should be a separation of powers.īecause of this conviction, our government is divided into three branches: The legislative branch (Congress), the executive branch (the White House), and the judicial branch (the Supreme Court). Our form of government reflects the conviction that if power is centered on one person things will not go well. And I want to help us make that crossing today. This is not going to be easy since we are all glad to be living in a republic! So there’s a bridge of understanding that we have to cross. To understand the message of the Bible, we need to grasp what it means to be a king. That’s about one seventh of the entire Bible! Kings are important in the Bible. The end of Chronicles is on page 491 in my Bible, which means that almost 200 pages are given to these kings. Next we have 1 Kings and 2 Kings, which is all about the kings that followed David! Then we have 2 books of Chronicles, which follow exactly the same story. Then we have 2 Samuel, which is about King David. Take your Bible in your hands and follow me here, so we can see what follows. God tells Samuel to anoint Saul as the first king of Israel a turning point in the Bible story. A good king is one who submits himself to the rule of God. He gave instructions for kings in Deuteronomy 17. God had anticipated this and had planned for it. It was not wrong for Israel to ask for a king. Things are not going well and the people say to Samuel, “We need a different form of government. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations” (1 Sam. They come to Samuel and say, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. The people see what’s coming and they don’t like it. They took bribes and perverted justice” (1 Sam. He was a good and a godly man, but his sons followed a different path: “His sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after gain. The last of these judges was a man by the name of Samuel. Then you have others like Samson, a poster boy for bulking up, but not exactly a role model for your children to follow! Some of them, like Gideon and Deborah, were heroic. Then God gave them Joshua, who led the people in the conquest of Canaan (the book of Joshua).Īfter the time of Joshua, there was a period of about 300 years in which God raised up leaders at times of crisis, and these leaders were called “judges.” The book of Judges is tough reading, and the repeated refrain was “Everybody did what was right in their own eyes.” God’s people had been brought into freedom under the leadership of Moses, (Exodus through Deuteronomy). This is a turning point in the Bible story. We’re going to look today at 1 Samuel 15, but I want you to turn for a moment to 1 Samuel 8. Through their stories, we are going to tap into a rich vein of Scripture that speaks powerfully to our lives today.
#The story of your life we the kings series
We begin a new series today called “A Tale of Two Kings.” We will be following the story of Saul and the story of David. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king.
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