Give Us A King - 1 Samuel 8:6

But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. - 1 Samuel 8:6

    There is an old saying that warns, “Be careful what you wish for...you just might get it.” This adage applies appropriately to the Israelites at the end of the period of Judges. Dissatisfied with the way things had been going, they demanded the prophet Samuel appoint them a king “such as all the other nations have.” (1 Sam. 8:4) Upon this demand, Samuel approached God in prayer. God responded to Samuel in no uncertain terms: “And the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them...Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.’”     - 1 Samuel 8:7,9.
    Since God is truly sovereign, we must remember that every ruler, from royalty to head of state to presidents to heads-of-household, has been ordained by God Himself. And the track-record has not been illustrious. Out of the 43 kings of the kingdom of Israel and the Divided Kingdom, starting with Saul (586 BC) and ending with Zedekiah (1025 BC), only 6 ‘did right in the eyes of God.’ Is it any wonder that since that time eons ago and right until today, that we have such a difficult time finding righteous leaders to rule over us? Samuel did as the Lord told him, and he warned the people of the dangers of having an earthly king over them. But the people were persistent. “But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, ‘No! But there shall be a king over us, 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.’” - 1 Samuel 8:19-20.
    What we seek in a leader today has sinfully drifted away from our primary purpose in life - “Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” (W. C. Answer #1) which we may follow as we are intended to by adhering to what we are taught in Scripture - “The scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.” - (W. C. Answer #3).
    The human leadership (and the electorate) in our own country is so inherently evil that we cannot elect God-fearing leaders who abide by God’s mandates for us. They perpetrate every conceivable evil in our nation from abortion to sexual immorality to the denial of God and transgressions against His holy laws. We are no different than those sinful Israelites who wantonly abandoned the God of their fathers and turned to open idolatry. The law of man supersedes the Law of God in every public forum and leaves morality to the whims of the current culture. But this should not be. We have a duty to God, whether or not we believe we do. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” - Romans 12:2.
    It is a basic desire among men to have a guiding light to show them the way. No rational human being wants to ‘do things the wrong way.’ To deliberately do so is evidence of our depraved nature. A nature passed down to us through the transgression of Adam. And that warped sinful nature guides us in darkness to follow the ‘ruler of this world,’ Satan. So now I ask, is it truly any wonder that our nation and our world are in their current state of wickedness?
    We have only one recourse and that is to repent and return to God as our spiritual and moral King. In the same Book of 1 Samuel, we are given the only means to return to the favorable sight of our Lord. “And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, ‘If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.’ So the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and they served the Lord only.” - 1 Samuel 7: 3-4. The foreign gods and Ashtaroth represent the idols we have chosen to serve rather than the one true Lord. Unless we return to God and put away all our idols, our worldly kings will never save us from our own darkened hearts. Let us worship and obey the one true King, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Give us Our King!