Give Us A King

Luke 19:37-44

37 As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, 38 saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”

39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”

41 As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. 44 They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.”

This is the Word of the LORD

Thanks be to God

I Samuel 8:4-22

4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, 5 and said to him, “You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways; appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations.” 6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to govern us.” Samuel prayed to the Lord, 7 and the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to 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. 8 Just as they have done to me, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so also they are doing to you. 9 Now then, listen to their voice; only—you shall solemnly warn them, and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”

10 So Samuel reported all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. 11 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, and to run before his chariots; 12 and he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his courtiers. 15 He will take one-tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and his courtiers. 16 He will take your male and female slaves, and the best of your cattle and donkeys, and put them to his work. 17 He will take one-tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. 18 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.”

19 But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; they said, “No! but we are determined to have a king over us, 20 so that we also may be like other nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles.” 21 When Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord. 22 The Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to their voice and set a king over them.” Samuel then said to the people of Israel, “Each of you return home.”

This is the Word of the LORD

Thanks be to God.

For the past 40 days and nights, our congregation’s worship and study life has been consumed by the Judges. We worked our way through the temptations to worship and serve other gods, to the ministry of the prophetess Deborah, through Gideon’s faithless testing of the LORD, to Gideons idol-destroying offerings, through the self-righteous spiritual blindness of Micah and his hired priest. Things did not improve as we moved through the book.

At Lenten lunch, we studied different stories, starting with the effective establishment of justice under Othniel, moving through the dark comedy of Jael’s assassination of Israel’s enemy, stopping at the corrupt and oppressive rule of Gideon’s son Abimelech, and ending with a text of terror as the Israelites descend into wanton wickedness. Things moved from bad to worse, worse came to worst, and the worst became uninterrupted horror.

Forty days and nights we’ve lived in this period of the Judges, and I’ve never been more grateful to get to Holy Week. Jesus, when do we ride into Jerusalem? Can’t we just find forgiveness at your feet instead of sinking further into the stories of human terribleness we’ve lived with for the past forty days and nights? Jesus, when do we ride into Jerusalem so that you can take away our sins and we won’t have to stare at them twice a week every week? Jesus, when do we ride into Jerusalem so you can govern us and go out before us and fight our battles, and make us like others?

Forty days and nights...

But the period of the Judges lasts a little longer than the Book of Judges. Samuel and his sons were judges over Israel, until “all the elders of Israel came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, ‘You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways; appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations.’ But they thing displeased Samuel when they said, ‘Give us a king to govern us.’”

Like other nations? The whole POINT of the Israelites is that they were supposed to be different. They had experienced life under Pharaoh’s kingship when they were slaves in Egypt, they were supposed to have no king but the LORD. The Israelites were supposed to be different, a priestly nations who would show all the nations of the world that the LORD alone is God.

And yet, after trying and failing at faithfulness for generations, “Give us a king.” After being delivered by the LORD again and again for generations, “like other nations.” So Samuel, like Deborah a judge and a prophet, takes their request to the LORD.

“The LORD said to Samuel, ‘Listen to 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. Just as they have done to me, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so listen to their voice.’”

It’s not about Samuel. Even though the people have focused on Samuel “You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways,” God doesn’t let Samuel take on the burden of the people’s unfaithfulness. It’s not about Samuel, it’s about the failure of the covenant community to commit to following the LORD in joy and in grief. The people trust Samuel, but he is old. The people do not trust that God will appoint another leader to take his place once he’s gone. “There is indignation and pathos in the voice of [the LORD], who knows better but is exhausted with this people which insists on its own way.” For forty days and nights we have watching the people of Israel abandon the LORD who liberates them and follow after other gods. It’s not about Samuel, and it’s nothing new.

Samuel, at the LORD’s instruction, warns the people about what a king will mean. “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you…” he will take and he will take and he will take. Samuel anticipates the failed kingship of Saul, the polluted kingship of David, the corrupted kingship of Solomon, the divisive kingship of Rehoboam, the faithless and incompetent lines of kings in Israel and Judah, and the final failure of the monarchy with disaster and destruction at the hands of Assyria and Babylon. The kings take and take and take, “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.”

The people have chosen a king for themselves, and the unavoidable consequence of getting what they ask for is separation from God. They will suffer when their request is permitted. One commentator put it this way:

“The monarchy substitutes human power for the availability of [the LORD]. There are certain circumstances in which [the LORD] will not function. In choosing monarchy, Israel chooses a desperate autonomy that can lead only to futility, abandonment, and eventually death.”

Choosing a king, like other nations, to govern and wage war, distances us from the LORD, which in turn leads to suffering. Doesn’t matter if your king is appointed, inherited, anointed, or elected. If your king is ANYONE other that God, this is the result.

I have not really enjoyed this trip through Judges, which is unusual for me when I do a deep study of scripture. Judges is often bereft of good news. The good news comes later, in other parts of scripture, but the stories of Judges themselves seem to be limited to showing that God is steadfast even when we least deserve it.

While that’s good news, and worth praise and celebration, it is troubling how easily these stories of misbehaving people of God parallel with the stories we hear on the evening news. It does not speak well of the world in which we are living that we recognize the stories of the Judges around us.

Forty days and nights we’ve lived with these stories, and the end of the period of the Judges ends with God allowing the people to abandon the rule of their LORD for the sake of a human king.

When at last, at the gates of Jerusalem, the people finally see the king that they need, who was promised, they don’t even recognize him. “As [Jesus] came near and saw the city [of Jerusalem], he wept over it, saying, “‘f you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.’” Jesus, the blessed king who comes in the name of the Lord, about whom the stones would shout, is welcomed at first. But even his closest followers do not understand what is to come.

The distance between “Blessed is the king” and “Crucify him” is one week. That’s the week in which we’re living now. Songs of praise will turns to shouts of castigation before the end.

“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.” The people’s cries will change from “Give us a king” to “Give us Barabbas” and the king himself will cry out “Father, into your hands I commend my sprit.” But the LORD will not answer him in that day.

Forty days and nights we’ve lived with the Judges. Now it is Holy Week, and we are headed to the cross of Jesus.

There, against all expectation, we will at last find faith and hope.