“When you saw that Nahash the king of the sons of Ammon came against you, you said to me, ‘No, but a king shall reign over us,’ although the LORD your God was your king.
1 Samuel 12:12
This month we see God’s chosen people setting up for themselves a king, rejecting God as their King in the process. And what follows is basically the nursery rhyme:
There was a little king, who wore a little ring
Right on the middle of his forehead.
When he was good, things were very very good.
And when he was bad, things were horrid.
Israel is entering its golden age under King David—a man after God’s own heart—but even at its height, this kingdom was dysfunctional, fraught with infighting and revolt.
Earthly kingdoms made by men lie in sharp contrast to the Eternal Kingdom Jesus sheds light onto in John. Roman emperors believed themselves to be sons of the gods, yet Jesus—who comes as a poor, homeless wanderer—is the actual Son of God.
God’s kingdom is not built on the machinations of the ambitious or the power of swords, but on the subversive power of love. And He shows us how to walk the ways of a Heavenly Kingdom while all the princes of Earth wallow in the muck of power and greed.
The nations made an uproar, the kingdoms tottered; He raised his voice, the Earth melted.
Psalm 46:6
God’s Kingdom is so far above the kingdoms of this Earth that at the sound of His voice, power structures set by man crumble, and the very bedrock they are built upon melt away completely. There is no power apart from Him, and no king who exists in spite of Him.
