We’ve Chosen The Wrong King by Patrice Lewis

Patrice Lewis lives in the heart of the American Redoubt, and is a God-fearing, liberty-minded patriot. For those of you who didn’t already know, he is the Senior Editor at Rural-Revolution.com.

-JJS

We’ve Chosen The Wrong King

by Patrice Lewis

Senior Editor at Rural-Revolution.com

This past week we were talking with our teenage daughters about where this country is heading. “What I don’t understand,” said our 15-year-old, “is why people can’t see what’s happening around them. People keep asking for more and more intrusive government.”

My husband laughed. “There’s nothing new under the sun,” he said. “The exact same thing happened in the Bible.”

So we looked up the relevant verses and read them out loud to the girls. Consider this edited excerpt from 1 Samuel 8:

When Samuel grew old … all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel. … They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”

But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. … Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights.”

Samuel … said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”

But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”

When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the Lord. The Lord answered, “Listen to them and give them a king.”

Sure enough, the king, Saul, started out as a savior of sorts, but rapidly turned into the type of king about whom Samuel had warned.

In other words, be careful what you wish for. You might just get it.

We’re doing the same thing in America. “We want to be just like Europe!” some people cry. “See how perfect everything is over there! We want a ‘king’ over us. Then we will be like all other nations!”