Quote:
Originally Posted by deacon blues
Way off subject, but actually God planned for Israel to have a king, just not when they asked for one.
Duet 17:14-20
14..When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,” 15..be sure to appoint over you a king the Lord your God chooses. He must be from among your fellow Israelites. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not an Israelite. 16..The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the Lord has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.” 17..He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.
18..When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. 19..It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees 20..and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.
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But why did God give them a king?
I Samuel 8:7 "And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto theee: for they have not rejected thee,
but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them."
The reason God knew they would want a king, and did, was because they did not want the LORD to be their king or to have prophets or judges. They wanted to be like the rest of the nations around them.
As in our day today... we have idols in Hollywood, we have a President who wants to be an idol in the minds of his followers, and people want a "king" in their churches to rule over them. Mankind loves idolatry.
Jesus introduced to us the best way for mankind to be ruled, and that is with a servant's heart. Not as "kings" lording over God's heritage, but as servants serving our Master Jesus, indeed as He was a servant while he was here on earth.
My thoughts are that we should spend more time focusing on the type of kingdom Jesus introduced to us, instead of focusing on the type of kingdom Israel had with kings and priests and trying to live as though that type of kingdom works. It doesn't. Christ has shown us a better way.
Living as a servant to Christ, not seeking honor, fame, glory or any respect of persons, but being about the Father's business in humility will take one the farthest distance from situations that breed immorality.
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