To Encourage You

1 Samuel 8:19-20 “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.’”

In the verses above we see the two primary functions of government described.  As Israel sought to have a king to govern the nation, they describe the purpose of that king.  They said that this king would “judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” In other words, he would govern their behavior by making and enforcing laws and he would defend them militarily.  But God told Samuel that by seeking a king like all the other nations, Israel was, in effect “rejecting (God) from being king over them (1 Samuel 8:7).”  That raises the question of what it means for God to be our king. Although 1 Samuel 8:7 is the first place in the Bible where God is described as a king, it is certainly not the last. 

In Psalm 5:2, which is a psalm written by Israel’s King David, David prays these words: “Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God.” David saw God as the King of kings, which is the title given to Him and His Christ elsewhere in the Scriptures (e.g., 1 Timothy 6:15; Revelation 17:14; Revelation 19:16).  The Lord is furthermore called by the name, “the King of Glory,” as in Psalm 24:8 where it says, “Who is this King of glory?  The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle!”  In Psalm 47:2 God is called “a great King over all the earth.”  He is called “a great King above all gods,” in Psalm 95:3, and the “king of Israel” in Zephaniah 3:15. Looking to the future, the prophet Zechariah speaks of One who would come and of Whom the people would rejoice, saying “Behold, your King is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is He, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9). We see this prophesy fulfilled in Jesus’ triumphal entry on the day we refer to as Palm Sunday (John 12:12-19).  Often Jesus is described as a king. In John 18:33, Pilate asked Jesus this question, “Are you the King of the Jews?”  Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world,” and “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth.” And it was for this that “over His head (on the cross) they put the charge against Him, which read, ‘This is Jesus, the King of the Jews’” (Matthew 27:37).

The Bible tells every Christian that it is to Christ’s kingdom, rejected by men but established by God, that they belong.  We are told that God “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14).  The question is, do we see Him, and ourselves, in this way?  As Israel sought an earthly king to “judge us and go out before us and fight our battles,” do we see our heavenly king as fulfilling these roles.  Do we hold His Law as the law that truly governs us, or do we place the law of the land in the highest place?  What governs our behavior?  Do we obey the traffic laws because if we don’t the government will come down on us, or do we obey the traffic laws because the Kings of kings has commanded us to “be subject to the governing authorities” (Romans 13:1)? And if that “governing authority” tells us that something is “legal,” do we follow that law even thought that law, in God’s sight and according to His much higher Law, is described as illegal.  Do we “obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29), whenever the commands of the federal or state government come into direct conflict with the Law of God? 

And who do we trust to defend us? While we can be thankful for a strong military, is that the thing we ultimately trust in, or do we have the attitude of the king David, who, although He had an army of mighty men, would still proclaim, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God” (Psalm 20:7). Who do we really trust to “fight our battles”? Is the government what we trust in, or have we placed our trust in God? 

You see, the answer to the questions of whose law we follow and whose power we trust in will tell us who our king is.  May God help us to honor, glorify, obey, and trust Him as the King of kings, for it is He that is the great King over all the earth. What a wonderful government in which to serve. And what a wonderful reality it is to have been “delivered . . . from the domain of darkness and transferred . . . to the kingdom of (God’s) beloved Son, in Whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14). 

Praise be to the King of kings.