1 SAMUEL 8

Talking about politics these days can ruffle a few feathers, so it’s a topic I try to stay away from on the blog. (Besides, this isn’t a blog about politics. It’s a blog about God.) However, I couldn’t help but notice what I believe is an important (albeit politically-related) lesson about 1 Samuel 8.

In this chapter, the people decided they were ready for a king. They wanted to be like all the other nations around them—with a central government and a strong, strapping figurehead who would lead them into battle in order to conquer the nations around them. Ironically, they made this request of Samuel because his own sons (to whom he had passed the reins) were thoroughly corrupt and not doing such a great job as the judges of Israel.

When Samuel consulted with God about the whole "king" idea, God expressed a feeling of rejection. "Listen to all that the people are saying to you," He told Samuel. "It is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. 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." (vs 7-9)

When I read this, I realized that it wasn’t in God’s plan for Israel to have a central government that would rule over them. The plan was for individual tribes to engage in self-government. In fact, God warned the people about what would happen if they insisted on setting themselves under the authority of a central government:

Their sons would be drafted into civil service and the army.
Their daughters would be enlisted into domestic service.
They would be deprived of their best resources.
They would be taxed on their income.

Hmmm. Does that sound familiar? Somehow, we always expect that governments will be moral, fair, impartial, and upright. But governments are run by people, and on this planet, people are the problem. (That’s why those Communist utopias which are supposed to provide care for everyone end with dictators living in lavish palaces while their countrymen starve.) God never intended for us to be ruled or governed by another authority; He always intended for us to be self-governed. It works the same way in His spiritual kingdom. That’s why you’ll remember that one of the fruits of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22 is self-control. I hear a lot of Christians say they want God to take control of them. God doesn’t want to take control! He wants you to be in control—of yourself!

God doesn’t run the universe like a Nanny State, and I don’t believe He intends for us to live in one either. However (to use America as an example), the further individual hearts stray from God in society, the more we feel the need to multiply government regulation and interference. We unconsciously reach out for external limits and restrictions because we have rejected the self-government that can only be found when God is at the center of our lives.

And if there’s anything we can learn from the Gospels, it’s that multiplying rules and regulations does nothing to change the human heart or the circumstances of life. Instead, it lands the people under a heavy, oppressive burden from which they need liberation. God provides that freedom within His model of government. As He changes us from the inside out, we will find ourselves free—free from the tyranny of government and free from the tyranny of our past selfish desires. Free to enjoy God’s plan of self-government.