No King in Israel (39)

Judges were not kings. We have seen that they performed some functions we expect of royalty: leading the army, delivering the nation from oppression, and rendering decisions in disagreements between Israelites. Some functions, but not all.

When God appointed Saul Israel’s first king, he had something more in mind for him than waving a sword, calling out the troops or sitting under a tree passing judgment. “Here is the man of whom I spoke to you,” God said. “He it is who shall restrain my people.”

Restrain. Hmm.

Anarchy and Violence

I used to like democracy. As forms of government go, I liked it a lot.

Not to say I’m all that emotionally invested in any particular way of running the show. As an adult Christian, I now recognize the built-in limitations of all human institutions. But for most people, unless the system in which we grew up was transparently horrendous, it tended to define our political horizons. I was no exception.

Mind you, as a lifetime reader of the Old Testament, a monarchy sounded like it might be cool — always assuming you had exactly the right sort of monarch. But the books of Kings suggest such a hope is a bit of a long shot: Israel’s 19 kings were a total moral washout, while Judah went a mere 8.5 for 20 in the “good king” department.

Not a great track record.