These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots … And on that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you on that day.
1 Samuel 8:11&18
Dear members and friends,
One way to read and understand the Bible is to focus on what humans desire and how God warns about the consequence of such desires. We could read this in the story of Adam and Eve with the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the story of Cain and Abel, and so forth. With miraculous power and mighty acts, God liberated the Israelites from Egypt and guided and protected them through the long journey through the wilderness. Then, with Joshua, God granted them the land as promised and let the Israelites settle the land. This could have been a very good, happy ending to the story of Israelites. However, it was not. As soon as they settled, they desired a human king to rule over them instead of the Divine King who freed, protected, guided, and even gave them peaceful living in the land. Why? Simply because that was what all other people had!
In 1 Samuel 8, Samuel was deeply troubled and upset and thus lifted his voice to emphasize what a human king would do to them. He ended his statement with this prophecy, “on that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you on that day.” In the Tao Te Ching, Lao-zi presents four types of possible kings:
The highest is the one who leads without words, allowing the people to follow their own natures and live in their own way.
The next highest is the ruler who uses goodness to transform the people and righteous benevolence to govern them.
The next is the ruler who controls his people with political teachings and scares them into submission through stringent laws and severe punishments.
The worst kind of ruler uses all of his powers to toy with the people and cheat them through devious schemes.
Unfortunately, the highest ruler only existed in myths and legends. The next highest ruler may be found in human history, but very rarely. The third kind of ruler seems to be quite common throughout history and often praised as good kings. Sadly, we can find a good number of the worst kinds of rulers too. One thing that comforts me at this time of challenge and trouble is that we are not living in a kingdom, where changing of kinship requires blood, war, and chaos, but in a democratic nation of united states, where change of leadership is in the hands of the people.
My brothers and sisters in God, let us take a good moment of time to pray and connect with the presence of our Creator. Let the love from the Creator fill our hearts and the wisdom in our mind. And, let us use our rights and freedom wisely and appropriately.
Blessings, Rev. Junchol Lee