Give Us A King, Part I
Give Us A King!
Parallels Between 1 Samuel 8 and our Current State of Affairs
“I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground. In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptized as followers of Moses. All of them ate the same spiritual food, and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ. Yet God was not pleased with most of them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. These things happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did…
These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age.” 1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 11.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
While there may not be any exact duplicates in ancient history compared to modern times, history is more than replete with parallels and similarities to serve as ample warnings and lessons for us today.
In 1 Samuel, Chapter 8, we can find such parallels to our current state of affairs.
“The government of Israel, was administered in the name and authority of God. The work of Moses, of the seventy elders, of the rulers and judges, was simply to enforce the laws that God had given. They had no authority to legislate for the nation.
This government, established by God was, and continued to be, the condition for the existence of the nation of Israel.” PP 603.
Over time, the nation of Israel grew in population and their intercourse with the surrounding nations brought about a change. They began to be attracted to the pomp and display of heathen monarchs. They were drawn to the appearance of might and power. They grew tired of the simplicity of the current establishment. The internal dissensions and conflicts made them weak; and they were continually exposed to the invasions from their heathen enemies. The nation of Israel wanted to be “great” like the other nations.
“The people were coming to believe that in order to maintain their standing among the nations, the tribes must be united under a strong central government. As they departed from obedience to God's law, they desired to be freed from the rule of their divine Sovereign; and thus the demand for a monarchy became widespread throughout Israel.” Patriarchs and Prophets- 603.3.
The rejection of the establishment, norms, and traditions were seen early, even during Obama’s tenure with the rise of the Tea Party in 2009. They stood against “excessive taxation” and government interference in the private sector, with racism intertwined. While the positions of the Tea Party were not novel in the least, they were of much more focus and fervor. Upon reflection, the comeuppance of the Tea Party was the canary in the coal mine.
During the 2015 presidential campaign, the Republican electorate rejected the panoply of established Republican candidates and ended up with an outsider in Donald Trump. Donald Trump was nominated or, as many throughout Christendom would say, “appointed” to lead the Republican Party, and the nation.
Clearly, while many of the Republican presidential candidates back in 2015 were far more qualified, and experienced, and didn’t have nearly as much baggage as Trump, the American people had spoken. They wanted someone who was not only outside of the establishment, but to “shake things up.” Uniquely, it seemed, Trump appealed to disparate groups. He had something for just about everyone—standard conservatives, the super wealthy, the libertarians or Tea Party, the culture warriors or Christian right, and definitely the racists and white supremacists.
