Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Now then, listen to their voice; only—you shall solemnly warn them, and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”
NL Daily Devotion for Thursday, October 20, 2022
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
And warn them Samuel did. “He’ll take your sons and make them soldiers and farmers and weaponsmiths and toolsmiths. He’ll take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He’ll take your best fields and tax you to pieces and you’ll be his slaves and you’ll hate every minute of it. And when you realize your mistake and complain to God, God’s not gonna answer.”
But he people literally did not care. They just whined, “We wanna be like other nations and we wanna have a king to fight our battles for us.” As if Samuel didn’t just say the king would make their own kids fight the battles. Hello?!?
We know the people get exactly what Samuel says they will and somehow they still don’t care. They opt out of a more locally-run political system in which God is their ultimate authority and into a monarchic system in which people (mostly men) will begin behaving reprehensibly and vying for power and backstabbing almost from the moment it begins, and which will inevitably lead to a national schism and the repeated conquering of the nations by other, stronger empires.
Maybe this was inevitable. Maybe people are just incapable of governing themselves without devolving into their worst behavior. Or maybe this story, written as it was during the time of Israel’s exile, was a moment of clarity for the people—a moment of wistful regret that just maybe all of it could have been avoided if they’d just chosen a different way.
How does my understanding of biblical history influence my ideas about governance?
