kings we crave

Where now is your king, to save you in all your cities?

Where are all your rulers—

those of whom you said,

“Give me a king and princes”?

I gave you a king in my anger,

and I took him away in my wrath.

Hosea 13:10-11

One of the root sources of Israel’s idolatry was the nation’s constant clamor to God to have a king over them “like all the other nations”. They coveted a king, and God would eventually let them have what they craved to their own hurt. 1 Samuel 8 chronicles the history of this craving. And although God warned them against the consequences of having a king, the nation selfishly demanded one to rule over them. And God let them have their desire, designing it as a kind of judgment upon them.

Having a king could have drawn them closer to God as their true King. Most of the time it did not do so. There were, however, a few bright spots under David and Solomon, perhaps later also with Josiah and Hezekiah, where imperfect men were used by God in this way. Yet for the most part the kings of Israel and Judah led the nation away from God and not toward worship and the keeping of the covenant. The problem was that kings are imperfect sinners just like those whom they rule. They could never lead perfectly.

Eventually both Israel and Judah fell into deep, immoral, unrepentant idolatry, heavily influenced by wicked kings. And the wrath of God would be revealed through the prophets, warning the nation of the curses of the Law coming upon them and their evil kings. As this went unheeded, God’s wrath eventually brought destruction, with the kings being the worst to suffer. Israel was decimated, never to exist as a group of people with a king over them in Samaria. Ten tribes were totally wiped out. Judah also was taken captive, never to see another king ruling in Jerusalem without some sort of foreign power behind the throne. Until Jesus rules from David’s throne again, this judgment will stand. God will rid his people of the false kings they crave.