The Problem with Power and Kings

The Problem with Power and Kings
Words of Faith 8-28-24
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2024
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL
www.faithfellowshipweb.com
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1 Samuel 8
[10] Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king. [11] He said, "This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. [12] Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. [13] He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. [14] He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. [15] He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. [16] Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. [17] He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. [18] When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day." [19] But the people refused to listen to Samuel. "No!" they said. "We want a king over us. [20] Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles." [21] When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the LORD. [22] The LORD answered, "Listen to them and give them a king." Then Samuel said to the men of Israel, "Everyone go back to his town."

Samuel had heard from the Lord, as he had been doing all his life. It was clear to him that the way of the world was never a solution. Human kings and "sovereigns" are not the answer to governing men's affairs.
The English historian Lord Acton is credited with saying, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." In a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887, Lord Acton summed up precisely the truth expressed by Samuel nearly 3000 years earlier. Even benevolent kings end up corrupting the institutions they have attempted to serve.
Kings inevitably put people under their dominion and oppress them. The people are pressed into service and called into wars over matters they know nothing about. The people are taxed for palaces and campaigns that serve the ego of the monarch. There is no way around it; human kings, dictators, and "sovereigns" are just that... human. They are subject to the frailties of human sin, and without checks and balances, they cannot help but serve their own self-interests.
Samuel knew and understood some of this from experiences close to him. Samuel had watched the family of Eli abuse the power of the priesthood to steal from God and from the people. He had also watched painfully as his sons abused the court system's powers for their own ill-gotten gain. If power would corrupt in these places, how much worse would having a "sovereign" king with human frailties be?
There is no advice here for modern systems of government. All systems are human, frail, and prone to failures due to human sin. Some systems may be better than others or may fail less. Any governmental system that establishes one leader as a sovereign is doomed to miserable failure and abuse. Any government based on dictatorship without checks and balances from the voice of the people is destined to oppress.
This is not a political treatise. It is about spiritual realities that govern the human condition. The truth is that governments that declare unalienable rights, express the people's voice, and deliver checks and balances will have corruption and oppression, but surely less. Such governments, inasmuch as they are governed by people who are seeking to hear God, will have the great possibility of actually following God's way.
The devotional thought for the day: Pray for the nation, for the government leaders, for God to work through the systems of government He has ordained to establish freedom, and for the Gospel to be declared in the world, no matter the system of government.

Lord God, I pray today for the leaders of my nation. May they hear Your voice clearly, commit themselves wholly, and act obediently in their service of You and the people. Help our world today to stand against the tyranny and corruption born of human sin. May the Gospel be heard, and Your Word may people come to faith. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

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© Jeffrey D. Hoy 2024
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy - Faith Fellowship Church (EFCA)
2820 Business Center Blvd.
Melbourne, Florida 32940 (321)-259-7200
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
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The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail, excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2024 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.