"And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them." - 1 Samuel 8:7
Okay, I'm back. Things have been pretty crazy the last couple weeks and I admit the blog - and my daily reading as well - has been suffering. Moving on...
I started 1 Samuel last week sometime and this scene still really gets me. As an American it's difficult for me to have an accurate view of what my role in the Kingdom is. I'm not the King, that much I know, but most of the time I tend to imagine I'm some sort of Duke or ambassador that just kind of hangs out in the throne room with the King. We're friends you know? We eat fancy meals together and discuss matters of state and foreign policy and so on. Wrong!
A better picture is in Esther 4:11 where Esther fears for her life should she enter into the king's presence unbidden. She is, of course, the queen at that point, but the law stands. He extends his scepter to her though, which overrules the law, and it all turns out happy in the end (except for Haman). This is a much closer picture to what we're like. Unworthy of even catching the King's notice we are chosen among a multitude of peoples to be His Bride, but it's not a freebie by any stretch. He's still the King and there's still the Law. His Grace allows us to approach Him but we better make certain of it or else we're done for.
I also think of Genesis 2:23,24 where marriage is first instituted: "And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother; and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." It's crazy to think that Adam and Eve got married on the first date. Verse 22 is such a precious part of the story of marriage too: "And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from the man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man." So we have this picture of lonely Adam and gracious God who makes other-half Eve and then presents her to lonely Adam. How cool is that?
These are some of the passages that come to mind whenever I think about the Bride of Christ. We're people, so God became a person. We're dirty, so God cleanses us with His Word. We're unworthy, so He extends His scepter of grace. We're dead, so He makes us alive. We're incomplete, so He makes us whole. We are so totally incapable of ruling ourselves (see: History of Mankind for details) that any attempt to do so without Him results in pain, sorrow and death, but He's got a Zero-Tolerance policy for any of that in His Kingdom. Death isn't one of His constituents, it's one of His defeated foes.
So it's weird for me to think of myself as having a King. I have a president and he was elected - who voted for God? Can He be impeached? Who is He held accountable to - some celestial congress perhaps? The title Presidents of Presidents just doesn't sound right anyway I guess. But I do have a King, and there are Laws. He doesn't hold votes and He doesn't report to anyone, which is good if you think about it. How many crazies out there would petition Him to loosen gravity just a bit, or give us extra lives, or let us have gills? No, we don't need an elected President of Presidents to govern our souls, we need a sovereign King of Kings who made the universe in six days by talking; who knows what we're going through because his weaves us on a loom that works at the atomic level. Other kings get morning breath but this King breathes life and outshines the sun. We might not want this King, but we sure do need Him and we'd definitely be lost without Him.
So it turns out monarchy isn't so bad after all, we just keep messing it up with all those Human kings.
~~JBH
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