This morning I was reading again in 1 Kings and was struck by something I hadn’t remembered. In the later years of Solomon’s reign, he did all sorts of things that were not ok. He went back to Egypt, he gathered chariots and horses, he had a ton of wives. Not only that, he built hight places for each of his wive’s gods. I’m sure its because he wanted to make sure they felt comfortable being away from their homeland, but it wasn’t something a King of Israel was supposed to do.
His heart had “turned away from the Lord, the God of Isrel, who had appeared to him twice” (1 Kings 1:9)
Twice. Did you catch that? Only twice, and Samuel was supposed to rule out of the knowledge that he was to be a good king, study Torah, and rule well. Yes, he was known for his wisdom to the entire Ancient Near East world at the time… but he must have forgotten to study Torah because the choices he made over the later years of his reign were directly against what Torah said in Deuteronomy 18
What does God do?
He makes a promise to Jereboam, one of Solomons officials who was in charge of the labor force. Through the prophet Ahijah, God tells Jereboam that he is going to take the kingdom from Solomon – all tribes except one (Judah). God then makes a promise – if Jereboam walks in obedience and does what is right in God’s eyes — he will “build [for Jereboam] a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David” (1 Kings 11:38)
That’s a pretty big promise. One you would think he would take very seriously, not just for himself but for the nation and future generations.
Unfortunately he got a bit insecure that everyone would go back to Jerusalem to worship and turn against him, so he made two golden calves, set up his own festival days, appointed whoever he wanted as priests at the high places, and essentially created his own version of Israelite worship.
Sigh.
When you keep reading, you hear over and over how most kings of the northern kingdom continued to follow other gods, and the kings over Judah were a bit more faithful, but needless to say, it was a bleak time in their history.
So this is where I started to think. By the time we get to the New Testament times, its no wonder that people are weary of their leaders, because over and over they led them astray and were a far cry from the kind of king David was, or even Solomon at the start. The other good kings in their history were but a vague memory, so they held out hope for a better king. A messiah. So yes of course they thought Jesus was going to be that king.
(side note: I’m not sure we quite get this as a nation, since every generation probably has their ‘favorite president’ — but are we weary of leaders? yes. Change every 4-8 years is like whiplash sometimes.)
Have we ever stopped to think about Jesus as King not in the future or his post-resurrection position, but rather – how Jesus, in his time on earth, did what a real king who loved Yahweh really should have done?
See the people of his kingdom, and do what he can to alleviate their suffering
-Care for the poor, raise up the ones that are ignored
-Study Torah and hold it dear. Walk in the ways of Yahweh
-Pray, and teach others how to seek Yahweh
Not do things for the fame, but rather for the furthering of the kingdom where everyone had innate value, mercy was the currency, and good things done in secret mattered most.
He wasn’t afraid to challenge other rulers. Jesus was king over those that sought to understand the ways of his kingdom, and he spent his life trying to right what was wrong.
Some of it stuck. (love your neighbor)
Some of it didn’t. (love your enemies)
Some of it we are still working to learn (how to love your enemies, how to work against evil and for justice)
Some of it has gotten co-opted over time, by the same political and power hungry ‘spirit’ that has always been present in all of history
Here is where I am going with this:
I came back from three weeks of complete disconnection from all news and social media (while whitewater rafing the Grand Canyon) to the “No Kings” rallies going on all around the country.
It surprised me, but the more I thought about it, it is simply people rejecting a leader who, in their eyes, is trying to rule over their decisions and make changes that they feel threaten their freedom of speech, shuts down the safe haven our country has been for the battered and broken, and removes social things in place that help the less fortunate.
Frankly, this could have happened in previous administrations too, for those that felt forced to make space for the LGBTQ community when they felt it violated their personal or religious beliefs, struggled with an attempt to move towards more social healthcare, and felt disdain for what seemed to be individual rights being taken away.
No president, no ruler, no king will ever satisfy everyone. Yet it is very much a temptation for us to, in our humanity, think that the person we agree with is ‘annointed’ by God to lead us and therefore better than the opposition. When we do that, we make them a king over us and tend to place blind trust.
We need to be careful, as those who follow Jesus, to not allow any political leader, pastor, influencer, or other powerful person to act as king for us…. no matter where you stand on political issues of the day. Truly, there should be no king but the one we surrender our lives to, the only one who is trustworthy.
Look to how Jesus walked the earth as a king. The question isn’t what new thing to be glad about or frustrated about on social media today.
The question is this: Will you seek to let Jesus be your king, the one you will trust. Will you let him be the king whose life you try to mirror, the one you will allow to speak into your life with his word and Spirit.
Will you let the ways of his kingdom drive how you speak, treat the person at the grocery store, the one making your latte or serving you dinner, the one collecting your garbage or taking your collections payment. Will you let the ways of his kingdom lead you in talking with people that aren’t of your ‘posse’, show grace for those who don’t measure up to your expectations of a ‘good life’, and be what checks you before you (or if you) make that comment on social media.
If you’ve somehow lost how to be in the world and reflect the ways of Jesus in your thoughts, speech or actions, might I humbly suggest you do a digital media detox and see if you can reclaim it?
(and for those of you who love music – Allison Eide recently came out with a great song about this – check out “Digital Jesus”)
The social media world will be ok without your input for a while. I promise.
Finding the Life 