Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play." We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. - 1Corinthians 10:6-11 (ESV)
The eighth chapter of 1Samuel was a dark day in the history of Israel, which up until that point was a theocracy, with God as their King. Yet Israel demanded that God give them a mortal king. Samuel was upset and took it personally, but God corrected him by saying that it was not him that they were rejecting but rather they were rejecting God as King over them. He further pointed out to Samuel that they had been actively rejecting Him by their own deeds from the moment He saved them from Egypt to that day when they asked for a king. They forsook Him by serving other gods, which the Lord had specifically warned them about when He gave them the law in Deuteronomy. God however ordered Samuel to give them proper warning about what their new king would require of them:
Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them." So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king from him. He said, "These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. - 1Samuel 8:9-17 (ESV)
I think that we always need to be careful about examining scripture to apply to present situations but there are lessons God is always teaching us imbedded within the narratives. The key verses remind us that the stories of Israel provided in the Old Testament were specifically examples for us, so that we may not desire evil as they did. That we might not put Christ to the test. That we might not grumble or be idolators. They were written for our instruction. This story about Israel rejecting God by demanding a mortal king was provided so that we might not become idolators ourselves and worship false God; as Israel had repeatedly done. After this past election it seems clear those that pass for the church today in this country, did not listen. Sure, some of the specifics have changed in terms of what the warnings were but the biblical instruction remains consistent. We cannot pretend a year from now or four years from now that God did not warn us. He did repeatedly. Donald Trump told us exactly what he is now going to do. On day one he will fire any prosecutor investigating him for his many, many crimes and the church has said - give us a king! He has said that he will appoint someone who openly rejects science and planted a bear carcass in Central Park as the head of all the health agencies and the church screamed - give us a king! He has said that he will deport 16 million people, many of which are our neighbors and attend our houses of worship and the church said - give us our king! He will deregulate and drill until God's creation is destroyed, and the church still said - give us our king! Our daughters and wives will bleed out in parking lots like the four women in the past month alone, dead from political idolatry, and the church screamed again - give us our king! Journalists dismembered by Saudi Arabia while his son in law walks away with two billion from the Prince? Give us our king! Appoint criminals to key cabinet positions? Give us our king! Shoot protestors, pardon the insurrectionists who defecated in the Capitol and killed police officers, end alternate methods of generating energy, target the free press until there is only state sanctioned disinformation, impose 20% tariffs that will decimate our economy while giving tax cuts to his billionaire friends, appointing the richest man in the world to eliminate two billion dollars from our budget, which can only come from Social Security and Medicare - give us our king! God warned us beloved. He gave us a man who cheated on his first wife with his second wife and his third wife with a porn star and the church retweeted - give us our king! He gave us a man who cheated nearly every business partner he has ever had including six bankruptcies and defrauding charities for kids with cancer and the church posted memes demanding their king. He gave us a man who bragged about grabbing women by their genitals, said he did not need forgiveness from God for anything, mocked the disabled, derided war veterans, lied that our brothers and sisters were eating pets in Ohio, and cursed his way through every single appearance in the last six months and the church ate it up and said - give us our king!
Just like the warnings from God through Samuel, God was saying again - he will make you, his slaves. So, now we are, and the truly sad thing is most are happy to willingly become a slave to the idolatry they have been pursuing for so long now. The chips have all been shoved to the middle. When you have you defend the absolutely indefensible for this long, you must be all in. When Trump takes office and starts doing the 21st century version of the things God warned about in 1Samuel, the church leaders will have no choice but to jump to his defense. Be prepared because after what the church downplayed, minimized and ignored for the past nine years is about to exponentially explode. This is the final idol of the church age and makes me firmly believe we are now in the end game before Jesus comes back. The church will line up to defend their carnal messiah and when they stand before Jesus, they will say "Lord Lord" did we not repost lies about Haitians eating pets? Did we not listen to Franklin Graham, Paula White, and any NAR leader who insisted that Trump was the second coming of King Cyrus or King Jehu? Did we not fervently pray for this king? Did we not retweet horrible lies about people we did not know because Elon Musk abused Twitter to flood our information with the bias we wanted to confirm? Lord Lord, did we not insist we were not electing a pastor in chief? Did we not make a deal with the devil to turn our heads away to all of the glaring immorality? Did we not eviscerate our own witness for the gospel under the guise of being concerned about imaginary threats to religious freedom in the most religiously free country in the history of the planet? Did we not try to guilt anyone who stumbled across our Facebook thread with threats of hell and judgment for not voting for this man, or in some cases, not voting at all. Did we not forgo true Christian friends. People we broke bread with and shared life with, for a man we never knew and would not stop to spit on us? Oh, in Your name of course, wink wink. Lord Lord, did we not do all of this, the lies, the self-debasement, the spiritual bullying, the destruction of our witness, the pain and suffering heaped upon others - did we not do all of this in Your name and for You?
The answer will be no. Away from me for I never knew thee.
I just want to make sure we all understand the whore we just got in bed with because eventually, the bill will come due. We followed utter snake oil salesmen cosplaying as Christian leaders because it fed our vanity. It fed our ego. It fed our bias. There is a great set of verses in the 13th chapter of Job that asks if we will lie on behalf of God and if we think we can fool Him as we fool man. Job then asks - does not His majesty terrify you? The false leaders we have followed home are not terrified by the majesty of God because they do not know God. They do not preach God. They do not care about God. Do you think Franklin Graham, Paula White, Jentzen Franklin, Jack Graham, Greg Locke, Mario Murillo, Jack Hibbs, Steven Strang and Dr. Michael Brown are church leaders? Have you been that deceived? Who has so bewitched you? The reality is we have bewitched ourselves. The devil can only offer you a choice of what to believe but if we sincerely apply God's word we can always know right from wrong. Israel knew full well they should not ask for a king. Just in case, God warned them. God told them everything they would suffer under their king. Likewise, God warned us about the idolatry we were just engaged in and what we will now suffer through under the idol we worship. The story in 1Samuel concludes with God relenting:
