Interlude-Rejected (Advent 4, 2021)

God ended the royal line to create an Interlude.  Got it.  But, wait, didn’t God initiate the royal line?  It was promised to Judah going way back before there ever was a king over Israel.  And God sanctioned it, right?

1 Samuel 8: 5 [The elders of Israel] said to [the priest Samuel], “You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”

6 But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD.

7 And the LORD told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. 8 As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. 9 Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.”

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.”

Questions for further study:

Summarizing today’s thoughts might be “Give us a king!  Give us a king!”  and God’s reply “Are you sure?  You’re not going to like it.”  Sometimes the worst punishment is to give us what we think we want.  In what ways did the Israelites reject God as their king?  (Read Malachi 1:6-7 and 2:17, for further thought)

Look again at Malachi 2:17, have we ever appeased a “woke culture” by normalizing sin? Do we ever question “Where is the God of justice?”

Why did God give them a king then, if He knew the future (which He surely does) and that every human king would cruelly disappoint?

How do we reject God as King? (Think about lies and truth, sin and righteousness. Read John 8:34-59 for insight into the rejection of Christ and its root.)

What will it take for us to embrace God as King? Might that be a point of having an Interlude?