Who is This King of Glory?

I’ve been thinking a lot about God as King.  I feel like we’re repeating history and it’s not good.

There are few passages of Scripture that cut me to the core as this one (especially verses 7 and 22):

1 Samuel 8:1 When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as judges for Israel. 2 The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second was Abijah, and they served at Beersheba. 3 But his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice. 4 So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. 5 They said to him, “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.”

How incredibly sad!  

Yet, how many of us want God to give us what we want instead of what is best for us?

Do we covet earthly power, forgetting that the sovereign power of God is far greater?  

The Israelites then and we, today, reject God all the time!

• We reject Him every time we are not thankful for what abundance He has given us or envy what He’s given someone else.
• We reject Him every time we do not live the way Scripture calls us to live,  passing judgment on His Word as outdated, irrelevant, old fashioned, or passé.
• We reject Him every time we want to be lords over our own lives and do what we want, when we want.
• We reject Him every time we hate another person who has been made in God’s image.
• We reject Him every time we refuse to forgive other people.
• We reject Him every time we succumb to greed or refuse to care for those whom we know we can (and ought to) help.
• We reject Him every time we think we can outsmart God.
• We reject Him every time we want our government to do for us what God wants to do for us when we come to Him in faith.
• We reject Him every holiday season (whether that holiday is Christmas or Easter) by minimizing the religious significance and the holiness of that holy day, totally missing the etymology of the word itself is from the Old English haligdæg “holy day.”  Commercializing this holy time turns God into nothing more than an excuse to spend money and worship material things.

If Jesus were to return today…as King of Kings and Lord of Lords…would we know Him?  

He was rejected in His humanity in a way He will never be rejected when the last trumpet sounds at His return.  He will not be rejected when He returns in sovereign power with all authority.  

He will be King, Lord, and Judge.  There will be no more excuses to hold water on earth.  There will be no more rationalizations.  There will only be judgment for those of us who persisted in rejecting the King of glory while we had the opportunity in our lives to know Him as King.