“WE WILL HAVE A KING OVER US.”
By C. P. Bollman
For nearly four hundred years “there was no king in Israel.” Owing to their sins and backsliding, about one hundred of these years were spent at various times either in war or in vassalage to neighboring nations; but nearly three hundred were years of peace and prosperity; for while apostasy brought war and bondage, repentance brought swift deliverance. God’s ear is ever open to the cry of His people, and tho at times He left the children of Israel to reap the fruits of their own doings, His providence preserved them a distinct, and for the most part a united, people during those four centuries. During this time Israel was not a state—a body politic—but a body religious. It was first of all “the church in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38); then the church in Canaan; and always in every place the kingdom of God upon earth, a theocracy pure and simple. Theocracy is government not by man but by God Himself. It is not a government by men ruling in the place of God, but a government in which God Himself rules. And unlike men, God rules not by force, but by love. He governs by His own perfect law, which of its own inherent moral power speaks to the conscience of every man, testifying what is right and condemning that which is wrong. Therefore theocracy is the reign of the individual conscience, directed by the divine law. In other words, it is self-government. All this being true, it necessarily follows that genuine theocracy is possible only as long as it lives in the hearts of the people; and that theocracy is pre-eminently “government by consent of the governed.” God is the only being in all the universe that has any right to rule arbitrarily; and He refuses to exercise that right, because it is contrary both to His nature and to His purpose in making man a free moral agent. Israel’s backsliding brought trouble, as backsliding always does. But as is usually the case, the backsliders did not realize that they were to blame. Instead of confessing that their troubles were due to their own backslidings—to their failure to govern themselves, to be true to their own consciences—they charged the failure to God’s government, and said to Samuel, “Make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” 1 Sam. 8:5. As already stated, Israel was not a state. Neither Israel nor anybody in Israel claimed sovereignty over anybody or anything. The Lord was the sovereign. The work of Moses and of the seventy elders was purely administrative; they had no legislative authority. The word of the Lord to the people thru Moses was, “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish aught from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.” Deut. 4:2. There is no way for any one to escape from government. There is only one way whereby any man can be free to do as he pleases, and that is to please to do right; to govern himself in harmony with the divine law. To do this is to “know the truth,” and to be made free by the truth. John 8:32. Not to do this is to be subject to the5worst form of bondage; for “whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.” Verse 34. “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” Rom. 6:16. But the truth can be known and obeyed only as God is known and loved. Therefore it was only by the abiding presence of God with Israel that the theocracy could possibly continue; hence the promise: “I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them.” Ex. 29:45, 46. But God dwells only with him “that is of a contrite and humble spirit,” and He can be known only by faith. In His prayer to the Father for His disciples the Saviour said: “I have manifested Thy name unto the men which Thou gavest Me out of the world; Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me; and they have kept Thy Word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever Thou hast given Me are of Thee. For I have given unto them the words which Thou gavest Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from Thee, and they have believed that Thou didst send Me.” John 17:6–8. There is no possible way of becoming acquainted with God without believing Him, and it is impossible to love Him without knowing Him. In short, “without faith it is impossible to please Him.” Heb. 11:6. And it was right here that Israel failed. They did not believe God; therefore they did not love Him. And because they did not love Him, they would not submit themselves to His law. This was all involved in the demand for a king; for the Lord said to Samuel, “They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.” 1 Sam. 8:7. Israel’s demand for a king was therefore only an outward sign of inward apostasy. The people had become “like all the nations” at heart, and it was only natural and right that they should be governed “like all the nations.” Indeed, it was of necessity that they should have some sort of government suited to their condition. They would not govern themselves by the law of God; they must therefore have some authority over them that they recognized to give them a law by which, if they would not govern themselves, they could be governed. “Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, and said unto him, . . . Make us a king to judge us like all the nations. . . . And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. 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 Sam. 8:4–7. But even then the people were not left to go on blindly in the path in which they had chosen to walk. Under instruction from the Lord, the prophet told them the manner of the king that should reign over them. “And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots. And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers and to his servants. And he will take your men-servants, and your maid-servants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your sheep; and ye shall be his servants. And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day.” But the people would not hear. They “refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us; that we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.” Verses 11–20. Here was complete rejection of God and His law for an earthly king and an earthly law. Here was open rebellion against the God of heaven. The reason is not far to seek. The whole sad, shameful story is told in Judges 2:7–13: “And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord, that He did for Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being an hundred and ten years old. And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash. And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers; and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which He had done for Israel. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim; and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger. And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.” Judges 2:7–13. The several steps from theocracy—self-government by aid of the divine law—to monarchy—government of men by their fellow-men—are easy. The first once taken, the others naturally follow. First doubt—questioning; then positive unbelief; then failure in self-government under the divine law; then utter rejection of that law as the rule of life; then open idolatry in some form; then monarchy—men governed, not by themselves under the divine law, but by other men under human law. Then comes naturally, and even necessarily, the use of force. And this force is to compel the preformance of what the governor conceives to be duty. And this is just why some of the most conscientious rulers this world has ever seen have been persecutors. They were trying to enforce what seemed to them plain moral duty. And all this was bound up in Israel’s demand for a king.