Harbor Church - Mid City

Our timing of getting to Chapter 8 in I Samuel is pretty God orchestrated, to say the least.  What you have is the election of a king?  Pretty similar stuff going on in our country right now—our whole country, well, even the whole world, has been charged by this recent election.  So, let’s first look at the situation that was going on surrounding the Israelites election of a king, and then we’ll draw out some lessons for us from their election.

1. Israel’s First Election

I remember being shocked when my seminary professor began to argue that Israel was not wrong to want a human king.  On the contrary, he argued, it was always God’s intention for Israel to have a human king.

I thought that the chapter we’re reading today made it clear that God didn’t really want his people to have a king.  Most of my argument at the time rested on verse 7 of our text where God says, “it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.”  So it seemed like God was saying, in my mind, that his ideal was that he should remain their King, not some human. 

But the more I studied this text and the rest of the Bible, I realized that this text wasn’t actually saying what I thought it was.  I began to realize that it was always God’s intention for his people to elect a human king who would serve as God’s vice-regent. 

What is a vice-regent?  It is someone who acts in the name of another.  They have power and authority to act on behalf of someone else.  Think of it like the President’s Secretary of State.  When she goes to meet with Russia, she acts on behalf of the President.  She has power and authority to speak for him, to make treaties, but if she begins to act in a way that is inconsistent with his values or beliefs, then she will not be his Secretary of State for long.  In fact, this is what you see happen a little bit later in our book with King Saul as a vice-regent.  He begins to act in a manner that is inconsistent with God as High King and he is removed from his office as King or vice-regent.

But I still haven’t given you the Biblical case for why God wanted Israel to have a human King.  The Biblical case really begins In the Garden.  This is how Adam was to function, as a human king or vice-regent.  He was to be fruitful, multiply and gain dominion.  He was to rule.  He blew it, but that didn’t mean that God’s plan for human kingship ended.  As early as       Gen. 17:6, you see God tell Abraham, “kings will come from you.”  God was reminding them:  you’ll have a king one day, don’t give up.  Then, when Jacob blessed his sons he let it be known that the King was going to come from the tribe of Judah in Gen. 49:10, so God identified the particular tribe. 

Then, in Deut. 17, God lays out laws for how they were to go about electing a king.  in the book of Judges we see the dire need for a king, a vice-regent, who will act in line with the High-King, b/c everything was spiraling down with one failed judge after the next. 

So now we arrive at our text.  And what you see is this:  Israel’s            desire wasn’t wrong, but they went about electing this human king in the wrong way, giving us such a clear example of what not to do as we seek to elect a president.  So let’s draw out some lessons for election day 2008 from based on the failures of Israel’s election that took place right around 1050 BC.   

2. Lessons From Israel’s First Election for 2008

1.  Israel’s Election of a King is very different from our elections.

We as a nation are very different from Israel in 1050 BC.  Israel was God’s chosen nation and they were called to do what the church—not the nation of America—is called to do today.  Israel, like the church today, was intended to be the vehicle that God used to take the gospel to all the nations.  They were called to work the reign of God’s justice, mercy, grace, and redemption into every nook and cranny of the world. 

America is not God’s chosen nation.  I love America, and I sing the song God Bless America b/c I really have a heart for my country and I want God to bless us, but the reality is that we’re a secular nation, not a Christian nation.  Yes, there are lots of Christians in this nation, but that doesn’t make us a Christian nation.  See blurring this distinction can lead to all sorts of problems.  Think about it.  If we hold out America as a Christian nation, then when America attacks, that means that Christians are attacking nations.  No.  My friends.   Do you see what a hindrance this can be to the spread of the gospel if we don’t distinguish America from Christianity.

So lesson number one:  Israel was electing God’s vice-regent, we’re not.  We’re electing a president of a secular nation. 

2. Trust God not government 

Israel absolutely blew this.  They put their trust in government, not God.  Look at v20, it says, “We want a king over us.  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.”  See their trust was in the earthly king—in government.  He will lead us triumphant in battle—you God aren’t getting the job done, we want someone else.

Oh, my friends, the application for us in the 2008 election is rich and deep.  Those of you who are Christians, trust God, not government.  You say—great cliché Stephen, but what does that mean.

Let me try to explain.  I have talked to many of you this week who are absolutely overjoyed that Obama won.  You’re dancing a jig.  A new hope has dawned.  And yet, on the other hand, I have talked to others of you who are grieving the election of Obama.  You’re fearful of him and the direction he will lead our country in and there is a mourning in your heart.

I have 2 thoughts on this.  First,  for those of you who are rejoicing and/or mourning, listen to I Cor. 7: 29-31…

The appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who mourn live as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away. (1 Corinthians 7:29-31)

See, if you’re a Christian you understand that the time has grown short and the world as we know it is passing away.  So, yes, you have dealings with this world, but it is as if you ultimately have no dealings with it.  John Piper put it this way, “You vote as if you weren’t voting.”  Why?  B/c you know that you’re true identity isn’t as an American but as a child of God.  You’re hope doesn’t lie on American soil, but on the shores of the Promised Land, in the new heavens and new earth.  So whether you’re rejoicing or mourning b/c Obama will move this secular nation of America in the right or wrong direction, I Cor. 7 says in reality it as if you’re not mourning or rejoicing because Obama and even America are secondary joys to the deeper and more fulfilling joy that you have in Jesus, the true King of your heart and of this world. 

See, my friends, another more influential pastor had the same concern about his people in the year 410 AD.  He didn’t want his people to put their trust in government and not in God.  Many of you have heard of him, his name was Augustine.  He gave a series of sermons that became a book called the City of God.  In this book, he addresses the exact thing that we’re talking about.

Here is what happened.  He is writing just after Christianity had been declared the official religion of the Roman empire by Constantine.  So many Christians were thinking that Rome was somehow becoming the favored nation of God, much how you hear many Christians speak of the United States as a Christian Nation.  They were thinking that the Roman political leaders were going to somehow usher in and bring the kingdom of God.  And then, something devastating happened.  It wasn’t an election like we saw this week , it was the attack of the Visigoths that sacked Rome. 

All of a sudden, this called everything into question for many Christians.  But Augustine said, “No way,” for our hope and trust isn’t in the               city of man (i.e. Rome or its leaders).  No, hour hope is in the                           City of God (i.e. the New Jerusalem) and its King—King Jesus.  So he said—regardless of the leadership, regardless of what happens in the city of man, our true hope is in the city of God that is going to one day descend down to earth, when the kingdom comes as it is in heaven. 

In the same way, my friends, for those of you who are devastated by the election, remember that you’re true identity, your true hope, isn’t in the city of man or its leaders, but in the city of God and its leader.  And for those of you who are thrilled beyond measure with Tuesday’s election, remember the same thing.  Our ultimate hope and joy isn’t in Obama, and whether the Dems or Repubs control the House/Senate, but in our true King and the kingdom He is building, that won’t be stopped or thwarted. 

But now let me mention my second thought about the divergent reactions in our church.  As I have talked with some of you this week and seen such diametrically opposite reactions—some rejoicing and some mourning—I began to secretly rejoice for what this means for our church.  I didn’t tell you this, but it was an internal delight.  Why would this excite me?  To have people who have such completely opposite political views in the same church means this:  we’re fulfilling our vision of being a bridge church. 

Remember, at the center of who we are is that we’re bridging people to God and to one another who have very little in common with one another.  We talk often about bridging race, class, and culture, but this week gave me hope that another barrier that often separates people in our culture is being bridged:  politics. 

Think about it.  What are the subjects in conversations that are always      off-limits?  Religion and Politics.  And that is true outside the church, but inside the church, here at Harbor, what you’re experiencing is a relationship with many people whose views you completely disagree with politically, yet somehow you love this person.  As a result, you begin to listen to them and want to learn how it is they voted for Obama or McCain in light of their relationship with Jesus.  See you can’t just throw stones at all those fundamentalist republicans or liberal democrats b/c they’re actually you’re friends and brothers in Christ now and you know that they love Jesus and want with all their heart to follow him.  What is happening is that Jesus is transcending politics in our midst.  In this church, He isn’t forming an outpost of the Republican party or the democratic party, but a church. 

See young democrats parties and young republican parties tend to attract people who look very similar.  But Jesus, he has, and always will, attract people from every walk of life and from every political party.  So my conversations with you this week just reminded me again that Jesus is indeed building this church.  Jesus is on the move here.

3.  Trust a Saving God, not a method

Israel put their trust in their method.  They had a particular way that they wanted God to deliver them—with a human king—and this had to be the way.  Even when God told them of all the pain that would come there way with a human king in v10-18, they said, “We don’t care.  We want a king.”  God was telling them, “You’re not ready.  The time isn’t right for a human king.”  We don’t care.  Obstinate.  See they had decided exactly how God should deliver them and this was the only way he could come through. 

Do you see the application to our prayer life.  Sometimes we come to God and we get so fixated on how he must deliver.  God you must elect John McCain or Barrack Obama.  There is no other way for you to come through for our country.  God, you must give me this particular job so that I can provide for my family.  And we put our hope in a particular method of God’s deliverance, not in God.  It isn’t enough to have a saving God, we must tell him how to save us.  But here is the good news—the gospel.  And it is our 4^th lesson…

4.  Gospel: God redeems our improper motivations & spiritual obstinacy

Part of this story leaves you thinking—what in the world?  Why would God give in like this to these spiritually obstinate people who have such poor motives.  Eugene Peterson commented on this story and said, “We read these words and rub our eyes in disbelief:  Is God really giving in to their smallness, their unbelief, their world-conforming ways? But God ever does this.  We don’t have to come up to God’s standards before we are listened to or cared for.  God descends to our condition, accommodates to our dulled imaginations and little faith, works with us where we are.” 

See what the Israelites did is took a good thing—a desire for a human king—and made it a bad thing b/c of all their improper motivations.  I  do this all the time—take good things, put my bad motives behind them, and then this good things becomes not so good.  But aren’t you glad we have a God who can redeem our improper motivations? 

Look how he redeemed this kingship situation.  God conceded and gave them a king before they were ready in Saul, where they had a largely negative experience of what it means to have a king.  Then the Golden Age with David, where they had a mostly positive experience with a king.  Then things went south where we see some instances of faithfulness from Israel’s kings but mostly unfaithfulness.  And then the line of kings stopped with the Babylonian exile.

And during this time of captivity the people of God sang and prayed the Psalms that proclaim God as king.  And these Messianic Psalms were bouncing around in their minds and hearts until one day Christ, which means anointed one, showed up in the fullness of time.  Mt. 1:1 begins, “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David.”  Front and center, the first words in the first gospel, “The Son of David, the heir to the great throne, has come.” 

Only he didn’t come to do what the people in our text asked for in v20—to make them like all the other nations.  While God ultimately granted them their wish for a king, it wasn’t so they could be like all the other nations.  Oh, no, this king, and his kingdom, were going to be utterly unique. 

Think about it—whereas kings killed their enemies., the King of Kings healed his. When King Jesus’ enemies came to seize him, Peter, who still didn’t get it, slices off the ear of King Jesus’ attacker.  Any other King would have first supported this and second drawn his sword himself.  Not the King of Kings—His hands are those of a healer.  And He took the ear, put it back in place, and healed him.  For the King of Kings came to make the blind see and the lame walk.

Whereas kings of other nations taxed the people, the King of Kings came to give all of his riches and everything he owned, including his life, to the people.

Whereas kings of other nations reign ended with their death, Eph. 1. tells us that the King of Kings reign was just beginning and that He is now seated at the right hand of the Father reigning over all and that one day the King of Kings will come back and establish his reign in fullness in the new heavens and new earth.

Ironic, isn’t it.  The people in our story wanted a king to make them like all the nations.  The King that God gave them—the King of Kings—came to do just the opposite.  He came to set them apart, to make them not just citizens of earthly cities and earthly nations ruled by a king, but to make the citizens in the city of God and the nation of God ruled by the King of Kings.  And not just citizens, but royalty, sons and daughters of God himself.

But to do this, this king had to be utterly unique himself.  See, He had to be human, in the line of David.  Why?  B/c he had to suffer for a long line of humans like you and I who have blown it.  There was no other way.  He had to be our substitute.  Thus, the cross—a king unlike any other, who gave up his power willingly and paid the ransom for his people with his own blood.  But because he was King of Kings and was God himself, the cross and the grave didn’t have the last word.  And here is the best news:  it won’t have the last word for you either if you have trusted Him.  My friends, do you know this King of Kings?  Have you trusted Him?  He, not Obama, is the real King of Kings, and He wants to reign in your hearts.

Recent Sermon