The Easy Button Doesn’t Work for Governance
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘But Gideon told them, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The Lord will rule over you.”’ (Judges 8:23); (17) ‘<Samuel told the Israelites,>“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, but 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.”’ (1 Samuel 8:17-19)
‘We the People’ always look for the ‘Easy’ button. This is true in any endeavor, especially when it comes to governance. Even Benjamin Franklin, after the penning of the US Constitution, is credited with saying, after asked what the Americans had just achieved, “A Republic – if you can keep it.” A Constitutional Republic is fairer and more equitable over a Democracy (which is easier than a Republic; instead of representative governance it is majority decision-making, or ‘mob rule’).
Even easier is totalitarianism, where a king (or queen), dictator or oligarchy rules without any input by the people. A Republic or Democracy has citizens as its people; a Totalitarian regime has subjects. A subject has decisions made for them, rather than needing to be concerned over making decisions as in a Republic or Democracy. Humans tend not be very good in having absolute rule, as the absolute power corrupts absolutely. The decisions of the one (or of an inner circle) tends to benefit the one or the inner circle without the needs of the subjects being addressed.
The Israelites in the Old Testament went through the same predicament. They looked for the ‘Easy’ button through their humanity. They first sought Gideon in Judges 8, who had freed the Israelites from Midian to rule over them. Gideon knew that the people should only be ruled by God, and told them so. The Israelites, though continued to clamor for a king throughout their ‘ruled by Judges’ period until the prophet Samuel came and the people asked for a king to be appointed to rule over them. Samuel, in 1 Samuel 8, laid Truth upon them and tried to dissuade them from wanting a king, but due to their insistence Samuel, seeking God’s choice, was given Saul in 1 Samuel 9 to be Israel’s king.
Having an earthly king, though, is not God’s preference for us. God wants us to be only dependent on Him and His rule, through the Eternal King that He has provided, Jesus. We find throughout history that those, even popular men and women, who rule by authoritarian means, become corrupt; it happened with Solomon, and continued as those charismatic or powerful enough to seize absolute power did so; Hitler, Mussolini, and Castro were popular figures that were given the power over the people. This attraction toward the popular and the charismatic will be used by Satan when appointing the Antichrist over the people in Revelation 13, culminating in the people who follow him to be forced to take upon the ‘Mark of the Beast’ in order to live – but condemning them to eternal separation from God, in torment and anguish.
Be wary of those who wish to impose their rule over you, who want to take away from you. Only Jesus can rule without corruption; He is the only one who can rule over the people and keep the people’s best interests in heart. His rule over us does not make us citizens or subjects, but instead we are His bride, His children. We are family and ‘Agape’ loved by Him, if you’ve accepted Him as your Lord. His rule is not imposing but one given by your free will.
