The King of the hill

Did you ever play king of the hill as a kid?  Someone starts on top of the “hill” (or for us sometimes it was the slide at the playground), and the object was to supplant the person at the apex of the hill by pulling, pushing or somehow maneuvering them off their perch and your taking their coveted spot.  It wasn’t always the biggest or strongest; sometimes it was the sneakiest one who watched everyone struggling against each other who would step into the opening that appeared, and they would shout, “I am king of the hill.”  But their reign never lasted long, because the game never ended until the energy, desire or daylight ran out, leaving one to be king of the hill for that day, but probably not the next.

As sinful men, we all want to be king of our hill, castle, domain or however you define your life.  Left to ourselves we quickly devolve to emulate those in Judges 21:25, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”  Some, when reading this verse, they think of a human king. But if you look through history or even in today’s newspapers, you’ll find that having a human king over you isn’t the solution to living outside the paradigm of “the king of the hill.”  What had happened in Israel is that they had been led out of bondage in Egypt by the hand and power of God, had been led through the wilderness, had been instructed how to worship the true King of the hill (universe), but had cast their eyes to the nations and people who fought daily to be “king of their little fiefdom.”  Instead of continuing in their worship and adoration of the King who had delivered them, they instead reverted to bondage and clawing up the hill of their own desires,  only to find that their sin and desires would never relinquish the kingship over their existence, but instead hold them as slaves.  

Why?  Because there was no King (of the universe) in their life.  And the passage we looked at on Sunday, Colossians 1:15-20, clearly tells us that all our striving, fighting, pulling, pushing, shoving will never ever move Christ from His position of preeminence, surpassing power and authority.  Revelation 17:14: “These (the kings of men) will make war with the Lamb (Jesus Christ), and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.”  And Revelation 19:16 : “And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written:  KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”  Jesus Christ created all that we see, all that we claim as our own, and all the hills we could ever claim to control.  

He is truly the King of all the Hills that exist and is the Savior of all those who will trust Him alone.  So anytime I find myself claiming ownership or control of anything, I quickly remind myself, I am not an owner, I am not a king.  No, I am a steward of the King of Kings, and instead of pulling and pushing to control the “hills” in my life, I want to worship the true and only King of the Hill (all that exists).

Pressing on…

Ron Tipton, Senior Pastor