Do we need a king?

May 1, 2009

Today's Reading: 1 Samuel 8-9 and Psalms 9-10

Today, I am going to make the most blasphemous Irreverent Reverence quote that I will ever make. If you are one of those Christians that have been wondering whether or not you should quit reading my blog, this could be your day of decision.

Despite what you have read in the Bible, God is not infinite in mercy. If he was, then there would be no hell. God would forgive us without us even knowing it.

Actually, God has forgiven us, the issue is, we don’t accept it. So God, who is so merciful that he’ll give us whatever we want even though we really don’t want it.

This was the case for the Israelites when it was time to choose a king. Part of it was because the last judge was super-duper corrupt. I guess they didn’t want history to repeat itself.

All I got to say to that is: you think the judge was corrupt, just wait until you see the king. I mean, you give the judge temporary power, but the moment that judge is given absolute power, just you watch how much that absolute power is going to corrupt him absolutely.

History has proven that those who are given power over anyone will generally abuse it unless there are proper checks and balances. I remember when I was in Psychology class, and there was this study about prison inmates. One group played the role of the guards, while the other played the role of the inmates. The guards quickly became dictators, emphasis on first syllable. Eventually, the guards were so bad that they had to stop the experiment.

However, this is what the people wanted, so guess what, they got it. Saul did some pretty stupid stuff when he was king, and a lot of it had nothing to do with David.

The whole thing about God giving us what we want is because there tends to be this thing called consequences that show up when we least expect them.

So, God’s mercy is forever, and it is so good. Why? Because if we want something, He will give it to us.

Also, know this. There is a limit as far as the badness that we can go to. As soon as we die, that is our cutoff point. From there, you can’t go back on sin unless you have repented of it. And we don’t know what that cutoff point is, so make certain that you know what you want.