“In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.” Judges 21:25. This is a very short verse highlighting a cause and a serious effect. When I read this verse, I could not help but take a step back into Isreal’s history and look into how they got to the point where they became a nation with no king.
When God took Israelites out of slavery in Egypt by a mighty hand. The people recognised Him as the Potentate (1 Timothy 6:15) A potentate is one who possesses great power and authority. They witnessed his awesome power as he unleashed one plague after another on the Egyptians when Pharaoh refused to let them go. They witnessed the miraculous splitting of the Red Sea which enabled the Israelites to walk on dry ground across the sea while the Egyptians drowned when they chased the Israelites.
From that time on, God ruled over His people and appointed priests and prophets to judge the people. At some point however, the Israelites grew restless. They saw the pomp and pageantry that accompanied kings of other nations and so they demanded a king. Samuel, who was the priest then, was not happy with the people. He went to God in prayer and God told him, “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.” (1 Samuel 8:7)
In response to the people’s demands, Samuel warned them, “This is how a king will reign over you,” Samuel said. The king will draft your sons and assign them to his chariots and his charioteers, making them run before his chariots.
*Some will be generals and captains in his army, some will be forced to plow in his fields and harvest his crops, and some will make his weapons and chariot equipment.
The king will take your daughters from you and force them to cook and bake and make perfumes for him....” (1 Samuel 8:11-18)
In spite of all the warnings of what an earthly king would potentially do to the people, which in my opinion and with the benefit of hindsight, should have been enough to scare anyone from demanding a king, the people pressed on their demands. Samuel was effectively telling the people that an earthly king would rob them blind and they didn’t care, they just wanted a king. The scariest part of what Samuel told them was in verse 18, “When that day comes, you will beg for relief from this king you are demanding, but then the LORD will not help you.”. How the Israelites took this ion stride and still demanded for a king beats me but eventually they got their wish.
Now, it is easy to berate the children of Israel for being sturgeon and self-serving but is the world any better today? Don’t we demand for things that other people have even when we know that the consequences could harm us? According to UK’s Office of National Statistics, in 2019, there were 7565 alcohol-specific deaths in the UK. Men had a far higher mortality rate at 16.1 per 100,000 population, while women had a mortality rate of 7.8 per hundred thousand. In England and Wales, 4907 deaths related to drug poisoning were registered in 2022. This is an example of how as a people, we demand for things that would harm us. We are no different from the children of Israel who demanded for a king.
How then did things turn around from demanding for and getting a king to a point where Israel had no king? After a succession of kings, Israel descending into moral and spiritual decadence. After Solomon died, the northern kingdoms revolted as a result of Rehoboams’s hash policies which led to a split between Israel and Judah. Northern Israel was eventually conquered by Assyria while Judah was conquered by Babylon and the people taken into exile. After the return from exile, Judah had no king and this was the time the Bible tells us, “…everyone did as they saw fit” (Judges 21:25) There was no guidance, no law and no moral compass.
What do we learn from Israel’s journey from a demand for a king to having no king? Human leaders are fallible, and the biblical narrative shows a contrast between human kings and God’s perfect rule. We know even in our present day that leaders are not perfect. They make policies which they think are right and sometimes retract when they realise they were not privy to all the information needed to make the right decision. This often happens at great expense either to them or to the people they lead.
The lesson from the experience of the Israelites remains relevant today, reminding us of the consequences of prioritising earthly desires over spiritual truths.
Jesus' restoration of God's kingdom offers us a perfect King and calls us to serve as kings and priests, emphasising that life without divine guidance leads to chaos and anarchy. Accepting Jesus as our King is essential for true peace and order that is a rare commodity in our world today.
