Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Evil kings ruling over Israel

Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet

In reading through the Bible, I am currently reading in II Kings.  There were so many kings who did evil in the sight of God and the people of Israel suffered a lot as the result.

But then I remember a long ago word of God on this matter when the people insisted they have a king to rule over them like the other nations.  They went to the prophet Samuel insisting that they have this king.  Samuel was very displeased with this and he took it to God.  Here is what God said to Samuel.

I Samuel 8 ...  And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. 8According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee. 9Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them.    

And Samuel told all the words of the LORD unto the people that asked of him a king. 11And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots. 12And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. 13And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. 14And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. 15And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.  16And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. 17He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. 18And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day. 

Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us; 20That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles. 21And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of the LORD. 22And the LORD said to Samuel, Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king. And Samuel said unto the men of Israel, Go ye every man unto his city. 


In II Kings, the evil we see come upon the people as a result of their king is a fulfillment of the word of God on the matter of being ruled by a human king.


The people wanted to be "like all the nations" ... they didn't want to be different.


We who belong to God are different.  We don't fit in because we are different.  And from time to time we would like to be like "the other nations", but thank God we are not like them.