Healing Eden, Part 16: Israel Demands a King

As Israel's sufferings grow, she thinks she has struck upon a solution: a king! If only God would grant Israel a king, she would finally be "like the other nations" (and therefore suffer less?). It is an impulse literally as old as the Garden of Eden - to imagine that if only we could wrest more control of our lives from the universe (i.e., God), we would know how to cure what ails us. If God would only give us a king (...a particular political party, a charismatic leader, a ...?) we would have the means by which to achieve virtue and therefore peace and love, right???

In this episode we examine Israel's desire for a monarch, as well as God's surprising, somewhat heartbreaking, capitulation (God grants Israel's wish, albeit with warnings!). It's a story filled with political longing, spiritual amnesia, and that seemingly eternal human tendency to give our allegiance to the wrong thing, at the wrong time, for all the wrong reasons. Which is why it is a story that fits us perfectly today, as we struggle once again to know how best to govern humans in a broken world.

And, as always, I'd love to know what you think about it – about the sermon, the series…the podcast as a whole. Or I'd love to have you come and just say "hi!" If you're up for it, you can reach me anytime via the contact link at jesusat2am.com, by sending me email, chatting with me on BlueSky, or finding me on Facebook or Instagram.

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Want to follow along with the biblical texts for this sermon? Here's the link: 1 Samuel 8:1-22 (NRSV).