Wanting a King, a Dictator, or an Authoritarian Pastor

I get confused sometimes about the message of the Bible when it comes to the kings of Judah and Israel.

”There was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” 

This line in Judges (21:5) always comes as an intro to a crazy story of how messed up humans are, even the humans who had been rescued by God from slavery in Egypt and chosen to be His children.

Then, we see that Samuel freaks out when the Israelites demand a king “like all the nations around them.” 

But then…

We see that even though this is bad because of their motive, it’s part of God’s plan. Ultimately, the Messiah would come as the true King and this demand for an earthly king was part of that redemptive process. 

Even so, it was bad that they wanted a king. Why did they want a king? The same reasons people want an authoritarian leader. 

After they demanded a king from Samuel, the Judge of Israel at that time, he warned them that a king would practically enslave them.

They said, 

“No! But there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” (1 Sam 8:19b-20 ESV)

They wanted a king because: 

1. They could be like all the other nations around them. 

2. The king could judge them.

3. He could go before them.

4. And he could fight all their battles. 

Wow. This will preach! 

1. We fall into the traps of authoritarian leaders because we are afraid not to be like everyone else. We are afraid to be who God made us to be and we just want to fit in. 

2. We want a powerful person to judge us. “Am I good enough?” This is especially ugly in a church, but it’s deadly in a nation state. We are afraid to see ourselves as God, the only Judge that matters, sees us. We need a person to approve. When an authoritarian pastor comes along, he’s happy to take advantage. 

3. He can be our champion and “go before” us. We can aspire to greatness through him. We can root for him. We can hang his picture in our home next to Christ’s. If anyone is going to do anything novel or groundbreaking, let it be him. Let him take the risk and the fall if it doesn’t work. If it does work, we will claim credit and greatness by association! 

4. This is the biggest one. He could fight all their battles. This is not because we don’t want to fight. We love a fight. We just don’t want to have to decide what is worth fighting for. Let someone else take responsibility for judgments like that. 

Having a human king is a low cognitive load. He’ll do all the thinking; you only have to be a slave to him. 

Having a human king is great, because you can go to the Judgment Day and say, “I just did what I was ordered to do.” How is that working out for these old Nazi concentration camp guards? 

Jesus is our king, but He is the kind of King who only enforces the rule of law. We are governed by God, because we are governed by His WAYS.  

Then He says, “be the steward of your life according to my causal ways.” 

It feels risky not to have a king, a dictator, or an authoritarian pastor. We are on the hook for our judgments, but that’s what being a biblical human is. 

We perceive.

We judge.

We choose. 

We act. 

We live with the consequences of the world we created. And that’s both the burden and the glory of being human. 

It glorifies God for us to accept the responsibility He has given us. 

By the way, if you are an authoritarian pastor, stop it right now. You are responsible FOR no one, but responsible TO everyone. 

Have a great day and refuse to have any king but Jesus.

Reminder: Focus Today 

Don’t forget to live in focus, abiding in the present and in Christ. Everything good can happen when we do that, and you can’t imagine just how good until you let God be God in this way.