Worship - Sermons - 6/11/06

The Abdication of God

I Samuel 8:4-22

William F. Schnell

June 11, 2006

The title of our message for this morning was one of my personal favorites as I composed titles and texts during my last study leave.  Because abdication is often accompanied by scandal in one way or another, it is enticing to find it associated with the Almighty.  The word is defined thus: “The act of renouncing and resigning from a formal office, especially from the supreme office of state.”  Technically, the difference between abdicating a position and resigning one lies primarily in the irrevocability of abdication.  Once an office or throne is abdicated, a return is not legally possible.  We will not be taking such a narrow view in our reference to God, which is good for us as we shall see.

Abdication is not uncommon throughout history.  Among the heads of state who have abdicated are two from the Vatican: Pope Benedict IX in 1048 and Pope Celestine V in 1294.  Perhaps the most famous recent abdication of power occurred in 1936, when England's King Edward VIII renounced his throne in order to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson.  Simpson was a twice-divorced socialite whose rocky marital history and American citizenship made her an unacceptable choice as wife of the British monarch.  The affair between Edward and Simpson created an international scandal because it began well before her second divorce was finalized.

Edward's ministers pleaded with him to sever his relationship with the woman, whom his mother, Queen Mary, dismissed as "the American adventuress."  Edward could not remain king and head of the Church of England if he married Simpson, because of the church's opposition to divorce.  Unhappy with many of his royal duties and transfixed by Simpson, Edward chose to relinquish the throne for "the woman I love."  He was thereafter succeeded by his younger brother and spent the next 35 years of married life in royal exile in Paris.

If the abdication of a British monarch or a Roman Catholic Pope raises eyebrows, imagine the abdication of the Almighty King of creation.  Why would he choose to do that, and to what effect for us?  Let us turn our attention to our text for this morning to find out.  So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah.  They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have (Verses 4-5).

Let’s begin with Samuel.  Who was he?  Samuel was the last in a succession of judges who led Israel after they became established in the Land of Promise.  You will recall how God, through Moses, led his people out of their bondage in Egypt, and how through Moses’ successor, Joshua, he led them to occupy the land he had promised their forefather, Abraham.  So we find God having this history of working through certain individuals in leading, protecting and providing for his people.

Once his people were established in the Land of Promise, they still had need for God’s protective and providential care.  For example, they were still surrounded by hostile neighboring nations who conspired against them.  God provided leadership for his people by raising up what were called “judges” like the mighty Samson and the courageous Deborah.  That’s right, not all the judges were men.  While the judges of Israel did decide on legal issues, they were much more than judges as we understand the term.  They were leaders through whom God worked to bring his people the victory against their enemies.

When a judge died, the Israelites might go for a while without one.  Then, when trouble arose and the people cried out to God for help, God would raise a new judge up as needed.  This is how the system worked, and it worked successfully for many generations as the book of Judges attests in the Old Testament.  The only problem with the system is that it required faith.  The people had to believe that, just as God had delivered them in the past through the likes of Moses and Joshua and Samson and Deborah, so he would continue to deliver them through future judges as they had need.

Unfortunately, it is not always easy to keep the faith.  The people wanted a more stable system.  They wanted a tall, strong and handsome king to lead them …such as all the other nations have.  But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord.  And the Lord 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 (Verses 6-7). 

“Don’t take it personally,” God said to Samuel, “you are simply my instrument.  They are not rejecting your leadership but mine.”  As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you (Verse 8).  Despite all the mighty works God had accomplished on their behalf through his judges, the people faltered in their faith whenever a new challenge arose.  How could they be sure that God would raise up another judge this time?  Wouldn’t they be better off having a king in place all the time? 

Imagine how insulting this would be to God Almighty, their King Eternal.  So God, not being one to impose himself where he is not wanted, says to Samuel, Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do (Verses 9).  In a nutshell, instead of protecting and providing for his subjects, the king will use his subjects to protect himself and provide for himself by enlisting them for his own military and self-indulgent purposes.

Samuel reports to the people: "This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots.  Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 

He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers.  He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants.  He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants.  Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use.  He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves” (Verses 11-17).

And that is exactly what happened.  Saul was selected as the first king because he was …an impressive young man and without equal among the Israelites—a head taller than any of the others (9:2).  What a dumb, shallow and superficial criteria to use for a king.  As it turned out, Saul had a lot of issues that were more than skin deep, and he did not last very long.  But the people must have learned from their mistake because next came David, who was the smallest of Jesse’s sons, and he ended up being the gold standard by which all of Israel’s succeeding kings were judged. 

But then came David’s son, Solomon, who fulfilled God’s prediction made through Samuel.  Solomon became the richest man in the world by taxing his subjects harshly (for example, he annually received 25 tons of gold, among other things).  He conscripted young men for his expansive building projects, which included a 13-year effort to construct a palace for himself.  He also conscripted young women for, well, let’s put it this way, he had 700 wives and 300 concubines. 

When Solomon finally died and his son Rehoboam ascended to the throne, the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him: “Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.  Rehoboam thought about this request and gave his answer: “My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier.  My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions” (I Kings 12:3-4 & 14).

Rehoboam’s harsh response led to the break-up of God’s people.  From then on there were two kingdoms: the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah, each kingdom with its own king.  Both kingdoms were eventually led astray by their kings to serve other gods, leading to their destruction and exile: Israel to Assyria followed shortly by Judah to Babylon.  In the end, rejecting God as their king led to no good for the people of Israel and Judah.

And so it goes for us.  There is a throne at the center of each life.  We get to choose who will reign over us, whether God or some other influence.  God is not one to impose himself upon us.  If we want him off the throne and out of our lives, he will oblige and abdicate.  God is much more obliging than some other influences that do not abdicate so easily.  When alcohol or drugs like cocaine or methamphetamine rule our lives, they do not abdicate so easily.  Nor do other intoxicants like money or sexual compulsions.  They tend to stay on the throne and reign over us even when we would prefer otherwise.

God only ascends to the throne by invitation.  He never pressures anyone to accept his reign.  He doesn’t have to.  We create our own pressure through sinful and self-destructive choices.  Life can only get so dark and discouraging before we realize that we have made a mess of things and need a power higher than ourselves to save us.  That is when we look to God and ask him to take his rightful place on the throne at the center of our lives. 

Now there is one thing about our text that I do not buy.  After Samuel warns the people that a day will come when they realize they have been enslaved by the self-serving kings of their choosing, he says: When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the Lord will not answer you in that day (Verse 18).  I don’t buy that.  Maybe he won’t answer them that day.  Maybe he will let them stew for a while to impress their need upon them.  But God will not ignore forever.

When the exiles turned to the Lord in their bondage, confessed their sins and pleaded for mercy, he responded with words of comfort and reassurance.  He raised up new leaders for the people, Ezra and Nehemiah, and through them he led his people back to the Land of Promise and established them once again under his protective and providential care.  Just as God will readily abdicate the throne where he is not wanted, he will readily ascend the throne where he is.

But we cannot have it both ways.  As Jesus put it, "No servant can serve two masters.  Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve both God and Money” (Luke 16:13).  There are other influences besides money that compete with God to rule our lives, but money is certainly a common one.  Every now and then we are going to be presented with an opportunity to choose whom we will serve.

When I get a letter from the church about raising funds for a new roof, or hear an appeal during Words of Welcome, I must confess that my first reaction is: “I already made a Faith Promise.”  But when I think about it, I do not get those letters very often, and what I am being asked to give this time is not really that much compared with what God gives me all the time.  Maybe this is a spiritual test to determine how the manner of my life measures up to the profession of my lips.  Because if I say God reigns in my life, but it is money that actually determines the decision, then I am serving a master called money and despising God.

The choice is mine, and the choice is yours.  We determine whether God abdicates or ascends the throne at the center of our lives.  We reject and despise him, or we bring forth the royal diadem and crown him Lord and King.