ALPHA MAAMA (A.M.)

 Be Careful What  You Wish For   מלך 

TOKANGA KI HE ME‘A ‘OKU KE KOLE 

1 SAMUEL 8:4-5

THEN ALL THE ELDERS OF ISRAEL GATHERED TOGETHER AND CAME TO SAMUEL AT RAMAH AND SAID TO HIM, "BEHOLD, YOU ARE OLD AND YOUR SONS DO NOT WALK IN YOUR WAYS. NOW APPOINT FOR US A KING TO JUDGE US LIKE ALL THE NATIONS."

1 SAMIUELA 8:4-5

4 Pea toki fakataha mai ‘a e kau mātu‘a ‘o ‘Isileli, ‘o nau a‘u kia Sāmiuela ki Lama; 5 pea nau pehē kiate ia, Ko eni ‘oku ke motu‘a, pea ko ho‘o fānau ‘oku ‘ikai te nau fou ‘i ho ngaahi founga: ko ia ke ke fokotu‘u hatau tu‘i ke fakamaau kitautolu, ‘o hangē ko e ngaahi kakai kotoa pē.

Israel's clamoring for a monarchy is a case of "be careful what you wish for." They wanted a melek, which, though usually translated "king," has a wide range of meanings, from the magistrate of a city - state, to a prince, to a national leader. Why they wanted a melek is more important: "to judge us like all the nations" and "go out before us and fight our battles" (vv. 5, 20). Samuel warned them that a melek would tyrannize them by arrogating to himself their children, servants, crops, and animals, but they mulishly refused to listen. So God gave them what they wished for. They wanted to be like the Gentiles, and like the Gentiles they became.

Divine judgment usually looks like getting exactly what we want-and suffering the consequences. God "gives us over to it," as Paul says (Rom. 1:24). In all this he's disciplining us as a father does his son. He's drawing us into repentance, back to the King of kings, who (as an old prayer puts it) "declares his almighty power most chiefly in showing mercy and pity."

King of kings and Lord of lords, lavish on us, your servants, mercy and pity.