No Kings

             The Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Lord, and his name the only name. (Zechariah 14:9)

Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? (Romans 6:16)

We’re coming up on a holiday in which we celebrate America as independent from kings. We have a carefully crafted governmental system with checks and balances that are designed to prevent the government from the sort of abuses kings tend to inflict. At the same time, there is a push toward “No Kings” in our culture, which is also a push toward the whole world being under a single leadership. That single leadership, we’re told, will have no kings because the people will govern themselves, will plan their society and their economy. The people will make the decisions. Of course, the people don’t have the time, education, or desire to deal with all the details involved in making and carrying out those plans, so one or more committees will be deputized and any disagreement with those committees will be treated as treason against the people. And so, without any titular kings, humanity will have either an absolutist oligarchy or, as someone takes leadership of the whole, to guide it, an effective and absolute monarch.

Recently I described this scenario using Genesis 3, in which Adam and Eve bowed to the leadership of the serpent, who offered to lead them to be “like the Most High” and made them slaves to sin, even though they didn’t realize the ramifications of their decision. The push toward a one-government world described above is a push to repeat the error of Eden, expecting different results. The king that it ultimately enthrones under another name (my bet’s on “Father” because “Brother” would be too obvious) is meant to prevent God from taking His rightful throne.

But, as today’s first verse points out, God will rule the earth. He will be Lord over it. There is provision for those who reject His rule but it’s not a palace because our dominion invariably leads to destruction and tyranny.