A kingdom implies a King’s dominion. All who come to Jesus are to live and function in His kingdom. Any kingdom’s distinctions are determined by the king. Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be meditating on what the kingdom of God is and is not. In 1 Samuel 8, there is the story of how Israel approached Samuel and asked for a visible human king to lead them like the other nations. Samuel and God were upset with this request as it was a clear rejection of God as their King, but the request was granted. Israel insisted on the request even after Samuel warned them about how the King would abuse them. This story brings out several lessons.
- A fallen man without God always craves something visible that he can glory in and boost his ego with
- Having God as their invisible King made Israel feel less than the other nations and deflated their ego
- We run a similar risk in the church when we seek and import visible, tangible human elements from the world to measure how well the kingdom of God is doing. These things stroke our ego, mislead us into a false human carnal fleshly kingdom and become idols that eventually abuse us and leave us empty.
Examples include measuring the progress of the kingdom of God by property, buildings, titles, clothes, political power and connections, money, name recognition, and branding. None of these are evil in themselves, but they have a seductive ability to take over and become our Kings, gods, and idols so we live and function in their kingdom. They are excellent ways to revive our crucified flesh.
If these entities were absolutely necessary for God’s work to advance then the thriving persecuted church around the world and in Acts of Apostles would be doing a very poor job. Rather the very opposite is true.
Parallel scriptures for study are Ex32:1-8- The golden calf
Judges 8:27- The ephod Idol