The Hebrews of 1100 B.C. were as honest as anyone has ever been about what they wanted from their government. They applied to Samuel the judge and prophet and said, “Make us a king so we can be like the other nations around us, and he can judge us and fight our battles for us.” (1 Sam 8:19-20) They didn’t like being different from the heathen. They wanted a judge and a warrior. God gave them Saul, the prototypical earthly king: Tall and good looking but who proved in the end to be gutless and jealous.
Saul’s best qualification for office was that he was tall. The old joke about promoting the tall one applied to him, and the Israelites were delighted with their new ruler when he was presented to the public. (1 Sam 10:24) They wanted a warrior-king, and what could be better than a very tall warrior-king?
The problem, as Qui-Gon Jinn noted, is that there’s always a bigger fish. Saul had not long reigned when the Philistines appeared on the field of battle with Goliath as their champion who challenged anyone in Israel to an ordeal of single combat. Whoever defeated him would win on behalf of the whole army, and the losers would be their servants. Saul, tall as ever but now not tall enough, sulked in his tent. The man who would have judged Israel was himself judged a coward. The man who would have protected the nation could not even protect himself, but offered his daughter as payment to whomever defeated Goliath. The warrior chosen to fight their battles for them was not up to the task but waited on a boy named David to fight Saul’s battle for him.
The Hebrews applied the wrong standard when looking for leadership, and God let them have what they wanted as a chastisement. Those two facts should warn Americans in general and conservatives in particular. Another tawdry election season is upon us. Don’t you wonder what would happen if we chose on the basis of righteous character? (Prov 29:2) God gave us our nationhood and our liberties; he can take them away. After all the political disappointments conservatives have suffered in the past few years, you’d think they’d have learned by now that the arm of flesh will fail you. (Jer 17:5)
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