Electing a King

You know I was thinking about this whole situation with Obama's fast rise on the national scene. Many of the people who support him, do so with a fervor that is frightening and when they hear the facts about who he is and what he stands for they just shut it out not wanting to hear anything negative about this hero that they've lifted up. There are so many really scary things people are doing in the name of Obama, not the least of which is a bunch of teenagers dressed in camouflage doing a chant to Obama. All of these things reminded me of a story from the Bible, when the nation of Israel decided that they no longer needed or wanted the leadership of God in their nation. Instead they clamored for a king like all of their neighboring nations. They wanted to give power over their lives to someone on Earth instead of God. And so they lifted up Saul. He was tall, good looking, and a good speaker. At first everything was fine but then quickly turned sour. He killed people who disagreed with him. He grew jealous of anyone who got attention from the people and tried to kill them as well and in the process King Saul self-destructed and ended up tearing apart the country. The point is that Israel got exactly what they wanted. They got a king, who did what kings do and acted only in his best interests and not the interests of the people he was supposed to be leading.

Many people in America right now are clamoring for a king. I hope for the sake of the future of this nation, that we do not elect a king on November 4th. Of course though the story didn't end with King Saul for Israel. After his reign finally ended God gave Israel it's most famous king, King David. He guided the people back to a place of worship and close relationship with God. He made his own mistakes and his reign had it's own troubles. Even good kings have problems of course.

The point to all of this is that the United States of America was founded on the idea that no one person here on Earth should have the authority that the king of England did at the time. We find ourselves at a place in our nation's history where government involvement and control over our daily lives and over commerce has grown to a level never before seen since our founding. Barack Obama promises nothing but more government spending and more government involvement in our lives. John McCain wants to curb government spending and get government out of our way. That's what he says anyway, what he would do as president may be something different but with Obama we know for sure that he wants the federal government to have more power. We cannot forget the mistakes of the past. We cannot just blindly accept policies that grant more power to the president.