god save the queen (or at least give us a king)

i was thinking/talking the other day with a friend about all of the problems in the world...he said he couldn't really feel too much for either side of this conflict in palestine because if it weren't for conflicts of the same nature, america wouldn't exist. he said that what is going on is exactly the same as the settlers killing off the natives in the americas way back when...pushing out the weak in order to establish a new kingdom/country/government/etc. the difference, he said, is that we get to see this unfold so we think poorly of it.

i began to see his point (however classically conservative it was).

but then, i remembered that this world is not as God intended it to be. i remembered that empire/kingdom/government/president/czar/dictator/terrorist was not how things were meant to be. i remembered how the original israel once followed God as King. he was their lawmaker, their champion, their hope. he delivered them from slavery and extinction in egypt, and even while they didn't trust in his deliverance, he stayed with them in the form of a pillar of clouds and of fire. he had the "promised land" in his hands, willing to let his people take seizure of it, and they were too afraid. they didn't trust in his provision. so he let that generation die in their lack of faith in their King.

he gave them men of faith and wisdom to judge between them, to interpret his law, and to be his voice to his people. he knew that israel's faith was not strong enough to simply trust his goodness, but he was still the King. he was still the governor. he was still the sustainer, provider.

i remembered samuel, the last judge of original israel, who was a lover and firm believer in the goodness of God as King. i remembered how the people asked him for a king of their own, to be like everyone else. i remembered how he took this petition to God himself, not out of desire for it, but out of a fear that his people were going astray. and God said, "Give the people their king." no amount of exhortation from samuel could steer the people away from their desire for a king (not the slavery factor, not the tax factor, not the war factor)

this was the end of israel's subservience to God. they came under the headship of a fallible human, many fallible humans. they put their trust in man's system more than they had in God's plan. they loved themselves more than they loved God.

we still do. we love our presidents, our dictators, our kings, and our leaders. we believe that God has put them in their positions and that they will carry out God's desires for the world, even when they have different views and go to war with each other. if this weren't the case, if God (through Jesus) was still our King, and we still served him and honored him and trusted him in his goodness, we wouldn't see the genocide and war that is the direct by-product of mankind's system of empire.

this is why i hate what has happened and is still happening in gaza. i hate that we (humans) have played God in our world and messed it up so badly. and i hate that we have made God the culprit by smearing his name with our stupid empirical decisions, both personal, national, and global.