Webster’s dictionary defines “tyranny” as arbitrary or unrestrained exercise of power. We don’t use the word “tyranny” a lot in our own day. We don’t routinely hear people in positions over us referred to as tyrants. (They may in fact be tyrants, but we don’t use the word.)
But the word “tyranny” was pretty common in the political discourse of the day when our nation was founded. In fact, one of the flags that was flown by colonial patriots in the American Revolution said this, “Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.” Or, maybe you’ve heard that quote by Thomas Paine, a professional fomenter of revolution, “The tree of liberty must from time to time be refreshed with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” The Mel Gibson movie, The Patriot, set in that era, had his character, a reluctant warrior, say something like, “It remains to be seen whether it is better to be ruled by one tyrant a thousand miles away, or by a thousand tyrants one mile away.”
More recently, the great 20th Century Christian philosopher/prophet, Francis Schaeffer, referred to what he saw in the 1970’s as a coming American “tyranny of the 51% vote.” His theory was that the essential ingredient of a tyrant is political power combined with a refusal to obey God’s commandments. He predicted it thirty years ago and we’re eating the fruits today. In America, supreme political power, by design, rests with the voters. If a majority begins to vote in opposition to the revealed will of God, then even a democratic society will become tyrannical.
But, like I said, we don’t much use words like that. And, the truth is that the terms “tyrant” and “tyranny” are relatively new. Though the Scriptures have a whole lot to say about tyrants and tyrannical uses of power, those words do not appear. Instead, the Bible speaks in terms of “bondage,” “slavery,” and “captivity” to communicate the same ideas.
This morning, I ask you to join me in I Samuel 8:4-20. This passage is the story of the end of the period of the Judges who ruled over Israel, of whom Samuel was the last, and the choosing of their first king, Saul. I’ve titled this message, The King of Rejection, and we’ll see that’s what Saul was—the king who came into power because the people had rejected the rule of God. We’re going to look at what God Himself promises will be the nature of that ruler. That’s going to give us a pretty fair description of tyranny.
What I want you to get from this message is this warning: Just because we don’t talk about tyrants like the first Americans did, that doesn’t mean we can’t wind up in a state of bondage, oppression, and tyranny. We’re not immune from tyrants just because we don’t use the label anymore. Understand also that Jesus spoke of sin in just these sorts of terms…bondage, slavery, cruel masters, etc. A lot of folks walk around thanking God for their American political and religious freedom and all the while their personal lives are crushed and overrun by the harshest of dictators, their own sinfulness.
READ 1 SAMUEL 8:4-20
The first thing I want to look at is the request for a king. We see it in verses 5 and 20, “that we also may be like all the nations.” Now, that’s what they said. Those were their words, but God sees the heart. He gets past all the baloney. What they said was that they wanted to be like everybody else, but God knew what that really meant. He explains it in verses 7 and 8. What they were really doing was rejecting God’s rule over them. They were giving God a pink slip, and hiring some bum off the street to replace Him. “Thank you so much for all your fine service to this organization, but times have changed, and we must change with them to remain viable.” It was a new generation of Israelites, but the same old rebellion their fathers had exhibited in the wilderness. (v.8)
But in another sense they were way ahead of their time, for Psalm 2 would later point to the days of Jesus when the people would gather together against the Lord and His Christ and say, “Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us.” (Ps 2:3) Here is the real irony in this whole message. Unbelieving man sees God’s law as tyrannical. He refuses to be ruled by it, and in so doing sets himself up for oppression and bondage. What everybody needs to understand is that the question is not whether you will have an absolute Ruler over your life. The only real question is what sort of Ruler will you have? Nationally, the way to phrase that is this: Someone’s god, someone’s religious opinions, someone’s moral standards will be in charge of any land. The only question is which god? Reject the God of the Bible because you think His laws are oppressive, and you will soon see what real tyranny looks like.
Here’s what Israel didn’t understand, and we desperately need to get it right. God can give you one of two sorts of kings, and they are radically different. You can get the king who comes as a result of your rejection of God, or you can get a King who comes into your life when you repent and believe, who will rule you with justice, and mercy, and righteousness. King Saul, or King Jesus. Those really are the only two choices.
In verses 9-18 of our text [CONSIDER RE-READING THESE], Samuel tells the people beforehand what the behavior of their king, their new tyrant, would be like. Did you hear in that description the list of things their king was going to take from them? Sons, daughters, servants, income, livelihood… all of it would be his. Here’s a homework assignment for you. Parallel this passage about the tyrant’s behavior with the list of curses God promised to bring on Israel if they disobeyed Him, in Deuteronomy 28. It’s like Arsenio Hall used to say; it’s a thing that makes you go, “Hmmm.”
Just as we should acknowledge, if we call Christ our King, that everything we have belongs to Him, including our very lives, the tyrant assumes ownership of all things under his control. The Bible is filled with tyrants who thought nothing of taking the very lives of their subjects when it suited them, sometimes on a whim, often out of pure pride and arrogance. As some of the most obvious examples, think of Pharaoh before the Exodus, and Herod after the birth of Jesus, who both ordered mass infanticide for the sake of protecting their status. Or, think of Pontius Pilate, who knew full well that Jesus did not deserve to be executed, but had it done anyway for the sake of political expedience. Biblical tyrants wielded power over life and death, often with the most arbitrary hand.
In the United States we wipe a hand over our brows and say, “Whew! Good thing we Americans are not under tyrants! They intrude into every area of your life and destroy it all!”
The Jews of Jesus’ day said pretty much the same thing to Him. “We’ve never been in bondage to anyone!” His answer was, paraphrased, “Oh, you suffer under a cruel tyranny, all right. You’ve simply figured out how to live with it and put on a happy face. But you are slaves to sin, and just as in need of deliverance as your fathers were in Egypt.”
A tyrant takes everything you have and makes it his own. Then, eventually, he destroys it. I have no doubt that someone here knows exactly what I am talking about. We don’t call it bondage or slavery or captivity. We call it Addiction. That’s a much nicer word, isn’t it? Addiction is a morally neutral medical condition. But anyone who’s actually suffered with an addiction knows what it really is. It is a dictator. It is a supreme ruler who puts his hand on everything you have and steals it from you, including your very life. Somewhere way back when, the commandment of God was cast aside in favor of being like everyone else, and you wound up the slave of the most devilish master there ever was. You know without being taught that when the Bible speaks of prisoners and slaves of sin, it’s not being poetic. It’s not joking around about this. The bondage is real.
Back to our Text, especially interesting and ominous are verses 15 and 17, where it says the king will take “the tenth.” What is “the tenth,” especially in the mind of the old Jew? The tenth is the tithe! The Biblical teaching about the tithe is that it is God’s money. From the get-go you’re supposed to understand that. The tenth is God’s and that’s why the Bible equates not tithing with robbing from God. It belongs to Him.
But here, the king of rejection, the tyrant the people are asking for as a replacement for God, is going to take the tithe. And just here is a very crucial aspect of tyranny as it has manifested itself throughout human history. Tyrants and tyrannical states take upon themselves the privileges that belong to God alone. Sometimes they do it gradually, but they always do it eventually. Some examples from Scripture:
i. Pharoah, supposedly a divine being, worthy of worship
ii. The King of Babylong in Daniel’s day, demanded worship at his image, and prayers directed to himself. He added a death penalty for disobedience, by the way.
iii. Tiberius, Caesar during Christ’s life: coins called him the Son of God. In fact, all the Caesars beginning with Julius and Augustus were considered gods. Caligula ordered that an image of himself be placed inside the Holy of Holies inside the Jewish temple (he backed off of this at the threat of national uprising, but only reluctantly). Nero demanded that he be recognized as the incarnation of Apollo the sun god.
You’ve heard a lot of “12 step programs” refer to whatever your concept of God is as your Higher Power. By definition, your god is whatever has ultimate power over your life. Nationally, whoever wields supreme authority is god. That is why rulers who deny God’s authority over them eventually begin to see themselves as god. They are the Highest Power. It is for this reason exactly that unbelievers in America become political liberals—in their view, the Federal Government is the closest thing to a god they know of. Consequently, they look to their god, as do all people of faith, to provide for their needs and help them fix their problems.
Now, since all tyrants, and all tyrant wanna-be’s, believe they are gods, at least subconsciously, when they hear someone come along and say, “Jesus is Lord,” they start to get offended. When the first Christians confessed that truth, they were not speaking primarily about the fact that Jesus is God in the flesh (although that’s true). They were saying, “Christ is King over all the earth.” “Jesus is Lord” is a political threat to tyrants of all stripes. The Caesars of Rome certainly thought so, and that’s why the Christians were killed; not for their new religion, but for their insurrection in proclaiming a new King, even Jesus.
You know the rest of our story here about Saul. Samuel nailed it on the head, as usual. Chapter 8 of 1 Samuel ends sadly, with God saying, “Okay, they asked for it. Give them what they want.” And Samuel did.
What I want to tell you is this. We’ve been looking at a pretty sad story, a sad story that is made all the worse in that mankind has repeated it over and over again and suffered for it. But it doesn’t end here. Eventually, God says enough is enough and He does away with the king of rejection, and installs the king of God’s own choosing, David. That is the pattern. Rejection of God leads to tyranny, leads to extreme human suffering, leads to God being moved with compassion to bring deliverance, to bring in the King He Himself has chosen.
Tyranny and bondage are the darkest and blackest of nights. But morning comes. With the dawn of God’s mercy, the sun rises and the light shines again.
I’m wondering where you are in that pattern. Rejection, tyranny, suffering, the deliverance of God through a new King.
I firmly believe that our own nation is moving from rejection into tyranny. Minus a wondrous outpouring of the Spirit in revival and reformation, the night is almost upon us. I can’t help that. I’m one mailman in Eastern New Mexico, for Pete’s sake!
But what I can do is announce to you the dawn, this day. Today, this morning, for you individually, the long, dark night of the soul as the prisoner of sin can be over. Hear the words of King Jesus, the Lord’s Chosen, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach DELIVERANCE TO THE CAPTIVES…TO SET AT LIBERTY THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED.” Today is the day, my friends, for this Scripture to be fulfilled in your hearing, as you cry out to God in faith and offer your life to this new King, Jesus the Christ.
