There is a saying about one who repeatedly goes from being on top to being on bottom: He “manages to snatch defeat out of the mouth of victory.” Such was the case of the greatly blessed, God-chosen Children of Israel. Under the leadership of His appointed prophet Samuel, Israel succeeded as a nation. However, as history has proven, one of the characteristics of national elevation is that when success arrives on the scene, God leaves the scene–but not on His own accord. It seems that on the personal as well as national level, the more success one enjoys, the less one needs the Biblical God.

Israel could not tolerate success. Having grow weary of being ruled by an invisible God, she opted for a visible king. Satan’s siren call for self-direction soon turned desire into demand. Israel, God’s Chosen People whom He had freed from Egyptian slavery through mighty signs and wonders, now demanded a king. Why? So that she could be like the heathen that surrounded her. Both ancient and current history reveals that God gives people the leadership they deserve. Therefore, Israel’s God gave her a king. The rest is Old Testament history–a sordid, generations-long story of success and failure that resembled the movements of a yo-yo. One has to wonder at the patience of the Lord in His attempt to help His Chosen People. The Old Testament allows the reader to witness Israel’s rise to success and victory following her return to her God, only to be followed by her inevitable plunge into failure and defeat following her rejection of Him. World history reveals that mankind in general has tended to follow Israel’s example of following after man and not after God.

Since the time of the Nation of Israel’s total defeat, enslavement and global scattering, world history has has recorded a succession of kings and would-be kings–today known as dictators–who, having attained national prominence through legitimate means, then turned on the trusting people who placed them there, enslaved them and killed or imprisoned those who stood against them. Lenin, Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, Castro, Pol Pot, Ho chi Mihn Kim Yung Un, Papa Doc Duvalier are all examples of men who promised the masses paradise and, upon gaining power, used it against those who trusted them. All these men have several things in common: 1) the people placed them in power based on their promises of personal and national success; 2) that power was then used to enslave the people and kill or imprison those who resisted them; 4) that power was eventually used to prevent the masses from escaping the “paradise on earth” they had been promised. One will note that the world’s masses are not trying to emigrate to such places as Russia, China, Cuba, Vietnam, North Korea, Cambodia and Haiti. The world’s current moral, economic and political condition proves that man simply will not learn from history. Man, including religious man, simply refuses to resist Satan’s seductive call to self-governance. As a result man has crowned himself king. To be continued. L.J.