Repeating Israel's Mistakes

I was in my Men’s bible study this morning. We are currently studying the transition of Israel’s governance from tribal/judges to the Kingdom. I was struck in the reading of I Samuel chapter 8 by the actions of the elders of the House of Israel.

After seeing the depravity of the sons of Eli the high priest, they were grateful of the actions of Samuel. But then Samuel’s sons showed themselves, just as Eli’s sons, to be depraved, perverting justice and followers of their own desires instead of God’s. So the response of the elders was to ask for a King? This makes no sense. After watching two hereditary rulers (Eli and Samuel) fail in the second generation, they want to establish another hereditary government with even more power than the Judges they replaced.

How likely was this hereditary kingdom to be beneficial to the people? Well, Saul did not last even through his own reign before he ceased to follow God. David, for all his faults was a man after God’s own heart, but his own son started a civil war against him. How many times do we read of Kings that each was more evil than his father.. If the people were looking for Godliness and stability, they never found it in the earthly kingdom they asked God for.

Yet we see the same irrationality in the United States. Government steals from people, takes their life and liberty away, and the clamor for more and more governmental power grows more and more strident. When will we see that vesting more power in an inherently depraved institution is folly?