You're A King! Act Like One!

# 99 – Today's Du-votional comes from 1Sa 8:5b “Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations." (1 Sam 8:4,5) As I mentioned last time, the elders were standing on solid biblical ground in asking for a king. God told the Israelites that such a request would one day be forthcoming. Well here it is. What they didn't take into account is their kings would not be like the other nations. God gave them specific rules for their kings behavior. We read about them in De 17:16-20, "But he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for the LORD has said to you, 'You shall not return that way again.' 17 "Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself. 18 "Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites. 19 "And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes, 20 "that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel. You know, our country has been blessed with some presidents who were like these godly kings, and we have also been saddled with some who weren't. But be careful with this passage. Don't make it a litmus test for those in public office. Rather this should serve as a guideline for ALL believers. Do you not know that Christ is our brother and we are royalty, and these standards are guidelines meant for us? We are kings! Co-heirs with Christ. (Rom 8:17) We are not to return to Egypt! (reliance on the world) We are to be monogamous. We are not to hoard our riches. We are to be in God's Word daily, seeking to follow His will, and we are to serve Him in humility. We are kings in God's kingdom! Isn't it time we started acting like it?