The Bible has nothing against kings per se. Both God and Jesus Christ are both given the title of King, and the Bible (justly) praises righteous kings like David and Hezekiah and Josiah. Because of their devotion to the Kingdom of God, many people I know consider their political views as monarchist, even if they are dwellers in republics. Nonetheless, there are some passages in the Bible that speak very harshly against kingship in certain circumstances, particularly Judges 9 and 1 Samuel 8. Let examine these passages to see why the Bible speaks so harshly against kingship in these passages, and what implications it has for us and for our own leaders today.

Come And Take Shelter In My Shade

The first anti-monarchial passage we will take a look at is in Judges 9:7-21. Let us set the context. Gideon (also called Jerubbaal) had died after delivering Israel from the Midianites and judging Israel for forty years. After his death, his son by a Shechemite concubine, named Abimelech, recruited a group of worthless soldiers and overthrew the sons of Gideon in a military coup, killing them on one stone, except for the youngest son, righteous Jotham, who survived. Then the people of Shechem crowned Abimelech as their king.

It is this news that leads Jotham to give the following story and lesson to the people of Shechem in Judges 9:7-21: “Now, when they told Jotham, he went and stood on top of Mount Gerizim, and lifted his voice and cried out. And he said to them: “Listen to me, you men of Shechem, that God may listen to you! The trees once went forth to anoint a king over them. And they said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us!’ But the olive tree said to them, ‘Should I cease giving my oil, with which they honor God and men, and go to sway over trees?’ Then the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and reign over us!’ But the fig tree said to them, ‘Should I cease my sweetness and my good fruit, and go to sway over trees?’ Then the trees said to the vine, ‘You come and reign over us!’ But the vine said to them, ‘Should I cease my new wine, which cheers both God and men, and go to sway over trees?’ Then all the trees said to the bramble, ‘You come and reign over us!’ And the bramble said to the trees, ‘If in truth you anoint me as king over you, then come and take shelter in my shade; but if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devoir the cedars of Lebanon!’ Now therefore, if you have acted in truth and sincerity in making Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house, and have done to him as he deserves–for my father fought for you, risked his life, and delivered you out of the hand of Midian; but you have risen up against my father’s house this day, and killed his seventy sons on one stone, and made Abimelech, the son of his female servant, king over the men of Shechem, because he was your brother–if then you have acted in truth and sincerity with Jerubbaal and with his household this day, then rejoice in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you. But if not, let fire come from Abimelech and devour the men of Shechem and Beth Millo; and let fire come from the men of Shechem and from Beth Millo and devour Abimelech!” And Jotham ran away and fled; and he went to Beer and dwelt there for fear of Abimelech his brother.”

It is clear from this story that Abimelech is the bramble, given the fact that the curse (which was fulfilled later in Judges 9) of Jotham was the same curse given by the bramble, that fire would devour the trees who were giving the kingship (the people of Shechem) if they rebelled against his rule. And that is what happened. The people of Shechem did not respect the king they had made and the end result was both their destruction and the death of Abimelech by a stone crushing his head (an ironic death for multiple reasons, in that the death was from the hand of a woman, in that he had killed his half-brothers on one stone, and that the implement of his destruction was an economically useful tool when the bramble is nothing if not economically useless).

What the story of Jotham is saying about the monarchy (and about government in general) is something that is highly useful for all of us to notice. Three plants were offered the kingship of all the trees and refused it: the olive tree, the fig tree, and the grapevine. All of those trees produce sweet and biblically significant fruit, and all have a useful purpose in God’s creation. To rule as a king and lord it over the trees would prevent them from doing their God-given tasks on this earth. Only useless and corrupt people desire to lord it over others. Everyone else is doing something useful already that pleases them more than exercising power over those who clearly have no sense of godly self-government.

Let us be both blunt and fair. Abimelech was a bramble because he desired kingship, and because he was willing to kill his rivals to the throne to get the power that he sought. A godly man does not seek power, he rather seeks to perform his godly service to help make the world a better place. Kingship (or any kind of leadership) that is based on any principle other than service to the common people, is wasteful and unproductive. Those who desire to be in charge on top of hierarchies and lord it over others while living in a wealthy manner provide nothing of value to others while taking economic resources for themselves. That’s what you get when you look for others to rule over you instead of learn how to lead yourself.

The Lord Will Not Hear You In That Day

A closely related biblical passage in anti-monarchial sentiment to Judges 9 is 1 Samuel 8. There are really three elements to the anti-monarchial sentiment to 1 Samuel 8. Let us break up the passage and look at all three in turn. First, in 1 Samuel 8:4-9, we see the request of Israel for a king, Samuel’s disapproval of it, and God’s response to Samuel about the evil motives of the Israelite leaders in looking for a king to reign over them. Next, in 1 Samuel 8:10-18, we see Samuel giving Israel a warning about the behavior of their kings. Finally, in 1 Samuel 8:19-22, we see the response of Israel to Samuel’s warning. To understand the nature of the anti-monarchial sentiment of this passage, we need to examine all three sections.

In 1 Samuel 8:1-3 we learn that Samuel had made his sons Joel (the father of Heman the Ezrahite) and Abijah judges in Beersheba and that they were corrupt leaders who took bribes and perverted justice contrary to God’s laws. So, in light of this, and other unstated reasons, the elders of Israel came to Samuel looking for a king. 1 Samuel 8:4-9 reads as follows: “Then all the elders gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, “Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” So Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them out of Egypt, even to this day–with which they have served other gods–so they are doing to you also. Now therefore, heed their voice. However, you shall solemnly forewarn them, and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them.”

The stated reason of the Israelite leaders for asking for a king is the fact that Samuel is old and seems to lack a godly successor, since his own sons were corrupt. But there is more going on here. The central problem of Judges (see, for example, Judges 21:25) was that Israel refused to accept God as their king and loyally serve him. Instead they served other gods and therefore God judged them with foreign domination. Instead of repentance and wholehearted service, the stubborn and resistant Israelite leaders wanted a king, thinking the problem was in their style of government and not in their own hearts and attitudes, so they thought a more top-down hierarchical and authoritarian government would solve their problems. They were wrong, and anyone else who thinks that way is wrong too.

Of particular interest is Samuel’s warning to Israel about how their king would behave. This is how wicked leaders behave, as it is written in 1 Samuel 8:10-18: “So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who asked him for a king. And he said, “This will be the behavior of the king who will reign over you: He will take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots and to be his horsemen, and some will run before his chariots. He will appoint captains over his thousands and captains over his fifties, will set some of them to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and some to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers. And he will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his servants. And he will take your male servants, your female servants, your finest young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take a tenth of your sheep. And you will be his servants. And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the Lord will not hear you in that day.”

Let us dwell at some length about this part of the passage because it is the crux to understanding why certain types of leadership are unacceptable to God. The people of Israel lacked self-government and a sense of personal government. Like natural slaves, they desired someone else to tell them what to do, and so God warned them that the sort of king they wanted to handle their responsibilities for them would be abusive. Let us note how often Samuel warns that the king will steal from the people–their property, their children, their income–for his own projects. The king would treat the property of his people as if all of their land and goods belonged to him (we call this eminent domain, and I have commented on it elsewhere as theft [1]).

Let us also note as a point of comparison that Samuel brought attention to two of the three plants that refused to rule over the trees in Jotham’s story in Judges 9. Samuel brings attention to the kings taking from the olive trees and vineyard, making an ironic connection between Judges 9 and 1 Samuel 8. The symbols of the Bible carry important meaning: olive oil is what is in the lampstands of the temple and tabernacle and also made the anointing oil for kings and priests, and the wine is symbolic of the blood of Jesus Christ, our Lord and King, shed for our sins. So the fact that Samuel repeats the symbols used by Jotham in a similar anti-monarchial passage ought to give us a bit of pause and allow us to reflect on those symbols and their importance. To be complete, the third symbol, figs, symbolizes the rottenness of Israel in Jeremiah as well as the fact that the prophet Amos (also accused of being anti-monarchial in Amos 7) was a shepherd and a tender of sycamore figs. These symbols have a way of repeating themselves often, so we would do wise to pay attention to them.

Additionally, let us note the fact that Samuel warned Israel that the king would take a tithe from Israel and take the best of its crops and that the people of Israel would be his servants. Compared to the tax rates in the modern world, a tithe does not seem all that excessive (we would consider such a low tax rate to be a very free state, while it was the height of oppression to Samuel). The significance is not only in the amount, but in the meaning of that part of the warning. In warning the people of Israel that their king (i.e. government) would take the tithe, the best of their produce, and that the people would be the servants of their leaders rather than the other way around (as God commands, see Matthew 20:25-28), Samuel was informing the people of Israel that the state would see itself as God, committing the sin of idolatry that the messianic state does everywhere in this world in viewing itself as the source of law, the ultimate owner of all property, and the source of the blessings and well-being of the people.

Let us briefly note the lack of response by the Israelite leaders (and let us note that these were the elders of the people who were totally lacking in personal responsibility, the ones who should have been leading godly towns and villages and congregations). As it is written in 1 Samuel 8:19-22: “Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, “No, but we will have a king over us, that we may also be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he repeated them in the hearing of the Lord. So the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed their voice, and make them a king.” And Samuel said to the men of Israel, “Every man go to his city.”

Let us reflect upon the failure of Israel here. It was the purpose of Israel, just as it is the purpose of the Church of God, to be a model of servant leadership for the world. We are supposed to provide a godly alternative to the corrupt hierarchies we see all around us. All too often we are like Israel in that we desire to be like the heathen and copy their ways, rather than model and demonstrate the ways of God so that others may copy us. Instead of taking personal responsibility and showing godly leadership in families, communities, and as a nation, the people of Israel wanted a physical king to fight their battles for them (instead of learning how to defend themselves), and so God gave them the tyrant and bully and bramble that they asked for, for their mindset had not changed since they left Egypt. Israel never left slavery. I often wonder if the Church of God has ever really left Egypt in their hearts either.

Conclusion

There is a lot we can learn about the nature of godly and legitimate kinship from Judges 9 and 1 Samuel 8. First, we learn that godly people do not seek to dominate others, but rather they seek to serve others through their God-given gifts and abilities. Those who seek fancy titles and to lord it over others, or who gain power through murder and treachery are by definition ungodly people. That is true no matter what system of government they put into place. Additionally, people who have a slave mentality and refuse to own up to their own God-given responsibilities desire tyrannical government to serve as their false god, and those who desire to be rulers over those who will not take personal responsibility for themselves will behave like God and idolatrously steal the prerogatives that belong only to Him. Let us therefore take heed that we handle our own responsibilities well, so that we are not in the position of asking for a tyrannical leader to lord it over us.

[1] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/on-naboths-vineyard-thoughts-on-eminent-domain-and-theft/