I’m telling you, they crossed the Jordan on dry ground.  Dry ground. It was terrific.  They had great leaders.  And, it got better.  They conquered Jericho.  I guarantee their enemies respected them then.

But, something happened.  Terrible leadership.  Terrible.  These last priests…total disaster.  Total disaster, I’m telling you.  And, I guarantee you this, Israel wasn’t respected.  The ark had been taken away.  Can you believe that?  The Philistines had taken cities, and the last judge…he was so old and fat, that when he heard the news, he fell out of his chair and his neck broke.

A tall, authoritative man came a long.  He was strong.  He looked like a leader.  He had a history of winning.  What did the people want?

Make Israel Great Again!

You see, they saw a strong human leader as the hope of Israel.  And, his name was Saul.

You see, they wanted a King.  But, when they put their hope in human leader, they were rejecting the divine one.  When they had their eyes set on an earthly king, they took their eyes off the heavenly King.  And, the shocking truth came later…God would be their King.

I wrote a post some time back titled More Than Decency: Jesus for President.  The backdrop of this is simple: When Jesus went to the cross, died, and was resurrected, this wasn’t just about forgiving us of our sins, though that’s a huge  part of it.  It was about God becoming King.

Now, Israel rejected God as their King, and history tells us how that turned out.  There is scandal in a King that has been crucified.  Truth is, there is scandal in following a cross-shaped life.  But, let me tell you this:  There is also resurrection.  And, in that pattern, we find the truth of the only one that can make Israel great again:

King Jesus.

Feature image courtesy of flickr/Gage Skidmore