Who Is the True King?
Author: Daniel Owens, PhD
September 04, 2025
Editor’s note: Our Adult Sunday School class resumes this Sunday. Pastor Daniel below says why you need to be a part of it.
1 Samuel 8:6–9
6But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord. 7And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. 8According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. 9Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”
Sooner or later, leadership is bound to be contested. In America, we schedule elections every two, four, or six years, depending on the office. This regularity undergirds political stability and redirects our impulse to grab for power into a familiar, if exhausting, ritual. In the best-case scenario, power transfers peacefully.
But in history, peaceful transfers of power are rare. Often leaders fall via violent means, just as Sennacherib the king of Assyria was assassinated by his two sons (Isa. 37:38) or Julius Caesar famously died at the hands of many Roman senators.
In fact, you might say all of history reveals a power struggle much more basic than who sits on the throne of a kingdom or chairs the local school board. From the time that Adam and Eve, egged on by Satan, sought to supplant God in the garden by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, humans have sought to wrest power from God.
When the Israelites asked for a king, they were just replaying the same drama. They wanted to replace God with a human king to lead them into battle, just like the nations.
So who is the true king of Israel? Starting on September 7, our Adult Sunday School class will explore this question in First and Second Samuel. These Old Testament books provide the prophetic perspective on the rise of Israel’s monarchy. Dr. Daniel Master will join me to teach this series. Come and enjoy learning the stories and poems that will show us just who is the True King.
Daniel Owens is NCC’s Pastor of Discipleship.
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