There seems to be an increasing appetite to concentrate power in the hands of a few individuals. The current desire from government to increase the numbers of city mayors, for instance; and the demise of cabinet government to one far more centred in the office of one person with a large politically appointed staff. This would seem to be a trend seen across the world – people wanting ‘a strong leader’, or at least getting one. I fear the lessons of the 20th century have been ignored. This monarchic style of government was one demanded by the tribes of Israel, to the dismay of the prophet Samuel.
The Old Testament books of Samuel don’t get a great deal of attention these days, which is a pity as they have much to tell us. They certainly have much to tell leaders of nations – if mostly what not to do!
Such modern leaders would do well to read about the lives of Saul and David, and their successors. The writers of the Hebrew Bible were searingly honest about the failings of their kings. There is an account of King David consigning one of his warriors, Uriah, to an almost certain death in the front line of his army so that he could have Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba.
Nathan the prophet had to pierce David’s self-delusion and bring home to him the enormity of his crime. So he told him a story of how a rich man had taken a poor man’s pet lamb, his only possession, to feed his guest. This story was designed for a king who had been a shepherd. David was outraged and demanded to know the name of this rich man so that he might punish him. Then Nathan declared that he, David, was the man, and pronounced God’s punishment on him – which incidentally involved the suffering of his people, not really a judgement from God, because the people are always the ones who suffer when the leader goes wrong.
This account may well be almost 3,000 years old, but it still has lessons to teach those in authority. Power and moral blindness often go together, the saving grace for Israel was the kings often respected prophets that spoke in the name of God with courage and integrity, and, just occasionally, they were even listened to and disaster averted. There are prophets aplenty in our own age, but they are rarely listened to and that is a tragedy.
William