The one true King only gives

Previously I wrote about how 1 Samuel 8 describes how the Israelites desperately wanted a King, just like the surrounding nations, even though God warned them that they would suffer because the king would take and take and take from them.

This morning I was discussing this passage with a group of fellow Christian academics that I meet with each week. A couple of points that came up were:

1. God's warning is quickly shown to be justified within a generation. David takes Uriah's wife Bathsheba and Nathan the prophet tells the chilling parable (2 Samuel 12):

"There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. ²The rich man had very many flocks and herds, ³but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. ⁴Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him."

2. This human king is in stark contrast to the true King Jesus, descendant of David, who does not take but only gives, indeed gives his own life to rescue his people.