“We want a king!”
“Why?”
“Because our neighbors have kings. Kings are cool. They do stuff for their people. Best of all, they make us feel important. If he looks like a God, then maybe we are gods.”
“But I brought you out of Egypt. Saved you from slavery and gave you your own land.”
“We can’t see you. It makes us feel unimportant and a lot less godly to admit that we depend upon you. It’s embarrassing, really. Our neighbors have monarchs with palaces and fancy clothes.”
“But I’ve chosen you and cared for you.”
“We want a king!”
“OK. But you’re not going to like it.”
So, they got their king and they never did like it, nor did they ever agree on the kind of king (or queen) they’d would like.
So, they just went on choosing a new one and fighting with one another over the right to make the choice. Sometimes they even fought over the choice after it was made.
After a while, choosing a monarch became their religion…
and they forgot the one who brought them out of Egypt.
1 Samuel 8 (more or less)
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