Sometimes my ideas grow a little too big for their own britches.

My first thought for this series after John was the book of Judges. Whew. Have you read that lately? Depressing and freaky are my words for the book of Judges. A few bright spots of people following God, but then over and over again the description of how the people did evil in the sight of the Lord.

And freaky stuff! It’s almost like the earliest version of the National Enquirer, sensational stuff that’s almost impossible to believe. Left handed guys sneaking in and stabbing enemy kings, kings so fat that the sword disappears into the folds. A woman killing a warrior by giving him warm milk and then driving a tent stake through the guy’s head when he falls asleep. (“I had a headache THIS BIG!”)

For being the chosen people, you kind of wonder whether God was having some buyer’s remorse, or maybe post draft day depression.

After that, I got really excited about the book of Micah.

He’s one of those “tell it like it is” prophet guys, somebody who forgot to take “Tact 101.” But I love it! Micah reminds us God is passionate in his care for people and for justice. God does not stay far away in the writings of the prophets; no, God is crushing mountains and pleading with people and mostly, God is reminding us that to be truly one of God’s chosen ones means to be concerned about the things God cares about. Micah reminds us that God cares deeply about justice and mercy and wants us to model our lives after his justice and mercy.

Then the idea started growing. As I read Micah a few times, I realized how much the book refers to Israel’s history, how much it draws on the rich background of the Old Testament. Wouldn’t it be great, I thought, wouldn’t it be great to take a look at the whole history of Israel first, BEFORE we look at the book of Micah. Then we could really get a much fuller picture of what God was doing through Micah.

Yeah, wouldn’t that be great.

Cover thousands of years of Old Testament history completely and thoroughly in three weeks during May.

I’ve been wondering what in the world I was thinking ever since.

The Old Testament is just huge. 39 books of poetry, history, wisdom literature, prophets, apocalyptic stuff, law. THOUSANDS of years of history; at least 4 major world empires. And I have the stupid idea that we can get a handle on all of THAT in a few weeks in May.

By the way…just out of curiosity, and completely unrelated to this…

What’s the longest sermon you’ve ever sat through before today?

Kidding! Totally joking with you. When the people start coming in for the next service, just scoot in toward the middle and give them some room.

No, no. Let me just say right now that I know what I’m trying to do, especially today, is utterly ridiculous. It’s too much to hope that we’ll understand and remember the whole Old Testament from a few words on Sunday morning. But my hope is that when we go through the book of Micah together beginning in a few weeks, we won’t feel totally lost.

Sometimes God does his best to bail me out of the crazy places my ideas get me into.

We were at pastor’s conference a few weeks ago, and Steve Delamarter, one of the professors at George Fox Evangelical Seminary was the speaker. He said he was going to talk about Old Testament prophets. My ears perked up at that!

Steve reminded us that a written copy of the bible is a luxury that very, very few people ever got to see before the invention of the printing press. The Old Testament was an oral history, something passed along and shared out loud.

As an oral history, there grew to be important memorable phrases, little shorthand sentences that stood for a whole lot more. These shorthand sentences helped Israel remember the major themes of what God had done for them. It helped make sense of God’s purposes and character over thousands of years of interaction with God’s people.

Well you can bet that I was pretty excited to steal Steve Delamarter’s stuff and use it to help us today.

Take a look at the “Old Testament cheat sheet” in your worship folder.

It’s not everything by a long shot, but these ideas and the bible references listed at the right help us get a good foundation of things for the part of Israel’s history we’ll look at today, and will help set the stage for our journey through Micah in a few weeks.

God wants us, and God wanted Israel, to know what he is like. Theologians call this the “self-revelation” of God. We don’t have to search for God like our lost keys or sunglasses; God wants us to know what he’s like.

What’s fascinating is that God chooses to do that by entering into our world, our history, our story. God creates the story, shapes the story, and joins the story. Real life interaction is a great way to learn what someone is like.

I could tell you that my dad is a persistent man; but you’ll grasp that better if I tell you stories about the times I’ve fished with him as he’s sat by one hole in a river all day long, waiting for that one big salmon.

The Old Testament is more than a story, more than facts, more than dates and names.

It’s the real history of how God created everything, chose a group of people to live with, and tried to show them in all kinds of ways what God was like and how they should live.

It begins with creation. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” is not just a fact to check off. It reminds us that God is the author of everything, that nothing is too big for God. God began it all and keeps it in motion, and God made it enough like himself that creation is good.

Key to Israel’s self understanding is the role of Abraham as their father, their founder, their faith example.

God chose Abram, asked him to leave his home for a “destination unknown.” In return for Abram’s trust and risk in leaving everything behind, God gave him the new name “Abraham.” And most importantly, God promised Abraham land and descendants.

The promised land of Canaan or Palestine was God’s gift, and the people to fill it would come from old Abraham and barren Sarah. How much clearer could it be that this promise could only be made real by God?

Racing ahead more than 400 years after Abraham, God’s people are slaves in Egypt.

God rescues Israel. God is the one who “brought us up” out of slavery. He calls Moses to lead the people, and Moses gets to see God pass by him.

God deepens his commitment to Israel through Moses and the law and the ten commandments. He dwells with them, showing himself physically as a cloud in the day and fire at night.

But these central words are so powerful: “I will be your God; you will be my people.”

Is this because these people are so wonderful? No way! They whine, they complain, they want to go back to slavery, they make golden calves to worship. With all of their failings, it is God who demonstrates what God is like by rescuing and by committing himself to a group of people who really don’t deserve it.

After Egypt comes 40 years of wandering in the desert.

Moses brings them to the brink of the promised land, and Joshua leads them in. They conquer and begin to live in the land, the land that God made, the land that God promised, the land that God brought them to and delivered to them after their rescue from Egypt.

What a history! What a giving and dependable God! Reading the book of Judges and seeing how often they turned their backs on this good God is a shocking thing. But just as the history of the Old Testament tells us about what God is like, it also tells us what the world and people are like.

We’re fickle and we fail. We’re restless and we reject. To quote Billy Joel and probably countless others, “The good old days weren’t ALWAYS good.”

Today we want to look very quickly at a pivotal time in the history of Israel.

I’d invite you to open your bibles to 1 Samuel chapter 8. This chapter marks a big step in the transition from the nomadic people of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, from Moses and Joshua, to the kingdom of Israel that dominates much of the Old Testament and most of the books of the prophets that we have in the bible.

Listen for the people’s rebellion and rejection. Listen for God’s patience and sadness. [READ v. 1-3]

Samuel was the last of the line of judges, of key leaders in Israel.

He spoke for God. Samuel had spent most of his life doing good, unifying all Israel. But now he’s old. His sons aren’t like him, despite their good names that honor God. And now, using a pattern of language that is seen throughout the book of Judges, we can see that we’re entering another bad time, a time of God’s people turning their backs on God.

What is it exactly that Samuel’s sons did wrong? [ASK] It boils down to injustice. They practiced injustice, and that is not pleasing to God. [READ v. 4-5]

In some ways, this seems like a logical request.

If Samuel’s sons won’t cut it, if they are unjust, the people remind Samuel that their neighborhood isn’t exactly Disneyland. It’s full of powerful kings and armies. If your sons don’t cut it…and they don’t…then give us a king like the other ones around here. It almost seems like they’re trying to avoid a downturn, a “bad” cycle, by coming up with a logical course of action. [READ v. 6-9]

But this request isn’t a good thing. It’s not good for several reasons, and 1 Samuel lays it out very clearly for us.

Samuel’s a little bent out of shape, maybe a little frustrated that they don’t like his sons and that he won’t have a legacy of leadership. But God snaps him out of self pity to remind him of the bigger issue.

This request for a king is a rejection of God.

In what way? Well, all through their history, it’s GOD who has created them, GOD who’s been in control, GOD who called them, GOD who brought them up out of Egypt, and GOD who lived right with them.

The reality is, God has been their king. But this is no longer enough for Israel. They want a flesh and blood representative. They want to be like the enemies they can see, instead of the present God that they can’t see.

Israel doesn’t want God to be its king any longer.

That’s the harsh reality. It’s just too hard. The real presence of God scares them to death. Moses had to put a veil over his face, covering up the bright glory that came from being with God, so the people wouldn’t be scared.

The real presence of God has ALWAYS been with them, dwelling with them, leading them, rescuing them. But the real presence of God is intense and difficult, sometimes, to see.

So Israel rejects God as king, and asks for one in flesh and blood.

They’ll regret it. We’ll see that over the next couple of weeks, and through Samuel, God warns them about taxes and oppression and the draft and all the evils that will come from a human king. They’ll regret it, but they get their king. They trade the all powerful but invisible creator, the God who dwells with them but who sometimes scares them silly, they’ll trade God as king for a flawed human king.

It’s a big mistake, and we’ll see the damage quickly.

Micah and the other prophets will remind the people again and again that one of the big problems has been rejecting God as king.

But the truth is, this is a big mistake that is easy to make, and that we sometimes still make today.

Quakers or Friends have always believed that God is really present, present beyond rituals or just through what somebody else says. We say God is right here in our midst.

It’s powerful, but it’s also hard work. Listening to God is challenging and takes practice and effort and sometimes seems incredibly frustrating. We say God is alive and active and powerful, but sometimes it’s so hard to hear what God is saying that we long for something else more tangible to replace it.

We replace it with emotion, or with a worship service we can sort of control. We replace an active and living God with rituals and habits that make God safer and more controlled.

But our race through the Old Testament reminds us that God made everything, and it’s all under his control.

God reveals himself to us, rescues us, enters into relationship with us.

God wants to be our king. It would be a mistake to ask for a different one.