As Americans, most of us have no idea the power of a king or a ruler with absolute authority. The most vivid comparison we have personally is when my husband Vernon visited a Communist controlled country that I will not name. To name it could cause harm to the people he visited. That’s how far-reaching their network is.
While he was sitting and reading his Bible a Communist inspector walked into his host’s home without knocking and started looking though cabinets and drawers. The host told Vernon to keep reading and not to say anything, that the host would answer all questions.
The same thing happened in another home when two inspectors walked in at mealtime demanding to know where they got so much food. Everywhere he went, he knew he was watched.
After threatening and intimidating remarks the inspectors left each time. If Vernon or either host had done anything that displeased them, the Communists could have had Vernon deported and them thrown out of their homes, their goods piled in the street, with orders to never return. No home, no money, and no appeal.
Yet he watched the Christians’ amazing joy. There were anxious moments but their confidence was in their King. They knew to whom they could turn.
The bottom line to being a king is that he answers to no one.
As an old man, King Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes much like a journal, recounting his struggles between human wisdom and God’s wisdom. As a king he warned, “For the word of a king is authority and power, and who can say to him, What are you doing?” (Ecc 8:4 AMP)
But as a king of incredible power and wealth, who was refused nothing, he also warned that there is One to whom even he must answer. We read in verse eight, “There is no man who has power over the spirit to retain the breath of life, neither has he power over the day of death….” And, “Remember [earnestly] also your Creator [that you are not you own, but His property now]…” (Ecc 12:1).
We have the choice as to “when” we accept that the Lord Jesus rules over us, in this life with the joy of His presence or after death at judgment. Either way—only He answers to no one—He is King over kings.
Martha Hedge © 2012