几年之前，我事奉的监狱里的教会用了16个星期的时间，来研读圣经中的约书亚记、士师记、路得记、撒母耳记上下、和列王记上下。里面记载的故事情节变得越来越糟糕，这个研读很多次都令人感到沮丧。那时，我突然醒觉到，旧约圣经的内容是一段关于王权的冗长默想。
在旧约圣经第一个故事中（创世记1章），神派人类管理衪手所造的。在第二个故事（创世记2章）中，人类用心照料园子来履行责任。在后来的故事，人类很快便失去服事神的兴趣了；相反地，他们想自己成为神。
接下来发生的全部都是痛苦和衰败的事，直至神出来控制大局，开始了一段冗长、甚至饱受煎熬的过程，来整顿局面。神开始在亚伯拉罕的家族中建立衪的国度，神自己就是这国度的君王。
可是，这国度的国民很快便对神他们的君王失去信心。他们想有一个像其他国家的君王，他们终于如愿以偿了。而我们在撒母耳记和列王记看到，他们的境况变得一团糟。
怪不得人们开始渴望有一个理想的君王和一个理想的国度了。然而，这样的国度，唯有神才能建立。
耶稣啊，你是理想的君主，你是神对这个痛苦世代的需要的答案。你能够解决一切问题，愿一切荣耀归与你。阿们。
以赛亚书 9:6-7
6因有一婴孩为我们而生，有一子赐给我们，政权必担在他的肩头上。他名称为奇妙、策士、全能的神、永在的父、和平的君。
7他的政权与平安必加增无穷，他必在大卫的宝座上治理他的国，以公平、公义使国坚定稳固，从今直到永远。万军之耶和华的热心必成就这事。
"You have . . . crowned [human beings] with glory and honor. You have made them rulers over the works of your hands. . . ." - Psalm 8:5-6
A few years ago, the prison church I serve spent 16 weeks reading the Bible books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings. It was mostly a depressing experience as the story turned from bad to worse. That's when it struck me that the Old Testament is a long meditation on the subject of kingship.
The first Old Testament story (Genesis 1) assigns to human beings a royal responsibility over God's created world. The next story (Genesis 2) pictures that responsibility as the careful tending of a garden. In the stories that follow, human beings quickly lose interest in serving God. Instead they want to become gods themselves.
From there it's all misery and ruin. Until God takes things in hand and begins a long, even tortured process of putting things right. God sets out to establish his kingdom among the family of Abraham. God himself will be the King.
But soon enough the people of that kingdom lose confidence in their divine King. They want the kind of king everyone else has. So that's what they get. And as we can see in the books of Samuel and Kings, it's not a pretty picture.
No wonder a hunger develops for an ideal king and an ideal kingdom. But that's a kingdom only God can establish.
Jesus, you are the ideal King. You are God's answer to the world's aching need. You are the one who will make everything right. All glory belongs to you! Amen.
诵读: 骆云秀
片头: 张妙阳
