We Want King Obama!- and the Law of Attribution

Americans no longer  believe in American Exceptionalism.  Americans do not want to be a distinct nation, set apart from the nations around them. They not simply  refuted Governor Romney as their next President; they are seeking to fire God as their King

Posted By CotoBlogzz

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA – Shortly after President Obama was elected to his first term, I argued that For the last year or so I argued that  President Obama had a good shot at a second term for the following reasons:

1.  The Mostly radical left & hyphenated media- The mostly left Wing and Hyphenated media is  well versed at using weapons of mass disinformation to divide and conquer, including class warfare, war on women, war on religion, war on anything that moves and pays taxes. 
2.  It's target market - The target market is the  69% dependent, apathetic and or as President's  might say, stupid voters
3.  Class warfare.
4.  GOP's inability to counter charges of racism. 

The election results seem to validate our premise. President Obama's second term in the White House was largely secured by record numbers of votes from ethnic minorities:

• Hispanics, the fastest-growing demographic in the United States, accounted for ten per cent of all voters in the election, an increase on last year's record of nine per cent. Of these, 71 per cent voted for Obama, up from 67 per cent in 2008.

• A record  three per cent of the electorate,  of Asian voters  turned out, with nearly three-quarters backing Obama. He also won a staggering 93 per cent of African-American votes.

• Democrats won younger votes, while Republicans scored older ones, with a large number of seniors staying home

• 52 per cent of men voted for Governor Romney compared to 44 per cent of women
  
  

Following the Law of Attribution, political pundits on both sides have their own ideas as to why President Obama was re-elected, while voters on the right blame the 47% ers, the Paulistas and voter fraud.

While both sides will continue to make sense of the 2012 shellacking of the GOP, I am reminded of the story of Jacob.  According to  Genesis, Jacob flees to Paddan-aram, partly to find a wife from among his relatives and partly to flee from the anger of his brother, Esau. Jacob has no money to pay the dowry for a wife, and so he ends up working for Laban, his father-in-law, for 14 years to pay the dowry fee for his two wives, Leah and Rachel. After his 14 years of labor for Laban is fulfilled, Jacob and Laban negotiate a new contract, establishing Jacob’s wages for his future labors. They agree that Jacob’s wages will be all of the striped, spotted, and speckled goats, and all of the black lambs. This will start with a flock from which all such cattle have been removed.

Jacob is not willing  to settle for the few rare instances in which such a goat or lamb will be born, so he sets out to attempt to improve his odds:  He bases his entire operation upon the premise that the color of the offspring of Laban’s flocks can be influenced by the environment in which the offspring are conceived and carried. And so Jacob busies himself with peeling poles; he  took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white stripes on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches.  Then he placed the peeled branches in all the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front of the flocks when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat and came to eat, drink, and breed.

It really seems to work.   Jacob’s flocks started to grow while Laban’s flocks did not.  Jacob works harder and harder at his project, prospering all the time. Jacob seems to sincerely believe God is blessing his pole-peeling”efforts. Laban and his sons notice, and they do not like it at all. Jacob sees and hears the anger of Laban’s sons. God instructs Jacob to leave Paddan-aram and return to the land of his fathers. As Jacob sets out to convince his wives that they must leave this place, he tells of a dream God has given him. In the dream, Jacob sees a flock of goats in the time of mating and notices that the males which mate are striped, speckled and mottled. The angel of God calls this to his attention, telling him that it is He who has brought about Jacob’s prosperity with his flocks.

Keep Jacob's pole peeling effort as you consider why President Obama was elected in 2008 and re-elected in 2012.

In 1 Samuel, the Israelites,  think they can employ the Ark of God to  improve their odds.  After suffering defeat at the hands of the Philistines, the Israelites bring out the Ark and take it into battle with them, certain this will bring victory. It does not.  It appears that the elders and the nation are not seeking a radical change but recommending a refinement of the current system.. They simply want a king to be their judge, rather than having a judge like Samuel. They want to be rid of the system of judges and be ruled and judged in the same manner the nations around them are judged. They do not  want to be a distinct nation, set apart from the nations around them. They are not simply attempting to fire Samuel as their judge; they are seeking to fire God as their King.

God reminds Samuel that Israel’s rejection of Him is not something new, but rather one more instance in a rather constant succession of rejections, beginning at the time of the exodus. The king they want is really their god.  God goes on to instruct Samuel to listen to the people and give them their way .  Although Samuel is to grant the people their request, he is also to indicate to them the “procedure of the king who “will reign over them”

Israel is demanding a very expensive kind of government. Samuel seeks to spell out the high cost of kingship. In the Book of Judges there is no king, no palace, no standing army. When Israel is attacked, a volunteer army is assembled. In part, this army is supplied by the families of those who fight.  There is no “administration” of counselors, advisors, servants and staff, who support and facilitate the king’s reign. In short, the system is informal, ad hoc, and very inexpensive. With God as their King, it works.

To have a king who will go before them and lead them to war is to have a standing army. Once Israel is ruled by a king, life on the farm will never be the same. The king will draft their sons into military service, driving his chariots or serving as a horseman, or as one of the infantry. Some will be drafted as officers. A standing army must also have supplies. Israelite sons will be used to plant and harvest crops and build and maintain military equipment.  It is not just the young men whom the king will draft into his service. The Israelites’ daughters, who once sat or served at their fathers’ table, will now serve the king’s table. They will be perfumers, cooks, and bakers.

The high cost of a king includes the loss of sons and daughters to the king’s service. But the price tag is much larger than this. The king will consume a large quantity of food, very fine food. This will require the king to assess a tax upon all that is grown in Israel. The best of their grain will go to the king, along with the finest of their vineyards and groves. A good portion of the fine things an Israelite farm family once enjoyed will now be consumed by the king’s servants. The king’s servants will need to live also, and the people will pick up the tab for this as well. A tenth of their seed and vines will enable the king’s servants to plant their fields on land the king takes from the people.

The king will need a staff to serve him, and so he will take the best Israel has to offer for male and female servants. Of course the king will require livestock, and donkeys to plow the king’s fields, all of which the people will supply. In short, when the people are granted a king, it is to rule over them, and rule he will. These people who have known such freedom will now become slaves of the king. And when they finally realize what they have gotten themselves into, it will be too late to change the course of history. The Israelites will someday cry out to God because of the oppression of their own king, but God will not be willing to hear their outcry, for they are going into this slavery with their eyes wide open.

Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, “No, but there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles. “  Now after Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the LORD'S hearing.  And the LORD said to Samuel, “Listen to their voice, and appoint them a king.” So Samuel said to the men of Israel, “Go every man to his city.”

Just like Jacob’s pole-peeling, I can point to candidate Obama’s 2008 speech at Saddleback Church proclaiming that he was a Christian, as the main reason he was elected President.  

There is no single-incident I can point to in 2012 as the reason for his re-election.  Not the Battle of the Whales, Not Super Storm Sandy, not the Super Chris Christie Embrace, not the youth vote, not he Black Vote, not the Hispanic Vote, Not the Women Vote.

Instead, the parallels between Israel’s desire to be just like any other nation and be ruled by a king, is eerily similar to American voters predilection for President Obama not only in 2008, but also in 2012.  Forget the Law Of Attribution, instead recall the old adage:  “be careful what you wish for”