“King me,” is an acceptable command in Checkers. It’s a 50-50 proposition otherwise. And if the coin lands on the wrong side, well, you might as well say, “Bury me.”

Absalom said, “King me.” He was killed.

Adonijah, another handsome son of David who said “King me,” also died. 

There’s an old saying, “It’s good to be King.” There should be another old saying: “It’s not so good to almost be king.” Maybe that should have been the message of that TV show about kings and thrones which I never watched and never will. 

Self-appointed kings require a great deal of support and maintenance. Let two or three important people support someone else as king and your whole house of cards can turn into a big mess.

David the Shepherd King, the Warrior King, supported his son Solomon as the next king to take his place. His word choice is significant.

Who should be the next king when a new king is needed? Let God choose. Our Father in Heaven knows best. 

Solomon began well. He enjoyed himself. A lot. He didn’t finish as well as he could have. Everything for the next several centuries went downhill from there. When the people rejected God and asked for a king, he gave them a king. He told them what a royal mess that was going to be. He was right. Then God provided what we needed from the very beginning. He provided Jesus, God with Us.

Jesus is all we ever needed. If we are smart about it, Jesus is all we ever want.

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I will join our Father in Heaven in choosing Jesus as my King.

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Our Father, thank you for our King of Kings, our Lord of Lords. He is everything we needed, all that we wanted, and more than we could have asked for. May his rule and reign within us and through us increase forever. Amen.