England crowned a king and the world watched. Perhaps not as much as they did 70 years ago
when Elizabeth ascended to the throne.
After all, Charles is not his mother and Camilla is not Diana. The faults and foibles of the royal family are open
knowledge, especially after Harry’s recent tell-all book, Spare.
It has always been so.
Royal families of the past provided Shakespeare with abundant material
to compose his plays: Henry VI; Richard III; King John; Henry
IV; Henry V; Hamlet; and King
Lear among his other classics.
The Bible does not gloss over the failings of kings,
beginning with Israel’s first king, Saul.
A handsome youth standing head and shoulders above his contemporaries,
Saul was dragged from his hiding place among the baggage to be anointed
Israel’s first king. His insecurities
soon rose to the surface, including his manic-depressive paranoia regarding
David’s popularity. Even David,
considered to be the greatest of kings to occupy Israel’s throne, has his
failures exposed, including adultery and murder. (2 Samuel 11).
We all share in this human condition. As the Bible says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and
desperately wicked. Who can know
it?”(Jeremiah 17:9). “There is none righteous, no not one.... All have sinned
and come short of the glory of God,” (Roman 3:10,16). The spotlight and the temptations make it more
apparent among the powerful who sit on thrones.
The corrupt human condition that Shakespeare
portrayed in his brilliant plays always leads to the decline and demise of
nations. One Kingdom alone supersedes them all.
Jesus stands alone and reigns supreme over all kings for all
eternity. His presence and His reign
were referenced in the coronation of Charles III. In his coronation speech, the
Archbishop of Canterbury stated, “The
King of kings, Jesus Christ, was anointed not to be served but to serve.” Following
the public oath, the archbishop privately anointed Charles with oil drawn from
trees on the Mount of Olives. Before
kneeling to receive the crown, Charles first knelt to receive communion, bread
and wine symbolizing the body and blood of Jesus shed for the remission of
sins.
The Bible describes a much greater coronation in Heaven. “Out from
the throne came flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder.
And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which
are the seven spirits of God; ... and day
and night they do not cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God, the Almighty, who was and who is and
who is to come,” (Revelation 4:5-8).
Isaiah predicted, “For a Child will be
born to us, a Son will be given to us; and the government will [a]rest on His shoulders; and His name will be
called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince
of Peace. There will be no end to the
increase of His government or of peace on the throne of
David and over ]his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore, (Isaiah
9:6-8).
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