Most of Christianity uses the government of Isreal layed out in the old testament as a model in many things as a model of certain "church" functions, titles, and proclivities.. Other functions are borrowed from the heathen like the regrettable Queen of Heaven in some places..
Isreal told Moses they wanted a KING like the nations around them at the times.. NO.. DEMANDED a King like the nations around them.. The government that God proscribes for Isreal was a renegade government.. because of their demands.. not according to what God would have done.. Nobody knows what that would have been..
As Jesus told Pontius Pilate he was a King of another place not of this planet.. That was quite a revelation right there.. went over Pilates head though.. Dimensional Physics had not even been invented or thunk up yet..
Really.. some people seem to think God is a moron or disabled in a spiritual wheel chair needing help.. and have no idea they themselves are impediments.. not helps to God at all..
I really appreciate Alamo-girls "vision" of a proper stone in the building of God is a DIAMOND allowing the free flow of Gods(light) thru it.. OR if the best you can be is a ruby or amethist or emerald well then, GOD BLESS YOU TOO.. its the light that counts anyway not the reflection or refraction..
Indeed, it is my prayer - my goal - to be transparent in Christ so that His Light can shine unobstructed by me. I'll likely end up an amethyst, but I'm trying. LOL!
And your example of the Israelites demanding a king is quite excellent. We mortals see through the glass darkly and often need some thing or some one we can "touch."
Really though what it amounts to, IMHO, is that most people rely first of all on their own sensory perceptions and then their reasoning and then the counsel of others.
They haven't yet either known or learned to rely on the indwelling Spirit, i.e. Spiritual revelation.
The bottom line: