'Human beings seem to have a perpetual tendency to have somebody else talk to God for them. We are content to have the message secondhand. One of Israel's fatal mistakes was their insistence upon having a human king rather than resting in the theocratic rule of God over them. We can detect a note of sadness in the word of the Lord, 'They have rejected me from being king over them!' (1 San.8:7). The history of religion is the story of almost desperate scramble to have a king, a mediator, a priest, a pastor, a go-between. In this way we do not need to go to God ourselves. Such an approach saves us from the need to change, for to be in the presence of God is to change. We do not need to observe Western culture very closely to realise that it is captivated by the religion of the mediator.'
Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline; The Path to Spiritual Growth, p.28.
