Good Morning Friends,
“All the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, ‘You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.’ But when they said, ‘Give us a king to lead us,’ this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. And the LORD told him: ‘Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.’" (1 Samuel 8:4-9)
The nations around Israel each had a king to lead them. But Israel was different. They relied upon a judge for leadership, a judge appointed by God to lead them. Now that Samuel was growing old and would soon be replaced by his sons, Israel grew tired of the kind of leadership they had. They wanted to be like the nations around them. They, too, wanted a king.
One of the reasons they wanted a king was because Samuel’s sons were not honest men who served out of a desire to help the people. They served for what they could get out of it, not what they could give. Israel didn’t want Samuel’s sons as judges over them. But it really wasn’t about Samuel’s sons. It was about Israel’s unwillingness to trust the Lord. They did not trust the Lord to deal with Samuel’s sons. They did not trust the Lord to raise other leadership, new leaders who would follow Him and lead as Samuel had led.
God understood what was at the heart of Israel’s request for a king. He understood that they were turning their backs on Him.
Sometimes the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence. It did for Israel. They thought the leadership of the nations around them looked better than the leadership God provided for them. They wanted what the other nations had. And God granted their request. What Israel didn’t realize was the price they would pay for a king! There was a high price that would be paid by them for not following the Lord.
The same choice is always set before us. We can follow the Lord, trusting His will and His direction and following it. Or, we can follow the ways of the world. They may seem better, more profitable to us. But when we reject the Lord for the ways of the world, there is a high price that will have to be paid. That price will be paid in what that decision does to our lives, in the lives of our children, and in the lives of others around us.
God will allow us to make that choice, just as He did Israel.
His, by Grace,
Steve
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