Happy Monday to you all. Praying everyone had a truly blessed Easter weekend reflecting on The Cross.
I cannot believe the patience God has with the Israelites. They keep letting Him down. They keep pulling back from Him and trying to do things their own way. They keep testing Him and they keep failing. I always wonder how God could still call this group His "chosen people" if they keep pushing Him to the limits?!
1 Samuel 8:6-21
6 But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. 7 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. 8 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. 9 Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.”
10 Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king. 11 He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. 12 Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. 15 He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. 16 Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle[d] and donkeys he will take for his own use. 17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. 18 When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day.”
19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. 20 Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”
21 When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the LORD. 22 The LORD answered, “Listen to them and give them a king.”
God knew the people were going to ask for a king and He knew that He would allow them this. He also knew, it would end in a more difficult life for them to follow their earthly king than their Heavenly One. Yet he allows them to proceed. God allows this same "freedom of choice" in my life as well. He knows when I'm going to do something that does not align with His will or something that is not in my best interest (whether spiritually, mentally, physically), yet He says to me the same thing He said to Samuel "listen to them and give them a king". He allows us to choose what will have kingship over our lives. He warns us just the same that these "kings" will take from us our sons, our hard work, our money, our flocks, and all the other "bests" in our lives. He also warns that there will come a day that we will not want these things to reign over us anymore.
If we do not relinquish the desire and the appointment of these kings he warns in verse 18: "When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day". Scary. Not something I ever want to experience.
I can identify with the Israelites in todays passage and also in their journey so far.
I cannot believe the patience God has with
The happy ending to this story is that in my weakness, God is made strong. He knows that I will let Him down. He actually expects it. He created me to make mistakes. He created me to struggle with my earthly flesh and humbly crawl to His throne of grace, repent and turnaway from "my earthly kings". He sent His Son so these struggles would NOT define and control me, but that they would be demolished through the victory of The Cross.
Tomorrow's passage: 1 Samuel 10-12, Luke 19:1-27
5 comments:
Great post Jody. I really liked that last line...
"He sent His Son so these struggles would NOT define and control me, but that they would be demolished through the victory of The Cross" Amen!
Haha, DITTO! I had exactly the same thoughts Tammy just expressed!!
awesome post!!
Great job, Jody! I like how you repeated your first paragraph with the cross-outs... I was thinking as I read that paragraph originally that we do the same thing!
Great post. The passage you highlighted stood out for me too. Especially this part:
"Then we will be like all the other nations...."
Peer pressure. We desperately want to be like everyone else and yet we have been commanded to be separated from the worldly desires. Why do we want to be like everyone else??
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