Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to faithhopegodlove@aol.com In Christ, Mark
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
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."
Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. 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. 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. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. 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."
But the people refused to listen to Samuel. "No!" they said. "We want a king over us. 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."
When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the Lord. The Lord answered, "Listen to them and give them a king."
Then Samuel said to the men of Israel, "Everyone go back to his town."
1 Samuel 8:6-22
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
As chapter 8 opens, Samuel is confronted by Israel’s elders who are unhappy with his son's leadership. You’ll recall that the scripture described the sons as not following in Samuel’s ways, instead seeking dishonest gain, accepting bribes and perverting justice. Definitely not the kind of judges anyone would want to follow.
So the elders go to Samuel and they demand that they be given a king to lead them like the other nations around them had. You’ll remember that they never turned to God…their Almighty Infinite heavenly King…once to ask whether it was His will for them to have a king. We read where Samuel did not make the same mistake, instead turning to the Lord in prayer in his distress.
During that prayer, Samuel had the Lord tell 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."
The words of the Lord resonate loudly from this passage:
“…it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected Me…”
Is there anything worse we can do in life than reject the Lord in our lives? For by rejecting Him, we are essentially saying we are committed to the ways of the world. And when we commit to the ways of the world, we are placing ourselves under the control and kingship of Satan for he is has control of the whole world (1 John 5:19). This is where the elders of Israel were heading and taking the people with them. By demanding an earthly king over their Heavenly King, they were essentially surrendering themselves to Satan and his ways…ways that could and would easily be carried out through the king they wanted. The people would be subject to that king’s laws and rules and word and will. And when that happened and the people would realize how much of a mistake they made. Samuel highlights this when 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. 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. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. 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."
Samuel had tried to warn the people in one last effort to try and get them to come to their senses. But the people were stubborn and “refused to listen to Samuel” shouting, “No!...We want a king over us. 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." Israel had forgotten that their victories had never come without God first granting them the victory in advance, handing their enemies over to them. Indeed, how quickly Israel had forgotten about what God had done for them.
How quickly do we forget what God has done for us as well? How quick do we turn from His word, will and way for our lives, instead turning to the world because we find that the world is far more open to allowing us to fulfill our own desires? The world doesn’t require you to make so many concessions and sacrifices as the Lord does. There aren’t a ton of rules and regulations to follow…no restrictions on the way you act or talk or think. No the world doesn’t require you to give up anything…except your soul. For Jesus asked us, “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? (Matthew 16:26) Indeed, what good will it be?
Friends, we can’t afford to stubbornly reject the Lord like Israel did. For to reject the Lord is like telling Jesus that He died on the cross in vain for you…that you have no appreciation for the sacrifice He made to save your soul. His unselfish act of love takes a back seat to your selfish pursuit of your own desires. Is that the message you want to send to your Savior and the Father who sent Him?
If you are reading this today and have turned the wrong way in life toward the world and in doing so rejecting the Lord, there is good news for you but you have no time to delay in repenting and turning your life back toward the One who lived and died for you and the God who gave Him up. For God’s word from 1st John assures us of the following:
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands. This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. (1 John 5:1-5)
So what will it be?
Stubborn rejection?
Or faithful, obedient, willing acceptance?
The choice is ours and we can’t afford to not make the right one.
Please make it Jesus in your life. Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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