Have It Your Way
But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; they said, “No! We are determined to have a king over us, so that we also may be like other nations and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles.” When Samuel heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord. The Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to their voice and set a king over them.” Samuel then said to the Israelites, “Each of you return home.”
1 Samuel 8:19-22
In what ways are we, as individuals and as a nation, rebelling against God, rejecting God, angering God? As I read one of many accounts of God’s chosen people angering God by their rebellion and rejection of Him, and ponder the world around us and the ugliness within me, I am reminded of a passage from Ecclesiastes,
What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done;
there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there a thing of which it is said,
“See, this is new”?
It has already been
in the ages before us.
The people of long ago are not remembered,
nor will there be any remembrance
of people yet to come
by those who come after them. Ecclesiastes 1:9-11
Are we merely repeating the same cycle of rebellious behavior presented in the Old Testament?
Out of all the people of the earth, God chose Israel. He rescued them, guided them through the wilderness, provided for them, made a covenant with them, and gave them unique revelation about who He is and how they should live. Out of all the people on earth, He gave them special insight, access and revelation. God wanted to lift them up to glorious heights. He offered His blessing, leadership and protection, but as Samuel became older and they saw no obvious succession plan, they panicked. Rather than standing firm in faith and trusting that God would continue leading them, and that God would appoint the perfect successor to Samuel, they rejected God. They did not want Him to be their king. They did not want what He offered. They merely wanted to be like other nations. They wanted to follow a human king, not Him. They wanted to follow human rules rather than God’s. In response, God acquiesced. He released them to pursue the life they wanted, and He appointed Saul as their king.
Reading the account from 1 Samuel 8, do you see parallels to our nation today. Like God’s chosen people described in the Old Testament, we have remarkable access to God’s revelation and in that sense we too are chosen and elected. We have access to countless versions of God’s holy word readily available on our phones, and we may freely carry Bibles wherever we want, and we may watch people of God proclaim God’s holy word whenever we choose over the internet, and we may freely gather with other believers to worship and pray. We have remarkable access, yet as individuals and as a nation, we choose to make our own rules, follow our own path, trust ourselves and our power (while convincing ourselves it is all of our own doing), and reject God. In what ways are we rejecting God and His guidance? Is He acquiescing and releasing us to pursue our desires? Are we experiencing His wrath in the form of release?
Let’s consider the account from 1 Samuel 8. Like every good parent, God warns His chosen people. He instructs them. He tells them how they should behave, and like lots of children, they rebel and refuse. He urges them to follow Him as King, to maintain their covenant, to follow His law, to behave like His people. They say they want a human king, and God explains all the reasons their request will lead to bad results. He explains that the king will live a luxurious life funded by their hard work, supported by their children, property, livestock and produce. Ultimately, they will be enslaved by and beholden to the king. Through Samuel, God says,
“These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots, and he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest and to make his implements of war and the equipment of 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 orchards and give them to his courtiers. He will take one-tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and his courtiers. He will take your male and female slaves and the best of your cattle and donkeys and put them to his work. He will take one-tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And on that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you on that day.” 1 Samuel 8:11-18
God begs them to follow Him, but they insist on having a human king. Finally, God relents. He allows them to have their way. He knows it is a poor choice, but He gives them the freedom to make the choice, and then releases them to endure the consequences.
However, even after they rejected God and His kingship, and verbalized their desire to be like other nations, nations from which God intentionally set them apart, and God allowed them to have it their way, even after all that, God promises to be with them if they return to Him. God says,
If you will fear the Lord and serve him and heed his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God, it will be well; but if you will not heed the voice of the Lord but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king. Now, therefore, take your stand and see this great thing that the Lord will do before your eyes. Is it not the wheat harvest today? I will call upon the Lord, that he may send thunder and rain, and you shall know and see that the wickedness that you have done in the sight of the Lord is great in demanding a king for yourselves.” So Samuel called upon the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day, and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. 1 Samuel 12:14-18
Once again, God demonstrated His holy presence through thunder and rain. Once again, God promised His holy presence and protection, and urged them to return to Him and live as His people. He may have released them to rebel, to reject Him, to pursue their own desires, yet He waited for their return. It was not too late.
God is amazingly patient, merciful and kind. He also reveals wrath, anger and judgment. Referring to the incident described in 1 Samuel 8, the prophet Hosea writes,
I will destroy you, O Israel;
who can help you?
Where now is your king, that he may save you?
Where in all your cities are your rulers,
of whom you said,
“Give me a king and rulers”?
I gave you a king in my anger,
and I took him away in my wrath. Hosea 13:9-11
God was angry when He relented to their rebellion, gave them the king they demanded and administered the wrath of release. He is patient, merciful and kind, but if we continue rebelling, His patience eventually turns to wrath, and His wrath of release eventually turns to a more cataclysmic version of wrath. He patiently relented in anger and released them to their rebellious desires, but as His chosen people continued in rebellion, eventually He revealed cataclysmic wrath.
How are we doing the same thing? In what ways do we rebel and reject God? How are we angering God? Today is the day to repent and return to God and follow His ways. Today is the day to beg for forgiveness and worship and praise His holy name. Today is the day because we do not know when His patience will end.
May you seek Him and know Him. Amen.