Possibly one of the saddest of all chapters.
Up to this point, God was the King of the nation of Israel. God’s plan was to assign prophets to be the liaison between He and them. And that was working well through Samuel. Unfortunately, Samuel’s sons were selfish, greedy little perverts.
The nation of Israel did not like this arrangement, so they looked around at how other nations were doing it and demanded their own king.
To be honest, I don’t really get why they were in such a hurry to get into a situation where a king would recruit their children into the army, where they would be forced to labor for the king, where their own daughters would be taken from them to serve in the king’s kitchens and courts, etc.
Surely, it would not have been worse than a few bad-apple prophet sons.
But…
“But the people refused to listen to Samuel’s warning. “Even so, we still want a king,” they said. “We want to be like the nations around us. Our king will judge us and lead us into battle.” So Samuel repeated to the Lord what the people had said, and the Lord replied, “Do as they say, and give them a king.” Then Samuel agreed and sent the people home.
And so it begins…
Lord, I know I can be as selfish and short-sighted as these people. Forgive me when I get so fixed on what I want, when I want it, that I miss out on Your best plan for my life. Today, I choose to surrender. I choose Your way, not mine.
e
GraceWalk 