1 Samuel 8: Rejecting the King

Israelites:  God, all the other kids on the block have a king. We want one too. Pleasseeeee?
God:         I am your king. Do you not want me as your king anymore?
Israelites:  No. Can we please, please, please, please have a king?
God:         A human king will only bring you strife and bad things like snakes on a plane. Are you sure you want    
                a king?
Israelites:  We want a king!
God:         A king will take your action figures without asking and break them. (v. 11)
Israelites:  We still want a king!
God:         He'll ask for your crayons and he'll draw pictures with some and stick the others up his nose. (v. 12)
Israelites:  We still want a king!
God:         He will take your Barbie dolls and draw on their faces, dress them up as ugly as possible, and throw  
                them down the toilet(v. 13). He will steal your lunch every day and share them with his friends (v. 14). 
                Then, he will steal your lunch money every day. and share it with his friends (v. 15). He will steal your 
                dog and her puppies (v. 16). He will make you do whatever he wants, and he will hit you if you don't  
                listen (v.17). Still want a king?
Israelites:  Yes! We still want a king!
God:         Okay, but don't come running back to me if the king is mean to you (which he will be)!

The sin of the Israelites in this passage isn't in asking for a king alone, but in rejecting the one that God had already provided, Himself. Despite God providing the perfect king, the Israelites are discontent and demand to have things their own way (Burger King!). It's like the Israelites are insisting on taking a medicine for a disease that they don't have that have the side affects of headaches, memory loss, loss of hair, obesity, and herpes. Totally not worth it, but they have convinced themselves that it is.

Though, as usual, the Israelites sound extremely stupid and brain-damaged, but we resemble them in our lives. Like the Israelites, we beg God for a lot of things, which isn't a bad thing in itself, but our mindsets are often wrong and we begin worshiping what we are praying for rather than who we are praying to. We often believe that the only we we can be happy is if we have a relationship, lots of money, a good career, etc. You can fill in the blank yourself. We tell God that who he is and what He's given us isn't enough to satisfy our heart's desires and that we need much more than what he's given us already. We tell him that what he's given us just isn't good enough and to keep us happy, he needs to start giving us more of what we want. In a sense, in our relationship with God, we are gold diggers.

The scary thing is that sometimes, God lets us have our human, fallen desires. Like the prodigal father, he grants us our heart's desire, even though our discontent is a slap to his face, and our plans are doomed to fail. God gives us boyfriends or girlfriends that never should have been, dating relationships that never should have happened. He gives us jobs that we begged for but that he didn't call us to, which result in disappointment. And he gave the Israelites a king. He gave them many kings. Most of them were evil, and none of them were faultless.

Be encouraged if you are obeying God but your life doesn't seem to be going where you want it to be going. If you are faithfully following God, your life is probably going where God wants it to be going, and he won't let your petty desires get in the way of using you and prospering you. God has a lot in store for us, and God hears our prayers and knows our hearts, so when he withholds certain things from us, we just need to sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride he's taking us on.

On the flip side, if you've dug yourself a hole, the good news is that despite our waywardness, God can use our crappy decisions and circumstances to bring himself glory. Although God desired to be the sole king of Israel, he used human kings, like David and Solomon, to point to the ultimate king to come, Jesus Christ. Although Jonah fled when God commanded him to preach to the Ninivites, God used his disobedience to save those on-board Jonah's ship. Even if you've said "my will, not yours" and veered off track from God's original calling for you, he can still use your current situation to bring him glory, if you let him.

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