Like Other Nations

 DEVOTION

1^ST SAMUEL

LIKE OTHER NATIONS

1 Samuel 8:10-22

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 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." Then Samuel said to the men of Israel, "Everyone go back to his town."

NIV

That is what a king will do. The people were served well by having judges, such as Samuel, who were able to be their own persons, except for living by following God’s will. The difference between man’s and God’s wills is that man’s will is concerned about his own welfare, and God’s will is concerned about man’s welfare. A king will look to his own benefit, as Samuel lays out all the things a king will take from the people. God will not take, but has always given to the people. We can understand that although we do not have a king, we have a government that eats up everything it can from the people. We know the quote of Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg address, as he finished that short two minutes with “this nation under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that a government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from this earth”. However, we wonder if that is true, for the government, not a single person, but the whole of the complex, is more like the king that Samuel described, than what Abraham Lincoln said. As interesting as that is, and how we could spend pages on the comparisons, our lesson is in the reason Israel wanted a king. They wanted a king so they would be like all the other nations. We should take that on a personal level, as even now our nation is not like all other nations.  We believe, for the most part, we Christians have drawn some lines between us and the unbelieving world. The lines could depend on denominations and how they perceive the scriptures of what constitutes a “Good Christian” by what we do not do, that the world does. But those are just a set of rules we have established that have been modified over the years as that line becomes a little blurred. There are some that have taken separation to the extreme, such as the Amish, Quakers, and maybe the German Baptists, plus a few others. However, we wonder how different we really are in this free country we live in. Have we adopted ways of this world, at least in the material and financial sense? Do we labor for those things we want, and plan our schemes for our future security from the world’s goods, services, and wealth? Sure, we have to pay our fair share of taxes to the king, and our sons and daughters go to war. At one time, we were drafted into the service of the king; now our children and grandchildren volunteer to serve the king, sometimes with benefits. But how different are we from all other people? We might believe that as long as we do not drink, smoke, swear, use foul language, and believe in God, we are different. But how different are we really? We are flawed people who sin against God and others. But the question remains, do we truly seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness? Is the kingdom of God are first and foremost priority, or do we share that seeking the kingdom, with seeking our own desires, such as chasing after that which the pagans, or the worldly people, do. Sure, we need certain things, a place to live, food, clothing, and such. God said he would provide all that because we seek him first, and we do not share that seeking with anything else. He has to be first in our lives always. He is the only King we need. Why would we want to be just like all the other people, seeking after the things of this world? No, we cannot be like all the other people.