Who Rules

 DEVOTION

1^ST SAMUEL

WHO RULES 

1 Samuel 8:1-9

8:1 When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as judges for Israel. 2 The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second was Abijah, and they served at Beersheba. 3 But his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice. 4 So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. 5 They said to him, "You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have." 6 But when they said, "Give us a king to lead us," this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. 7 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. 8 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. 9 Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do."

NIV

The problems of having a king will be presented to them in the next portion of this narrative, but what we are seeing here is that Samuel’s sons might be the reason the people wanted a king instead of corrupt judges. Samuel was a prophet of God, and he walked with God and served the people rightly and justly. He walked humbly before the LORD, and we believe Samuel was a gentle and humble man, honest before the LORD and before the people. However, his two sons extorted money from the people and gave them false words, because everything they did was for their own personal gain. They did not walk with the LORD, nor were they humble servants of the LORD or the people, as Samuel was. The people revolted, in a sense, by pleading with Samuel to give them a king instead of judges. Samuel was aware of the dangers of having a king, which we will address later. From what the LORD told Samuel about the people not rejecting Samuel, but their desire for a king, was a rejection of the LORD as their King, for he is the King of kings, the Lord of lords. Sadly, they wanted to be like all the other nations, instead of being a peculiar or special people set apart as God’s possession. The apostle Peter tells us, through the inspiration of the Spirit, that we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people belonging to God, to declare the praises of Jesus who called us out of darkness into His wonderful light. We should never want an earthly king because of who we are, just as the Israelites made that mistake. We have the Lord as our King, who rules our lives with perfect grace and justice. Israel rejected the LORD for an earthly ruler. What is concerning, as we ponder, if we have allowed anything in the world to rule over us. Could we be ruled by our own desires, serving the world’s system in various ways to obtain our own personal gain? Could we be ruled by our emotions, or feelings, causing us to have envy, jealousy, pride, hurt feelings, harboring ill feelings, or unforgiveness in our hearts? Could we possibly mistake our deeds and let them be our ruler of life? It may be a fine line to walk with the Lord, but live in this world. It might be a finer line to walk with the Lord, and live in the church; we could think of it as having a life with the Lord, or a life with the church, letting our own beliefs rule over us. Let us simply set all things aside and walk with Jesus, our Lord and Savior, who rules with grace and truth. Let us reject anything of this world that could become a ruler over us or within us, and submit ourselves walking humbly before our Lord, as our ruler, and humbly before men, treating them with grace and truth.