Careful What You Ask For–You May Get It!

1 When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as Israel’s leaders. 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 follow 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 follow 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 claim as his rights.” 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 claim as his rights: 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 male and female servants 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, but 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.”

–1 Samuel 8.1-20 (NIV)

Imagine you are the leader of your family. You come from good stock and your family name is well respected in the community. You have no siblings left and only have one son. You are counting on him to carry on the family’s name and good legacy by continuing to be salt and light to your community just the way you and your family before you have been. But as your son comes of age, he decides he doesn’t want the responsibility. He just wants  the perks of bearing the family name. He starts hanging out with less than desirable elements within the community and you become alarmed because you see the danger into which he is sliding. You warn him continually about his inevitable path toward ruin and you ask his former friends to do likewise.

But your son doesn’t listen. He apparently is determined to do things his way and doesn’t care one lick about your family name and legacy. What do you do? Because your son is of age, there is really little you can do about it. You can disinherit him but you love him too much to do that. And so you in effect end up giving him what he wants because you stop trying to intervene in his activities. You then must sit back and watch the painful results unfold as your only son is drawn further and further away from you, from your rock-solid values, and your family’s good and cherished name. It is almost unbearable for you to watch, but watch it you must because of your great love for your son.

If you understand the dynamics of this little scenario, you are ready to read the story in today’s Scripture lesson. God has called out his people Israel through Abraham to be a blessing for others, to be his agents of healing and redemption for his broken and fallen world. But they refuse. They are more interested in having God’s blessings but they have forgotten about their own responsibility as God’s called out (holy) people to be a blessing for others, to be God’s agents of redemption. Instead, the leaders of Israel come to Samuel and ask him to ask God for a king. Ostensibly they ask this because Samuel’s sons have become corrupt. But this is only window dressing. The real reason Israel’s leaders are asking for a king is because they want to become like the other peoples with whom they live. This indicates that they have completely forgotten (or rejected) their call to be God’s blessing to others so that God can heal and redeem those other people through his chosen people Israel.

And so God, because of his great love for his people and because of his faithfulness to them, gives his people what they ask. But he tells his prophet, Samuel, to warn his people about what they will get if God gives them a king. Don’t let the historical context of these warnings make you miss the power of God’s warning. God is telling his people that if they have a king like the other nations, those kings will start to oppress Israel financially (too many taxes) and politically (too few individual freedoms, too much government meddling in their lives, and too much injustice and oppression).

But more grievously to God is the fact that his people Israel have in effect rejected God’s kingship in favor of being like the other unredeemed and fallen people around them, the very people God has called Israel to bless. If you understand the dynamics of my example above about the grief the leader of the family feels over his wayward and rebellious son, you can begin to understand the terrible grief this particular request by God’s people has on God’s heart. He isn’t fooled by the ostensible request. As always, God knows the hearts of his people and he understands all too clearly their motives in making this particular request.

Yet it is to the glory of God that he does not reject his people or destroy them. God sticks with his people. He gives them what they want and he continues to work with them in a variety of ways to call them back to their right minds so that they might become the people he called them to be. In biblical language this is called repentance.

Likewise with us, God continues to love us and call us to be the people he wants us to be in Jesus. Like ancient Israel, we continue to rebel against God and to reject his kingship in our lives. We are more interested in being the captain of our own lives rather than humbly submitting to God’s rule and in doing so, we rob ourselves of God’s power and the ability to be God’s called out (holy) people to be a blessing to others by bringing God’s love in Christ to bear on those who are broken and hurting and need God’s love the most.

But like his people Israel, God does not reject us or become unfaithful to us. Instead, he has chosen to live among us as a human. He has chosen to die a terrible death to bear our just punishment himself and to make it possible for us to be reconciled to him forever. Just like God did for his people Israel when he rescued them from their exile from Egypt, so God has rescued us from our exile from him, an exile caused by our persistent and willful rebellion against God and our refusal to let him be God so that we can be his people. And he did all this for us even when we were too stupid to know any better and ask for his forgiveness and mercy so that we could enjoy life, both here on earth and forever in God’s direct presence.

This is the cost of our rebellion, both to ourselves and to God. It is to the glory of God that he sticks with his beloved and offers us a way out of death and our exile from him. But we have to come to our senses and be smart enough to accept God’s gracious offer to us in Christ to have real life, not the window dressing of money, sex, power, and prestige that many of us seek.

The next time you tell God by your actions that you do not want him as Lord and king of your life, remember the terrible hurt you inflict on him. Remember too that despite this hurt, God loves you and created you for relationship with him. Remember that he has done the one and only thing possible to restore your broken relationship with him. Consider carefully what a breathtaking love that God’s action in Christ demonstrates and then resolve to start living your life abundantly, the way your Creator intended. You will then discover a power, meaning, and purpose in your life that is impossible to find anywhere else. And as you discover the joy of living life as God means for us to live it, remember to give thanks and praise to this God of ours for his great and tender love and faithfulness toward his wayward creatures, and for giving us the tremendous opportunity to have him use us to bring this great love to bear on those around it who need it the most.