First Samuel 8-11

God’s message to me: God can accomplish great things under any circumstance. Following His leadership we can have the benefit of His victory without a great burden of leadership. By following the worlds way and appointing others over us, we force ourselves into submission to those authorities regardless of their foolish ways. Even in the United States, where our representative Republic resembles the leadership of the judges by having representatives instead of rulers, we still find ourselves submitted to oppressive law. Anyone who believes our government is without oppression should try dealing with the IRS, Dept of Motor Vehicles, Social Security Administration or any other bureaucracy that has authority to make decision over you. Compare your experience with those who can decide what you do and don’t get with your experience at McDonald's, where their survival as a business depends on you being a happy customer. It won’t be hard to see what God meant about having kings.

Promises: God promised a draft and victory over the enemy. When those who didn’t trust Saul looked for a peace treaty on their own they were offered peace in exchange for mutilation and humiliation. When Saul heard of it he was still tending fields as a farm boy rather than leading as king. God changed that on the spot. Saul’s anger was such that he chopped up his own cows and sent the parts around all of Israel with word that the same would happen to all the cattle of the people who didn’t come out to join the fight against Israel’s enemies. (sound like a draft?) He then led the 330,000 man army into battle, divided into three companies. They started killing Ammorites at sunrise and continued until the heat of the day by which time the army of the Ammorites was on the run and so scattered that you could not even find two Ammorites running together. WHEN GOD MAKES A PROMISE YOU CAN COUNT ON IT.

Commands: This is implied through out the bible but never said directly. It’s God’s way or the Hard way. For some reason we are always prone to choosing the hard way.

Timeless principles: Even among the great heroes of the bible, it is often true that the children do not live up to the reputation of the father. Samuel was a good and just man who served the Lord through his entire life. As he was getting old and couldn’t continue to travel the circuit he used to travel judging Israel, he appointed his sons to be judges. His sons did not follow God’s ways, they took bribes, looked for dishonest gains and perverted justice to their own ends.

How can I apply what I’ve learned: Christ tells us that his burden is light. Doing it God’s way is a lot easier than doing it our way. There is a way that seems good to a man but it’s end is destruction. No matter how politically, logically or seemingly correct our ideas may be they can never be easier or more successful than doing it God’s way even if God’s way seems insane, impractical or impossible. This is where faith really comes into play. God has left ample evidence so that proving the gospel is easy. It doesn’t take a lot of faith to look at overwhelming evidence and say, “I believe”. The real leap of faith is in saying, “I don’t know how your going to do this Lord, but you promised me you would and I believe.”

more to learn for in-depth study: As God had predicted centuries before, while giving the law through Moses in the wilderness, the people demanded a king. God told Samuel to warn them what it meant. A king would draft their children into the military. A king would appoint commanders at all levels to ensure his orders were carried out. He would take people to tend his fields, make his arms, cook his food, make his perfumes and bake his bread. He would take the best of the peoples fields, vineyards, olive groves and flocks and herds and give it to his servants. He would take a tithe of the grain and wine to pay his officers. The best of the peoples servants, cattle, pack animals, and young men would be put to work for the king. The people would be servants to their king and would cry out over the oppression of the king they demanded.

The people didn’t listen to the warning. Saul wasn’t a great king but he wasn’t a major oppressor. David was better but still continued to lead the armies to war. Solomon ruled in peace but held the largest army and the most wealth of any king of Israel. After Solomon, all the predicted evil of kings and more was visited on Israel by the various self centered and abusive kings that ruled.

tomorrow: First Samuel 12-14