Do you remember when you were in middle school? Despite my best efforts to block out such unpleasant memories, I sure do! It was an awkward time... physically, mentally, emotionally AND spiritually for me. I look back now and realize that I was trying to figure out who I was and who I was going to be... but at the time I would have just described it as awful. I wasn't particularly athletic, but I looked around and wanted to be like all of the jocks in my school.... they made it look so cool and always had lots of friends, including cheerleaders. Who wouldn't want to be admired like that. Unfortunately, I couldn't shoot a basketball into a goal to save my life. I was afraid of baseballs hurtling towards my head and I was too small to play football, so sports was pretty much out. I looked at the "preppies" in my school and wanted to be like them. They dressed like they had just walked off the set of "Saved by the Bell" and boy were they cool! I could be like them, I thought. I could look cool, too.
It can be a dangerous thing when we look around at others around us and only want to be like them... especially when we know that we've been called to be something different. Such was the case with Israel in this week's lesson. Called by God out from the world, they were supposed to represent God to the world. But during the period when the judges ruled Israel, they got to looking around at the world and at the way other nations did business.... and came to the conclusion that they wanted a king like everybody else had. Apart from it just being just a really stupid idea, what could be wrong with that? What could be wrong with wanting a strong, Godly person to really take charge and run things the way they wanted them to be run?
It sounds almost.... I don't know... patriotic. Doesn't it? They were ready for independence. They were ready to make decisions for themselves. They were tired of being told what to do all of the time and were ready for someone to really lead them into bigger and better things! The only problem was... in their rejection of the judges, they weren't only rejecting Samuel personally, they were rejecting God and His rule. Their temptation was self-governance, self-rule and independence from God.... THAT was the problem and THAT is what doomed them to failure before the great experiment of a king even got off the ground.
This week as you read about Saul, Israel's first king, ask yourself... what area of my life am I still holding onto, wanting to rule myself instead of submitting it over to the Lord's rule? Just a thought.
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