Then we will be like all the other nations...
"But Mom... Everyone ELSE is doing it!"
The two quotes are not at all dissimilar, are they? The nation of Israel demands a king so they can be like all the other nations... and the petulant adolescent, demanding a cell phone... or the ability to go to the dance... or to watch a TV show that's clearly inappropriate.
But the Israelites' problem goes deeper then simply "peer pressure," or "wanting to be like everyone else." Their desire for a king communicates that they have misplaced their trust in God. They want kings and military to do for them what God has been doing all along.
Suddenly, the sin of the Israelites doesn't seem so foreign to us, because we begin to recognize ourselves in this story. We find it far to easy to trust human establishments to do the things that we should trust God for.
Certainly, God may have given us the ability to organize into nations, or to establish banks and medical care and retirement plans. And yet, whenever we begin to put our faith and trust in these man-made institutions instead of God, we are not so different from the Israelites who wanted a king.
At the name of Jesus ev'ry knee shall bow,
Ev'ry tongue confess Him King of Glory now.
'Tis the Father's pleasure we should call Him Lord,
Who from the beginning was the mighty Word.
- Caroline M. Noel
Ev'ry tongue confess Him King of Glory now.
'Tis the Father's pleasure we should call Him Lord,
Who from the beginning was the mighty Word.
- Caroline M. Noel
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