1 Samuel 10: Asking for a Better King

And he said to the people of Israel, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you.’ But today you have rejected your God, who saves you from all your calamities and your distresses, and you have said to him, ‘Set a king over us.’"

1 Samuel 10:18-19

When's the last time you looked for something better than God? This was where the Israelites sinned in 1 Samuel 10, and I believe where we all sin each and every day.

1 Samuel 10 is a chapter all about Saul's rise to kingship. First he is anointed and prophesied over by Samuel, and then chosen to be king through a casting of lots (that the Lord was certainly sovereign over). Yet amidst Saul's rise to kingship, we see an address by God to the Israelite people that we ought to pay attention to.

Although God sovereignly allowed the Israelites to have a king, he did not neglect the great sin that it was of the Israelite people to ask for such a thing. In the verse quoted above, God referred to the Israelites' asking for a king as a rejection against him. Why is this so? Answer: because God was the one who already had and would continue to save them from their "calamities" and "distresses," yet they sought for something greater. For only a sinful, deceived heart can ask for something greater than God, for there is none greater, yet I believe that we do so every day.

How many times a day do you disobey God's commands? May I suggest to you today that each time you do you are asking for something greater than God? Each time you disobey, you state with your actions that you believe your way is better than God's way, thus choosing your own way over his. Is this not the same thing that the Israelites did? They chose an earthly king over a heavenly king, just as we so often choose ourseves as king rather than Yahweh.

In conclusion, let us not throw the Israelites under the bus by accusing them of the same sin that we commit every day. Rather, let us read their story and see it as an example of what goes on in our own hearts, and choose to not live accordingly. Let us pray for God to be the king of our hearts, rather than any other master, even ourselves. Amen.