We WILL have a king

Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, "No, but we will have a king over us, - 1 Samuel 8v22

It made no difference what Samuel said about having a king to replace him. A king would draft their sons into his army. He would take their daughters to serve the troops. He would nationalise their lands and use them for His people. He would take 10% of their crops in taxation. He would take their servants and their livestock from them. They would become slaves to the new king.

They didn’t care though. All that counted was being like everyone else. They saw that other nations had kings so they wanted on too. They remind me of my grandchildren. Their greatest motivation to play with a certain toy comes when one of the other ones picks it up. They can be totally content with the toy they are playing with while another toy lays unused, but as soon as another moves in that direction they must have THAT toy.

This little passage reveals to us one of the basic characteristics of our sinful nature – we are greedy. We are always afraid that someone will get to have something that we will not have. Their stubborn self-will is something that I think most of us are familiar with.

We look at our children and grandchildren in amazement when they act like that. We think how foolish Israel was to reject God’s way for theirs. And yet, how do we react when someone else ‘gets’ something that we don’t? Are we ever tempted to say ‘I WILL have this or that’ no matter what the consequences?