Let them have their way

So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who asked him for a king. And he said, “This will be the behaviour of the king who will reign over you: He will take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots and to be his horsemen, and some will run before his chariots. He will appoint captains over his thousands and captains over his fifties, will set some to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and some to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers. And he will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his servants. He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage, and give it to his officers and servants. And he will take your male servants, your female servants, your finest young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take a tenth of your sheep. And you will be his servants. And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the Lord will not hear you in that day.”

Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, “No, but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he repeated them in the hearing of the Lord. So the LORD said to Samuel, "Heed their voice, and make them a king." And Samuel said to the men of Israel, "Every man go to his city."  - 1 Samuel 8:10-22

The debate between God’s sovereignty and man’s free will is one that has raged for thousands of years and I am sure will rage on till Jesus returns. We are never going to get it.

This event here I think shows just how complicated it can be.

Having a king was not God’s plan. God planned to continue to use judges under his command.

But the people didn’t like that plan. They looked around and they wanted a King like everybody else had. God told Samuel to warn them about how living under a King would be. It was going to be horrible. The king would raise their taxes. He would draft their children in to his won work force. He was take them to war. He would confiscate their goods. He would take a portion of their crops.

They would be so desperate that they would cry out for God to deliver them.

It was going to be a miserable life.

But they didn’t care – ‘give us a king.’

So God said ‘give them their king.’

These people rejected God’s plan. The ignored God’s warning and insisted on their own way. So God let them have their way.

Dumb people.

But no dumber that we are when we reject God’s way and insist on our own way. We have a free will. We have a choice. God will let us decide – and then we get to deal with the consequences.

God is sovereign. We have a free will to choose.

When we choose our way over His we get to deal with our foolish choices just like Israel did.