No King over Us

As part of my driving to work yesterday, I listened to my daily part of the Audio Bible on CD. Part of yesterday's listening was 1 Samuel 8, where the people of Israel asked Samuel for a king. The two parts that stuck out in my mind were, first, vv. 7-8 "And the LORD said to Samuel 'Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day - with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods - so they are also doing to you.'"; secondly vv. 19-20 "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.'"

The thing that sank into me as I pondered this was "How could the Israelites do this? They had God as their king, God to fight for them. God pledged Himself to their physical aid in a way never done to any other people. He promised to hear them and lead them, if only they obeyed His voice." The accompanying text from my study bible (John MacArthur) confirmed this "The problem was not in having a king but rather the reason the people wanted a king i.e., to be like other nations. They also foolishly assumed there would be some greater power in a king leading them into battle (p. 389)." But instead, seeing everyone around them, they wanted to be "just like them."

Pondering this a bit further, the though occurred to me (as it always seems to) "How am I different from them? Really?" Certainly, I'm not in the streets asking for a new ruler, but if I am a child of God and an heir of the kingdom, who else's authority and teaching do I constantly try to put myself under?

I ask this of myself because I am a great believer in books and reading - if I can read it, I can do it. The part that I am questioning is those books I go to for success in living or life. I go to them because I am looking for a better way to be successful, perhaps even to indulge my sins (greed, covetousness) under the banner of Being Better for God.

Is there anything inherently wrong with most of the genre? Not in and of themselves, although many of them seem to have a rather flawed spiritual view. Certainly, I have learned useful organizational tools from them.

But if I am honest, that's not only reason I go. I go because I desperately want the secret, the one thing, the idea that will push me over the top and make me successful. Heaven forfend I should go to God about this - not only are the things sometimes hard to get out of it (Proverbs 6:6-11 has a fine discussion of planning ahead (scheduling) and diligence, but you actually have think about it and there's no handy graph), but that I immediately expose myself to His goals and His authority, which is certainly not what my self love desires.

In a sense, I realized, every time I go somewhere else to seek guidance on life and living, I am telling the God of the Universe, the Creator of all things, the One who loved us so much that He gave His only son to die for us - that God; I am telling Him "I don't want you to be King over my life."

Oh, I want the salvation. I want to be saved from my sin, to go to Heaven, maybe even to become more Christlike if it improves my life. But how shallow is all that?

It's not that we don't have the weapons of victory in our hands, it's that we fail to pull them out of the sheaths and use them.