Give Us a King!
May 10, 2008 by CarolI Samuel 8:1 - 9:27
I like Samuel. His mother had no children and prayed to God for a child which she would give back to God. And that child turned out to be Samuel. Just think. Samuel was literally born, by design, to serve the Lord. But the people were not satisfied with Samuel’s sons as judges. Samuel asked God what He should do. He must have felt quite dejected by then. He was old, and his kids messed stuff up. God reassured Samuel that the people had not reject him, but they had rejected God as their King. And an earthly kings was chosen.
Something that I tend to forget, and I would guess that others forget as well, is that we are all born, by design, to serve the Lord. Do we have any say in it? Of course we do. God also gave us free will. Jesus did not have to be crucified for our sins. That was the plan, but He could have said, “No, I just cannot do this. It is too much to ask of me.” Who could have blamed Him. How many of us would choose to be crucified so that others would receive salvation? I doubt that there are many which is one reason, among many reasons, why Jesus is so important to us. He actually went through with the crucifixion…for us. I wonder how well we honor that…or even think about it very often? What would have happened to us if Jesus would have said, “No.”
For one thing we would not have a Lord and Savior. There would be no salvation. We probably would not have heard of Jesus. Christianity would not exist. We need to go down on our knees every day and thank God that we were given a king…but not the kind that people were asking for in Samuel’s time. We have the Christ, the Messiah, our Redeemer, and more who is our king…and our friend as well.
Carol
Bible Breath: The Lord our God / Is our King