The King we ask for, a wild Donkey Chase

This morning I read in 1st Samuel 7-9. There were several interesting concepts.

They Brought the Ark of the Lord to Abinadab's house and consecrated it and then the people turned back to God. When this happened Samuel told the people to truly return to God and get rid of goreign Gods and commit yourself to the Lord and serve him only. It is interesting that it says they put away their Baals and Ashtoroths and served God Only (why would you not destroy these man made images of a false God if you were truly returning)? Are we doing this in our own lives? When we turn back to God is that only when we are feeling Good about Him or just at a time when we fear him (the Philistines of life are bearing down on us)?

The Israelites ask Samuel to cry out to the Lord and intercede for them, and God does deliver them and help them to route the Philistines, so much that Samuel sets up a stone called Ebenezer (the Lord is our help). After that for awhile all was well. Samuel was Israel's leader and he used to travel around in a circuit, acting as Judge.

Then in the very next chapter they ask for a king. It is very important that the men of God raise their kids to fear God and lead as they did, or people will seek out some other form of Order! People will seek to follow things that the world follow and Not God if you cannot teach your own children to rise up after you.

They ask for a King and God tells Samuel that they have rejected God as their king, he gives them what they want but he also chooses the King the same way that the world would have chosen him. GOd tells the people that this will not really go Well for them. He will take their rights and freedom away, put men to work for the governement, make them soldiers, etc. He says that he will take from you and you will become his slaves. and God will not answer you.

But the people still wanted a king over them to lead them into battle like other nations.

Before you go judging, do we not do the same thing? We see the sin the world has and we accept it as "normal" then we long for it as "we just want to be like everybody else". Stupid. We are God's children, Kings and conquerors, he gives us the choice to be slaves to him a just and forgiving God. He even lets us make bad decisions like asking for our own worldly king. Tells us the consequences and still allows us to have one. What other King would do that? That is why God is the King of Kings, because he loves us. He has the Power but he does not force us to do anything. He does however lay out the consequences.

It is interesting about Saul, we get to see a little forshadowing of his disobedience to the heavenly father. His Father Kish had asked him to find his lost donkeys. Saul and his servant are looking and they just cannot find these donkeys. Saul is ready to give up and instead of turning to God he brushes things under the carpet. "my father will be more worried about us than the donkeys" The servant is righteous and asks Saul to inquire of Samuel.

God was basically just working out a way to send Saul to Samuel. I wonder how many times God has sent me on a wild Donkey Chase so that I could find what I need or be the answer to someone else's prayer? What a great and mighty God, the orchestrator of our lives and our steps.