Praying for a King (1 Samuel 8:10-22)

5/6/2010 7:24 AM

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY

 

My Worship Time                                        Focus:  Praying for a king

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                        Reference:  1Samuel 8:10-22

 

            Message of the verses:  “10  So Samuel spoke all the words of the LORD to the people who had asked of him a king. 11  He said, "This will be the procedure of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and place them for himself in his chariots and among his horsemen and they will run before his chariots. 12  "He will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and of fifties, and some to do his plowing and to reap his harvest and to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13  "He will also take your daughters for perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14  "He will take the best of your fields and your vineyards and your olive groves and give them to his servants. 15  "He will take a tenth of your seed and of your vineyards and give to his officers and to his servants. 16  "He will also take your male servants and your female servants and your best young men and your donkeys and use them for his work. 17  "He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his servants. 18  "Then you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the LORD will not answer you in that day." 19  Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, "No, but there shall be a king over us, 20  that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles." 21  Now after Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the LORD’S hearing. 22  The LORD said to Samuel, ‘Listen to their voice and appoint them a king.’ So Samuel said to the men of Israel, ‘Go every man to his city.’”

            The two statements above that I have underlined along with the word take are the words that I want to focus in on for this section of this SD.  It was the people of Israel who were choosing a king, for they did not ask the Lord to chose a king for them, for if they would have it seems to me that He would have chosen David for them to be their king as He did later on.  The line to the Messiah in the OT kept getting smaller and smaller until it came down to the line of David’s decedents of who God had chosen.

            The reason that Israel wanted a king was so that they could be like all the nations, something that was the opposite of why the Lord had chosen Israel, for they were to be a different people who would serve the Lord.  In the book of Daniel and at the end of the ninth chapter the Lord lists seven things that Israel should accomplish of which most of them were fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ, but that is an example of why the Lord chose Israel.  Paul writing to the Romans in chapter 9-11 also speaks of why the nation of Israel was chosen by the Lord, and it surely was not to be like the nations around them, for the Lord used Israel to destroy the nations who were in the Promised Land because they were so sinful.

            Now Samuel tells the elders of Israel all that this king will take from them, things that the Lord did not take as He ruled over them, and after telling them all that he would take they still rejected the Lord to rule over them and asked for a king to rule over them, someone they could see and talk to.  Solomon was the first king who took all of these things mentioned here in this section and when he died and his son took over part of the kingdom rejected all that he had taken from them and split the nation on account of his taking from them.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As a NT believer in the Lord Jesus Christ things are different that when the OT was written, for my King lives in my heart through the Person of the Holy Spirit, and I am to obey the laws of the nation that I am living in to the glory of God as long as the rules of the nation that I live in do not go against the Lord whom I serve. 

            There are times when I have to make sure what I am wanting is in line with the Lord’s will for my life, as I am thinking about moving to Florida and am praying through this to see if this is what the Lord desires for me for His will and for His glory.  I don’t want to do this unless I receive a promise from the Lord that this is His will for my life.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

 

1.     Continue to seek the Lord for His will on whether or not we are to move to Florida.

 

5/6/2010 7:58 AM