I Samuel 8:19-20a 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,
Kids are funny. If you think back to your school days, you probably remember a variety of kids. There were the smart kids, the athletes, the musicians, the trouble-makers, etc. The trouble-maker was interesting. A kid known by every teacher, even the ones they didn’t have! The thing was, there were other kids that wanted to be like that kid. It made no sense to me. The kid they were idolizing was, and had, nothing but trouble. Yet they always had followers and imitators.
Israel had been called out of Egypt. God said He had chosen them to be His people. He set them apart for His purpose. Yet, on the way to the Promised Land, they began their efforts to be like the nations around them. The backdoor to Egypt had hardly swung shut behind them when they had made a shabby little bull and worshipped it and said that this thing was what brought them out!
Once they got to the Promised Land, and Moses and Joshua had died, they began a cycle of trying to be like the nations around them, adopting and worshipping idols, being subjugated by their neighbors, calling out to God, God delivering them, and then gradually falling back into idolatry. Now, they tell Samuel, the last of the judges, that they want a king. Samuel was distressed but God told him that it was really God they were rejecting, not Samuel. Ironically, not once in all the times of them trying to be like their neighbors did it work out to their benefit. (Unless they just wanted to live in immorality, doing whatever they desired, with no priest or God to tell them they were wrong! That was a benefit they were interested in! Only without the pain and suffering it inevitably brought.)
Today, the church has become God’s chosen people. (For more on that, read I Peter.) The church is God’s idea and His way of speaking to, and calling, the world. But there are those who don’t much like the church. They don't like the church as it has been. Sadly, some of those are inside the church. They don’t like it when the pastor or the leadership of the church won’t get with the times and stay current. The world has new ideas now of right and wrong and tolerance is the watchword. Many come to the leadership of the church and echo the sentiment in today’s verse, “We have to moderate our views “that we also may be like all the nations.””
Of course, the church is not perfect and occasionally requires adjustment and realignment. But never realignment that will put it more in tune with the world's ideas. Just the opposite. The church requires adjustments when we see that we have become too much like the world around us. Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its saltiness, it’s good for nothing.”
If the church becomes good for nothing, not only is it bad for the church, but the whole world will suffer! Let us set our course, not by what’s trending on Twitter, but by God’s Word!
Blessings,
Pastor Russ
