To Encourage You

1 Samuel 10:24 “And all the people shouted, ‘Long live the king!’”

One of the many examples of how sin has corrupted the heart and mind of man is in what he gravitates to and what he rejects.  We live in a society in which many promote the “right” to kill unborn children, the “freedom” to engage in all sorts of sexual practices that can lead to disease and death, the “pleasure” of the “recreational” use of marijuana and other drugs, and the “benefits” of socialism, which has a history as an ideology that has resulted in the murder of millions.  Meanwhile, those who hold the opposite view on these things are decried as narrow-minded and intolerant.

Another example of this pattern of behavior is the type of leaders so many people follow compared to the type of leaders they reject.  The verse above is an example of this.  The selection of Saul as the first king of Israel was the direct result of the nation of Israel’s rejection of God as their king. The prophet Samuel tells them this with the following words: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you.’ But today you have rejected your God, who saves you from all your calamities and your distresses, and you have said to him, ‘Set a king over us’” (1 Samuel 10:17-19). Notice that Samuel made sure to clearly tell them all the benefits they had experienced prior to having this new king. Not only that, but he had also warned them of all the negative aspects that a physical king would bring to their lives.  He told them, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day” (1 Samuel 8:11-18).

In a similar vein, Jesus spoke of how the Jews had so often rejected the messengers God had sent to them for their own good with these words: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling” (Matthew 23:37).

I thought of how Israel embraced their new king Saul, a man God had given them in response to their own rebellion, with the cry in the verse above of “Long live the king.”  What a contrast with what the Jews cried when the greatest King of the Jews and the very Author of Life was sent to them, i.e. the cry of “Crucify, crucify Him!” (Luke 23:21)  It’s all a symptom of sin that dwells deep in the hearts of all people. How true the words that “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)  And then these words from Romans 3:10-18: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

So, if your philosophy is that man is fundamentally good, and that he has no need of God, you may want to think again. The truth is that we are hopeless without a Savior. If you’ve never put your faith in Him, will you continue to reject this One Who was sent to save us from our sin? And if you do know Him, will you tell others in your life about Him?  As those throughout history have so often rejected those who were sent to them, many may likewise reject you.  But remember, that even “(Jesus) came to his own, and his own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:11-12).

Praise His glorious name!