Our Women's Study groups are presently reading The Prayer of the Lord by R.C. Sproul. It is a wonderful little book examining the model prayer that Jesus taught His disciples. This week we concentrated on the "Your Kingdom Come" part of the Lord's Prayer.There was a very fascinating section of this chapter that explained how God's people, the Israelites, rejected God as their sovereign king by demanding through Moses that they be allowed to have a human king like all the other nations surrounding them. God granted them their request, but instructed Samuel to warn the people of the consequences of their decision:
"So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king from him. He said, '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)
And here is the insight that Sproul shared that amazed me:
"Did you catch the word that appears most frequently in this warning from Samuel? It is the word take. The king, Samuel says, will take, take, and take some more. Yet Scripture speaks of God as a King who gives and gives, blessing His people with every good and perfect gift."
How can we want a King just like all the other nations? We have the best King already, who even gave of Himself so that we would be able to enjoy all the blessings of His Kingdom forever.
Father, please restrain our folly. Help us to appreciate all that You have given us. May Your Kingdom Come.
Funny, I haven't been keeping up on the book since I'm not in the study but what I did decide to do this weekend is start reading
ReplyDelete1 & 2 Samuel I am up to chapter 13 in the first Samuel.
I had never read it all the way through and was interested in reading up on the life of King David. I started up a conversation with my husband as we were reading the sermon from Sunday on Steve's post and the converstation turned to power, goverment authority and king Saul. I was remarking to him how the Israelites were governed by the Almighty and glorious King who reigned over them and yet they still wanted a physical king just like all the other nations. I was recalling this particular scripture in 1Samuel 8 for the very reason Sprout was pointing out in his statement.
Only our Heavenly King rules for the good of His people, only He loves unconditionally, gives gifts out of grace and does what is best for His people. Why on earth would they cry out for a king who is of this earth because corruption is soon to follow, greed and self-satisfaction are waiting right around corner for that day of inauguration.
So many of us have to go the long way home, try every turn before we ask for the guidance of our heavenly King, for the richest gift of grace that only He can give, I am reminded of a devotional from one of your favorite daily posts Candy, Of First Importance entitled,
"The changing of a Man"
"That the tide of sin, which before did run so strong-should be so easily turned; that the sinner who, a little before was sailing hellward, and lacked neither wind nor tide to carry him there-should now suddenly alter his course, and tack about for heaven-what a miracle is this!
To see...
An earthly man become heavenly '(Saul/Paul, Nebuchadnezzar etc.)'
a carnal man become spiritual,
a loose man become precise,
a proud man become humble,
a covetous man become liberal, and
a harsh man become meek, etc.,
is to behold the greatest of miacles!"
Thomas Brooks, The Crown and Glory of Christianity.
DS