God Warns Us - Ignores Us! 1 Samuel 6-10

 1 Samuel 8:10-18 (ESV)

Samuel's Warning Against Kings

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 8:19 (ESV)

But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us,

Suppose you go to the doctor and the doctor tells you that you if you continue to eat unhealthy and you continue to be sedimentary and you continue to do drugs, drink alcohol all day, hit yourself in the head with hammer every hour and continue to jump off a roof each week, you are going to die.   Would you stop doing those things?  You would NEVER do those things!   But, no, instead you keep doing them, or start doing them and continue to do them.  What would we think about you?  

Such is the nation of Israel.  They asked for a king.  Samuel tells them all the bad that will happen to them if they actually get a king.   He gives them the diagnostic information they need to make a wise decision.    But, alas, what do they do?  They ask for a king anyhow.    How many ways can you spell fools?   All of the above will eventually come true. As we read the rest of the history of Israel, we will read how Israel’s kings did these very things.  We will also read how God did not answer them when they called for help.  He said He would not and He did not.  Note:

Proverbs 1:24-32 (ESV)

Because I have called and you refused to listen,

have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded,

because you have ignored all my counsel

and would have none of my reproof,

I also will laugh at your calamity;

I will mock when terror strikes you,

when terror strikes you like a storm

and your calamity comes like a whirlwind,

when distress and anguish come upon you.

Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer;

they will seek me diligently but will not find me.

Because they hated knowledge

and did not choose the fear of the LORD,

would have none of my counsel

and despised all my reproof,

therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way,

and have their fill of their own devices.

For the simple are killed by their turning away,

and the complacency of fools destroys them;

That’s the lesson from this text.   God warns us and when we refuse His counsel and wisdom and turn to folly, He ignores us.