Who would not want a perfect government while living here on earth? Who would not want a perfect King? Yet Israel rejected their perfect King of kings... not once, but twice.
(1 Samuel 8:2-9) ...the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah; 5 and they said to him, “Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations.” 6 But the thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord. 7 The Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them. 8 Like all the deeds which they have done since the day that I brought them up from Egypt even to this day—in that they have forsaken Me and served other gods—so they are doing to you also. 9 Now then, listen to their voice; however, you shall solemnly warn them and tell them of the procedure of the king who will reign over them.”
Interestingly, here Jesus of the Old Testament had been leading them in wars victoriously - WHEN they were obedient to God. Because we cannot be perfectly obedient - and God knew this - this is why Jesus had to come to earth 100% man and 100% God to die for our sins... so we could be victorious over death.
In the New Testament times, Jesus presented Himself to the Israelites as their King (again)...
(John 12:12-14) ...the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13 took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.” 14 Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written, 15 “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.”
Yet, very soon after this, they were all shouting "crucify Him!" All too often, people do not want to accept God because He is not what THEY want Him to be. The Israelites wanted Jesus to be a warrior - coming in on a warhorse... even though they knew that their (Old Testament) scriptures said it would be a donkey (which is a sign of peace). What do we want? Do we want what God wants? Or do we want what the world wants? What our neighbor has? Like the Israelites wanted a king... so they could be like the other nations. They still demanded to have a king, even after God warned them that their earthly king would place high taxes on them, take their best land, take their sons, daughters and servants away to serve him, etc...
(1 Samuel 8:19-20) 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.”
Ugh! Duh. But. Ah... words fail me! Samuel says it better...
(1 Samuel 10:18-19) ...“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I brought Israel up from Egypt, and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the power of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you.’ 19 But you have today rejected your God, who delivers you from all your calamities and your distresses; yet you have said, ‘No, but set a king over us!’..."
This does remind me though, that if I ask God for something, and He doesn't give it to me - or He doesn't answer my prayers in the time that I want - there's probably a really good reason - which I cannot see at the moment. Like back when I was single and praying for a godly man... but then wondering why God was taking so long. Well... hindsight is a wonderful thing. It was years later that I realized - had I met my husband even just a year sooner - it would probably have been a disaster. We both needed that time period to work on certain things... If we are living for God, and have asked God for something, then we need to trust God that He will answer in the best way and in the best time possible! He does want the best for us.
(Matthew 7:11) If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!
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