… YOUR GOD, WHO SAVES YOU out of all your DISASTERS AND CALAMITIES. 1 Samuel 10:19
I was impressed by the wording of this verse, God is the God who saves us ‘out of’ not always ‘from’, our disasters and calamities! He told Israel this when they’d rejected Him and sought a king to rule them.
The reason Israel gave Samuel for seeking a king to rule them were twofold.
When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as Israel’s leaders. … 3 But his sons did not follow his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice. 1 Samuel 8
Samuel’s sons, the next generation, didn’t follow their father nor the Lord. A truly Godly father but corrupt sons – something to bear in mind in our lives today.
4 So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. 5 They said to him, ‘You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.’
Israel wanted to be the SAME AS THOSE AROUND THEM, ‘PEER PRESSURE’. The world system today is pushing people to CONFORM to its viewpoint as never before. We should be very careful about following the crowds, the majority rarely have the Will of God in view.
God called Israel ‘His Inheritance’ and wasn’t pleased that they wanted to be led by a man/king like the people around them. Samuel’s sons were too corrupt to lead Israel and the nation knew that and rejected them. God had removed Eli and his family from the priesthood, because of corruption and now it had resurfaced in only one generation. Despite the failures of the priests, God still held Israel accountable for rejecting Him. We cannot and should not try to blame others if we decide to reject God in our hearts and lives.
The opening scripture from 1 Samuel 10:17-19 has an interesting wording in the Message Bible.
17-18 Samuel called the people to assemble before God at Mizpah. He addressed the children of Israel, “This is God’s personal message to you:
18-19 “I brought Israel up out of Egypt. I delivered you from Egyptian oppression—yes, from all the BULLYING GOVERNMENTS that made your life miserable. And now you want nothing to do with your God, the very God who has a history of getting you out of troubles of all sorts. 1 Samuel 10
In contrast to the rejection of God as their ruler, the earlier generation that fought for and took the land God had promised, held a very different position.
15 But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. BUT AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSEHOLD, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD. Joshua 24
Israel stood with the Lord at that time and in that generation, despite enemies around them. Who will we stand with in our day?
God bless and keep you today.