Appoint a King for Israel

If you have your Bible, 1 Samuel chapter 8, the cry comes, app a king for us. That was the cry of the leaders of Israel. And so we are going to look at what the Bible says concerning their desire for a king and Samuel's response.

The question comes: Did Israel know that God had designed for them a king? And the answer to that is yes. How do we know? Well, God told Abraham and Sarah and Jacob that their descendants, among their descendants, there would be kings. So they would know what God told Abraham, Sarah, and Jacob. They also would know that Jacob had a son named Judah, and that would be the kingly tribe. And there was a prophecy in Genesis 49, verse number 10. That the scepter would not depart from Judah until Shiloh came, the one to whom it belongs.

So they knew that there would be a king in Israel. In fact, even Moses said something about a king in the book of Deuteronomy, the 17th chapter, when Moses said these words. He said in verse 14 of chapter 17: When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you and you possess it and live in it, And you say, I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me. You shall surely set a king over you, whom the Lord your God chooses. One from among your countrymen, you shall set as a king over yourselves.

You may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countrymen. Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the Lord has said to you, You shall never again return this way. He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away, nor shall he greatly increase silver and go for himself. So, Israel would know that Moses said in those last words before he was buried by the Lord God him that there would be a king.

In Israel, the question comes: Is this the time for the king? There's always the right time for everything. That the Lord gives us. There's also a wrong time, and this wasn't the right time. And the question comes: how do we know it's not the right time? That's very important. After Gideon had defeated the Midianites, Israel wanted to make Gideon their k. Quite a reward for leading the men of Israel in a battle. In which they won. But these were the words of Gideon, the book of Judges, when he said these words, Judges:, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you.

But the Lord shall rule over you. Gideon was a humble man. He believed in the theocracy that God was the ruler of his people, that God was the king of the people. And so he under what men of God knew: that when it was time for a king, God would choose a k. But on this day, in 1 Samuel chapter 8, there's a new generation that's risen to leadership. And now Samuel is some 20 years older than he was in 1 Samuel chapter 7. He's probably around 6 years of age. That 's my age. So he's around my age. So if you look at me, you're seeing Samuel.

Or or vice versa. If you look at Samuel, you'll see Lance. No, that's not the case. But anyway, the bottom line is that he's around 60, maybe 70 years of age. And the people come, the leaders come, and they want him to appoint a king for them. The question is, is it the right time? We know it's not the right time. How do we know? Because we know the book of Ruth. And we know what took place way back when Tamar The daughter-in-law of Judah seduced him because Judah had three sons. One married Tamar.

She was a Canaanite woman. And he married her, but had no children. So, according to Leverett marriage, the next son-in-law would marry Tam, and he did, and he was childless. Tam won children. But Judah wouldn't let his third son marry Tamar.

So, what she did was dress up like a harlot and seduce Judah. And she was pregnant. And she had a son. His name was Pere. He was the illegitimate son. And God, in the book of Deuteronomy, said that for the next ten generations, there will not be Anyone who sits on the throne or welcomed into the assembly. Well, if you read the book of Ruth and you understand the last chapter of the book of Ruth, it gives us nine generations. Boaz was a descendant of Pere. And Boaz and Ruth were married, and they had a son.

His name was Obed. Obed would have a son. His name is Jesse. It's during this time that the nation cries for a king. But God is true to his word. So he will not have a k from the kingly tribe Judah. Instead, There will be a king, and he will be from another tribe, the tribe of Benjamin. His name will be Saul. So we know it's not the right time for a king. But Israel thinks it is. So let me read to you the Narrative in 1 Samuel chapter 8, and then we'll go back and make some comments about it and try to help us see what the Lord has for us.

1 Samuel chapter 8. And it came about when Samuel was old that he appointed his sons judge over Israel. Now the name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah.

They were judging in Beers. His sons, however, did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after dishonest gain, and took bribes and perverted justice. Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. And they said to him, Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a k for us to judge us. Like all the nations. 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.

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. 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. 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.

So Samuel spoke all the words of the Lord to the people who had asked of him a king. He said, This will be the procedure of the king who will reign over you. He will take your sons and place them for himself. in his chariots and among his horsemen, and they will run before his chariots. He will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and of fifties. Some to do his plowing, and to reap his harvest, and to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will also take your daughters for perfumers, and cooks, and bakers.

He will take the best of your fields, and your vineyards, your olive groves, and give them to his servants. He will take a tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. He will also take your male servants and your female servants and your best young men and your donkeys and use them for his work. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his servants. Then you will cry out in that day because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves.

But the Lord will not answer you in that day. Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel. And they said, No. But there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles. Now after Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the LORD's hearing. The LORD said to Samuel, Listen to their voice, and appoint them a king. So Samuel said to the men of Israel, Go every man to his city.

You read that, and you wonder. How it all went down. Well, let's begin by looking at the request. They come to Samuel and they say, We want you to appoint us a king. To judge over us. Now you're the judge of Israel, you're Samuel. You're thinking, that's my job. What do you want a king for? But they say to him, the reason we want a king is because you're too old. You're too old. Really, you're too old. But this is just their excuse. I remember when I turned 40, wasn't that long ago, and I was excited about turning 40 because in the church you really have no credibility until you're at least 40.

Because no one thinks that you have any experience or any knowledge or anything. So when I finally turned 40, I thought, wow, man, I've overcome a huge, huge obstacle.

And then I turned 50. I thought, wow, man, now people are going to see me as a seasoned pastor. Okay? But then I turned 6. And then the people say, he's too old. He's irrelevant. He can't relate to us anymore. We need somebody younger. That was Israel. You're too old. We need somebody who can be our king. Now, think about this: Samuel. Was the one who led them to victory just in 1 Samuel chapter 7. Now it was probably 20 years ago, but I'm sure there were other victories in between there that he would lead them in.

He was a man of great character, great integrity. He was a man who led the nation in terms of how they should consecrate themselves and turn their hearts to the Lord. He was their spiritual leader. Right? He was the guy. And they come to him and say, You need to appoint us a king. On top of all that, Samuel would be the one who not only would anoint Saul. But he was still man enough to confront Saul on a sin when no one else would. And then. He's much older than 60 by this time. Because Saul doesn't kill King Agag, the king of the Amalekites.

What does Samuel do? Samuel takes the sword and cuts up Agag, sl him, slices him up. Can't be that old. He can still wield the sword. So he must have some vitality left in him. Yet they say, you're too old. We need somebody younger, somebody more vibrant, more exciting, more relatable to the younger gener. And then they said, not only that, your boys really can't do it because they don't walk in your ways. They've turned aside. From the things that you have taught them. And they did. His boys were appointed judges in Beers.

Now, if you heard the phrase from Dan to Beers, from the northern part Dan to the most southern part, Beers, that's how they describe the length of the land of Israel. It was getting too much for Samuel to journey down to Beers, and so he had his sons be judges in Beers. And yet, they could easily be bribed because they loved money. They loved money. The Bible tells us these words: it says. That they had turned aside in verse number three after dishonest gain, took bribes and perverted justice.

Now, Moses in Exodus chapter 23 and Deuteronomy 16 talks about bribery and how unjust it is and how wrong it is. But these two boys turned aside after dishonest gain. It's a phrase that means to long for something. They longed for money. And the more money they received through bribes, the more they wanted to get. And they found themselves being manipulated. They found themselves being unjust in their teaching, in their judging, because they were manipulated by those with money. And although God had warned them against that.

They had turned aside from the light that had been given to them. They had turned aside from the example of their father and from the exhort of the scriptures. How sad is that? Now, these boys were older men. They weren't young guys. They were older men, probably in their 40s, when they did not. Any longer walk in the ways of the Lord and turned aside from the teaching of Samuel. But nonetheless, Samuel had to know. He had to know because the leaders of Israel knew. So Samuel knew. Interest thing that there's nowhere in scripture that tells us that Samuel did not.

Lead his family properly. We know about Eli. We know what Eli didn't do with his boys and how perverted his boys were, and when he found out about it, he did nothing to them. And so Samuel was called by God to confront Eli on a sin. Eli did not repent, and of course. Years later, he was killed, and so were his boys, because they refused to repent from their wickedness. But we have no record of anything like that with Samuel. In fact, we have just the opposite. In Psalm 99, you have these words in verse number 6: Moses and Aaron were among his priests.

And Samuel was among those who called on his name. They called upon the Lord, and he answered them. So you had the testimony of Moses and Aaron and Samuel, men that lived a life of prayer, called upon the Lord, and God answered them. Then you have over in the book of Jeremiah, the 15th chapter, these words: Even though Moses and Samuel were to stand. Before me, in other words, there was something about Moses, there was something about Samuel, about their character, that God would allow them to stand in his presence before him.

And beseech the Lord God of Israel on behalf of the people. So, contrary to what we might think, Samuel was a man who loved the Lord, who honored the Lord, who was committed to the Lord. They had these two boys that once they had taken the office of judge. A little bit of power got to their heads and they went the wrong direction. And these. Elders in Is would use this as an excuse, would use their corruption. As an excuse for a king, all the while saying they turned aside from listening to you when they themsel would not listen to Samuel.

Isn't it interesting that we can look for any excuse we want to prove our point without doing any self-examination on our own lives? And these men would not do that. Instead, they looked for an excuse, for a way to get themselves what they wanted. They wanted a k. And in their own ways, they were self Deceived. On top of that, we want a king because we would be like all the other nations. We would be like everybody else. Do you really want to be like everybody else? Yeah? I guess we do. They have kings.

They have armies. We want to be like them. Why? Why? D you ever ask yourself the question why you want to be like the Canaanites, the Jebus, the Amalekites? Wh do you want to be like the people who don't know God? There 's never a cry, we want to be like God. No, we want to be like the other nations. And they want to conform to the way they do things instead of conforming to the way God wants them to do things. How sad is that? But is it not true that that's the same cry that we hear all the time, especially from young people?

Well, we want to be able to do this. My friends do this. I want to go there. I want to be that. I want to. Do these things. I want to be like they are. Why? Why? The Bible tells us that we're not to be conformed to this world. We're to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. But we find ourselves being squeezed into the mold of the world more so than anything else. even in the church. And we have to ask ourselves, why? Why do we do that? What's so important? What's so appetizing about the things of the world?

What is it about the world that draws me That direction. What is it about the world that causes me to hunger for what it is the world has to offer? When in reality, as a believer, I have everything in Christ. I have His righteousness. I have His forgiveness. I have His standing. I have His right. I have the all-sufficient God who lives within me. God told Israel in the book of Leviticus these words. He said, You are to be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy, and I have set you apart from the peoples to be mine.

Isn't that good enough? I want you to be holy, set apart unto me. Set apart from the world and unto me. You're mine. I've chosen you. I want all of you. Is it interesting? We 'll talk a little bit about this on Sunday. That Israel was called by God, set apart by God, chosen by God, they were sanctified. By a diet, we're sanctified by his death. They were set apart, in particular, by a diet. God gave them a diet that nobody really likes, not even the Jewish people. But he set him apart because he wanted to be so utterly and completely different than everybody else.

Isn't it true that the Bible calls us aliens and strangers in a foreign land? We are to be so utterly different than the people we work with, the people we go to school with, the people that we associate with in the world. It's not that we're to be nasty to them, not at all. We're to be loving and kind, but our attitude, the way we deal with situations and circumstances and relationships, we do it because we want to honor the Lord and glorify His name, put Him on display. But we're set apart unto God for His purposes, for His glory and for His honor.

But here are the leaders of Israel. They come to Samuel. We want to be like the other nations. We want to be like the other guys. Why? And Sam got to be thinking, man, all this judging I've done, all this teaching I've done for the last 20, 30 years, this is what you come up with? This is where you're at now? I didn't teach you that, but this is where they themselves are at. Remember Daniel? Daniel was a non. Daniel was a man who was utterly different than everybody else. Now God used him and raised him up to be a leader.

In Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abedne, set apart, non, different kinds of men. You see, that's the kind of people we need to be. Completely different than the world. Yet they come and they say, we want to be like all the other nations. They say, appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations. In verse 20, it says this. It says, We want to be like all the nations that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles. Not only do they want to be like the other nations when it comes to having a king, they want a king because they want someone to fight their battles.

It wasn't good enough that God would fight their battles. It wasn't good enough that Samuel had led them on how to consecrate their hearts, how to commit their life to the Lord, to submit themselves to The Lord God of Israel, and if they did that, God would fight for them. And they saw that with victory over the Philistines, so much so that the Philistines left Israel alone as long as Samuel was there. Wasn good enough that Samuel would lead them in that capacity because Samuel was a warrior. Having God fight the battle just wasn't good enough.

We need a king to fight our battles. Can you imagine that? Having witnessed the miracle working of God among the people, they still wanted a flesh and blood king to rule over them and fight their battles. Wow. Samuel's listening to all this. So you move from the request to the response. What does it say? But the thing was displeasing, verse 6, in the sight of Samuel. When they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed to the Lord. Isn't that good? They wanted an answer right away, he wasn't going to give it to them.

He prayed. That's what Seam did. When his mom found herself between a rock and a hard place. With a husband who didn't love her nearly as much as he loved Panina, although he said he did. With Panina, the other wife, who would ridicule her and mock her constantly. She prayed. She went to the Lord. She would cast her burden upon the Lord. And God did great things. And Samuel would learn from his mother on how to pray, and he was a man of prayer. Later on, in Samuel, we see that he just prays all night.

He's a man who wants to commune with his God. So, what does he do? He prays. Why? He needs direction, he needs perspective on the situation. He needs power in the situation. He needs peace in the situation. So what's he going to? How he gonna get all that? Got pray. G go to the Lord. That's exactly what he does, because he has to be able to make a decision. He is the judge over Israel. He is the spiritual leader in Israel. So, what's he going to do? But do what he always does. And go to the Lord in prayer.

And so that's exactly what He does. The elders wanted an answer now. They weren't going to get it because Samuel had to commune with his father in heaven. He knew. That when Israel came to Aaron, they said, Make us, make us a God. And Aaron obliged them. So, when Israel now comes and says, make us a king, he knows better than to oblige them. He knows he needs to go to the Lord. That's what he does. He begins to pray because he needs perspective. And the answer he gets is not what he expected. God tells him three times: listen to the voice.

Of the people. Satan's going to be thinking, Are you hearing me right, Lord? Do you understand what I'm telling you? Did you not hear what they said? You, as the king, is not good enough for them. They want an earthly king to rule over them. You fighting their battles is not good enough. They want a king to fight their battles. Lord, they're saying you're insufficient. Lord, they're saying you can't do it. Lord, they're calling me too old. Lord, they're rejecting me. And I've been appointed and called by you.

And God gives him assurance, doesn't he? Ah, it not about you, Samuel. They're not rejecting you, they're rejecting me. They're rejecting me. They don't want me to rule over them, Samuel. This is not about you and your judgeship. It's not you and your character. It's not even about you and your age. It's about me as their king. They rejected me as their king. So Samuel needed pers. And the only way to get perspective is to go to the God who sees everything. Before it happens, when it happens, and after it happens.

We don't have that perspective, do we? We only have what we see in front of us. We can't see the future. We know the past, but we don't know the future. God does. So we need perspective. We need to go to the Lord, ask him, Lord, what is going on here? What do I do? And God tells them three times: listen to the voice of the people. Not only does he need perspective, he needs power. He doesn't need power, listen, to protest the king. But he needs power to provide a king for Israel because he doesn't want to do that.

He knows it's not time. He knows that God's going to choose the king. He knows that God can't be manipulated by other people. So he's going to need power to provide a king for Israel. So he goes and he prays and asks the Lord for wisdom. And then He goes, A needs peace. He needs to be calm. Doesn't want to fly off with the handle. Doesn want to get upset. Doesn want to rattle anybody's cages. He just needs to have inner peace, tranquility. Well, how are you going to get that? By casting your burdens upon the Lord, right?

In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, we make our request known unto God. So that the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will be able to guard our hearts and minds. Samuel understood that. So he went to pray. How about you? When you face a difficult situation, a difficult decision. A crossroad. What do you do? You know, sometimes we want to depend upon our own intellect, our own ingenuity, to make a decision. Sometimes you got to take a deep breath, step back, and go to the Lord in prayer and say, Lord, what do I do?

What is my response here? How do I handle this? Where do I go? What do I do? And cry out to the Lord. Because I need perspective, I need power, and I need inner peace so I can make decisions the way God wants me to make decisions. I'm not to lean on my own understanding. I'm to acknowledge Him in all my ways. I am to trust in the Lord, and He will make my paths sm. Samuel needs a smooth path because right now it looks really, really rough. And so he prays and goes to the Lord. Then from the request to the response to the result.

You want a king? God says, tell him this is what's going to happen when you get a king. Okay, you tell him he's going to take your sons. He's going to take your daughters. He's going to take your servants. Now, in other words, he's going to split the family. He's going to take your sons. He's going to make them soldiers and warriors. He's going to put them in his fields. He's going to take them out of your fields, out of your home. Use them for himself. He's also going to take your daughters. He's going to need bakers.

He's going to need cooks. He's going to come in and take your daughters. He's going to Take your children away. And you might be thinking, that's okay. Didn't want him anyway. I got servants to do all my work. Nope. He's going to take your servants too: your servants, your sons, your daughters. On top of that, he's going to take your property. Because he's going to need it. On top of all that, he's going to tax you. Going to tax you. Under the judges, there was no tax. Who's going to tax you? And when it's all said and done, when your sons are gone, when your daughters are gone, when your servants are gone, when your property is gone, when you're being taxed, So much you have nothing left, you're going to cry.

Great sorrow. He says very clearly, you will cry out in that day because of your king. Whom you have chosen for yourself. Notice, you're not going to cry out if it's God's king, the one he chooses.

But you will cry out because it's your king, the one you chose. You see, sinful att and sinful behavior always bring sorrow. We don't think it's going to do that, but it always does. Great sadness, great pain. Satan's ploy and decept is to get you to think that your sin is going to bring you bliss, happiness, joy, satisfaction. Only to realize that once you engage in sinful behavior, while it might bring a pleasure of sin for a season, it eventually will always bring great sorrow and turmoil. Satan never shows you that.

When you're introduced to wine and you're introduced to alcohol, it looks really, really good. It tastes good. But Satan never shows you the guy on the streets in the gutter who's lost his job and lost his family and lost everything. Boy, when you win the lot, they're on TV and they got their big check there for $3.5 million. And look what they won! And boy, I can win that. But they don't show you all those people who have lost everything because they were unable to manage their money, they were undisciplined.

Satan doesn't show you those things. Then, once you see the heartache, just see the temporary joy, the temporary satisfaction that never lasts, because that's what appeals to us. We want it, we want it now.

We want a king, we want him now. We want him to fight for us. We want him to judge us. We want him to rule over us. That's what we want. You want it now.

So Sam tells them, You want a king? This is the result of the king you choose. When it's all said and done, you will be sorrowful. And that's exactly what happened. If they would have waited for God. To give of the tenth generation of Pere, which would be David, they would have had delightful David instead of sorrowful Saul. It didn't wait. It couldn't wait. Because he wanted it now.

And so Samuel tells them, You'll be so sad. But it gets worse than that. In the midst of your sadness, you're going to crowd to the Lord. And he will not hear you. Wow, that's worse. In the midst of my sadness, in the midst of my sorrow, I'm going to cry to the Lord. He's not going to respond. Remember what the Bible says in Psalm 18, verse number 40, 41, they cried for help.

But there was none to save, even to the Lord, but he did not answer them. It says in Psalm 81, verse 8, Hear, O my people, and I will admonish you, O Israel, listen to me. Listen to me. Let there be no strange God among you, nor shall you worship any foreign God. I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide. I will fill it. Wow. Is it getting better than that? But my people did not listen to my voice. Israel did not obey me. So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart to walk in their own devices.

Oh, that my people would listen to me. Oh, that Israel would walk in my ways. I would quickly subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their adversaries. I would feed you with the finest of wheat. And with the honey from the rock, I would satisfy you. But you would not listen.

God says, This is what I want to do for you. If you just listen to what I say, just do what I tell you to do. But Israel didn't do that. They never did. They wanted their own way. They wanted to do their own thing. And so he tells them. As he goes to the Lord, Lord, what do I do? I need perspective. God gives him perspective, does. Gives him the power to communicate the message. And he gives them an inner peace when he says, Look, this is where you're going to go. This is what's going to happen. You're going to cry to the Lord.

You're going to be so sad, so sorrowful. But he's not going to hear you. Not going to respond. Because you ch your king. You got what you wanted. And God says, There.

How do you like it now? How is your king working out for you now? See, that sounds kind of nasty that God would do that to people. No, God is a righteous God. He doesn't do anything sinfully or unrighteously. He does it from a holy heart that truly seeks to glorify his name. And so Samuel tells them, This is what's going to happen. These are the res. Now, here comes their refusal to listen.

Nevertheless The people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel. And they said, No! Really? No! But there shall be a king over us. At first it was appoint for us a king.

Now it's, oh no, there will be a king. I don't care what you say, Samuel. There will be a king over us. Defiance, dis. Defiant disobedience in the face of God. Isn't that amazing? How incredible is that? You know, we might not come out and say it that way, but there are certain things that we want. And we don't want to wait on God either. We're tired of waiting on God. And so we say, I want a husband now.

Okay, Lord, give me a husband. I want one now. I'm tired of waiting. So we marry the first guy who comes down the pike.

Or I want a wife now. I'm tired of waiting. Won't wait on God's best. Won't wait for what God has for us. But we demand that God come through now, in my time. Never looking for perspective, never looking for God to give us direction, just we want to be married, we want it now.

Or the guy who says, You know what? I'm tired of this job. I'm getting a new job. I'm taking that one over there. Did you ask the Lord? Did you seek his face? Did you truly go after the Lord and say, Lord, what do you have for me? Is this the right thing? Is this right for my family? Is this right for my children? Is this right for my wife? Do I just, what do I do, Lord? But we say, you know what? I want that job, and I'm going to take that job now.

We do this kind of stuff all the time. Without ever really truly waiting upon the Lord to give us direction. Now, maybe God wanted you to have that job, but it wasn't the right time. Maybe God wanted you to have a wife, but it wasn't the right time or the right woman. If you just wait, seek the Lord's face. He'll answer you. But we become so impatient. So they come back. Nevertheless, we're not listening to what you're saying. We know you're communicating what God said to you, but we really don't care about that.

We want a king, like all the other nations. We want a king that's going to fight for us. That's what we want. So God says these words: Listen to their voice.

And appoint them a king. Wow. Don't you think the Lord would come down and say, you know what, guys? I'm going to lay the hammer down right now.

But no. He gives them what they crave. Know what Hosea said about this? Hosea 13, I, God says, will be their king.

But you said, give me a k. So I gave them a king in mine anger and took him a in my wrath. Alexander McLare says this, granting to Israel the king whom they desired. Is but one instance of the law which is exemplified in God's dealing with nations and individuals, to which He lets them have their own way that they may be filled with their own devices. Such experience is the best teacher. Though her school fees are high, the surest way to discuss man With his own folly is to let it work out its own res.

That's what God did. He left them to their own devices. The psalmist in Psalm 106 said it this way: He said He gave them their re, but he sent a wasting disease to their souls. He gave them their desire, but sent a barrenness to their souls. Isn't that sad? That God, in his judgment, will give you what you want. So that your soul will be so dry, so barren. So lifel, so dark and dry. That you'll have to cry out to him. Maybe that's where you're at today. I do not know. I would hope not. Where God would give you the desire of your heart, but send a great barrenness and leanness to your soul.

Israel, in the Psalm in Psalm 106, God kept saving them. Saving them, and they would forget his works and forget his ways, and they'd go off into sin, and he'd save them again. It's just a repeated theme of Psalm 106. It says in verse 13, they quickly forgot his works, they did not wait for his counsel, but craved intensely in the wilderness, tempted God in the desert. So? He gave them their request. And in giving their request to them, their souls became so barren, so dry, so lifeless. That's a horrible place to be.

I don't want to be there. I would hope you don't want to be there either. But this is where Israel is. Samuel, way too old. We got to move on. It's time for young blood. It's time for a king to rule over us, to fight our battles, to judge us. Well, if you get a king, he's going to take your sons, your daughters, your slaves, your property. He's going to tax you so much. It's going to cause you to weep and cry. When you do, God's not going to respond. Not going to respond. Who cares? We want a king, we just want a king.

We want it now. They don't want to contemplate the effects. They don't sit back and think, wow, you know what? Maybe this isn't the best decision. No? They're steadfast in their ways. So God says, okay.

Samuel, give them what they want. Give them a king, the king of their choosing. And I will take him away in my wrath. That's exactly what he did. And the rest of Samuel is about. Saul, his kingship, and the heartache he brings to a nation. Until one day. There's young David. And Samuel anoints David as king of Israel. Because that was God's choice. They were not willing to wait. They were too impatient. And while they were impatient, they experienced all kinds of heartache. My prayer for you and for me is that that would not be us.

There are so many lessons we can learn from this that will help us walk with Christ and honor Him, and I would trust that's you tonight. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. It is so true, so real, so li, so right. Our prayer, Father, is for those in the room tonight who might be experiencing leanness and bare of soul because you gave them their des. And yet they're dry. May today be the day they turn to you as king. Repent of their ways and truly seek to follow your voice. May each of us be like Samuel.

Going to you in prayer at those crossroads of life that we might be able to seek your will, gain perspective, the power we need to accomplish your will. And our prayer, Father, is that you would take your word, embed it deep in our hearts and minds, that the things we learn tonight will enable us to live for you tomorrow. In Jesus' name, amen.