Like everybody else

Now it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. But his sons did not walk in his ways; they turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice. Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, “Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.”. – 1 Samuel 8.1-5

Even Samuel had problems with his sons. Joel and Abijah were to be the judges after Samuel when he got old.

It is kind of hard to blame them really. Good leaders have been few and far between since the days of the judges. They figured they had a plan that had to be better than God's.

I am going to look at the king notion in a couple of days, but I want to look at one phrase today – ‘give us a king…like all the other nations.’

We want to be like everyone else. It starts as children. ‘Can I go to this or that?’ Parent responds: ‘no, not this time.’ And what is the first response? ‘Why not, everyone else is going.’

But that becomes a way of life. We want what everyone else has or we want to do what they do. Most of us have a ‘it's not fair’ attitude when others have what we don’t have and that is how Israel is here.

Discontent is a horrible thing. Israel thought they had it figured out. God’s judges were working out so they thought ‘everyone else has a king, that must be the way to go.’

But it wasn’t God’s plan. We'll see more later.

Let’s be guided by God’s way and not what everyone else has or doesn’t have – His way is best.