Be Careful What You Wish For

Today I had the privilege of leading Bible Study. The chapter, as it always does, presented an interesting opportunity to reflect on the larger principles that apply to our lives.

Today's text came from 1 Samuel 8. In the chapter, Samuel, the prophet, tries to pass the power down to his sons as he gets older. His sons, in turn, fall prey to wickedness and corruption, leading to an outcry from the people. This is a repeat of the pattern earlier, with Eli and his sons. There, God moved to replace the house of Eli with Samuel. Likely the same pattern would have followed with Samuel's descendants, but the people of Israel didn't let it get that far.

The people cried out for a king to lead them, a king just like all the other nations. This grieved Samuel as it went against the plan of the Lord. He turned to God in prayer. God, too, was grieved, as the people were not rejecting Samuel's leadership, but rather God's leadership as their king. Despite that, he told Samuel to give the people what they want, warning them of the consequences.

Samuel tries one last ditch effort to get the people to realize the mistake they're making, but it's no use. They still cry out for a king, and God gives them what they want. It's kind of a downer, but it has a couple great practical applications for our lives today.

First is the fact that we can’t control or convince others to do the right thing, try as we might. It is their choice. Samuel is obviously a great, godly man. But twice in this passage we see that his example and pleas are not enough to change the hearts, minds, and actions of others around him, including his own family. The chapter starts with Samuel’s own sons being corrupt as they follow him in leadership. And the passage ends with Samuel unable to convince the people they are following the wrong path. Samuel’s example holds true for us as well. It is a frustrating truth, but we can’t control others, we can only control our own thoughts, actions, and responses. The best we can do, like Samuel, is to try and follow God’s path, be the best example of our faith we can be, and pray that others will choose to do likewise. That’s hard, especially when we think about our families. But we can’t totally understand God’s plan for the world, so we have to have faith that He is in control.

Second, what we think we want isn’t necessarily what we want or need. That is certainly true here. The people of Israel were lured by the appeal of the things of the world. It caused them to reject God’s plan. Though God gave them what they asked for, it’s hard to imagine it’s what they really wanted. Consider the line of kings they got. It started with Saul, as you’ll see in the next chapter. He was OK for a while, but that didn’t work out great. But then the people get David, who was a great king, and his son, Solomon, who was OK. After that, it’s pretty hit or miss. In sum, it wasn’t much of an improvement over the system they had before kings. But the big difference is, after rejecting the Lord’s kingship, the people had to live with the consequences of their decisions.

Matthew Henry put it this way, “Those that submit to the government of the world and the flesh, are told plainly, what hard masters they are, and what tyranny the dominion of sin is. The law of God and the manner of men widely differ from each other; the former should be our rule in the several relations of life; the latter should be the measure of our expectations from others. These would be their grievances, and, when they complained to God, He would not hear them. When we bring ourselves into distress by our own wrong desires and projects, we justly forfeit the comfort of prayer and the benefit of divine aid.” The people rejected God. They were warned of what would happen if they were granted what they asked for but they persisted in the request. As we will see throughout the rest of the study of this passage, you have to be careful what you wish for.