Who is worthy of worship?

 

1 Samuel 7–8; Psalms 20–21; Jeremiah 44; Romans 6

It is often said that history repeats itself. This comes out today as I read the above passages in sequence and then that scary quote. Maybe the daily news is affecting my vision, but these narratives draw me away from the news to a big picture of how the world is going.

In Samuel’s time, the people were tired of having a God-appointed judge govern them; they wanted a king. Samuel was not pleased, but to his credit, he prayed about it. God told him this:

“Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.” (1 Samuel 8:7–9)

Samuel then warned the people that a king would make their sons serve in his army, and both sons and daughter would be his servants. He would take their money and goods and use it to cover his expenses and no matter how hard they complained, the Lord would not answer them.

Sound familiar? We want a king, a prime minister, a president — so we are like all the nations and have someone to “judge us and go out before us and fight our battles” (verse 20) yet it is not long before we are complaining about the very person we elected.

Saul became king and Samuel’s predictions came true. Only when David took the throne did things change and that was because David was “a man after God’s own heart.” He relied on the Lord for wisdom and said:

“Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed; he will answer him from his holy heaven with the saving might of his right hand. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright.” (Psalm 20:6–8)

He did fight their battles and do the duties of a king but under the guidance of the King of heaven. If only that part of history would repeat itself!

Jeremiah tells how it does not. Despite the people saying they would obey God, they turned to idols. These days, idols are not wood or stone but money and even people — like those newly elected? Surely this person will rescue us from all our troubles . . . but God says NO. There is judgment for idolatry and back then Jeremiah said:

“The Lord could no longer bear your evil deeds and the abominations that you committed. Therefore your land has become a desolation and a waste and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is this day. It is because you made offerings and because you sinned against the Lord and did not obey the voice of the Lord or walk in his law and in his statutes and in his testimonies that this disaster has happened to you, as at this day.” (Jeremiah 44:22–23)

Do we look at the mess in today’s world like that? The people in Jeremiah’s day did not. They claimed life was good when they followed idols and disaster happened when they stopped, as if the idol controlled the good life and God didn’t want them to have it. Their thinking was perverted to the point that God could not be trusted at all, yet it was God who told them that following their idols would be their downfall, just as insisting on having a king was not a good idea. Their choices led them astray from trusting the Lord.

Eventually in this story the King of kings came yet He was rejected at first. Even after Jesus died for all our sin and rose again, some had the idea that continuing in sin was okay. Romans 6 addresses that question and more; it tell God’s people that we must also die to sin and rise to new life:

“ . . . . You also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law but under grace.” (Romans 6:10–14)

APPLY: This is good news, yet death to sin is the human battle that cannot be fought apart from trust in the One who gives life. History says it and the Word of God says it. I need Jesus to live well — just as our ‘kings’ need Him to govern well. May God help us see this is true and obey the only One worthy of our worship!