Reflection
Read the entire chapter of 1 Samuel 8
Discussion
Have you ever felt envious? Envy is defined as:
a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else’s possessions, qualities, or luck.
Israel envied other nations. God’s intent was to rule in a theocracy where He would be their King and they would be His people. There was not need for a human king, a voting body, or any of the other trappings of human government. Instead, Israel rebelled and demanded a human king.
1 Samuel 8 is God turning them over to their desires and a warning of the trouble that will come from that. We live in the consequences of that move today with faulty human governments ruling every corner of our divided planet.
Israel found themselves under one foreign power after another. At the birth of Christ they had an immediate local ruler, Herod the Great and a greater global ruler: the Roman Empire. Neither of them favored Jesus the Messiah and neither of them honored God in word or in deed.
We see the very real illustration here of the relationship between a holy God and a sinful human race. As we push away from God and into sin more, He will turn us more and more over to those desires – leading to a greater and greater separation from Him and His holy plan.
What then can we do to return?
Connection
Read 2 Chronicles chapter 2
What does this tell us of man’s responsibility to repent and turn back to God?
What does this also tell us of God’s willingness to bring us back to His goodness?
What in your life has caused a separation between you and your God?
What do you need to ask God to forgive in your life right now?
Expansion
God the Father has eternally existed in the past and will eternally exist forever in the future. He alone is the sovereign creator and supreme ruler of everything. He is unchanging, omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient and entirely holy in every capacity.
Genesis 1:1, Exodus 3:14, Genesis 1:26-27, Isaiah 40:28, Romans 11:36, Malachi 3:6-7, James 1:17-18, 1 Kings 8:27, Jeremiah 23:23-24, Hebrews 13:5, Matthew 28:18-20, Job 9:19, Revelation 19:6, Luke 1:37, Isaiah 40:28, Isaiah 40:13-14, Psalm 147:5, 1 Timothy 1:17, Jude 1:25, Romans 11:33-34, Romans 16:27, Isaiah 6:3, Revelation 4:8, Psalm 111:9