{"id":6304,"date":"2015-02-05T00:05:42","date_gmt":"2015-02-05T08:05:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=6304"},"modified":"2015-02-04T23:18:26","modified_gmt":"2015-02-05T07:18:26","slug":"your-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2015\/02\/05\/your-choice\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Choice"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons to be judges over Israel. Joel and Abijah, his oldest sons, held court in Beersheba. But they were not like their father, for they were greedy for money. They accepted bribes and perverted justice.<\/p>\n

Finally, all the elders of Israel met at Ramah to discuss the matter with Samuel. \u201cLook,\u201d they told him, \u201cyou are now old, and your sons are not like you. Give us a king to judge us like all the other nations have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Samuel was displeased with their request and went to the LORD for guidance. \u201cDo everything they say to you,\u201d the LORD replied, \u201cfor it is me they are rejecting, not you. They don\u2019t want me to be their king any longer. Ever since I brought them from Egypt they have continually abandoned me and followed other gods. And now they are giving you the same treatment. Do as they ask, but solemnly warn them about the way a king will reign over them.\u201d<\/p>\n

So Samuel passed on the LORD\u2019s warning to the people who were asking him for a king. (1 Samuel 8:1-10)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

God has no grandkids. You can\u2019t pass on your relationship with God to your children. Just because you were a good Christian, just because you had a good relationship with God, doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that your kids will, too. They have to forge their own relationship. Conversely, just because your parents were missionaries, just because they were faithful church goers, just because they gave a fortune to the church, doesn\u2019t mean that you\u2019ll receive a get out of jail free card. God isn\u2019t into nepotism. Each person stands before God alone; each person must live their own lives, develop their own relationship with God. You can\u2019t depend on someone else and get by on account of what they did. There\u2019s no spilling over, no coattails. You get elected on your own\u2014or not.<\/p>\n

Samuel had been raised by Eli, whose children had been corrupt and evil. Samuel did not have a good role model in Eli on how to raise children, and sadly, Samuel\u2019s children turned out much as Eli\u2019s had. The people of Israel had no complaint with Samuel, but Samuel\u2019s children were clearly never going to be the spiritual leaders that he was. They could not become the next set of judges. And so they asked that Samuel would find someone to become king for them instead.<\/p>\n

Samuel was reluctant and God warned them that a king would not fix things. After all, a monarchy is hereditary; the king\u2019s children would take his place when he died. And if Samuel, as good as he was, produced children that they didn\u2019t want ruling over them, what really made them think that getting a king, however good he might be, would solve that fundamental problem?<\/p>\n

God compared their request for a new king with their continual problem with idolatry. Why? Because they kept looking to someone other than God to lead them and to fix their problems. They weren\u2019t willing to follow God at all, and so Samuel wasn\u2019t being rejected, even though their words had hurt him and made him think that maybe they thought his life had not been worthwhile. It was God who was being rejected. It wasn\u2019t about Samuel at all. God can use people to solve problems. The mistake comes in thinking that people can take the place of God altogether.<\/p>\n

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As Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons to be judges over Israel. Joel and Abijah, his oldest sons, held court in Beersheba. But they were not like their father, for they were greedy for money. They accepted bribes and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6304"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6304"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6307,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6304\/revisions\/6307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}