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1st Samuel chapter 8.
Samuel has an encounter with the nation of Israel. They want to be led by a king. They want to be like all the other nations. What they don't realize is that the more they pursue to be like the other nations, the more they will be pursuing a life without God. God warns that such pursuit will result with horrible and evil consequences.
This chapter reminds me of James 4:4-5 where it says that friendship with this world makes one an enemy of God.
It's a dangerous life to strive to live like the world. It's easy. Just become a conformist. Do whatever everyone else is doing. There's less opposition. You make more friends by being a conformist to this world and living by their beliefs and their interpretation of Truth. But the end result is spending eternity away from God in hell.
Living a life to please God means becoming a rebel. You go against what the world preaches as truth. You live by God's standards which means you face opposition. You have less earthly friends. You are persecuted. But to stand up for God's TRUTH/God's Word means going against any or everything that opposes God's truth or God's word.
You believe that Jesus is the way the truth and the life and that no one gets to God the Father in heaven except through Jesus (John 14:6).
Mark 8:35 To live for this world is to die in hell forever. To live for Jesus on this Earth, even if it means giving up our lives on this Earth, means living with God in heaven forever.
- What are we hanging onto in this world that we need to let go of?
- How would our life be different if we chose today to live 100% for the Lord and please him 100% versus trying to live for this world and please those around us?
Once again in verse 3 we see that the children did not choose to go the same way as their father. We saw something similar earlier with Eli’s sons in 1 Samuel. We also saw this in other places on our journey through the Bible such as Judges 2:10 after Joshua died.
“And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.”
How heart-breaking to see the next generation choose to turn away from the Lord. It is our responsibility to share God’s love and truth with our family and others around us. I’m reminded of Deuteronomy 6:4-9. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”