1 Samuel 8

When there are problems in the things of the church, some think that having the right person or persons in charge would solve the problems.

People often see what other religious groups do and want what others have. As we read 1 Samuel chapter 8, we find that the people of God, who are already guided by Him through His word and blessed with the manifestation of his power, are looking to the people of the world and coveting the guidance that they had from their kings.

They seem completely blind to the fact that God had provided the best for His people. The fact that they had no human king was not a deficiency, but rather a blessing. Samuel told the people about the disadvantages of the human dominance, but even that did not dissuade them from making this change from dependence on God to depending upon human leadership.

The people wanted something they thought would be better. Some have the tendency to think that they have a better idea than the plan that God has revealed in his word. They trust more in their power to think it out by themselves than they trust in what God has already told them in His word.

To desire human leadership is to reject God’s authority. When men choose men’s leadership instead of God’s, they reject God’s leadership to their own hurt. Verses 7-8 of this chapter says the following:

7 And Jehovah said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee; for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not be king over them. 8 According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, in that they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto you.

PERSONAL APPLICATION

Do you look to man or God for leadership?

Do you feel uncomfortable in the congregation if there is not someone “in charge?”

Do you study the word for yourself and work to understand what it says, or do you depend on others to tell you what to think about God’s word?

Do you wait for others to tell you what to do in God’s work, and blame others when it doesn’t work?

Do you give man the praise when the church grows?

Do you blame certain people (preacher, elders, etc.) when the church does not grow and things do not go well? Do you keep on changing preachers, hoping to get the right one? Or do you realize that the church is a body, and that it depends upon the part that each one does to take God’s message to those who need it.

Do you make the serious mistake of looking at religious groups around you in the world who are using methods that God never approved and lament that the church is not as big and prosperous as they are and wish that the church of the Lord could have great “leaders” and progressive methods as they do?

Thus says Jehovah: Cursed is the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from Jehovah. Jeremiah 17:5