1 Samuel 8:1-5
When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as Israel’s leaders. 2 The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second was Abijah, and they served at Beersheba. 3 But his sons did not follow his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice. 4 So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. 5 They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”
In our service yesterday, I mentioned a number of motives for God’s People wanting a king like the other nations. There was of course another one, right at the start of the passage. Getting on in years, Samuel had delegated the work of leading God’s people to his children, but unlike him, they weren’t faithful in their duties and were in it for personal gain. It appears that after Eli and his boys, history is repeating itself. You would have thought they’d have worked that out through the experience having had a number of bad leaders! Changing their leader’s title from Judge to King wasn’t going to make that much difference – humans are human after all! But one day God himself would come and lead his people as king…
Pray for our leaders today. They are fallible just like us – they will get somethings right and somethings wrong. Pray for wisdom, grace and courage for them as they lead, and that through God’s help they might reflect in someway the leadership of the only perfect human leader, Jesus himself.
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