I Samuel 8…

 

And the Lord said to Samuel, "Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.-- 1 Samuel 8:7


Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, "No, but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.--1 Samuel 8:19-20

These are some sad words we find in 1 Samuel 8...so much like ours today.  It was God's desire to rule over his people.  The children of Israel rejected His rule and forfeited the blessings of both His rule and His kingdom.  When we reject God's rule, we are doomed to be ruled by men.  God had told the people what it would be like to have a king...describing a huge government bureaucracy that someone (the King's subjects) would have to pay for.  Taxation would increase and they would see less and less of the fruits of their labors. 

After hearing all these warnings the people "nevertheless" wanted a king anyway.  They were willing to put themselves into bondage in order not to have God rule over them.  God let them have their way...this was and is never a good thing.

God still desires to reign in the hearts and lives of His children.  So many of us reject his offer and choose instead wells without water...things that are vain and do not profit.  We choose to NOT be set free from the penalty and power of sin and unbelievably live under the horrible bondage of all sorts of other masters, enduring pretty horrific consequences rather than be ruled by God.  Pride is not rational and sin makes us stupid.  The wages of sin is death,  but the gift of God is eternal life in His Son.  Take His free gift.  Allow Him to rule and reign in your heart.  He wants to bring you out of the darkness and into His marvelous light.  He has so much more for you and desires to do in your life exceedingly abundantly above all that  you could ask or think.  Ask Him right now to lift you up out of the miry clay...to deliver you from  bondage that you are in and set your feet upon the rock that is Christ. 

Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.--Hebrews 2:14-15