Episode 887 Do You Want A King
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 887 of the inspired stewardship podcast.
[00:00:07] Rob Berger: [00:00:07] I'm Rob Berger, author of retire before mom and dad. I encourage you to find your own journey to true financial freedom. And one way to be inspired to do that is by listening to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Maderer.
[00:00:24] Scott Maderer: [00:00:24] and I would say that's true for all of us. A lot of times we see something like maybe we're struggling in our job and we want massive change. We want something to change in our life in a dramatic way to uproot it and to change it. Maybe we're struggling in our relationship. And so we began to look around for the better thing.
[00:00:44] Maybe we're struggling. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your [00:01:00] treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast school. Learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence.
[00:01:09] So that you can impact the work
[00:01:13]And today's spiritual foundation episode about developing your influence. I talk with you about the passage from first Samuel chapter eight, verses four through 20 and chapter 11, verses 14 and 15. I share why sometimes we want a radical change, but don't realize that's just going to come with another set of problems.
[00:01:35] And I also share why sometimes we get what we deserve when we get what we want. This passage from first Samuel chapter eight comes in the lectionary for this Sunday. And it resonated with me when I read it. So it starts like this and chapter eight, verse four, then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, you are old and your [00:02:00] sons do not follow in your ways.
[00:02:01] A point for us then a king to governess, like other nations. But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, give us a king to us, Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, listen to the voice of the people and all that they say to you for, they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them, just as they have done to me from the day I brought them up out of Egypt to this day for staking, me and serving other gods.
[00:02:28] So also they are doing to you. Now then listen to their voice. Only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them. So Samuel reported all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. He said, these will be the ways of the king, who will reign over you.
[00:02:49] He will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be as horsemen and to run before his chariots. And he will point for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to [00:03:00] plow his ground and to reap his harvest and to make his implements of war and the equipment of its chariots.
[00:03:05] He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will then take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his core. GA's he will take one 10th of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers. Enter is . He will take your male and female slaves and the best of your cattle and donkeys and put them to his work.
[00:03:28] He will take one 10th of your flocks and you shall be his slaves. And in that day, you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves. But the Lord will not answer you in that day, but the people refuse to listen to the voice of Samuel. They said no, but we are determined to have a king over us so that we may also be like other nations and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles.
[00:03:55] Samuel said to the people come let us go to Guild gal and they're renewed the king [00:04:00] ship. So all the people went to Gil gal and they made Saul king before the Lord and Gil gal there, they sacrificed offerings of wellbeing before the Lord. And there are Saul and all the Israelites rejoiced greatly. I think it's interesting because in this passage we see an example of the Israelite people who at this time were not ruled by a king.
[00:04:23] They were more of a tribal society. They were more of a group of like-minded people that had banded together. And in fact, they were surrounded by king led. Areas. They were surrounded by Egypt and by Mesopotamia, the Babylonians and others who were led by Kings. And you can hear in this, maybe a little bit of jealousy when they're looking at it and getting going, our system is not working.
[00:04:52] In fact, they had been ruled over by most of these kingdoms that were around them, but at this point in [00:05:00] history, things were happening a little differently. These kingdoms were no longer influencing them as much because they were dealing with their own problems. And as that happened, it created an opportunity.
[00:05:11] For them to appoint a king over themselves for them to lead from within themselves. We moved from the period of judges, which were these charismatic leaders into the period of Kings. And yet Samuel here is warning them that, you might not want to get what you're asking for. There might be some things that come along.
[00:05:37] With getting a king over you that maybe you won't be quite as happy about. You might get your sons and your daughters being ruled over in a way that you aren't happy about. There might be some baggage that comes along with this and another set of problems that yes, maybe you will have [00:06:00] somebody to fight your wars, but they're going to do it.
[00:06:02] By taking your sons into battle. Maybe you're going to have somebody that helps your kingdom begin to get more efficient, but they're going to do it by seizing some of the property and taking control over it. Know there's a possibility that some of the people that they're talking to are people that are going to benefit from this change, but it doesn't matter.
[00:06:25] Samuel's warning them. There's going to be some downsides that you probably can't even see yet. And I would say that's true for all of us. A lot of times we see something like maybe we're struggling in our job and we want massive change. We want something to change in our life in a dramatic way to uproot it and to change it.
[00:06:47] Maybe we're struggling in our relationship. And so we began to look around for the better thing. Maybe we're struggling somewhere else in our life with our finances. Or our mindset, and we want something to come along and [00:07:00] create a drastic change. We want something to uproot our life and be appointed as a king in our life.
[00:07:07] But the problem is that usually as we do that new problems come with that, not the same problems maybe, but new ones often at their root though, they are even the same problems because the problems just like in this passage, aren't really about the king. There are about the people. The people are going to have a problem because they've been choosing to not do what they were called to do.
[00:07:34] And the same thing happens to us. We bring our own self with us into the new situation. And if we were part of the problem, we create the same problem all over again. The truth is sometimes when we get what we want. We get what we deserve. And we ended up getting a problem that we brought with us that we created ourselves in the situation.
[00:07:59] Does it [00:08:00] actually get better? In fact, I would say that happens way more often than we might like. And that's something that I think for all of us, we need to consider when we're looking to change, we need to think is this that we need a king. And if so, are we choosing the right king or is this something where we need to look within ourselves and our relationship with God, with ourselves and with others, and really uproot the true problems so that we can turn our attention to what we are being called to do by God and respond bond in that way.
[00:08:42] Thanks for listening.
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