The Deadly Dangers of Being Like Everyone Else

So the Philistines were subdued and they did not come anymore within the border of Israel. And the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.  The cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron even to Gath; and Israel delivered their territory from the hand of the Philistines. So there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.  Now Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. (1 Samuel 7:13-15 NASB

Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah; and they said to him, "Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations." (1 Samuel 8:4-5 NASB)

Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, "No, but there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles." (1 Samuel 8"19-20 NASB)

The reasons the people asked for a king are interesting. First they say they want a king so they can be like the other nations, and because Samuel's sons don't walk in his ways.  It's true, his sons don't.  But the comment from chapter 7 says that Samuel was still judging Israel, so a new judge can be found.

The second reason, after Samuel has warned them what it will be like for them under a king, is that they want a king to be like the other nations, and to go out before them to fight their battles.  The problem here is that the Philistines have been subdued, and remained so during Samuel's life.  In fact, under Samuel, the people recovered cities taken by the Philistines under Samuel.  So this "battle chief" reason doesn't really work either.

The only consistent reason is that they want to be like all the other nations.  Unfortunately, they get their wish in spades.  Samuel lines out for them what life under a king will be like, but even he paints a rosier picture than what actually happens.  The kings of Israel are corrupt, and pagan.  They are so much like the nations around them that it's a good chance that the latter kings of Israel in Samaria weren't even Israelites. 

This goes way beyond, "Be careful what you wish for."  This signals the destruction of the people of Israel on a very fundamental level.  On the other hand, at the beginning of the monarchy, the people are more consistently unified than they had ever been, even entering the land under Joshua.  That unity lasts through the first three kings and blows apart with the fourth.  Actually, for Israel as "the people of God", it was all down hill from king number three.

So, when do I "want to be like all the other nations"?  When do I look around me and wonder what it would be like to have that, or go there, or achieve this or that?  What if I had the money they have, or went on vacations where they went with the stuff they take?  What if I worked my job like they do or viewed what I do with the same mentality?  I too could be a big shot, have boats, big expandable motor homes, larger houses, monstrous debt, lose my family, destroy my marriage, and "vaguely remember" what church was like. Yeah, I could do that.

I probably won't though.  The reasons are varied, and only partly make me look good.  I have other ways that I wind up choosing to be like "the all the other nations."  When I choose vacations over worship, I'm a lot like the other nations.  When I choose a church based on what it does for me, I'm a lot like the other nations.  When I read Scripture and pray a list of wants to my Master off a routine checklist, then I'm a lot like other nations.  Whenever I begin to marginalize my relationship to my Master, putting His things into boxes of the same size as other personal and family activities, then I'm a lot like the other nations.

I don't do a lot of these things, but I do some.  There are other things I could put on the list, some of which I struggle with, some I see in others.  The reality is that it is just as easy for me to choose to be like the other people around me as it was for the Israelites, and often it's even easier.  I didn't even touch on how worship sometimes flows from what we see in the world, whether concerts, performers, TV shows, or even other churches.  Whenever it stops being about my Master and me bowing before His throne, I've chosen to be like the all the other nations.

So, today, I will choose to pray listening for His word.  I will seek to honor Him at work; to make Him and His church the priority it should be, focus on my family and their spiritual health, as He wants me to; and look forward to, again, bowing before the throne of my Master with my fellow followers of Jesus.