The Rise and Fall of the First King of Israel (2)

An Israelite Impasse

This epic story requires no less than a proper backstory. I highly encourage you to take your own look at the old testament and how God works marvellously through the nation that He chose, Israel. I wish that I could spend all night telling you God’s redemptive story of Israel, buy for your guys sake, I will just give a brief summary to set up this story.

In the 8th Century BC, the entire nation of Israel was enslaved by the great Egyptians. God chooses a man named (Question here maybe) Moses to deliver the nation out of Egypt. Theres a whole great story there about a big sea being parted in half, maybe you’re familiar.

The Israelites then wandered in the wilderness for years and years hoping to find the land that God told them that He would give to them if they were obedient. But, they were not. The Israelites chose to reject God time after time despite all that He had done for them. Every single time anything slightly inconvenient came into play, they turned from God and turned to other God’s and idols.

During this season of wandering, God gave the Israelites 10 commandments and some other laws that the Israelites were supposed to follow in order for them to have a relationship with God. Because at this point, that was the only way for man and God to have a relationship.

One of the highest priority commands that God gave Israel was to be SET APART from all the other nations. They were supposed to be different. they were supposed to stand out. Why do you think God wanted Israel to be set apart or stand out?

The pagan nations were horrid. They did terrible things and practiced worship of little g Gods and idols. These guys were sacrificing their babies. Big deal. God wanted Israel to look like they followed The One and True God and people from other nations could see this and join in with God’s people. This is an important note. What did God want Israel to do?

Okay fast forward to when the Israelites finally make it into the promised land. You’d think that now, surely they would stop their whining and complaining and start to follow the Lord’s commandments and trust Him. Spoiler, they don’t.

Israels main arch nemesis were the Philistines. This pagan nation would constantly go at war with Israel. Now at this point, Israel was ruled by judges. A man named Samuel was the active prophet for Israel, meaning that God spoke to him and he would convey the message to the people. After a long enough time of the Philistines attacking Israel, they decided that they needed a king to rule over them to look to and help fight their military battles. Guess what the bible says the Israelites said, Check out 1 Samuel 8:19-20

1 Samuel 8:19–20 ESV

But the people refused to obey 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, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.”

Red flag of all red flags right there.