Samuel was a prophet and a judge in Israel. He was well loved and respected. He served the people faithfully and through his leadership they did well. However as he got older the people he led came to him with a request.

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.” 1 Samuel 8:5

This might seem like a reasonable request on the surface but Samuel wasn’t happy about this at all. We see that their request was actually a rejection of God. God was their King and by asking for a king at this time and in this way was actually sinful.

So Samuel, under the Lord’s instruction begins to list all the things that will happen to them if a king begins to reign over them in this way. He tells them that;

• He will take their sons and make them serve – he lists ways that this will happen
• He will take their daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers
• He will take the best of their fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants.
• He will take a tenth of their grain and of their vintage and give it to his officials and attendants.
• Their male and female servants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use.
• He will take a tenth of their flocks
• They will become his slaves.

He then tells them when that day comes, they will cry out for relief from the king they have chosen, but the LORD will not answer them in that day. I’m not sure about you but these list of reasons would have caused me to at least review my decision. But we hear that it didn’t have much affect on the Israelites;

But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.” 1 Samuel 8:19-20

Its incredible to ‘see‘ how blind they are being on this. They have their gaze so fixed on having their own king that they can’t even see the challenges that he will bring to them. They have forgotten that God called them out from all people so they could be His chosen people. Thir desire is not to be different but the same as everyone else. This is a classic moment of a short term gain that will cause long term pain for them.

As we read through the Bible we find out how destructive this decision was. It is this monarchy which ends up landing them in captivity in Babylon generations later. While some of the kings who ruled were good and brought abundance the trend line was not up and to the right.

How can we ensure or perhaps insure ourselves against blindness in our own lives? How, when we can feel so convinced about something, can we be objective enough to see the full picture? What might this look like in our lives? How do we see far enough ahead that we don’t make short sighted mistakes?

Quickly, I think the key is obedience to Gods voice and His word. If we put Him first he will direct us. He sees all time, the big picture, He is able. Alongside that we have the gift of the discernment of others who are holding him first in their own lives. When those things find alignment in our lives our chances of moving off track in our decision making greatly reduces.

Lord help us!