God Overcomes Our Poor Choices

“19  And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the LORD thy God, that we die not: for we have added unto all our sins this evil, to ask us a king. 20  And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not: ye have done all this wickedness: yet turn not aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart;” (1Sa 12:19-20 AV)

 

The people had asked the LORD for a king to lead them like all the heathen nations around them.  Samuel was chosen because Eli, his mentor, failed to raise his own family sufficiently to carry on his calling.  They abused the office of priest and fulfilled their own lusts by it.  Samuel was chosen and anointed to judge the nation of Israel.  However, Samuel also failed as a father to adequately raise his sons to carry on.  They, too, used their office as a means to profit thereby.  Now, faced with a new enemy in the Jebusites, Israel did not see a possibility for ethical leadership in the sons of Samuel.  What they had forgotten is if God could raise a man to replace Eli and his sons, surely He can raise another to replace the sons of Samuel.  They had lost patience with faith.  They wanted the predictable.  A king would do that.  The monarchy would pass from one generation to another. Once Saul was anointed by the wishes of God’s people and permission of God, Samuel rehearses in the ears of the people the abuse they would suffer at the hand of a king, how God had always raised up a godly man when the need arose, and their desire for a king was contrary to God’s will.  This caused Israel to believe God would destroy the nation.  They saw their choice to reject God’s plan for leadership as a choice with only one consequence: God’s judgment.  However, Samuel’s response on behalf of the LORD teaches us something different.

There are times when we make decisions we think are impossible to overcome.  We think the consequences will be unavoidable and devastating.  These decisions we know, or knew, were the wrong ones.  In fact, there may have been a leading of the Spirit to encourage us to make a different decision than we made.  The Spirit convicts our hearts of disobedience or weak faith.  We admit our guilt.  Then we muse the path of which we have chosen is one that cannot be reversed and that God is so displeased with us we are about to face His full wrath.  But that is not what happened with Israel  Samuel did remind them of God’s faithfulness and ability to overcome what they feared.  He reminds them of the history they have of making unwise decisions.  He then reminds them of God’s love for them.  Samuel states, “For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people.” (1Sa 12:22 AV)  Just because they chose not to trust the LORD, God still was by their side.  He is a God that can overcome our choices.  He does so all the time.

The adversary wants us to believe that a choice we make has thrown us over a point of no return.  That somehow, the choice we made cannot be overcome and the LORD can do nothing.  Or, will do nothing apart from judging us.  We think our life is unredeemable.  We think we have failed so much there is nothing God desires more than to put a quick end to our pitiful life.  Not so.  Our life is a growth process.  Growth means we make mistakes.  Growth means we fail to trust the LORD when we should.  Growth means we give in to the flesh when we shouldn’t.  Growth means we sometimes choose a different path than the one which the LORD had chosen for us.  When we do these things, the adversary wants us to believe there is nothing God can do with us.  This last wrong choice was the last choice which the LORD will tolerate.  Israel made the worst of all decisions.  They rejected their promised Messiah.  If there was a choice that would completely destroy a nation, it would be that one.  Yet, prophetically, we know the LORD will restore Israel and she will be reconciled to her King!  God loves us more than our mistakes.  He loves us with a greater love than our sin.  God loves us more than our lack of faith.  His patience is eternal.  The key is to learn from those errors and go on.  If we allow the Devil to convince us we are living under the constant judgment of God’s displeasure, we will never rise and walk again.