“And when ye saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, ye said unto me, Nay; but a king shall reign over us: when the LORD your God [was] your king.” (1Sa 12:12 AV)
There is something puzzling about this verse. According to Samuel, Israel didn’t choose a king until the nation believed Nahash the Ammonite was preparing to invade. Yet, Saul was anointed to be king prior to Nahash confronting Israel. How can this be? There are two possibilities here. Perhaps that until Israel called on Saul to act as king, they could have rescinded their decision to choose a king. In other words, up until this moment, Saul was king on paper only. After he was anointed, he returned to his flocks and herds. Only when there was a discernable threat did Saul truly become king. By acting as a king, he became the king. The other, and more plausible, possibility is that Israel saw Nahash as a threat prior to his invasion and decided Samuel could not lead them through the battle. In other words, they reacted to a potential threat by circumventing the means God provided, and decided to act in their own measure of prudence. One can imagine the reaction when Saul rescued them. It could have been a “We told You so, God” moment. Never mind that success by the hand of Saul was an extension of God’s grace. Who knows what would have happened to Nahash the Ammonite if Israel would not have chosen a king? After all, He opened up the earth once before.
This can manifest itself in so many areas of life. Preventative steps are wise to make. However, a preventative step may become greater than the risk we feared. The problem is, we simply do not know how God would have provided if we exercised a bit of faith and patience. Sitting and waiting on God is a hard thing to do. It is even harder if we can think up a way to solve it ourselves. Waiting for God to act means we are often pushed to the edge of our fears. Had Israel trusted the LORD with Samuel, the LORD would have provided another judge who could serve just as well. What they saw was a king who hated God come against them and the only solution was to meet king with king. A judge simply would not do. What they forgot was their King was the King of kings. The opportunity to glorify the LORD through a lowly judge was missed. Instead, they saw a potential threat and believed the only way to meet that threat was by the means they had devised. How sad. But we do this all the time.
In our young married life, we struggled with paying the bills. We robbed Peter to pay Paul, so to speak. We were pushed to the brink. There were a few days our house was without power. There were others when there was no food in the pantry. We made choices based on fear rather than on faith and paid a heavier price for it. I won’t fib. Trusting God is difficult. It is the essence of pleasing God. If we cannot trust Him, then we cannot please Him. That is what the writer of Hebrews tells us. But trusting God means we yield to His hand rather than or our own. The book of Proverbs tells us to “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” (Pr 3:5-6 AV) We quote these verses. But how well do we live them? Israel reacted. They chose a king. The evidence would suggest that they correct. At least on the face of it. However, we will never know how the LORD would have delivered them had then decided to trust rather than act.
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