The True King

  Sometimes people are appointed as leaders, and then turn out not to be good at it.  We see this over and over in the Scriptures.  One example is that of Samuel's sons, Joel and Abijah.  Samuel was a good judge and prophet for Israel.  When he got up in years, he appointed his two sons to follow in his footsteps.  Unfortunately they accepted bribes and perverted justice (1 Samuel 8:1-3).
  So the Israelites, because they wanted to be like the other nations around them, asked Samuel for a king.  Knowing that the Lord alone was King of Israel, Samuel objected.  But God told him even though they were rejecting God as their King to go ahead and appoint a king for Israel.  So Samuel warned the people about what a human king would do to them:  draft their sons into armies and wage endless wars, conscript them to make weapons of war and to tend his fields; take their daughters to work for him; tax their fields and vineyards until eventually they all became slaves to the king and the kingdom (1 Samuel 8:10-18).  And so it came to be that Israel experienced a succession of human kings who did just what God had said.

  For reflection:  Who is king in my life?  Has anyone or anything enslaved me?
  Let us pray.  Father, I repent of not putting you first in my life.  I declare today that you are my king and you are above all else in my life.  I want to weed out all the other things I have allowed to crowd you off the throne.  I repent of and reject all addictions in my life, everything that separates me from you.  Please show me how to change my life.

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