9A Worship - Be Careful What You Ask For

My mother always told me when I was a little boy, "Be careful what you ask for." I didn't think much about it. Mostly, I just thought that if I asked for the wrong thing, I would get in trouble. The saying is really, "Be careful what you wish for, lest it come true!" Actually, the origin of that saying is Aesop's Fables from around 260 BC.

Have you ever made a wish and got what you wanted, only to find the reality did not match your expectation? Or somehow it didn't fulfill you in the way you thought it would? The Israelites were about to learn this first hand.  They had internal problems because they were still just a loose confederation of tribes and not a nation. They had external danger from attacks by the Ammonites with no unity to fight back. And they had leadership decay because Samuel was old and his sons were dishonest, greedy and taking bribes. So they asked Samuel for a king "like the other nations have." There wasn't necessarily anything wrong with asking for a king. God had told Israel earlier that one day He would give them a King. What was wrong was the reason. They wanted a king like the other nations. They were looking at the world, not God, for their guidance.   In this chapter, we learn a lesson in praying because Israel asks for something against God's will, and God actually says yes! That's a scary thought, and one we need to take to heart as we consider our own requests before God.

In His service,

Dennis Whitcher