Obsessed With Looking Good

# 105 – Today's Du-votional comes from 1Sa 8:19 Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, "No, but we will have a king over us, 20 that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles." (1 Sam 8:19,29) In spite of the warnings from God about the oppression that will come with the rule of kings, and in spite of the warning that He will not listen to their pleas for help when they find themselves suffering through this oppression, they insist on having a king. Their reasoning? First of all, they wanted to be like the world. Kings traveled in majesty, they rode horses, there was much pomp. Israel's rulers generally got around by walking or riding donkeys. They wanted pride over humility. Secondly they wanted a government that would settle their disputes, rather than taking it to a judge who followed God's guidelines and turned to God seeking His wisdom, they wanted to rely on a king and his earthly wisdom. I am reminded of Paul's admonition to the Corinthians in 1 Cor 6, he called it an “utter failure” on the part of the church when they went to “law against one another” to settle disputes that could and should be handled by the church. Finally, they wanted a king that would lead them into battle forgetting completely the history of God's victories over their enemies. “Oh if we only had a king, then we would” We would what? Look good in defeat? Yeah, that's a real good reason. Isn't that the bottom line in all this? The people just wanted to look good in accordance with the standards of the world. I wonder how much we are driven to do the same in our world today? We want ourselves and our churches to look good to the world and so we sacrifice God's truth. We go soft on sin. We have thrown church discipline out the window because it might make us look bad, and when we do that, we invite the world rather than God to determine what is right and what is wrong.