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And they (all the elders of Israel) said to him (Samuel), “Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations.”
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Today’s verse gives evidence of the natural tendency to think and act just like the world around us—like all the nations! It surely has been so since Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden! And that is the reason that we have been commanded to have the same mind in you and I which was in Christ Jesus. {Php.2:5} We have to think differently and to be different.

Jesus who is our Lord, King, Master and Teacher, does not make suggestions by the way, He speaks life-giving commands that are the path to joy! Just as Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” {Jn.15:11} So, the command from the beginning was that we are to ‘hear and obey’—shama’ שמע in Hebrew. If you do not, you will be just like the world.

And that is just what the people of God wanted, to be like all the nations—to be just like the world! That is exactly what they asked of the prophet Samuel as you see in today’s verse. They wanted the politics of the world, a king like the world, rejecting God as King over them, because their hearts had become like the world’s! Just as Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other.” {Mat.6:24}

It was true then, and it is true today! And regardless if you are in the United States, Britain, Russia, China, Israel or any other nation on earth, the fact is that it is God who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings. {Dan.2:21} The apostle Paul wrote that every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. He said there is no authority except from God. {Rom. 13:1} Bear in mind that Daniel wrote those words in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, a tyrant, and Paul wrote that wonderful letter to the church in Rome during the reign of Nero who lit the night sky in Rome by burning Christians!

The Lord God, whose ways are not our ways, is in control. The Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind, and bestows authority and power on whom He wishes. {Dan.4:17} So, even here in the United States (or and any other country for that matter) it is still God who will decide who will be the next president, senator, congressman or dog-catcher. And He does not always pick the ‘nice guys’.

In spite of the fact that the founding document of the United States, the Declaration of Independence says that governments derive their power from the consent of the governed, it is God who is at work both too will and to work for His purpose {Php.2:13} and chooses who will rule! Authority flows from the top down, not from the bottom up!

It should be clear to us all that the single most important event in mankind’s history since the fall of man was when Jesus was placed on trial for our sins, condemned beaten and crucified. It was a matter of who ruled, who was in charge. And the Lord made that clear in His Word: Christ Jesus, testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate. {1Tim.6:13} As always, God was in control!

“Pilate therefore said to Him, “You do not speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You?” Jesus answered, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above” (John 19:10-11)

GOD IS IN CONROL AND WORKING HIS PLAN