I Samuel 8:11
“He said, “This will be the procedure of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and place them for himself in his chariots and among his horsemen and they will run before his chariots”.
The people had asked for a king. They tired of being lead by the Lord’s prophets. Today’s verse is part of the description of the negatives of having a king. They may lose children to the kings service, they will be taxed ten percent, they may lose a portion of their fields, and so on.
God described this request as “rejecting Him”, (verse 7). It was something that they were demanding. They were granted their request. We need to be careful what we wish for. Through stubborn resistance, we may get it. In this case, their salaries were cut, their land was minimized and some of their children were drafted.
Sometimes we do things unto our own hurt. Proverbs 16:25 says, “There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.” This is why we need to be flexible. We are short sighted. God has the long view and knows us much better than we know ourselves. His ways are better than ours.
We need to adopt the words of Jesus, “not my will, but thine be done”. This doesn’t mean we don’t have our part. Proverbs 16:9 says, “The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.” We do our dreaming, planning and execution of those plans. However, we are to be flexible to God in the process. James 4:13-15 describes it this way, ‘Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit. Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”‘
Lord, thank You for the partnership that is played in our daily lives. Thank You for Your wisdom and love. Help us to yield to You.