March 28

Israel wants a king.......Talk about full disclosure- here God tells them exactly what is going to happen if they have a king (other than Him). And, as God's Word always does, it all comes true as we will see later. Even their best Kings, David and /Solomon, will impose heavy taxes and make great demands on them for the kingdom. Israel knows exactly what it's getting into. The thing I thought was interesting is that it not because they are unhappy with the judges. It is because they 'want to be like all the other nations around them'. In other words, they are teenagers- want to be like everyone else! Actually, we are all guilty of wanting to be like everyone else, teenagers or not.

The other thing I found interesting was that here Saul was just walking around being an ordinary guy looking for a donkey and the next thing you know he is going to be king. Samuel annoints him and tells him that "the Spirit of the Lord will come on you with power.......and you will be changed into a different person". When the spirit of the Lord comes on us we can do things we never thought we could. In a lot of ways I don't 'recognise" the person I am today, but let me tell you, I like myself alot better than I ever have, now that I am letting God's spirti work on me (full disclosure-I'm a work in progress :)

What is it about cutting something or someone up and sending around the pieces? I'll have to read up on this when I have time. I guess it would be the ultimate attention grabber. Who would have transported this? Yuck.

I like Samuel's closing address. If you would have asked me, I would have guessed that this quote comes from Paul in the NT. "Far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you". But here it is in the OT. When we first started this group, I was pretty good about sitting down with the list of names and praying for everyone. But I haven't done that in while, it's a good reminder. Especially, since we will see in the life of Saul that once Samuel is gone, things will get ugly.

I'll be gone for a couple days and not sure if I will have internet.....so maybe I will blog and maybe not.