Blessing Your Replacement
1 Samuel 8:7, 10:24 (ESV) And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them…And Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see him whom the Lord has chosen? There is none like him among all the people.” And all the people shouted, “Long live the king!”
Lord, Your ways are so different, so much higher than our ways. Israel rejected You, wanting a man to reign over them instead of having You, the King of kings and Lord of lords, reign over them. Seeing this, did You forsake them and leave them to their own devices, letting them select some man whom they thought suitable and then letting the consequences fall where they would? No. Amazingly, You selected Your own replacement.
This is not the way of men. When I am rejected, I tend to move away from my rejector and even secretly and smugly hope that the replacement he selects will cause him some harm and make him thoroughly regret rejecting me. This is so wrong, and You have helped me more than once to abandon this wicked mindset and think like You.
You didn’t make a vindictive decision. You DID give the people what they wanted, however — someone with an impressive outer appearance and impressive credentials, someone handsome and tall and from a family of wealth, valor, and standing.
1 Sameul 9:1-2 (ESV) There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, son of Zeror, son of Becorath, son of Aphiah, a Benjaminite, a man of wealth. 2 And he had a son whose name was Saul, a handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people.
Though You were not vengeful, what happened here is still a frightening lesson. You know what is best, and You are doing what is best for us, yet, if we plead with You and insist on our own ways and desires, You will let us have them.
This alarms me. I consider, for example, Hezekiah’s desperate pleas for You to extend his life after You had told him to set his house in order and prepare for death (2 Kings 20:1-6, Isaiah 38:1-8). Many have celebrated the favor he found with You and have sought to imitate him as they battle sickness, but I cannot ignore the unwise choices that he made after he recovered. It was also during this time that he fathered a son, Manasseh, who for decades led Israel in one of the most wicked periods in its history. I also consider Israel, which lusted for flesh to eat in the wilderness. You granted it, but sent leanness to their souls.
Psalm 106:14-15 (ESV) “But they had a wanton craving in the wilderness, and put God to the test in the desert; 15 he gave them what they asked, but sent a wasting disease among them.”
This is my prayer: “Oh Father, work in me both to will and to do of Your good pleasure! (Philippians 2:13). If I would desire less than Your best, mercifully refuse me and grant me Your best instead. Hear me Lord and have mercy on me!”
Lord, You didn’t try to harm Israel by selecting some vile king. You selected someone whose look and demeanor they could receive and went even further by changing his heart (1 Samuel 10:6, 9) so that he would be equipped to lead Your people. What kind of Person could, without resentment, select and equip His own replacement?
Israel wanted to “be like all the nations” (1 Samuel 8:20), so they got their request and lost their distinction, their privileged separation and their revered reputation of being a people governed only by their God. Yet, in Your mercy, You blessed their king and their kingdom, and allowed them to retain a measure of distinction because they were Yours.
What kind of Person does this?! I and humbled before You. I exalt You!
