Rejecting The Pure For A Flawed Leader

So often we become restless and impatient when things don’t seem to be going our way. We tend to blame everyone else but ourselves. We also tend to look at others, and if their lives seem to be going better than ours, we will want to have the things that they have. This is how it also was for the children of Israel, and this is how it is for us today.

Israel had the best of everything, especially in a Leader to govern them, as God was the King and Leader, however, they wanted a King like all the other nations around them. As a result, the rejected their King (God) for a very flawed candidate to be their King. They chose persecution instead of peace.

But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. ⁷ And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king… 1 Samuel 8: 6 – 7

So the Lord gave the people the desires of their heart by anointing Saul as King over them. He was not invisible, but was very pleasing to their eyes. He was tall and handsome, qualities that the people were attracted to, but he came with much baggage.