In 1 Samuel chapter 8, the Israelites come to Samuel and ask him to
appoint a king for them. Samuel prayed to God about their request. We read
God's response in verses 7-18: "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. According to all the
deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to
this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you.
Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the
ways of the king who shall reign over them.” So Samuel told all the words of
the Lord to the people who were asking for a king from him. He said, “These
will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons
and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his
chariots. And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and
commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and
to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take
your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of
your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He
will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his
officers and to his servants. He will take your male servants and female
servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his
work. He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And
in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for
yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”
One of my favorite Accept songs is "Bulletproof". It's about a
guy whose drug habit takes everything from him including his life. These are
some of the lyrics: "He danced with Lucy in the sky on a cloud of ecstasy,
too late to stop him now. He would sacrifice his mother, turn against his only
friend to reach the ultimate high. He wasn't bulletproof, he shot himself the
final round. Nobody's bulletproof, his destination underground." This song
always reminds me of my best friend in grade school. He was one of the smartest
guys I've known, but he went off the deep end in his teens. He dropped out of
high school, started dealing drugs, and got arrested several times as a result.
The last time I saw him was the first time I'd seen him in several years. He
was out of his mind on something & was talking utter nonsense. It broke my
heart to see him like that. He died in a car wreck when he was 25 years old.
My wife & I know a lady who's an alcoholic. Her addiction has cost her most of
her friends, her family situation is a train wreck, and her life is at risk
because of her drinking. I know a guy who's obsessed with money. He argues with
his wife about it, he screams at his kids about it, and he lies to get more of
it. His marriage is strained, his son wants nothing to do with him, and no one
respects him because he's dishonest. I'm not trying to be harsh or judgmental with
these statements, I'm just stating the facts as I know them.
All three of these people have this in common: just like the Israelites,
they chose to replace God with another king (drugs, alcohol, money) and just
like the Israelites, their king took the best of everything they have (their
friends, their families, and their health) and they became slaves to it.
Whatever we put first in life is our king, and if that’s not God, it has the
potential to take from us everything that really matters and make us its slave.
If you think this could never happen to you because you're a Christian,
consider 1 Corinthians 10:12: "Therefore let anyone who thinks that he
stands take heed lest he fall." I've seen it happen to any number of Christians
when they put more faith in worldly things than they do in God. Nobody's
bulletproof.
