Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Samuel 11-13.

In his farewell address to the people of Israel, Samuel says that they sought a king when Nahash, king of the Ammonites, started to move against Israelite lands.  He points out that they sinned by doing so because God was already their king.  However, Samuel tells them that if they, and their king, obey the Lord going forward all will be well, but if they do not, it will not be well.  Then Samuel called on God to send them a sign to illustrate their sin in asking for a king.  The sign which they received was rain and thunder out of season.  What was the point of this sign?  The sign demonstrated that Israel had had a king in God who had power over even the weather.  Instead they chose a human king whom they could physically see, but who had no such power.  Instead of trusting God to protect them and obeying Him, they chose to establish a government to protect them and force them to act morally.  We often make the same mistake today.  Instead of obeying God and loving our neighbor and trusting God to protect us and transform those around us, we turn to the government for protection and to enforce morality: thinking that if we just get the right people in positions of authority, everything will turn out right.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.