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Day 75, or March the 16th. Why not my will sometimes,

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Lord? Our thought today comes from 1 Samuel,

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chapter 8, verse 6. When they said, Give us a

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king to lead us, this displeased Samuel. So he

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prayed to the Lord. First, the big picture surrounding

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this verse. The Philistines take the ark and

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put it in the temple of Dagon. Overnight the

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image of Dagon falls symbolically on its face

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before the ark. The Philistines were now determined

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to get rid of this troublesome box of the Israelites,

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and they returned it, and it is stored in the

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house of Abinadab, where it remains for twenty

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years. Finally, the Philistines are subdued,

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and there is peace throughout the land. Samuel

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had obviously forgotten the failure of Eli's

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sons, and goes ahead and appoints his own sons

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to serve as judges in Beersheba. It seems they

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were no better than the sons of Eli, and because

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of their shocking behaviour, the people begin

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once again to ask for a king. Samuel tells the

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people all the troubles that a king will bring

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but the people insist this is what they want.

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God tells Samuel that the people are not rejecting

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him or his sons but in reality are rejecting

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God. Samuel is instructed by God to find a man

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and appoint him as king. And now our action step

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for today. There are times when we are so determined

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to get our own way that reason flies out of the

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window. The Israelites have previously asked

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God for a king and been told no. They know deep

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down that God is the best king, but when circumstances

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change, they suspect a real king, like all the

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surrounding nations have, would solve their problems.

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Samuel did not want a monarchy. He wanted the

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existing theocracy to remain. How can the rule

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of a man be better than the rule of an all -powerful,

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all -loving and totally fair God? However, because

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God is their loving Heavenly Father, He permits

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the Israelites to have a king of their own. Be

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careful what you ask for. God wants us to have

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the best, but if we keep asking for second best,

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He may just give us it.