Second Best

Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see him whom the LORD has chosen? Surely there is no one like him among all the people.” So all the people shouted and said, “Long live the king!” Then Samuel told the people the ordinances of the kingdom, and wrote them in the book and placed it before the LORD. And Samuel sent all the people away, each one to his house. I Samuel 10.24-25

Israel had demanded a king and when they did so the Lord told Samuel, "they have not rejected you they have rejected me from being King over them" (8.7). Here is an interesting bit of background...

350 years earlier God had told the people of Israel:

“When you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ you shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses, one from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman. Deuteronomy 17.14-15ff

Did you see that, "and you say, "I will set a king over me like all the other nations..." which, by the way, is exactly what they did say (8.5)

It was not His best for His chosen people yet God knew they would reject Him and seek after a distant second best, a man. Israel would act in rebellion against God and yet God had already made provision for when that time came. He gave them very specific instructions so that they could be as blessed as possible in their new situation.

These most interesting attributes of God, his omnipresence and omniscience; allow God to look down the tunnel of time and know ahead of time what we will do. This is a dynamic of God's sovereignty that relates to our own salvation.

God knows what is best for man and has made an offer to Him; that if any man or woman will simply accept the free gift of salvation, allow him to be the God of our lives, our sovereign, our King; our sins will be forgiven; we will be spared the righteous judgment of Almighty God and we will find ourselves in the most blessed life possible.

But God also knows what each man will choose to do, he can look down the tunnel of time and see with absolute clarity the destination of every persons' soul. But, as with the Israelites, the choice is up to the each individual, each of us has a the opportunity to decide how we want to live and where we want to spend eternity.

Trying to reconcile the two kind of tweaks the circuits a bit to be sure. God knows, we chose. But it is also true that God chose us before the foundations of the world... and as you go a couple more times around that conversation... little puffs of smoke start to drift out of our ears. It is difficult to understand, but for me, not difficult to accept.

All that to say that this story illustrates this mystical and marvelous aspect of our great God. It has been said that a God small enough to fully understand isn't big enough to fully worship. I can't agree more.

Now I want to take your thinking in a whole different direction if you have the time to read on...

The BEST for Israel was to continue to be a theocracy, to continue to allow God himself to be their king, but they chose another option. In that decision, a decision that was not God's best for them, there would be a price to pay (see chapter 8 blog for more info) and direct access to God and His blessings and His best were all now going to have to pass through the hands of their king. They were going to have to hope that their king would continue to follow God, most of them would not, and that their king would look out for their best, again, most of them would not.

Allow me to bring this home now...

I was talking to a brother the other day who had been speaking to a young gal who had gotten pregnant and the father was off the scene, had been involved in drugs and such and was now homeless and in a pretty desperate situation. Your heart just goes out to those in such dire circumstances. This brother continued by saying, "she just doesn't have many options".

Now, at the risk of sounding callous, and certainly this kind of "truth" would have to be shared with great love and discernment; but I said, "well yes she did". This brother knew exactly what I meant and finished my thought for me. "she had options, many opportunities to make the right decision, now she isn't left with many."

In fact she had, and now her options were severely limited by the choices she made earlier. There are just some things that are no longer available to her; others that will take a long, determined, grace filled journey to reach.

So it is with Gods will...

If I truly believe that God desires the very best for me, had the best plan for my life, that He can see ahead and direct me to the best life possible; then it would also follow that to stray from God's will will only lead to something less than best and perhaps much, much worse.

The truth is that as one act of rebellion added to another stiff necked refusal which is compounded by a dose of self-will, I can find my self where my choices become very limited.

But it is not that God abandons us at that point though. As with Israel, even in their rejection and rebellion he still said, "let me tell you how to get the most out of life from that point on." (Deut. 17.14ff)

And I will continue to experience God's best for me under the new circumstances as long as I continue to walk with him, abide in Him, trust in Him. But there will be other aspects a God-defined, blessed life that will no longer be available to me, I opted out of those.

You see there just aren't any promises of blessing for those who walk in rebellion or disobedience, you won't find it in scripture.

All to say, the best life, the best-blessed life is found in the center of God's will.