Rejecting because we Forgot

I read some more very disheartening words in my study this morning.  I have read through the New Testament a few times toward the end of last year so I decided to get into the Old Testament historical books.  They are much harder for me to translate into my own life.  These verses, however, are not very hard to translate into the modern world.

1 Samuel 8:4-9

"So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah.  They said to him, "You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.  But when they said, "Give us a ing to lead us," this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord.  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.  As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you."

This is bad.  It is bad when God points out that they have rejected Him.  Its worse when He states that they have rejected Him ever since He led them out of Egypt.  It gets even worse when we realize that in the previous chapter the Philistines (not God's people) are fearful because they remember the things that the God of Israel did for His people when they were rescued from Egypt.

So the "others" remembered how God saved His people, but the "insiders" forget what God has done for them.  I sure hope this doesn't happen in our churches.

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