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What Results When We Reject God’s Kingship?

It hasn’t been pretty…

Adam and Eve rejected God’s kingship as soon as Satan convinced them to lust after His rule, for themselves, to place the crown on their own heads.

What was the result? Expulsion from Eden’s Garden paradise, and bodily death for all of humankind. The direct love-connection with God was taken away, and in its place was a stain of sin that blocked our way to eternal paradise for millennia.

Ten generations later, a God-less global population fell into abject evil after having rejected God. How did He react?

The LORD observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. So the LORD was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart. Gn. 6:5, 6. NLT

Thus, Jehovah flooded the earth, leaving only Noah and his family to try to build humanity anew.

A few generations later, the entire world succumbed to the lust of pride and tried to build an edifice for worshiping themselves instead of God.

How did that turn out? God considered humankind’s predilection for depravity and destroyed the tower of Babel and scattered everyone across the globe, confusing their languages – making it harder for them to work as one for a godless purpose.

Leaping forward multiple eons, we come to the time of Joshua’s death, whereupon the Israelites turned to pagan gods and practices, and were summarily left helpless, as God lifted His protection off the people and allowed them to feel the oppression and punishment from pagan armies for many years.

God would then send ‘judges’ to them, to rescue them when they were genuinely repentant. But then, the people would descend into moral / spiritual degradation once more, to rinse and repeat.

You know what? These aren’t good outcomes. And to further drive this home, we are now going to look at how the Israelites wanted to have a lowly human king set over God. Why? Because they wanted to be like the other pagan countries that surrounded them. A clear case for failure…

Here’s how it went, as revealed in the first and second book of Samuel to describe a century-and-a-half period over approximately 1120 B.C. – 970 B.C.:

There was an Israelite by the name of Elkanah, married to two women. One wife bore him children, the other, named Hannah, was barren (This was a divine plan) *. The fertile wife gave Hannah a lot of grief over her lack of children.

*…the Lord had kept her from having children. 1 Sm. 1:6 NLT

Every year, Elkanah and his family traveled to Shilo (a tabernacle to worship Jehovah, prior to the assembly of the Temple in Jerusalem, in the time of the judges.)

Hannah entered the tabernacle and prayed that God would grant her a son:

She made a vow, saying, “O Lord of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction (suffering) of Your maidservant and remember, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life; a razor shall never touch his head.” 1 Sm. 1:11 AMP

Jehovah granted her wish, and she named him Samuel. After she weaned him, she kept her promise, and returned Samuel to Shilo to be cared for, and to be prepared for the priesthood by Eli, (the high priest at that time). As Hannah did so, she burst out in praise:

“My heart rejoices and triumphs in the Lord; My horn (strength) is lifted up in the Lord,
My mouth has opened wide [to speak boldly] against my enemies, because I rejoice in Your salvation. There is no one holy like the Lord, there is no one besides You, there is no Rock like our God…” 1 Sm. 2:1, 2. AMP

“He raises up the poor from the dust, He lifts up the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with nobles, and inherit a seat of honor and glory; For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and He set the land on them.

“He guards the feet of His godly (faithful) ones, but the wicked ones are silenced and perish in darkness; for a man shall not prevail by might.

“The adversaries of the Lord will be broken to pieces; He will thunder against them in the heavens, the Lord will judge the ends of the earth; and He will give strength to His king, and will exalt the horn (strength) of His anointed.” 1 Sm. 2:8 – 10. AMP

Note the last phrase is prophetically manifested in both Kind David and ultimately in Christ.

The Bible now shifts to Eli’s two sons:

Now the sons of Eli were scoundrels who had no respect for the Lord or for their duties as priests. 1 Sm. 2:12, 13. NLT

They had taken the best of the people’s sacrifices to the Lord for themselves, and dishonored other sacrifices and rituals. Contrast that with Samuel’s behavior:

But Samuel, though he was only a boy, served the Lord. He wore a linen garment like that of a priest. 1 Sam. 2:18 NLT

Eli spoke to his sons about their behavior, but they refused to listen to him. An unnamed ‘man of God’ approached Eli, bringing him a warning from God Himself:

‘Why…do you kick at (despise) My sacrifice and My offering which I commanded in My dwelling place, and honor your sons more than Me, by fattening yourselves with the choicest part of every offering of My people Israel?’ 1 Sm. 2:29 AMP

‘—for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me will be insignificant and contemptible.’ 1 Sm. 2:30 AMP

This will be the sign to you which shall come concerning your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas: on the same day both of them shall die. 1 Sm. 2:34 AMP

Samuel hears directly from God:

One night Eli, who was almost blind by now, had gone to bed. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was sleeping in the Tabernacle near the Ark of God. Suddenly the Lord called out, “Samuel!” 1 Sm. 3:2 – 4. NLT

Samuel wakes up and runs to Eli, thinking it was him that called out. God calls out again, and Samuel goes to Eli once more, only to be told to go back to bed. God speaks to Samuel a third time. This time, Eli realizes God is really speaking to Samuel and instructs him in how to answer Jehovah.

When the Lord calls out to Samuel a fourth time, he answers:

“Speak, your servant is listening.” 1 Sm. 3:10 NLT

Jehovah answers:

“Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will ring. On that day I will carry out against Eli everything that I have spoken concerning his house (family), from beginning to end.Now I have told him that I am about to judge his house forever for the sinful behavior which he knew [was happening], because his sons were bringing a curse on themselves [dishonoring and blaspheming God] and he did not rebuke them.Therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that the sinful behavior of Eli’s house (family) shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.” 1 Sm. 3:11 – 14. AMP

The next morning, Samuel revealed his vision to Eli, who resigned himself to his imminent fate.

Meanwhile, Samuel continues to grow in the Lord:

Now Samuel grew; and the Lord was with him and He let none of his words fail [to be fulfilled].And all Israel from Dan [in the north] to Beersheba [in the south] knew that Samuel was appointed as a prophet of the Lord. And the Lord continued to appear in Shiloh, for the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord. 1 Sm. 3:19 – 21. AMP

The Israelites do not:

The Philistines attack and kill 4000 Israeli soldiers. The people did not seek God’s will before the battle. Furthermore, the elders sacrilegiously took the Ark of the Covenant (where the Spirit of God abided in the Tabernacle) and brought it to the battlefield thinking it would turn the tide in a second skirmish.

Instead, the Philistines captured the Ark for themselves! When Eli heard the news of the defeat, the death of his sons, and the seizure of the Ark, he fell backwards out of his chair, breaking his neck and died. Thus, God’s prophecy concerning Eli and his sons was fulfilled.

The Philistines took the Ark and placed it in the temple of their pagan god Dagon. The next morning, they found their statue of Dagon lying on its face before the Ark. They set the statue aright, but the following morning they found they found Dagon’s head and hands cut off. Thus, their ‘god’ was humiliated.

In addition, God brought a plague upon the Philistines:

Then the Lord’s heavy hand struck the people of Ashdod and the nearby villages with a plague of tumors.When the people realized what was happening, they cried out, “We can’t keep the Ark of the God of Israel here any longer! He is against us! 1 Sm. 5:6, 7. NLT

After the Philistines had the Ark for seven months, they sent it back to Israel. When it was returned, some Israelites handled the Ark, knowing full well that only the Levites were to handle it. They paid for that with their lives.

Twenty years would pass before the Ark was returned to the Tabernacle.

Samuel called all of Israel to gather for prayer to return to Jehovah and remove any pagan idols. As they did so, the Philistines attacked again. This time, Samuel sacrificed to God and He shouted thunder at them. The Philistines panicked and fled.

Have the Israelites learned anything about how God should be revered? Sadly, they sink into new sinful depths…

Samuel is getting old. He appoints his two sons to be judges over Israel, but they are just as bad as Eli’s sons were. So, the elders approach Samuel with an unprecedented demand:

“Look, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint us a king to judge us [and rule over us] like all the other nations.” 1 Sm. 8:5 AMP

And there it is. Israel wants to mimic the pagan nations and make a king of a mere man, placing him over and above the rightful King of the Universe.

Samuel was so disturbed by this sinful request that he took his concerns to Jehovah. He answered Samuel:

“Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being King over them. Like all the deeds which they have done since the day that I brought them up from Egypt even to this day—in that they have abandoned (rejected) Me and served other gods—so they are doing to you also. So now listen to their voice; only solemnly warn them and tell them the ways of the king who will reign over them.” 1 Sm. 8:7 – 9. AMP

You can almost feel Jehovah’s heart break. Nevertheless, His love for his people never wanes. Still, in the face of their rejection, He warns them about the outcome of their choice:

“This is how a king will reign over you,” Samuel said. “The king will draft your sons and assign them to his chariots and his charioteers, making them run before his chariots.Some will be generals and captains in his army, some will be forced to plow in his fields and harvest his crops, and some will make his weapons and chariot equipment. The king will take your daughters from you and force them to cook and bake and make perfumes for him. He will take away the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his own officials. He will take a tenth of your grain and your grape harvest and distribute it among his officers and attendants. He will take your male and female slaves and demand the finest of your cattleand donkeys for his own use. He will demand a tenth of your flocks, and you will be his slaves. When that day comes, you will beg for relief from this king you are demanding, but then the Lord will not help you.” 1 Sm. 8:11 – 18. NLT

How do the people respond? They seal their fate:

But the people refused to listen to Samuel’s warning. “Even so, we still want a king,” they said. 1 Sm. 8:19 NLT

We’ll see how that turns out…next time!

Goodnight and God bless.

Rejecting God Leads to Broken Relationships

Almost everything is subject to God. However, regarding His human (and angelic) creations, He granted them ‘free will,’ so that they can choose whether or not to be in a relationship with Him.

Jehovah granted this because He wants us to freely choose to love Him. True love is always freely given; it cannot be coerced…

Near the closing of the age of the judges, (see Communication Breakdown), the Israelites were being oppressed again by their life-long enemies, the Philistines. In response to His people’s outcries, God raises up the last ‘judge’ (also a prophet), named Samuel.

God speaks through Samuel, telling the Israelites that if they would return to Him, He would cover them again with His favor and liberate them (1 Sam. 7:3). Desperately, they obey, and the Promise Keeper delivers.

Twenty years pass. The people began to worry about Samuel’s advanced age; and they want him to appoint a successor to rule over them. However,they didn’t want another ‘judge,’ from which to receive instruction from God. Instead, because they had been cavorting with the ways of the world, they wanted a human king – just like those of the surrounding pagan countries.

In anguish, Samuel brought the people’s request before God. You can feel the pain in His response:

“Do everything they say to you,” the LORD replied, “for they are rejecting me, not you. They don’t want me to be their king any longer. Ever since I brought them from Egypt they have continually abandoned me and followed after other Gods. And now they are giving you the same treatment.

Do as they ask, but solemnly warn them about the way a king will rule over them. 1 Sam. 8:7 – 9. NLT

Thus, Samuel warned the people as God instructed him – telling them that their new ‘king,’ (named Saul, who was chosen for his good looks and tall stature), would send their sons to war, enslave other sons to make weapons of war, subjugate yet others to grow Saul’s food, conscript their land for his own use, and tax them 10% of their finest possessions (1 Sam 8:11 – 18.)

Unfazed by these dire prophecies, the people demanded their King Saul; and yet, in spite of them, God is merciful:

“All right, here is the king you have chosen. You asked for him and the LORD has granted your request. Now if you fear and worship the LORD and listen to His voice, and if you do not rebel against the LORD’s commands, then both you and your king will show that you recognize the LORD as your God. But if you rebel against the LORD’s commands and refuse to listen to him, then his hand will be as heavy upon you as it was upon your ancestors.” 1 Sam. 12:13 – 15. NLT

“The LORD will not abandon his people, because that would dishonor his great name. For it has pleased the LORD to make you his very own people.” 1 Sam. 12:22 NLT

So, God said that He would work with the king if the people stayed with Him.

However, within just two years, King Saul had sinned before God and fulfilled every prophecy Jehovah declared about Him.

True to form, when man wants to be a god, it always turns out badly. God removed His favor from Saul’s rule, and Samuel abandoned him as well.

Wanting to be a god is prideful:

Pride goes before destruction… Pr. 16:18 NKJV

Things go downhill for Israel, just as they go sour when we reject God. Why? Because then Satan has our ear, assaulting us with his dark suggestions. Moreover, when you have chosen to close yourself off from God, He lifts His favor off of you – making you more vulnerable to the adversary’s attacks.

When we walk without God, we have anger issues (see Anger Kills), and we pass our ungodly behavioral consequences onto our children (see What Are We Teaching Our Children), which sucks out the quality of their lives.

We’ve seen that a steady diet of the devil’s babble, facilitates your creation of ego (see The Dark Mind), which makes you think your self-worth is suspect. Then it can manipulate you into behavior that sets you up for a slow suicide.

It does so by suffocating you with a darkened illusion of your past, so that you cannot step into the present (see The Past Sure is Tense).

And because most people are closed off in their own heads, trying to figure out how to fix their unique situation, the ability to have a meaningful and truthful dialogue with other people is non-existent (see Communication Breakdown). Loneliness ensues.

God is love, He is relationship. His template for the human model for relationship is found in the Prophets, Christ and the Apostles. When we break our connection with God, we no longer have the guidance of the Holy Spirit, so we can no longer access that necessary wisdom in our human relationships.

All these things occur when you don’t walk with God. The biggest consequence of living this way, is that when you reject God, your relationship with Him, with yourself, and with others, is broken.

Our entire lives are lived within the framework of relationships. Yet for most people, living in relationship is the hardest part of living.

Outside of God, no one gave us a manual for how to relate to others. In fact, we’re thrust into relationship at birth, and then we blindly plow through each successive one, trying to learn how to do relationship. Worse, we are indoctrinated with how our parents do relationship, with all its unworkable parts – especially if God is absent in the home.

Then, rather relating to God, you look to the Dark Mind (ego), whose only purpose is to gain control over your psyche and have you in its servitude. Because of the lies it smeared your conscience with, you fall in and out of ‘acquaintances,’ because you are afraid to share who you really are.

We look at life through ‘filters’ consisting of our Life Story, with all of its embellishments of meanings that we gave to the string of events lived thus far. This is not because our past was so wonderful, but due to the trauma that we perceived within them.

Ultimately, many people surmise that others aren’t safe, and fear that they will reject them. So, they throw up walls of defense in the form of false self-images, hoping others will at least fall in love with their ‘mask.’

Our soul takes on a slipperiness, wiggling out of the ‘acquaintance’ before we get hurt. Thus, our primary need for love and acceptance goes unmet.

We don’t even love ourselves, because our ego has taught us that we have revolting characteristics. Again, we try to separate from ourselves with yet another mask.

Until these challenges are resolved, nothing will fill your emptiness. For if you don’t know how to love yourself, how can you expect others to know?

Ultimately, we show up for relationships at a HUGE disadvantage – looking for someone to ‘fix’ us. We’re sad, grieving over what we think is wrong with us; and we are exhausted from trying to seek out someone who will give us what we believe that we don’t have.

Ironically, when we meet people, we hold up our false persona to those we seek, desperately hoping that they will believe we already have what we are convinced we lack.

We dance frenetically, trying to garner the favor of others, so that we might receive external repair.

Okay. Now you’ve seen what state many people are in when they approach a relationship, after they have rejected their Creator. Next time, we will observe how they end up deconstructing whatever transient relationship they are able to muster. This is the epitome of our undoing.

In order to be able to better solve a problem, we have to know how we constructed it, so that we can stop the offense, by offering more exacting prayer as we lay our rejection of God aside…