Daily Lesson for Tuesday 22nd of April 2025

As originally established, Israel was not to have a human monarch, the way that other nations did. In time, however, the people’s faith faltered, and they found themselves pining for the things that “the nations,” the Gentiles, had.

Image © Lifeway Collection at Goodsalt.com

It is important to notice that the request for a king was a rejection of God’s reign over His people. As established, the nation was to answer directly to the Creator, and their relationship to Him was put on display through the sanctuary and its services, among other things. By requesting a king, they would bring the same kinds of suffering on themselves that the Gentile kingdoms experienced: military conscription in the king’s wars, confiscation, taxation, and other ills. They would discover that human potentates tend to rule in their own favor instead of benevolently, as God does.

Also, the new arrangement would be permanent: Israel would be given what they asked for, but when they realized that it was a downgrade, they would be stuck with it. “ ‘And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the Lord will not hear you in that day’ ” (1 Samuel 8:18, NKJV).

God knows the weakness of His people, and He predicted early on that Israel would request a human king. They did, and so much of sacred history is the story of the consequences of that choice.

Read Deuteronomy 17:14-20. Notice that God does not say, “I will give them a king,” but rather, His people decide that they want one. God put safeguards in place to protect His people from some of the evils of human government—though, as the history of the nation and its kings showed, the safeguards often were ignored.

One simply has to look at the history of Israel after they decided to have a king in order to see just how badly things went for them under these kings. Though some kings were better than others, even the “good” ones had done wrong (think of David and Bathsheba). In many cases, the nation lived under the rule of one king after another who did “evil in the sight of the Lord” (see 1 Kings 11:6, 1 Kings 15:26, 1 Kings 16:2,30 King 3:2, etc.).

Back then, or even today, all human governments share one thing in common: sinners governing other sinners. What possibly could go wrong?

<–Monday Wednesday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25b-04-given-what-you-asked-for/

Daily Lesson for Monday 21st of April 2025

In the tenth chapter of Genesis, we see the birth of various nations. The word usually translated “nations” is goyim, which also can refer to Gentiles. Genesis 10:1-32 tells us that the human race divided up into lands, languages, families, and “nations” (Genesis 10:5; see also Revelation 14:6).

Almost immediately after the introduction of this concept, God calls Abraham out of one of those nations to be different from them and from what they represent.

Image © Lifeway Collection at Goodsalt.com

God intended to use Abraham to establish a nation that would stand in contrast to human kingdoms. They were not to have a king other than God Himself. The people were to show what would happen if the human race returned to their Creator. Israel was established to be a blessing to “ ‘all the families of the earth’ ” (Genesis 12:3, NKJV). God had poured out upon the Israelites light and privileges that had not been seen in the world since, perhaps, before the Flood.

This was not a single individual bearing witness in a single com­munity; this was an entire nation that, by working together and in cooperation with God, could exhibit the glory of His character. Notice, too, in the words spoken to them that it wasn’t just “statutes and judgments” that God had given them that made them so special, but their adherence to them that would cause the other nations to say, “ ‘ “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people” ’ ” (Deuteronomy 4:6, NKJV). However wonderful the truths given to the people, their failure to live up to them, to obey them, would bring curses instead of blessing and death instead of life.

<–Sunday Tuesday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25b-04-abrahams-call/