Talk about giving into peer pressure. Israel wants to be like all the other nations and have a king.

Their blessing had always been that they weren’t like the other nations, that they had been separated out and separated unto God as his own.

Our blessing isn’t by belonging to a church that’s hip and happening; our blessing is being separated out to God. That may look very lonely at times.

Separate is off to yourself, not in with the crowd.

Jesus taught that the path to destruction was very wide but the path to life was narrow and that only few find it.

Being like everyone else is not a good thing.

When I pray, “Lord, please don’t give me a king,” it’s similar to saying not my will but yours be done. I’m asking Him to not give me that thing I’m asking for if it’s a bad idea, if it’s not His best, not His choice for me.

When Jesus prayed, “Not my will but yours be done,” He knew the plan. He knew the Father’s will. He knew He had to die on the cross, take on the world’s sins and be separated from God. He was saying that if there was a possible other way, he wanted it. But He was fully submitted to the Father’s will the whole time.

The Israelites didn’t think God’s way was working. They were continually under the Philistine’s oppression, again and again.

Of course, they weren’t living God’s way. They would be on top if they had been living God’s way. They would be delivered, not oppressed. It was their rebellion and sin that put them in their predicament.

And when our own sin gets us into a predicament, we need to not look around us to find ways out. They may look like good ideas, and they may even temporarily help, but it’s a false hope, false security, false salvation.

There’s only one Rescuer. There’s only one way to salvation from whatever our situation is. God is our hope. We run to Him even when everyone else is running to something else. We cling to Him and hold fast. We fix our eyes on Jesus and don’t look back.