“Immature love says, ‘I love you because I need you’. Mature love says, ‘I need you because I love you’.” – Erich Fromm

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH

SUNDAY 31 MARCH 2019

Picture / Alan Collingwood

“The People Demand a King,” was the title of a sermon of a Church in London in 1963. I was in England at that time, and that’s what I remember, even if it is a long time ago. The title of the message was written in big letters on the notice board.

It is the story of Saul and the story of King Saul of Israel begins in chapter eight of First Samuel in the Bible. And this is what I am learning:

LET US FIRST OF ALL SEE WHAT THE LORD SAID TO SAUL AT THE BEGINNING OF CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

Samuel has a message from the Lord for the king. The Lord wants king Saul to punish the Amorites. In short, king Saul is to destroy the Amorites completely and that means everything. The Bible says in 1 Samuel 15:3 “Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.”

SECONDLY LET US SEE WHAT THE PEOPLE SAID TO KING SAUL OF ISRAEL.

But the people were unwilling to destroy everything completely. It says in 1 Samuel 15:9, “But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best if the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs – everything that was good.” “…, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed.”

And in 1 Samuel 15:24 Saul said to Samuel not only, “I have sinned. I have violated the LORD’S command and your instructions.” But he said also, “I WAS AFRAID OF THE PEOPLE AND SO I GAVE IN TO THEM.”

Instead of fearing the Lord, he feared the people and lost his kingship.

In John 5:44 the Lord Jesus Christ says, “No wonder you can’t believe! For you gladly honor each other, but you don’t care about the honor that comes from the one who alone is God.” (NLT)