The Desire to be Like Others

“…now make us a king to judge us like all the nations…we will have a king over us; that we also may be like all the nations.” (I Samuel 8:5, 19, 20)

Every parent has no doubt heard these words: “Everyone else is going. Why can’t I go too?” Or, “All my friends wear________” (You fill in the blank)

Israel had existed many years with God as their ruler and king. Now they wanted to be “like all the nations.” It did not matter to them that all the nations they wanted to mimic were idolatrous, exceedingly sinful, enemies of God and “thorns in the side” of Israel.

Today, as a result of her sins, and her rejection of Jesus to be the Messiah, Israel is “on the shelf,” so to speak, not to be restored again until the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Read Ezekiel 37)

We are now in the “Church age,” with the apostate churches growing stronger as they, like Israel, desire to be like the rest of the world, changing the entire structure of the church to make it user friendly and less offensive. Their only rationale for change is, “That’s what all the churches are doing today.”

Being like everyone else is not what a disciple of the Lord is.