Today I wanna share something about the history of Israel and their current situation in 1 Samuel Chapter 8 that you can apply to your life.
To start, ponder this statement for a sec:
“Israel’s growth as a nation had gone backwards over the past 4 centuries.”
That’s right.
They had regressed instead of progressed.
While there may be some references in Scripture to the Israelites during Samuel’s time as a “nation”, technically that wasn’t true.
Calling them a “nation” was just a common form of speech.
At this time the word “nation” was a term that only referred to gentile countries.
If you possess even a basic understanding of the book of Judges, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.
During the era of the Judges, each Shophet (Judge) only took care of his own tribe’s troubles.
There was no such thing as a central judge who judged over all Israel.
And even Samuel’s influence was restricted to those tribes who resided in the central territory of Canaan.
He didn’t have a lot of pull over the tribes in the north and south.
My point is Israel was fractured as all hell during this time.
While there were many sovereign gentile nations in existence at this time, Israel was NOT one of them.
Ya feel me?
They were viewed as this massive cluster of families, tribes and clans who claimed Jacob as their common ancestor and that was it.
Now compare this to Israel when they were out in the wilderness.
They had a well-respected leader in the form of Moses.
They had a functioning government created and established by God Himself.
And they had a God-ordained successor for Moses in Joshua that would allow for a smooth transition in power.
During this time the tribes lived together, fought together, worshipped together and shared their common resources.
Israel was ONE as their God was ONE.
But then after Moses died and Joshua led them into the Promised Land, things began to fall to pieces.
What happened?
The first sign of disaster was when two of the tribes (Reuben and Gad) decided they didn’t even want to live in the Promised Land.
And then soon afterwards, about one-half of the tribe of Manessah decided to join them.
So although these 2 1/2 tribes did send soldiers to help their brothers when they entered Canaan, this split represented a divided Israel from the very beginning.
After Joshua died, then things really began to deteriorate rapidly.
All sense of national unity that had been held together by the common goal to inherit the land God promised to Abraham went out the window.
After that, nobody, whether a friend or foe of Israel, viewed the 12 Hebrew tribes as a nation.
They were perceived as this huge blob of individual clans and tribes who didn’t have any centralized loyalty or authority.
So why did Israel go backwards in their growth as a nation?
I can answer that question in one word: “Disobedience”.
Or to be even more specific: “Disobedience to God’s Torah”.
It didn’t happen overnight.
One little sin here…
Another little oversight there.
And before you knew it, Israel was intermarrying with the heathen and tolerating all of their pagan gods.
Of course, falling into full-blown idolatry was the inevitable next step…
Which is EXACTLY what happened…
And that’s your takeaway for today.
Obedience to God and His commandments will lead to progress in your life.
Disobedience will lead to the opposite.
Ya feel me?
Done.
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