1S8-35: You Cannot Serve Both God And Money

When the leaders of Israel told Samuel…

“We want a king like all the other gentile nations”…

You know what they were really saying?

They were saying they didn’t want to be a “Chosen People” anymore.

That’s really what it came down to if you think about it.

They no longer wanted to be a unique and holy people unto God.

Sure, superficially and for social purposes, they were okay to claim the Lord as their God and Protector…

But deep down inside they wanted to live like the rest of the gentile world.

Unfortunately, in the Lord’s Kingdom, that dog ain’t gonna hunt.

Tragically, this is also how a good majority of modern Israelis feels today.

To them, being seen as God’s Chosen People is a burden they don’t want to carry…

Because they feel like it leads to anti-Semitism and terrible things like the holocaust.

That’s why many modern Jews today reject God outright.

This reminds of a time when I having dinner at the Jewish Community Center here in Tokyo.

We were celebrating one of the feasts…

I can’t remember which one but I think it was Sukkot.

Anyways, seated next to me was an Israeli lady…

Now I can’t remember how we got around to talking about spiritual things but she told me her and her family were atheists.

When I asked her why, she said it was because of the holocaust.

If God really existed, there’s no way He would have allowed an atrocity like the holocaust to take place was her and her family’s reasoning.

Since it was a super sensitive topic, I changed the subject…

But I couldn’t help thinking about the irony of it all.

Here we were celebrating one of the God-ordained Biblical feasts…

At the Jewish Community Center in the heart of Tokyo of all places…

And this daughter of Israel was flat out telling me she was an atheist!

Talk about irony of ironies.

Now if you’re a gentile believer, I wouldn’t be harboring a condescending attitude towards her or Her beautiful nation Israel however.

Because the modern gentile church is much worse.

Unlike Israel who views being chosen as a burden they don’t want to carry…

The Church wants to claim chosen status for themselves…

But what do they do?

They arrogantly assume they’ve replaced Israel as God’s Chosen People.

And then they turn around, throw God’s holy Torah into the trash and incorporate pagan practices into their systems of worship.

So just like the ancient Israelite leadership during Samuel’s time, the gentile church wants the blessings of salvation, peace, protection and prosperity from God of Israel…

But at the same time wants all of the sensual and pagan pleasures of the world.

Well, sorry homies…

In this case, you can’t have your cake and eat it too.

This behavior didn’t work well for ancient Israel during Samuel’s time…

It ain’t gonna work well for modern Israel today…

And it’s certainly not gonna work well for the lawless gentile churches in our era.

So let’s transition over to the takeaway.

God told Israel if they want to replace Him with a human ruler, fine.

But when things start going downhill (which they inevitably will), don’t come crying back to Him.

Because He ain’t gonna go out of his way to rescue you this time.

Bottomline, it is possible to make choices that are so offensive to the Lord, He will force you to live with those choices forever.  

Don’t expect God to save your butt every time.

You chose a human king…

So go to him when problems arise.

The lesson here is if you’ve chosen Yahweh as your savior…

Then it’s perfectly fine to go to Him when troubles arise…

However, if you’ve chosen to place your bets with another god….

Then don’t expect it to be cool to go back to the God of Israel when things go wrong in your life.

Go to the other god or thing who you placed your bets on to save you…

Remember, you can’t serve two masters and expect things to go well in your life…

Done.

CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT

“No one can serve two masters.
Either you will hate the one
and love the other,
or you will be devoted to the one
and despise the other.
You cannot serve
both God and money.”
-Matthew 6:24