Trust in God

Trust

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Who do you trust? Do you trust your spouse? Do you trust your family? Do you trust your friends? Do you trust church members or church administers? Where do you find solace and comfort without feeling vulnerable to attacks and criticisms? Do you have a confidant in whom you can openly share your thoughts and feelings without being judged or compromised? Many trust in their Heavenly father for comfort and confidential conversations within their secret closets. They know that God not only keeps their secrets, but forgives their sins and cast them “into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:9).� So, they put their trust in God while not leaning on their own understandings and interpretations, and He shows them the pathway to true success in all their earthly activities. This was not the case with ancient Israel.

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God wanted Israel to trust in Him as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob trusted Him. Hannah, Samuel’s mother, had faith that God would unseal her womb if she dedicated her first born to Him. She committed Samuel to a life of service to God. Her trust resulted in God blessing her with children. Her first-born son became a devoted prophet and servant to the King of Heaven and earth. God called Samuel when he was just a little boy. Three times he heard the voice of the Lord. He thought it was the voice of Eli, but Eli told him to lie still and the next time he heard the voice calling his name say, “yes Lord, your servant waits your command.” Samuel grew strong in the Lord. As the high priest, he judged Israel many years. He was a faithful servant of God, and he trusted God. He didn’t put his trust in his wife, he didn’t put his trust in his children, but he put his trust in the Everlasting Father.

With reasonable cause, one day the people he judged came to him with a profound request, they said, “…make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” What initiated such a request?

Well, I believe that Samuel, in part, is responsible for the request of the elders. “Now it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba.

But his sons did not walk in his ways; they turned aside after dishonest gains where they took bribes and perverted justice.” When Samuel became an old man, he made his sons

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judges over Israel. Samuel was undoubtedly one of the godliest men in the Bible. The Bible says that Samuel faithfully fulfilled God’s will, and there is no mention of him ever deviating from God’s plan. In fact, even as a child, Samuel wore a linen ephod, the garment of the priest. So Samuel’s destiny was set in stone! Nevertheless, like all of us who are born in sin, shaped in iniquity, and susceptible to the frailties of humanity, Samuel made a crucial error, he appointed his ill-equipped sons to be judges over Israel. The Book of Judges lists fifteen judges following Joshua’s death- from Othniel (Judges 3:7-11) to Samuel (the last judge of Israel), one of whom was a woman – Deborah. In each of these fifteen cases, the Word of God says, “…the Lord raised up a deliverer” or “the Lord sent a prophet.” When Gideon was asked by the men of Israel to be their ruler, he said, “I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: the Lord shall rule over you.” There is no record of a judge of Israel passing his or her judgeship to a son or daughter. So it is reasonable to conclude that Samuel made a crucial error by arbitrarily making his sons judges over Israel.

The hearts of all the judges were not to be kings over Israel and set up a hierarchal government, because God was their King, and Israel vibrantly survived for almost 400 years in the Promised Land under a theocracy.

Eli judged Israel before Samuel, and like Eli’s sons, Samuel’s sons did not walk in God’s way.

Eli understood that, and never made an effort to pass his judgeship to Hophni and Phinehas, but unlike Eli, Samuel appointed his sons as judges over Israel. This was an incorrect decision! First, he was fostering nepotism, and nepotism creates all kinds of issues and problems and can be harmful to any organization or church body. This is a mistake that many church and school officials make. They may be in a position where they hire their wives, children, or other close relatives who may or may not be qualified for the position or called to the position by God. These situations can create organizational issues that interfere with decision making since a relative of a supervisor could be involved. Any organization within or without the church that practices nepotism jeopardizes the organization’s creative and productive future. There is no doubt that it is truly a mistake to practice nepotism in the workplace.

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Unfortunately, Samuel could not objectively assess the ability of his sons’ effectiveness as Israelite judges. He probably excused the sins of his sons – those same sins that he could clearly see in others. This is a mistake that we make with those who are close family members like spouses and children, or other close relatives. Not that our children or relatives would exhibit the negative characteristics of Joel and Abijah. Samuel’s sons (1 Samuel 8:3) were dishonest and conniving, they “took bribes, and perverted justice “ from taking place. They identified themselves as God’s priests, but pathetically executed their duties and responsibilities. Today, we have our modern Joels and Abijahs, professed spiritual leaders, who do not walk in God’s designated pathways. There are spiritual leaders who steal from the people and who misuse their positions in the church. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked (Galatians 6:7)” for He will intervene, and, eventually, He will deal with these individuals in an analogous manner that He dealt with Hophni, Phinehas, Joel and Abijah.

Samuel created the problem when he arbitrarily made his sons judges, and, as a consequence, this was an impetus for the elders to unanimously make a request for a king!

“Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, “Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations (Samuel 8:4-5).” Because of Joel’s and Abijah’s abuse of the priesthood, the elders were justified in their request. At the same time, their request demonstrated that they no longer trusted the theocratic government of God. Thy forgot that God’s appointed spokesperson was Samuel not Joel and Abijah who were unfit for the priesthood and leadership in God’s theocratic government. The desire to have a king was not problematic, but the lack of trust in God’s government was tantamount to a lack of trust in God. God is omniscient; therefore, He knew that Israel would inevitably have a king, because four hundred years before the request of the elders, God gave instructions about their future king in Deuteronomy 17:14-20; consequently, a nation that would be eventual ruled by a king was in God’s plan. Nevertheless, Israel’s elders had the wrong reason for requesting a king. Even though they were concerned about Samuel’s sons taking leadership of Israel, they had alternative motives. They wanted a king like the surrounding nations. They didn’t trust in God’s appointed servant, Samuel; therefore, they didn’t trust in Page | 4

God’s ability to guide them under a theocracy even though He had done so for almost 400 years. We often get into trouble by wanting to be like the world, when we should instead be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 12:1-2). We may also get into

trouble when we want the right things for the wrong reasons. So be careful what you ask for, because God may give you what you want, and then you may find yourself, like Israel, in a precarious position.

Israel was chosen by God to be unlike its surrounding neighbors. The other nations were steeped in idolatry, and Israel was chosen to be a theocracy, and not to be like its neighbors. A theocracy is a nation governed by God. However, Israel fell into the trap of wanting to be like neighboring nation. In antiquity, nations that had kings generally overburdened their subjects with military requirements and taxes. These kings lived lavishly at the expense of their subjects. Eventually, the kings of Israel and Judah followed the same path. In fact, it was the ungodly decisions of the first and third kings of Israel that ultimately led to the separation of Israel into Judah ((Judah and Benjamin) and Israel (Asher, Dan, Gad, Issachar, Ephraim, Manasseh, Naphtali, Reuben, Simeon, Zebulun).

What was the difference between a king and a judge? A judge was a leader raised up by God, usually to meet a specific need in a time of crisis. When the crisis was over, usually the judge just went back to doing what he or she was doing before. A king not only held his office as long as he lived; he also passed his throne down to his descendants. A judge would not expect to have a kingship. He or she was there to meet a specific need in a time of crisis, and God was their King. On the other hand, a king establishes a standing government, with a bureaucracy, which is both a blessing and a curse.

Samuel was disappointed when the elders asked for a king, but, being a man of God, he prayed for guidance, and God sent him the answer, “…hearken unto the voice of the people…they have rejected me…(1 Samuel 8:7).” Samuel trusted God, but the elders didn’t. In all of Samuel’s dealing with Israel, he communicated to his Heavenly Father, and he trusted in the power that the theocratic government provided. His audience with God Page | 5

was through prayer. Can we say the same thing? Praying is the key that unlocks God’s storehouse of riches, and we need to spend a significant amount of time communicating with God in prayer. Samuel is our example. Like Samuel, we need to trust in God, and take our burdens to Him in prayer, because He is big enough to bridge any gap that separates us from where we are and where we need to be. Often we do not get what we pray for, because God is an omniscient multidimensional being who sees the big picture. Since God knows the end before the end, He answers our prayers in a way that would maximally benefit our spiritual maturation. We are frequently disappointed with the results of our prayers; however, we only see the limitations constrained by our worldly existence. We do not see events as God sees them. Our narrow perspectives in a limited environment of time and space make it difficult for us to understand the big picture as it relates to the universe.

Perhaps a way to understand how God views us is to use the illustration of a twodimensional being trying to understand an object that enters his world as a dot, then the dot grows into a series of ever growing circles that reach a maximum and then recedes to increasingly smaller circles until it becomes a dot again. The two-dimensional being is puzzled by the events, and proposes a number of theories to explain the observations. He and his colleagues argue about the events of the mysterious appearance of a dot, the appearance of increasing circles, the appearance of decreasing circles, and then the reappearance of the dot into perpetuity. God, who sees the big picture, understands that an object like a basketball slowly entered the space of the two dimensional being, and the being saw the basketball as a dot, increasing circles, decreasing circles, and then a dot again. The being doesn’t understand what a basketball means, because two-dimensional beings don’t understand the three-dimensional nature of a basketball, but God does, and He can make decisions that will affect the life of the two-dimensional being because He sees and understands things the two-dimensional beings cannot see or understand. God is a multidimensional being; therefore, He sees things that three-dimensional beings cannot see, because He has access to the fifth, sixth, seventh, eight, ninth, and tenth dimensions.

These dimensions give Him insight into the possibilities of seeing the past and all possible futures while extending them into infinity and comparing all possible histories of the Universe with all possibilities of physics and all possibilities of initial and imaginable conditions. These characteristics exemplify the awesome characteristics of God, because God is the only being Page | 6

in the multiverse who has the incredible power to transcend all dimensions multiplied by His transretorative powers of omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence.

Our plans may not be God’s plans; therefore, we must trust in His omniscient wisdom. We should learn to take every issue before God, and trust in His wisdom to answer our prayers by letting His will be done in our lives. If we have an ordeal, let God address it. Moses had an ordeal, Joshua had an ordeal, Samson had an ordeal, Deborah had an ordeal, Hezekiah had an ordeal, Samuel had an ordeal, Paul had an ordeal, and Jesus had an ordeal, and they all, through prayer, trusted in the God of the Multiverse and took their burdens to the Lord in prayer. Their prayers were answered by the will of God who sees all things in a comprehensive manner; therefore, He answered their prayers in a way that would be the best fit for them and those who are within the sphere of influence.

God told Samuel to fulfill the people’s request. This was not because their request was good for them, because since they were three-dimensional beings they saw the now and not the future! God saw their future, and He know that a king would bring them hardship and misery. Israel forgot to trust in God; therefore, they would eventually suffer the consequences of their diminished confidence and trust in Him. When we insist on deviating from what God’s plan, then we suffer the consequences. Israel’s premature request for a king was their downfall, and our premature request could be our downfall.

God wanted Israel to know that there would be problems connected with having a king. but Israel believed that their problems would be solved if they had a king. While some problems may have been solved, a king would bring a different set of problems. They needed to weigh the benefits of having a king against their existing problems and the history of God’s theocracy. We need to do the same thing! When we fail to rely on God to solve our problems and rely on our own solutions, our problems can be easily exacerbated.

The world is in turmoil today. There are “wars and rumors of war;” Nations are rising against nations; there are famines and earthquakes. We see these things and panic when we should be calm, because these events are merely signs of the inevitable end of this stage Page | 7

of our history. We need to let go, and let God, because brighter days are coming. God is in control, and He will lead us into a utopian experience where there will be no more wars or rumors of wars. “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:6-9).”

Let's obey His voice, and trust in Him. Israel wanted a king to replace the King! “ A king to rule “over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” They should have kept their King, “the Lord of lords and King of kings.” Let’s not resist God’s rule, because the benefits of accepting God’s way will outweigh the benefits of resistance. How will you stand? Will you put your trust in God and let His will be done in your life?

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