Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty. 1 Samuel 12:20-21
Let’s set the context for these verses. The people of Israel, God’s chosen, have asked for a king, partly because of the chaos around them and the turmoil within their ranks, and they believed a strong leader would be able to protect them. Part of their reasoning was they wanted to be “like all other nations.” For the worldly-minded, this has to make sense.
God gives the people what they want, but not without warning them of what it will cost them in the future and what it has cost them in the present. The greater cost is that they have displeased God and have put their relationship with Him in peril. At this point, the people beg Samuel to intercede for them. We might look at the situation with the Israelites here and wonder what the big deal was. The sin was choosing earthly masters over trust in the God who had already proven to be salvation.
It is difficult to be separated from God. We may argue and justify what we do, or minimize our role in our sin, or qualify the wrong as less significant in comparison to the terrible things done by others. But we cannot escape the conviction that no matter our reasoning, it is not God acting on a whim, but our own choices to turn away from Him that have caused the rift. Once that reality becomes present to us, it is overwhelming.
And it is easy, once cognizant of the divide, to stop doing even the “little” things I know are right. Those small acts of obedience will not sanctify me; they will not make God love me more; they will not make me clean before the all-consuming fire of Our Lord. What is easy is to turn to the habits and the people I trust will make me feel better about life, without acknowledging that these cannot give me life.
But God does not leave us alone, even as we suffer from under the sentence of our own prisons. This is no time to give up, and say, “Well, that’s it. God will never love me. God will never help me.” No, this is the time to say, “I know the path. I know the right thing and will do it.” The people are reminded that even kings are “empty things that cannot profit.” And we need this reminder, or at least I do, because turning to emptiness is what the world, and the selfish little world inside me, is prone to. It seems almost natural to become like sullen children feasting on cotton candy, which dissolves even as we are tricked into believing we are full.
Our Father, forgive me. Make me always aware of your love despite my churlish nature, and help me to live in obedience, even when I cannot feel your presence. In the holy name of Jesus Christ, I ask bowing. Amen.
