I Samuel 12:13 Now therefore behold the king whom ye have chosen, and whom ye have desired! And, behold, the LORD hath set a king over you
All of us make decisions every day and all of us know the feeling of buyer’s remorse, when we buy something one day and regret it the next or we do something one day and are miserable about it the rest of the week or maybe our lives. If I were to ask you, “What are the best decisions you have made in the last three years and what are the worst decisions you have made in the last three years?” is there a pattern to those decisions? Maybe there is and maybe there is not, but all of us want to make decisions with which we can live.
We are in a seasonal change where we are coming into the summer months and regardless of what you are doing and where you are doing it, probably there is a new opportunity or set of circumstances to make new decisions. You want to make decisions you can live with. In August all of us want to be able to look back to the first part of June and say, “I made a decision way back in June and that was a good decision. I am happy to live with it.” I want to be happy in August with the decisions I made in June. I want decisions that “age well.” Some things and people age well and others don’t do so well.
So, who would have the best chance of looking ahead, knowing ahead, and making the right decisions? The answer would be God. In I Samuel 12, Samuel is basically coronating King Saul. Verse 1 says, “And Samuel said unto Israel, Behold, I have hearkened unto your voice in all that ye said unto me, and have made a king over you.” He is representing God when he says this, but it is true. What follows is a brief summation of Israel’s history, the good decisions and bad decisions, good decisions that God made and bad decisions that Israel often made.
We find the conclusion in verse 24 where he says, “Only fear the LORD, and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things he hath done for you.” So, he gives them their history and says, “Consider your history. Remember.” Consider and remember. There is a pattern here of good decisions. A perfect God cannot make bad decisions. If He is God, He is perfect. If He is perfect, He can’t make bad decisions. I know that will be hotly contested with a lot of people. Some people will hear that and be instantly angry. I understand, but a perfect God cannot make bad decisions.
How you view a decision has much to do with whether you think it is good or not and whether you are viewing that decision from short, medium, or long range. Only God has the biggest of big pictures. Good decisions share God as their source.
In the first several verses of I Samuel 12, you find the idea of witness. You are a witness and God is a witness and we can remember, see, and witness the pattern of the decisions. Good decisions all share God as their source.
You have a couple examples. For instance, in verse 6 Samuel says, “It is the LORD that hath advanced Moses and Aaron, and brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt.” It was God who advanced Moses and Aaron. They did not advance themselves. It continues, “Now therefore stand still, that I may reason with you before the LORD of all the righteous acts of the LORD, which he did to you and to your fathers.” So, who called Moses and Aaron? God did. This is hearkening back to Egypt, as God often did, to remind them of what He had done. The Lord sent Moses and Aaron to help Israel.
Then, Israel forgot and God sold them into the hand of their enemies. They cried and the Lord sent a second set of answers, Gideon and Samuel. Then he gave a third. So, there are Moses and Aaron, Gideon and Samuel, and then the most recent example of their bad decisions and God’s good decisions. Verse 12, “And when ye saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, ye said unto me, Nay; but a king shall reign over us: when the LORD your God was your king.” Verse 13 says, “Now therefore behold the king whom ye have chosen, and whom ye have desired! and, behold, the LORD hath set a king over you.”
God condescended or deferred to them, but it wasn’t His best. It wasn’t that the thing they wanted was a bad decision; it was the when and how they wanted and expected it. So many times, even if we are making a good decision, it is at the wrong time or in the wrong way. A good thing at the wrong time is not the right thing. So, God is the one who sees and looks ahead and God is the one who can choose wisely.
Good decisions all share God as their source. Over and again, Israel was sufficient to get herself into trouble, but only God could get her out. He did so with Moses, Aaron, Gideon, and Samuel, who were all imperfect people, but people whom God had chosen. In this case, here is the king they had chosen and desired.
We are not smart enough to know which decisions are big. Many times we think, “This is a big decision” or “This is a small decision. I’ll just do whatever I want.” Now, I don’t believe if I make a bad decision, then I am falling out of the will of God. I don’t think it quite works that way, but to think that anything that could interest God should not interest me or that I can make good decisions even in the smallest of things without some self-awareness and awareness of the sovereignty and wisdom of God is folly. I can’t make a good life that way.
You want your decisions to age well, to make decisions you can live with. Sometimes the easiest decisions are the hardest to live with and the hardest decisions to make are the easiest to live with. It is easy to eat brownies; it is hard to exercise. Sometimes it is hard to do the right thing, but it sure is easy to live with. May God help us. Good decisions all share God as their source, so let’s seek God for the decisions we make today.