Main Menu

If you turn your face from me, I will turn my face from you

1 Samuel 8:4-22 “4So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. 5They said to him, You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have. 6But when they said, Give us a King to lead us, this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. 7And the Lord told him: Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. 8As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. 9Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do. 10Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. 11He said, This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. 12Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. 15He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. 16Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. 17He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. 18When the day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the Lord will not answer you in that day. 19But the people refused to listen to Samuel. No! They said. We want a king over us. 20Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and go out before us and fight our battles. 21When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the Lord. 22The Lord answered Listen to them and give them a king.”

Do you know the moral views of each of the people running for political offices in your state and nation? Do you care? My view has always been, “I don’t want to get involved, I can’t make a difference anyways.” A few weeks ago I heard Dr. Dobson speak on the importance of voting and investigating the moral views of each of our political candidates. At that time I thought, “I’d like to make a difference but since I lost my right to vote, there is nothing I can do.” For the next few days I kept hearing God say to me, “If you turn your face from me, I will turn my face from you.” I didn’t know what God meant by this until the other day when He took me to 1 Samuel chapter 8. Verses 7, 9, 18, and 20 hit me like a bat up side my head, than it all started making sense. God told me that I may not be able to vote, but I can be a voice to tell people, “If you turn your face from me, I will turn my face from you.”(Verse 9) We kick God out of our society (verse 7) and cry out to Him for help when our nation is under attack by terrorists. God answers our cry by working through a Bible believing Christian president, a president who is against stem cell research, abortion, same sex marriage, and who is supporting faith based programs, and we say he is wrong because all the other nations didn’t agree with his tactics (verse 20). Do you suppose, just suppose that the leaders of these other nations didn’t seek God’s will? If we choose a different leader who’s moral values are secondary to worldly opinions and come under attack again, we will cry out to God once again and this time will He say, “I tried to help you but you refused”? “If you turn your face from me, I will turn my face from you”. (Verse 18) What about your state representatives, what do they stand for? Are you more interested in their views on creating jobs, cutting taxes, and getting you federal aid or are your deepest concerns with their views on same sex marriages, abortion, prayer in school, stem cell research, and displaying the ten commandments on public property? “If you turn your face from me, I will turn my face from you”.

God is the same today, yesterday, forever. The God that we serve today is the same God that created the world, the same God that kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden for their sin, the same God that flooded the whole earth because of the peoples sins, sparing only Noah and his family for their righteousness, the same God who destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because the people of those towns were living in the sin of homosexuality, the same God that let the Hebrews wander in the dessert for 40 years for their rebellion and grumbling, the same God who let about 3000 people die for their worshipping of the golden calf, the same God who let the Israelites be taken captive by the Babylonians because they turned their face from Him, and He is the same God who allowed terrorist to attack the twin towers in New York. But in every situation, God shows mercy and grace because He loves us so much.

God has blessed this nation for over 200 years because it was founded on Biblical principles. The original constitution was based on the laws set forth in the Bible and our forefathers believed in these laws to be the only way a person should live and a country to be run. Over the last 200 years we have twisted these laws to match our desires, our wants, and the worldly views around us. This year in 2004, we are at a crossroad, if we don’t take a stand for Gods laws and vote for the candidates who believe in them God is saying to us, “If you turn your face from me, I will turn my face from you”.

It takes more than just going out and voting, we are all a sound mind to check out the moral values of each candidate, a voice to encourage others to do the same, and a pray warrior to ask Gods forgiveness for our nations sins, to seek His guidance, and ask His favor upon us. We will each have to give an account for our actions here on earth some day, and when God says to you, “I called you to be a voice for me”, what will you be able to say? I challenge you from now until the 4^th of Nov., everyday make it a point to contact someone and encourage them to vote.