Sunday's Devo - Watch What You Ask For

Read: 1 Sam 8:4-22
Samuel is old, his sons are not godly priests, and there is no one to lead the people spiritually, so they ask for a king. Samuel is saddened by this and takes it to God. God tells Samuel to give them what they ask for. So Samuel goes back to the people and tells them he will give them a king, but... this king will draft their sons, make them drive his chariots, plow his fields, harvest his crops, make his weapons, take their daughters for cooks and perfumers, take their fields and vineyards for himself, take a tithe of all they have, take their slaves and their best cattle, and they will be his slaves. When they decide this was a bad decision and want out, the Lord won't help them. What a choice. It seems to me that there would be no hesitating and the answer would be a NO!!! But, it wasn't. The people refused to take Samuel's warning and said they wanted a king anyway.
When I was in college, I wanted a car real bad. A friend of mine was selling his car and everyone thought I should buy it. It was an orange Vega that drank oil like it was gasoline, backfired and was a standard (of which I had never driven before). I was determined this was the car for me. I didn't even look anywhere else. My parents tried to talk me out of it, especially the "standard" part, to no avail. I promised to pay the payments and keep the car full of gas and oil. They let me get the car. Learning to drive it in a hilly town was a nightmare. I had to map out my destination to avoid all intersections at the top of hills, which in Ruston, was quite a feat. I had to go through the humiliation of backfiring black smoke, running out of oil, grinding the gears, etc. Then there were the monthly payments that got old real fast. Believe me, next time I needed to make a purchase of that magnitude I remembered all my parents had tried to warn me. God sometimes gives us what we ask for even if it isn't His best. But he always warns us first.
Lord, help us to heed your warnings and cherish your protection even if we don't understand it.