When the nation of Israel first arrived in the land of Canaan that God had promised them, they did not have a king like the other nations that were around them, they were ruled over by judges and prophets. The judges were the leaders of the nation for over 300 years, and we read about many of them in the book called Judges in the Old Testament. After the death of their leaders Moses and then Joshua, the nation became very wicked and began to follow after the customs of the wicked people who’s land they had settled in and partly conquered. I say “partly” conquered, because although God had told them to destroy ALL of the inhabitants of the land, they refused to do so, and instead let the people of the land teach them their wicked ways.
Look at what it says in Judges 2:11-13 “And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals. And they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the LORD to anger. They abandoned the LORD and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth.”
And the more wicked the nation became, the more they wanted to be just like the wicked people around them until in 1 Samuel 8:4-5 we read, “Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, ‘Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.'”
Rather than follow simply God and obey Him, they chose to follow the world around them, and aside from David and Solomon and a couple of other good kings, they had MANY wicked kings in the years to come, many wicked kings who lead them further and further away from God. All because they wanted to be “like all the nations”. They were not content to be different than the world – and their discontent led them to their downfall.
I fear we are in the same state here in America. Christians have slowly but surely over the past many years sought to become more and more like the world rather than standing firmly for God. As the nation of Israel began to serve other gods, so we as a nation have gone down the same road. Oh, we don’t necessarily worship idols like carved images and things, but rather we worship entertainment and pleasure and allow the values and wisdom of this world to pull us away from having the right kind of life that is entirely focused on Jesus Christ. We don’t want to be different – we want to “have fun” and “enjoy life” like everyone else. And just like the prophets of the Old Testament warned Israel that if they did not repent of their wicked ways and turn to God – destruction would come, the same is true for us.