Kids hear about peer pressure all the time, drugs, alcohol, dating, skipping class, lying to their parents, smoking... you get the idea. When I was a kid one of the most frequently heard comments when talking about peer pressure was usually something like "Well just because everyone else does something doesn't mean you should, if all your friends drove off a bridge would you?" And they're right, just because everyone else does something doesn't mean you should. But have you ever thought about where all this started?
I mean think about peer pressure isn't a new thing. If you're a teenager you've been dealing with it for sometime now. Chances are your parents did too (even if they won't admit it) and your grandparents and your great-grandparents and so on. It's been around for pretty much forever.
What was the first sin in the garden? Satan, through the serpent pressured Eve to eat of the fruit from the tree that she was forbidden to eat from. Granted the pressure didn't exactly come from Eve's peers but considering there were only two humans in existence at that point it's kind of easy to understand why. (And besides the next sin was when Eve gave the fruit to Adam and he ate it too, that's peer pressure.)
But I think there's an example in the Bible of what I like to call the "Ultimate Peer Pressure" and it all starts with the Israelites in 1 Samuel chapter 8. The prophet Samuel, God's prophet, had been leading the nation of Israel but the Bible says that when he got old he appointed his sons to lead the nation however his sons didn't follow in his ways and they were dishonest so the people had an idea.
The elders of Israel came to Samuel and demanded that he give them a king. Now keep in mind that God was the king of Israel, this is His chosen nation and He had been the one to rule over them. He appointed prophets and rulers but God was the one in charge.
Samuel was upset and understandably so at the people of Israel's demands so he prayed about it and God said to listen to the people and give them what they demanded. God knew their hearts were unfaithful to Him but he told Samuel to warn the people what a king would do. Still they persisted.
1 Samuel 8: 19-20 But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”
Talk about peer pressure! The people of Israel had God as their king! God Himself was ruling them but instead they demand a human king! A flawed, broken individual who was full of sin and would most assuredly fail them. But even with a warning they persisted and Saul was appointed as their king. And if you read on in the Bible, or even look at the Israleites today you will see that they are still paying the consequences for that action. But even through all that God is still with them.
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