Previously in 1 Samuel, we saw how the nation of Israel responded to the Lord’s discipline. They had experienced a significant loss in battle to the Philistines, and were under their rule. As a result, they lamented after the Lord, got rid of their idols, and served Him only. There was a genuine revival that took place in the nation under Samuel’s leadership. The Lord gave them victory over the Philistines, and they subdued them and recovered their cities which had been previously taken. It is a valuable lesson to us, that repentance from sin is a major key to blessing and victory in our Christian walk.
However, when Samuel was old, the spiritual fervor of the nation had waned. Samuel had also made his sons judges in Beersheba who did not have the same integrity as he did. They took part in dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice. Samuel, in his own superior character and relationship with the Lord, somehow did not pass this on to his children. There have been many godly parents in the Scriptures and throughout history who have had the same problem. It could be that Samuel and his wife failed somewhere in their parenting, or it could be that his sons simply did not care. This is why the Lord ultimately holds each of us accountable for our own actions rather than our parents or someone else. Well, this displeased the people, and you can partly understand why. However, they would end up choosing the wrong solution to the problem.
So, all the elders gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, “Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” Samuel was getting old, and maybe they did not think he would be around much longer. They then would be stuck with his two sons who were corrupt. He was probably in his mid-sixties, but as we will see, they were jumping the gun a bit. They had become discontented, and they wanted a change. There solution to the problem is interesting, and really reveals where they were spiritually. They wanted Samuel to make them a king that he would judge them like the other nations. Notice, there was no record of them praying or of them speaking with Samuel regarding his sons in an attempt to remedy the situation, but they wanted to be like the other nations around them who were not serving the Lord and who, in many cases, wanted to wipe them out. There are a lot of ministries today that use worldly methods to draw a crowd: they play secular music in their church services, preach watered down sermons, or bring somebody popular in to get the kids excited about coming. Although these methods may be effective in drawing a crowd, they do not produce mature Christians, and in some cases do not produce Christians at all if the true Gospel is not being preached. It is my observation, both from reading the Scriptures and from experience, that popularity is not really in God’s economy. When everyone likes you, me, or some new charismatic leader, that is usually a sign that something is not right. When popularity is the goal, we become men pleasers, and when we become men pleasers, we are often not pleasing the Lord (GAL 1:10). The straight and narrow path is not a popular one, and Jesus said that there will be few that find it. Our goal should be to be a God pleaser rather than a man pleaser, and when we please God, then we will also please the right people. When we choose worldly solutions to a problem, we cannot be surprised when we have many of the same problems the world has. Israel would get their popular king, but it would come with many problems as well.
Samuel was displeased with their request, but rather than becoming angry with the people or discouraged, he took it to the Lord in prayer. The Lord told him to heed the voice of the people in all that they say, for they were not rejecting him, but the Lord from reigning over them. They were doing only the thing they had been doing from the time the Lord had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, serving idols. What they had done to Him, they were doing to Samuel. In other words, they were going back to their old ways. Whenever you or I no longer want to submit to godly leadership, we are rejecting His lordship over our lives, and there is usually some sort of idol that has captured our attention. This is an important thing to remember if you are in public ministry as well: if you are doing the Lord’s will, they are not rejecting you, but the Lord.
God told Samuel to give them their request, but to solemnly warn them of the nature of the king that would rule over them. He would take their sons to serve in his army, to work his crops, and to make military equipment. He would take their daughters to be perfumers, bakers, and cooks. He would take the best of their fields, vineyards, olive groves, their men and women servants, their best young men, and their donkeys for his own servants and for his work. He would also take a tenth of their grain, vintage, and their sheep, and they would all be his servants. They would then cry out to the Lord in that day, but He would not hear them. The Lord was giving them this warning to allow them an opportunity to change their minds, but they responded to Samuel, saying, “No, but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” It is amazing what we are willing to put up with when we forsake the Lord’s ways for our own selfish interests. They did not want to take responsibility for their own spiritual state, nor did they want to trust the Lord for their own safety and wellbeing. They wanted to turn to the world’s ways, which is to look to a man and a form of government to save them. Not much has changed today: as a society, we have stopped taking responsibility for our spiritual state, and are looking to government to solve our problems. Our governments (federal and state) take far more than 10% of our hard-earned money through taxes and regulations that rob businesses of their profit and ability to hire more workers. As a result, we pay too much for the basic necessities such as fuel, food, utilities, etc. We have been through two years of COVID restrictions, many of which infringe on both our federal and state constitutional rights, and nothing has really been done to ensure the same or worse does not happen to us again in the future. It is even amazing to me how much hinges on what president is in office. Our executive branch is exercising a lot of power today, but it is power we have allowed it to take beyond the confines of the constitution. Turning to government and a man to solve our problems never works, and only leads to totalitarian rule, as those in power seek to take advantage of our laziness and naivety. I’m reminded of a quote repeated by Ronald Reagan, “A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.” Unfortunately, this idea of big government and a man to take care of us will be the very thing that will cause the whole world to follow the antichrist. Well, Samuel repeated their words back to the Lord, and the Lord responded, “Heed their voice, and make them a king.”
Their minds were made up, and nothing was going to change them. They would have to learn the hard way. When the Lord gives us what we want because we have already made up our minds that we just got to have it, that’s never a good thing. There’s a saying, “experience is the best teacher, but the tuition is high.” We will learn our lesson, but it’s going to cost us. Sometimes this cost is far more than we had imagined. Despite this bad decision on their part, the Lord did not give up on them, but continued to work with and through His people. I’m thankful for this, for we have all made bad decisions, but the Lord remains faithful to us. In the next chapter, we will see whom the Lord will choose to be king.
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