1Samuel chapter 8 comments

1Samuel 8:1 ¶  And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel. 2  Now the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abiah: they were judges in Beersheba. 3  And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment.

 

Even good men can have bad children. Samuel seems to have had no better experience at parenting than Eli did.

1Samuel 8:4 ¶  Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, 5  And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. 6  But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD. 7  And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. 8  According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee. 9  Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them. 10  And Samuel told all the words of the LORD unto the people that asked of him a king. 11  And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots. 12  And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. 13  And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. 14  And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. 15  And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. 16  And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. 17  He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. 18  And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day. 19  Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us; 20  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. 21  And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of the LORD. 22  And the LORD said to Samuel, Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king. And Samuel said unto the men of Israel, Go ye every man unto his city.

 

This underscores the lie that kings of old reigned in God’s stead, called the Divine Right of Kings, which Richard Ely, President Woodrow Wilson’s mentor at Johns Hopkins University, updated to the Divine Right of the State. Kings ruling over men, centralized governmental control, and the oppression that follows was not in God’s perfect will for Israel but He permitted it. They were warned of the consequences of not accepting God’s rule alone over them. The way it appears to me was that executive power was to be exercised by the tribal leaders under the guidance of the priests and ultimately the judges, like Samuel, who were to administer God’s Law given to Moses. The idea of a kingdom or even a nation-state as we have today goes against that imperative. Israel was a loose confederation of 12 tribes, a sort of theocratic republic under God, if I can stretch the meaning of that term.

 

In verse 7 God makes it clear that the demand for a monarchy was a rejection of His singular authority over them and was a direct consequence, perhaps, of their idolatry. They made the error that many Christians make when they say they just want to be like everyone else in the world and be manipulated and dominated just like the rest of the world with their political and lifestyle choices.