1 Samuel 8: A King in God’s Place

 

Introduction

In this past week the United States has elected their next President. Whatever you may think of the events of the past week one thing is clear: a nation has chosen their leader. In this past week the United States has chosen the person they want to lead them in the next stage of their history.

And, in our passage today, we see another nation chose how they wanted to be led in the next stage of their history. Up until now God’s People had depended on the Lord to raise up judges to lead them as needed, but now they want a king like the peoples around them. In choosing a king they are really rejecting their identity as God’s holy, chosen, distinctive people; it is a rejection of God and their relationship with Him.

So, our passage could be understood this way:

A Ridiculous Request

An Identity Rejected

A Right Desire with a Wrong Motive

These verses stand as a warning to us, and we must listen as God speaks to us today. God’s People tend to look to the wrong ruler, for the wrong reasons. But, in Jesus, God has given us the King we need, rather than the one we naturally demand.

Let’s see this now as we turn to God’s Word and firstly hear…

A Ridiculous Request

Samuel was one of the greatest leaders in the Bible. Last time, in Chapter 7, we saw how he had led God’s People to a place of political and spiritual stability. And God would use Samuel to bring peace and prosperity to His People in the years between Chapter 7 and Chapter 8.

There was just one problem with Samuel: he was human, and he was getting old. Chapter 8 begins with the troubling reality in verses 1 and 2 we read:

When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as judges for Israel. The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second was Abijah, and they served at Beersheba.

We can understand why Samuel would want his sons to share the difficult load of leading God’s People. The problem is that Joel and Abijah are deeply flawed characters.

More importantly, God’s Word is clear that it is God who provides leaders for His People by His special calling. And in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 we read that it is godly character, not bloodline, that qualifies men to lead God’s People. By this standard, Samuel’s sons fell desperately short; in verse 3 we read:

But his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice.

So, you can imagine that as the elders of Israel looked on at this situation- Samuel was nearing the end of his time and his unworthy replacements- they had genuine leadership concerns. Who would lead them in the face of the constant military threat from the Ammonites and Philistines?

Perhaps with the memory of Eli and his wicked sons at the back of their minds, the elders came to Samuel with their concerns; in verse 5 we read:

They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”

The elders failed to learn the lessons taught earlier in 1 Samuel. Rather than wait for God to speak through His prophet, they dictate their plans to Samuel. Once again, as was the case in Chapter 4 with Ark, the Israelites have their own idea about what needs to happen.

To be fair, their reasoning is understandable. Facing an impending internal leadership crisis, they want a leader like their apparently successful neighbours; they look at what has worked for everyone else and they believe that is the way forward.

In a sense, all these people were doing was looking around at the strong political situation their enemies enjoyed and wanting the same for themselves. All they wanted was a sense of security in a turbulent world.

The problem was that the people had come to Samuel, not to seek God’s help- as they had in Chapter 7- but to demand the solution they had decided upon. They believed that if they were to succeed as a nation then they must have an earthly king who would provide success and stability like the other nations had.

They were, once again, seeking security in something other than God and His Way. The victory God had won for them at Mizpah was not enough to convince them that God’s power and provision was sufficient. They were, once again, turning from God’s Way because they failed to understand who God was- they failed to remember His awesome power and amazing grace.

Ultimately, they thought that trust in God and His ways was not quite enough. Yet again, the people were prepared to abandon the Lord and adopt the ways of the fallen world around them.

The same logic is often at work amongst God’s People today.

How often does logical, rather than theological, thinking dominate the decisions made by God’s People today?

Think about when we face difficulties (in the Church or in our lives)- do we turn to God in His Word and seek Him in prayer? Or, simply think about how we view our circumstances- we want difficulties to pass as soon as possible rather than asking God what He is doing in our difficulties.

Think about our parenting- do we want successful children who are happy with what this world has to offer or do we want sanctified children who experience true joy in following Jesus?

Think about our evangelism- do we truly want to be disciples who are making disciples of Jesus or do we just want more of our friends to join our club?

Think about our worship- do we see our worship as the gathering of God’s People under the truth of God’s Word to gaze upon the beauty of His glory and to marvel at the immensity of His grace?

I fear that too often our thinking is shaped by the world around us and our desire to be like ‘…all the other nations…’.

The elders make a ridiculous request: they want a king like all the other nations. In other words, they wanted a leadership system that would remove their need to rely on God’s provision and perfect rule. Instead of looking to God for help and relying on His provision, they wanted to dictate to God what form His help would take.

Rather than seeking God and trusting in His ways, they wanted to live life on their own terms. It seemed easier fit in with the world around them than follow the Lord who had saved them.

And so, secondly, we see…

An Identity Rejected

We live in a world dominated by the question of identity. More accurately, we live in a world struggling to define identity.

As individuals we can choose from 72 possible genders. As people living in N. Ireland, we can identify as ‘Irish’, ‘N. Irish’, ‘British’, or ‘Ulster-Scots’- there are probably more that I haven’t named. And our sense of national identity is often questioned-what does it mean to say you are ‘British’ or ‘Irish’?

And this ‘identity confusion’ can infect our thinking as God’s People. If someone were to ask you, ‘What does it actually mean to be God’s People?’, what would you say? And, as importantly, how do you live out that identity in today’s world?

These are questions that God’s People have wrestled with in every generation. These are questions the Israelites were wrestling with in Chapter 8. Here again their demand in verse 5: ‘…now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have…’.

The Israelites are not asking for God to lead them, they are not even asking for God to help them. The people are not asking for the king whom God has promised. They are demanding a king ‘…such as all the other nations have…’.

 

Notice how God responds. He ministers to Samuel by teaching him that the People have rejected God, not Samuel personally. Then God deals patiently, but righteously, with His People. He tells Samuel to listen to their request, but also to warn them of what their request will mean in practice.

When Samuel warns them of the way their king will reign in verses 10 to 18, the people insistently repeat their demand; in verses 19 and 20 we read:

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.”

Why do they want a king as all the other nations have? Because they want Israel to be a nation like all the other nations. In essence, they no longer want to be Israel; they have rejected their identity.

By demanding a king ‘…such as all the other nations have…’ the Israelites had rejected God’s call for them to be holy and set apart from the unbelieving world. In effect, they had rejected their identity as His People. In Deuteronomy 14 God reminded His People:

…for you are a people holy to the Lord your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the Lord has chosen you to be his treasured possession.

By demanding a king like the other nations had the Israelites were turning their back on this gracious, glorious calling. They would rather fit in than stand out. They would rather be like the world than be holy like their God.

 

Israel were the people of God. They were a special people with a special relationship with God. They were a holy nation, set apart for God, and to be a light to the other nations. In other words, they had a ‘missional’ identity: they were to reveal God to the nations by being like God. Now they want to be just like all the other nations. It is a complete rejection of who they are supposed to be.

They were supposed to be a nation governed by God’s Word. But instead, they allow the world around them to dictate how they should live.

They were supposed to be divinely distinct. But instead, they want to cowardly conform.

They were supposed to be a light to the nations. But instead the darkness of the world swallows them up.

Their request for a king is a rejection of their God-given identity. And it is a warning to us today.

As God’s People today we have distinctive missional identity. In 1 Peter 2 Peter uses the language of Israel’s identity to describe the identity of the Church:

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Peter says that the Church, God’s People today, are now God’s Special People, His holy nation.

We are to be a people whose behaviour is governed completely by God’s Word.

We are to be divinely distinct, standing up and standing out for Christ in Christlike ways.

We are supposed to be a light to the nations, declaring the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His wonderful light.

As God’s People are called to be exclusively devoted to God. As God’s People, bonded to Him by covenant, we are to honour Him in all things because of the great love that He has shown to us.

The love of God calls us to a life of holiness. As God’s People, chosen by Him and set apart, we are to be different from the world around us in practically every way: our way of thinking, patterns of behaviour, ambitions, and character. In light of all that God is and what He has done for us we must embrace our identity and live for Him

So, finally, we must live with the right motives…

A Right Desire with a Wrong Motive

We know that God saw the elders’ demand for a king as a rejection of Himself. But earlier in Israel’s history He had anticipated this very event; in Deuteronomy 17 verses 14 and 15 we read:

When you come to the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’ you may indeed set a king over you whom the Lord your God will choose…

In Chapter 8 Israel asks Samuel to appoint a king. God has promised His People a king. But this request for a king is met by God’s disapproval. Why? Because the People are asking for the wrong king with the wrong motives.

They don’t want the king God has promised. They want a king like everyone else has. They want Israel to be like all the surrounding nations. This is a rejection of their identity as God’s holy, chosen, distinctive people. It is a rejection of God and their relationship with Him.

God’s Word is clear: God’s People are to be led and ruled by Godly leaders. God had even made the accommodation that His People could be ruled by an earthly king. In the Israelite’s request for a king there was a right desire but a wrong motive. They were right to want a king to lead them, but they were wrong to want a king to take God’s place.

We have said before that one of the central messages of 1 Samuel is: ‘Choose your king’. The Israelites choose their king, an earthly king, and they choose wrong. But even in this God will accomplish His sovereign purposes.

God’s true plan for reigning over His People involved one who would reign forever. Samuel’s last act as Israel’s judge was to anoint young David and guide him as he began his leadership of God’s People. But David was, ultimately, a forerunner to the true and great King who would arise from his own line. Indeed, the Old Testament centres on this promise of a Rescuer-King who would fulfil the prophecies of being both the Son of David and Son of God. These prophecies were fulfilled and the King provided in the coming of Jesus.

Jesus is the True King of God’s People. This is seen in the contrast between Jesus and the kings described by Samuel. Notice in verses 10 to 18 how the king the people want is a king who will take and take and take. And, as verse 17 says, in the end this king will lead them into slavery.

Jesus is not a King who takes, but a King who gives- He came not to be served but to serve, not to take but to give His life as a ransom for many. He gave His own life on the Cross, in our place, that we might be set free from the Great Slave Masters of Satan, Sin, and Death.

Jesus Christ is King, but not a king like all the other nations have.

He is a Servant-King who serves by giving His life to free His People; He grants fullness of life in the forgiveness of sin.

He is the Rescuer-King who has fought and won the greatest battle for His People through His self-giving at the Cross.

He is the Shepherd-King who gives peace and rest to all who come to Him.

He is the True-King who leads us to a place of true, everlasting flourishing when we follow Him completely.

Conclusion

We must all be ruled by someone, or something. We can either be enslaved by sinful desires and the ways of this world, or we can be set free enjoy the blessings of being God’s People under His perfect rule. In Christ, the True-King, we find true security, eternal satisfaction, and everlasting salvation. And when we follow Christ completely- when we make Him our King- we will enjoy the blessing of being holy as He is holy.

So, let us never forget who we belong to and what that truly means; as 1 Peter says: ⁹ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.