1 Now it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel. 2 The name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. 3 But his sons did not walk in his ways; they turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice. 4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, 5 and 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." 6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to judge us." So Samuel prayed to the LORD. 7 And the LORD said to Samuel, "Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, 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 to this day -- with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods -- so they are doing to you also. 9 "Now therefore, heed their voice. However, you shall solemnly forewarn them, and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them." 10 So Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who asked him for a king. 11 And he said, "This will be the behavior of the king who will reign over you: He will take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots and to be his horsemen, and some will run before his chariots. 12 "He will appoint captains over his thousands and captains over his fifties, will set some to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and some to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 "He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers. 14 "And he will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his servants. 15 "He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage, and give it to his officers and servants. 16 "And he will take your male servants, your female servants, your finest young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work. 17 "He will take a tenth of your sheep. And you will be his servants. 18 "And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the LORD will not hear you in that day." 19 Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, "No, 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 repeated them in the hearing of the LORD. 22 So the LORD said to Samuel, "Heed their voice, and make them a king." And Samuel said to the men of Israel, "Every man go to his city."
We Want to Be Like Other Nations (vv. 1-6)
Samuel Old and His Sons Unfaithful
Serving the Lord is the joy of every believer, but we grow older, and the outer man begins to weaken, body and mind. We resist the decline, and it requires meekness before him to accept the changes of advancing age and weakness. At the same time, God’s grace ripens in us, so later years can still be good years. The younger should recognize this and make good use of the wisdom and experience of their elders. Older believers who have served the Lord faithfully should be celebrated by the younger. Samuel could not have been older than 60 years, but he had given his years and strength for God’s people. He could not make his judging rounds with his usual vigor. He was by no means a dotard, as his later dispatch of King Agag makes clear. But Israel saw the handwriting of the wall – Samuel’s active years drew to a close. He hoped his sons would take his place, but they proved unfaithful. They were not as bad as Eli’s sons, but they were greedy, took bribes, and perverted justice. The children of godly men will never be godly unless they seek the Lord as their fathers and mothers have done. God’s covenant gives children promises; seeking grace renews them in Christ.
We should in the new covenant era expect greater grace down through our generations. This is always in submission to the Lord’s providence, for we know only what is revealed in his word, not his purposes in individual souls. Faithful parenting is not having the right methods but a right heart – trusting the Lord’s promises, praying them day and night, broken over our sins, not sweeping them under the rug but being honest about them so that our children know that our faith in our Savior is real, that He is real. If religion is used to manipulate behavior and create guilt, it will be justly abandoned sooner than later, for this is not the Bible’s religion. Godly parents do not trust their methods or their gut instincts, formulas or gurus. They are realistic about sin and use God’s armor patiently and believingly. This is not to speak ill of Samuel. He lived under the old covenant dispensation. The Holy Spirit passes no judgment against Samuel as upon Eli, but Samuel’s sons did not follow his good path. Not trusting our abilities or our children’s goodness or early manifestations of piety, we must trust our heavenly Father and his promises. We must pray and expect the Lord to keep his promises to us and to our children, which inspires faithfulness and faith in this new covenant age of greater grace and light and power by the indwelling Spirit of holiness.
A King is the Solution We Demand
The elders came to Samuel. “You are old.” We hear in their words the impatience and disrespect of youth and the cravings of the flesh. It is not simply Samuel who has grown old before their eyes. The Lord’s great works of redemption through Samuel have lost their hold upon the affections of the nation. They have allowed the fire of faith to grow old and cold, which always happens when we do not keep the Lord’s goodness in constant memory. They should have respected Samuel and drawn near to support him, for they should have seen in him the goodness of the Lord and the wisdom of his word. How can we help you transition to old age? Since your sons do not walk in your ways, what kind of leadership do you recommend? How can we enjoy a faithful ministry when you go to your reward?”
They did not speak like this, for their hearts were not right with the Lord or thankful for Samuel. They demanded a king. The Lord had envisioned a time when Israel would have a king (Deut. 17:14-20). This was not contemplated as a positive development, for in Deuteronomy as here in 1 Samuel, the motive is a bad one: “like all the other nations.” You mean like the other nations ground down under idolatry and tyranny, destroyed by Israel’s armies, because the Lord was their King? Does Israel want to turn into anti-Israel? Apparently. They did not ask Samuel’s advice about future leadership. They wanted change, and change meant to be like the world. It was a horrid demand. They were weary with the Lord and his government of their lives, with judges he raised up for them, even with Samuel, who had done them so much good. Godly men respect faithful leaders, despite their imperfections. We are to hold them in high esteem and love them for their work’s sake (1 Thess. 5:12-13).
We should pause briefly to examine our hearts. Much of the church’s failure throughout the West for many centuries may be traced to the desire to be like the world – to have the trappings of worldly grandeur in buildings and priestcraft, to have the ceremonies that protect the heart from scrutiny and please the flesh but cannot subdue it. As citizens of earthly nations, we want prosperity, and we have sought it the world’s way of debased currency, consumerism, and constant warfare. We have not laid up treasure in heaven, so now we lose our earthly treasures. Even in our daily pleasures and entertainments, “like all the nations” has been our motto. We cannot love the world and love God (1 John 2:15). This was Satan’s lying temptation to our Lord – bread on your own terms, not your Father’s; recognition of your sonship not by obedience but by pushing yourself forward and testing your Father; the crown without the cross. These lies filter down into our lives and create much wreckage – I want friends like everyone else; I want the house and cars others have; I want the fashion and applause and appreciation of the world; the preacher must agree with me. We cannot be like the nations and be God’s holy nation. And we cannot make demands of him that serve only to gratify our fleshly desires.
We Reject the Lord as our King (vv. 7-9)
Something Reasonable Can Be Godless
It is not that their desire for a king was itself wrong. As a government form, monarchy has its positives and negatives. It was their motive. They were sick of being ruled by God. In effect, they rejected having Him as their King. Their request for a king seemed logical to them, defensible from a certain point of view. But, it was a godless request. Something imminently reasonable can be godless. Motives are important. A good motive cannot turn a sin into something good, but a bad motive can make something good an evil to us. Had the Lord ever been anything but faithful to them? Did he not always provide for them, protect them, and forgive their audacious rebellion? Yes, all of this is true; he is the best Lord and most glorious King, to them and to us. But when our hearts stray from him, we began looking around at the world for something better. But there is nothing better than to walk humbly with the Lord. All his relations with us and works toward us have ever tended toward our good.
Samuel was seriously displeased with Israel’s request. He took it personally. We can understand his reaction. Samuel loved the Lord as boy and now as a man. He never stopped loving, serving, and praying for his people. Now, when he was old and weak, his lifelong love was unrequited and rejected. Perhaps older pastors and parents, business owners and school teachers and craftsmen, feel his pain. You have served and labored, but then the younger generation kicks you to the curb. It is a bitter pill to swallow, and we must do more to support and express thankfulness and interest and need for the elderly in our midst. And, the older must expect a certain transition and yield their place to the younger, thankful to have served, without bitterness, willing for the Lord to direct their lives by his loving hand.
The Lord Was Their King (12:12), Now Ungratefully Rejected
The Lord gives Samuel a little perspective. They have not rejected you, Samuel, but me. They do not want me to be their King. They want a king they can see, for most of Israel did not walk by faith but by sight. They want the apparent normalcy and security of human government, like the other nations. The Lord governed them with a very light hand, but men enslaved to sin cannot endure the burden of liberty. The Lord’s people forgot all he did for them. For over 400 years, he bore them on eagles’ wings, fed and clothed them, restored them again and again after many seasons of rebellion, and kept his covenant. How did they respond to his goodness? They forsook him to serve other gods. The Lord does not need us, but he loves us. He is jealous with a righteous jealousy, for he has a right in our love, inasmuch as he has been so gracious and merciful to us. When we turn away from him and reject him, he is provoked. His love is spurned. His Spirit is grieved.
The Lord told Samuel that this is not about him, but about his unfaithful wife and idolatrous nation rejecting him yet again. Give them their king, Samuel, but show them what it will be like without my easy rule over them. Few things are harder to endure than rejection. The Lord knows rejection. Our Lord Jesus was “despised and rejected by men.” Some of the Lord’s most imminent servants have suffered much rejection. Let us remember this and continue choosing the Lord and loving him with all our hearts. When we grieve his heart, we will be miserable. When others grieve us by rejecting our efforts, let us take our sorrows to the Lord and ask him to comfort us by his Spirit. He knows just the balm we need, for his heart is tender.
We Do Not Care How Much a King Costs (vv. 10-18)
Government Machinery Costly, Invasive, Personal
Our Lord’s yoke is easy, and his burden is light. This is not true of human governments. Samuel honestly warned the people the high cost of a king. He will take your sons and daughters to work for him in a variety of functions: charioteers, farmers, bakers, soldiers, domestic work. The king will take a tithe from you to support his court. In some respects, a king will be like “God” in your midst, but a very flawed and fallible one. You will be his servants (v. 17). This is the highest cost of all. Instead of being free under the Lord as their king, Israel will become slaves under a human king – and all to be like the other nations. The cost of worldliness is always higher than we anticipated and more than we can pay or bear. And then, when we learn the cost, we start wailing. But the Lord will not hear. The cost of government under the judges was very low. Admittedly, not much “got done,” and relief was sometimes slow in coming. National unity was difficult to achieve under the judges, but localism has its own value and efficacy. Yet, it is always better to have less government, not more, as we are bitterly learning. Be sure to teach your children these lessons. Better to have small and local government, without all the programs and services, than to be ground down into poverty and political slavery to support a bloated bureaucracy that serves only itself.
The Righteous King Gives, Not Takes
The Lord will eventually give his people a righteous king, David, and ultimately the Messiah. What distinguishes the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ is its lowliness (Zech. 9:9; Matt. 21:5). All the fury and greed and perversion today can easily eclipse this truth in our hearts and radicalize us. Then, we begin thinking of our Savior’s kingdom like worldly kingdoms – taking and gathering power, dividing men by their political allegiances, setting up spy agencies, self-enrichment, the tyranny of expert opinion. Our Lord’s kingdom is very different. He gives, never takes – except what he first gives by his grace (1 Cor. 4:7). Our Lord Jesus gave himself for us, and he never takes from us to enrich himself. All the fullness dwells in him to share with us of his abundance (Col. 2:9). His chariot was a donkey, humility, and he never lays upon a burden that he does not carry for us by his amazing grace. This is the reason that only a Christian people will ever know limited government and therefore true liberty under Christ. Our government grows in overreach, size, expense, and tyranny to match our unbelief and rejection of Jesus Christ. Like the men in the parable and the men in Israel in Samuel’s day: “We will not have this man to rule over us. Give us a king like the other nations.” They did not want the difference that God’s grace and love brings into our lives. They refused to live separated unto him, to have their King of glory near and faithful.
We Will Have a King to Rule over Us (vv. 19-22)
Stubborn Men Will Not Listen to Wisdom
Israel’s true heart is revealed by these words: “they refused to obey the voice of Samuel.” And why cannot we obey our own voice? Because the Lord gives us his word and teaches us by his Spirit through the men whom he raises up to shepherd us under him. Here was Korah’s rebellion revived. It is the same spirit we see in the church sometimes, in homes, and certainly in our nation. We will not listen to anyone but ourselves. We know what is best for us. We do not. With Samuel standing in front of them, they demanded a king to go out and fight their battles and judge them. It is unbelief that thinks of government in terms of human armies and palatial buildings and multi-level departments. Israel trusted a future king to protect them, rather than the Lord. We think man’s governments and programs will bring security, but it is the worst tyranny of man playing at God. Stubbornness is iniquity and idolatry (1 Sam. 15:23) – it is setting up one’s own opinions as the standard of truth and righteousness. Daily we must repent of enslaving ourselves to the word of men. It is burden we cannot bear. God’s word is a burden, but it is a light burden, for in fellowship with the Lord, he will carry us and our burden.
Make Them a King
Perhaps most dreadful of all is that the Lord told Samuel to make them a king. Sometimes, the Lord gives us what we want, but then we are miserable when he gives us our idol (Ps. 106:15). This is one way he chastens us when we set our hearts upon anything beside him or higher than him. You may one day have the desire of your heart, but it will not satisfy you. Israel would not be moved from the demand to have a king, and their future history for a millennium was determined by this stubbornness. Yes, they had a few good kings, but the trajectory was tyranny and misery, finally exile, subjugation, and shame. The same is truer for us, for now we have the true King, our Lord Jesus Christ. We shall always find that his yoke is easy, so let us gladly place ourselves in his harness and desire only to know and follow him. Then, he will rule over us, take care of us, give us what we truly need, and above all satisfy us with himself. We must have a King. Israel was right about this. But, any king but the Lord Jesus Christ will bring disaster to our lives. So, as we have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so let us walk in him, rooted and grounded in him. Where we are in rebellion, let us repent. Where the King is a stranger, let us believe upon his name. He is the gentlest of kings, the wisest, and the truest. We shall never regret having him rule over us.
Therefore, in the light of Israel’s demand to have a king and their rejection of the Lord as their King, we should ask, first, if we have believed and confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord. Out from under his reign, we are as rebellious as Israel was. Without him ruling over us, there is no one to deliver us from the curse of sin or from its power in our lives. We must have Jesus Christ to rule over us, for his reign is saving. Be sure you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord. Second, walk under his Lordship. It is no good to have a king but to disobey him at every turn. There is no grace in such a relationship, no confidence or joy, nothing but guilt. Many in the church live this way. They know that Jesus Christ is Lord, but they do not walk before him as Lord. Bring yourself and your family under the reign of Christ. His is an easy yoke, but it can be hard at first when his yoke is received. Children may rebel. A spouse may become angry. Neighbors may laugh. But under the yoke of Christ’s kingship is our only safety and security. He alone has wisdom and strength to overcome the world. He is Noah’s Ark. Everyone else is drowning in rebellion.
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