Scripture Introduction
It might seem that nothing could be less relevant than a chapter from an ancient book, describing a transition in political power of a nation half the world away, which occurred over 3000 years ago! But the events of that day and time include:
• Corrupt politicians taking bribes;
• Conflicts and confusion over the relationship between God and government;
• Excessive taxation; and
• Messianic political leaders who would make the state into a “cradle to grave” director of people’s lives.
It sounds like USA Today instead of the Bible! But God has preserved, in this honest assessment of the fears and foolish choices of the people of Israel, a prescription for what every country needs. I will read 1Samuel 8, then we will ask the Lord of all nations to teach us from his Holy Word.
[Read 1Samuel 8.1-22. Pray.]
Introduction
We feel secure when we perceive no danger, and most of us appreciate that as a good feeling, one we hope to promote.
Some of us feel secure when we are confident of our ability to pay for future needs – so we are sensitive to the rise and fall of our retirement portfolio or prospects for continued employment. Others perceive a lack of danger when we fit in with our peers – so we can be pretty sensitive as to how we are received by those around us. A great many Americans want to feel secure about air travel – so the threat of terrorism has lead us to give up a number of freedoms and conveniences to accommodate increased airport security. Charles Schultz popularized the phrase “security blanket” for small children when he pictured Linus hugging his blanket, but people young and old want objects and circumstances which give us that good feeling of security.
It is not wrong to seek safety instead of feelings of vulnerability; but like most desires of the heart, the quest for security can lead us away from God and toward idolatry. 1Samuel 8 reveals that very problem ruling the hearts of God’s people at this critical juncture in Israel’s history.
For several generations, the people of Israel lived as separate clans with local judges deciding matters difficult or controversial. But Samuel grows old, their connection to God weakens, and his sons are well-known as irresponsible, even reprobate men. If you have read 1Samuel, you may remember that the book begins with the Priest Eli and his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. Eli refused to discipline his sons, so God removes their household from the Priesthood. He says, “Those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed.”
Shortly thereafter, Israel goes into battle, where the Philistines capture the Ark of Covenant and Hophni and Phinehas are killed. When Eli hears the news, overcome with grief, he falls out of his chair, breaks his neck, and dies.
Samuel is then appointed priest and judge, and he leads Israel back to God with a time of peace and prosperity. The Ark is restored and God’s blessing again returns to his people.
But chapter 8 begins with Samuel’s two sons judging Israel poorly and we feel our anxiety rising. Samuel is old (like Eli) and his sons are corrupt (like Eli’s) and we sympathize with the elders who say, “This system is broken. We need stability, a way keep the nation moving in the right direction, a new system which avoids the up-and-down stress of you judges and your corrupt sons. We need a king, Samuel. Your way of doing things is old-fashioned, and it does not work. Look at the results of Eli and you as judges and priests – we are left in the hands of your sons who take bribes and pervert justice! The other nations are doing it right – they have a king, a dynasty which unites them and keeps them strong and focused. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the other nations.”
We might think, from a cursory reading, that their great sin was requesting a king. We might suppose that the people of God should not desire a monarchy (rule by royalty), but a theocracy (government by God or priests like Samuel who speak directly with and for God). But there is good reason to conclude that the problem is not the king, per se. Listen to what Moses wrote 400 years before these events, his description of the future of the nation of Israel:
Deuteronomy 17.14-17: “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. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the LORD has said to you, ‘You shall never return that way again.’ And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.”
“You may indeed set a king over you.” The monarchy is not the problem, what they fear is. They want security different from what God offers and they will chase any idol which promises that. God recorded this event because it reveals our hearts, it shows how we can reject God and what results. Notice, first, please…
1. When We Reject God’s Kingship, We Substitute Another
Let’s look at two things the people said, then God’s assessment of their decision:
1Samuel 8.5: “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.”
1Samuel 8.19-20: But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be 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.”
1Samuel 8.7: And the LORD said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.”
Now because of what Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 17, it seems that the real question here is not about the form of government, but the faith of the people. Years earlier they thought to manipulate God by placing the ark before them as they went to battle. Their trust was not in the Lord, but in a talisman or technique they could control. There was no talk of a king then, but neither were the people content with God’s rule. The same problem is revealed in this chapter, though it takes a different form. They still want to manipulate God, but now they try a new political policy to shield them from the necessity of personal and corporate godliness. Unfortunately, words betray the true thoughts and intentions of the heart.
“We want a king to judge us and go out before us and fight our battles for us.” In other words, we are afraid that God might not come through for us when we need him, so we will try another plan, one with more security.
That is silly because God has proven again and again that he can be trusted. He showed his supremacy over the Philistines in the Ark events and over the Egyptians when he delivered his people from slavery. Through Moses he promised to continue to protect them. But the prophets and priests are not resplendent in royal finery, and his power is not seen in chariots and horses. Additionally, he requires a humble and sincere heart. So they reject God rule and seek a substitute.
I understand the concern which the elders express. There is a leadership vacuum. Samuel’s death approaches and with it an immediate risk to the nation. A king would provide security, including a stronger, centralized government, without the uncertainties of regime change. They chose political stability rather than spiritual vitality.
This is not a question of monarchy versus theocracy, nor democracy versus plutocracy, nor Republican versus Democrat. The form of government is not the problem, but the faith of the people. Whom do we trust? What the country needs is a people who trust in God regardless of the political winds of the day.
Psalm 118.8-9: It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes.” The sin is trusting in the price to save. Politics itself is not evil, but trust in politics is. Just as money is not sin, but trusting in wealth is.
Job 31.24-28: “If I have made gold my trust or called fine gold my confidence, if I have rejoiced because my wealth was abundant or because my hand had found much… this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges, for I would have been false to God above.”
I remember in 2000 when I put my first (and last) political candidate sign in the front yard. Frustrated with the major parties, I imagined that one of the smaller, “third party candidates” would solve our problems. Eventually I realized that my trust was a new form of government, just as it was for Israel. Please do not infer that we should avoid involvement in politics. We need Christians in office. But I found that my heart slipped, and I substituted a solution other than God. No king can lead us to victory (nor perfect candidate); the battle belongs to the Lord, and we win only when our trust is in him.
Something else I see in my heart through the mirror of God’s word:
2. When We Reject God’s Kingship, We Become Averse to Holiness
The people expose their heart motives when they say, “There shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations” (1Samuel 8.19b-20a).
I read that at the turn of the century in London, errand boys were known for whistling while they worked. But someone with a sharp ear noticed that every errand boy he heard whistled out of tune. The story goes that some research discovered that the bells of Westminster were also out of tune. These boys lived and worked every day within the sound of those bells and learned to whistle out of tune.
Picking up the wrong notes so we whistle out of tune well pictures worldliness, conforming to the ideas of the society in which we live. It is receiving direction, and desires, and definitions of success from what we hear every day. But Jesus told us that while we live in this world, we are not to be of this world. Instead, we are to be set apart, different, known by the life of God in us. One of the Biblical words for this is holiness, which means separate.
The separation of holiness requires both putting off sinful behavior and putting on godliness. There are things which those who trust God will not do, and there are things which those who trust God will do. Together these make us different from those who live for themselves and earthly pleasure.
The famous Baptist preacher, Alexander Maclaren, said it this way: “One of the first lessons which we have to learn is a wholesome disregard of other people’s ways.”
But that is precisely what the Israelites did not want! They regarded other people’s ways; they saw success in the world and wanted it for themselves. They were ashamed of how it looked to be godly. They were sensitive to the culture’s agenda, rather than God’s. (Illustration: Manute Bol, fool for Christian in WSJ.)
But just as true faith makes a difference in the Christian’s life, so it makes her different from those who are not truly converted. What the country needs is a people who dare to be different because their king is God. Yes, the Bible requires that God’s people be model citizens, but also that we embrace the holiness which sets us off as citizens of an everlasting kingdom. Regardless of the political party in power, God’s people obey a different King.
Let me show you one more thing:
3. When We Reject God’s Kingship, We Become Immune to Wisdom (1Samuel 8.8-19)
I imagine that if I heard Samuel’s speech, I would have quickly and vehemently taken back my foolish request for a king. Yet do we not regularly reject God’s good and gracious rule in favor of our own folly?
• Do not some obey the king called, “career success,” even to the loss of what is truly important?
• Do not some obey the king called, “worldly pleasure,” even to the loss of peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Spirit?
• Do not some obey the king called, “reputation,” even to the cost of giving in to peer-pressure and doing things which we know to be wrong?
• Do not some obey the king called, “materialism,” even to the loss of their own souls?
We know the danger and the damage, but we sin anyway. God would rule us, not for our destruction or misery, but for our good and blessing. Let us embrace his ways and his wisdom.
4. Conclusion
Four applications:
1. Popular demands may be plausible, yet also wrong. The request for a king came from the elders who spoke for the people. The reasons made some sense, and were popular, but they were ungodly. Let us learn to judge, not by numbers or by our frail sense, but by the Word which discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
2. Sinful desires may only be corrected by experience. The people would not listen to wisdom; they refused contentment unless God acquiesce; so God gave in to their demands, even to their own hurt. Let us learn to hold to our desires loosely, that God might correct us without such fearful consequences. Those he loves, he disciplines. But better by far to keep in step with the Spirit and know his comfort rather than his correction.
3. Prayer should be our first and best answer. Samuel’s response to being displeased is to speak with God. Many blessings come from such prayer, as Henry Scougal explained: “In prayer we make the nearest approaches unto God, and lie open to the influences of Heaven. Then it is that the Sun of righteousness visits us with his most direct rays, and dissipates our darkness, and imprints his image on our souls.” Consider these benefits which accrued to Samuel through prayer: 1) He found relief for his burdened heart; 2) He felt God’s sympathy for his bitter disappointment; 3) He received guidance for this difficult situation; 4) He learned submission to the sovereign will; 5) He obtained strength for his hard duties; 6) He experienced peace in a stressful time; 7) He kept confidence in a glorious future. Let us pray.
4. God’s perfect plans proceed in spite of sinful folly. As bad as was the heart of the people, God’s plan always included a King to reign and rule. Not a King like all the other nations, full of greed and controlled by love of his power. But a King who would give his life for his subjects, rule in perfect humility, and be controlled by his love for God and God’s people. Jesus is that King. He combines the security we long for with the laws we need and the service which saves.
Ultimately 1Samuel is about more than Israel’s foolish choice. It is about how foolish all our hearts are, and how we would turn away from God’s good rule to disasters of our own making. But God has set his own King on Zion, his holy hill. Blessed are those who take refuge in him. What our country needs right now is a people who trust in his unfailing power and his glorious rule.
