The Curse Of Answered Prayer - 1 Samuel 8-9,12 Series

Introduction

We are in the midst of a very quick overview of the first half of 1 Samuel preparing ourselves for an in-depth study of the life of David. We left off last week at the end of chapter seven, where the Israelites have about the sweetest deal they ever had going. They came to God in as wonderful and genuine an expression of repentance as you will see anywhere in Jewish history, and God responded by giving them total deliverance from their enemies on all sides. But before long they took their eyes off the LORD.

That is often the way it goes when God blesses us. We have some massive trial, we beg God to deliver us from it, and He does, and before long we find that the small trials in our lives have become intolerable. It is like a guy who is in agony because of a broken foot, and God does surgery and restores him to perfect health, and not long after that the man is suicidal because he has some pebbles in his shoe. No matter how many trials and troubles God takes away from our lives, until we learn how to derive all our joy from God alone, the level of misery stays the same. As soon as God takes away the huge trial, your soul just readjusts its perspective until the small trial is just as big. No matter how many trials and troubles and headaches God removes from your life, and no matter how many of your prayers He answers, if you do not learn how to find joy in God alone you will not find joy at all. And whatever remaining trials there are, no matter how tiny, will start to seem intolerable after a while.

And that is what happened to Israel. They have it made. God gave them everything they ever asked for and more. But they soon get restless and start wanting something different. Bottom line, they got tired of God and wanted a different king. And so in chapter eight they reject God.

I. The people reject God as king (chapter 8)

Having a king was in God’s plan, so what is wrong with their request?

1 When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as judges for Israel. 2 The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second was Abijah, and they served at Beersheba. 3 But his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice.

4 So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. 5 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."

Now, if you stop right there the request sounds reasonable enough, doesn’t it? God hated rulers who took bribes and perverted justice. So what is so bad about not wanting that? And what is so bad about desiring a king?

The answer is nothing is wrong with either one of those. In fact, God had made it clear that it was His plan to eventually have a king. Way back in Genesis 49:10 Jacob prophesied that the kings over Israel would come from the tribe of Judah. We see it again in Numbers 24:7,17. There was even a section in the Law of Moses that regulated the way the Israelites were to ask for a king when the time came, and some things that king was to avoid. (Dt.17:14-20) Hannah even mentioned a coming king in her prayer back in chapter two – a whole generation before anyone was even asking for a king.

This is the very last line in her prayer:

1 Sam.2:10 He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.

So it was clearly God’s plan for Israel to eventually have a king. There was nothing wrong with asking for a king per se. And there is certainly nothing wrong with them objecting to dishonest judges who took bribes. But if you look closely at the context you see pretty quickly that the corruption of Samuel’s sons was not the real reason. If their concern were really just about having unrighteous judges, why not just ask God for righteous judges? Or a righteous king? They don’t say anything about a righteous king. So what is really going on here?

They were rejecting God as king

6 But when they said, "Give us a king to lead us," this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. 7 And the LORD told him: "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. 8 As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you.