A King to Rely On
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When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. Yet his sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice.
Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, “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.” But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord. 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. According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”
So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king from him. He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”
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.” And when Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey their voice and make them a king.” Samuel then said to the men of Israel, “Go every man to his city.”
As one looks around and beholds the oppression of believers and the earthly success of unbelievers, and notes how few are the former and how numerous the latter; as he sees the apparent defeat of… right and the triumphing of might and… wrong; as he hears the roar of battle, the cries of the wounded, and the lamentations of the bereaved; as he discovers that almost everything down here is in confusion, chaos, and ruins, it seems as though Satan were getting the better of the conflict. But as one looks above, instead of around, there is plainly visible to the eye of faith a Throne, a Throne unaffected by the storms of earth, a Throne that is “set,” stable and secure; and upon it is seated One whose name is the Almighty, and who “worketh all things after the counsel of His own will”. This then is our confidence—God is on the Throne.
- Arthur Pink, The Sovereignty of God
Today we are going to see Israel choose an earthly king over YHWH. They are going to seek a king like the nations around them to resolve their nation’s political issues instead of looking to God.
In light of the this past week, and the elections in our nation, and the usual rhetoric associated with it - I think that this is an appropriate passage for us to consider today. Because we need to make sure we aren’t doing the same thing.
Disclaimer:
This is about the church, not the nation - I am not speaking to anyone as an American, but as a Christian. We are American Christians, but never forget that the noun in that is “Christian” - in other words, Christian is what we are, and American is just our situation.
I am not against the political process in our country. I am very much for it. I am not in any way advocating for Christians to abandon the process. I will not discuss my personal views on American politics, because they are irrelevant. This is not a political message, but a Biblical message. The Bible addresses how Christian should engage with worldly powers.
Last week we talked about putting away all of our false gods and turning whole heartedly towards God. And to do that, I said we had to do three things: repent, remember, and rely.
Repent of our sin, remember Who God is, and rely on Him alone.
And I said that if we do that, God, Who is only ever good, and Who is sovereign over all, would provide for us and only do us good.
And even though good may include suffering and facing trials in this world, if the suffering is for the sake of God, it is good.
And I said that the problem with suffering and seeing it as good is that most of the suffering and the trials we face are not good. Because most of the suffering we face is a result of our not being turned wholeheartedly towards God. It is our walking the unblazed middle path that causes the most suffering for us in the here and now.
And when we walk our own path instead of God’s path, we have forgotten God and we are not relying on Him to provide what we need.
And today, I want to focus on that reliance part of this - the repentance and the remembering are necessary parts of this - but discovering who or what we really rely on is very telling about the path we are actually walking.
Like discovering who Israel relied on was very telling of the path they were on. It often reveals that they were not turned wholly towards God but tending to do things according to the ways of the world.
And in today’s passage, this is what happens to Israel yet again. Their desire for a king like the nations would cause suffering until they ceased to be a nation.
Let’s take a look:
When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. Yet his sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice.
Just like at the start of chapter 7, we now jump ahead many years. We saw Samuel’s birth. We saw him as a young man in the Temple where God revealed Himself by the Word of the Lord.
Last week, we saw Samuel as a grown man, taking the lead in Israel and, like the prophets always do, calling God’s people back to YHWH - calling them to repentance. He had them cease their worship of other gods and turn themselves whole heartedly to YHWH.
And we saw that when they did, God was right there, and He did what they couldn't, and He fixed what they broke, and He gave them victory and provided for them abundantly. Just like He always does.
And then some time passes. We don’t know how much, but now Samuel is old. And we are told that he made his sons judges over Israel.
Now, let’s understand the system here. Last week, we read:
Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.
So that he made his sons judges over Israel would seem to mean that he delegated some responsibility to them, but he himself remained the leader of the people. And We are told that his sons judged in Beersheba, and in chapter 7 we are told that Samuel judged in a circuit through Israel:
1 Samuel 7:16–17 (ESV)
And he went on a circuit year by year to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah. And he judged Israel in all these places. Then he would return to Ramah, for his home was there, and there also he judged Israel.
So we see a sort of leadership hierarchy within Israel. Samuel is the judge, but he has to appoint others with authority in other places. And some of those he appointed, are his sons.
But there is a problem with his sons:
Yet his sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice.
His sons, we are told, turned aside. Aside from what? Aside from God. They turned off the path. They turned their hearts towards other things.
Now this should sound familiar. This should bring our minds back to the two sons of Eli that we met back in chapter 1, who have now been dead for probably close to 50 years at this point.
They abused the power they had and used it for personal gain.
But there’s a difference between them and Samuel’s sons.
The difference is that Eli’s sons were priests. And as we saw, God purified the priesthood. He did it. He miraculously gave Hannah Samuel, who dedicated him to God, and God took care of the problem of Eli and his sons, and placed Samuel as priest.
But Samuel was also judge of Israel. This is not a religious office, like priest, but a political office. And even though Israel was a theocracy - that is, they were ruled by God - there were still politics at play in Israel.
Because while the priesthood was appointed by God to act as intermediaries between man and God, God told Israel to appoint judges - political leaders - to carry out justice in the nation.
This is what God said to Israel:
“You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
And while we may not use the title “judge” in the same sense, in our modern society, we have the same thing. We have people that are leaders over certain territories with certain responsibilities, and there is a hierarchy of leadership.
And note that God’s concern here is that the leaders of His people lead justly. And he tells the people what just judges should not do. They should not pervert justice, and they should not show partiality by accepting bribes.
And we read of Samuel’s sons:
Yet his sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice.
Imagine your political leaders doing that!
Now think about the situation. Decades earlier, the worship of the people was affected by corrupt priests. The priests used their position for personal gain and pleasure, and the people didn’t know what to do about it.
So God did something about.
Then, we saw the problems with the surrounding nations. The Philistines come against Israel, and Israel tries to fight in their own power. And they lose.
Then, they try to act like the nations around them, and fight like they fight. And they lose.
Then Samuel - God’s solution to the priest problem - calls them back to YHWH. And they turn back to YHWH, and when the Philistines come against them, God did something about it.
Not only did He defeat the Philistines, but He even gave the lands of the Philistines back to Israel. It was a complete rout.
And God did it.
And here we are - a few decades after that - and Israel’s worship has been good and pleasing to God. They have had peace from their enemies because they were pleasing to God.
Then this political turmoil begins. Based on what God has done for them, what should their reaction be? Since He fixed the issue with the priests, and He fixed the issue with the Philistines, Who should Israel rely on to fix this issue?
Since their way and the world’s ways have already proven repeatedly to be failures, what should they do?
They should go back to Ebenezer, to the stone of remembrance that Samuel erected to remind them that God has always been their help. That He has always set things right.
That’s what we should do in times of trouble. As we saw last week, we need to remember Who God is and what He has done. We need to realize that most of our troubles we bring ourselves because of sin, and we should repent before Him. And then, we should rely on Him to do what’s right, because He’s only ever good.
Is that what we do?
Israel didn’t.
Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, “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.”
So, after God fixed their worship. After God fixed their problem with the nations around them. After decades of peace that God provided for them… they try to solve this problem the world’s way. And they ask for a king.
“Listen, Sammy, you’re getting a little long in the tooth, and your kids - well, they aren’t so good. We want a king. If we have a king, the problem will be fixed.”
Now note two things here. First, they want a king to judge them, like all the nations around them have. They want to fix yet another problem by being like the world around them. By doing things the world’s way.
Second, they want to do things the way they want, not the way God wants. God said to appoint righteous judges for the political leadership of Israel. Israel says: we want a king to judge us.
But also notice what they don’t say. They don’t ask Samuel - the famous prophet of Israel - to seek God on this. They don’t ask Samuel - the priest - to pray for them like they asked him to do in chapter 7 when the Philistines attacked - to ask God to provide a fix.
In fact, they don’t mention God at all.
They exclude God from the political process altogether.
Once again, they have put Him to the side. They have forgotten Who He is and what He’s done. And they come up with their own fix: let’s get a king.
And this really shows how we’re no different than Israel in yet another way.
When things aren’t going the way we think they should in our country, our first thought is: we should change leadership.
That will fix everything!
I mean, I am so glad that election day is behind us, because I was so sick of hearing - on both sides - how the leaders they wanted would change things for the better.
And while I do take part in the political process, and I use the voice I have and I vote (we should! I am in no way saying that the political system we have does not have a God ordained place in our lives!)…
…but I have noticed something over the last 30 years that I have had the privilege of taking part in the process. No matter what, no matter the political party being discussed, no matter the person being talked about, no matter the problem we have or don’t have - there are always the same amount of people complaining that we need a change in leadership.
Have you noticed that?
But even more, I can look at where our nation was 30 years ago and look at it now, and I can say that nothing has been fixed. In fact, I think things have gotten worse.
And it is because we as a nation have pushed God more and more to the side where He can be forgotten.
And yet, I have to ask myself the question: how many of God’s people are still relying on worldly leadership to fix it all?
That’s what Israel did here. “Worldly leadership is not good, give us new worldly leadership!”
“Samuel, you’re old and your sons don’t walk in your ways, now appoint a king to judge us like all the nations.”
Let’s do this exactly like the world does it!
Then Samuel does what Israel should have asked him to do. What they should have done:
But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord.
Samuel knew where his help would come from in this time of trouble. He remembered Who God is. He knew Who to rely on.
But the people didn’t. And so we see that cycle we have already talked about repeat itself. Israel turns from God - they try to do things their way - and God let’s it happen.
Sometimes, when we don’t ask God, we get what we ask for.
And in this case, Israel loses both politically, and spiritually.
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.
So they told Samuel, in essence that he was now too old for the job. So in a sense, they were rejecting him.
But, by asking for a king like the nations around them, they were really rejecting God. They already had a King. The reason they had judges and not a king, is because God was their King! He was at the top of the ladder of authority.
But Israel looked to a worldly, political solution to their nation’s problem, instead of looking to God.
They didn’t look up, they looked around. They didn’t look to God, they looked to the world.
“How do those around us deal with such issues - how does the world deal with political issues? Let’s do that.”
And the sad truth is, especially in our country, so many Christians - so many of us - tend to do the same thing. And the rhetoric that is spewed from so many cable news sources is the same rhetoric that we use.
And the overly partisan view point of American politics is the view point of many Christians.
And the belief that one particular party or one particular politician is the savior we need - while we might not use that exact terminology for obvious reasons - still we Christians buy into that type of thinking.
We look around instead of looking up.
Because even though we are not a theocracy and America is not the inheritor of God’s promises to the nation of Israel - nonetheless, God is still King. And there is only One Savior that saves man from what he really needs saving from.
And just like Israel - if the church turns ourselves wholeheartedly to God - if we repent, remember, and rely on Him - He will provide what we need.
I know that the world around us is looking to parties and politicians to stop the bleeding and turn the economy around so we can all afford to live again. I know the world around us thinks that if we just change leadership, we will be able to have what we need to keep up our standard of living.
But in the church, should our hope be the same?
As Christians, should we rely on worldly leadership to provide for us and set right what man has broken?
We need, once again, to be very careful here. Because I know that even among Christians there is a tendency to turn to worldly powers and say “give us this day our daily bread.”
Let’s remember Who has helped us till now, and Who always will.
Israel forgot. They wanted to solve their worldly problems through worldly means. And when they told Samuel they didn’t want him as judge anymore, they told God: “we don’t want You as King anymore.”
That was the change in leadership they were really asking for.
It is a matter of who they relied on. And they were not relying on God - to provide, to set things right, to put godly judges in place - they relied on worldly ways to resolve their problem.
And I’m not saying we shouldn’t care about who has power in our country from a worldly standpoint - we should. But we need to remember that God really has all the power.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t vote in leaders that will make it easier to provide for our families, I’m saying we should remember Who the true provider is.
You see, there isn’t an either or here - it isn’t rely on God or godly leaders - but we should rely on God for godly leaders.
Israel didn’t do that here.
But we should realize, none of this took God by surprise. Remember, He is sovereign.
In fact, He said this exact thing would happen. Once again, back in the book of Deuteronomy, just as Israel was about to inherit the Land by God’s grace - in fact, right after God told them to appoint judges to rule over them when they get in the land - God said this:
“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.
“And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.
God calls it. He tells them when - not if, when - they ask for a king like the nations around them, they will get what they want.
But there are conditions if it’s going to work out for their good. He has to be an Israelite. He can’t acquire many horses for himself, or great riches in any sense, and he can’t have many wives.
And most importantly, the king is to rule in the fear of the Lord, Whose Word He seeks. Why do I say most importantly?
Because none of the kings of Israel obeyed the other stuff. They all acquired riches and horses and wives. And yet, there were righteous kings and there were wicked kings, according to the Bible. And that’s not because of how they were more or less righteous in how they obeyed these regulations and lived their lives personally, but because they either feared the Lord or they didn’t.
And of course, this points forward to our King Jesus, Who is the only One to keep the law of God and never turn aside from the commandments. Who rightly feared or reverenced the Father.
As the writer of Hebrews tells us:
In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.
Jesus is the King God wanted Israel and us to look to.
But God knew the heart of man, and He knew that they’d want far less than Christ at times, and He knew how it would turn out.
Even when He gave these commands about kings, He knew what wold happen. Which is why He says to Samuel:
Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”
And again we see the sovereignty of God. Not just because what He said would happen hundreds of years earlier happened - that’s nothing new for God. But because He said He would choose the king when Israel wanted one. And God here is telling them that He is going to choose a king that will do all of these things.
Because God is going to give them exactly what they asked for - a king like all the other nations around them.
So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king from him. He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”
So the king that God would choose according to what Israel wanted, would do all the things that God said a king should not do. He’d have the horses. He’d have the wealth.
But worse, God tells them that the king will acquire all of this on the backs of the people. The kind of leader they wanted would take advantage of them and make life good for himself and his friends, but make life worse for the general public (gee, I wonder what that would be like).
But this is the way of the world, isn’t it. This is what the heart of man does. Just like we saw with the sons of Eli, and just like we see in our passage today with the sons of Samuel - worldly power corrupts.
And yet, Israel wants a king - a supreme ruler to replace God - according to the ways of the world.
And this is why Samuel - the only one in this story who was still reliant on God and who sought His provision - tried to deter them from relying on an earthly ruler.
He wanted them to remember, even though the political situation was far from ideal, even though those in power were corrupt - they already had the King they needed sitting on the throne.
Brothers and sisters, so do we.
The question is: Who will we rely on? To provide. To fix what man has broken. To turn our nation around.
Not, what do we know our answer should be! Who, in practice, do we rely on?
Will we rely on God, or will we forget that there already is a King on the throne - One Who has all the power, One Who is only ever good - and will we look around instead of looking up, and like Israel forget our King?
But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us,
No, we don’t want God - we want an earthly king. We want to do it the world’s way:
1 Samuel 8:19–20 (ESV)
“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.”
How Israel has forgotten! They don’t remember.
Realize the irony here. What is the last thing we read about God before this demand for a king? It was last week, when we saw the Philistines attack.
1 Samuel 7:10 (ESV)
The Philistines drew near to attack Israel. But the Lord thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel.
That’s what their King did. Their King - the King of kings. The God of gods. He went before them and fought their battle and gave them victory.
And yet, Israel asks for a different king:
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.”
This is why God said they rejected Him. They are literally saying - we don’t want God to do what only He can do and has always done - we are relying on an earthly king to do it. Just like the rest of the world.
The question is: Christians, what do we want?
Repeat disclaimer - for the church, not for the country - I am not against taking part in the political process, I am against doing it without our eyes firmly fixed on God
Take part while relying on God alone - not relying on any earthly leader
We need to look to the highest - the only true - authority. Our King.
And we should because of Who He is and what He has done - and because of our reliance on Him alone - we should take part in the political process - we should vote, we should speak out, we should run for office.
But we should keep our eyes up. We should never ask for a different king.
And we should do first what the Bible tells us to do. We are going to get our application straight from the Bible this morning.
Paul writes:
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
Remember, God said He would always choose the earthly king. And as He is sovereign over all, the powers in this world are ordained by Him.
And if we look to Israel, we see that God always gave them what they wanted and deserved, and it was during the times of spiritual prosperity that He provided political prosperity.
Now, I want to be clear. There is a huge difference between us and Israel. They were a theocracy, we are a republic. They were a chosen nation, we are not a favored nation in the eyes of God in any sense.
But God is still God, and we - the church - are His chosen people. And we need Him every bit as much as Israel did.
And I think that is easier for forget for us, than it was for them. Especially in our politically charged culture of today.
But don’t take your eyes off of God. Remember why we are Christians here in America. To tell people about our King.
We don’t first want economic security for our countrymen - we want eternal security. We don’t want unity on earthly leadership - we want unity on heavenly leadership.
And we need to remember: our earthly leaders - no matter how they treat us or how they live their lives - whether you voted for them or they are of your preferred party - they are fallen humans.
They are in no way a final answer to any of our troubles. God alone is. So I am advocating looking to God to do what He does - to fix what is broken, and redeem what is lost.
And remember, this world is not our home. Our citizenship is in heaven. We are exiles here on earth as Christians, no matter what country we live in.
But even when in exile, God said this to Israel:
But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
So we should consider ourselves blessed that we have the privilege of taking part in the political process. But we should consider ourselves even more blessed that God tells us we can rely on Him for the welfare of our nation.
So if we want better leadership, we don’t go to the voting booth first, we go to God:
First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
And then, instead of being like the world - divisive, dismissive of those who disagree, quick to anger about political issues - we need to heed Paul’s instruction:
If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
Listen, Israel’s desire for a king like the nations would cause suffering until they ceased to be a nation. Their reliance on earthly leaders and worldly ways would be the undoing of the nation.
But God would redeem even that. He would fix what they broke in Christ. the question for us on this side of the cross is - Who will we rely on?
Because our purpose here is not to make the country Democrat blue or Republican red.
It is to cover it in the red of the blood of Jesus.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
We have a King. And we need to claim this nation for Him - not through the political process, but through the Gospel.
Because our hope is not in the next election - it is in Christ alone.
Our trust is not in any man or woman on earth - it is in the Man that now sits at the right hand of the Father.
The Man Who followed every command of God, Who executed justice by taking our punishment, and Who God crowned King of kings and Lord of lords.
Don’t take your eyes off of the heavenly King, and look to an earthly one to solve anything.
Instead, let’s pray to God - let’s rely on Him and Him alone to save our fellow Americans from what they need to be saved from.
And let’s be willing and eager - and count ourselves blessed! - to be a part of that process.