Proper 5

1 Samuel 8:4–20 (NIV84)

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.”

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. 9 Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.”

10 Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. 11 He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. 12 Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. 15 He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. 16 Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. 17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. 18 When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the Lord will not answer you in that day.”

19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. 20 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.”

As always lets put this passage in its context.

And to do that lets go all the way back.

God had promised Abraham that the world would be blessed through his descendents.

This is God’s mission to set the world right.

When Abraham’s descendants were enslaved in Egypt, God heard their cries and liberated them

Calling them out of slavery he provided for them and guided them with the law

He was blessing them and forming them to be HIS people restored relationship with him, restored lives to live in accordance to his will

And as HIS people they were to be a light to the nations that the one true God is good and all can be saved

But even as they were being rescued the people of God started grumbling and turning to other gods

They simply didn’t trust him

Still, eventually God does give them a land to inhabit

But at this point they are a bunch of tribes and they face threats from all around

And then we have the book of Judges which is just chaos

It’s basically cycle after cycle of God saying, “trust me and follow me” and the people doing their own thing and getting in trouble and getting conquered and then crying out to God to save them and then God raises up a judge (a leader) to help deliver them and restore them and then the people say “cool thanks now leave us alone” and rinse and repeat

That brings us to 1 Sam

Samuel, whose mother is Hannah (we should not forget her), is a prophet who serves as a judge of sorts for a Israel

We learn about Samuel coming into that role

And we get a story about the people of God battling the Philistines

They’re losing the battle and decide, “hey we won battles because of God’s miraculous work so go grab the ark of the covenant and just walk it around and we should be golden.”

But they didn’t consult god and god didn’t tell them to do this and they’re basically treating God like a magic token to get them victories and guess what, they get routed. And the ark gets taken.

Ultimately the ark comes back because the Philistines experience plagues and they’re like “get that thing outta here.”

That brings us to this passage.

The elders of Israel are like, “what are we going to do now?”

And remember, the answer for them as always is, “Let’s get back to hearing from God, trusting him, waiting for him, and following him. We’ve gotten away from who we’re called to be.”

But that’s not what they decide. Instead they go to Samuel and we get a conversation that’s something like:

We want a king.

No you don’t. It will go bad.

Yeah we do. All the other nations have one.

You mean all the wicked nations that you’ve been fighting that sacrifice their children and such? You want to be like them?

Yes.

OK. But here’s what’s gonna happen if you install a king

He will make your sons fight his wars and they will die.

Or he will make them make weapons for his wars or work the ground for his harvest.

He will rob from you and give your wealth to his own inner circle.

He will abuse his power and hurt people.

You will essentially become his slaves and end up crying out for deliverance again.

And the people God said, “sorry what, we weren’t listening. Have you given us a king yet?”

And God says OK, if that’s what you want.

And sometimes God will hand us over to our desires.

The king that gets installed is Saul. A super impressive, good looking fighter.

And guess what, people are stoked for a while and then, spoiler, it goes real bad and Saul becomes a tragedy

Remember that this time on the church calendar is about who we are in Christ, what it means to be the church.

So how does this passage help us in that regard?

I think there are two main lessons for us to take away.

The constant struggle for the people of God is to believe that God is enough.

It’s the story of the first sin in the garden.

Adam and Eve believing God was withholding from them.

It’s the story of the Israelites grumbling in the wilderness.

The Israelites believing God had ill intentions or wouldn’t fulfill his promises.

It’s the story of every faith community recorded in the bible and every faith community since.

Because life includes less than desirable circumstances and constant stressors and God doesn’t work at our pace or prioritize what we prioritize or always give us what we want

So we lose patience and the idea of surrendering our lives to live in the center of God’s will in God’s timing loses its lustre

We can easily start to believe, yeah that’s a nice sunday school concept but I live in the real world and I’m fighting real battles so I gotta be pragmatic

And what’s really messy about that is that the “real battles” many are fighting are not godly battles to begin with

So we’re chasing things outside of God’s will

Fighting battles outside of God’s will

Mad that God isn’t helping us win fast enough

Sounds like the Israelites trotting the ark of the covenant out, “OK God I did the thing now give me what I want”

And the second lesson is that when we don’t trust that God is enough and we’re mad that God isn’t getting the job done one of our FAVORITE strategies is to look for a strongman who CAN get the job done and start winning some battles and making some progress

If you’ve read the book Jesus and John Wayne it’s basically a historical survey of Evangelicals doing exactly this over the last century.

Losing sight of actually following Jesus to chase power through culture wars, always looking for some strongman to protect their tribe and conquer the others

We see it in people believing a certain politician is the answer

He’ll fight our battles for us and ...

We’re doing the same thing.

Could be a politician, could be an impressive strongman pastor who creates a brand that makes us feel comfortable because its winning.

But just as it’s always been for the people of God, the goal isn’t to find the right impressive conquerors to lead us, the goal isn’t to conquer at all, the goal is to be the people of God by hearing from him, trusting him, waiting for him, and following him.

we’re meant to be set apart

we’re meant to be a light to the nations

But we’re in a bit of a different situation than the Israelites.

For starters, we aren’t a nation state. We’re a people who inhabit all political constructs.

And beyond that we don’t need to look for a strongman because the true king has come.

That’s Jesus.

There’s a passage I love from Acts 17 when the gospel goes to Thessalonica.

'But other Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd. But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the city officials, shouting: “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.” ' Acts 17:5-7

We don’t need a ceasar or a strongman, whether in the government or in the church

We have a king. But he’s also our brother.

He displayed strength through sacrificial love.

And he is with us to guide us to become who we are: the people of God and a light to the nations.

The question is whether we can trust that he is enough and submit to him and trust him and listen for his voice and wait for his timing and follow where he leads.