Let us now give attention to the reading of God’s word:
“The Scriptures read Now it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah, they were judges in Beersheba. But his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice. And then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah 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. But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, give us a king to judge us. And so Samuel prayed to the Lord, 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 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. Now therefore heed their voice, however, you shall solemnly forewarn them and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them.
“So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who asked him for a king. 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. He will appoint captains over his thousands, and captains over his 50s will set some to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and some to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers, and he will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his servants. He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage and give it to to his officers and servants. And he will take your male servants, your female servants, your finest young men and your donkeys and put them to his work. He will take a tenth of your sheep, and you will be his servants. 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. Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel, and they said, no, but we will have 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 Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he repeated them in the hearing of the Lord. And 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.”
And thus far the reading of God’s word tonight may he bless it to our understanding. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of God abides forevermore.
Chapter eight marks the beginning of a new subsection in the book of First Samuel. You might recall that in the previous chapter Samuel was a full-grown man, but probably young and strapping. And now we come to the first verse of chapter eight. And many decades have passed, and now Samuel is old and is getting ready to pass the mantle of his responsibility onto his two sons to be judges of Israel. But we’re told in this passage that his sons, unlike he, were unfaithful to the Lord. And as a consequence the people decide that a time of change has arrived in Israel, and they desire for themselves a king to judge them rather than to continue under the same approach that has been their experience for generations. Now, this subsection begins at chapter eight and continues through chapter 12. And the entire section records to us that transition from leadership by judges to leadership by king. It is the establishment of monarchy in the nation of Israel, and it marks that transformation of the covenant community from one system of political power to another. There’s a very real sense in which we can only rightly refer to Israel as a true nation, when we realize that this is the first point at which they become a political entity as the nations are around them. The emergence of the monarchy unfolds in five basic stages in chapters 8 through 12, which are summarized as follows. First, here in chapter 8, we have the formal request for a king. Then in chapter nine, verse one through the 16th verse of chapter 10, we read about the private anointing of Saul, who will be the first king of Israel. In chapter 10, verses 17 through 27, we read about the confirmation and public presentation of Saul to the people. In chapter 11, we read of Saul’s initial military victory and public acclamation as king. And then in chapter 12, Samuel gives his final speech as the last judge of Israel and officially passes the mantle of leadership to monarchy. Now, because of the constraints of time and the size of this particular division of First Samuel, we obviously cannot cover all of that ground in one sermon, and we’re going to have to break this down into its various parts and consider each in turn. But I think it’s important for us to grapple with the fact that what we have here in chapter eight is but the first step or the first stage in a larger narrative that establishes for us the transition from judges to the monarchy.
Now, before getting into the verses that are before us tonight in chapter eight, there’s a very important matter of this larger subdivision that needs to be addressed and, at least in brief, answered, a challenge that comes to everyone who reads this portion of God’s Word. And it is this, we have to ask ourselves, was the political development of changing from judges to kings to be viewed by God’s people as a good or a bad thing?
The question is not as easy to answer as one might think. Based merely upon the passage before us today, if you were to look solely at chapter eight, you probably would walk away with a very negative assessment about this request for a king.
But we see in other portions of Scripture a certain positive understanding about kings in Israel. This even goes back to the Book of Judges itself, which has the repeated refrain that in those days there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes, which suggests that the leadership of judges was something that had a measure of deficiency to it, and that what Israel really needed was a monarch.
Likewise, you come to the reality that there seems to be, even before Israel is delivered from Egypt, and anticipation of a coming king.
So much so that when the children of Israel are wandering in the wilderness, God gives provision in his law for how A king should be selected and how that king should govern so that God would be honored and glorified. You add to this the reality that that in the prophets there is this looking back to the kingship of David in fond ways as something honorable and right, and the anticipation of a coming son of David, who we know is Jesus Christ, the greater son of David, to sit upon the throne of David forevermore.
So it’s not as simple as simply looking at this one text and some of the negative statements that are said here and coming to an answer to the question of whether or not kings in Israel were a good thing or a bad thing. Let’s look at just a few passages that precede this event to see that there was an anticipation of kings in Israel from a very early time on.
You might remember that in the case of Abraham, God said when he changed his name, you shall no longer be called Abram, but Abraham, because you will be the father of many nations. And he says, many kings will come from you.
Now, one could understand that in a more generic sense, if he’s going to be the father of many nations, maybe the kings don’t refer to Israel particularly, but to the other nations that are the progeny of Abraham. If all we had to go on was that particular declaration, perhaps we would be safe in saying that what’s going on here is wholly offensive.
But if you look at chapter 49 of the book of Genesis, as Jacob comes to the end of his days, and he gathers his 12 sons around him and gives to each of them a particular blessing. And there’s something very interesting that he says in a prophetic way about Judah. Look at Genesis, chapter 49, and notice what Jacob says about Judah in verses 8 through 12. He says, Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father’s children shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion’s whelp from the prey. My son, you have gone up. He bows down. He lies down, just as a lion, and as a lion, who shall rouse him? And here’s the key verse. The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes. And to him shall be the obedience of the people. Binding his donkey to the vine and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine. He washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes. His eyes are darker than wine and his teeth whiter than milk.
It is undeniable that what is being predicted here is that From Judah shall come a kingly line, and that that line will abide until Shiloh comes. The Hebrew word Shiloh means peace, until peace is achieved. And this peace, of course, finds its fulfillment and realization in the descendant of Judah, who is Christ and will sit upon a throne of righteousness forever. Notice. You also see the anticipation of these things, where it says, your brothers will praise you, your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies, and your father’s children will bow down before you, because Judah is a lion’s whelp.
A lion, of course, is a symbol of royalty. And so there is, even in the days of the patriarchs, the anticipation of a monarchy.
You add to this what Moses teaches the children of Israel in Deuteronomy, chapter 17. Look at Deuteronomy 17, beginning at verse 14, keeping in mind that this is some 400 years before the time of David.
And we read these words, verse 14 of Deuteronomy 17. When you come to the land which the Lord your God has given you, and possess it, and dwell in it, and say, I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me, you shall surely set a king over you, whom the Lord your God chooses one from among your brethren you shall set as king over you. You may not set a foreigner over you who is not your brother, but he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt and to multiply horses. For the Lord has said to you, you shall not return that way again. Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself also. It shall be when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law, and a book from the one before the priests, the Levites, and it shall be with him. And he shall read it all the days of his life, and that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.
Now, one might look at this passage of Scripture and say God is merely anticipating what will be and is regulating that. And that is a very real possibility.
But we don’t see God giving a negative assessment of what will come to pass. Quite the opposite. God doesn’t say, when you desire to Have a king over yourself. You should not do it, for it is sin against the Lord.
And you should resist this temptation. And there shall be no king save Jehovah.
Instead, he gives to them directives on what kind of king they should choose, and dictates on how that king should reign over the people, and even says that his offspring will continue on.
You add to this what we’ve already noted in the Book of Judges, the repeated refrain that there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. And you come to realize, beloved, that this is not an easy thing to answer. It’s not a black and white situation. There seems even from the earliest time, the anticipation of the establishment of monarchy over the people.
God. And yet here in chapter eight, we see a very negative response by Samuel to their request for a king. And it seems that God is allowing this request to be answered, but at the same time that the Lord is not pleased with the request. He tells Samuel, warn them what a king, like the rest of the nations, will be like, how arduous and difficult it will be. He comforts Samuel, don’t take it to heart, Samuel, they’re not rejecting you, they’re rejecting me. And when you come to the end of this whole section in chapter 12, when Samuel gives his sort of farewell speech in the official capacity as judge, he speaks of their request as wickedness.
So the reader is faced with a dilemma.
How are we to answer this? Is monarchy a good thing or a bad thing?
Certainly we can’t embrace the idea that God’s word contradicts himself.
That is contrary to sound theology.
And it would undo the veracity and the reliability of the Bible. No, the Bible does not contradict itself. It may seem on the surface to contradict itself, but upon deeper reflection, we come to understand there is a way to reconcile these things that seem at odds with one another.
Nor can we embrace the wrongful theological idea that somehow God is duplicitous or is subject to change.
God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. We are not to suppose that God did not anticipate this situation arising. The Deuteronomy text makes it very clear that he did anticipate this situation arising. It was all part of his plan.
And God doesn’t second guess himself and go, you know, upon further thought, maybe you’re right and I’m wrong. Let’s do it your way and not mine.
This is not something that we can embrace. How do we settle this seemingly difficult dilemma? Well, there are two possibilities that come to the Foreground. And I’m going to leave it to you to decide which of the two you think has the most merit. Neither one is free from its own set of challenges or difficulties. But the two possibilities do give us an out and understanding how we can reconcile the fact that on the one hand, there are passages that seem to advocate for monarchy, but on the other hand, there are these condemnations of Israel asking for a king and yet in such a way that God is not seen as duplicitous or the Word is contradicting itself.
Possibility number one is that God is simply giving to the sinful people what they want as a form of judgment on them.
But in his sovereignty he overrides even the evil that they choose to accomplish a greater good. That was always part of the plan.
You might think about so many instances in Scripture where we see this kind of pattern unfold in think about Joseph in the Old Testament. His brothers intended it for evil when they sold him into slavery in Egypt, but God intended it for good.
We see a recognition that his brothers had sinned, they had done wrong. It was displeasing to the Lord. What they had done was not morally upright. And yet God overcame that sin and brought about a greater good from it.
You come to the New Testament and you look at the life of Jesus Christ and the reality that he was one who came to his own, but his own, by and large received him not, but turned him over to the Gentiles and he was crucified on a cross. And we see Peter saying to those on the day of Pentecost that this was all part of God’s foreordained purposes and plan. And yet by wicked hands you betrayed the Son of God and turned him over.
Maybe what we have here is the wickedness of Israel.
Certainly we have wickedness to some degree, and God is simply allowing it to teach them a lesson. And in his sovereignty he’s going to turn this thing that begins, it seems, on the basis of evil intent for something good and holy and right.
Now, one of the great ways of seeing the advantage of this interpretation is we see the distinction between Saul, who is ultimately rejected, and David, who is ultimately confirmed. Both of these men are sinners, right? We see them both fail in numerous ways, some great ways. And yet one of the greatest things that we see that distinguishes Saul from David is that Saul was the choice of the people to be like the nations, whereas David was the man after God’s own heart and the one whom the Lord chose.
But that doesn’t wholly get us off the horns of the dilemma. Because it is quite clear that in some manner God chose Saul as well. But in his sovereignty, he removes his spirit from Saul, turns the time of blessing into a time of hardship. Because it was through the line of David, it was through Judah, not through Benjamin, that the kingship should be established. Now, that’s one possibility.
The other possibility is the reality that God has always had this as part of his plan plan, and that he is simply allowing this so that he might demonstrate to the people of Israel their own faithlessness. But he is working all things for his good.
These are two nuances of the same basic idea. But in the first instance, it’s sort of the notion that Israel asks for something that wasn’t part of the plan, and God gives them over to it, much like Paul talks about in Romans chapter 1. Whereas in the second option, we see, looking at passages like Genesis 49 and Deuteronomy 17, that this was always part of the plan, and that the issue here is not so much that they chose kingship, that was always part of God’s plan, but it was the way that they transitioned, and it was the timing that they transitioned. Now, here you could cite Jacob as a great example. When Jacob and his brother Esau were still in the womb, God made it known to Isaac that the older would serve the younger. That was God’s purpose. That was God’s plan even before they were born.
And as they’re born and brought into this world, we see that Jacob, though being the second born, supplants Esau through time.
This was always part of God’s plan. But nevertheless, we find fault in Jacob as time goes on. Not because he supplants Esau, but how he supplants Esau.
In other words, he takes matters into his own hands. He doesn’t wait for God’s perfect timing. He doesn’t allow God to work these things out. The birthright from before his birth was declared to be given to him. But rather than waiting upon the Lord, he does things in his own strength.
He connives the birthright from his brother on a day when his brother came in from the field hungry.
He connives the blessing from his blind, elderly father by heeding the voice of his mother and pretending to be Esau when he really wasn’t. And rather than walking by faith and waiting for God to bring these things to pass, which were surely his in God’s time and in God’s way, he said, I’m not going to wait. He’s like Abraham, who preceded him, who had the promise of God that he would be the father of many nations. And yet as he gets old and he sees himself getting past the time of childbearing and sees no offspring, says, I’ve got to do something about this. And his wife says, we’ve got to do something about this. The clock is ticking.
I’ll give you my handmaid and I’ll have children through her.
And God has to later say, it will not be Ishmael, it will be Isaac. Not the child of works, but the child of grace, the child of promise.
Perhaps what we have here is not so much fault to be found with Israel’s request because they want a king, but the fact that they want a king now rather than in God’s timing. And they want a king for the wrong reasons, that they might be like the nations rather than according to God’s perfect will.
And rather than waiting for the man after God’s own heart, they choose a man who is based upon the criteria of the world.
Maybe the real issue here is not so much monarchy in itself. In other words, maybe the issue is the way they achieve monarchy and the time they achieve it.
I have a tendency to favor that interpretation over the former, but I don’t wish to be dogmatic about it. Brothers and sisters, there is a conundrum that we are on here. However we settle this difficulty, we have to recognize that certain things are out of limits. It’s not that God changed His mind. It’s not that this thing caught him by surprise. It’s not that he realizes that the people’s will is wiser than his intention.
Nor is it that what the people do on this occasion is wholly right, for it is condemned as wickedness. We have to come to some understanding that God overrides evil for good. And with that I want to just end. Tonight we’re going to spend more time in this chapter. The next time we have a Sunday evening service. But I just want to end with that one general application that God causes all things to work together for good to those who are the called according to his purpose.
The world has many evil intents, but it cannot overcome the will of God or thwart that will. You and I, as God’s people, try as we might, make many mistakes, sometimes really big blunders. But, brothers and sisters, take heart. God is in control and he brings about a good end, even to hard circumstances that even at times we bring upon ourselves.
The last thing I want to say before I close tonight, just by way of a general Observation of chapter eight is the sad commentary that we have here. Samuel, a faithful man of God. We’ve seen how faithful he is in comparison to the house of Eli. And yet we’re told in the opening verse of this chapter that though he had two sons who were appointed to be judges, they did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after dishonest gain, taking bribes and perverting justice. To whom much is given, much is required. The judge was meant to be a righteous leader, upholding what is good and holy. These men in essence disqualified themselves.
The great irony is that the Israelites perceived the shortcomings of Samuel’s sons, but they fail to perceive that they have the same shortcomings.
And when they ask for a king instead of a judge to be like the nations. And God encourages Samuel to not be overwhelmed because they have not rejected Samuel, but rejected the Lord. And he tells them through Samuel of their behavior. He makes it very clear that from the very beginning you’ve been a hard hearted and stiff necked people. And from the time I brought you out of Egypt, you’ve continued to disobey me.
It’s interesting how we sometimes can look at others and find fault. We see the speck in their eye, but we fail to see the plank in our own. As Jesus says, we need to be very careful of this. But we also need to be very careful not to assume that just because one generation is faithful, the next will be. Samuel was faithful, but his sons were not. It is vitally important that every one of us and every generation own the covenant for ourselves and serve the Lord in righteousness. May the Lord add his blessing to our walk as we seek to serve him in this way. Let’s close in prayer. Father in heaven, we have faced some challenges in your word. Tonight we pray that you would give us wisdom to rightly balance how we can answer these seemingly difficult circumstances. That you condemned your people for choosing a king to be like the nations, but at the same time kingship was always part of the plan. And that is seen in the fact that Christ is the one appointed to be the eternal King seated upon the throne of David forevermore. We thank you that though earthly kings and leaders fail, our Savior Jesus Christ, the true King of kings and Lord of Lords, never will. And we do pray that you would give us grace, that we would serve him in humility and in faithfulness. We ask this all in Jesus name. Amen. Let’s take now our hymnal and we’ll conclude our time this evening by turning together to hymn number 361. 361.
We’ll stand together and sing O praise ye the Lord. A rendition of Psalm 149. Cheryl, could you play more than just the first chord? Just a couple of notes there on the right tune?
Thank you. Thank you.
Right in the first chord, please.
O praise be the Lord and sing a new song Amid all His saints and his praises prolong praise, praise of their Maker his people shall sing and children of Zion rejoice in their king with timbrel and harp and joyful acclaim with gladness and mirth Sing praise to his name For God in His people his pleasure doth see with robes of salvation Equal theme in glory Exalt ye saints of the Lord with songs in the night High praises accord Go forth in his service Be strong in his light to conquer all evil and stand for the right for this is his word his saints shall not fail.
But over the earth their power shall prevail.
All kingdoms and nations shall yield to their sway To God Hear the glory and praise him for a now. May the Lord bless and keep you. May he make his face shine upon you and be gracious unto you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace both now and forevermore. Amen. You are dismissed.