1 & 2 Samuel Series: Give us a King!
Reading - 1 Samuel 8:4-20
2020 taught us all a lot about leadership. We saw great contrasts across the world - examples of brilliant leadership and terrible leadership.
Coronavirus tested every leader, throwing nations, cities, communities, businesses, and families into crisis.
The best leaders communicated well, showed empathy, took good advice, listened well to wise counsel, and were adaptive and quick thinking. The worst ignored wise counsel, buried their heads in the sand, showed arrogance and callousness toward others and exemplified self-serving political interest.
When we look to leaders – one of big things we are asking for is security and good governance. We want to know that things are going to be ok – and this is especially true in a crisis.
Today we embark on a new preaching series in 1 and 2 Samuel.
In 1 Samuel we discover a nation in crisis.
We discover Israel finding themselves in turmoil and desperately looking for a leader.
In today’s reading they cry out for a king. Desperate for some kind of stability and some kind of hope, they seek to find a leader that will save them. As they do so they get more than they bargained for.
So, I invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Samuel as we explore this together today. We are going to start in chapter 1 and 2 and move to chapter 8 as our focus.
Before we dig into it, it’s helpful for us to set the scene for the story by having a brief overview of 1 & 2 Samuel and the historical context and big themes.
Israel’s journey with God.
In the background is the story of what God has done for the Israelite’s up until the point we get to the stories we find in Samuel.
The story begins with God rescuing the people from slavery in Egypt under Pharaoh.
God then establishes a covenant, a relationship with them through giving them laws and commands to live by.
The people then enter the promised land that God had given them. There we might think things are all good, but it doesn’t go well. The people begin to serve other gods and a pattern of chaos ensues. The book of Judges tells the story of how various leaders rise and fall and the people keep on turning from God.
In Judges we hear this:
Judges 2:16-19
“16 Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. 17 Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so. 18 Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. 19 But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways.”
What we see emerging in the story is a pattern of consistent rejection of God – time and time again the people turn from Him to their own ways.
The story of Samuel begins in a time of crisis and transition. This was a time in Israel’s history where the people desperately needed God to move and bring hope to them.
Samuel paints the picture of the time of transition away from judges to kings. Some big and important theological themes emerge from this story.
Big themes of 1 & 2 Samuel
We see the following themes emerge as we read Samuel:
-God’s sovereignty
-God’s guidance and leadership of his people.
-The invitation to trust God and place our hope in Him.
What we encounter is a people in crisis, a people looking for leadership, and a people who struggle to trust God.
The story begins with the story of Hannah.
Things aren’t looking good for Israel.
They have had a string of corrupt, immoral and self-serving leaders, their enemies, the Philistines are triumphing over them, and they find themselves at a very low-ebb spiritually speaking. It’s as if God has completely left the scene.
A sign of the spiritual state of the people is seen by the fact that when Hannah prays in the temple, rather than recognize her actions as Prayer, the Priest Eli thinks she is drunk! Even the Priest can’t recognize prayer!
But there is hope at the very beginning of the story.
God raises up this woman called Hannah. She is barren and in grief and cries out to the Lord that she might have a Son, and if she does, she will give this son to God’s service.
God answers her prayer, and she gives birth to Samuel whom God raises up as a prophet and leader of the people.
Right at the beginning we see that the hope of the people of Israel lies not in their own plans or efforts but in the work of God. It is God who will lead them and make them flourish.
Peter Leithart puts it well saying:
Hannah's prayer was an admission of impotence, an acknowledgment that she could do nothing to open the closed door of her womb. Her prayer was an acknowledgment that only Yahweh can open such doors. Every prayer is like the prayer of Hannah: powerless creatures confessing their powerlessness by turning to the Lord and giver of all life and all good. Israel's renewal began with prayer because it began with Yahweh.[1]
As we explore Samuel this will be one of the key themes for us to hear loud and clear.
This book speaks to us as a church.
In lots of ways the church finds itself today in a moment of crisis. Secularism presents us with many challenges. Counterfeit gods abound, just as they did in the days of Samuel. It’s increasingly unpopular to be a follower of Jesus.
With all of this in mind, we might be tempted to do something about it on our own. We might think if only we had the right programs in place, or if only we took this leadership course, or had this resource then it will all work out.
However, Samuel reminds us bracingly that all new beginnings start with God.
So, let’s turn to chapter 8 as we see the story unfold.
The background (Verses 1-3)
In the opening chapters of Samuel, we see Samuel lead the people faithfully.
Here however we see that Samuel’s time is waning, he is elderly, but not only this, his sons are mucking around.
There is a legacy of failed, wicked, and corrupt leadership amongst the people of God. Eli’s sons were a disaster, and sadly so are Samuel’s. The people suffer abusive, disappointing, and selfish leaders.
The question in crisis arises – what shall we do?
Give us a King! (verses 4-5)
The people demand a king. They come to Samuel, calling a special meeting and ask him to given them a king.
On face value, it may seem like a sensible idea. Israel is in trouble, there has been consistently bad leadership – maybe this is a good solution.
However, we see that Samuel is no fan of the idea.
The Problem with having a King (verses 6-8)
Samuel was displeased when the people asked for a king.
What is the problem with a King?
First and foremost, the problem is that in choosing a king the people are rejecting God’s kingship over them. The request shows an implicit mistrust in the Lord and his leadership over them.
In their request there is a desire of the people to take control of their own affairs rather than be led by God.
Secondly, in asking for a king the people explicitly reference the other nations. They make the point that the nations around them have kings, so why shouldn’t they have one too?!
In making this point the people fail to see how they are different from the other nations. They have been set apart by God as a nation to bear witness to him.
Peter Leithart puts it well saying:
“In rejecting the Lord in favor of the idolatry of political prestige and power, Israel was also renouncing its covenant status. From the beginning of Israel's existence as a nation, her calling was to be distinct from the nations, with their national life organized by the covenant at Sinai. When the elders of Israel said they wanted to be like the nations, they were saying that they were tired of being Israel.”[2]
That’s an interesting way to put it – “they were tired of being Israel.”
It was difficult at times to be Israel. It meant putting aside their aspirations and placing their lives in the hands of God and trusting Him.
Thinking about what it means to be the church, I wonder if at times we get “tired of being the church.” We might want to make things happen on our own terms, rather than being a people who are set apart to bear witness to God and be led by Him, on His terms, not our own.
It’s tempting to be “like the other nations,” to lose our distinctiveness in order to have a form of success recognized by the world.
Underneath the request to have a king is a rejection of Israel’s calling to be the people God has called them to be.
But God won’t force their hand. He lets them have their way.
“Let them have their way” (verse 9)
God let’s the people have their king.
God lets the people face the natural consequences of their rejection of Him and their mistrust in Him (their sin).
The judgement of the peoples sin unfolds naturally as they face life going against the grain of who God has made them to be.
In Paul’s letter to the Romans we hear a reflection on this.
In Romans 1 Paul says:
21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator. (Romans 1:21-25)
God doesn’t force the hand of his people, but when we turn away from Him we face the music of our own choices.
The Consequences of a Human King
Samuel unpacks for the people just what the consequences of having a king will be. (verses 10-18)
Right throughout this passage we see the verb “take” repeated. The king will take this and he will take that.
The point is that the kind of self-serving power that the people have suffered under the hands of Eli’s sons and other corrupt leaders will only be amplified in the power of a king.
Give us a King! (verses 19-22)
However, the people persist. Even with this warning they want a king.
They say that they want someone who will fight their battles.
What is deeply sad about this is the fact that God has been fighting their battles all along.
If we just go back to the chapter before, in 1 Samuel 7 we hear this:
10 As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, 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. 11 And the men of Israel went out from Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and struck them, as far as below Beth-car. (1 Samuel 7:10-11)
God has been fighting their battles, yet the people don’t want to have to trust Him, they would rather take matters into their own hands, craft their own weapons and take care of themselves.
And so the story of Israel’s kings begins here in Samuel with a request by the people.
What we will see as the book unfolds is a contrast of kings. We will be presented with Saul, who looks the part, yet relies on his own strength and will above God. And we will meet David, who is presented as a man after God’s own heart, not without flaws, but a king who points forward to a much better King to come.
As we read Samuel today we see that the people are in desperate need of salvation. They need hope. They look to themselves and face the consequences.
But right at the beginning of the book of Samuel there is a glimpse of hope that God will set things right.
God gives Hannah, a barren woman a child. And in response Hannah dedicates this child to God and she writes a song. She sings: “My heart exults in the Lord; my horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation.”
Flip forward roughly 1000 years and we hear the song of another woman who will bear a son.
Her name is Mary.
The similarity between these songs should draw our attention.
(Craig Keener chart on similarities between the songs of Hannah and Mary)
The book of Samuel points forward to the one true King who will bring hope amidst despair, who will bring salvation to the oppressed, who will heal the broken, and find the lost.
This one true and good King is Jesus.
Today we are gathered to worship Him.
We are reminded that no other King is worthy of such honour as Him. We are reminded that to place our trust in our own hands alone will in the end lead us from the heights of pride to the valley of despair.
Let us give all honour and praise to Him alone, King Jesus. Amen.
[1] Peter J. Leithart. A Son to Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel (Kindle Locations 374-375). Kindle Edition.
[2] Peter J. Leithart. A Son to Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel (Kindle Locations 698-699). Kindle Edition.