1 Samuel 8:1-9--Israel Demands a King

1 Samuel 8:1-9
English Standard Version

Israel Demands a King
8 When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. 2 The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. 3 Yet his sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice.

​4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah 5 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.” 6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the LORD. 7 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. 8 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. 9 Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”

---

As discussed a bit at the end of the last article, Samuel tried to pass his mantle of leadership on to his sons to also make them judges over Israel (especially as he got older).  They were supposed to help take care of the area around Beersheba, but they tried to use their leadership position for their own gain and they perverted justice.

Because of this, the elders came together at Ramah, where Samuel lived, and pleaded with Samuel to give them a king like all the other nations, so that the king could be judge over them.  While Samuel knew that the LORD wanted to be their King and Judge, he prayed to the LORD about the request of the people, and the LORD told him to obey their request for they were not rejecting Samuel, but the LORD when they made this request.  They are treating Samuel just like they have treated the LORD--ignoring all the good things the LORD had done for them, forsaking Him to follow after gods they had made, and failing to obey His voice.

Even though the LORD told Samuel to obey the voice of the people, He also told Samuel to warn the people about what they would get when they had a king like all the other nations.  The king would force them to pay high taxes (on top of the tithes and offerings already required by the LORD) and the king would become rich off of the people.  The king would take their sons to fight in his wars and take their daughters to be his wives and concubines.  And worst of all, the king would most likely turn the hearts of the people even further away from the LORD and lead the nation into idolatry and immorality, meaning that the LORD would judge the whole nation because of the king as the king stood before God in place of the entire nation.  Whatever the king was guilty of, the whole nation was guilty of.  We'll look more at Samuel's warnings to the people next time--as you would imagine, they won't listen to him as they have their minds made up that they want to get out from under God's authority and want to be just like all the other nations.