1 Samuel 8:10-18--Samuel's Warning Against Kings

1 Samuel 8:10-18
English Standard Version

Samuel's Warning Against Kings
10 So Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking for a king from him. 11 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. 12 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. 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 orchards and give them to his servants. 15 He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. 16 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. 17 He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. 18 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.”

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Samuel goes back to the LORD and has a conversation with Him about what the people have said and what God wants His response to be.  Remember the LORD has already told Samuel to let the people do what they want because their heart is far from Him and this is an act of rebellion against the LORD and not against Samuel.  The LORD told Samuel to tell the people all the things that a king would do to them and to their sons and their daughters.  Their sons would become soldiers in his army and slaves to work in his fields and vineyards.  Their daughters would become his cooks and bakers and perfumers (and we'll see later that they will take them as their wives and concubines too).

The king will require the best of their fields and vineyards and orchards to be given to him and his servants (like the sacrifice of firstfruits that was to be given to the LORD, so the people would have to decide whether to give their firstfruits to the LORD or to the king) and a tithe of all their increase (again, the LORD already required this, so would the people choose to give the tithe to the king instead of to the LORD or would they be willing to pay an additional tithe to the king on top of what they already paid to the LORD?), and the king would take the servants and donkeys of the citizens and force them to work for him (forced labor is not that different from slavery).  The king would also take not just a tithe of the money and fruit, but also of the flocks and herds.  The LORD tells the people that once they get exactly what they have asked for they will cry out to the LORD for relief, but He will not hear them.   Sometimes the LORD's judgment looks like giving us exactly what we ask for and letting us live with the consequences of those decisions, actions and choices.  However, there will be a promise eventually of the Messiah coming to be they King and while the people had the promise that His kingdom would be an everlasting kingdom, they missed the point that only God could be eternal and this meant that once again, God Himself would be their King (just it would be the Son and not the Father who would rule from the throne of David in Jerusalem).