Who Will Be king?

Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations. I Samuel 8.5

As great a man, as wonderful a judge and prophet Samuel was personally, his sons were quite a different story. The Israelites were not about to have them serve in the office of Judge over them. One could hardly blame them, I suppose. Verse three says,

“His sons, however, did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after dishonest gain and took bribes and perverted justice.”

These are not admirable qualities for a judge to say the least.

But the “judge” was more than what we might think of in the judicial sense; they were God’s instrument of leadership for the nation. They were men, and one woman, raised up by the Lord when Israel had “done what was right in their own sight” to deliver Israel from their oppressors and lead the people back to the Lord.

Samuel, as it turns out, is the last judge in Israel, his sons would not operate in that office… the people rejected them.

What Israel demanded was “a king for us to judge us like all the nations.” They wanted to have a king like all their neighbors, a flesh and blood monarch to govern them.

Again though their request/demand might seem to be reasonable, the commentary concerning it is given to us in verse seven where God says to Samuel,

“Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them.”

This is the real issue at the heart of their demand; they wanted a monarchy rather than to continue as a theocracy. They wanted a man to stand in rather than God as their king. They didn’t want to continue in that very unique and special relationship with the Living God that Israel alone could claim; that is, that God himself was leading them. The God of all of heaven and earth was taking a personal and very direct role in governing Israel.

They were rejecting that, they wanted to go it on their own; they wanted to be like the world, have a man at the helm and trust him to lead them and protect them and to govern well the affairs of the nation.

In the generations that would follow Israel had some wonderful kings, godly men who were used by God, but they had even more that were godless, selfish reprobates that led the nation into ruin and defeat.

If we could pause for a minute and just reason this out I think that we would conclude that even the very best of human kings, at their very best, at the pinnacle of their achievements would pale terribly to the perfection, omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence of God Almighty.

It was a very bad trade; they chose the short straw, gambled on independence and lost.

So do we precious saint, anytime… every time we choose any king or any thing that is not God to have a place of authority in our lives. Even if, maybe especially if, it is ourselves that we are entrusting the authority to.

It is a bad deal, a bad trade. In the kingdom, gambling on independence from God is a losing proposition.

We have also been given the opportunity to enjoy that special relationship with the God of heaven and earth. God so desires to govern us, to lead us an guide us, provide and protect us, lets allow Him to do just that… even today.