1 SAMUEL 8
Read 1 Samuel 8:1-22
After years of inconsistent leadership and an on/off relationship with the Lord, the nation of Israel finally had a good leader that everyone respected and trusted and who turned them back to having a good relationship with God. Because of Samuel’s leadership and his relationship with the Lord, we can read in Chapter 7, ‘Throughout Samuel’s lifetime the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines . . . and there was peace between Israel and the Ammonites’ (vv13-14). Things were never better for Israel, but were they happy? In one of these ‘history repeats itself’ events, Samuel’s sons were intent on misconduct and taking advantage of people just like Eli’s sons did (see Chapter 2). The people did not relish the idea of a corrupt leadership again.
On the face of it this seems reasonable, but we soon see the reality of the people’s discontent. ‘Give us a king to lead us’ (v6), they say to Samuel. Samuel is terribly upset at the idea of a king, not because he sees it as a rejection of his own leadership, but because for Israel the Lord has always been their king, their leader. It was the Lord who brought the Israelites out of slavery and through the wilderness to the Promised Land. It was the Lord who led them in battle and fought for them against their various enemies. It was the Lord who gave them Samuel as a stable and godly leader.
The people showed their true colours in v20. They wanted a king to rule over them. Why was that? It was so they could be like all the other nations. Isn’t that sad? Israel had been different because they had no king, because they were a true theocracy led by God. But they didn’t want to be different any more; they wanted to be like everyone else. We must never underestimate the power of peer pressure. Generally people do not want to be different; they don’t want to stand out from the crowd. Children, in particular, want to conform and not be picked on in the playground because they are different in some way – but even adults can feel vulnerable if they go against the mainstream, when they don’t accept the ‘word from the herd’ and it can be hard witnessing as a Christian in a society that has such different standards to those of God in the Bible. Speaking out against such issues as transgenderism or sexual education in schools can draw a lot of criticism. It is so much easier to go with the flow.
Samuel was horrified by the Israelite’s demand for a king, but the Lord comforted him and said, ‘give them want they want’. And Samuel did so, but not without giving them a warning in no uncertain terms. ‘You do realise what you are asking for’ he said to them and set out the consequences of having a king. ‘If you have a king then he will have an army and your sons will be conscripted, your daughters will become servants in the royal household, you will have to pay taxes, the king will take your land for himself – do you still want a king?’ And they replied, ‘Yes! Yes!’ because they wanted to be like everyone else.
Samuel, downhearted, set about doing what the Lord told him to do, ‘Listen to them and give them a king’ and the rest of the books of Samuel and Kings show the outcome: a few good kings, many bad kings and a nation so often led astray by poor and ungodly leadership.