Have you read the headlines lately? It is so easy to get caught up in speculation and worse case scenarios. That’s exactly the road the Israelites were traveling during the end of Samuel’s life. As Tim Keller writes, the Israelites “saw the news but not the Savior”.
THEY BELIEVED GOD WAS UNRELIABLE
I Samuel 8:1-22 tells us about a difficult time for a nation. They trusted Samuel, but he was coming to the end of being their leader, their priest, their pastor. His sons were moral failures and could not be trusted to take up the reigns. We read that the elders of Israel look around, review their conditions, and after observing the surrounding nations, they come up with their own solution. Their actions demonstrate they believe God is unreliable regarding leadership, so it is up to them to find an earthly king to rule them and protect them. They forget that God still rules the world, no matter what fears we possess.
IS GOD GETTING IT RIGHT?
Tim Keller wrote: “When I worry, it’s because I know that God’s ruling the world, but I’m afraid he’s not going to get it right. Worry is always a deep sense in the human heart that we know better than God how life ought to go and that we should be ruling the world instead of God.” And so, the Jewish leaders assume it was time to step in and “lend God a hand”. They demand of Samuel, “Give us a king to judge and rule over us.”
Samuel is extremely distressed in the chain of events. God tells 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.” Wow! That should have stopped the Israelites in their tracks, but it didn’t. “They have abandoned (rejected) Me and served other gods—so they are doing to you also. So now listen to their voice; only solemnly warn them and tell them the ways of the king who will reign over them.”
GOD GAVE THEM WHAT THEY ASKED FOR….
Samuel gives them what they ask for. David Guzik writes: “Because Israel demanded a king for bad and carnally minded reasons, God will give them a bad and carnally minded king. In itself, the desire to have a king was not bad. God knew one day Israel would have a king. 400 years before this God gave instructions to Israel about their future king (Deuteronomy 17:14-20). A king was in God’s plan for Israel. Yet, the reason Israel wanted a king was wrong. To be ‘like all the nations’ is no reason at all.”
THEY MISSED CHOICE #1
Because of their lack of trust. Israel ends up with King #1: Saul, who is tall, handsome and impressive. Saul is also a coward, selfish, a liar, and mentally unstable. If the Israelites had just waited on God, they would have received David as King #1, the man who followed after God’s own heart. But, they demanded, and demanded, and God gave them what they asked for.
A HOLY NATION
God’s goal for Israel was “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19:5-6)
THE SETTLED FOR LESS
The Israelites settled for much less than God’s wonderful plan because they just wanted to look like every else. Is your heart’s desire to just be like everyone else? Are you asking God with bended knee, willing to wait for Him and for what glorifies Him, no matter how He accomplishes that goal? The Israelites in their haste ignored God and received exactly what their miniscule hearts asked for: an inept and miniscule king because they saw the news but not the Savior.