King To Rule Us
“Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah 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.’ ” (2 Samuel 8:4-5)
Let’s take a moment to picture what’s going on here. The elders of Israel present this demand. But when Samuel, at God’s direction, lays out what it their king will be like, we read, “But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, ‘No! But there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.’ ” (verses 19-20) Not just the elders, “the people”. What did this look like? There were people in the streets, demanding change, forcefully but apparently peacefully. We know what this looks like, right? Yes, there were some spokespeople who went to Samuel, but they were speaking for a lot of people. People upset with the state of the governing structure, so much that they came out of their homes, trying to get their message heard.
What was wrong? We’re told at the beginning of the chapter. “When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel… Yet his sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice.” (verses 1-3)
This assessment of the state of the government isn’t simply an opinion. This is the divine record, God’s assessment of what was going on. Clearly very wrong. Clearly change was sorely needed. People can and do put up with a lot of bad from their governments, before their objections get to the point of boiling over into the streets. So, I think we need to understand – this was serious!
Samuel is upset. Whether there was something he could have done about his sons is a topic for another day. Samuel takes it to the Lord, surely the right thing. And what’s the Lord’s response? “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.” (verse 7) Wait a moment—isn’t there a contradiction here? God says to obey the people’s request, and also that the people are wrong in de facto rejecting Him from being king. How do those go together? We aren’t given any more detail, but I think what’s going on is this:
The people were right that change was needed, because the government had sunk into the same pit it was in under Eli, back when Samuel was chosen as a lad. That is, the priest/judge’s sons were sinful and corrupt.
It was not wrong to have a human king. The Law provided for it! (Deuteronomy 17:14-20, which includes the statement, “You may indeed set a king over you whom the LORD your God will choose.”)
They even seem to be going about it the right way, asking Samuel (who is still utterly honest and is universally respected) to designate a king. They knew this way it would be the Lord choosing.
So you might say, then what’s the problem? The problem is in the fourth thing that’s going on:
Nobody says it out loud. In fact they would strenuously object if anyone accused them of it. They would shout you down objecting. But God who knows the heart says, “They have rejected me from being king over them.”
Reform needed—right. Ask for a king—OK. Make sure it’s God who chooses the king—right. The king replacing the rulership of the Lord God? Wrong!
I truly doubt anyone ever consciously thought #4, let alone said it out loud. They would never admit they were rejecting God in wanting a human leader. But God says they were.
It strikes me that we as believers are prone to repeating Israel’s mistakes. As a general statement everybody agrees – Paul even says it to us flat out in 1 Corinthians 10. But when it gets down to specifics, we tend to reject any suggestion that we are mistaken like they were. We have to constantly remind ourselves that our hearts are self-deceitful—we think of ourselves as better, that we wouldn’t do what they did. Here’s the lesson of this particular chapter of Israel’s history: When we see wrong flourishing, it rightly grieves us. But let’s not “put our trust in princes, in a son of man in whom there is no salvation.” (Psalm 146:3) That’s what Israel did, and it was wrong.
The real solution to injustice and institutional wrong (like Samuel’s sons were committing) is not political. We indeed need to be crying for a king, but not for any mortal, human (i.e. sinful) leader. If we push mortal, human political solutions, we have rejected the Lord God as king. Stop, please, and read that last sentence again and absorb it. We would strenuously object, “We’re doing no such thing!” But if we go down that road, that’s exactly what we’re doing. God says so; He put this incident on record to teach us about this particular flavor of self-deception.
What we need to be crying out for is that the Lord will set His king on Zion, His holy hill. (Psalm 2:6) That the shoot from Jesse will judge righteously. (Isaiah 11:3-5) That the government be on his shoulder, upholding it with justice and righteousness. (Isaiah 9:6-7) We need to be begging for THE king to take the throne and rule, not be looking to any other prospective king or president or prime minister or any other title.
Reform needed in our time—right. Ask for a king—right. God’s king—right. And no one else.
Love, yearning for the righteous rule of God’s king, Paul
If you have any feedback, please contact me at: paul.zilmer@gmail.com