A Nation Demands a King

I Samuel 8:10-22

GOLDEN TEXT: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.”—Psalm 33:12

WHEN Samuel was old he appointed his sons to serve as judges in Israel, apparently with the thought that they would be his successors; but the people would not accept them, and instead clamored for a king. This distressed Samuel for he evidently considered it as a personal rebuff to himself and to the soundness of his judgment. He took the matter to the Lord in prayer and was assured that the attitude of the people was in reality the rejection of an arrangement which divine wisdom considered best suited to their needs. God said to Samuel, “They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.”—I Sam. 8:7

While the Lord interpreted this action of the Israelites as a rejection of his rulership, it had been foreseen by Moses, and through him instructions given as to who—when they took this action—they should choose as a king, and the restrictions to be imposed upon him. They were to choose one of their own nation. The chosen one was not to use his office to heap up fabulous riches for himself. He was not to emulate heathen kings in his domestic life by taking unto himself a large number of wives. He was to acquire a copy of the Law and read it to the people; and was not to consider himself as being exalted above his brethren.—See Deuteronomy 17:14-20

But seemingly the Lord realized that few of Israel’s kings would measure up to this standard, so he instructed Samuel to present to the people some of the hardships they would be called upon to endure under the rulership of a king. I Samuel 8:11-18 presents a picture of regimentation and taxation very much like many countries have experienced in modern times, and Samuel warns the Israelites that this is what they should expect if they insisted on having a king rule over them in order to be like neighboring nations.

The people listened to the warning, but still demanded a king, so the Lord instructed Samuel to yield to their wishes. That the people had not actually rejected Samuel is evidenced by the fact that they accepted his choice of Saul to be their first king, arid also recognized the authority of the anointing ceremony which the prophet performed. And while they rejected the Lord’s arrangement of judges to be rulers, he directed in the choice of their kings, and looked upon the throne of Israel as his throne. Thus we read, for example, that “Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord as king instead of David his father.” (I Chron. 29:23) Thus the kingdom of Israel became a type of the kingdom of Christ.

The period of the kings of Israel, beginning with Saul and ending with Zedekiah, was one of uncertainty which eventuated in complete collapse. Some of their kings endeavored to rule in righteousness, but most of them were of doubtful integrity, and under them Israel suffered the loss of prestige among other nations, and also the loss of God’s favor which, in 606 B.C., led to national servitude. It was then that their last king was taken captive to Babylon.

Saul, their first king, was the delight of the people. Head and shoulders above his fellows, he symbolized to them, their idea of glory and power. He was mighty in battle for a time, but when pride and ambition turned his heart away from the Lord he began to lose, and finally went down to an ignominious defeat. Then David, having previously been anointed by Samuel to be the successor of Saul, in the Lord’s providence came to the throne.

David was a man after God’s own heart, we are told, but he made his mistakes too, and although they were not mistakes that would cause the Lord utterly to reject him, he suffered because of them. Then came Solomon, the wisest of all Israel’s kings until he went contrary to Moses’ instruction in the matter of wives, and even worse, permitted them to institute the worship of their gods in Israel. Nevertheless, under Solomon, the nation reached the zenith of its national glory—a glory which, even before the death of Solomon, began to wane.

With Solomon’s death there came national division, ten of the tribes breaking away from the other two. From this point onward in the Scriptures we find the expression, “The house of Israel and the house of Judah.” Each house had its own king, and the Scriptures record both these lines of kings, showing that with few exceptions, they were all unfaithful to the Lord. “Judah” was the two tribe kingdom, and “Israel” the ten tribe kingdom. In the divine promises of ultimate restoration, when the new covenant will be made with them, both houses are specifically mentioned.—Jer. 31:31

Here again we have a marvelous display of God’s mercy, for the many divine promises to both Israel and Judah assure us that they are still “beloved for the fathers’ sakes,” and that their ungodliness will be turned away when the Messianic Deliverer shall come out of Sion in fulfillment of the divine promises made to them.—Rom. 11:26-28

QUESTIONS:

Was Israel’s request for a king contrary to the divine will?

How do we know that God accepted the arrangement?

Of what was the kingdom of Israel a type?

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