(1 Samuel) When We Know Better Than God — David Guzik

The Historical Transition from Judges to Kings

1 Samuel chapter 8, and we're going to begin at verse 1. We've been making our way through this great book of 1 Samuel on Sunday mornings, and we kind of come into a new portion of the book. It's a portion of the book of Samuel where we make an important historical transition from what's known as the time of the judges to the time of the kings.

There was a very long period in Israel's history where they had no king. For more than 400 years, they existed as a nation, as a people, in the promised land, but they didn't have a king. From time to time, God would raise up judges to meet specific needs in a time of crisis.

But there was no monarchy that was handed down from father to son to son to son. There was no royal family. There was no official government and royal court. For 400 years, that's how the nation was. But in the latter history of Israel, there was a king.

Now, how did they make that transition? And what does the Lord have to say to us through it? That's what 1 Samuel chapter 8 is all about. Verse 1, It now came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel.

The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second, Abijah. And they were judges in Beersheba. But his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes and perverted justice.

Samuel's Blind Spot in Appointing His Sons

Samuel is one of the most godly men in the Bible. You're never going to find a place in the Bible where point blank, right up front, right out loud, it says Daniel sinned, or excuse me, Samuel sinned in doing this.

Now, I'm not saying that Samuel was sinless, but it's just we're not told of it ever in the Bible that Samuel actually sinned in any particular place. God is never rebuking him for his sin. But if there's any place where Samuel sinned recorded in the Bible, it's right here.

You see, it was a sin for him to appoint his sons as judges, to figure, well, God has raised me up as a judge over Israel. He must have raised my sons up. Maybe Samuel looked across and he said, there's no leadership being raised up for the generation behind me.

What's going to happen? Well, I guess I'll begin with my sons. But the problem was, if you notice here in verse 3, it says, but his sons did not walk in his ways. And this is why Samuel was wrong to appoint his sons as judges over Israel.

You know, nepotism is not a good thing. And it's not a good thing in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. But it's a very common error. I see a lot of people, especially as leaders get older, they tend to have a very unfair favoritism towards their own family.

Now, of course, nobody should be excluded from ministry or from serving God because they're a member of the family. But you shouldn't appoint somebody who's otherwise unqualified or not called just because they're family.

And this is the mistake Samuel was making. His sons did not have the godly character. They were living sinful lives and they didn't have the kind of requirements that God looks for in leaders. But Samuel, well, the big requirement, the big qualification they had were they were his kids.

And that's not enough, my friends. You know the problem, don't you? Samuel couldn't look objectively at his own children. Now, that's a problem a lot of us have, don't we? It's a very easy thing to slip into.

To excuse sins in our own children that we see very clearly in other people. Oh yeah, in other people it's crystal clear. Wow, they shouldn't do this and this. But for our own children, well, you know, my sweet darling, they can do no wrong.

You know, I'll tell you, from time to time we have difficulty with this here in our own church family when it comes to like the Sunday school ministry or the youth ministry. You know, little Johnny will be, you know, really acting up in the Sunday school class or in the youth ministry class and the teacher will have to deal with it.

And little Johnny's mom or dad will hear about it. And, you know, Johnny, when he explains it to mom and dad, well, he did no wrong. You know, it's that mean old teacher. And it's very easy. It's just, it's almost natural for the parent to, you know, go to the teacher and say, well, you know, teacher, you're giving my son a hard time and, you know, you got to get off little Johnny's back.

And, you know, and it's kind of a blind spot that we often have of just thinking, you know, well, you know, my child, they're in the right, they can do no wrong. It's a common mistake. We often have this blind spot and Samuel had it right here with his own children.

If you take a look at what the kids were doing, verse 3, it said, his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes and perverted justice. Friends, these men should not have been lifted up as leaders or judges over Israel.

Of course, when I read this list and I think of the conduct of many of the leaders that we have in the government today, I was thinking, wow, you know, it would be great for leaders who only were as bad as the sons of Samuel.

It'd be kind of refreshing just to have these three things wrong instead of the things we see today. Now, look at here, verse 4, something good happens here. It says, then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah.

Israel's Three Requests to Samuel

And they said to him, look, you're old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make for us a king to judge us like all the nations. Now, they say three things to Samuel. The first thing to him is you're old.

I'm sure Samuel didn't want to hear that. The second thing they say to Samuel is that we're not going to accept your sons as judges over us. This was a good thing for the elders of Israel to say. This was wise.

They didn't have to accept the leadership of men who are ungodly and not qualified. And it was very good for them to come and just be very point blank and approach them and say, Samuel, look, we cannot accept these men.

You've got a blind spot here. But these men are unacceptable to us as leaders. And while it was wise for the elders of Israel to reject the leadership of Samuel's sons, what they do at the end of verse 5 is very wrong.

Do you see what they say? They say now make for us a king to judge us like all the nations. They wanted a king. We don't want these judges anymore. We want a king. Now, let me say to you right out front that the desire that the nation of Israel had for a king in and of itself was not a bad desire.

Matter of fact, I believe I'm persuaded that it was in God's plan to provide Israel with a king at the right time. Way back in the book of Deuteronomy, friends, 400 years before this time, God had said, you're going to have a king one day.

And this is the character of the king and this is what the king should do. I mean, I think it was always within the heart of God, within the plan of God to eventually give Israel a king. Right now, Israel in verse 5 is suffering under two problems.

Wanting God's Will at the Wrong Time and for the Wrong Reason

The first problem is they're getting ahead of God. Now, God's timing is just as important as his will. Something may be totally God's will for your life, but it's not the right timing. And I think it was in God's will for Israel to have a king, but it wasn't in his timing right then.

But the second thing where Israel goes wrong is in their basic motive for wanting a king. Did you see that at the end of verse 5? Look at it. Now, make for us a king to judge us like all the nations. The Amorites have a king.

The Edomites have a king. The Egyptians have a king. The Assyrians have a king. We want a king. It's like, you know, a little kid wanting a toy. You know, Billy has this toy and Johnny has this toy and Sally has this toy.

I want it, too. Friends, that's not the right reason for wanting a king. But that was the reason that was on the Israelites' heart. Friends, they wanted to be just like all the nations around them. And I tell you, this was a very low vision for what God had called Israel to.

God never called Israel and said, This is my goal, this is my purpose for you, to be just like everybody else. God had a higher call for Israel. He said, I want you to be a holy priesthood, a chosen nation.

That's what God had for Israel. Friends, don't you sense that the Lord says the same thing to you? God has a higher call on your life as a believer in Jesus Christ than to be just like everybody else.

And I think Satan really rips us off by just cultivating this feeling inside of us that makes us say, you know, we just want to be like everybody else. Friends, God does not want you to be like everybody else.

He wants you to stand strong for Jesus Christ. Instead of wanting to be like the world, we should be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. And so, I think right here, Israel wanted the right thing.

It was fine for them to have a king, but they wanted it for the wrong reasons. You ever have that in your life? You want something that's right, you want something that's good, but you want it for the wrong reasons.

You know what God does in those situations? A lot of times, He'll give it to you. And then He'll let you work it out along the way. So Israel says, No, we don't want to judge anymore. We want a king. How would you feel if you were Samuel?

Samuel Takes Israel's Rejection to God in Prayer

Look at verse 6. But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, Give us a king to judge us. So Samuel prayed to the Lord. I think there were three things that bothered Samuel. The first thing that bothered him was that they came and said, You're getting old.

Samuel didn't want to hear that. Secondly, it bothered Samuel, and I'm sure this displeased him, that they said, Your sons aren't fit to lead us. And if Samuel had this blind spot in his heart, if he had this blind spot in his mind, nobody wants to be confronted with their blind spots, do they?

And it kind of probably hurts him. Wow, you say, My kids aren't... And yet, he knew they were right. You know, it was one of those difficult things, but it was probably difficult for Samuel to face the fact that his children weren't fit to be judges over Israel.

But the third thing that displeased Samuel was he saw the reason why Israel wanted a king, and he knew it was wrong. I love it, because Samuel was displeased, right? What did he do when he was displeased?

He took it to the Lord in prayer. Friends, I don't know. What's been going on in your life? Something happened this week to displease you, to set your heart in a difficult place, to make you feel the pressure and the anxiety of life and all this world.

Friends, God never wants you to carry that kind of trouble with you. Do what Samuel did. Pray to the Lord. Can I simply tell you right now that not everything in your life is going to go as you would hope it to go?

You're going to be faced with troubles. You're going to be faced with difficulties. And you need to take it to the Lord in prayer. That's what Samuel did. Instead, what a lot of us do in this time of displeasure, when things are going difficult in our life, is we just keep it all inside of us and we bottle it up and it becomes like an acid eating away our soul from the inside out.

And you wonder why you're so angry, why you're so short, why you're so difficult with people, why you're such a grump and all. Lord, what's going on? Well, why don't you take what's bothering you and pour it out before the Lord?

Take whatever's displeasing you and cry out before God. Rehearse it out before God. Let Him carry your burden, not you. He's stronger than you. Do you know that? God can handle it, even if you can't. So that's what the Lord was telling Samuel here.

God Allows Israel to Reject Him as King

And then he goes on here, verse 7. And the Lord said to Samuel, Heed the voice of the people and all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them, according to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day, which they have forsaken me and served other gods, so they are doing to you also.

In other words, God's assuring Samuel here. It's almost like He's putting His arm around and saying, Samuel, look, they're rejecting you. They're telling you that you're old, that your sons are unfit.

Samuel, don't take it personally. Samuel, they're not rejecting you. They're rejecting me. You know, sometimes it's very easy for God's servants to take this kind of rejection personally, when really they shouldn't.

Don't take it personally. They're not rejecting you, they're rejecting the Lord. Now, let me tell you, if you're being offensive, if you're being obnoxious, maybe they are rejecting you. Maybe you deserve it.

Get all that offensiveness, get all that obnoxiousness out. And let it be in your life that if anybody's angry with you, that if anybody's rejecting you, if anybody's set themselves against you, what they're really setting themselves against is the Lord in you.

And that's where Samuel was at. It's as if the Lord's saying to him what Jesus said to His disciples. He who rejects you, rejects me. As long as we're not being personally offensive or obnoxious, we shouldn't take it personally.

And God's comforting him, saying, listen, Samuel, they've been rejecting me ever since Egypt, God's saying. Don't take it personally. I can deal with it, the Lord's telling him. Let me minister to your heart, Samuel.

And Samuel received it. But did you notice here what the Lord told Samuel at the very beginning of verse 7? He said, heed the voice of the people. Samuel, give them what they want. If they want a king, give it to them.

Now, why was God saying that? Was God saying that because Israel changed His mind? And suddenly God thought, well, it's a good thing for them to have the king and the way they want it, how they want it right now.

You know what, that's not why. God's saying, okay, they want it. I'm going to teach you something through this, Israel. You want your king? I'll give you your king. Let's see how it works out. You know, again, friends, in many ways, this is a matter of timing.

Israel was ahead of the Lord here. They wouldn't wait for the Lord. God will show them the danger of having that. Now, when Israel was calling out for a king, I don't want you to think for a moment that the elders of Israel were stupid or that they were unspiritual.

They probably were looking out over the needs of the nation and saying, you know, what we really need is we need a king. That would solve our problems. We need a king because we have political needs. We have national needs.

We have economic needs. And a king would fix those problems. But friends, you know what Israel's blind to right now? If Israel really just obeyed the heavenly king that they had, they wouldn't need an earthly king.

So often we think, you know, well, what we really need is, you know, we need different politicians. We need different leaders. You know, that's, and friends, believe me, there's a time for change in all that.

And it's a good time to do that when we're at the ballot box and all that and I know our political system. Friends, let me tell you, what we really need is to get right with God. And that's what Israel needed to do.

And that's what they were blind to. They thought that there was some political solution, some social solution to their problems. And while all those things could have been addressed, what they really needed to do is get right with God in their own heart.

And it's sad to see Israel rejecting God. Did you see this? It's almost sad where it says, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me. It strikes me just as unfair. I mean, hadn't God shown himself to be a worthy king?

What problem would they ever have with the leadership of God? Didn't he demonstrate his ability to lead and to deliver the nation over and over again? And there's almost a sense here in which the rejection of God as the king is prophetic.

Israel's Rejection of God Foreshadows the Rejection of Christ

You know, can you picture it in your mind? Jesus standing before Pontius Pilate. And there he is, up on a platform of judgment. And there's Pilate in all his resplendent garments. And Jesus wearing a crown of thorns.

And Jesus in a mocking, so-called kingly robe. And as he stands there, they're assembled before a huge mob. And it's a mob that's angry and it's chanting, Crucify him! Crucify him! And as the chant goes out over that section of Jerusalem, way back in the ancient world, there they are, the mob's chanting it.

And Pilate, he's nonplussed. This is a Jewish man. Why do Jewish people want this Jewish man to be crucified? And Pilate says, Why crucify him? For he's done no wrong. And the chant comes back, Crucify him!

Crucify him! Pilate can't understand it. He says, What? Shall I crucify your king? And Israel shouted back. The assembled mob said, We have no king but Caesar. And they rejected Jesus Christ as king over them.

Friends, Jesus knew what it felt like to be a rejected king. It happened here in 1 Samuel 8. It happened in the Gospels. He was a rejected king. Now, as we come to verse 9, we see God preparing Samuel to do this.

God's Warning About the Behavior of Earthly Kings

He says, Now, therefore, heed their voice. However, you shall solemnly forewarn them and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them. I love this. God's saying, Listen, Samuel, forewarn them.

He didn't say change their minds. God didn't say try to talk them out of it. God said, Okay, they said on this course, fine. Let them go this way. But he said, Warn them. You ever go and buy a car or purchase a house or make some kind of big transaction like that?

You know, there's always like the truth in lending disclosure, right? Where they tell you the terms of the loan and what it's going to cost you and all this stuff. Well, this is sort of the truth in monarchy provision that God is putting in the whole deal here.

Saying, Okay, you want to go into this? Fine, you're going to go into it with your eyes wide open. I'm going to tell you exactly what's going to happen when you have a king. I'm going to give you the information, God says.

You know, the problem with that is when we have information before God, it creates responsibility. All of you here this morning, you come here week after week and praise the Lord for it. I'm glad. I'm glad to see it.

It's just great. I tell you, you're doing something dangerous by coming here today and week after week. You're making yourself more and more responsible and accountable before God. Every week that you come here, there's less and less in your life that you can stand before God and say, Well, I didn't know about that.

I'm not trying to say that to say, Oh, I've had enough, then I shouldn't come anymore. No, no, that's not the idea at all. The idea simply is that when God speaks to us, we're accountable to do something with that.

And God's going to make Israel accountable. They can't come back and say, Hey, we didn't know. Because they will know, because Samuel's going to tell them. Look at it here, beginning of verse 10. It's a section we'll read all the way through verse 18.

It says, So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who asked him for a king. And he said, This will be the behavior of the king who will reign over you. He will take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots and to be his horsemen.

And some will run before his chariots. He will appoint captains over his thousands and captains over his fifties and will set some to plow his ground and reap his harvest and some to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.

He will take your daughters to be his perfumers, cooks and bakers. And he will take the best of your fields, your vineyards and your olive groves and give them to his servants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officers and servants.

And he will take your men servants and your maid servants and your finest young men and your donkeys and put them to his work. And he will take a tenth of your sheep and you will be his servants. And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves and the Lord will not hear you in that day.

The Law of Unintended Consequences

That's heavy, isn't it? God says, Listen, this is the truth in monarchy act right here, Israel. You want a king? Let me tell you what's going to happen. Again, as I said before, we shouldn't think for a moment that the elders of Israel were dumb.

They were stupid. You know, they looked out over Israel. They saw the condition of Israel and they were thinking. They were saying, You know, we've got some problems here. We've got political problems.

We've got national problems. We've got economic problems. And so, you know, I know what the solution is. The solution is for us to have a king. But I don't think Israel was thinking very wisely about this.

They were falling into a trap. It's a trap we fall into oftentimes. Sometimes it's called the law of unintended consequences. And simply what it means is whenever you try to fix a problem with a solution, the solution is going to cause more problems than you originally had.

We forget this a lot of times. Many people fail in the exact same way that Israel failed. When a problem comes up, they think up an answer to that problem, but the solution brings more problems than the original problem.

They don't maturely look at the situation and anticipate the problems that the solution will bring. Friends, we've got to do that maturely in our lives. Now, other people do kind of the opposite. Whenever a need comes up and something needs to be done, all they can think about is all the problems that the solution is going to cause.

And they think, if I can't come up with the perfect solution, then I'm not going to do anything. Friends, that's not the way to do things either. There's only one perfect solution in all of the universe, and that's Jesus Christ.

Apart from that, when you're dealing with things in your life, when you're dealing with things with other people, friends, there are no perfect solutions. Every solution that you have, it's going to raise some other issue, some other problem.

And what you just have to do is maturely look at it and weigh it. Say, we could do this, but then this is going to happen, or if we don't do this, then that's going to happen. But don't go around thinking in this fog in your mind that, well, this is the perfect solution, or if we do this, then everything will be fixed and there won't be any other problems.

What we simply do is we maturely look at and measure the good and the bad, and we pray for guidance, and we wait on the Lord, and we step out in faith. God wants us to live our lives, but Israel wasn't doing that.

Earthly Kings Are Takers, but Jesus Is a Giving King

You see what their problem was here? I love it in verses 10 -18. Did you sense that? I was sort of trying to emphasize it as I read it. It said it over and over again. He will take, he will take, he will take, he will take, he will take.

It says it, what, some six or seven times, just in those verses. He will take, and it ends with saying, and you will be his servants. Friends, the Lord, through the prophet Samuel, he's given him fair warning.

Can I tell you something about the kings of this world? Just the same as it was in Samuel as it is today. The kings of this world are takers, not givers. Oh, I'm sure there's a rare exception here and there, but not for the most part.

They're takers and not givers, and Samuel wants the nation to be warned. If you're going to have a king, he's going to be a taker, not a giver, and you're going to be his servants. But I want to stand before you this morning and say I want to thank God that not every king is a taken king.

The king of kings, the Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ, he's not a taken king. He's a giving king. It says in Matthew chapter 20, Jesus told us that he did not come to be served, but to serve. Friends, that's how we should be, too.

You know, the Bible says that you're part of a royal family. It says that. First Peter chapter 2, verse 9 calls us a royal priesthood. We're part of a royal family, and Jesus is our king. Now, friends, if we're part of that royalty, let's be a giving royalty, not a taking royalty.

I think in some ways you can just pretty much divide the whole human race into two kinds of people. There's takers and there's givers. And the takers, you know, sometimes are the high achievers and the people who are popular or doing this and that and real busy about this.

There's a lot of takers in this world, but I'll tell you something about the takers is that there's not a lot of happiness in their lives. You can't be a taker and be at peace because you live your whole life wondering what you can get next and what you can take next.

Friends, if you really want to have a settled heart and a happy heart before God, be a giver. Don't walk around thinking the world and the Lord and everybody owes you. Walk around thinking, what can I give?

How can I bless somebody else? Not how can they bless me? Israel wouldn't do that. And so it says there at verse 18, at the end of it all, Samuel concluded in this dramatic way. He says, and you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you've chosen for yourselves.

And the Lord will not hear you this day. Why would Israel cry out? Because they wanted a king for unspiritual, ungodly reasons. Did you notice what it says here? It says here at the end of verse 18, because of your king whom you have chosen.

God isn't saying that it's God's king. You want a king, God says? Good, I'll give you your king. And he's going to be a taker. And you're going to cry out because of him. God says, I won't hear you on that day.

Israel Refuses the Warning and Demands a King

Now, I know what we're thinking. We're thinking, man, Israel heard those words from the Lord and they were cut to the quick. And they said, we're sorry, Lord. We're sorry for getting ahead of you. We shouldn't have done this.

God, we repent. We repent. Just whatever the time is right in your mind. God, give us your king. We don't want our king. We want your king. We're sorry, Lord. That's what Israel did, right? Look at verse 19.

Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, no, but we will have a king to rule over us. It was like, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Samuel. Oh, no, we want the king anyway.

And look at it in verse 20. Oh, this is the great reason that we may be like all the nations and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles. Samuel heard all the words of the people and kicked over the water cooler or something.

I bet Sam was really annoyed by this. He heard all the words of the people and he repeated them in the hearing of the Lord. I can just see that. But that was I bet that was kind of an ugly prayer. But Samuel was seething.

Lord, you won't believe what the people. I warned them, God, and they still want a king. Verse 22. So the Lord said to Samuel, heed their voice and make them a king. And Samuel said to the men of Israel, every man go to his city.

In other words, OK, guys, go home. I'll take care of it. People of Israel, after hearing Samuel's warning, after hearing what the Lord would say to him about the issue, they disregarded it. And they said, no, but we will have a king over us.

Israel Wants a King Like the Nations

Israel demanded a king. And as it'll work out, this is exactly what happens. God will give Israel their king. Later on, after their king falls, then God says, now let me give you my king. I believe that the big problem with Israel is that they were ahead of the Lord.

I think God intended there to be a monarchy in Israel and he had a king picked out. His name was David. At this point, David might not even have been born yet. If he did, he was just a young boy, a very young boy.

God said, if you guys would just wait, I'd raise up my king for you. But you're ahead of me, so I'll give you your king. Did you see the reasons for it? Look at verse 20. That we may be like all the nations.

We've heard that one before, right? That's a great reason, isn't it? I want one because everybody else has one. I don't care if it's right. I don't care if it's wrong. Everybody else has one. I want a boyfriend.

Why? Because all my friends have boyfriends. I want this kind of car. Why? Because all my friends do. Friends, that's not a good reason. Then you see the next reason why. Verse 20. And that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.

Now this one really blows my mind. What? Hadn't the Lord fought battles on behalf of Israel before? Hadn't the Lord done that? We just saw it in the last chapter. God won a spectacular battle for Israel.

What's wrong with these people? What was it? God was falling down on the job? They needed to replace him? Is there some problem like that? And what this really shows me is, friends, it's not so much that Israel wanted a king.

They had a king. The Lord God was their king. You know what they wanted? They wanted the image of a king. That's what Israel didn't like. They had a king. The Lord God enthroned in heaven. He did everything for them that a king had to do.

But you know what the Lord God wouldn't give them? That image of a king. They wanted all the trappings. Oh, we want a crown and a scepter. Oh, we can make a throne for him. He can sit on his throne. And look, there's going to be a royal family.

And we can make up magazines and television shows and say, well, you know, the princess is dating this person. And the prince, oh, isn't it wonderful? Oh, this is all what we need. They wanted the image of royalty.

They had a king in heaven. And so you know what God's going to say? Boy, you want a king? I'll give you a king. I'll give you a king from central casting. I'll give you a guy who looks the part. Oh, boy, you wait until you see this guy.

You're going to lay your eyes and say, man, he looks like a king. He's going to look great on the covers of all the magazines. You won't have the heart of a king that God wants. Later on, God will raise up an unlikely young man to be a king.

And he won't look like a king. At least not at first. Israel didn't want that. They wouldn't wait. So what does the Lord say? Friends, this is a great way to wrap this up. Did you see this at verse 22?

God Remains Sovereign Despite Israel's Rebellion

The Lord said to Samuel, heed their voice and make them a king. You know, in a sense, this is almost funny. They're rejecting the rule of God. Lord, you know, look, we know you tried your best. You're a good guy.

But as far as this king business goes, we're going to have to let you go, Lord. You know, we're looking around for another guy. Thanks. We appreciate it. Don't call us. We'll call you. Say to the Lord.

Now, friend, let me ask you something. What do you think happened in heaven when the people of Israel said that to the Lord? Did God say, oh, I'm sorry to get in your way. Let me step off my sovereign throne just so that you can do whatever you want.