A Call For a King (I Samuel 8:10-22)

Eli’s Sons, the Ark, and the Rise of Samuel

Who were desecrating the temple with their sexual exploits. As a result, a man of God comes to Eli and he pronounces judgment and prophesies judgment on Eli and his family. Then as we move to chapter three, Samuel ministers before the Lord at the temple and Shiloh under Eli and the Lord gives Samuel a prophecy and he thinks it's Eli calling him during the night.

The Lord wakes him up, tells him something and he speaks to Eli and asks him what he wanted and Eli recognizes that it was the Lord speaking a prophecy to Samuel. So he accepts the prophecy of which is also against Samuel or Eli and his family and he recognizes that this prophecy of his family being destroyed is from the Lord and he accepts that.

He realizes the sins of his sons. Chapter four, they take the Ark of the Covenant into battle and it's captured by the Philistines and it's taken throughout the Philistine land to all the various five cities and then God brings a plague on those cities that had captured the Ark and as a result, chapter six, they assembled all the lords of the cities and they decided to send the Ark back to Israel.

They did so and some of the men in Mizpah where the Ark was looked inside the Ark of the Covenant and God struck them that day. The translation, the New American translates this as 50 ,070 men that God struck that day but the commentators say that that number could have mistranslated so they said that Josephus estimates about 70 were killed that day.

Chapter seven, the Ark of the Covenant was sent to Abinadab on the hill and remained at Curiaturum for 20 years. The second division of this first 15 chapters begins in chapter eight. Chapter eight, it came about when Samuel was old that he appointed his sons as judges over Israel.

Israel’s Demand for a King Like the Nations

Now the name of his firstborn son was Joel which means the Lord is God. The name of the second was Abijah which means my father is the Lord. They were judging Beersheba and his sons however did not walk in the ways of Samuel but they took bribes and they were perverting justice and this presents the problem of hereditary rule whereby the children or a father who is in office gives, passes the office on to their children or some offspring and they don't have the integrity or the ability and in Israel at this point God is the one who appointed those that would be over Israel.

Chapter eight verses four and five, the elders gathered together because of, supposedly because of Samuel's son's corruption and the people had demanded that they put a king over Israel like all other nations.

They were not interested in the purity of rule. They were interested in one thing, a king that would provide an army for Israel to defend them, protect them so they could prosper. They didn't want to repent and serve God so rather they wanted a king and so that he would have an army and then provide protection for the Israelites.

In verse six of chapter eight says this, but the thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, give us a king to judge us and Samuel prayed to the Lord. The Lord said to Samuel verses seven through nine, listen to the voice of the people in regard to all they say to you for they have not rejected you but they have rejected me from being king over them.

Like all the deeds which they have done since the day I brought them up from Egypt even to this day that they have forsaken me and served other gods so they are doing to you also. Now then, listen to their voice.

However, you shall warn them solemnly and tell them of the procedure of the king who will reign over them. Now they were looking to have a king like other nations. However, they didn't consider the cost of this.

What was gonna happen if God allowed them to have this king? Matthew Henry made this quote which I said earlier but it's worth repeating. Matthew Henry in his commentary on Samuel said this, not that God was pleased with the request but as sometimes he displays his love towards his people yet when they sin and turn from him, he will give them what they desire that they may be beaten with their own rod, end quote.

So the people didn't realize what God was gonna allow to happen to them. Excuse me. The Israelites no longer wanted Jehovah to rule over them. They didn't want a theocracy. God would protect them if they would repent but rather than repent, they wanted to serve other gods and they didn't want to be under the law.

Samuel explains to the people what they're gonna experience. What follows is actually very accurate depiction of the ordinary results of human lordship. Samuel describes the role and consequence of a human leader rather than the divine king over them.

Samuel explains the solemn warning in ways of the king who will rule over them and he uses the verb take. Six times he will take between verses 11 and 17. So let's see what Samuel says here. Verses 10, we begin there.

So Samuel spoke all the words of the Lord to the people who had asked him of a king. He said, this will be the procedure of the king who will reign over you. He will take your sons and place them for himself in his chariots and among his horsemen and they will run before the chariots.

He will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and of fifties and some to do his plowing, some to reap his harvest and to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters for perfumers and cooks and bakers.

He will take the best of your fields and your vineyards and your olive groves and give them to his servants. He will take a 10th of your seed and your vineyards and give to his officers and to his servants.

He will also take your male servants and your female servants and your best young men and your donkeys and use them for his work. He will take a 10th of your flocks and you yourselves will become his servants.

Then you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day. Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel and they said, no, but there shall be a king over us that we may also be like all the nations that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.

That's the key right there. That's what they wanted. They wanted to be free from under the oppression by the Philistines and they didn't care how they got it. They just didn't wanna fight the battles.

They wanted an army and they knew that a king would provide that. Verse 21, now after Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them to the Lord's hearing. The Lord said to Samuel, listen to their voice and appoint them a king.

So Samuel said to the men of Israel, go every man to his city. So let's take a closer look at this and see what some of the results of this demand from Israel. In verse 12, he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and of fifties and some to do his plowing and to reap his harvest and to make his weapons of war and equipment for chariots.

So some of the additional duties of the Israelite men are given in verse 12. Thousands and fifties represent the largest and the smallest divisions respectively of an Israeli army or Israelite army. Though this may be objectionable by the fathers who their sons would be taken for this purpose, this is what the people desired, a well-organized army.

Perhaps the people would object to the next clause as well and some will do his plowing and to reap his harvest and to make his weapons of war and equipment for chariots. The Israelites would no longer be able to have their children pursue their vocation or take over the family's property and harvest the family's crops.

Now they would be in full service to the king. They couldn't pursue the vocation or the desire they wanted to. They had to serve the king. They were serfs, slaves of the king. So the Israelites, think about this, they were more apt to be ready to give up their children in service for the king than they were to bow in repentance before God.

In an earthly monarchy, the people don't always have the ability to choose their leaders. In the nation of Israel at this point, the Israelites demonstrated that they did not want to subject themselves or be obedient to Jehovah, but rather a desire to have a king like all other nations.

It was their sinful disobedience and demands for a kingdom rule. For a nation of agriculturists and shepherds, they have to leave their own field. The children have to leave their own fields, leave the homes.

The daughters would be taken for perfumers and be servants of the king. There's a profound principle that we find in this passage of scripture in the book of John. Jesus said, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.

Then Paul in Romans says this in Romans 6, 16. Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves to the one whom you obey, either sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness.

So how does this tie into what the Israelites have done? We think we can dabble in sin. They thought they could serve their idols rather than God and somehow still have control over their homes. Israel no longer desires a theocracy, but rather they wanted their own form of government and they wanted to continue worshiping their idols.

The Cost of Monarchy: Fields, Daughters, and the Tithe of the King

Verse 13, he will also take your daughters for perfumers and cooks and bakers. The original reads perfumers, makers of ointment and scents. During that period of time, they love perfumes and ointments as well as incense.

So they would use the daughters to make these things. Kings during that period of time would also take their daughters as their wives or concubines. So we see this in the book of Kings with even Solomon, David's son.

First Kings 11 .3 says this, speaking of Solomon, he had 700 wives and 300 concubines and his wives turned his heart away from the Lord. Verse 14, back in Samuel, he will take the best of your fields and your vineyards and your olive groves and will give them to his servants.

Now in the Canaanite culture, it's important to realize that land was one of the few commodities they had to be traded or sold for profit. And now their land portions of it would be harvested for the king.

They would take their animals for the king's use and so they no longer had full use of their property. If we looked ahead in First Kings 21, when Ahab became king, we'll see how wicked this became. He wanted Nabar's vineyard.

So he pouted and turned to the wall and when Jezebel saw him pouting, she said, why is your heart so down? Paraphrase.

Paraphrase.

Because he wanted that vineyard. And when he asked Nabar to sell it to him, Nabar's response was, the Lord forbid me that I should give you the inheritance of my father's. So we all know the story, Jezebel comes up with this scheme to blame Nabar for not following and obeying the king so they kill them for insurrection that way.

The king took his property. Verse 15, he will take a tenth of your seed and your vineyards and give to his officers and servants. Though the king would perhaps allow the people to keep their land and some of their crops, he would take a tenth of all the seed of all the vineyards and give to his officers and servants.

The Israelites would no longer have the fruit of their labor but rather the king would use their bounty for his purposes. He was the first one that would take the fruit of their bounty. As we think of this, we sometimes look and easily identify the willful irreverence and blatant disobedience to God from the Israelites all throughout their history.

And yet, sometimes we fall short of seeing our own disobedience and yet we're quick to recognize Israel's and fail sometimes to see our own. Verse 17, he will take a tenth of your flocks and you yourselves will become his servants.

The Israelites who were really blessed by God when they were repentant of their sin and they were submissive to his word, yet because of the hardness of their hearts, God would only make them slaves of the king that they demanded.

He would take their land, a tenth of their harvest and a tenth of their livestock. You will cry out to me in that day because your king whom you have chosen for yourselves but the Lord will not hear you on that day.

Samuel had given the elders this somber warning that God gave him. He'd instructed them and warned the people because they demanded this of Samuel. They wanted this despot, this king, like other nations.

They'd reap the consequences, perhaps not immediately because as we know, Saul will become the first king of Israel. However, when Solomon takes over David's son, things would change dramatically. He would take everything for himself and his fleshly pursuits.

Though Saul is chosen by God as the first king, then David, the people didn't care of the cost they would pay. However, as we look at this, we know that there was provision for a king and it was given to him in Deuteronomy.

In chapter 17, we read this. When you enter the land, verse 14, chapter 17 of Deuteronomy, when you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you and you possess it and live in it and you say, I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me.

You shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses. One from among your countrymen, you shall set as king over yourselves. And you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman.

Moreover, you shall not multiply horses for himself nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses since the Lord has said to you, you shall never again return that way. So as we think of this and we think the progression of the kings, of course, David was the king that was chosen by God that would be in the lineage of Christ.

But he says, when you cry out to me that day, the Lord will not answer you. No matter how ruthless the king may be, this was their demand and they'd live with the consequences. In verses 19 and 20, nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel.

And they said, no, but there shall be a king over us that we may also be like all other nations that a king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles. As we think of this, as Samuel writes in verse 21, now, after Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the Lord's hearing.

So the Lord said, listen to their voices. Appoint them a king, so Samuel said to the men of Israel, go, every man to his city. Even after the description that Samuel gives the people of the rights of the king, they were not swayed.

Samuel pointed out to the elders and dangers the connection with a monarchy in an alarming way, which should have caused the Israelites to really pause and reflect, what are we really doing here? We have Jehovah as our God.

He saved us and delivered us from the Philistines in the past when we repent. You would think that they would pause and think of this consequence long-term, what it was gonna do. No, all they could think about was the immediate benefit.

They'll have an army to protect them. Even though God knew that the elders demand was a rejection of himself and a plea for a worldly leader, yet this was already planned as I read that passage in Deuteronomy.

Also, all the way back to Genesis chapter 17, verse six, says this, I will make you exceedingly fruitful and I will make nations of you and kings will come forth from you. This was the promise given all the way back to Abraham.

At that time, God would reveal his choice of a king to be appointed through a special revelation through the prophet that he would announce this to. Samuel was the prophet that he would use. And remember, Samuel, going all the way back to chapter two, chapter three, he was a prophet, a priest, and then judge over Israel.

Now, it says, chapter seven, that he judged Israel all his days. So even though they would appoint a king to rule over Israel Samuel would remain the judge for his life. Yes, Brian. Actually, that's partially true.

The people saw Saul, he was very tall and handsome, taller, a head and shoulders above all the Israelites, but God is the one that sent Samuel directly to carry out that appointment. So he knew he would appoint Saul.

Saul would serve, Saul will serve for a period of time in good stead with God and obedient to God, but then he sins and disobeys God's commands when he takes a city. Then he takes the spoils, the best of spoils.

So we get to the passage where Samuel asks him, did not God appoint you king? And he points out all he's done. And then he says, Mark, what is the bleeding of the sheep and the bellowing of the oxen I hear?

So that's the other part of it is to obey is better than the sacrifice and obedience. I forget the rest of the verse, but yeah. So we have to think about this process. God was the one that would appoint the king.

Samuel would be used as a prophet to do so. So this is the process that they used. Second, let's see, first the king will be chosen. Second, God ordained Israel's king must come from among the brothers.

In other words, they have to be from the Israelite tribes. You shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses, one from among your countrymen. You shall set his king over yourselves. You may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman.

That was from Deuteronomy 17, 15. Then the third, he must not acquire horses for himself and he shall not acquire many wives, lest his heart be turned away, nor shall he acquire for himself silver and gold.

What did Solomon do? 700 wives, 300 concubines. He accumulated horses, he accumulated gold. Even a queen of Egypt came to see the wisdom of Solomon brought gold to him. Finally, a God honoring leader will be under the authority of God's word in all things.

This was God's chief provision for godly kingship. He directed that the first thing any man would do upon ascending to the throne was to write for himself in a book, a copy of this law approved by the Levitical priests.

Now, in Deuteronomy 17, 18, we read, a copy of the law was provided and approved by the Levitical priests. In verse 18 of Deuteronomy 17, it says, now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of the law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priest.

It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by carefully observing all the words of his law and the statutes, that his heart may not be lifted up above the countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right or to the left so that he and his sons may continue long in the kingdom in the midst of Israel.

So, even though this law was given to them, the king was supposed to be subject to God's law. He was not only supposed to be subject to it, but he was supposed to read it continually. Think about that.

If he was under the rule of God and he followed the law of God, he would be a righteous king and also, he would be humble because he was not to think of himself above the law. When I say righteous, I don't mean the righteousness of Christ.

I mean that they are obedient as much as they're able to God's law. That's what the king was supposed to be. But as we go throughout Israel history, we see after the kingdom is divided, the ruthless kings they had in the north.

These precepts were given as requirements to those who'd be kings over God's people. God's true plan for reigning over his people was to have one who would reign as king forever. That is the second person of the triune Godhead, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The King Who Gives Himself: Christ the True Son of David

The last duty of Samuel would be to anoint young David then guide him. But David was only a forerunner for the true and great king who would arise from the line of David. In 2 Samuel chapter seven, Samuel says this, I will raise up from your offspring after you.

You shall come from, he shall come from your body and I will establish his kingdom, your throne shall be established forever. That's 2 Samuel seven verses 12 and 16. The heart of the Old Testament is the promise of this shepherd, the Messiah.

And the king who would fulfill the prophecies by being born both son of David and the son of God. This great contrast between Jesus and the kings described by Samuel. Jesus is not a king who takes from the people, but rather a king who gave himself as a perfect sacrifice for sin.

Matthew says this in Matthew 20, 28, the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. He gave his own life on the cross, dying in our place that we might be freed from the guilt and the penalty of sin, to be able to obey God by his grace, by the empowering spirit within us.

He is the king and from Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings on the earth to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, Revelation 1, 5.

The Transition from Judges to Kings and the Closing Prayer

So as we think of this, the picture that we see in the Old Testament, it's always pointing toward the Messiah. So in this next portion, as we begin chapter nine, we're going to see Saul as the one that God has called Samuel to appoint to a king.

So it's interesting how the divine process works when he picks a king. And we'll begin that next time in chapter nine. Now, is there any questions or comments regarding this text? I know I went a quick overview, but I wanted to establish how we go from prophet and a judge now to kingdom rule.

And this is where it starts. This whole transition begins here now. So we'll close. Father, we thank you for your word. I thank you, Lord, that you have not only provide us your word, but you've also provided us your Holy Spirit to illuminate.

And I pray, Father, that you would grant us your grace. And I pray, Father, that you would speak through your servant, Jim, as he brings us the message. And Father, as we lift up in song and praise, may you be glorified through all that we do.

We thank you, Father, for your love of us, your grace, and we pray that you'd be glorified this day by your people. In Jesus' precious name, amen.