Samuel of Israel and was chosen by God and used him as judge to travel around to Bethel and other places for the rest of his life. At God’s direction he appoint Saul, first king of Israel, as monarch. Samuel was born to Hannah and Elkanah. She had been barren for many years, but, of course during those times and even as is now longed for a son. God answered their prayers and gave them Samuel, the great judge and prophet. If Samuel spoke it, it was known that he only spoke truth and it would happen. Samuel grew old. His two sons, Joel and Abijah were greedy and corrupt. The elders confronted Samuel, “You are old and your sons walk not in your ways.”
They were greedy and took bribes and did corrupt things. The people did not want Samuel’s sons to rule over them. Their solution to this dilemma was not to wait on the LORD, but to use their own human judgement without consultation with God. Rather, they demanded to have a king. They figured what they wanted was to have a king and do things the way the nations were doing, “We want a king like the nations.” They desire a strong centralized government. Samuel warns them against changing over to a different kind of government and they would have the violation of individual rights and liberty of the people. They made a big mistake. Samuel didn’t like it either and being a prophet, he already knew it was not the wisest move to make and not the best thing to do. Samuel was caught in a difficult situation. God told Samuel, they have been disobedient all along, every since I brought them out of Egypt. They have forsaken me and served pagan gods and idols. So God said, okay, I will give them a king. Keep Samuel, they are not rejecting you, they are rejecting me. It appears that God’s divine rulership (1 Samuel 8:1-22; Exodus 15:18; Judges 8:23; 1 Samuel 8:1-22) is conflicting with human kingship. The people were always ungrateful to God and ungrateful to Samuel. Samuel told the people all the practices they could look to have by having a king to rule over them. The king would take their sons and appoint them for himself, to be his horsemen, as charioteers. Some will run before the chariots. He will appoint himself captains over thousands, and captains over fifties and will set them to cultivate his ground, reap his harvest, make instruments of war and instruments of chariots. They will serve as outrunners for his chariots. Then he goes on to tell the People, along with telling the People: they will take your daughters too, who will be forced to be confectionaries, cooks and bakers. The king will seize your choice fields, your vineyards and oliveyards, and give them to his servants and you will be forced to plow his fields. You shall become his slaves. He will take a tenth of your seed and of your vineyards and give them to his officers and to his servants. He will take your maidservants and your menservants your very best young men and women and put them to his work to become slaves. He will take a tenth of your sheep and everyone will be working for him, because he will take away your individual rights and liberties. We can see Biblically and therefore truthfully what the future holds if we continue following along this path. Now, we can ask, “What was the result of their wayward, disobedient choice? 1 Samuel 8:18 fills in the blanks for us. “You will be miserable and cry out to this king for relief and cry out to me. In that day,. You will think back on your bad choice. God will not hear you. You were warned not to do this, but you would not listen. You rejected me. I told Samuel, okay, I will yield to their desires. So, now I will not hear you in your miseries. You refused to hear the wise advice of Samuel. You said, “No!” we want a king to go out before us like the nations. We want to be like the nations to have a king go out before us and fight our battles.”
God had been fighting their battles all along. But, that was not good enough for them anymore. They were overtaken in fear and boasting and wanted to make it on their own and do it “their way.” Well, we see “their way”, your way is not the best way. What greater wisdom can we have than His wisdom. There is none. Totally, none. It may be difficult sometimes to discern the voice in your mind. If you can’t figure it out, just take it slow, wait and listen for His voice. Your mind can play a tug of war with you. Wait! Wait on the Lord.
Thanks for reading!
Jeanette Grattan Parker, Founder-Superintendent Today’s Fresh Start Charter School 323-293-9826 www.todaysfreshstart.org; [Ask Dr. JeanetteTM & Ask Dr. Jeanette ParkerTM (registered trademarks) www.askdrjeanetteparker.com [email protected] tm
“Inquiring Minds Want to Know.”© All rights reserved references:Holy Bible;[1 Samuel 8:1-22]
