Preached Sunday, October 3, 2010, 2010
from
1 Samuel 8:1-22
Theme: We must beware of the danger of giving human rule the trust in our hearts that only belongs to God.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
This morning, we begin what I believe will be a very profitable study from the Scriptures—that is, a study of the lives of the Old Testament kings who ruled over the people of Judah.
I have personally read the stories of these kings many times; and have been impressed with the lessons that there are for us as Christians in them. And I’m absolutely right to think this way, because God specifically preserved their stories that we might learn from them. As the apostle Paul once said about the Old Testament, “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope” (Romans 15:4).
So; I’m confident that, if we give ourselves to it, God will bless this study to our comfort and hope in Christ.
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Now; let’s begin establishing a few things. First, because there are so many kings whose stories are told in the Old Testament, we need to establish which of those kings we’re going to study.
You see; early on in the history of the kings of the Old Testament, the nation of Israel had been divided in two halves. The northern half was composed of ten of the original twelve tribes; and this half came to be called the kingdom of Israel. They had their own set of kings. And the tribes they separated from were the tribe of Judah and the priestly tribe of Levi. This southern half of the kingdom came to known as the kingdom of Judah; and it too had its own separate set of kings.
Sadly, all of the kings of the northern kingdom of Israel were ungodly men. But when it comes to the southern kingdom of Judah, we find that some of its kings were good and some were bad. So, we’re not going to study the lives of all the kings of the Old Testament. We’re going to limit our focus to the kings of that southern kingdom—the kingdom of Judah. It’s the important lineage of kings for us to study as Christians because, for us, it’s the truly “royal” lineage. It’s the one from which from which our true King—the Lord Jesus Christ, the ‘Lion of the Tribe of Judah’ (Revelation 5:5)—was born.
And second, we need to establish where we’re going to begin in our study. I believe that the best place for us to begin is way back before the two kingdoms were divided. In fact, we need to go back to a time before there were even any kings in the lineage of Judah at all!
The two kingdoms—north and south—became divided under the reign of King Rehoboam, who was the son of King Solomon. And Solomon, as you may know, was the son of the great King David—the first of the kings of Judah. But before David became king, the people had a king over them who was not of the tribe of Judah at all. He was King Saul from the tribe of Benjamin. And what a sad and tragic failure of a king he was!
How it is that Saul became king over the people of Israel—and indeed, how it was that the people of Israel even came to have a king at all—is told to us in 1 Samuel 8. It’s a story that has a great lesson to teach us all on its own; and it’s there that I suggest we begin our study.
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Did you know that, for the first 400 years of its existence as a nation, Israel had no human king at all? God used Moses to lead them out of their captivity in Egypt, and to gather them together before Mount Sinai to hear God’s voice speak His law. And it’s then—before Mount Sinai—that we can rightly say that they officially became a nation. But after Joshua, the successor to Moses, had led them in to take possession of the promised land, they existed for several centuries as what we might call a ‘twelve-tribe confederacy’ that was led—not by “kings”—but by “judges”.
These judges were not “judges” as we might think of them today—that is, men with black robes who sit at a bench in a court of law. They were simply godly men (and in one case, a godly woman; see Judges 4:4) that God gave to serve as deliverers of His people during particular times of trial; and that often served as religious reformers to lead the people out of their idolatry and back to God’s good way for them according to His law. Such judges didn’t inherit their role from their predecessor, much as a king would. Rather, God graciously and providentially raised up the right judge for a particular generation of people, and at the right time as He saw fit. The last of these judges in Israel’s history was Samuel. And he truly was the greatest of all the judges.
To give you a sense of how Samuel served the people, turn to 1 Samuel 7; and to how his ministry as judge over the people really began in earnest. The ark of the covenant, which had been captured by the enemy nation of the Philistines because of Israel’s disobedience, had been graciously restored to the people of Israel by God. Starting with verse two, we read;
So it was that the ark remained in Kirjath Jearim a long time; it was there twenty years. And all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD. Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you return to the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths from among you, and prepare your hearts for the LORD, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.” So the children of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and served the LORD only. And Samuel said, “Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to the LORD for you.” So they gathered together at Mizpah, drew water, and poured it out before the LORD. And they fasted that day, and said there, “We have sinned against the LORD.” And Samuel judged the children of Israel at Mizpah (1 Samuel 7:2-6).
Here, you can see that one of the ways that Samuel served the people was by leading them to repentance from their idolatry; and to restore them in their commitment to the Lord. He was being a ‘religious reformer’ to them. But not only did he led the people in holiness before the Lord, but he also led them to trust the Lord to be their Defender in times of trouble. Beginning with verse seven, we read;
Now when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel had gathered together at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the children of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines. So the children of Israel said to Samuel, “Do not cease to cry out to the LORD our God for us, that He may save us from the hand of the Philistines.” And Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the LORD. Then Samuel cried out to the LORD for Israel, and the LORD answered him. Now as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the LORD thundered with a loud thunder upon the Philistines that day, and so confused them that they were overcome before Israel. And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, and drove them back as far as below Beth Car. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the LORD has helped us.” So the Philistines were subdued, and they did not come anymore into the territory of Israel. And the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. Then the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron to Gath; and Israel recovered its territory from the hands of the Philistines. Also there was peace between Israel and the Amorites (1 Samuel 7:7-14).
I love reading about the monument that Samuel set up at the time of God’s deliverance of the people in verse 12; saying: “Thus far the LORD has helped us”. Would to God that those words would be the monument of our own lives as well!
And to appreciate the story of the beginning of the kings of Israel as we should, it’s very important that we understand the truth being expressed to Israel by that monument. Up to that time, the Lord Himself had been their faithful Helper. And so long as they would continue to turn away from false gods, and submit themselves to God’s rule, God Himself would faithfully continue to be to them everything they needed.
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But it was then that the people began to disregard the truth of that monument; and began to long for something other than God alone for their Helper. Chapter 8 goes on to tell us of . . .
1. THEIR DESIRE FOR A KING (vv. 1-5).
Verses 1-3 say;
Now it 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; 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 (vv. 1-3).
I believe we need to be honest and admit that, as great a man as Samuel was as a judge over Israel, he was not a good father over his own household. Way back in the early years of his life, he was raised by an old high priest over Israel named Eli. Eli’s two sons—both of whom served as priests under their father— were corrupt young men. They chased after women, and treated the offerings of God with contempt, and engaged in extortion over the people (1 Samuel 2:12-17). And now, the sons of Samuel were showing themselves as corrupt as the sons of Eli had been.
It was a sad mistake for Samuel to have entrusted such important spiritual leadership to these two sons. And it’s understandable that the people would not want them to serve in such a role toward them. But this leads us to the grievous request of the people—presented to Samuel in a very official manner;
Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, “Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations” (vv. 4-5).
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The most grievous part of that request was not that they considered Samuel old; because he was. Nor was it that they said Samuel’s sons did not walk in his way; because they clearly didn’t. Rather, it was that they wanted to have a king over them “like all the nations”.
From the time that they were led out of Egypt, God alone had been their Ruler. And because of this fact, the people of Israel were distinct from all other nations on the earth. They became a nation in a way that no other nation on earth had become one—by God mercifully delivering them from their slavery, gathering them to Himself, and declaring them to be a nation by His grace. It was He who provided them with food as they journeyed through the wilderness. It was He who led them by the cloud to the promised land. It was by Him that they went in and took possession of the land He gave them. And it was He who had provided judges for them in all their times of need. But now—certainly in part because of Samuel’s old age and because of the untrustworthiness of Samuel’s sons; but mostly because they no longer wanted to be the distinct people God had made them to be, but to be like the pagan nations around them—they asked that a human king be made to rule over them.
This request truly broke Samuel’s heart. And it grieved God as well. I believe it always grieves Him when His people are not content to let Him be their Helper, but crave something else besides Him to put their trust in.
God Himself spoke about their request to Samuel. And it’s then that we’re told . . .
2. THE TRUE NATURE OF THEIR DESIRE (vv. 6-9).
We read;
But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” So Samuel prayed to the LORD. And the LORD said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in 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—with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods—so they are doing to you also” (vv. 6-8).
Note how they were making this request for a human king to Samuel—the very Samuel through whose prayers God had mightily delivered the people from the Philistines; the very Samuel through whom God had already demonstrated Himself to be all the Helper they would need if they only trusted Him and obey Him. And furthermore, note how God Himself analyzes the matter—that they were rejecting Him, so that He should not reign over them.
A little later on, Samuel would call the people together and tell them;
“Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of the kingdoms and from those who oppressed you.’ But you have today rejected your God, who Himself saved you from all your adversities and your tribulations; and you have said to Him, ‘No, set a king over us!'” (1 Samuel 10:18-19).
They were essentially saying, “Thus far the LORD has helped us, but none of the other surrounding nations have Him as their Helper. So now, we also want Him to be our Helper no further.”
And by the way; we need to understand that that’s how it is when we cease to keep God alone as our chief Helper, and turn to other things instead. It’s not a matter of simply ‘adding’ something to the help God provides to us. Rather, it’s nothing less than a deliberate ‘turning away’ from Him; because He will share His proper place in our hearts with no other earthly thing. When we say, “We want this worldly thing or that worldly thing to be our source of help—just like the ungodly people around us trust in”, then God sees it as His special people rejecting Him for what He is! What a dreadful thing for His people to do!
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Now; one of the things that I have learned about God’s way of working with us is that when we insist on rejecting Him for something else, He will very often let us have what we want—even if it ends up hurting us. But I have also learned that He is gracious, and let’s us know in advance how much hurt that sinful choice will cause.
This was certainly the case in His dealings with Israel. God told Samuel,
“Now therefore, heed their voice. However, you shall solemnly forewarn them, and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them” (v. 9).
This leads us, then, to . . .
3. THE WARNING OF WHAT WOULD FOLLOW (vv. 9-18).
We read;
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, 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 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 your vintage, and give it to his officers and servants. And he will take your male servants, your female servants, your finest young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work. 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” (vv. 10-18).
So long as they had remained under God’s rule, as facilitated through His divinely appointed judges, they were truly a liberated people. No one conscripted them for war. No one bound them to servitude. No one took their land from them. No one placed oppressive taxes upon them. They were as free as a people on earth could be. And later on, when Samuel—their God-appointed judge—presented to them the king they wanted instead, he was able even then to say to them,
“Here I am. Witness against me before the LORD and before His anointed: Whose ox have I taken, or whose donkey have I taken, or whom have I cheated? Whom have I oppressed, or from whose hand have I received any bribe with which to blind my eyes? I will restore it to you.” And they said, “You have not cheated us or oppressed us, nor have you taken anything from any man’s hand.” Then he said to them, “The LORD is witness against you, and His anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand.” And they answered, “He is witness” (1 Samuel 12:3-5).
But now, God was warning them that the king that they wanted would do to them the very things that Samuel did not do—that is, appoint their sons to serve his chariots and horsemen; appoint captains over them to work his land and fight his wars; appoint their daughters to serve his comforts; and take portions of their lands and crops and livestock to give to his servants for his work. In fact, Samuel warns them that they will one day cry out to God under the oppression of the king they were choosing over God; and that God would not hear them.
What freedom we enjoy when we let God be our King! But when we shun His rightful lordship over our lives, and give human rulers the trust in our hearts that only belongs to God, what terrible oppression we willingly open ourselves up to!
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Now; God had made it clear to them—through His servant Samuel—what would happen to them if they did as they intended to do. They were graciously given the opportunity to turn away from their plan, and trust God to continue to be to them what He had always been.
But that’s when we go on to read of . . .
4. THEIR CHOICE IN SPITE OF THE WARNING (vv. 19-22).
The Bible goes on to say;
Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, “No, but we will have 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.” (vv. 19-20).
What a foolish decision! They said that they wanted to be like all the nations around them. But hadn’t God Himself already told them at Mount Sinai, “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine . . . a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:5)? They wanted a human king to fight their battles for them; but hadn’t God already proven that He would fight their battles for them? Hadn’t He already done so many times in their history? Hadn’t He shown them—even in very recent experience—how powerful His is to defend His people when they give Him His rightful place in their hearts?
And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he repeated them in the hearing of the LORD. 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” (vv. 21-22).
It wasn’t long before he called them all back to present their king to them. And that’s the sad story of how the history of the Old Testament kings began.
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Now; there are a few important lessons we should draw from this. First, we should understand that, if we choose to reject God’s rule over our lives, He may very well give us what we want—though it will in the end oppresses us and leave us with deep regrets later.
God gave the people of Israel what they wanted. Even though He had clearly warned them, they nevertheless demanded to be ruled by a man instead of by God—just like the nations around them. And in the end, the man that they chose—King Saul—let them down. He himself turned away from God, looked to the help of sorcery, and came to a tragic end by his own hand (1 Samuel 30-31). As God Himself said in Hosea 13:9-11;
“O Israel, you are destroyed,
But your help is from Me.
I will be your King;
Where is any other,
That he may save you in all your cities?
And your judges to whom you said,
‘Give me a king and princes’?
I gave you a king in My anger,
And took him away in My wrath” (Hosea 13:9-11).
But another lesson we can draw from this story is that, even though God’s people may reject His good rule for them, it doesn’t in any way change who He truly is. God Himself still remains absolutely sovereign and is able to make good out of even the foolish choices of His people. In Genesis 50:20, we read that what His people can mean for evil, He Himself can bring about for good.
Because the people had rejected God’s rule, they took unfaithful Saul as their king. And because God rejected Saul as the king, David was chosen by God in Saul’s place. And it was through David that Jesus Christ—the King of kings and Lord of lords—was born into this world. God told David,
“When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever (2 Samuel 7:12-13).
But I suggest that the greatest lesson that we should learn from all this concerns the danger that comes upon us when we give human rule the trust in our hearts that only belongs to God. God gives us human government and human leaders; and we’re commanded to obey them and pray for them. But we must never give them the place of absolute trust and obedience in our hearts that only God should occupy. As Samuel solemnly warned the people later on;
“Only fear the LORD, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you. But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king” (1 Samuel 12:24-25).