Good morning everyone. This morning we are in first Samuel chapter eight. And here is where we're going to have a distinct change in Israel's history where
Although they've been run by a theocracy ever since Moses led them out of Egypt where really they were supposed to worship God and worship Him alone and love them with all their heart. Even though God had a spiritual leader in place such as Moses and Joshua, he was not a king. Israel did not have a king. They're supposed to worship God and Him alone.
then without a king when they were in the promised land after they had taken it over they had judges who would supposed to aid them in their success in the land and
Lead them in a godly manner, but many of the judges were very ungodly we See this last judge who's also serving as a prophet judge Samuel and he is doing some things right but You know like others he's gonna have his challenges as well in his family There's no guarantee that if you are a man of God that your family will follow suit Lord willing
train a child in the way he should go and when he is older he will not fall from it so we pray for all of our children that one day they will all love the Lord and return to him but Samuel is going to have that trouble with his sons as well
but we are going into a situation where God is going to allow them to have a king, but it's kind of interesting because it's almost like God is relenting, meaning his desire was, you don't need a king, I will bless you, I will protect you, just follow me. And we saw in the previous chapter when they got right under Samuel's leadership, God did bless them and protect them and they had a time of peace, but around them are
armies and nations and all of these armies and nations have kings and as a result from an earthly standpoint, these countries can have organization, they can have militaries, they can have government,
And the people of Israel are kind of like, well, how are we organized? Who are we following? Although they are to follow God, but they felt like, you know what? We need a king to be strong around our enemies, because if we don't have a king, we're just not gonna be as well organized. And God is going to relent in allowing them to have a king, but it's important to know that God knew that this season was gonna come. If we go all the way back,
to Deuteronomy chapter 17. And I want to read that section for you before we enter into 1 Samuel 8. In Deuteronomy 17 verse 14, it says, when you enter the land, which Yahweh, your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, which is where they are now in the promised land. In Deuteronomy 17, they weren't there. He says, I will, and you say, when what God is saying is Israel, when you say this, I will set a king over me,
Like all the nations who are around me, you shall surely set a king over you whom Yahweh your God chooses. One from among your brothers, you shall set as king over yourselves. You may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your brother. Moreover, you shall not multiply.
horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses. Yahweh has said to you, you shall never again return that way. And he shall not multiply lives for himself.
Or else his heart will turn away because that was a sure way to turn away from God was to take wives from the lands around and end up, you know, worshiping false gods because you're taking on wives who are worshiping someone other than Yahweh. And he's warning God is if this happens, or else his heart will turn away, nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.
Now it will be when he sits on the throne of his kingdom that he shall ride for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. So God is beginning to share that he wants it. If there's going to be a king, it should be a godly king. It should be a king that's going to honor me. So in a sense, really Israel still supposed to be a theocracy in the sense that God's supposed to be at the center of everything and they're supposed to worship and follow him.
So it's like a monarchial theocracy, meaning God's going to put a family in charge.
a king in charge, but they're to worship him and worship him alone. And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life. So he's supposed to know and honor the word of God, that he may learn to fear Yahweh his God, to carefully observe all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right or the left, that he may prolong his days in the kingdom
he and his sons in the midst of Israel. So this is what God is going to allow or wants to happen if they are indeed going to have a king, which he knew they would one day, that the king would honor the word.
that he would pass it down to his sons, that he would know it and follow it, so that essentially they would still be a nation, one nation under God, but yet he would allow them to have a king who would lead them to be one nation under God.
But that was really a compromise, a future compromise that God knew was going to take place because if they would have just honored him and worshiped him, he would have protected them and they wouldn't have had need of it. But he knows one day it's going to happen. So with all of that backdrop in 1 Samuel 8, we have this transition. And it happened when Samuel was old that he appointed his sons, judges over Israel,
The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second was Abajah. They were judging in Beersheba, but his sons did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after greedy gain and took bribes and caused justice to turn aside.
very sad and reminds me Eli who was Samuel's mentor so to speak. His sons turned away as well. Samuel saw that was a part of that and now he's seen the same thing happen in his sons. Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Rama and they said to him, Behold, you have grown old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations and they're probably seeing
Hey, Sam, if you pass on, you know, this isn't going to work well because your sons are not leaving well. So, you know, we need to make a change here. And again, they're desiring organization and, you know, they know too from Deuteronomy that one guy God was going to allow for a king to to be raised up in Israel.
But the thing was evil in the sight of Samuel when they said, give us a king to judge us. And Samuel, you know, he's probably feeling like, well, they're rejecting me as leader. So Samuel didn't like it. And Samuel prayed to Yahweh, then Yahweh said to Samuel, listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.
And, you know, God, again, is seeing this. This isn't the ideal way. The ideal way was to worship me and me alone, but I knew this time was coming and I am going to allow it. Verse 8, like all the deeds which they have done since the day I brought them up out of Egypt, even this day,
in that they have forsaken me and served other gods. So they are doing to you all. So Samuel, don't feel so bad. They have dishonored me. And you know, the reality is, you know, we can talk about the kind of government, uh, whether it was a theocracy at first, you know, they didn't follow God ever rightly, you know, Israel and, and really were those people, like God's people have never found a way
to collectively honor him. And isn't it great that now God has raised up a king and his name is Jesus. And although, you know, governments don't follow Jesus well, we have the opportunity as individual believers to place our faith in Jesus Christ and make him our king,
honor him and that's what God would desire today is that we would we would worship the one who has the office of king you know prophet and lord and that we would that we would follow that we would follow him so now listen to their voice however you shall solemnly testify to them and tell them of the custom of the king who will reign over them and and
God is going to have Samuel let them know. Listen, you want a king, okay, you think you want a king, you want organization, you want to be strong against your enemies. This is what you want. I'm going to let him give it to you, but realize what's going to happen because, you know what, kings aren't going to always do what's right. And you're going to find out that you're not going to like everything that these kings do. So he's telling Samuel, warn them what's going to happen. So Samuel spoke all the words of Yahweh to the people who asked him for a king.
And he said, this will be the custom of the king who will reign over you. He shall take your sons and appoint them for himself in his chariots and among his horsemen. And they will run before his chariots. Basically, your sons are going to have to go to war and he will point for himself commanders of thousands and fifties and some to do his plowing and to reap his harvest and to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He's going to, he's going to put you to labor, maybe even slave labor at times.
He will also take your daughters for perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and your vineyards and your olive girls and give them to his servants. He will take a tenth of your seed, you know, the taxes that, you know, government's going to charge and over your vineyards.
and give it to his officers and to his servants. He will also take your male slaves and your female slaves and your best young men and your donkeys and use them for his work. He will take a tenth of your flocks and your cells and you yourselves will become his slaves.
Then you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but Yahweh will not answer you in that day. Listen, you're going to set up a permanent situation where instead of having me rule you alone, you're going to set up a permanent situation where you're now going to have an earthly king. It's not going to always go out. You're not going to like everything. And when you try to work your way out of it, there's going to be no changing. So here's your warning.
Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel and they said, no, but there shall be a king over us. And they just, they wanted what the other nations had around them. They wanted organization. They wanted earthly leadership.
And they also saw, you know, again, Samuel's son's going astray, Samuel's getting old. And God, you even said there would be a time. So, you know, God is going to allow it. God knew it was going to happen. But in some ways, it's a rejection of following him and him alone. No, there shall be a king over us. They said that we also may be like all the nations that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.
So Samuel heard all the words of the people and he repeated them in the hearing of Yahweh. Then Yahweh 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 God knew this was going to happen. God's going to
give them what they request. They're going to see that even having a king isn't going to mean that things are going to work out. But what we will see very evidently throughout history is that when there was good leadership, when
King honored him and honored his word. It went much better for the country than when a king went and worshiped false gods and didn't do the things we read about in Deuteronomy 17. I mean, we're going to see soon after we get Saul as king, it's not going to work out. We're going to get David and he's going to usher in a grand time in history.
and he's gonna pass the kingdom onto his son Solomon, and it's gonna be in a really good position at that time, but Solomon's gonna do exactly what Deuteronomy 17 said not to do. He's gonna have all kinds of wives and concubines and chariots and gold and silver, and he's gonna turn away, and ultimately the kingdom is gonna get divided, and he's gonna have his son's takeover, and it's not going to work well.
But as I've mentioned, nothing really has. So the important thing to know is that, listen, we can want godly leadership today. We can want to have good kings today. But ultimately, this is what works. You want to know what works? What works is repentance of our sin, faith in Jesus Christ.
and personally following him. While we live in this life, we should seek to have Godly leadership. We should seek for our country to follow his ways, but ultimately people will fail. God is going to come back and judge and the way to be freed from his judgment and actually ushered into the
glory of eternal life is to have faith in him, to have faith in Jesus Christ and why not live and obey the one that we have faith in and life is going to turn out much better that way. So there you have it. We are now going to enter a new season in Israel where there's going to be a king. It'll be interesting. Let's take it in together. God bless you all.
