“…and said to him, ‘Look, you have grown old, and your sons are not following your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.'”-1 Samuel 8:5
So let’s get our bearings of where we’re at in 1 Samuel Chapter 8.
When we last left off, a group of tribal leaders arrived at Samuel’s front porch to propose a major change in Israel’s current form of government.
Now these leaders must’ve possessed a lot of influence and power…
Otherwise Samuel would’ve told them to get lost.
But he didn’t.
Instead, he quietly listened to everything they had to say.
The men were demanding a change to Israel’s current form of leadership and they weren’t gonna take no for an answer.
This upset Samuel for three reasons:
FIRST, after many long years of serving his fellow Hebrews, their proposal was more than a hint they were no longer confident in Samuel’s abilities to lead the nation.
SECOND, what they were proposing also meant they were rejecting his sons as the future leaders of Israel.
This meant Samuel and his family’s influence would end once he passed on.
THIRD, the men wanted to install a form of government modeled after their heathen gentile neighbors.
This also bothered Samuel because he was a prophet of God.
Now I’ve said this before but it bears repeating.
The key part of the phrase “make us a king to judge us like all the nations” are the four words at the end
…”like all the nations”.
Make no bones about it folks…
That phrase is KEY!
This is the phrase that allows us to easily refute those Bible critics who say the books of Samuel contain contradictions.
Why?
Because these words make it clear it was the TYPE of king Israel wanted that was the issue…
NOT whether Israel should have a king or not.
Ya feel me?
What the corrupted Israelite leadership wanted had NOTHING to do with the kind of Godly King the Lord was planning for Israel…
Or the type of King God will eventually install over all of mankind after Armageddon.
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