And the people refused to hearken to the voice of Samuel; and they said, No, but there shall be a king over us,
Samuel has just spelled out what a king will cost them: their sons, their daughters, their fields and flocks. The people answer with a flat no. Their refusal raises the questions that shape the rest of Israel's history. What were they really asking for? Why did God let them have it? And what does a people lose when it wants to look like everyone else?
Samuel's warning changed nothing. One writer notes how each word of their reply exposed them further.
It was in vain. "But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, 'No! But there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations.'" Their heart was getting further and further away from God. Every word they uttered, though they little suspected it, condemned themselves the more. It was self-will at work against God. Worse still, they were deliberately throwing away their own highest privilege.
The people had blamed Samuel's age and his sons. One writer looks past that reason to what lay underneath.
The fact was that they asked for a king through unbelief. The first motive they put forward was that Samuel was old and his sons did not walk in his ways. That was not the real reason they were anxious to have a king... In self-will and unbelief they cried out for a king: "There shall be 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." Their words showed that they did not trust the Lord's care for them, or His interest in them.
The people give two reasons for wanting a king. One writer weighs both and finds a loss in each.
They have no answer for the warning. They simply reply to Samuel, "No! But there shall be a king over us." They say it for two reasons. First, they want to be like the nations, just as many Christians today want to be like the world. Second, they expect a king to fight their battles for them. In both of these things they lose sight of God. How can they represent God before the nations if they choose to be like the nations? That would take away any real testimony to the difference God had made in them because of His love.
The people wanted a king they could see. One writer sets that beside the God who had already scattered the Philistines for them.
They began with a request: "Make us a king." They finish by declaring their determination: "No! But there shall be a king over us!" "That our king may fight our battles!" They spoke as if a king with his crown among them would guarantee them victory! Had they forgotten their great victory over the Philistine armies? "The LORD thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were routed before Israel." Was "the LORD of hosts" no longer enough for them? They could not see Him, but a king, dressed in purple and gold and riding in a chariot, would be a fine sight for them to look at.
God does not overrule the demand. He answers it, and the answer itself becomes the lesson.
So God allows it. It is not only a concession to Israel's folly. He lets them have their way so that painful experience will teach them the results of that folly. Later God tells Israel, "I gave you a king in my anger, and I took him away in my wrath" (Hosea 13:11). Saul's beginning as king seemed promising, but his end was pitifully sad.
Another writer draws out the pastoral side of being handed what you insisted on: it was "nothing short of apostasy to desire a king like the nations," yet after the solemn warning "they are left — solemn thought — left to their choice... Our blessed God often permits us to have our own way, that He may show us the folly of it."
One writer sees more here than one nation's mistake. The refusal exposes the human heart itself.
The lesson was not for that generation only. Otherwise it would matter little. In all this testing of Israel... the test falls on man as man, and it uncovers the depths of his heart. The people's choice here is the same choice they made at a later day, when they cried, "Not this man, but Barabbas!" "They have rejected Me," says the LORD.
- Refusal. The people heard Samuel's full warning and still said no. Writers call it self-will at work against God, with every word condemning them further.
- Reason. They blamed Samuel's age and his sons. The real cause was unbelief — they did not trust the Lord's care for them.
- Request. They wanted to be like the nations and to have a king fight their battles. Both wishes lose sight of God and destroy the difference He had made in them.
- Result. God granted the demand, but in anger: "I gave you a king in my anger." He lets people have their way so that experience teaches them the folly of it. Yet He had His own Anointed One in view.
- Repeat. This is not one nation's old mistake. It is the human heart uncovered — the same choice cried out again later: "Not this man, but Barabbas!"
that we also may be like all the nations; and our king shall judge us, and go out before us, and conduct our wars.
Israel's leaders have asked Samuel for a king. Samuel has warned them what a king will cost. Verse 20 is their final answer. It lists what they want a king for — to judge them, to lead them out, to fight their wars. God had been doing all of that for them already.
Their reason comes in two parts. Both of them leave God out.
They have no answer for the warning, but reply to Samuel, "No; but we will have a king over us." Why? First, they want to be like the nations, just as many Christians today want to be like the world. Second, they expect a king to fight their battles for them. In both of these things they lose sight of God. How can they represent God before the nations if they choose to be like the nations? This would destroy any real witness to the difference God had made in them because He loved them. And in the past, who fought their battles for them when they won? See Exodus 14:13-14.
Wanting to look like everyone else was not a small preference. It cut against the very reason this nation existed.
Israel, as the people of Jehovah's gracious choice, was meant to be different in every respect from all others, and to be Jehovah's witness to them. Balaam, in his first speech, said, "Look, this is a people that will live alone, and will not be counted among the nations" (Num. 23:9). So it was a terrible thing when the people demanded of Samuel, "Make us a king to judge us like all the nations" (1 Sam. 8:5).
They blamed Samuel's age and his sons' corruption. That was not the real reason. Pressure from an enemy across the Jordan was.
They asked for a king through unbelief… Far worse than the personal slight to Samuel was the rejection of the Lord as their King. The immediate cause of their demand was the invasion of Israel's territory east of Jordan by Nahash, king of the children of Ammon (1 Sam. 12:12). Their words showed plainly that they did not trust the Lord's care for them, or His interest in them.
Notice how the request hardens as the chapter goes on — and how short their memory is. Only a chapter earlier, God had scattered the Philistines for them.
They began with a request: "Make us a king." They end with a demand: "No, but we will have a king!" "That our king may fight our battles!" — as if a king with a crown among them would guarantee them victory! "O foolish people, and unwise" — had they forgotten their great victory over the Philistine armies? The Lord "thundered with a great thunder upon them and threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel." Was "the Lord of hosts" no longer enough for them? Him they could not see. But a king dressed in purple and gold lace, riding in a chariot, would be a grand sight to them.
The deepest problem was not that they wanted a king. It was the words "like all the nations." God already had His own king in view.
Their desire for a king was, in reality, giving up the Lord. It denied His direct rule through the judges. But their worst sin was asking for a king like the nations. Was it not God's counsel to give them a king according to His own heart, an Anointed whom He would have chosen for them Himself (1 Sam. 2:35; 1 Sam. 13:14)? Wanting a king like all the nations gave up their title as God's people and meant becoming like the world… Christendom, on its path of falling away, has acted the same way. Instead of humbling itself and mourning, it has looked to the world for support to keep itself going.
They asked for a man to go out before them. Read on into Saul's reign and you find the opposite happened.
When they did get a king, according to their hearts' desire, what did he do for them? "All the people followed him trembling."… His whole reign was a sad failure. The prophet Hosea sums it up in two striking sentences: "I gave you a king in my anger, and took him away in my wrath." In short, he was the answer to the unbelief and self-will of the people. So all their bright hopes about him ended in bitter disappointment. He failed to answer the mind of God, and so he failed to meet the people's need.
- The demand: They wanted a king to make them like the nations and to fight their battles. Both wants left God out.
- The root: They blamed Samuel's sons. The real cause was unbelief, brought out by Ammon's invasion across the Jordan.
- The loss: Israel was to live apart and be God's witness to the nations. Asking to look like them threw that witness away.
- The substitute: They traded a God they could not see for a king they could. Only a chapter earlier, the Lord had thundered against the Philistines for them.
- The result: God had His own anointed king in view. God gave the king they chose in anger, and the people followed him trembling.
And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he repeated them in the ears of Jehovah.
Israel has just heard Samuel's warning about the cost of a king, and has dug in: they will have a king anyway. Samuel does not argue back — he carries every word they said straight to God.
Samuel had no one else to turn to. One writer sums up the verse:
Samuel has warned the people, but they refuse to listen to his voice. They prefer to follow their own pathway. Samuel has the Lord alone as his resource, and he repeats all the people's words in His ears.
This was no one-off reaction. Another writer sets Samuel beside a king who did the same with a letter:
He listens to their defiant words, and then, like the man of prayer that he was, he tells them into the ears of God. The good king Hezekiah did the same. When the messenger brought him the written words of the Assyrian, he went into the house of God and spread the letter out before Him. So Samuel here pours out before the LORD all the words of the stubborn people. He does not call them "rebels," as Moses did (Num. 20:10). In meekness he stays silent.
Samuel was not passing on a neutral request. Their own sentences gave them away:
Their heart was getting farther and farther away from God. Every word they uttered, though they little suspected it, condemned themselves the more. It was self-will active against God, and more, a deliberate giving up of their own highest privilege.
Anyone let down by people close to them faces the same choice. The instinct is to correct them; Samuel took it to God.
It is beautiful to see how Samuel turns in all this to God. His heart is grieved at what the people have asked... Samuel prayed to the LORD. It would be good for us, when we hear of weakness in others, to bring it before God and pour it out there, rather than try weakly to reprove or correct it by our own efforts. He gets, in a way, comfort from God, and yet no relief in the ordinary sense of the word. He must listen to the voice of the people in all that they say. Then the sad fact comes out: this same nation had treated the blessed God Himself in this very way from the beginning. Samuel must expect from the nation the same treatment God Himself had received.
Samuel had once set up his sons without asking God. Here he does nothing until God speaks.
So God has used discipline to strengthen His servant. He wants to make him an instrument of new blessings in what follows. Samuel had set up his sons without consulting the Lord. Taught now by God, he waits until God has told him: "Obey their voice and make them a king."
God's reply is a yes. That yes is not approval:
There are prayers that have to be granted, but in judgment: so with this prayer for a king. But God takes care that even self-deception is hardly possible. The Lord Himself will tell them what everything around them already showed — what this king they wanted would be like.
Being left to your own choice is itself the judgment:
The solemn witness is given, the people repeat their desire, and then — solemn thought — they are left to their choice. They shall have their request, even though it brings leanness to their own souls. Our blessed God often permits us to have our own way, so that He may show us the folly of it. How much better to learn His way in His own presence. A path of disobedience teaches the same lesson by bitter experience, and it brings sorrow to us and dishonour to His name.
- Heard. Samuel listened to defiant words without interrupting. He did not call the people rebels, as Moses once did. He stayed silent.
- Repeated. He carried what he heard into God's ears, as Hezekiah spread out the Assyrian's letter. There he found comfort, though no relief.
- Revealed. The words he repeated condemned the speakers. Every sentence showed self-will against God, and a deliberate giving up of their highest privilege.
- Waited. Samuel had once set up his sons without consulting God. Now he moved only after God spoke. Discipline had made him an instrument of new blessings.
- Granted. God grants some prayers in judgment. He let Israel have what they asked, and left them to their own choice — and that choice was the sorrow they had to learn from.
And Jehovah said to Samuel, Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king. And Samuel said to the men of Israel, Go ye every man to his city.
The chapter ends with God telling Samuel to do the very thing that grieved him: listen to the people and give them a king. So why does God say yes to something He has just called a rejection of Himself?
The command to appoint a king came in response to what the people had become, not because their plan was good.
The Lord commanded Samuel to listen to the voice of the people, and make them a king. (1 Sam. 8:22) Was it that He approved of the plan? Most surely not; on the contrary, He declares plainly that it was a positive rejection of Himself. Why then command Samuel to appoint a king? He gave the command because of Israel's condition. They were growing tired of depending completely on an unseen arm, and they longed for an arm of flesh. They wanted to be like the nations around them. They wanted a king who would go out in front of them and fight their battles for them. Well, God gave them what they asked, and they were very quickly made to learn how worthless their plan was.
God's own words to Samuel name the target of the insult, and He speaks them with striking gentleness toward the prophet who has been pushed aside.
They desire a king. Samuel feels it deeply, not because it was against himself so much as it was against God... "And the LORD said to Samuel, 'Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me.'" What a God of patience, to speak and act like that! Still, Samuel was to listen. How God moves in love above all man's evil, and carries out His own blessed plans!
This is the third time God tells Samuel to give way. Getting what you insist on can itself be the judgment.
Samuel, however, is told to listen to their voice. They were completely determined to have a king, whatever God might say about it. So He let them have their way. It was as with the quails in the wilderness, "He gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul" (Ps. 106:15; 78:29). "As sometimes He crosses us in love, so at other times He gratifies us in wrath," Matthew Henry remarks.
Being handed over to your own choice is a real form of discipline, and writers here treat it as a mercy with a sting in it.
They shall have their request, even though it brings leanness to their own souls. Our blessed God often permits us to have our own way, so that He may show us the folly of it. If only we might learn His way in His own presence, and be spared the sorrow for ourselves and the dishonour to His name which come from the bitter experience of a path of disobedience.
The king they asked for would cost them, and that cost reaches beyond Israel.
The king that man's heart wanted would use them as tools to carry out his plans. That yoke would be unbearable, and they would not be able to shake it off (vv. 10-18). In the same way, the world completely disowns Christians who seek its help. It gives them nothing in exchange except a sense of their own wretchedness, with no compensation at all. The world does not grant its help unless one agrees to serve it. This is not the easy yoke and the light burden of the bondservant of Christ, but the anguish of cruel slavery.
Notice what the rejected servant does with the people's defiance — and what he does not do.
He listens to their defiant words, and then, like the man of prayer that he was, he tells them into the ears of God. Think of the good king Hezekiah. When the messenger brought him the letter from the Assyrian king, he went into the house of God and spread it out before Him. In the same way, Samuel pours out before Jehovah all the words of the obstinate people. He does not, like Moses, call them "rebels" (Num. 20:10), but meekly holds his peace. The third time Jehovah tells him to listen to their voice, he quietly sends the people home without a word of blame.
They go home with their wish granted.
A sad journey home! Each man goes back to his own city. They have deliberately refused to stay any longer under the gentle and loving rule of the only One who could truly rule them.
A king was never Israel's invention. God had shown His intention to bless through an anointed one before the people ever opened their mouths.
Man shows what he is in his desire to get rid of God. But Jehovah has His own plans. Carrying them out may depend on man's sinful failure and ruin. Even so, His purpose and end of blessing man is always before His own mind. That gives us great comfort.
- Asked — They wanted a king like the nations around them. They were tired of depending on an unseen God and longed for a human arm to fight for them.
- Rejected — God tells Samuel that the insult was aimed at Himself, not at the prophet. He says it with remarkable patience.
- Granted — The yes was not approval. As with the quails, He gave what they asked and sent leanness with it. Sometimes He grants in anger what He refuses in love.
- Paid — The yoke was real, and they could not shake it off. A king after man's heart turns his people into tools for his own plans.
- Overruled — Man works to be rid of God; God works to bless man. Man's failure may shape how that purpose unfolds, but not whether it stands.