Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel to Ramah,
All the elders of Israel travel to Samuel's home town, and a routine-looking meeting turns into a turning point in the nation's history. Why did they come, and what were they really asking for?
Samuel was growing old, and he had put his own sons in the judge's seat. One writer finds the fault in the way he made that appointment:
The history of the judges, like that of the priesthood, ends in complete ruin. Here Samuel lacks spiritual discernment. He makes his sons judges without any direction from the Lord. He acts as if the work God had entrusted to him could be handed on to others. But no gift, and not even an office, passes down by succession.
Another writer ties that mistake to what the elders did next:
Yet Samuel meant well. Remember: the people belonged to God, not to Samuel... The sin of the people in asking for a king is obvious. But we must not forget that the error of the man of God helped to cause it.
The elders had a real complaint. Their mistake was where it sent them:
The elders of Israel are right to disapprove of the conduct of Samuel's sons (v. 4). But they use it to ask for a king (v. 5): "Appoint us a king to judge us, like all the nations." The evil they complained of does not push them toward the Lord. It pushes them toward the other nations. They look for human help to cure man's ruin, thinking that in this way they can escape their own misery as God's people.
Their reasoning still repeats itself among God's people:
Their one argument was that other nations had kings: why not them? God's people often sink to this level. Instead of leaning on the leading and grace of God, they watch what others are doing. They see some results on the surface, and then decide what to do by outward appearances. This is not faith.
But was the conduct of the sons their real reason? One writer finds the excuse hollow:
It was only a poor, miserable excuse... They made his sons the stated cause of their discontent, though they must have known that bribery of the courts was as common as could be in the pagan kingdoms around them. A king was no cure and no safeguard against bribery in the courts!
The elders came with a complaint about judges. God saw something far larger:
By this demand they had rejected the Lord their God. He brought them out of the land of Egypt, and He saved them again and again out of all their troubles. So they were not only setting aside Samuel, their faithful guide; they were setting aside their God... From now on Israel was to be "like all other nations." But it is always sadly true that God's people prefer to walk on lower ground than the ground God has marked out for them.
Yet God's word to Samuel carried comfort:
This was precious encouragement from God to His servant. It came at the very moment when Samuel was going through a discipline, and the elders of Israel had become the instrument of it. Nothing could comfort his heart more than the assurance that he was, after all, on the Lord's side... It is better to be a humbled Samuel, ignored, alone with a rejected God, than an Israel armed with a powerful outward organization. That organization only gives them the illusion that they can do without God.
Samuel defended neither his family nor his arrangement:
He said not one resentful word about the charges made against his sons. He made no effort to prop up the arrangement he had so wrongly set up. "Samuel prayed to the Lord." How different everything would have been if he had prayed before he made his sons judges.
Behind the whole sad scene, another writer sees God already at work:
So the thought of a king did not come from man, but from God. Yet man's desire for a king like the nations was rebellion against God. The king God planned would be a rich blessing from Him. He purposed to give them a king before their wicked heart wanted one in order to be rid of Him. The evil in man was to be judged. The purpose in God was grace, and He will surely carry it out. Both are true. But man's mind often sets one against the other, instead of believing both.
- Cause. Samuel made his sons judges without any word from God. Commentators say this error helped open the door the elders walked through.
- Complaint. Their complaint was real, but it drove them toward the nations instead of toward the Lord. That is sight, not faith.
- Cover. The sons were only the stated cause. A king would not have cured bribery. The real wish was a government like the nations had.
- Core. The elders set aside not the prophet but God Himself. He told Samuel so, and tied His servant to Him in the rejection.
- Counter-plan. God had planned a king before man ever asked for one. Man's rebellion and God's grace stand together here, and both are true.
and said to him, Behold, thou art become old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways now appoint us a king to judge us, like all the nations.
Israel's elders come to Samuel with a complaint that is true. He is old, and his sons take bribes. Then they add a demand that changes their history: give us a king. Two questions follow. Why did a real grievance lead to this cure? And why did God take the demand as aimed at Himself?
The elders' facts were true. But the excuse they built on those facts did not hold.
A poor excuse is really worse than none — especially the kind Israel's elders make here before their honoured Chief Justice. It would have been better to say plainly that they were not unhappy with how Samuel governed, but with the form of government itself... They made his sons the apparent cause of their discontent. Yet they must have known how common bribery in the courts was in the Gentile kingdoms around them. A kingly form of government was no safeguard against judges taking bribes!
The reason the elders gave was not their real one. Fear of an enemy was driving them.
Here the Spirit uncovers their hidden motives for asking for a king. Deep down, it was not the reason they had given to Samuel: "Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways." People often colour their motives in the eyes of others this way, but they cannot hide them from God or from His prophet. Fear of Nahash, and simply that, ruled in the depths of Israel's heart, together with a complete lack of faith and confidence in God.
They did not just ask for a king. They asked for a king of a certain kind, and that is where the sin lay.
Their desire for a king really meant giving up the Lord. It denied His direct rule through the judges. But their greatest 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? In wanting a king like all the nations, they gave up their title as God's people. It meant becoming like the world.
God's law had already made room for a king. So what went wrong was not the kingship itself.
God, in the law, had made provision for a king in Israel (see Deuteronomy 17:14-20). Had they waited in faith, God might have raised up a king of His own providing when Samuel died. That would have been David, "a man after His own heart" — a model prince, and a picture of Him who is both "King of Israel" and "Prince of peace." But no. They could not wait, they would not listen to advice, and so God gave them their desire. But "sudden decisions and hasty desires make work for sore and slow repentance."
Samuel took the matter to God. God's answer moved the offence off Samuel onto Himself. Giving them what they asked was no kindness.
Outwardly they complained about the misrule of Samuel's sons. But when the prophet sadly told God of their demand, He showed Samuel where the real trouble lay. It was in their hearts. They were finding God's rule a burden. As He said to Samuel: "they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them." Had they only asked for a king like Moses, God would surely have been pleased. But no — "like all the nations" was what they wanted. Long afterwards we read, "I gave you a king in my anger, and I took him away in my wrath."
The demand hurt Samuel himself. What he did next is the example to copy.
Samuel feels it deeply. It was not so much against himself as against God, and so he tells them the thing displeased him. "And Samuel prayed." May we follow the example of so true a servant of the Lord! When things displease us, may we pray, and not fret or fume or scold.
- Excuse. The complaint was true. But the cure did not fit it. The nations they wanted to copy had courts just as corrupt.
- Motive. Behind the polite reason lay fear of an enemy and no trust in God. People can colour their motives before others, never before God.
- Sin. The wrong lay in three words: "like all the nations." Asking to look like everyone else gave up their standing as God's people.
- Plan. God had already provided for a king in the law. Waiting in faith would have brought them David, not a king given in anger.
- Response. Samuel prayed instead of arguing. That is the model when what God's people do displeases us.