And the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed to Jehovah.
Israel's elders have just asked for a king, and the request lands on an old man who has judged them all his life. Samuel does not argue back; he is grieved, and he prays — so what did he hear in their words?
Samuel could have taken the demand personally. It came wrapped in a complaint about his age and his sons. One writer points to a different cause for his grief, and to what he did with it.
It displeased him. It was not so much that they had insulted him personally, for a man of his spirit and piety could bear that well. He was displeased because he saw in it rebellion against God, and he knew the certain consequences that must come of it. But he had a sure resource. It was a refuge he had long known, and it had never failed him — "he prayed." This was his comfort and consolation. His prayer is not given to us, but the record of God's answer is.
Writers weigh the motives differently. One grants that the slight to Samuel was real, and adds that the reason the people gave was not the reason they had.
The fact was that they asked for a king through unbelief. They first gave a different reason: Samuel was old, and his sons did not walk in his ways. That was not what really made them anxious to have a king. Samuel was, it is true, displeased at their request. It seemed like a personal slight in his eyes. In part that was true. But God showed him that Israel was only acting here as they had acted ever since they came out of Egypt. Far worse than the personal slight put on Samuel was their rejection of the Lord as their King. What triggered their request was the invasion of Israel's territory east of Jordan by Nahash, king of the Ammonites. Their words clearly showed distrust of the Lord's care for them and His interest in them. Unbelief really lay at the bottom of that popular movement.
The elders had attacked both Samuel's family and the arrangement he had set up. He answered neither charge.
The bearing of the man of God at this moment was delightful. He showed no resentment at the charges made against his sons. He made no effort to prop up the order 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. Is it our holy habit to take everything to God in prayer? Have we really learned that we are utterly dependent on Him for every step?
Prayer did not make the problem go away. Another writer draws the lesson for us, and notes what the answer gave Samuel and what it did not.
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. When we hear of weakness in others, we do well to bring it before God and pour it out there. That is better than a feeble attempt to reprove or correct it by our own efforts. He gets, in a certain sense, comfort from God, and yet no relief in the ordinary sense of the word.
Samuel's displeasure was right, yet the thought of a king did not start with Israel. Two things belong together here.
So the thought of a king was not from man, but from God. Yet the desire for a king like the nations had was rebellion against God on man's part. The king He intended would be a rich blessing from God. He purposed to give them a king before their wicked heart ever wanted one as a way to be rid of Himself. In man the desire was an evil that God must judge. In God it was grace to purpose the king, and He will surely bring it to pass. Both are true; but man's mind often sets one against the other, instead of believing both.
- Request. Israel asked for a king out of unbelief. Samuel's age and his sons were their excuse, not their motive.
- Grief. The insult to himself was not what hurt Samuel. He saw rebellion against God in the demand, and he knew what would follow.
- Prayer. Samuel did not defend himself or prop up the arrangement he had wrongly made. He prayed. God had never failed him yet.
- Pattern. When we meet weakness in others, pour it out before God rather than try to correct it by our own efforts.
- Purpose. Man's desire was evil, and God had to judge it. Yet the king was God's own purpose of grace. Believe both, instead of setting one against the other.
And Jehovah said to Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.
Israel's elders ask the aging Samuel for a king. He takes it as a personal defeat. God's reply tells him whose throne the people are really refusing. It also raises a hard question: what happens when God says yes to a request He disapproves of?
Until this moment Israel had no human king. God ruled them directly. The demand for a king set that aside.
It was in the days of Samuel that the people asked him to make them a king over them. They were tired of being under the direct government of God, who from time to time appointed judges over them. They wanted to be like the nations around them. This displeased Samuel, and he prayed to Jehovah. What was the answer of Jehovah to him? "…they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them." This is very plain. Up to this time the government of Israel had been a pure theocracy. God was their King.
Samuel's sons had been judging corruptly, and that is the reason the elders gave. God's answer looks past it.
There we find the turned-away heart of Israel. It had been drifting from the Lord ever since He brought them out of Egypt. Now it sought still greater distance from Him, and wanted a king instead of Him. The bad government of Samuel's sons at this time was their excuse, but it was only an excuse. There is no doubt that they did act corruptly... But the Lord discloses the real source of this desire for a king.
What they wanted underneath the request was room to move.
The sin was not in the idea of a king. It was in the motive.
So the thought of a king was not from man, but from God. Yet the desire for one like the nations was rebellion against God on man's part. The king God planned would be a rich blessing from Him. He purposed to give them a king before their wicked heart wanted one to get rid of Him. In man it was an evil that God must judge. In God it was grace to purpose it, and He will surely carry it out as well. Both are true; but man's mind often sets one against the other, instead of believing both.
The same sentence that names Israel's sin also lifts the weight off Samuel's shoulders.
What precious encouragement God gave His servant! It came at the very moment when Samuel was going through a discipline, and the elders of Israel had become the instruments of it. Nothing could comfort his heart more than this assurance: he was, after all, on the Lord's side. And now that the people had rejected the Lord, Samuel too had to be rejected. Is it not an honour to share the shame that the world throws on our Lord when it spurns Him?
The principle reaches past Samuel to anyone carrying God's message.
To reject a servant who is really sent out by the Lord, and who is doing His will, and is standing for Him, is to reject the Lord Himself... Blessed is that servant who, through grace, is so hidden behind his Lord that he is lost in the Lord's objects and interests, and thinks only of HIS honour and HIS claims.
God tells Samuel to listen to them. That permission is not approval.
God, however, tells Samuel to listen to their voice. They were completely set on having 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 what they asked, but sent a wasting disease among them" (Ps. 106:15; 78:29). "As sometimes He crosses us in love, so at other times He gratifies us in wrath," Matthew Henry remarks.
Samuel's experience was a small copy of something far larger.
Samuel must expect the same treatment from the nation as God Himself had received. Whoever stands with God must feel what the psalmist felt: "The reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me." Man's hatred of God has never appeared more fully than in the cross of our blessed Lord Jesus.
- Rejection. The elders blamed Samuel's sons. But the refusal went to the top: they were pushing God off His throne as King.
- Reason. They wanted to be "like the nations." God's rule felt restrictive. National pride looked better.
- Relief. The same word that exposed Israel set Samuel free. The insult was not his to carry. To be rejected alongside a rejected God is an honour.
- Request granted. God said yes, and the yes was the judgment — He crosses us in love, and sometimes gratifies us in wrath.
- Repeated. What Israel did to God here reached its full height at the cross. Yet man's sin never cancelled God's own purpose of a king.