1 Samuel 12:1

By renewing the kingdom, Samuel's career as judge naturally comes to an end. 1 Samuel 12 is, so to speak, the testament of all his activity as Israel's leader. Samuel had not been two-faced in his ways. In listening to the people, he had simply followed the Lord's commandment. That is why he could say a little later, "The LORD has set a king over you." Here we also see the lovely impartiality of a man who is in communion with God. He had forgotten the wrongs and the injustice done to him by the people and the elders. He gave up his office without a murmur. He handed it over to a king who was certainly of less moral worth than himself.

He first reminds them that it was they, not he, who were responsible for the change of government. After so many years as a judge, he knew how ready people are to shift the blame for their troubles onto someone else… So Samuel reminds them plainly that it was their choice, not his. In later years their king's actions would bring them distress. How quick they would be then to blame Samuel for making Saul king over them! He will cut off any occasion for this, and so he says, "I have obeyed your voice in all that you have said to me." He had made Saul king as God's appointed instrument. But he did it entirely at their urging. And he did it only after protesting against their action in the most earnest and solemn way.

He is about to lay aside that government which, as judge, he had exercised for God. There was no longer any need for a judge if they had a king. Yet the need for him was still the same as ever. How telling that is! It shows the utter incompetence of the king, who held an office in name but could not fill it in fact.

What a scene! The man of God, the man of prayer, now advanced in years, stands before them: "I have walked before you from my youth until this day." Here was no Nazirite who had failed as Samson did. Here was one who lived out his Nazirite calling in the fullest sense of the word. What unselfish service he had given, and how he loved his own people! In all this he is a picture of the greatest Servant of all. He came at the appointed time, not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.

But to speak like this, a man must be above reproach. This is of the greatest practical importance for us. We can have no authority among God's people if our actions do not match our gifts and our words. And official authority is not all that counts. No one can reach consciences without moral authority.

Samuel would have shrunk from the thought that he had in any way been a king. All his authority came from God, and all his appeal was to God. He never tried to stand between the people and their direct obedience to their rightful King and Ruler, Jehovah.