CONCERNED PRAYER

When Samuel was old, he made his sons judges, but they were unspiritual men who took bribes and perverted the course of justice. This eventually resulted in national dissatisfaction and all the elders of Israel met together and came to Samuel to tell him the truth. This must have upset him, but what grieved him more was their suggested solution, ‘make us a king to judge us like all the nations’, v. 5.

God’s way of national administration was then through judges circulating around the country, and even if these judges were unsatisfactory, it did not mean the system was wrong. The people’s human solution was merely to copy other nations and lose their distinctively divine rule. Of course, in His own time God would bring in His king, but for the moment He explained to Samuel in answer to his prayer that ‘they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them’, v. 7. They had, as a nation, since God had brought them out of Egypt, consistently rejected Him. This was yet another manifestation of the same attitude, but now with Samuel as the target. Just as they had turned to the gods of the nations, rejecting their own God, so too had they now turned from the divine form of government as represented by Samuel.

God then tells Samuel to explain to them the painful consequences of their request. It would cost them dearly, in heavy taxes in money and in kind, and they would eventually rue the day they ever asked, but then it would be too late, v. 18. However, in spite of this dire warning; they refused Samuel’s words and still insisted on having a king, adding that not only would the king judge them but also ‘go out before us, and fight our battles’, v. 20. What an insult to the God of Ebenezer!

Once again Samuel ‘took it to the Lord in prayer’, and now God tells him to ‘hearken unto their voice, and make them a king’, v. 22. In the end God grants them their wish, leaving them to discover eventually the folly of their ways. Then in His own time He would bring in His own king. Sometimes God allows even Christians to bring in unscriptural forms of government among His people, according to their desire, but this provides no proper solution to present problems.