1 Samuel 8:4-22
No doubt Samuel’s sons could talk very intelligently about the things of God, but this was not enough. Their conduct was bad. Indeed this is very often the case with children brought up in Christian homes today, but let us remember that God wants reality. The truth we know must be practical in our lives, or there is a real danger, and how much damage has been done in the assembly of God by “vain talkers.”
The elders of Israel told Samuel that since his sons did not walk in his ways, they would like a king to reign over them. It was sad indeed when Samuel’s sons became a stumbling block, but all this did not make it right for Israel to ask for a king. One wrong thing is bad enough, but another wrong will never make it right, only worse. Sometimes people are stumbled by the faire they see in others, and they use this for an excuse to turn aside from the path of following Christ in obedience to His Word. We should be careful not to stumble others, but let us never make the failure of another an excuse to disobey the Word of God.
Samuel was grieved that the people asked for a king, and he prayed to the Lord. The Lord then told him to listen to them, for it was not he whom they were rejecting, but the Lord. They did not want the Lord to reign over them. He was their King, and they were rejecting Him when they asked for a man as king. The Lord told Samuel that it was the way they had always acted, for they continually turned away from Him, and now Samuel was tasting it for himself. God’s servants have to expect rejection and opposition, but must still go on loving and serving the people of God. The heart of a true shepherd will not give up because the sheep are wayward. “The hireling fleeth, because he is a hireling, and careth not for the sheep.” John 10:13.
Nevertheless Samuel was to warn Israel of the folly of their choice. If we are anxious to get something, the Lord may give it to us, even though it is not good for us. But He always warns, as He did here; for Samuel told them what their king would be like. He told them how he would take the best of all they had for himself, until they were so oppressed they would cry unto the Lord for deliverance. But the people would not hear. They said, “Nay; but we will have a king over us; that we may be like all the nations.” They wanted to be like others. Even we who are Christians do not like to be different for the Lord’s sake. We will pay a tremendous price to be like others. We will even make ourselves uncomfortable and spend plenty of money to keep up with the fashions, just to be like those about us.
Boys and girls, and older ones too, let us not mind if we are considered strange — God’s people are different. Our talk is different from a godless world. Our appearance ought to be different too. Our meetings also are different, when we seek to meet according to God’s Word. We are a “peculiar people.” Titus 2:14. We are not of the world, and if we are trying to be like the Christ-rejecting world about us, we are like Israel who wanted to be like the heathen nations around them. No wonder Samuel was displeased, and above all the Lord was displeased. And surely when the Lord’s people today want to be like the world, He is grieved, and His servants are too!
But the people’s minds were set, and the Lord told Samuel to yield to their desires and let them have a king.
ML 06/06/1954