6 Samuel was displeased with their request and went to the Lord for guidance. 7 “Do everything they say to you,” the Lord replied, “for they are rejecting me, not you. They don’t want me to be their king any longer. 8 Ever since I brought them from Egypt they have continually abandoned me and followed other gods. And now they are giving you the same treatment. 9 Do as they ask, but solemnly warn them about the way a king will reign over them.”
Samuel Warns against a Kingdom
10 So Samuel passed on the Lord’s warning to the people who were asking him for a king. 11 “This is how a king will reign over you,” Samuel said. “The king will draft your sons and assign them to his chariots and his charioteers, making them run before his chariots. 12 Some will be generals and captains in his army, some will be forced to plow in his fields and harvest his crops, and some will make his weapons and chariot equipment. 13 The king will take your daughters from you and force them to cook and bake and make perfumes for him. 14 He will take away the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his own officials. 15 He will take a tenth of your grain and your grape harvest and distribute it among his officers and attendants. 16 He will take your male and female slaves and demand the finest of your cattle and donkeys for his own use. 17 He will demand a tenth of your flocks, and you will be his slaves. 18 When that day comes, you will beg for relief from this king you are demanding, but then the Lord will not help you.”
19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel’s warning. “Even so, we still want a king,” they said. 20 “We want to be like the nations around us. Our king will judge us and lead us into battle.”
21 So Samuel repeated to the Lord what the people had said, 22 and the Lord replied, “Do as they say, and give them a king.” Then Samuel agreed and sent the people home.
Footnotes:
8:12 Hebrew commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties.
8:16 As in Greek version; Hebrew reads young men.
The first few sentences break my heart. To think of how God loved his people and saved them from slavery, and time and again protected them and led them to safety, and then hear God being rejected... [sigh] Breaks my heart. And so God is gracious enough to offer truth. God has Samuel read them the entire list of issues to come if they get their way.
Is it any surprise they ignore it all? Is it any surprise we all ignore those honest warnings that God sends offers when we insist on getting our own way? But if you notice, the Israelites have one thing on their mind: what others have. Maybe that's the lesson of the day. When we get so caught up in what others have, we miss what is really best for each of us. We even miss what is really going on with the others we are jealous of. We only see what we want to see. We don't see what they see.
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