Week 1

6/1/2025

Summer 2025

• Central Passage: 1 Samuel 8-10, Israel requests a king.

• Check out the Middle School Sunday School Resources page for other books of the Bible resources. Note: the 1 Samuel-2 Kings handout will be available eventually.

Introduction

Throughout our studies in the Old Testament biblical story so far, you may have noticed an expectation/anticipation for Israel’s kingship (specifically David in the near sense and Jesus in the far sense). I have intentionally portrayed Israel’s future king as God’s divine will for His people. However, without a careful reading of 1 Samuel 8, one may conclude that God did not want Israel to have a king. But do not forget that this anticipation of kingship is dispersed throughout the story in multiple places so far. Instead, Israel’s primary transgression against God concerns the type of king they request, which also reveals their motives and stubborn hearts.

Kingship Promised and Anticipated

            Promises for Kingship go as far back as Genesis 17. In Genesis 17:6, God promises Abraham that kings will come from his offspring. In Genesis 17:16, God blesses Sarah, saying that kings will come through her specifically (as opposed to another wife or concubine). Later, when God blesses Jacob in Genesis 35:11, He reaffirms that kings will come from Jacob’s offspring. When Jacob blesses his son, Judah, in Genesis 49:9-10, he narrows the focus, prophesying that his offspring will rule continuously. Last, when Moabite King Balak attempted to hire Balaam to speak curses against Israel, the Spirit of God came upon Balaam, forcing him to prophesy numerous blessings, including that a ruler will come from Jacob/Israel who will rise like a star (Num 24:17-19).

            Moses and other authors of Scripture discerned these kingship prophecies, prompting them to write with anticipation of a king. For instance, Deuteronomy 17:14-20 lists commandments, regulations, and criteria for Israeli kings. The closing chapters of Judges imply that Israel needs a king to spiritually guide them (Judges 17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25). To answer this Judges implication, God orchestrates Ruth’s story to preserve the bloodline of His chosen king: David (Ruth 4:18-22). With this background in mind, why would Samuel be displeased when the elders of Israel request a king?

A King Like the Nations

            1 Samuel 8 opens with disheartening news: Samuel’s sons had become wicked judges, a similar situation to Eli’s sons (1 Sam 2:12-36). His sons, just like most of Israel’s judges, only judge/rule regionally rather than all twelve tribes. Additionally, Samuel’s sons are in Beersheba, a city fifty-seven miles away from Samuel, so Samuel is likely not complicit and participatory with their wicked schemes, unlike Eli (cf. 1 Sam 2:13-16; 4:18). However, the situation sets the stage for the story’s conflict.

            The story from the end of Judges until now has not portrayed Israel’s elders positively. Though Israel repented and consulted with God during their battle with Benjamin (Judges 20:18, 23, 27-28), after the battle, the elders return to using their own wisdom instead of consulting with God when they devise a plan for the now underpopulated Benjamite territory to kidnap Canaanite women to take as wives (Judges 21:16-21). Later, in 1 Samuel 4:3, the elders again do not inquire of God through His prophet (Samuel) or priest (Eli) before taking the Ark into battle against the Philistines, choosing to do so out of their folly. Now, in 1 Samuel 8, the elders make a foolish request.[1]

            So, why did their request displease Samuel and amount to rejecting the LORD’s authority over them? First, they requested a king “like the nations.” Deuteronomy 17:14-20 pictures an ideal king for Israel who is very unlike the nations. This piece of the request reflects a paganized Israel who still willingly associates itself with herem (Deut 7:1-11). Rather than devoting paganism to God for judgment/destruction, they covet even their systems of governance for themselves.

Second, 1 Samuel 8:20 reveals their motive behind the request. Once again, let Joshua 5:13-15 inform the understanding of this passage. The commander of the army of the LORD (likely God Himself) tells Joshua that he fights neither for nor against Israel. He does not fight their battle for them under Joshua’s authority. He fights for God’s glory under the authority of God the Father. In 1 Samuel 4, they failed to realize that God does not fight under Israel’s authority but for His glory. Now, in 1 Samuel 8, they fail to realize that God is the King who goes before them in battle.

Third, they have an over-exalted view of the king. Consider Judges 8 when the men of Israel asked Gideon to be their king, saying, “for you saved us from the hand of Midian” (Judges 8:22). They forgot that God worked through the cowardly Gideon to deliver Israel. All his strength as a leader came from the Holy Spirit’s anointing (Judges 6:34). Therefore, God should get the credit for saving Israel from the Midianites, a point that Gideon affirms (Judges 8:23) before taxing them for their spoil to create an idol and naming his son Abimelech, meaning my father is king (Judges 8:24-27, 31; cf. Judges 9). However, the king is to rule under God’s authority over him. He is a sheep given the status of an under-shepherd by God, the Chief Shepherd (cf. 1 Pet 5:4). Joshua is a model of proper kingship.[2] He humbled himself before the commander of the army of the LORD in Joshua 5:14-15. He did not elevate himself to the status of Israel’s delivering king who fights their battles. These elders of Israel in 1 Samuel 8 want a human king to replace God’s kingship over them.

Thus, God gives them a king unlike the king in Deuteronomy 17:14-20. He gives them a king like the nations: Saul. But first, Samuel warns them. Just as they demand that Samuel appoint a king (1 Sam 8:5), Samuel tells them that their king will appoint their sons to warfare and appoint for himself commanders. He will amass a huge army, bringing them warfare instead of peace. David even alludes to this reality of Saul’s kingship when he says, “How the mighty have fallen, and the weapons of war perished” (2 Sam 1:27). He will take from them rather than provide (just as Gideon took from the men of Israel to make an idol). As a result, Israel will cry out to Yahweh over their chosen king, but He will not answer. Though both Samuel and Deuteronomy 17:15-17 warn against setting a greedy king over them, they request this king anyway. So, God gives them what they want.

God turns their expectations upside down. Saul, selected as a physically valiant king, is not the right man to lead Israel. First, he seems to only know introductory information about Samuel without actually knowing him, though Samuel’s hometown is right next door to Saul, and Saul lives just outside of Samuel’s sphere of influence (1 Sam 9:6). His lack of dealings or knowledge of God’s prophet demonstrates his lack of care for God’s word. Second, though they request a leader to go before them in battle, Saul is cowardly. Just prior to being appointed as king, God reveals that Saul had been hiding in some baggage, with the author noting the irony that such a tall man could be so cowardly (1 Sam 10:22-23). He also fears going into battle (1 Sam 17:10-11) and makes foolish vows that deprive his soldiers, including his son (1 Sam 14:24-30). Third, Saul is from Gibeah (1 Sam 10:26), the city of worthless men who perpetrated the most despicable act in Judges that caused the civil war between the rest of the tribes of Israel and Benjamin. Gibeah still retains its infamy and scandal to the reader, showing that their cowardly, weak king will come from this town of worthless men. King Saul will indeed be a king like the nations, rather than the king that Yahweh would choose by his standards in Deuteronomy 17:14-20.

Conclusion

            Israel’s refusal to receive Samuel’s warning carries the same tone as the Judges’ refrain of “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6; 21:25). Their stubborn refusal of God’s good plan for a king laid out in Deuteronomy 17:14-20 is a powerful illustration for the sinner’s persistent refusal of God’s way of obedience and proverbial flourishing. His instruction (Torah) guides us in wisdom to enjoy the fruit of a life of worshipful obedience. Instead, we choose sinful disobedience and its destructive consequences. In choosing what is right in our own eyes, we may find ourselves walking in the counsel of the wicked, progressing to stand-still in the way of sinners, before finally fully positioning ourselves to sitting in the seat of scoffers, finding delight in the snares of wickedness rather than delighting in God’s Torah (Psalm 1). Many things promise life and flourishing, but this is only to be found in the wise counsel of God.

            Additionally, Jesus is the proper man who embodies what subservient kingship under God the Father looks like. The Gospel of John makes regular and specific mention of His subordinate role to the will of the Father (John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38-40). This subordination does not diminish Jesus’ divinity, but it does illustrate subservience to the will of the Father, even to the point of receiving the wrath of God on a cross (Matt 26:42; Luke 22:42).

Submission to the will of the Father alone grants rest to God’s people. It is a good thing to rest securely in God’s will and work. Whether parents who rigorously try to teach and pattern doctrine and practice into the lives of their children, or pastors trying to shepherd the flock, do not exalt yourself above your subordinate role to God’s will. The bittersweet reminder to many parents of churched teenagers is that the work of salvation does not depend on how many church and parachurch gatherings and activities your child joins. Yes, worship gatherings equip us to do the work of ministry and discipleship in the home, and these are God’s standard means of grace for calling sinners to repentance. But God is the author of salvation. From the opening pages of Scripture, when God called Abram, God calls sinners to enter into His covenant. Just as pastors are also sheep who belong to the Good Shepherd, parents derive authority to shepherd their households from God’s authority over them. Never forget God’s role in salvation as the one who calls and takes joy in granting mercy (Ezek 18:23; 1 Tim 2:3-4; 2 Pet 3:9).

For this reason, prayerful submission to the will of God can, as Jonathan Edwards said, annihilate us. Edwards wrote, “The person of Christ appeared ineffably excellent with an excellency great enough to swallow up all thought and conception…I felt an ardency of soul to be, what I know not otherwise how to express, emptied and annihilated; to lie in the dust, and to be full of Christ alone; to love him with a holy and pure love; to trust in him; to live upon him; to serve and follow him; and to be perfectly sanctified and made pure, with a divine and heavenly purity.” Be warned against the hubris of the king that the elders of 1 Samuel 8 requested. The peace of Christ comes through a restful annihilation of human pride to remember that God goes before us in battle to fight for His glory.

Sources

Croteau, David A. and Gary E. Yates. Urban Legends of the Old Testament: 40 Common Misconceptions. Nashville: B&H Academic, 2019.

Walton, John H., Victor H. Matthews, and Mark W. Chavalas. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2000.

Youngblood, Ronald F. and Richard D. Patterson. 1 Samuel ~ 2 Kings. The Expositor's Bible Commentary. General Editors: Tremper Longman III and David E. Garland. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009.