Israel asking for a king is a dramatic turning point for the chosen people of God. While things eventually turned out well (the coming of Christ), this has more to do with God having the uncanny ability to make the best out of a bad situation.

Because rest assured, asking for a king was a foolish request, and if this post doesn’t convince you, a cursory reading of 1 and 2 Kings easily shows that:

1. The kings led Israel astray most of the time.
2. Even the good kings couldn’t save Israel in the end.

The whole sad story almost reads like a case study about how utterly incompetent earthly kings are, pointing the way toward the only worthy king. But more on this later. Let’s get to 1 Samuel 8.

Israel asking for a king could only be a good thing if the following 3 things were true:

1. God was not really a jealous god, after all. He just said that because he was in a bad mood at Mt. Sinai.
2. God wished the Israelites to learn from the Canaanites, and emulate them in any way possible. That whole “cleanse the land” command could also be attributed to God’s bad mood at the time.
3. Rescuing the Israelites from Egypt all those years ago really wasn’t that big of a deal. God was acting just like that has-been uncle at the family reunion, still bragging about how he won the “big game” as starting quarterback his senior year in high school.

Let’s look at the text.

1 When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as judges for Israel. 2 The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second was Abijah, and they served at Beersheba. 3 But his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice.

4 So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. 5 They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”

The current system doesn’t seem to be working (even though it had worked fine for the many years Samuel was judge), and so they demand that that someone worthy be raised up among them to be their savior, demanding someone else take care of their problems.

This is perfectly natural. It’s also perfectly boneheaded and how many of the great tyrants of history initially came to power.

Now we come to the most important part of the passage.

6 But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. 7 And the LORD told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. 8 As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. 9 Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.”

God compares this request to idolatry, that most grievous of sins.

Christians have been repeating this folly over and over again throughout history by placing their faith in the governments of man.  It’s time we recognized it for exactly what it is: idolatry.

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