How do you react when you are hurt by someone? – 1st Samuel 8-10, Part 2

What comes out of you when you are hurting? When someone treats you poorly or says something unkind to you, how do you react?

The elders of Israel have just come to Samuel, asking for a king. See the previous post for all the details. What will Samuel say? Samuel’s response is in verse 6, “But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord.”

I wonder if Samuel took the elder’s request personally.  Samuel was their leader.  Are the elders essentially saying, “We don’t want you anymore?”  Is this an attack on Samuel?  A vote of no confidence? 

Yes!  Of course it is.  They already said that they felt he was too old, and they clearly do not support his sons, which insinuates that they believe Samuel did a poor job as father.  We know nothing of Samuel’s parenting skills or involvement in his son’s lives.  We only know that the elders of Israel don’t like what they see in either Samuel or his sons, and they want a change, which makes Samuel mad.  But Samuel’s response is perfect, he takes it to God.

When we are hurting or angered, the proper response is not to lash out, but to go to God in prayer.  Cry out to him.  I love that Samuel does not seem to have become jaded by years of leading the people.  He still has a soft heart for God.  When he is wounded by the words of the people, just like you and I can be wounded by harsh or difficult words, Samuel goes to God, and prays.  We’re not told the content of his prayer, but we can easily guess what Samuel said to God based on God’s response.  Here’s what God says to Samuel in verses 7-9,

“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. 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. Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights.”

Verse 7 is serious: “It is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.”  Samuel felt rejected, but God says, “Samuel, you’re not king.  You never were.  I chose you to judge the people, to be my prophet, to serve me.  I am the king.  I always was the king.  The people are rejecting me.”

Not only that, God declares that the people’s behavior is nothing new.  The people have been forsaking him repeatedly for decades.  When we review the account of Israel’s Exodus from Egypt, their wandering for 40 years in the wilderness, their conquest of the Promised Land, and especially their behavior during the time of the Judges, there is ample evidence to prove that what God says here is true.  God is their king, and the people have repeatedly forsaken him and served other gods. 

This is a searing indictment of the people.  If Samuel, who wasn’t king, was so frustrated by the people’s rejection, imagine how God felt.  God was their king, and they had been rejecting him for a long time.  You’d think God would be really upset by the elders’ request for a human king.  “You want a human king, when you already have the Almighty, loving God of the universe as your king?”  That’s a massive slap in God’s face.  Which is why God’s decision to give them a human king is shocking.

He says, “You want a king? Okay. I’ll give you a king, but get ready because you do not know what you are asking for.”  See that last phrase in verse 9, “Let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights.” What does that mean?

The elders are looking at the nations around them, all with their kings, and the elders are thinking, “That monarchical system is great!  We need that.”  But God says to Samuel, “Tell them what it will really be like.”  The people of Israel shouldn’t have to think too hard about what it will really be like.  For 400 years they lived in slavery to a king.  That was the defining story of their nation’s history.  God did astounding miracles to get them out from under the heavy hand of a king.  The Egyptian Pharaoh was a king who was awful to the people of Israel.  And God showed that Pharaoh that he, God, was far more powerful than Pharaoh, freeing his people from slavery, leading them to the Promised Land, to independence, to flourishing.  Now the people are saying, “We want a king.”

Of course, they could be thinking, “This time it will be different.  In Egypt, we were in slavery because we were a different ethnicity than the Pharaoh.  Now our king will be one of us.”  Maybe.  God doesn’t seem so sure.  He has a strong warning for the people, which Samuel gives them in verses 10 through 18, describing all the ways a king could take advantage of the people, like a dictator.  In fact, in verses 17-18, Samuel says, “You yourselves will become his slaves…you will cry out for relief…but the Lord will not answer.”

That’s a stern warning. How will the Israelite elders respond? We find out in the next post.

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