God the king
1 Samuel 8
Main Idea: True Kingship belongs only to God’s Son, who reigns in grace and truth.
I. The Tension of the King
The Israelites demand a king for a few reasons:
Samuel’s sons, who would presumably judge Israel after he dies, are wicked men who “turned aside after gain,” taking “bribes” and “perverting justice” (8:1-3)
They want a king to “judge us… that we also may be like all the nations” (8:5, 20a)
They want a king who can “go out before us and fight our battles” (8:20b)
There is tension in this request from the Israelites. Their desire for a king is not necessarily bad; God promises a future King to come through Abraham (Gen. 17:6, 16) and Judah (Gen. 49:10), and he gives detailed instructions and guidelines for how a king in Israel ought to reign (Deut. 17:14-20).
However, their motivations for a king, and the type of king they ask for reveal they are:
Rejecting their identity as a people chosen, set apart, and distinct from the other nations
Rejecting God as their true King (8:7)
When people transfer their expectations for righteousness and salvation from God to government, they are sure to be disappointed. There are many things that human government is good for, but there are some things that it cannot do. And one of those things is to function as a God substitute. The issue that day at Ramah, when the elders confronted Samuel, was one not of political science, but of spiritual faith.
~ Eugene Peterson
II. The Threat of the King
Surprisingly, the Lord instructs Samuel to ‘obey their voice,’ giving them up to their desires (cf. Rom 1:24, 26, 28). He warns the Isrealites that even though they want a king to “judge” them, the kings who rule over them will actually be a ‘judgment’ upon them.
The “ways” of the kings who will reign over them will be overwhelmingly marked by one reality: they will “take” (6x) from the people until they have nothing left. These kings will take:
Sons to be used as soldiers and in military preparation (8:11-12)
Daughters as perfumers, cooks, and bakers in their service (8:13)
Land and the best of their fields for himself and his servants (8:14)
1/10 of their grain, vineyards, and flocks as a tithe and tax (8:15, 17a)
Servants for their own needs (8:16)
At the end of all this “taking,” the people will end up as slaves, essentially back in Egypt. But this time as they ‘cry out,’ God will not answer, and he will allow them to go into exile. This is a haunting projection of the rest of the OT in a single verse.
III. The True King
Even after this horrible threat of what is to come, the people still demand an earthly king from Samuel (8:19-20), sealing their rejection of the Lord. However, in God’s mercy, he will use their sinful and twisted desires to ultimately bring about a redemptive good through his anointed one to come (cf. 2:10).
Jesus comes to fulfill the “tension of the king” that runs throughout the Scriptures:
His Kingdom is not like the nations: “My Kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36)
Though he is the true King (cf. Isa. 9:6-7), he is not the king that the people want: “We have no king but Caesar” (John 19:15)
He comes not to take and take, but to “give his life as a ransom for many” (Mk. 10:45)
The Crucified One is the true king, the kingliest king of all; because it is He who is stretched on the cross. He turns an obscene instrument of torture into a throne of glory and reigns from the tree.
~ F.F. Bruce
Jesus is glorified and coronated as the King of all kings on the cross, where he bears the sins of God’s people in their place; rather than enslaving his citizens like earthly kings, he sets free all those who trust in his finished work by faith, and graciously invites them into a Kingdom that has no end (Luke 1:32).
Colossians 1:13-14: He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
