Sermon Tone Analysis

Samuel—the last judge of Israel—has ministered well.

He has preached to the people and called for repentance; he’s led the people in confessing their sin.

He has led them to renounce their idolatry and serve the Lord only.

He’s done his job well.

1 Samuel 7:15-17 tells us that “Samuel continued as Israel’s leader all the days of his life.

From year to year he went on a circuit from Bethel to Gilgal to Mizpah, judging Israel in all those places.

But he always went back to Ramah, where his home was, and there he also held court for Israel.

And he built an altar there to the Lord.”

Israel was secure and stable, both externally and internally, under the judgeship/leadership of Samuel.

The hand of the Lord protected His people from the Philistines and the Amorites.

Things go well for the people for a time.

Like any group of people, they become discontent.

Priorities change.

Life gets in the way.

Time goes on.

They come right out and tell Samuel that he’s getting old and that they don’t like his sons, so it’s time for what’s next.

Nice.

In one of its many functions, the Bible acts as a mirror for us.

We see ourselves reflected in these pages.

It’s not all about us; ultimately, it’s about God.

It’s all about Jesus, pointing to Him, teaching about Him, looking forward to His return.

But there’s plenty within that reveals our condition and our character, ourselves and our state.

Alistair Begg prays these words often before he preaches or teaches; I think they’re especially appropriate here:

“Make the Book live to me, O Lord.

Show me Thyself within Thy Word.

Show me myself and show me my Savior, and make the Book live to me.”

The Bible reveals the Lord to us, for certain.

It also exposes our true self and our true condition.

Last year at a high school basketball game, I got pretty riled-up.

Okay, to be honest, I got pretty riled-up at most high school basketball games last year.

But at one game in particular versus Miami High School, I spoke loud enough for the referee to hear me.

It wasn’t anything inappropriate.

I simply said, quite loudly, “Oh, so it’s a foul at that end of the court and not at this end.

Got it.”

He turned right around, looked straight at Darren Steuck and me.

I raised my hand so as not to get Darren in trouble.

He walked over to the scorer’s table, asked for our school administrator, told Mrs. Bridgewater if I said another word, he’d kick me out.

Mind you, all of this is recorded thanks to Prepcast.

The elementary principal of our school had to come sit with me to make sure I behaved myself.

While I sat there next to the principal, Mom sent me a message.

My mother-in-law sent me a message.

My wife sent me a message asking what I had done.

It was broadcast for everyone to see.

Slade made some wise crack about the Christian Church pastor getting called out.

I was exposed.

If people didn’t know who I was already, they did then.

They saw the real me; there was no place to hide.

God’s Word reveals our true self; it’s the Lord’s analysis of His people—of OT Israel and us.

We can avoid this exposure.

We can become more concerned with the historical problems of kingship in Israel and miss what this text intends for us.

Other than teaching us more about the Lord, the great benefit God’s Word—the Bible—is in what it shows us about ourselves.

This chapter in 1 Samuel reveals:

How often we reject the Lord!

After letting Samuel in on just how old he is and how terrible his sons are, the elders’ of the Israelites make a request—more like a demand—for a king. 1 Samuel 8:5 “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”

Goodness, that stings a little.

Maybe a lot.

Their request/demand displeases Samuel.

In fact, that word there (displeased) really connotes something like: “the thing was evil in Samuel’s eyes.”

Samuel might have felt like he and all his work was being rejected (the Lord seems to imply this).

Samuel probably felt like this stubborn, stiff-necked, silly, sinful people were on a bad path where the Lord was concerned.

He’s seen them act a fool before.

Displeased as he was, Samuel goes to the Lord in prayer (not a bad idea for us; that’s a good first resort).

How often we reject the Lord!

The desire of the people to have a king rather than what the Lord had for them is displeasing to Samuel.

No doubt the Lord is disappointed with His people at this point, but He chalks it up to the way they do things.

“They’re rejecting me.

It’s what they do.

They’ve done this from the day I rescued them from Egypt.

They forsake me over and over and over.

They worship other gods, the Baals and Ashtoreths and gods of their enemies.

That’s how they do!”

This is Israel’s longstanding behavior.

It’s like that kid in school who gets passed up the grades and every year the kid’s current teacher complains to the former teacher.

And the former teacher says, “Oh yeah, that’s how she was for me,” or, “That’s what he did last year.

Good luck!”

The people just keep finding new ways to reject the Lord.

It’s nothing new.

And it’s not something specific just to this OT people.

It’s actually a prefiguring of the rejection of Jesus.

This is something Peter preached to the people of Israel:

Stephen preached this before he was martyred for his faith:

Our rejection of Jesus probably isn’t on the fundamental level of the Israelites or of the Jews who didn’t and don’t believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God.

Our rejection of Jesus is in the details of life.

Ours is a functional rejection of His authority.

We’re not asking for a king; we’re asking for God to be in favor of whatever we want to do, regardless of what He has to say about marriage or sexuality or justice or finances.

We know right from wrong.

We know we shouldn’t do __________, but we really want to do _______________.

So we do it, rejecting the authority of the Almighty.

How often we reject the Lord, and

How foolishly we choose something over the Lord!

I wonder if the Israelites and their elders realize how ugly their request is—appoint a king to lead us—even though we have to insist that their demand for a king wasn’t entirely wrong.

It was permissible according to Deuteronomy 17:14-20.

There Moses indicates that the time might come when Israel would want a king and that would be okay IF they were committed to a few things.

If Israel was to have a king, according to Deuteronomy 17, he was to be a man the Lord chose and he had to be an Israelite.

The king wasn’t to have a large military or a lot of wives or a bunch of money.

The king was to be subject to the Lord’s law—to write it down and read it all the days of his life.

The problem in what the people ask here in 1 Samuel 8 is their desire to have a substitute.

The Lord tells Samuel:

The king is not merely a substitute for Samuel, but for the Lord.

What we have here is simply the old idolatry with a new twist.