Sermon Tone Analysis

1 Samuel 12:19-25

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/ //19 //And all the people said to Samuel, “Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for ourselves a king.”//

//20 //And Samuel said to the people, “Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil.

Yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart.//

//21 //And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty.//

//22 //For the Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself.//

//23 //Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you, and I will instruct you in the good and the right way.// //24 //Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart.

For consider what great things he has done for you.//

//25 //But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.”/

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Our passage today comes at the end of the account of the beginning of the monarchy in Israel (1 Samuel 8–12).

About 400 years have passed since Israel left Egypt, and Israel was led by prophets and judges, but not by kings.

That changed about 1050 B.C. when Saul became the first king of Israel.

The establishment of the monarchy was a significant event in the history of Israel, and the Scriptures give us a fairly detailed account about how it came to pass.

The most striking thing about the account is that it is clearly portrayed as part of the spiritual decline of the nation.

God is not pleased with the people’s demand for a king.

Ever since Israel had left Egypt (8:8), they have spiraled downward in their relationship with God.

And our passage today indicates that the beginning of the monarchy was another part of that spiritual regression.

But why?

What was wrong with the demand for a king?

To see what is going on in this passage, we need to get a bigger picture of Israel’s history to this point.

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GOD IS THE SAVIOR OF HIS PEOPLE

The books of Samuel and Kings continue the account of the history of Israel.

Beginning with the exodus from Egypt, this history is a story of how God brought redemption to his people.

This theme is not relegated to the exodus account only.

It is clear when we read the book of Joshua that God continues to save his people by empowering them to overthrow the Canaanites and to take possession of the land.

So Jericho falls to Israel not because of military prowess but because God delivered Jericho into the hand of Israel (Josh 6:2).

In spite of the fact that Joshua was the identified leader in Israel, it was clear that God was the savior.

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/13 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand.

And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?”

14 And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord.

Now I have come.”

And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” 15 And the commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.”

And Joshua did so.

/*(Joshua 5:13-15)*

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The book of Joshua gives way to the book of Judges where we repeatedly read of Israel’s moral failures.

Following Joshua’s death, there was no one individual appointed by God to lead his people.

Before long we read that “there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel” (Judges 2:10).

Consequently, the people rebelled against the God who had saved them repeatedly.

But God did not abandon his people.

What we find in the book of Judges are several cycles of rebellion, divine punishment, and deliverance.

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/11 And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals.

12 And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt.

They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them.

And they provoked the Lord to anger.

13 They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth.

14 So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them.

And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies.

15 Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them for harm, as the Lord had warned, and as the Lord had sworn to them.

And they were in terrible distress.

16 Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them.

17 Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them.

They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so.

18 Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge.

For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them.

19 But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them.

They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways.

/*(Judges 2:11-19)*

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Now there are several things we might say in comment about the book of Judges.

Obviously God is seen to be almost ridiculously gracious.

We might expect at any time that God will finally be done with these rebellious people.

But though they keep rebelling, even after they are delivered, God continues to pursue them.

On the human side we might observe how stubborn Israel is.

The progression is downward, away from God and not toward him.

And I think we would be right to conclude that such is the nature of all of us.

Left to ourselves, we will wander away from God in spite of all that he does to rescue us.

But there seems to be something bigger taking place here.

This is not just an account of God’s graciousness toward stubborn and rebellious people.

This is an account of God’s story of redemption.

In other words, the story of the exodus from Egypt continues on in Joshua and in Judges.

God continues to save his people.

Who rescued Israel from Egypt?

Not Moses, but God.

Who brought Israel into the promised land by delivering their enemies over to them?

Not Joshua, but God.

And who is the savior in the book of Judges?

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/ Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and *he* saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge.

For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them./*

(Judges 2:18)*

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So the overarching story-line from the exodus from Egypt through the book of Judges has been that God is the savior of his people.

God used different means to do so, but he wants to be seen by his people as their savior.

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GIVE US A KING

Here then we find what is so wrong with Israel’s request for a king.

It is not that God disapproved of there ever being a monarchy.

Provisions were made in the Law for just such a thing (Gen 17:6; Deut 17:14-20).

The reason why this request is viewed as evil is because of the motive behind the request.

Two motivations are stated in 1 Samuel 8:20.

!! Give us a King like the other nations

God had chosen Israel as his people in order to be their Savior.

But Israel wanted to be like the other nations.

They did not want to be different.

The kings of the other nations were often considered to be gods themselves.

So these nations had an identifiable head, a god that they could touch.

Israel was no longer content with a representative leader or judge.

They wanted a king other than Yahweh.

Their request was not a rection of Samuel’s leadership over Israel.

It was a rejection of God’s headship over Israel (1 Sam 8:7).

!! Give us a King who will save us

Let’s clarify why this demand for a king was also a rejection of Yahweh as king.

The people did not demand a king only because they wanted to be like the other nations, but also because they wanted a king who would “judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.”

(1 Sam 8:20).