1 Samuel 12

eyes” (Judg. 21:25; see 17:6; 18:1; 19:1). The “nation” of Israel was a loose confederation of sovereign tribes, and each tribe was expected to seek the Lord and do His will.

Asking for a king (vv. 1–9). Knowing that Israel needed a stronger central government, the elders presented their request to Samuel and backed it up with several arguments. The first two must have cut Samuel to the quick: he was now old and had no successor, and his two sons were not godly men but took bribes (1 Sam. 8:3–5). How tragic that both Eli and Samuel had sons who failed to follow the Lord. Eli was too easy on his wayward sons (2:29), and perhaps Samuel was away from home too much as he made his ministry circuit to the cities. Samuel’s sons were miles away in Beersheba where their father couldn’t monitor their work, but if the elders knew about their sins, surely their father must have known also.

When the elders asked to have a king “like all the nations” (8:5, 20), they were forgetting that Israel’s strength was to be unlike the other nations. The Israelites were God’s covenant people and He was their King. The glory of God dwelt in their midst and the law of God was their wisdom. (See Ex. 19:3–6; 33:15–16; Lev. 18: and 20:26; Num. 23:9.) But the elders were concerned about national security and protection from the enemies around them. The Philistines were still a powerful nation, and the Ammonites were also a threat (1 Sam. 12:12). Israel had no standing army and no king to lead it. The elders forgot that it was the Lord who was Israel’s King and who gave her army the ability to defeat the enemy.

Samuel was a man of spiritual insight and he knew that this demand for a king was evidence of spiritual decay among the leaders. They weren’t rejecting him; they were rejecting God, and this grieved Samuel’s heart as he prayed to the Lord for wisdom. This wasn’t the first time the people had rejected their Lord. At Sinai, their request was “Make us gods!” (Ex. 32:1), and after their humiliating failure at Kadesh Barnea, they said, “Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt” (Num. 14:4). Whenever leadership in a church decays spiritually, that church becomes more like the world and uses the world’s methods and resources to try to do God’s work. The Jewish leaders in Samuel’s day had no faith that God could defeat their enemies and protect His people, so they chose to lean on the arm of flesh.

God is never surprised by what His people do, nor is He at a loss to know what He should do. “The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations” (Ps. 33:10–11 nkjv). There is every evidence in the Pentateuch that Israel would one day have a king. God promised Abraham, Sarah, and Jacob that kings would be among their descendants (Gen. 17:6, 16; 35:11), and Jacob had named Judah as the kingly tribe (49:10). Moses prepared the nation for a king when he spoke to the new generation preparing to enter the Promised Land (Deut. 17:14–20).

It wasn’t Israel’s request for a king that was their greatest sin; it was their insisting that God give them a king immediately. The Lord had a king in mind for them, David the son of Jesse, but the time wasn’t ripe for him to appear. So, the Lord gave them their request by appointing Saul to be king, and He used Saul to chasten the nation and prepare them for David, the man of His choice. The fact that Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin and not from Judah is evidence enough that he was never expected to establish a dynasty in Israel. “So in my anger I gave you a king, and in my wrath I took him away” (Hos. 13: niv). The greatest judgment God can give us is to let us have our own way. “And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul” (Ps. 106: nkjv). However, the Lord wanted His people to go into this new venture with their eyes open, so He commanded Samuel to tell them what it would cost them to have a king.

Paying for a king (vv. 10–22). What’s true of individuals is true of nations: you take what you want from life and you pay for it. Under the kingship of Jehovah God, the nation had security and sufficiency as long as they obeyed Him, and His demands were not unreasonable. To obey God’s covenant meant to live a happy life as the Lord gave you all that you needed and more. But the key word in Samuel’s speech is take, not give. The king and his court had to be supported, so he would take their sons and daughters, their property, their harvests, and their flocks and herds. Their choice young men would serve in the army as well as in the king’s fields. Their daughters would cook and bake for the king. He would take their property and part of their harvest in order to feed the officials and servants in the royal household. While these things weren’t too evident under Saul and David, they were certainly obvious under Solomon (1 Kings 4:7–28). The day came when the people cried out for relief from the heavy yoke Solomon had put on them just to maintain the glory of his kingdom (12:1–4; see Jer. 22:13–17).

In spite of these warnings, the people insisted that God give them a king. Pleasing the Lord wasn’t the thing uppermost in their minds; what they wanted was guaranteed protection against their enemies. They wanted someone to judge them and fight their battles, someone they could see and follow. They found it too demanding to trust an invisible God and obey His wonderful commandments. In spite of all the Lord had done for Israel from the call of Abraham to the conquest of the Promised Land, they turned their back on Almighty God and chose to have a frail man to rule over them.

Saul and the people rejoiced greatly over the deliverance of Jabesh Gilead from the Ammonites, and

Saul was careful to give the glory to the Lord (11:13). Samuel saw the victory as a great opportunity to “renew the kingdom” (v. 14) and remind the people that Jehovah God was still their King. The fact that Saul had led the army in a great victory would tempt the Israelites to put their faith in their new king, and Samuel wanted them to know that their future success rested in trusting Jehovah alone. The king was only God’s servant for the people, and both king and people had to obey God’s covenant. In his farewell message, Samuel defended his own ministry (vv. 1–5), reviewed God’s mercies to Israel (vv. 6–11), and admonished the people to fear the Lord and obey the covenant (vv. 12–25). Samuel mentions the Lord at least thirty times in this message, because his heart’s desire was to see the people return to the Lord and honor His covenant.

In asking for a king, the people had rejected the kingship of Jehovah and the leadership of Samuel, the last of the judges (7:6, 15–17). It must have been painful for Samuel to conduct this last meeting as their leader and transfer the civil authority to Saul. No doubt he had hoped that one of his sons would succeed him, but they weren’t even considered (8:1–3). The twelve tribes had been governed by judges for nearly 500 years, but times had changed and the people wanted a king. Before leaving office as judge, Samuel had to set the record straight and bear witness that his hands were clean and the people could find no fault in him.

To many of the people at that assembly, Samuel had “always been there.” Some of them had known him when he was a child and youth at Shiloh, learning to serve as a priest, and others remembered when he had begun to proclaim the Word of the Lord (3:20). He had walked before them almost all of his life, and now he stood before them “old and gray-headed” and challenged them to accuse him of using his authority to benefit himself. “Here I am” (12:3) makes us think of Samuel’s responses the night the Lord called him (3:4–6, 8, 16). In the East, it was expected that civil officials would use their offices to make money, but Samuel hadn’t taken that route. He obeyed the law of Moses and kept his hands clean (Ex. 20:17; 22:1–4, 9; 23:8; Lev. 19:13; Deut. 16:19; 24:14). With such a godly example before them, we wonder why his sons took bribes.

Like Jesus, Samuel stood before the people and asked, “Which of you convicts me of sin?” (John 8: nkjv). The people heard what Samuel said and bore witness that he had spoken the truth. Samuel was a man of integrity; Saul would turn out to be a man of hypocrisy and duplicity. When the assembly gave their vote of confidence to Samuel, the prophet called the Lord and the new king to bear witness to what they had said. If the people ever changed their mind, they would have to deal with God and His appointed king!

It’s a wonderful thing to get to the closing years of life and be able to review your life and ministry and not be afraid or ashamed. May we all be able to say with our Lord, “I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do” (John 17: nkjv).

Having affirmed Samuel’s credibility, the people now had to accept his analysis of the situation. He reviewed Israel’s history from Moses to his own day and emphasized what the Lord in His grace had done for them.

Thank the Lord (vv. 6–11). It was God, not the people, who appointed Moses and Aaron (v. 6) and who enabled them to do the mighty works they did for the people of Israel. Samuel wasn’t afraid to point out Israel’s sins and then challenge them to devote themselves to the Lord and to His covenant. It’s often been said that the one thing we learn from history is that we don’t learn from history, and Samuel didn’t want his people to make that mistake.

But this was more than a lecture on history; it was also a court trial. Samuel’s words in verse 7 have a judicial flavor: “stand still” carries the idea of “Stand up, court is in session!” and “reason” means “to decide a case of litigation.” Samuel was going to prove to the people that the Lord had been righteous and faithful in all His dealings with Israel, but that the Jews had been faithless and disobedient. The Lord had covenanted with no other nation on earth except Israel, and Israel’s obedience to that covenant made possible their enjoyment of God’s promised blessings. These blessings included living in the Promised Land, being protected from their enemies, and having fruitful fields, flocks and herds, and families. If they failed to obey, the Lord would discipline them and take away their blessings. (See Deut. 28–30 and Lev. 26.) Every Jew knew this, but not every Jew really understood it.

Israel in Egypt cried out to the Lord for help, and He sent them Moses and Aaron (1 Sam. 12:8). God delivered His people and took them to Canaan and gave them victory over the inhabitants of the land. But once they were in the land, they compromised their faith and joined in worshipping the false gods of their neighbors, so God had to discipline them (vv. 9–11). Now we are in the book of Judges with its seven cycles of disobedience, discipline, and deliverance (Judg. 2:10–23). Samuel’s point is that God always provided a leader when one was needed, and the nation wouldn’t have needed a judge if the people had been faithful to God. In 1 Samuel 12:11, Jerubbaal (“let Baal contend [for himself]”) is Gideon, and Bedan is probably Barak. Samuel included himself, for he was the last of the judges (7:15).

Fear the Lord (vv. 12–19). How should Israel have responded to this kind of national history? They should have expressed gratitude to the Lord and trusted Him for His continued care. They should have confessed their sin of unbelief and trusted Him alone. But what did they do? No sooner did the Ammonites attack than the Jews asked for a king and exchanged the rule of the Lord their King for the leadership of a mere man! God gave them what they asked for, but Israel lost something in the transaction.

However, all was not lost. God is never taken by surprise, and He would not desert His people for His name’s sake. If the people would fear the Lord and follow Him, He would continue to care for them and use their king to direct and protect them. Then Samuel demonstrated the awesome power of the Lord by “praying up a storm” during the dry season of wheat harvest (mid-May to mid-June). This miracle reminds us of the signs Moses and Aaron did in Egypt. Samuel was proving to the people that God could do anything for them if they trusted Him and obeyed, but that a mere king was helpless apart from the Lord. When the Jews begged Samuel for deliverance, they sounded like Pharaoh confessing his sin and begging Moses for relief (Ex, 8:8; 9:27–28; 10:16–17), and their repentance was probably just as insincere.

Obey the Lord (vv. 20–25). Samuel moved from “Fear” to “Fear not” as he encouraged the people to accept the situation their unbelief created and make the most of it. How many times in our own lives do we get what we asked for and then wish we didn’t have it! The Lord would not reject or forsake His people because of His holy covenant and His great faithfulness. God’s purpose was to use Israel to bring glory to His name, and He would fulfill that purpose. The Jewish people knew the terms of the covenant: if they obeyed, the Lord would bless them; if they disobeyed, He would chasten them. Either way, He would be faithful to His Word; the major issue was whether Israel would be faithful. They had made a mistake, but God would help them if they feared and obeyed Him.

Samuel made it clear that, no matter what they decided, he would obey the Lord. Part of his obedience would be faithfully praying for the people and teaching them the Word of God. The Word of God and prayer always go together (Acts 6:4; John 15:7; Eph. 6:17–18). Samuel’s heart was broken, but as a faithful servant of the Lord, he interceded for the people and sought to lead them in the right way. For God’s people not to pray is to sin against the Lord, yet if there’s one thing lacking in our churches today, it is prayer, particularly prayer for those in authority (1 Tim. 2:1–4).

When we consider the great things God has done for us, how could we do other than fear Him, thank Him, and serve Him in truth all the days of our lives? God’s covenant with His people Israel was still in force: if they obeyed, He would bless; if they disobeyed, He would chasten. “Yet if you persist in doing evil,” warned Samuel, “both you and your king will be swept away” (1 Sam. 12:25). Samuel may have been referring especially to the warning given by Moses in Deuteronomy 28:36, written into the covenant centuries before Israel had a king: “The Lord will drive you and the king you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your fathers” (niv). Unfortunately, Israel did disobey the terms of the covenant and God had to send them in exile to Babylon.

From time to time, churches and other Christian ministries face new situations and decide they must make organizational changes. Each ministry needs a Samuel to remind them of the spiritual principles that never change: the character of God, the Word of God, the necessity of faith, and the importance of obedience. Methods are many, principles are few; Methods always change, principles never do.

As the old Youth for Christ slogan expressed it, “Geared to the times but anchored to the Rock.” Some changes are inevitable and necessary, but they need not destroy the work of God.