According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you.
God tells Samuel that the demand for a king was not a new failure but the latest form of an old one, going back to the day He brought Israel out of Egypt. So what had Israel been rejecting all those years, and why did God let them have their king?
The King They Were Rejecting
Before Israel had a king, God Himself ruled the nation. He also gave the people a way to stay in touch with Him.
J. N. DarbyGod Himself was their king, just as God Himself points out to Samuel (1 Sam. 8:7-8; 12:12). The priest was the point of contact, the bond between the people and God. And God raised up judges whenever the people needed them.
An Old Habit, Not a New Fault
The words "from the day I brought them up out of Egypt" put this demand at the end of a long line. God is not judging one bad day. He is reading a record.
W. W. FeredayThe Lord shows here that the demand for a king was only the climax of centuries of discontent with the position in which His grace had set them. It seems they faced the threat of an Ammonite invasion at the time (1 Sam. 12:12). They forgot the lesson of Ebenezer altogether (1 Sam. 7:12), and they turn, not to God, but to human strength. We see something similar in Judges 11. There too the Ammonites were attacking them. In their distress they turned to Jephthah for help. When will people — when will we — learn to turn to God alone in the difficulties and dangers of life?
The Motive Behind the Demand
The verse ties the demand for a king to "serving other gods." One motive lies under both.
C. KnappNo doubt they felt that the restraints of God's holy law were irritating. They had already gone after the gods of the nations, because that worship allowed them licence. So now they want a king "like the nations," to give them "larger freedom," as they thought. Not freedom for the practice of holiness, but freedom to feed their national vanity and political glory — "a place in the sun," as we would say today.
The Glory They Threw Away
Being unlike everyone else was not Israel's embarrassment. It was the very thing that marked them out.
W. W. Fereday"Like all the nations" (verse 5) were truly painful words from the lips of the Lord's chosen people. It was their glory, if only they could have appreciated it, that they were not like the nations. Remember what Balaam said about them in the first of his four parables. He said, "Behold, a people dwelling alone, and not counting itself among the nations" (Num. 23:9). The people of God have always found it hard to keep the position of separation to God.
Comfort for the Servant Set Aside
God's words "so they are also doing to you" put Samuel on His own side of the line.
H. L. RossierThis was a precious encouragement from God to His servant. It came at the very moment when Samuel was going through a discipline, and the elders of Israel had become its instruments. Nothing could comfort his heart more than this assurance: he was, after all, on the Lord's side. And now that the Lord had been rejected, Samuel had to be rejected too. Is it not an honour to share the shame that the world throws on our Lord when it spurns Him?... Even while He is disciplining him, God identifies Samuel with Himself. The people, meanwhile, looked like they were judging evil, but they were identifying themselves with the nations.
Sin Judged, Purpose Unbroken
Israel's demand was sin. Yet a king was God's own thought, and commentators hold both facts together.
William KellyThe thought of a king was not from man, but from God; yet the desire for one like the nations was rebellion against God on man's part... It was an evil in man to be judged; it was grace in God to plan it, and He will surely carry it out. Both are true; but man's mind often sets one against the other, instead of believing both... Samuel feels it deeply, not because it was against himself so much as against God... "And Samuel prayed." Oh that we might follow the pattern of so true a servant! When things displease us, may we pray, and not fret or fume or scold!
Summary
- Rejected King. God Himself ruled Israel. The priest was the link, and judges came when needed. Asking for a king meant refusing that rule.
- Rejected Repeatedly. This was not one bad day. It was the peak of centuries of discontent, the same instinct that made them serve other gods after Egypt.
- Rejected Restraint. Under the stated reasons lay a wish to be free of God's holy law and to gain the standing other nations had.
- Rejected Together. God tells Samuel the rejection is His, not Samuel's. He ties His servant to Himself in the moment of discipline.
- Rejected, Yet Overruled. A king was always God's own plan. He judges man's evil, and His plan still stands. Samuel's answer to it all was prayer, not complaint.