8 As Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons to be judges over Israel. ² Joel and Abijah, his oldest sons, held court in Beersheba. ³ But they were not like their father, for they were greedy for money. They accepted bribes and perverted justice.

⁴ Finally, all the elders of Israel met at Ramah to discuss the matter with Samuel. ⁵ “Look,” they told him, “you are now old, and your sons are not like you. Give us a king to judge us like all the other nations have.”

⁶ Samuel was displeased with their request and went to the Lord for guidance. ⁷ “Do everything they say to you,” the Lord replied, “for they are rejecting me, not you. They don’t want me to be their king any longer. ⁸ Ever since I brought them from Egypt they have continually abandoned me and followed other gods. And now they are giving you the same treatment. ⁹ Do as they ask, but solemnly warn them about the way a king will reign over them.”

1 Samuel 8:1-9

Dear God, you know this story has always confused me a little. Why weren’t you angry with Samuel in this story? Eli’s sons were doing bad things and you ended up not only cursing him and his boys, but their lineage as well. It seems like Samuel allowed the same things to happen with his sons, but you took this one more personally: “…they are rejecting me, not you.”

There are a lot of things to look at in these nine verses. There’s the two boys and their greed. Maybe they got more of a pass than Eli’s boys did because they were only accepting bribes and perverting justice and not taking sacred food from the Temple or sleeping with women who served at the Tent of Meeting. Maybe what they were doing could be considered blaspheming the Holy Spirit. 1 Samuel 2:17 says, “The sin of the young men was very great in the Lord’s sight, for they were treating the Lord’s offering with contempt.” So maybe Eli’s sons were worse as far as worshipping you. But as judges of the people, Samuel’s sons were not good.

Another aspect of this story is the foolishness of the elders to think that a king would solve this problem. Why would they think that? That’s just ridiculous. They’ll see soon enough that kings are fallible too.

Samuel’s anger. I’m honestly surprised he was upset with the Israelites. Maybe he was just upset with what the requested and not their frustration with his boys. Maybe he understood where they were coming from. But you let him off the hook. You didn’t take the blame for it because it wasn’t anything you did wrong. No, it’s more that you placed the blame on the elders and were disappointed at their foolishness.

That takes me to the last thing. You tried to tell them how foolish this was for them to ask. “Okay, we’re going to do this, but here’s what’s going to happen.” That takes us to verses 10-18 where Samuel tells them what a king will do. Their foolish reply? “But the people refused to listen to Samuel. ‘No!’ they said. ‘We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.'”

Father, are there foolish things I ask for? Is there any area in my life where I’m rejecting your leadership? Am I letting anything fester out there that will lead others into foolishness? Give me eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to love. I’m thinking about one person I know who’s getting married soon. They’ve been with their significant other for a long time. Prepare their heart for marriage. Prepare their mind. I pray that you will raise up people, books, articles, or whatever in their lives to give them the foundation they need to go through the rest of this life together.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen