12 Then Samuel addressed all Israel: “I have done as you asked and given you a king. ² Your king is now your leader. I stand here before you—an old, gray-haired man—and my sons serve you. I have served as your leader from the time I was a boy to this very day. ³ Now testify against me in the presence of the Lord and before his anointed one. Whose ox or donkey have I stolen? Have I ever cheated any of you? Have I ever oppressed you? Have I ever taken a bribe and perverted justice? Tell me and I will make right whatever I have done wrong.”

⁴ “No,” they replied, “you have never cheated or oppressed us, and you have never taken even a single bribe.”

⁵ “The Lord and his anointed one are my witnesses today,” Samuel declared, “that my hands are clean.”

“Yes, he is a witness,” they replied.

⁶ “It was the Lord who appointed Moses and Aaron,” Samuel continued. “He brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt. ⁷ Now stand here quietly before the Lord as I remind you of all the great things the Lord has done for you and your ancestors.

⁸ “When the Israelites were in Egypt and cried out to the Lord, he sent Moses and Aaron to rescue them from Egypt and to bring them into this land. ⁹ But the people soon forgot about the Lord their God, so he handed them over to Sisera, the commander of Hazor’s army, and also to the Philistines and to the king of Moab, who fought against them.

¹⁰ “Then they cried to the Lord again and confessed, ‘We have sinned by turning away from the Lord and worshiping the images of Baal and Ashtoreth. But we will worship you and you alone if you will rescue us from our enemies.’ ¹¹ Then the Lord sent Gideon, Bedan, Jephthah, and Samuel to save you, and you lived in safety.

¹² “But when you were afraid of Nahash, the king of Ammon, you came to me and said that you wanted a king to reign over you, even though the Lord your God was already your king. ¹³ All right, here is the king you have chosen. You asked for him, and the Lord has granted your request.

¹⁴ “Now if you fear and worship the Lord and listen to his voice, and if you do not rebel against the Lord’s commands, then both you and your king will show that you recognize the Lord as your God. ¹⁵ But if you rebel against the Lord’s commands and refuse to listen to him, then his hand will be as heavy upon you as it was upon your ancestors.

¹⁶ “Now stand here and see the great thing the Lord is about to do. ¹⁷ You know that it does not rain at this time of the year during the wheat harvest. I will ask the Lord to send thunder and rain today. Then you will realize how wicked you have been in asking the Lord for a king!”

¹⁸ So Samuel called to the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day. And all the people were terrified of the Lord and of Samuel. ¹⁹ “Pray to the Lord your God for us, or we will die!” they all said to Samuel. “For now we have added to our sins by asking for a king.”

²⁰ “Don’t be afraid,” Samuel reassured them. “You have certainly done wrong, but make sure now that you worship the Lord with all your heart, and don’t turn your back on him. ²¹ Don’t go back to worshiping worthless idols that cannot help or rescue you—they are totally useless! ²² The Lord will not abandon his people, because that would dishonor his great name. For it has pleased the Lord to make you his very own people.

²³ “As for me, I will certainly not sin against the Lord by ending my prayers for you. And I will continue to teach you what is good and right. ²⁴ But be sure to fear the Lord and faithfully serve him. Think of all the wonderful things he has done for you. ²⁵ But if you continue to sin, you and your king will be swept away.”

1 Samuel 12

Dear God, when I was teaching 1 Samuel 8-10 the other night to a group of men, Israel’s big sin regarding this story occurred to me. Right in the middle of talking: In asking for a king they violated the first commandment:

² “I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. ³ “You must not have any other god but me. (Exodus 20:2-3)

They made the idea of a king their god. And to be sure, I think it would be hard to live without a kingless system. Even in the United States, while we don’t have a “king,” we have a leadership structure that organizes us, and it’s hard for me to imagine living without that. It’s easy to judge the Israelites for what they wanted, but wouldn’t I want some sort of organized structure to protect us from other nations? I honestly don’t know what it would look like to not have that kind of structure.

I watched a brief clip from a World War II documentary this morning where people in Poland new the Germans were going to invade and they were vastly out gunned from a military standpoint. So they had every civilian who as capable working to shore up their defenses, including digging ditches in Warsaw to try to slow down the German tanks. Their safety was not guaranteed. In fact, they would be invaded and conquered easily.

I’m trying to come up with a parallel for me today. The best I can do with my current life is think about the things that upset me and whether or not I am upset because I am afraid for my safety and wellbeing, or whether I am upset at an injustice happening. I think it’s okay to be upset about injustice. I don’t think it’s okay for me be to upset because my wellbeing might be at stake. Upset about injustice is what you call me to do in loving my neighbor. But my wellbeing. Well, that just doesn’t matter in my worship of you.

So when I start to get concerned about our country declining, running out of weapons, making ourselves vulnerable to people who want to hurt us, etc., I do think that is sin. When I start to worry about how to preserve my money more than I worry about sharing it with those in need, I think that is a problem.

Father, the Israelites sinned here, but I get it. It’s hard for me to judge them because I’ve never been asked to live in a system that depended so heavily upon you as my “King.” In fact, I wonder if that is why the United States will never take the place of the Israelites as your people. I think some American Christians would like to think we have replaced Israel as your people, but we don’t know what it’s really like to have you as our King. We know what it’s like to be redeemed by you and have relationship with you, but I also pledge allegiance to the U.S. flag at Rotary every Monday. I am a citizen of two worlds. I worship you. I serve you. I serve others. But I am also living in a society, and I have responsibilities in that. I think the important thing now is for me to make the decisions I make every day based more on the idea of how what I do or what I vote for can help people rather than focus on how it will make me safer. Help me to live up to that ideal.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen