YHWH's Response To Their Call For A King Was To Warn Them What Having A King Might Mean For Them (1 Samuel 8:7-22).
It is typical of sinful human beings that they did not recognise that having a king would involve a similar experience to the one that they had already experienced. Their very problems in the past had resulted from failing successors who had followed on after successful leaders. And they should have recognised that with kings that would happen constantly. But they were near sighted, and they were revealing that Canaanite traditions had taken possession of their hearts. They no longer thought theocratically. This Canaanite influence was seen elsewhere in the way in which they so easily turned to the worship of foreign gods. And it was also seen here in the way that they wanted a king. They did not like being shepherds. They wanted to be sheep.
Analysis.
a And YHWH said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not be king over them”. In accordance with all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, in that they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also to you” (1 Samuel 8:7-8).
b “Now therefore listen to their voice. However, you shall protest solemnly to them, and shall show them the manner of the king who will reign over them” (1 Samuel 8:9).
c And Samuel told all the words of YHWH to the people who asked of him a king, and He said, “This will be the manner of the king who will reign over you. He will take your sons, and appoint them to him for his chariots, and to be his horsemen, and they will run before his chariots” (1 Samuel 8:11).
d “And he will appoint them to him for captains of thousands, and captains of fifties, and to plough his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and the instruments of his chariots” (1 Samuel 8:12).
e “And he will take your daughters to be perfumers, and to be cooks, and to be bakers” (1 Samuel 8:13).
f “And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants” (1 Samuel 8:14).
f “And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants” (1 Samuel 8:15).
e “And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your finest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work” (1 Samuel 8:16).
d “He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you will be his servants” (1 Samuel 8:17).
c “And you shall cry out in that day because of your king whom you will have chosen for yourselves, and YHWH will not answer you in that day” (1 Samuel 8:18)
b But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; and they said, “No, but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles” (1 Samuel 8:19-20).
a And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he repeated them in the ears of YHWH. And YHWH said to Samuel, “Listen to their voice, and make them a king.” And Samuel said to the men of Israel, “Go you every man to his city” (1 Samuel 8:21-22).
Note that in ‘a' Samuel was to listen to the voice of the people in all that they said to him (their request for a king) and in the parallel he was to listen to their voice and make them a king. In ‘b' they are to be shown what manner of king they will discover that they have, and in the parallel they declare that they do know, for he will be like the kings of all the nations round about. In ‘c' He begins to describe the glories that the king will take for himself, and in the parallel warns that they will groan under his requirements. In ‘d' He describes the service that will be required of them, and that he will take of their time to plough his fields, and in the parallel tells that they will be his servants, and that he will take a tenth of their flocks. In ‘e' he will set their daughters to work and in the parallel he will take their servants and their young men. In ‘f' He will take their best fields and vineyards and oliveyards and will give them to his courtiers, and in the parallel he will take a tenth of their seed and of their vineyards and give them to his officers and courtiers.
‘ And YHWH said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not be king over them.”
YHWH knew the true heart of the people. The ‘golden age' under Samuel had resulted in their again becoming apathetic in their attitude towards Him. They felt that things were good now, and they wanted to keep them that way, and yet not be too restricted in the way that they lived. They felt that they had found the right balance between keeping YHWH satisfied and at the same time enjoying the good things of life. And like many societies after them, they had a dream that once they had the right leadership in place things would go well. They were naturally unaware of the adage, ‘power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely' which might have acted as a warning to them. Thus they were rejecting their long tradition of decentralised leadership for a leader who would bind them together as one whole, but who could become corrupt
They overlooked the fact that the system of decentralised leadership, inherited from the tribal system combined with YHWH's provision of the covenant, had kept them a free people, at least within their own society. But that system of decentralised leadership had only been successful because YHWH Himself had been its centre through the Tabernacle and its priesthood, and through His prophets. All had looked to Him as their King. And it only worked when they did so. Now that that was to be set aside things would be different. And they did not realise what they were losing.
But YHWH knew what they were losing. And He knew that the reason for it was because they were rejecting the essential heart of the covenant, and in essence were rejecting His overlordship. From now on they would have divided loyalty, and God knew that in such a circumstance He would come off second best. Thus, as He reluctantly acquiesced with their request, He made clear to Samuel that it was not he, Samuel, whom they were rejecting, it was Himself. The problem was that they no longer wanted to be under His rule. They no longer wanted Him as their king. Their religious dedication was half hearted.
“ In accordance with all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, in that they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also to you.”
And He pointed out that this was not new. Indeed it had been the tendency of the hearts of His people ever since He had brought them out of Egypt. Since then they had constantly forsaken Him and served other gods. And in a similar way they were now rejecting all that Samuel had brought them (‘so they do also to you'). And they were replacing YHWH's authority with that of a man's. From now on their response to YHWH would on the whole very much depend on who was their king.
“ Now therefore listen to their voice. However, you shall protest solemnly to them, and shall show them the manner of the king who will reign over them.”
So Samuel was to listen to them and grant their request. However, before doing so he was to reveal to them exactly what will be involved in having ‘a king like the nations'.
‘ And Samuel told all the words of YHWH to the people who asked of him a king.'
So Samuel returned to the elders who had asked of him a king and told them all the words of YHWH. He pointed out that YHWH was giving them a choice, and was warning them of the consequences of making the wrong choice.
‘ And he said, “This will be the manner of the king who will reign over you. He will take your sons, and appoint them to him for his chariots, and to be his horsemen, and they will run before his chariots (see 2 Samuel 15:1; 1 Kings 1:5), and he will appoint them to him for captains of thousands, and captains of fifties. And he will set some to plough his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and the instruments of his chariots.” '
The first requirement that this king will have will be concerning his own splendour. The picture is firmly based on the lifestyle of Canaanite kings. He will want ceremonial chariots, and horsemen, and it will be their sons who will drive his chariots and be his horsemen, ever at his beck and call. And some will be appointed to run before the chariots proclaiming that the king is coming. Others will be made captains of military units, both large and small. Still others will be called on to plough his fields and reap his harvests, thus either losing their own land, or having far less time to work on it. And yet others would be set to making his instruments of war and all the requirements for his chariots. It would introduce a totally new subservient lifestyle, along with any punishments that the king decided to mete out.
“ And he will take your daughters to be perfumers, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.”
And the splendour of his court will require their daughters to become perfumers, cooks and bakers. They will become lower palace servants, again subject to his discipline, and all the temptations of a royal court.
“ And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.”
But worse. He will want to reward his favourites. And in order to do this he will take the very best of their fields, and their vineyards, and their oliveyards, and will give them to his favourite courtiers. They will not have any choice in the matter. It will be required of them. And they will have no one to whom to appeal.
“ And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.”
And he will put a tax on them and require one tenth of the product of their seed and their vineyards so that he can pay his officers and reward his favourite courtiers.
“ And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your finest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.”
And he will take their servants for himself, and especially their finest young men (as he has previously taken their daughters - 1 Samuel 8:13), and also their asses and set them to work for him.
LXX has ‘cattle' instead of ‘young men' which requires only a slight change in the Hebrew text and would be more in line with Deuteronomy 5:14. On the other hand ‘young men' is a good parallel for ‘your daughters' in the chiasmus, and is the more difficult reading. Thus we should retain ‘young men'.
“ He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you will be his servants.”
And he will want a tenth of their flocks, and will make them his slaves. They will have lost their rights as free men under YHWH. All will be subject to the king.
“ And you shall cry out in that day because of your king whom you will have chosen for yourselves, and YHWH will not answer you in that day.”
And when in the midst of their distress they cry out, as they inevitably will, they will have no one to cry to. For YHWH will no longer be their King, and will no longer answer them and interfere between them and the king. They will have chosen the rod for their own backs.
Part of what is said might not sound so bad to us. We might even compare it to our own society and look on it favourably. But we must remember that the working conditions, and the length of time that they would have to work daily, and the amount that they would be paid (if at all), would not be regulated except by the king, and scant regard would be had to many of them. And above all that they could not resign and walk away. We must measure their total loss of freedom by the freedom that was once theirs and was guaranteed to them by YHWH, and which while they were obedient to YHWH made life so worth while. All the miseries of the future are in fact being described in these words. And they could all be observed by looking more carefully under the surface at the Canaanites round about them.
It would in fact not be quite so bad for Israel as for other nations because they would still have the covenant Law, and heed would be taken to the priests and the elders, but it would certainly gradually become a different, and harsher, type of society.
‘ But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, “No, but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.” '
However, the people were quite adamant, in spite of the fact that it was being made clear to them that at this time He did not desire them to have a king. They blatantly refused to listen to Samuel's words, and said, ‘No, we will have a king over us so that we can be like all the other nations and so that he may judge us (rule over us) and go out before us and fight our battles.' Fear of the Philistines once Samuel was dead may well have been partly at the root of their request. Without Samuel they were not quite so sure that YHWH would intervene for them, whereas they could be sure that a king would always be there. But there was clearly also a desire to be like the other nations. They envied the sophisticated nations around them who seemed to be doing so well (they did not look at the failures. That was for pessimists) and they wanted to be like them.
‘ And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he went over them in the ears of YHWH.'
Having heard what they had to say Samuel went back to YHWH and went over with Him all that they had said (there was clearly much more that had been said than is recorded for us above).
‘ And YHWH said to Samuel, “Listen to their voice, and make them a king.” And Samuel said to the men of Israel, “Go you every man to his city.”
YHWH then instructed Samuel to give them their wish. If they would not listen they must learn the lesson the hard way. So He tells Samuel to listen to what they are saying and give them a king. And He no doubt already had His man in mind.
The question that as far as Samuel was concerned would now have to be resolved was as to whom that king would be. Upset though he was Samuel wanted to do his best for them. So he told the elders to return to their cities while he took the matter in hand. He would consult with YHWH on the matter.