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.
That we also may be like all the nations. The first part of this energetic answer implies that they were perfectly aware of the peculiarity of their civil government, by which their governors were only God's vicegerents-officers chosen and appointed by an unseen Power-and they desiderated a visible head. The second part of it, in which they specified the appointment of a king, expressed a strong preference for a permanent rather than an occasional or temporary magistrate, to consult their interests by his domestic administration, and, with regard to their foreign relations, to keep a standing army, ready at all times, under his command, to repel the encroachments or insults of neighbouring states. Perhaps, too, the corruptions that had prevailed to so great an extent under the judges had originated a secret but strong desire to be freed from the government of the priesthood, and they probably expected that, if released from the authority of sacerdotal judges, they would find a regal government less austere and rigid than the old regime.
Determined at all hazards to gain their object, they insisted on being made like all the other nations, though it was their glory and happiness to be unlike other nations in having the Lord for their King, and Lawgiver (Numbers 23:9; Deuteronomy 33:28). 'This fickle and criminal disposition God exposes and reprobates. Yet the Divinity would not exercise such a resistless control as totally to disregard the choice of His people, and chain down their free-will, this would have been inconsistent with His character as a moral Governor. He, indeed, commands the prophet solemnly to protest, declaring to them His condemnation of their criminal desires, and warning them of the various inconveniences which should attend the kingly government. But on their persisting in their demand, the prophet is commanded to gratify their humour' (Graves, 2:, p. 155). Their demand was conceded; because the government of a king had been foreseen as well as provided for in the law, and they were dismissed to wait the appointment, which God had reserved to Himself (Deuteronomy 17:14-20: cf. Michaelis, 'Laws of Moses,' 1., pp. 188-196; 3:, p. 141; 4:, p. 1). They did wait; and such was their reverence for God, and their confidence in His prophet, that, instead of proceeding further to claim the right of popular election, their departed in full and patient reliance on God's time and way of granting their request.