1 Samuel 8:22, commentary and pictures

This verse belongs to the account of Israel's elders demanding a king, a demand driven by discontent and pride, with their appeal to the judges' misconduct serving as a pretext for a change they had long desired.

Samuel was distressed by the demand and prayed unto the Lord, and the Lord directed him to listen to the voice of the people and let their voice decide, not to oppose them but to grant them a king. Before the grant, God had Samuel plainly and faithfully tell the people all the words of the Lord about the manner of the king who would reign over them, bearing strong testimony against their sin in choosing a temporal ruler rather than a divine ruler and setting before them the sure results that would follow under a king's administration. The solemn words spoken under God's direction did not change their purpose, for their minds were bent on following their own judgment and casting aside the wisdom of God; they still persisted in their own way, deciding Samuel did not understand their circumstances, motives, designs, and great advantages of having a king to go in and out before them.

After they rejected the warning and insisted, God permitted Israel to have their own way and granted the king they demanded, though He had told them it was not the right and best way, was displeased with it, and counted it sin, letting them face the consequences of their choice. Their request to be like the surrounding nations meant rejecting God's rule as their king and choosing earthly rule instead; it was rejection of God as divine ruler and not merely rejection of Samuel, a rebellious departure from God their special leader by preferring a despotic monarch to the wise and mild government of God himself through his prophets. The demand came from unsanctified hearts and their own mind and judgment, imagining that being ruled by a king would bring the most glory to themselves as a nation and keep the nations from looking down on and despising them; they had left their first love and wanted to be like other nations and to be recognized by the world, choosing human judgment and worldly policy as most desirable instead of being led and controlled by the Lord in all their ways.

The demand showed great want of faith and confidence in God's providence to raise up rulers to lead and govern them, and want of sacred, reverent fear of God as Supreme Ruler; they desired to have visibly embodied on earth in a man the power, wisdom, and might that were in heaven, although God was leading, guiding, and working for them in many unseen ways and had wrought deliverance in such a manner that no man could take the glory and it could not be ascribed to human agencies or things seen, so that to invest authority in human power and be controlled by it was to reject God their mighty King. In spiritual blindness they failed to discern beyond Samuel that they were hearing the word of God through His servant, and did not know the blessing and safety of being under His control; that blindness separates His people from His management, rule, and jurisdiction. Israel as peculiarly the people of God had a government essentially different from all other nations, with statutes and laws given by God and rulers chosen by God whom they were to obey in the Lord, inquiring of God in all cases of difficulty and great perplexity; God knew a king would not be best for them because honor due to God alone would be rendered to an earthly monarch, and a king whose heart was lifted up and not right with God would lead them away from God and cause them to rebel against Him.

No one could occupy the position of king and receive the honors usually given to a king without becoming exalted and thinking his ways right in his own eyes while sinning against God, and at the word of a king innocent persons could be made to suffer while the most unworthy were exalted unless he continually trusted in God and received wisdom from him. The king they received reflected their own values, for they prized royal appearance, courage, and military skill but did not seek a ruler who loved and feared God and could preserve their holy character; under his rule they would learn the results of choosing their own way and have reason to return to allegiance to God. Samuel then said to the men of Israel to go every man to his city, thus dismissing the people and preparing for the major change from their existing government to monarchy.

The verse exposes the folly of Israel in Samuel's day in turning from the Lord God of Israel as Ruler of the people to lean on men and on human judgment with self-confidence instead of trust in God, and that same folly will be repeated among the people of God today unless there is greater humility, less confidence in self, and more trust in the Lord. Only as divine power is combined with human effort will the work abide the test, and this dependence on God rather than on people or personal judgment is made manifest when men no longer lean on men or their own judgment but make God their trust, with meekness of spirit and caution in plans and movements, with less talking and much more praying, revealing dependence on God and the mind of Christ.