1 Samuel 8 Commentary

1 Samuel 8 Commentary

Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Hebrews 7:23-24 NIV.

Old age and eventually death prevented the good Judge Samuel from continuing in office. The replacements, his sons, were not very different from Hophni and Phinehas. So we are back to ground zero. A king is required. But the people are not thinking of God as their king. They are thinking of a human king.

A human king it is but not now. For now, only a shadow placeholder would be given. With hindsight, we can tell that this shadow solution is King David. He will sit on the throne and hold the shadow scepter until the rightful owner comes.

Having been through the book of Judges, we easily understand why the people want a king. The vacuum that people feel is one motivated by a lack of dominion or rule that humanity lost in the Garden of Eden.

Man is “sovereign”; he decides his own destiny. However, the LORD God warns humanity of the consequences of their decisions. The consequences are summarized as the enslavement of man by man. The best of our solutions always take on this format: More of the same.

You won’t find any better description of a human government. All state governments have the same pattern described here – enslavement of man by man.

Yet, the LORD God was a real stone of help for Israel – Ebenezer!

The LORD God had been an invisible presence all along. But Israel wasn’t aware.

We are more comfortable with a doctor we can see than Doctor Jesus who we cannot see! At this point, faith fails and the LORD is not pleased.

Awareness of the King of kings is everything!

This chapter speaks to the need to reexamine our ambitions. Are we out there looking for a king? Do we want to be like the other nations around us?

The saint can rest assured that they have the King!

Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

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