And this evening, let's turn
to chapter eight. First Samuel, chapter eight. In this chapter, we will see
Israel, the nation of Israel, rejecting her king. Samuel was
never the king of Israel, Samuel was a prophet, and he was the
last of the judges, the Lord. The Lord God Almighty was Israel's
king, and it is him that she rejects. I have four things I
want to point out to us from this chapter. First, Israel's
judge grows old, but not her king, verses one and two. Israel's judge grows old, but
not her king. And it came to pass, when Samuel
was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel. Now the name
of the firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second, Abiah,
they were judges in Israel. And his sons walked not in his
ways, but turned aside after Lucre, and took bribes and perverted
judgment. Now it's difficult to determine
just how old Samuel was at this point. The Jews, for some reason,
believe that he died at the age of 52. Most of the Christian
commentators, they believe at this time he must have been about
60 years of age. Now 60 is not commonly considered
to be old. But the commentators believed
that he was old because of the burden that he had borne for
so long. From a very early age, you remember,
he was put into the office of a prophet. The description, I
looked up the description again that Solomon gives of old age
in Ecclesiastes chapter 12, and part of what he says there is,
the keepers of the house shall tremble, that is, the arms shall
tremble. The strong men, the legs, shall
bow themselves. And the grinders, the teeth,
cease because they are few. And those that look out of the
windows, that is our eyesight, be darkened. Now, I just can't
see Samuel like that. I just can't picture him like
that. But as I read that passage of
scripture, I thought how blessed we are, those of us who live
today, that some of these things may be remedied Like eyeglasses,
for instance. I mean, it probably hasn't been
many years, maybe 100 years, I'm not sure when, or 200 years,
when eyeglasses came into vogue, as far as them being fitted to
your eyes, being able to test you and see what you needed for
your glasses. And other things, of course,
that we have today that help us. But the scripture here says
he was old. That's what the scripture says.
And it came to pass when Samuel was old. So we will just leave
it at that. In contrast, Samuel was old,
but Israel's king, even though he is the ancient of days, the
eternal, he never grows old. He doesn't change. He is the
same from day to day, from year to year, the Lord God. The scripture says, he that keepeth
Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. And of course, in
the letter of James, he tells us that in God is no variableness,
neither the shadow of turning, not the least shadow of turning
in God. So we see, Israel's prophet,
Israel's judge, Samuel, he's old, but Israel's king, he's
not old. He has the due of youth, as the
scripture says, upon him, that is the Lord Jesus Christ. You
know, he's described in the book of Canticles, the Song of Solomon,
as being a young person. as his hair is black like the
raven, and his flesh is rooty. I mean, he's just described as
a young person, full of life. And then we also see a contrast
here between Samuel's sons, because we are told that they were wicked.
They were wicked. But Israel's king, Israel's king,
is a holy Lord God. They accepted bribes, the scripture
here says. They accepted bribes to pervert
justice. But God, Israel's king, we know
that he is a God of justice. He is a God of holiness, a God
of righteousness. In fact, the scripture says that
he is of purer eyes than to behold evil. and cannot look upon iniquity. And then another verse tells
us justice and judgment are the habitation of his throne. In
him is no darkness at all. So a contrast here, Israel's
judge grows old, but not her king, not her king. The Lord
God was her king. The second thing I point out
to us is Israel's rejection of her king in verses four and five. Then all the elders of Israel
gathered themselves together and came to Samuel unto Ramah
and said unto him, behold, thou art old and thy sons walk not
in thy ways. Now make us a king to judge us
like all the nations. The elders of Israel gathered
to ask Samuel to give them a king, to name them a king. And it's
important that I point out to us and that we see the reason,
the reason that they desired a king. Now it is true that Samuel
was old, their judge, and it is true his sons were wicked,
but that's not the reason they give for wanting a king. Notice
that again in verse five. Behold, thou art old, and thy
sons walk not in thy ways. Now make us a king to judge us."
Now here it is, like all the nations. And then look down,
if you will, to verses 19 and 20. This is repeated again in
this chapter. Nevertheless, the people refused
to obey the voice of Samuel, and they said, Nay, but we will
have a king over us that we also, here it is, may be like all the
nations and that our king may judge us and go out before us
and fight our battles. It wasn't Samuel's old age. It wasn't the wickedness of his
sons that prompted them to want a king, but it was their desire
to be like all the other nations. be like all the other nations
that did have a king and that would go out before them, that
would lead them out in battle, their king. Now, Samuel didn't
go out into the battle. He prayed. He did more by his
prayers than any king could have done leading the army out. But they wanted a king to be
like all the other nations who would lead them out into battle. In reality, you know this, it's
so. In reality, they were a nation
above all other nations. They wanted to be like other
nations, but in reality, they were a peculiar nation, a nation
unlike all other nations. Because Moses told them, and
this is recorded in Deuteronomy chapter 14, For thou art an holy
people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee
to be a peculiar people unto himself. Now listen, above all
the nations that are upon the earth. They want to be like other
nations, but God had chosen them and made them a nation above
all the other nations of the earth. In verse 20, we see they
wanted a king to go out before them and fight their battles.
You remember last week, look back in chapter 7 and verse 10,
we saw that they had a king that fought their battles. They had
a king, that is the Lord. In chapter 7 and verse 10, it
says, and as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines
drew near to battle against Israel. Now notice their king, the Lord. But the Lord thundered with a
great thunder on that day upon the Philistines and discomfited
them, and they were smitten before Israel. God fought their battle
for them. God fought their battle for them,
overthrew their enemies. He didn't just fight, for them,
but he overthrew their enemies. And it's interesting when you
think about this, when God gives them a king, the first king they
had, Saul, how did he die? He died in battle. They wanted
a king to lead them out, to be like all the other nations, and
the first king that God gave them, Saul, he ended his life
in battle. Now, I want you to notice next,
Israel's prophet was displeased, verses six through eight. But
the thing displeased Samuel when they asked him to give them a
king. The thing displeased Samuel when they said, give us a king
to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord,
and the Lord said unto Samuel, hearken unto the voice of the
people in all that they say unto thee. For they have not rejected
thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over
them. According to all the works which
they have done since the day that I brought them up out of
Egypt, even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me and served
other gods, so do they also unto thee. Now, it was only natural
Samuel was displeased It was only natural, him being a man
like you and I, after serving the nation all of his life, really,
he had given his whole life to serving this nation, and now
they come and they want a king. They want him to be replaced
with a king. And the scripture here says,
the thing displeased Samuel. Now, here's the lesson. Here's
the lesson for all of us here tonight. What did he do? What did Samuel do when he was
displeased? He took all of it to the Lord
and just laid it out before him. But the thing displeased Samuel
when they said, give us a king to judge us and Samuel prayed
unto the Lord. The lesson for us is when we
are displeased, what should we do? What should we do? Sometimes
we're displeased at God's providence, aren't we? Things don't go just
like we had planned and thought they should go. And we're displeased
with God's providence. What do we do? Do we go and tell
our sad tale to other people or do we, like Samuel, follow
his lead and go and lay out everything before the Lord? Just tell him,
tell him our problem, whatever it may be. Sometimes other people
displease us. There are many things that displease
us if we let them, but when we are displeased, we should take
it to the Lord and lay it all out before Him. It may be we're displeased like
Samuel by the way we're treated. You ever feel unappreciated?
Do you? Maybe on your job, they just
take you for granted. Maybe in your home, mothers,
fathers, children just take you for granted. Husbands take their
wives for granted. Do you ever feel unappreciated,
displeased? Take it to the Lord. Lay it all
out before Him. It may be any one of a number
of things that we experience in this life that displeases
us. But still, the best thing to do is to do just like Samuel,
and that is pray unto the Lord. Now, the Lord made it plain to
Samuel that it was not Samuel. It's not you, Samuel, that they're
rejecting. It's me. It's me. They're not
rejecting you. They're rejecting their king.
And I think of the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 9, in
verse 6, when he said, for they are not all Israel, which are
of Israel. Now, what did he mean by that?
They are not all Israel, which are of Israel. Of course, he
meant that in the nation of Israel, there was a remnant according
to the election of grace. And that's the way it always
was with the nation of Israel. a remnant in the nation who were
saved by the grace of God and who loved God and served God,
but I want to say the majority of them, they weren't spiritual
Israel. Physical Israel, yes, they were
Abraham's descendants, but they were not spiritual Israel. There was always a spiritual
Israel within national Israel, always. Always. National Israel as a whole, God
tells Samuel in verse eight, from the day I brought them out
of Egypt. Notice what he says in verse
eight. According to all the works which they have done since the
day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even unto this day. They hadn't changed. They hadn't
changed. They were a bunch of murmurers.
Complainers in the wilderness when God was feeding them with
angels' food. What did they say? Their soul
was tired of that manna. God furnished them water out
of the rock. All of those things that God
did for them when he brought them up out of Egypt. But from
that time until now, God says they've always been the same.
They're not rejecting you, Samuel. They're rejecting me because
they are a stiff-necked people. They are a rebellious nation.
They are a wicked nation. From the time that I brought
them up out of Egypt until today, what have they done? Their history
is Repeated time after time after time, they go aside to serve
idols and worship false gods. They're not rejected Samuel,
but their king, the Lord, is who they were rejecting. You
know, our Lord, the Lord Jesus, he told a parable that's recorded
in the gospels about a prince who went to receive a kingdom.
And he left certain men there in charge and gave them gifts
while he was gone to receive a kingdom. And he said that they
sent after him and said, we will not have this man to reign over
us. That's the same thing that Israel
is here saying. We will not have God to reign
over us. And that's the thing that Adam
said in the garden. Very same thing, God said, don't
eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
But Adam said, we will not have God, I will not have God to reign
over me. I'll eat that fruit, and we know
that he did. This has always been man's way.
This is man's way today. The lost, this is our way by
nature. We'll not have God to be our
king. We'll not have Him to reign over
us. Many people want to receive Jesus
as their Savior, and that's the reason I try to point out that
in the Scriptures, it is always Lord and Savior. Always receive
Him, believe on Him as your Lord and Savior. Many people want
to take Him as their Savior, but they don't want to submit
to His Lordship. to have him as their king, as
their ruler. Well, Samuel is commanded to
hearken to Israel's request. Let's look on here, verse nine. Now therefore hearken unto their
voice. Howbeit yet protest solemnly
unto them and show them the manner of the king that shall reign
over them. And Samuel told all the words
of the Lord unto the people that ask of him a king. And he said,
this will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you.
Now, when he lays this out to them, you would think, well,
that's the last thing we want. We don't want that. I mean, think
about it. God had been their king, but
now they want a man to be their king. And Samuel, God tells Samuel,
you show them what kind of a king they're going to have, what he's
going to do, how he will conduct himself, how he will reign and
rule over you. This will be the manner of the
king that shall reign over you. He will take your sons. He doesn't
ask. You notice that take? He doesn't
ask. He takes. He's a king. He reigns. He's going to take
your sons. He's not going to ask you if
you would be so kind as to allow your sons to serve him. No, no,
he's not going to do that. He's going to take your sons
and appoint them for himself. They're not going to serve you
anymore. Your sons, they're going to serve the king. He will take
your sons and appoint them for himself for his chariots and
to be his horsemen. And some shall run before his
chariots. In other words, they're going
to be inducted into the army. They're going to be chariot man. And then it says some will run
before his chariots. There was a custom, wasn't there,
when the king Absalom, he did this when he was seeking preeminence
and trying to become king, steal the throne from his father David,
he did this. He hired men that ran before
him. And that's what this means here. Some of the men, they'll
just run before the chariots and they will say, here comes
the king. Here's the king. Get ready. Here's the king. Have
you ever waited when a prominent person, maybe the president.
I remember one time, this was years ago, but the president
of Mexico was visiting Mérida and his motorcade was going to
come right past the house we were living in. And of course,
people were lined up there. And every so often, someone would
say, here he comes, but he didn't go. Here he comes, but he didn't
show. And finally, they're always late.
They're always running late, aren't they? Finally, here he
comes. But he had people before him
saying, here comes the president. And that's what Samuel tells
these people, that's what your king is going to do. Some of
your sons, that's what they're going to do. They're going to
be runners running before his chariot and proclaiming, here
comes the king. That's all. And he will appoint
him captains over thousands. And he will take your daughters
too. Notice that word take again. That just kind of stood out to
me as I read these verses. Take. He'll take your sons. He'll take your daughters. He
won't ask. He's not seeking volunteers.
He's taking. He's a king. He's a king. He's
going to take your daughters to work in his kitchen to cook
his food and prepare his meals. He's going to take your daughters
and he will take your fields. Now, the ownership of the field
could not be, could not be taken from them, but he could take
their fields and use their fields for his own good. Your vineyards. your olive yards,
even the best of them, and give them to his servants. And he
will take, here comes the tax. Here comes the tax. He will take
the 10th of your seed and of your vineyards and give to his
officers and to his servants. Now the 10th, of course, was
the tithe. They were already commanded under
the law to pay a tithe to the priest But Samuel said, this
king that you're desiring, he's going to levy a tax on you. You're
going to pay a tenth of your goods unto him and unto his servants. And he will take your men servants.
There's that word take again. Take, take, take. That's what
a king does, isn't it? That's what a king does. I think
about our government in this country, and I believe we've
been blessed to live in a country like ours. But I heard this saying
the other day, I'll see if I can repeat it. But Thomas Jefferson
made this statement. He said, when your government
becomes large enough to supply all of your wants, it's then
large enough to take everything from you. And certainly that's
in the making, isn't it? It is large enough to give people
things, but it's also large enough to take. And I believe we have
seen that and are seeing that and will continue to see that
in our country, where our liberties will be taken from us, slowly
but surely. You know, I think of what the nation
of Israel later said to Solomon's son, Rehoboam, when he became
king. You know, they met and they asked
him, they said this to the king, your father, that is Solomon,
thy father made our yoke grievous. And that's what Samuel is telling. God, through Samuel, is telling
the nation of Israel, that's what a king will do. And these
people came and told Rehoboam, your father made our yoke grievous. Now therefore, make thou the
grievous service of thy father and his yoke which he put upon
us lighter. Make it lighter. But you know
the story, the history, he didn't listen. He didn't listen. In fact, he came back and said
he was gonna make it even more grievous. Now, here's the last
thing. Israel will get what they want,
verse 19 through 22. They want a king, they're going
to get a king. Nevertheless, the people refused
to obey 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. And Samuel heard all the words
of the people and rehearsed them in the ears of the Lord. And
the Lord said to Samuel, hearken unto their voice and make them
a king. And Samuel said unto the men
of Israel, go you every man unto his city. In time, he would give
them a king. It's interesting later in the
book of Hosea, The prophet Hosea, we read in chapter 13 in verse
11, God said, I gave thee a king in mine anger. I gave thee a
king in mine anger and took him away in my wrath. And we know
that had reference, of course, to Saul, the first king. Think of another psalm, because
the Lord gave them what they wanted, what they asked for.
They wanted a king. God gave them a king. In Psalm
106, in verse 15, we read, and he gave them their request, but
sent them leanness of soul. Gave them their request, but
sent them leanness of soul. The Lord, the Lord Jesus has
taught us by his example to always ask according to his will. not my will, but thine be done. And we should seek his will in
the written word of God. For this, this is where we find
the will of God. This is a will of God that you
believe on him whom he has sent, whom he sealed. That's the will
of God. But as far as our, our practice
in this world, Where do we find the will of God for our lives?
We find it here in the scriptures, in the word of God. And so we
seek his will for our lives. We, you know that old Puritan
said, he that does his own carving will cut his fingers. You know,
they used to put the meat up on the table and the man of the
house, he carved it. gave everybody a portion. He
that does his own carving, we would carve what we want, what
we desire, how we want things to go. He that does his own carving
will cut his own fingers. God is the one who must carve
for us. We must seek his will in the
word of God and submit to his will. Well, I pray the Lord would
bless this word to all of us here tonight. And the main part
of the message, I believe, is when things displease us, we
don't get on the telephone and start telling other people, or
we don't murmur and complain. No. Take it to the Lord. and lay it out before him. I
love that passage of scripture. I believe it's in Second Kings
where that king, when the invading army sent that word, we're going
to destroy you and we've destroyed all kinds of other nations before
you. And I believe it was Hezekiah,
wasn't it? He took that letter and he just laid it out there
before the Lord. And that's the lesson for all
of us. is to take your burdens to the
Lord and leave them there. Well, let's sing a hymn, Bill.