Word of Encouragement (08/30/2023)
But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, "No! But there shall be a king over us, 20 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 Sam. 8:19-20)
Even though Samuel told the people all the ways that a king could exploit them, they remained stubborn in their request. They still insisted on having a king over them. They explicitly stated why: “that we also may be like all the nations....” God set them apart from all other nations to be a holy people to Him. Here, they were rejecting their call.
Of course, they didn’t mean that they wanted to be like other nations in all aspects. They wanted a king “that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” They wanted something more tangible and “reliable” than having an invisible God as their King and ad hoc judges only when there was a national emergency. They wanted a sense of security and stability of having a king that they could see, who was there for their protection all the time, as if God had failed to do that for them! Do you see how mistaken they were? When other nations invaded them, it was God’s discipline for their sinful rebellion against Him. But they saw it as God’s negligence. So, rather than seeing repentance as the solution, they requested a king to protect them. Did they think that a king could protect them if God wanted to discipline them for their sin?
What is amazing is that God granted them their wish. God told Samuel to “obey” (or “listen to”) their request when they refused to “listen to” God’s warning. Why? You see, Israel’s monarchy was more complicated. A monarchy was something God promised even before this incident. God set aside the tribe of Judah as a royal tribe in Jacob’s prophetic blessing (Gen. 49:10). And through Moses God had already prescribed how a king should govern his people and conduct himself as God’s servant (Deut. 17:15-20).
If so, kingship was already an important part of covenant administration in the plan of God. Why was Israel’s request for a king presented negatively? While the request itself might not have been wrong, their motivation was wrong in rejecting God’s kingship over them (vv. 7-8). God granted their request because what they requested was not wrong even though their motivation was wrong.
This should not surprise us. Our sovereign God can, and does, use the evil schemes of the devil and sinners for His purpose and glory. He was doing the same here. But Israel’s wrong motivation made them guilty. Wrong motivation can make us guilty even when we do the right thing. God’s answer to our prayer is not a blanket approval of our desires. Often, God graciously exposes the wrongness of our motivation after answering our prayers (as the Israelites would experience after getting Saul as their king). God does so for our spiritual growth. When that happens, we must humble ourselves and repent before God.
We should not use this as an excuse not to do good or pray, saying, “I don’t know whether my motives are pure.” When are they ever pure enough for God? We should still go ahead and do what God calls us to do, all the while acknowledging that to God in honesty and humility and look to Christ’s perfect righteousness to cover the impurities of our motivation.