The Coming, Final King I.

The People of God and this whole King thing Head over to 1 Samuel 8. In this passage, leaders of the people of God, the Israelites, ask for a king. Well focus on just a verse and a half for now, the last part of 19 and then 20: 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. A. The reasons for desiring a king i. A monarchic system could allow their people to compete with and be more like their neighbors. The semi-nomadic, largely egalitarian Hebrew people did not have the coordinated resources to build chariots and train charioteers; they could raise a large army, but none of them would be well-armed; they had no palaces, no high-walled cities, at least not in at all the same way as their neighbors. They wanted to be like them. What they saw in themselves--it looked like weakness to their eyes. When Egyptian armies marched through the land Canaan in the times of the Judges, the Hebrew people had no king to fight for them; they hid in the forests, ravines and hilltops. They had no king to lead out his chariots and horses in their blazing bronze armor. And thats what they wanted. They knew that they were what the world counted as weakness, and they wanted that which the world counted as strength. ii. A monarchic system would relieve much of the pressure on every Israelite to be vigilant, and prepared to defend his family and homeland. In the last part of verse 20, they reveal that a significant part of their wish is that they might have a king who would go out before us and fight our battles. The concentration and centralization of power under a king would remove their freedom, but it would also remove their responsibilityand they found the removal of the latter more valuable than the retention of the former. Without a king, everyone, to some slightly varying degree, was responsible for the affairs and defense of their people. B. The curse of kingship They had lived in Canaan several hundred years without a human king. During that time, they occasionally had men, called Judges, who as servants of God helped organize and administer the twelve tribes. One of the most successful of these was Samuel. When Samuel was old, and perhaps near death, the people of Israel come to him to request a king. In 1 Samuel 8:6 he inquires of the Lord how he should respond. I Sam. 8: 7-9: And the LORD said to Samuel, Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. [8] According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. [9] Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them. What is the Lords response? He tells Samuel to give them a king, but it is very complicated. Look at verse 7: Obey the voice of the people...forthey have rejected me from being king over them. God had functioned as king for them, performing great works to defeat the enemies of his people. But for his people, to trust in their Gods salvation required faith. Sure, God could defeat vast armies through 300 men as with Gideon, but could the people rely on him every time? Clearly they had not; they could not. They were doing according to all they had done since the days God rescued them out of Egypt. So Gods

answer to Samuel is this: they have rejected me as king, not only you as judge; accept their demand for a king, but warn them of the ways of a king. This warning would give them a final shot at repentance. The warning is in verses 11-18 of chapter 8: He said, These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. [12] And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. [13] He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. [14] He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. [15] He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. [16] He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. [17] He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. [18] And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the LORD will not answer you in that day. But the people are so set on having a king, they tell Samuel No! So it is not that they accept his words and wish a king anyway. Rather, they suppress the truth, and hold forth, in verses 19-20, which we looked at first this morning, their own reasons for having a king. They are stubborn and rebellious. Finally, in chapter 12, after Samuel has gone and found the new king, Saul, he is able to convince all the people of their sin. Words alone did not suffice, but a demonstration of power alone. In our world we could say that they were not easily led, like a car with no power steering: it only knows force. And so, that they may see their sin, God cows them thunder and lightning, frightening the gathered people and destroying some of their crops. In response to this, in I Sam. 12: 19-22: All the people said to Samuel, Pray for your servants to the LORD your God, so that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for ourselves a king. [20] And Samuel said to the people, Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart. [21] And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty. [22] For the LORD will not forsake his people, for his great name's sake, because it has pleased the LORD to make you a people for himself. The demonstration of power curbs the rebellion of a stubborn people, and broken, they plea for Samuel to intercede for them, because they finally recognize that, for all their past and present sins, they both deserve to be destroyed and are in the hands of one capable of destroying them. How sad is that for their repentance? They likely are aware of their sins beforehand, but only feel sorrow over those sins when they realize that punishment could be at hand. What do they deserve? And yet look at Samuels reply! Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. How can this make sense? They should be quaking in their sandals for fear of impending judgment, no? But Samuel tells them do not turn aside from following the LORD for the LORD will not forsake his people, for his great names sake, because it has pleased the LORD to make you a people for himself. God lavishes grace on these people; he would have been right again and again to destroy them, but because He had chosen them, and because of the association of His name with His people, because of

His glory, though they were faithless, he remains faithful. Though they forsake him, he will not forsake his people. Instead, though they ask for a king in sin, God will use their evil to provide for their salvation and His greater glory, through Jesus Christ. C. The provision of a king God will set a standard for his kings like the one he sets for his people, though he will not be as forbearing as he was when they had no earthly king to lead them. The first king, Saul, prefers his human standards to Gods directives. Saul is rejected as king for showing mercy to the families and property of his peoples enemies, but brutality to disobedient subjects among his own people. II. The Line of David A. The promise to David A new king replaces Saul: David, a shepherd boy from Bethlehem in Judah, the victor over Goliath, psalmist and musician, warrior, the man after Gods own heart. David begins as a good king. God makes with him, in 2 Samuel 7, an everlasting covenant, to establish his royal line forever. B. The failures of the kings, from David onward This was not because David was without fault; but he did have faith in the power of God. But he was not a good king, able to lead his people in the way of the Lord without fail. He committed adultery and murder, and perhaps even worse, he showed his pride and worldliness late in his life by ordering a census of all his land and his fighting men, because he put his hope in them rather than in the provision of God. His son Solomon also began as a good king in some respects, though he so centralized power as to make the people groan under the load. Though incomparably wise, he fell into idolatrous worship, and the kingdom split into civil war after his reign. The line of David continued, but only in the southern kingdom. Of the kings that followed, none was good. Many were outright evil and worshipped other gods, sometimes even in the temple of the LORD. Others were generally good, like Uzziah, who aspired to be both High Priest and King, a dual position, after the order of Melchizedek, reserved for One eternal king. For Uzziahs presumption he was blighted with leprosy. The king Hezekiah was generally good, too, but when the Assyrians waged war against him, he did not trust in God alone, but expended all worldly means as well to save his city, offering tribute to the Assyrian king and calling upon the Egyptians for help, even though God would, when asked, annihilate the Assyrians in their tent through a plague. And the boy-king Josiah was generally good, too; he led the people in repentance from their idolatry and committed his way to the Lord. But as the king of his people, and confident in his power as the king of Gods people, when an Egyptian army marched through the land, he would not stay on his hilltop, but went down to fight, though the Egyptians were only marching through to go elsewhere. And the presumptuous young king fell in battle. The kings descended into unmatched evils after Josiahs death, and the people were carried off to captivity in Babylon. III. The Prophecies of the Coming, Final King Did God relent from judgment and grant his people a king only to destroy them at the hand of the Babylonians? Did he promise to establish the line of David only to have them led away in chains? The words of the prophets tell a different story:

B. To Isaiah and Micah [2] But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. (Micah 5:2 ESV) Isaiah 9: [2] The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined. [3] You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. [4] For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. [5] For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. [6] For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. [7] Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this. [11:1] There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. [2] And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. [3] And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear,

[4] but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. [5] Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins. [6] The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. [7] The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. [8] The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. [9] They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.