Samuel had provided spiritual leadership to the nation of Israel for many years. He planned to pass on the leadership to his sons when he grew old. “But his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice.
“So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, ‘You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.’” (1 Samuel 8:3–5)
“When they said, ‘Give us a king to lead us,’ this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. And the Lord told him: ‘Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected Me as their King.’” (1 Samuel 8:6–7) God did not consider this request as a rejection of Samuel or his sons but as a rejection of His personal authority over them.
Their problems weren’t solved by having a human monarchy because no human organization is able to change the attitude of hearts. Even though they had a temple, sacrifices, and various religious observances, their sinful hearts still pushed God away.
His assessment: “These people come near to Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.” (Isaiah 29:13) The actual problem was that many of the people still refused to surrender the autonomy of their lives to God. They didn’t want Him telling them what to do.
Things hadn’t changed by the time Jesus walked this earth. Instead of rejecting Samuel’s sons and crying out for a king, they rejected Jesus and shouted, “Crucify Him. Crucify Him.” The people who shouted those words were very religious, but they rejected God’s leadership in their lives.
Things haven’t changed in modern times, either. We have witnessed in our own country that no human or political administration can change the nature of the human heart. The Bible declares, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” (Jeremiah 17:9)
Every one of us is infected with the same deadly disease of sin as the crowd of Samuel’s day. Even if you are honest, compassionate, and have outstanding morals, you don’t measure up to God’s standard of sinlessness. As a result, God will judge you. “Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27)
The only way to avoid God’s judgment is to receive Jesus as your Savior and Lord, and submit yourself to Him, making Him the King of your life for the rest of your days.
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