Give Us A King - 1 Samuel 8

In this Pastor Keith explains that God desires His people to look to Him for leadership for the sake of their good and His glory. Rejecting God’s leadership by choosing substitutes leads to trouble. In chapter 8 we are back at the point of the cycle of where the Israelites turn from God. But this time it’s more subtle. It’s not by open rebellion that they turn away from God it is expressed through a permissible request for a king. Israel seemed to be minding their behavior on the surface and just simply making a reasonable request for progress in the leadership of their nation. They have already seen repeatedly what life is like with the void of godly leadership in the days of the Judges. The issue isn’t so much what they were asking (a king) but why they were asking for it, namely the rejection of God’s leadership in their lives. Here we have a pivotal point in Israel's history where they move from being a theocracy to a monarchy.