This third lesson of the Bible study on Samuel is entitled Saul a king like all others And you're gonna see as we go through this lesson as well as next lesson when we talk about his fall He is just like a king like all the others and so we'll make various references to this title as we go throughout the story We're looking at chapters eight through eleven last lesson was chapters one through eleven looking at the entire story of Samuel His miraculous birth is upbringing his his righteous step up stepping up to leadership Okay, he's a righteous judge and so now we're gonna look at chapter eight and see how things begin to shift So let's read just the first few verses here chapter eight verse one when Samuel became old He made his sons judges over Israel The name of his firstborn son was Joel and the name of the second Abijah They were judges and bear Shavap yet his sons did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after gain It took bribes and perverted justice all right Well, this is very sad It's very very much a deja vu experience because we've seen this before back in the opening chapters of the book with Eli and his sons Hophne Phineas they Eli sons perverted justice took bribes slept with the women at the entrance to temple or the tabernacle treating them essentially temple prostitutes They're taking some of the choiciest parts of the sacrifices that are reserved for God taking that for themselves So there's a liturgical corruption moral corruption There's all these bad things that are happening and you're hoping that with Samuel that would all stop right But it's not stopped his children are also corrupt now One thing I want to clarify with this is always raises the question how is it possible that Samuel you get with Eli Eli is not necessarily an upstanding judge himself There's all kinds of evidence in the text that he's guilty for a variety of things certainly not for stopping his children But he seems to be participating in the liturgical corruption as well But how could that happen with Samuel Samuel is such an amazing character He's I think arguably the best judge of them all going all the way back to the book of judges up until this point that the last is the greatest He's fantastic And so why is it that his sons are not walking in his ways because that's what scripture says they're not walking in his ways They're departing from following the law and following the wisdom of God in their lives Well, it's very interesting and makes me think a lot about how the reality that many times our children do not Walk in our ways or the ways that we would want them to walk in the ways of God This happens a lot of teach a lot of scripture I've been teaching at this point for over 15 years in ministry education various diocese and oftentimes when I teach adults Their parents who come to me and say I don't know what happened. I raise my children in the faith I brought them to Catholic schools. We went to Mass regularly We even prayed their rosary and they don't practice the faith anymore What did I do wrong? And I think what this teaches us here is sometimes parents don't do wrong I'm not that they never do wrong because obviously we can always be better That's I'm not saying that but sometimes the fact that children leave the faith is not necessarily the fault of the parents Ultimately children have their own free will to choose The fact that Samuel here is never punished and the fact that Samuel doesn't have a single verse against him Saying that he did something wrong with regards to his children indicates that this was just simply their choice I got a very simple little quote from your page here from Haydock a classic little commentary all kinds of great little jewels in that commentary He says that Sammy was not to blame for his son's behavior and hence he was not punished like Eli I think this is a really interesting lesson Sometimes we do everything that we can do for our kids But they just simply follow victim to the culture and they given to temptations and their own weaknesses and all were to do Is to pray for them and to work with them to get them back hopefully soon rather than later So I think this is a very interesting I'm spending a little more time on this because I think it's it's very important to of course always try to steer your children Your family members your friends towards righteousness, right?
Following God obeying God and living a good Christian life I think that's obviously important but when that doesn't happen sometimes we're not to blame ourselves We always do better but like in Samuel's case, he's not he never did anything wrong. That's not indicated anyway He's not punished in any way. It's just that his sins went awry But that's not the case with Eli he was bad and he had to put he had to be punished for the Iniquities for lack of a better word right the injustices that his children were guilty of So I just want to close this point up and just simply say that sometimes we can learn from Samuel's case and that our children just go A stray and we're just simply to continue to pray for them to love them and to get them back however We can to the fold all right I just want to conclude that point the fact though that his sons are Perverting justice and they're they're wicked taking bribes. They're not following Samuel's ways that again I think there's another indication that they're departing from that's their choice They're departing from his ways This is gonna be a problem for the rest of Israel because they don't want to relive the situation with you Elies family all over again things have been going great with Samuel But they don't have to go down this merry-go-round over and over again So they decide to come to Samuel in verse 4 if you want to follow me here verse 4 following Then all the elders of Israel gather together and came to Samuel at Ramath And they said to him behold your old and your sons do not walk in your ways now I'll point for us a king to govern us like all the nations But I think displeased to Samuel when he said give us a king to govern us And so Samuel went and prayed to the Lord most not there really quickly Okay, so they want to king like all the other nations if you're familiar with salvation history in general This is a very very famous very familiar popular scene a sequence in which we're transitioning between the era of the judges and the era of the Monarchy and so it's very very important to understand how this takes place But more than that how it also applies to us remember all scripture is very relevant to us It teaches us lessons that we need to learn even today So what is going on with them is they want to be they want to have a king like all the other nations They want to be like everybody else because they're tired of what's going on with the judge ship the period of the judge ship Now this demand has various negative implications first and foremost It's very clear from the text you can go back to the economy and judges don't take it as some of these passages here and right here for Samuel Primarily they're rejecting God as their king.
It's not like they just want a different kind of leadership They're flat out rejecting God's kingship over their lives Okay, so for example if you go back to judges chapter 8 now What I'm trying to prove here is that God has always meant to be their king going back to the Pentateuch going back to the story of the Exodus God was always meant to rule over them and if they would be obedient to him and obey his laws and love God and love each other I love I neighbor as I sell all this stuff then they would have peace they have prosperity They would be greatly blessed and through the womb and through the vine all of the stuff so rejecting God now is could be a problem So if you go back to judges chapter 8 verses 22 to 23 you see this theme of God's kingship So this is the story of Gideon you might remember the story of Gideon if you listen to the Bible study of my Bible study We talk about this in detail. There's the minute Israel said to Gideon rule over us you and your son and your grandson also For you deliver us out of the hand of Midian but Gideon said to them I will not rule over you and my son will not rule over you the Lord will rule over you in quote So he does really well at this point he correctly says no God is going to rule over you He is your king you must follow him and at least verbally he rejects the kingship And that's the problem with Gideon not to retell his whole story The problem with Gideon is that he verbally and rejects the kingship But in his deeds and his actions he's very much is acting as a king and this is gonna be Gideon's fall from grace We can't get in that whole story So nevertheless the positive thing is he does state what the obvious answer is God is our king and we're going to serve him And that's supposed to be the obedience of all the people to give God from then to now all right and here However, they're rejecting God's kingship first name of chapter 8 verse 7. We haven't read that yet Let's inch forward a little bit the Lord said to say and you'll listen to the voice of the people and all that they say to you For they have not rejected you but they have rejected me from being king over them All right, the same thing is kind of just fast forward just a second here the chapter 10 verse 19 The same thing is said here St. Louis says to the people this day you have rejected your God who saves you from all of your enemies So this is what's happening the rejection of God over their lives.
That's the primary meaning of their request Secondarily however, it's very interesting by wanting to be like all the other nations They're rejecting their own identity and vocation to be called apart from all the other nations to be God's adopted son Okay, God is not only their king God is their father and Israel's vocation is a very unique special one and we know this by going back to Exodus a couple of Passages that you must have memorized from Exodus Exodus 4 22 God says thus says the Lord Israel is my firstborn son and I say to you let my son go that he may serve me This concept of being the firstborn son is a very important role before I explain that actually let me just go down to chapter 19 Versus five and six another very important passage They just arrived at Mount Sinai and now God says in chapter 19 verse 5 of Exodus now Therefore if you obey my voice and keep my covenant You shall be my own possession among all peoples for on earth for all the earth is mine And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation These are very too extremely important very very important verses two of them that tell us what Israel's vocation is There did be set apart from all nations to be holy to be a kingdom of priests to be God's firstborn son of all nations Meaning that if you go back to the old covenant in the ancient world there The firstborn son was the priest and the leader of the family to teach the younger children how to obey God How to obey their parents and deliver right just like that's what Israel supposed to do Israel is not called by God despite all the other nations in rejection of all the other nations God calls Israel to bless all the other nations So Israel's role is not to be like everybody else Israel's role is to be special to be called apart to be God's unique possession to bless everybody And so in trying to have a king like everybody else they're rejecting that special vocation And that's a little what this next quote here saying from your cabin study Bible Demand for a model of government adopted by the Gentiles monarchy amounts to a rejection of Israel's special vocation to live as a people Set apart under the direct rule of Yahweh as their king theocracy, okay? This is this is really really crucial All right rejecting who they are as God's children to be like everybody else And I got to tell you if we're gonna apply this to our lives today to every single generation every single person We are tempted to do this as well where we reject God's rule over our lives in order to be like everybody else And if we're in so doing especially if you're a baptized Christian if you want to reject God's rule over you And to be like everybody else like all the other nations you're going to begin to behave like all the other nations You're gonna be indistinguishable from all the other nations. This is gonna happen the rest of Israel's history They will become indistinguishable from all the other nations and it's true for us too I'm sad to report on you may or may not be aware of this but many Christians of different flavors the Protestants Catholics whatever it is Sadly their lifestyle style is no different than non baptized unbelievers You know the secular people out there living in the world pursuing their goals and their dreams or whatever You can't really tell them apart from Catholics or from Christians Why it's because they're trying to be like all the other people that are all around them They're rejecting their own special vocation to be a light to the nations to be salt of the earth you see So this is very very applicable to us It's not just a story of how Israel went bad and how Israel decides to reject God and to reject their vocation as God's child and God's son And a royal holy nation that's our story to if we're not careful we could reject the blessings God gives to us, okay? All right, so there's more about that Wanting a king specifically if you go down to actually at the end of chapter 8 We're gonna get there in just a little bit Just a fast forward really quickly up to prove another point in verse 19 It says the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel and they said no We will have a king over us that we may be like all the other nations and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles So this little line here really helps us understand It's kind of like an inclusion going on actually like a little book inverse for chapter 8 the chapter begins and ends with them demanding to have a king Like all the other nations but this little line here They say the king may go out and fight our battles tells us that their focus is more secular than spiritual They want temporal security over their relationship with God, okay?
They don't really trust that God will protect and provide for them Which is really ironic and it's really sad and distressing because if you go back to do Deuteronomy when Moses tells them if you just obey God and love him with your whole heart and mind your peace and cues Right behave be good little boys and girls guess what? You're gonna be blessed and you're gonna have prosperity and you're gonna have peace and your enemies are gonna run away from you And they're gonna you know ten of you will put the flight a hundred of them and things like this Okay, you go back to Deuteronomy 28 and their other passages it talks about all the blessings that Israel will receive if they Would just love obey and serve God is all they got to do so it's ironic because if they want a king to fight their battles The answer is already found in the law just obey God and you won't have any battles to fight really okay So it's a secular desire here is misplaced priorities and we do that as well all the time We want to have our own Personal creature comforts our securities of different kinds even at the expense of our relationship with God people I mean, I'm sure you could come up with a million different examples of this But how many times has somebody compromised their faith in the workplace in order to have an advancement to promotion or raise or whatever? All right, they want that security above doing what's right I'm sure there's a million examples of this stuff like this, okay? So we do it again We do it as well we have a misplaced priorities And so here's a little quote for you as well on that point the real danger is that the people by choosing a king and swearing allegiance to him Will be excluding God from the picture from now on the prophets will spend most of their energy convincing people that trusting in God does not mean One has to reject human resources such as the monarchy nor does the use of human resources involved turning one is back on God And in the event the main danger posed by having a monarchy and here I think is the point big takeaway point from this quote the main danger posed by having a monarchy will be a tendency to solve military Political and social problems without reference to God or even contravention of his law I think that's really powerful That's really worth thinking about you know we have all kinds of issues going on in the war today as of this recording We got wars in Russia and Ukraine and Israel and Hamas and Palestine and I don't even know what's gonna happen tomorrow morning But you've got all these issues that pop up in the world military problems political social etc But if you do not have recourse to God and follow his law and attend commandments that are inscribed on our hearts and reveal That I'm not Sinai and the beatitudes and the law of crime I'm telling you the problem is not going to be resolved It's gonna become worse and so what they're what Israel is dealing with then we're again We're dealing with today wanting to be like everybody else not thinking about God not thinking about a vocation to be God's children And solving all the problems from a purely secular worldly point of view It's not it's not gonna make things better.
It's gonna make things worse