1 Samuel 8:20

_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._ That we also may be like all the nations. The first part of this energetic answer implies that they were perfectly aware of the peculiarity of their civil government, by which their governors were only God's vicegerents-officers chosen and appointed by an unseen Power-and they desiderated a visible head. The second part of it, in which they specified the appointment of a king, expressed a strong preference for a permanent rather than an occasional or temporary magistrate, to consult their interests by his domestic administration, and, with regard to their foreign relations, to keep a standing army, ready at all times, under his command, to repel the encroachments or insults of neighbouring states. Perhaps, too, the corruptions that had prevailed to so great an extent...

10-22 If they would have a king to rule them, as the eastern kings ruled their subjects, they would find the yoke exceedingly heavy. Those that submit to the government of the world and the flesh, are told plainly, what hard masters they are, and what tyranny the dominion of sin is. The law of God and the manner of men widely differ from each other; the former should be our rule in the several relations of life; the latter should be the measure of our expectations from others. These would be their grievances, and, when they complained to God, he would not hear them. When we bring ourselves into distress by our own wrong desires and projects, we justly forfeit the comfort of prayer, and the benefit of Divine aid. The people were obstinate and urgent in their demand. Sudden resolves and hasty desires make work for long and leisurely repentance. Our wisdom is, to be thankful for the advant...

Verse 1 Samuel 8:20. _MAY JUDGE US_] This appears to be a rejection of Samuel. _GO OUT BEFORE US_] Be in every respect our head and governor. _AND FIGHT OUR BATTLES._] Be the general of our armies....

FIGHT OUR BATTLES - It appears from 1 Samuel 12:12, that the warlike movements of Nahash had already begun to excite alarm....

EXPOSITION SAUL (CHS. 8-31). THE great interest of the First Book of Samuel lies in the fact that we have in it the orderly consolidation of two of the main factors in the preparation for the manifestation of our Lord, namely, prophecy and the kingdom. The first seven chapters give us the history of Samuel's birth, and of the gradual development in him of those spiritual powers which finally made him not merely a prophet, but the founder of prophecy as a permanent and regularly organised institution of the Jewish Church. The whole of the rest of the book, while adding many interesting particulars about Samuel, is occupied with the establishment of the kingdom and with Saul. We have in him, both in his uprise and his fall, one of the most remarkable personages of the Old Testament. But his character for good and for evil will develop itself as we proceed. Before, however, we can apprecia...

THAT WE ALSO MAY BE LIKE ALL THE NATIONS,.... Even though they were slaves, like them; a king they would have, as they had, such was their stupidity. It was their greatest honour and glory, as well as happiness, not to be like other nations; as in their religion, laws, and liberties, so in their form of government; God being their King in such a peculiar sense as he was not of others, but with this they could not be content: AND THAT OUR KING MAY JUDGE US; hear their causes, administer justice and judgment to them, protect their persons and properties, and rule them according to the civil laws that were given them: AND GO OUT BEFORE US, AND FIGHT OUR BATTLES; which Samuel their present judge did not, and to which perhaps they may have some respect; but then he gained more for them by his prayers, than a king or general would by his military skill or prowess, see...

II. KING SAUL: HIS REIGN AND REJECTION 1. The King Demanded CHAPTER 8:4-22 _ 1. The king demanded (1 Samuel 8:4)_ 2. The rights of the king (1 Samuel 8:10) The kingly government is now to be established through the deliberate and untheocratic self-determination of the people. Jehovah was their invisible King, and Him they rejected by requesting a king like all the nations. The motives for the demand of a king are three: 1. The old age of Samuel and the unfitness of his sons; 2. The desire to be upon the same footing with other nations; 3. To have a leader and fight their battles (verse 20). “The state or political organization reaches its highest development when royalty is introduced. The King of Israel is not, however, intended to be an autocratic but a theocrat

1 SAMUEL 8. DEMAND FOR A KING. Opening section, continued 1 Samuel 10:17, of later account of Saul's appointment as king: either Deuteronomic or late stratum of E. Probably 1 Samuel 10:17_ a_ (to over us) in the Deuteronomic document stood in the place of 1 Samuel 8:10, giving the following sequence of events: appeal of the elders, convocation of assembly (as in 1 Samuel 7:5), Saul's election, etc. Also, in 1 Samuel 8:22; Go ye every man unto his city, is, like 1

Reply of the people 19. _Nevertheless_ Simply AND....

THAT WE MAY BE LIKE ALL OTHER NATIONS— What unaccountable blindness was it in the Israelites, not to perceive that their happiness principally consisted in their not being like other nations, but under the immediate government of that Almighty King who had chosen them for his own peculiar people and possession! REFLECTIONS.—We have here a motion made for the alteration of the government, and the introduction of monarchy among the Jewish people. 1. Taking occasion from the ill conduct of Samuel's sons, some intriguing spirits excite the people in general to a change of government; and for this purpose they assemble in a body at Ramah, with a remonstrance of their grievance, and a petition for redress in the appointment of a king over them, like the nations around them, that he might keep a _court,_ and appear in _state_ and dignity among them: a request not only highly sinful against God...