1 Samuel 8:4

_THEN ALL THE ELDERS OF ISRAEL GATHERED THEMSELVES TOGETHER, AND CAME TO SAMUEL UNTO RAMAH,_ Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together. This was evidently the general council or assembly of the nation, which is, 1 Samuel 5:7, 1 Samuel 5:10,19,21 , called "the people," as represented by the elders as their heads (cf. 1 Samuel 10:17; 1 Samuel 10:19; 1 Samuel 11:14; 1 Samuel 12:1). The limited and occasional authority of the judges

4-9 Samuel was displeased; he could patiently bear what reflected on himself, and his own family; but it displeased him when they said, Give us a king to judge us, because that reflected upon God. It drove him to his knees. When any thing disturbs us, it is our interest, as well as our duty, to show our trouble before God. Samuel is to tell them that they shall have a king. Not that God was pleased with their request, but as sometimes he opposes us from loving-kindness, so at other times he gratifies us in wrath; he did so here. God knows how to bring glory to himself, and serves his own wise purposes, even by men's foolish counsels....

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...

THEN ALL THE ELDERS OF ISRAEL GATHERED THEMSELVES TOGETHER,.... At some place of rendezvous appointed; these were the heads of the tribes, and fathers of the houses and families of Israel, the principal persons of age and authority: AND CAME TO SAMUEL UNTO RAMAH; the place of his nativity and abode, and where he now dwelt, and judged Israel; they went in a very respectable body with an address to him....

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

_the elders of Israel_ Acting as representatives of the people, 1 Samuel 8:7_; 1 Samuel 8:10; 1 Samuel 8:19; 1 Samuel 8:22_. In a patriarchal system of government the Elders or heads of families are the natural authorities. Even before the Exodus Israel possessed an organization of Elders, to whom Moses was directed to deliver his message (Exodus 3:16). The title gradually acquired an _official_signification; in the wilderness Moses appointed a council of seventy to represent the whole body ...

The Installation of Israel's First King, 1 Samuel 8:1 to 1 Samuel 10:27. _The people ask for a King._ 1 Samuel 8:1-5 And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel. 2 Now the name of his first-born was Joel; and the name of his second, Abiah: _they were_ judges in Beer-sheba. 3 And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment. 4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, 5 And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. _4._ When Samuel was old, whom did

THE PEOPLE DEMAND A KING 1. Judges] They would be subordinate to their father. When the son of a Judge was influential and popular, he might easily succeed to his father's position: cp. A bimelech in Judges 9:1....

ISRAEL’S FIRST KING 1 SAMUEL _HELEN POCOCK_ CHAPTER 8 A big change happened in the nation of *Israel. This chapter tells us how it started. The nation of *Israel began with Abraham and Sarah and their only son Isaac (Genesis Chapter s 12, 15-18, 21-22). Abraham’s grandson Jacob went to live in the country of Egypt. He took 70 children and grandchildren with him (Genesis 46). 430 years later (Exodus 12:40) all the *Israelites left Egypt. In Numbers 1:1-50 they counted all the men over 20 years old. There were more than 600 000. Most of the men probably had a wife and children. So there may have been more than 2 000 000 *Israelites. God did wha