They Have Not Rejected Thee But Me, and God Tells Samuel to Let Them Have It

He asked for it. That is the part he did not know until recently.

Nobody imposed this arrangement on him. He is not a man who was captured. When he was twenty-nine he was in trouble and he did not know what he thought about anything, and he found somebody who did, and he handed over the whole business with relief.

He remembers the relief. It was enormous. He had been carrying a set of questions that had no bottom to them, and he put them down and let somebody else hold them, and he slept better that week than he had in a year.

And that arrangement has held for twenty-two years and has been mostly good and has cost him one thing, which is that he does not know what he thinks about anything, and cannot now find out, because the finding out was outsourced in 1998 and never taken back.

There is a chapter where a whole nation asks for exactly this and God tells the prophet what they were really asking for and then tells him to give it to them.

The request, and the reason given

Here it is, in the King James Version:

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. (1 Samuel 8:5)

Thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways.

Those are two true statements. Samuel was old. His sons were genuinely bad, and the chapter says so a few verses earlier, and the people are not making it up.

So the request comes with real reasons and the reasons are accurate. This is not a nation being frivolous. They are looking at a succession problem and solving it.

Like all the nations.

There is the tell, and it is four words long. The problem they are solving is real. The solution they want is the one everybody else has, and the wanting to be like everybody else is not mentioned as a reason, it is just there in the sentence.

You are not foolish for asking and you were never solving an imaginary problem. 1 Samuel 8:5 puts real reasons in the mouths of the people making the request, and it is the Holy Spirit rather than a sharper self-knowledge who shows a man what he was actually asking for.

What God says it was

And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. (1 Samuel 8:7)

They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me.

The first half of that is pastoral care for Samuel, who is about to take this personally, and God gets in front of it before he can.

The second half is the diagnosis. What was being asked for was not administrative. It was a substitution: somebody visible, in the room, who could stand where God had been standing, and the wanting of that is what the request actually was.

And notice that God says it plainly and does not soften it and also does not withdraw from them because of it.

Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee.

He tells Samuel to give it to them. That is the strangest thing in the chapter. He names the request as a rejection of Himself and then grants it in the same breath.

You are not going to be dropped over this and you were never at risk of being withdrawn from. 1 Samuel 8:7 has God name the rejection and grant the request in one verse, and it is His Spirit who makes an accurate diagnosis something a man can survive hearing.

He tells them what it will cost

And then, because He does not hide the consequences, He has Samuel read out the price in detail.

And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen. (1 Samuel 8:11)

The list runs for seven verses. He will take, he will take, he will take. Sons, daughters, fields, vineyards, servants, a tenth of everything.

And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day. (1 Samuel 8:18)

Because of your king which ye shall have chosen you.

That is a hard sentence and it is a description rather than a punishment. A man who hands his own judgment to somebody else has fewer options later, and that is not God being vindictive, it is how the arrangement works.

And there is a psalm about this pattern that says it in the shortest possible form:

And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul. (Psalm 106:15)

He gave them their request. And the leanness came with the request rather than instead of it.

You are told the price plainly and you were never left to find it out on your own. 1 Samuel 8:18 reads the cost out in advance and Psalm 106:15 says the request was granted, and it is the Holy Spirit rather than a hard consequence who does the work of getting a man's attention.

What He said afterward

And now the part that makes this chapter bearable, and it comes four chapters later, after they have their king, after everything.

For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name's sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people. (1 Samuel 12:22)

The LORD will not forsake his people.

That is said after the request was granted. After the rejection was named. To the same people, who had done the thing, and who now had the king they asked for.

And the reason given is not their improvement. For his great name's sake, and because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people, which are both reasons located entirely on His side.

And Samuel, in the same speech, says the thing that a man in this position most needs to hear:

Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way. (1 Samuel 12:23)

The prophet who was rejected keeps praying and keeps teaching. He does not withdraw either.

You have a God who does not forsake and you were never going to lose Him by asking wrong. 1 Samuel 12:22 says He will not forsake for His own name's sake, and it is His Spirit who makes a promise resting entirely on God's side something a man can put weight on.