Day 998: On the take - 1 Samuel 8 vs 10 -22

10-13 Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king from him. He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plough his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers.

14-17 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves.18 And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”

19-20 But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, 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.” 21-22 And when Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey their voice and make them a king.” Samuel then said to the men of Israel, “Go every man to his city.” 1 Samuel 8:10-22 English Standard Version

There's a popular saying that the two things we can be certain of, are death and taxes. The Israelites were soon to experience taxes! Samuel passed on to them what the Lord said having a king 'like the nations' would lead to. Apart from anything else, today's reading gives a glimpse into life in those days of long ago. There were perfumers, bakers, farmers and arms manufacturers. But all of these would need to be funded, and guess where that would come from! I counted the phrase 'he will take' six times. Not only would a king ‘take’ from them, but he would take 'the best' of their fields, and 'the best' of their young men.

Now it's true that there will be things in any society that need funding. Because of the hostile world we live in, countries need a military force. Because of danger on our streets, we need a police force. Because of serious illnesses, we need hospitals and medical workers. And so we find the apostle Paul reminding Christians of their civic duty. He said “The one in authority is God's servant for your good . . . an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honour to whom honour is owed.” (Romans 13:1-7)

Where the problem comes in is that a bad king, or a bad government, will exploit the people, and their bad policies will lead to a heavy burden of over taxation, and totalitarian rules on the people. The implication of all this is that the Israelites would have been better off with God fearing leaders and judges who would govern them under God. That's still true of any nation today. The closer it's leaders keep to God's ways, the less they will be 'on the take'.

But what was the real problem in the people's demand for a king, rather than for God to be their leader? Vs 19-20.

They thought the ways of the world were better than the good laws passed down to them by God through Moses. Worse still, they were putting their hopes and trust in man rather than God. They wanted a king to go out before them and fight their battles. They made their choice, and now God was going to give them what they'd asked for. Surely this is an incident we must learn from. As we journey through life, are our choices, and perhaps even our prayers, determined by wanting to have what the world runs after? And in difficult situations we may face, be it in our marriage, or the workplace, is our trust in God or man? We have a Saviour who came into the world to give, rather than to take. He is the only King we truly need.