Exposition of 1 Samuel
A Snapshot of the Heart
1 Samuel 8:1-22
Over the summer I had some back and leg problems. In the course of the treatment it seemed necessary for me to get an MRI. When I came out of the machine and saw the results I was amazed. That machine literally took the dissected pictures of my back. It showed all sorts of detailed pictures of my spine that allowed the doctors to see where the problems were and were not.
Could you imagine if someone created a machine that could take a picture of your soul? In other words, could you imagine if there was a machine that literally allowed the real motives that drive what you do to be seen?
As a pastor it would be wonderful to have that technology. Someone would come into my office and ask for counseling and instead of me asking them dozens of questions to attempt to ascertain their heart I could run them through a machine and then get a print out of all of their motives that drive everything that they do. I could see all of their thoughts and opinions about everything.
Even though a machine like that does not exist, there is something that is out there that does know the human heart and can discern that human heart for all of its worth – it is the Spirit of God and the Word of God.
One of the great things about the Scriptures is that we see God dissecting the human heart for us showing us the motives that drive the human heart.
In the passage before
us today we will get an MRI of the human heart. We will see Israel in another
moment when they have to trust God and fail at trusting God. In the course
of this moment we will see God tell us what the real problem is and in so doing
give us an MRI of the human heart.
What I love about this section is that
the situation that Israel faced is a very real and difficult problem and the
way that they went about trying to solve that problem is very similar to the
way that we can try to solve our own problems. Thus, I believe that you will
find a very realistic picture of the human heart.
Even though the situation is different from one that you might face, the intensity of the trial and the way that went about solving that trial is similar to the way that we have our are tempted to solve problems of similar intensity.
The results of the MRI of the heart in this text will reveal a condition that we all have, a condition that we were born with and it is something that we have to be honest about so that we can be honest before God and find the help that we need.
The results of this MRI are twofold. We will see that:
I THE HUMAN HEART IS COVETOUS
II THE HUMAN HEART IS STUBBORN
1 When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. 2 The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. 3 Yet his sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice.
The crisis is being set up here in this verse. The crisis is twofold. Samuel is getting old and his sons are not walking with the Lord.
The succession of Eli to his sons and then Samuel and his sons suggests that an attempt was being made to keep the original pattern of hierocracy (The rule of Israel being passed down to the next generation), or at least rule by Levites (cf. Deut 17:8–13). To this point this is all Israel knows. They have been governed by judges for many years and yet it seems to not provide the best continuity of leadership.
Israel’s experiment with hierocracy came to an abrupt halt, however, when Samuel’s sons Joel and Abijah “turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice” (v. 3). Their actions were clearly in violation of the Law of God (cf. Exod 23:8; Lev 19:15; Deut 16:19) and created conflict in the nation.
This is a real problem. The people do not want to go back to what they had with Eli and his sons and since Samuel is getting old they believe that things are going to from good to bad when he dies.
Let us not undercut the importance of this problem. The people were not trying to solve a trite or irrelevant issue in their life. Instead, they were seeking to solve a very real problem, the problem of the future of Israel’s leadership and the direction of the nation.
When we face problems of this magnetite it is very easy to not want to trust God by faith to solve that problem. Sometimes the more serious the problem the more we turn to our own control to solve the problem. The thought of trusting that God is at work moving this world in His direction is not something that we really instinctively trust.
At this moment that people face a decision, they could either cry out to God for help or attempt to solve the problem on their own. Let’s look at what they did.
4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah 5 and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.”
Herein lies the problem. They see that Samuel is old, they also see that his sons are not walking with God and instead of seeking God for an answer, they come up with their own solution. Before we unpack the solution that they came up with we must take a moment and acknowledge that this solution is not completely crazy.
Turn in your Bible to Deuteronomy 17.
In Deuteronomy 17:14-20 Israel is told that one day they will have a king and in preparation for that day God had given a standard for that king.
14 “When you come
to the land that the Lord your God is giving you,
and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ‘I will set a king over me,
like all the nations that are around me,’ 15 you may indeed set a king over
you whom the Lord your God will choose. One
from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner
over you, who is not your brother. 16 Only he must not acquire many horses for
himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses,
since the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never return that
way again.’ 17 And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart
turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold. 18 “And
when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book
a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. 19 And it shall be with
him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to
fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and
these statutes, and doing them, 20 that his heart may not be lifted up above
his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to
the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom,
he and his children, in Israel.
They were allowed to set a king over them, one that the Lord chooses. Yet, it is important to note that this king would be one that would walk according to God’s plan, carrying out God’s purposes and would then be different from all the other nations. The only similarity between Israel’s king and the other nations is that he is a king, other than that he must operate on completely different standards.
God is saying in this passage that when you want a king like all the other nations, do not pick one that is like the other nations instead, I will pick the one that is like Me and acts according to My will and plans.
What is happening in 1 Samuel is that Israel is asking for a king, but they are not asking for a king to serve God and to act according to God’s purposes and plans. Instead, their heart has been taken captive with the types of the kings of the other nations and thus they are coveting what the Gentile nations have.
How do I know this? I know this because they have not sought God to get this king, they are telling Samuel to appoint one. They have by-passed God in solving their own problems.
What we have here is what I call the blending of a sprinkle of good in a stew of bad. It is technically all right to ask for a king but it is not good to seek a king like the other nations have and by-pass God in the process.
What we have here is the same thing that occurred in chapter 4. In Chapter 4 the people are at war with the Philistines and they do not seek the Lord for help, but instead, come up with their own plans. They have returned to their sinful ways.
In chapter 7 the Philistines are threatening them and they seek the Lord, but now that years have gone by and they are enjoying the peace and security of good leadership they lose their heart for serving God and now establish their own plan for their own security. They are taking control of their own lives.
In this situation they are not dealing with the temptation of fear but with the temptation of progress. The current leadership is bad again and instead of seeking to have God lead them they walk away from God and want to have the same thing that the other nations have.
They have become so insensitive to God’s will that they have become worldly and now the standard that they want is what the other nations have.
This is reflected clearly in verses 19-20.
19 But the people
refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be
a king over us, 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.”
They want a king over them to be like all the other nations and this king will be their judge and their protector. In other words, they do not want to seek God anymore they want to trust in a king to be their ultimate ruler.
This is a covetous heart. The word covetous literally means to be envious or jealous. It is the idea of wanting what others have.
Coveting and envy is a very serous sin because at its root it is idolatry. Idolatry is when something takes over the passion and pursuit of your heart to such a degree that you begin to altar your life and live for the idol rather than God. In other words, you elevate something to such a degree that you want that thing at expense to God, His Word and others. In short it is wanting something so bad that you are willing to reject God to get it.
In order to understand what is happening here you have to understand the real nature of the human heart. The impact of sin on the human heart has placed a duality in the way that we view the world.
On the one hand fear grips the human heart. Sin has caused us to become afraid; afraid of things we do not know, afraid of failing, afraid of our future, afraid of people and afraid of God.
On the other hand domination grips our hearts. Sin has caused us to want to overpower people, dominate people’s lives and take advantage of people for our own benefit.
When fear and domination work together in someone’s life there is a very huge by-product, which is control. People want to control others, their situations and their loved ones because in the end they do not want to trust that God is in control of everything.
If fear and domination are not submitted to God then people will turn to that which they believe will give them the most control. This is what feeds coveting – a person wants to have something that they desire at all cost because they believe that will make them happy – they believe it will be the answer to all of their life’s problems and made them happy. And it is what drives idolatry, for they will look at things other than God to ease their fear and give them control in this world.
In Israel there was fear – the people were afraid of the future. There was also domination; they sought what they thought would give them control. Rather than bringing their situation to God they took something that God had said they would have and used it for their own purposes. Let’s look at the response. In other words, they took the gift of God and used it as a substitute God.
6 But the thing displeased
Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the
Lord. 7 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the
voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected
you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. 8 According to all
the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even
to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to
you.
I want you to notice something here. God understands their hearts – He knows that the people are not rejecting Samuel but Him. He also knows that this has been the cycle with Israel from the moment they were called. Samuel is not to take this personally – but to see what God is saying here, God knows their hearts and the fact that they are not walking towards Him but away from Him.
Yet, what you must see is that God is going to grant this request. One of the most interesting thing that we can observe here is that God grants this request not because this will be good for the people, but because they are so obstinate that He is willing to allow them to suffer the consequences of their obstinacy and idolatry.
Sometimes when God answers a prayer it is because of obstinacy and not because of blessing. In other words, the people are so obstinate that God is going to allow them to go through the peril of their foolishness to show them their covetous heart. The fact that they get the king of their own choosing is night a sign of blessing; it is a sign of their stubborn covetous heart.
This moment also shows us the real heart of mankind. The real heart of mankind is such that it cannot follow God on its own. Every heart that is left to its own strength and power will try to manipulate God in the bad times and substitute God in the good times. We will always respond by getting rid of God and placing our own idols to follow.
This is why the new life found in Jesus Christ is so essential. That is why it is important to realize that Jesus Christ has given us a new heart that beats for God and wants to follow Him. Every heart left to its own accord will turn from God.
Notice what God tells Samuel to do.
9 Now then, obey their
voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king
who shall reign over them.”
Samuel is told that they he is to get them a king but before he does he is to tell them the truth about what it will be like to have a king. Once God speaks His Word to them we will see that in their hearts they do not care, they want what they want.
I have done this many times with people. You tell them what God’s Word says about something and then they say they do not care and go their own way. Why do they do this? Because in their hearts they want what others have, they want control, and they want to do it their own way. The human heart is covetous.
Let us now look at the
second diagnosis of the spiritual MRI.
10 So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king from him.
What we see is that Samuel is not going to hold back, he tells the people exactly what they are going to get.
11 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. 12 And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders
of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make
his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. 13 He will take your
daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of
your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants.
15 He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to
his officers and to his servants. 16 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. 17 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.”
The consequences of seeking your own way and putting your own covetous heart in control of your future produces nothing but conflict and bondage.
Notice the response to these consequences.
19 But the people
refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be
a king over us, 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.”
The people were not swayed by the response of Samuel or the Word of the Lord. Instead, they wanted a king so that they would be like the other nations and so that they would have a king judge them, lead them and fight for them. In other words, they looked to the nations around them and wanted what they had.
They wanted what they wanted and there was no talking them out of it. Have you ever met someone like this? No matter what you tell them, no matter what the Word of God says, they are going to do what they want to do. This is the condition of the human heart. When it comes to its own sin and its own control it is stubborn.
For the people in this passage their hope was not in the strong name of God, but in a new form of government. It is not just that the people wanted a monarchy, but the fact that they put all their trust in the monarchy that caused the problems. They thought that this action would give them the security that they needed. Idolatry offers a lot and delivers nothing.
The Scriptures make it so clear and simple and yet we make it so difficult. This is a message all over the Scriptures. Listen to Psalm 118:8-9.
It is better to take
refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the
Lord than to trust in princes.
The issue here is not in the institution of the king, for God said that there would be a king one day over Israel, but in the trust of that king over God. Whenever you place that amount of trust in a man your allegiance is for that man. When your allegiance is in that man then it is not in God. Placing your refuge in man will make you reject God and His Word and that will cause all sorts of problems.
Let’s see how this played out.
21 And when Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord. 22 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.”
God is going to given
Israel the desire of their covetous and stubborn heart. God is going to show
the world that getting what your covetous and stubborn hearts desires does not
work.
The MRI of the heart shows us that the heart of man is covetous and stubborn. It wants what it wants because it wants to have what other people have so that it can control its own future. This is the natural state of mankind.
Where this should leave us is back at the foot of the cross asking for a new heart and a new mind so that we might desire what God desires for our lives.
The good news of the gospel is that God promised to give us a new heart. Jeremiah 31:31-34 tells us that the good news of the gospel is that we will have a new heart, one with the law written on it so that we might be able to serve God on our own.
There are times when those with a new heart think with the old stubborn mind and they need to see that the old way of thinking is foolish. To be stubborn and to walk away from God for your own selfish desires to maintain your control over everything is a major act of foolishness. When we see something like this text you must bring your mind before God and confess your covetous thinking and your stubborn heart to God and believe that God can and will change you.
I want to give you time today to do this.
If there is anything in your life that you have turned to other than God to solve your problems, or to be your source of resolution then confess that to God right now. Turn away from it and tell God that you want to turn to Him to be your solution.
If you sense a stubborn heart towards God’s Word and God’s will – if there is something your are not listening to, or something that the Scriptures say and you are ignoring it, confess it to God today and turn from that sin.