When God’s people wanted a strongman to fight for them
It was a time of national crisis. The country was being besieged by its enemies. The government was weak and corrupt. The people were crying out for a leader to fight for them.
That describes Israel in the early chapters of 1 Samuel. Chapter 8, verse 3 says the sons of the prophet Samuel, who were Israel’s judges, “did not walk in his ways; they turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice.” Much like the wicked sons of Eli the priest, who preceded Samuel.
And so the people wanted a change. It’s not that their gripe wasn’t legitimate, but this is about their solution. They thought they knew the answer to Israel’s problems:
“Make us a king to judge us like all the nations.”
Trusting in worldly power
When the Israelites determined what they wanted, they didn’t listen to Samuel or seek the Lord; they looked to the nations around them. When you want to be like the world, that shows you value what the world values.
What does the world value? Power and strength. Greatness. That’s how the world works. And the world believes these things come from a strong leader. If you want to be a powerful nation, you need a king. To the nations, a king is their savior and protector. That’s who they put their trust in. He’ll fix all this; he’ll make everything right.
But Israel wasn’t supposed to be like the other nations. Israel was a holy nation, set apart. Anything great about Israel wasn’t to come from worldly might, and it wasn’t supposed to come from any man. Israel’s greatness came from the Lord, and what He did for them. The Israelites were to be set apart for their absolute reliance and trust in God. But they weren’t trusting in Him now.
The Lord says so Himself to Samuel: “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.”
Up to this point, Israel didn’t have a king because they already had a King. Who made the Egyptians set them free? Who parted the Red Sea for them? Who led them with a cloud by day and fire by night? Who fed them in the wilderness? Who gave them the law, written in stone? Who led them into the Promised Land? Who gave them every victory in battle they had?
No man did all that for them. All Moses and Joshua did was trust in the Lord and obey Him. No, God was their deliverer, their protector, and their provider.
Another golden calf
But the Lord’s people were rejecting Him — again. In verse 8, God told Samuel, “According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day — with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods — so they are doing to you also.”
At the foot of Mount Sinai, as God was giving Moses the Ten Commandments, the people went to Aaron and said, “make us gods that shall go before us” (Exodus 32:1). Centuries later, history was repeating itself; it was the golden calf all over again.
God said that in demanding a king, His people were once again serving other gods, like their ancestors. The king they wanted was an “other god.”
How is a king a god? Because that’s who they trusted for everything that God had already provided for them.
Perhaps the worst thing God can do to people in this world is give them exactly what they want. The Lord told Samuel to warn the Israelites against the consequences of what they were demanding. Amazingly, they either didn’t believe it, or they didn’t care. People want what they want, and they believe what they want to believe.
And so they doubled down: “No, but we will have 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.”
Again, they wanted to be like the rest of the world. They wanted a king to fight their battles. In their fear and frustration, they wanted to a man to protect and deliver them — to be their savior.
Verse 22: So the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed their voice, and make them a king.”
Nothing really changed
Not only did God grant their request, but He personally chose the man to wear the crown — the handsome and physically imposing Saul. Just the kind of leader the world looks up to.
Saul actually did what the people wanted — he defeated Israel’s enemies. He was successful from a “policy” standpoint. But that didn’t stop the Lord from removing the man He chose and bringing him to judgment. God cared more about Saul’s personal obedience than what he did for the nation.
Right after Saul, God would show Israel what their true King would be like. David was a humble shepherd who, through his absolute trust in the Lord, became Israel’s deliverer and a type of his descendant, the Christ.
Of course, David wasn’t perfect, and neither would any other king be. Not even Solomon, who ruled Israel at the height of its greatness. Throughout the books of Kings and Chronicles, there were good kings and bad kings. But any good the good kings did never lasted, which shows that you can’t really change society through human government. The people of Israel and Judah kept forsaking the Lord and serving other gods. The two kingdoms eventually were divided and, inevitably, conquered — first by the Assyrians, then the Babylonians; eventually and finally, the Romans.
During that time, under the rule of Rome, Israel’s true King finally came and walked among them.
Rejecting their true King
The Israelites in Jesus’ day were no different than they were in the Old Testament. They still wanted a strong, worldly king, a mighty warrior to deliver them from their oppressors. That was their expectation of the Messiah — someone who would overthrow the Romans and make Israel great again. They wouldn’t accept anything else.
To them, Jesus was just a guy. He had no armies and no wealth. There was nothing attractive about Him, we’re told in Isaiah 53:2. There was nothing great about Him, in the eyes of the people.
Jesus didn’t preach His kingdom as a great nation on Earth. He said it wasn’t something that could be observed. It’s not political. It doesn’t have boundaries. You can’t find it on a map.
Instead, He taught that His kingdom was in His people’s hearts. It doesn’t just include people; it IS people, His redeemed people. Unlike a worldly kingdom, it can never be conquered. It can never diminish. It can only grow as more people are added — not by force, but by persuasion. This kingdom is infinitely and eternally superior to the one the people wanted.
So, what did God’s people do with their King? They gave Him over to the enemy they wanted Him to overthrow.
Everything in Israel’s history — from Moses to Samuel to this point — culminated in a question asked by Pontius Pilate: “Shall I crucify your King?”
The people’s answer was one of the most shocking, blasphemous statements in all the Bible: “We have no king but Caesar!”
Once again, they chose the fallen world. They chose Caesar and rejected their King.
God has all power
This should make us ask today, in whom do we trust?
There are a lot of scary things in this world. We know Jesus is the Savior of our souls in eternity, but what about now? What about our lives?
Yeah, we’ve been delivered out of Egypt and we’re headed to the Promised Land, but now we’re in the wilderness, and we need food and protection. Our enemies are all around us. Are we on our own? Does our security depend on the government we choose? Does everything hinge on who’s in power?
Well, who’s really in power? The Israelites in Jesus’ day thought the Romans were in charge. They weren’t. Pilate thought he was in charge. He wasn’t. He had no power at all, Jesus said.
The Romans ruled the known world. They conquered nations with their mighty armies. They influenced cultures and governments to this day. If you want a “great” nation, Rome was it. But they had no power at all. Jesus was Lord of His own crucifixion, and the Roman Empire was just a tool in His hand.
That is the sovereign power and authority God has over all the rulers and nations of the Earth. “The Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He chooses,” He told Nebuchadnezzar, ruler of a previous great empire.
The Lord then showed one of the most powerful men the world has ever seen who was really in charge, to the point that Nebuchadnezzar himself said, “All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’” (Daniel 4:35).
We don’t need to gain power, because God already has all of it.
What this says about us
Jesus’ absolute sovereign authority over the rulers of this world is written on His robe and His thigh: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. And we’re putting our hope and trust in the kingdoms of men? On who wins elections? We’ve become so fearful and anxious over the wrong person winning, when God is sovereign over the outcome anyway. He raises up even the most wicked leaders. A presidential election is like fleas running for president of the dog.
If we trust in the government of men to protect us and fix our problems, to make us great, we’re doing the same thing the Israelites did in Samuel’s day; we’re demanding a king. Whoever we trust for those things is our king and our god. The Lord made it clear to Samuel that if we trust in a man, then we’re not trusting in Him.
God said in Jeremiah 17:5, “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord.” Trusting in worldly strength is departing from the Lord.
In whom do you put your hope and trust? Who is your deliverer, your strong tower, your mighty fortress, your provider? Who is your king? Whose kingdom are you seeking?
What do we think about more? What do we talk about more? The kingdom of God, or the kingdom of men? The King of kings, or who one of those kings will be?
When we demand a king to fight for us, we’ll get Saul.
This is an adaptation of a sermon I preached in 2016; click here to listen.
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