The Dangers of Politics: 1 Samuel 8:1-22

Show Notes

Episode 499: 
In this episode, the hosts delved into the story of Samuel, a faithful servant of God who led the Israelites through victories and challenges. As Samuel grew older, the elders of Israel approached him, expressing their desire for a king to rule over them like other nations. Despite Samuel's warnings about the consequences of having a king, the people persisted in their request, leading to the appointment of Saul as the first king of Israel.

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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey, good morning, everybody. Welcome to the Bible Guys. We're glad you're here, and we have a great episode in store for you. We sure do. We're gonna be incredible. Yes, everyone, this week we've said that, yes, surely we're going to get one of them. And have we over promised an under delivered? Jeff, Well, I don't know. People keep coming back. Okay, well they do. They kind of do well, you know, it's so funny. I see the numbers sometimes and I always wonder like are those the same people or are they people who fluctuate who? You know. It's kind of like when you see the crowd of church, right, You're like, are these the same people? They only come to church once a month, you know? Or are they are they faithful people? What percentage of people come week? So on the on the YouTube side, so I don't get as good metrics. We're working on getting a new dashboard to figure out all the podcasts, but I'm on the on the YouTube side. It's usually hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of new listeners joining the thousand regular listeners. You know what I mean. So it's kind of a neat, neat thing. I don't have that in front of me right now, but there's a yeah, it doesn't want to open up. Yeah, So lots of long timers stay with us, and you're with us every day, and then you know, on a regular basis, it's all the time, more and more people. Hey, by the way, we just crossed our two thousandth listener subscriber subscriber on YouTube on YouTube. Yeah, yeah, and you know who it was. I looked at it and we were at nineteen ninety nine and I was sitting at my dinner table. That's a good song. And I asked my whole family, Hey, who hasn't signed up yet subscribed? And it was my daughter in law. I hadn't subscribed, so she went on and she was number two thousand. I literally I watched it click over to two thousand subscribers. Yeah, so it's kind of fun. Hey, did you know this? Let me tell you. Well, no, I'm going to keep it a secret. Oh I have a secret. Well, Today's Friday, yees, Today's Thursday. No, no, no, no Friday. For the podcast. No, today's Thursday for the podcast. Oh am I skipping over? Yes you are, because the episode tomorrow is a very special episode, big celebration. Yeah, so today we moved things and we're changing things. This thing's up this week because tomorrow's a special episode. So on this Thursday. The big question is it's it's everybody's favorite segment? What made Chris mad this week? Oh? They they they are doing. Oh they moved it up today. Yeah. Yeah, so it's Thursday. Okay, so this Thursday, because it's it's such a you're such a man of routine, That's what happened. It took me a while to digest that. Yeah, so it's we're just changing things up Chris. Sorry, we moved it out of order. Yes, but on this on this episode, because tomorrow is a very special episode. Yes, so on this we decided to move this forward to everybody's favorite segment? What made Chris mad this week? Okay, I'm up. It's because you love us. You love us, and you are angry on behalf of all the rest of us. I do. I am angry on behalf of you know what. My wife has a sing and she says all the time she says, you know, it doesn't take a lot of effort to be kind. That's true, it really does not. It doesn't, you know, Like my son and I went into This is what made me mad. My son and I went into a place. I'm not going to name the restaurant, but it was a restaurant. It was a restaurant that was it was really popular at one point, and then the management ran amok. There was like a big reputation in the city that it was under poor management, and then the attendance went down. Then somebody bought it and they put these signs up and the name they gave it, the new name was a terrible name, but they said under new management and all these different things. So my son finally says, hey, let's go check out that revised, you know, renovated restaurant whatever. So we walk in and turns out it was great, and we met the owner and the food was fine and the rest of the environment was fantastic. He was great, and he said it hasn't gone very well. I was like, wow, huh. So then what ended up happening was the other day I said, hey, where do you want to go? And he says, let's go back and let's support this restaurant that didn't seem to be doing very well. I was like, all right, let's do that. So we went there and we walked in and he was not there, and there was an employee apparently who was running the show. And she was behind the bar, she was on the floor, she was, you know, just running the whole entire restaurant, right, And we sat in a booth and we waited. It was we looked at our watches, it was thirteen minutes, okay, And she had walked by us like twelve times. And when I mean walk by us, I'm talking like within I could reach out and touch her, that's how close she walked by us. And she never once said, hey guys, I'll be with you in a minute, or hey, welcome to so and so. Right, she literally ignored us. And we were sitting there for like twelve or thirteen minutes, and uh, and I thought to myself, Okay, now I know why this guy's restaurant is failing because of probably a few really really bad employees. Right, yeah, And it was it was her. And so here's what I don't appreciate. Here's what got me mad this week. I was. I was mad on two fronts, Jeff. Okay, I'm super excited. Not just one. I mean you laid some groundwork here, but two fronts. We're getting a double whammy. Yes, it's a double whammy. What made Chris mat here's the first. Here's the first front. If you are a server, it does not take a lot of effort to smile and say and I don't care what kind of bad day you're having, this is your job, okay, and say hey, I'll be right with you. That's it. That's all we wanted. Right, we would have waited the fifteen minutes for a menu. Oh right. And by the way, guess how many people were in the restaurant, like eight? Well it was it was bad, okay, it was really bad. Okay, So so she could have like she it wasn't like her running the whole restaurant. Oh I feel so bad for the server. She was the only one. No, no, people listen to me. It was a party of six and one other booth of two. That's it in the whole restaurant. Okay. And so anyway, that's that's the first front. The second front made me three times as mado, which is why is it that we as young adults and she was probably mid twenties. Why is it that young adults can't think beyond themselves sometimes and actually think like, hey, listen, maybe I'll do something for the benefit of the owner, right, Like maybe maybe I'll try really bad. Why don't I care about somebody else's restaurant, right, Why don't I actually think to myself, Hey, I better really be you know, because I like my boss, he's a great guy. I want this to succeed, right, instead of being wrapped up in your own world. And sure, there are may be extreme circumstances of what kind of day you're having, but for the most part, I'm guessing that she wasn't that distraught. She didn't look that distruught. So guess what we did. We got up and left. Oh really, Oh yeah, we get up and left. So that owner it's not getting any better. So so Chris, you learn. Seriously thought about going back to that restaurant and finding the owner and saying like, I figured out your problem. Yeah I really have. Hey it might be yeah, go serving helping. Yeah it's a good idea. Okay, Well, thank you Chris for that. That is a double feature. Yes, super two for the price of one. It doesn't take that much effort to be kind fantastic, I know, but for you, for you to vicariously carry all of the anger that the rest of us should be having in society, yes, and you being willing to carry it for. Us, it's a tough burden, that's right. It is fantastic. Yeah, yeah, you know very quickly. When I was working for Marriott, one of the back then, they had this kind of structure where managers would be promoted, kind of like in a train. So a manager would build his team and when he get promoted a lot of times the people on his team would follow right behind him. So you hit your wag into the right train, you can move up in the organization pretty quickly. And I learned that I would succeed far more by making my boss win than by making me win, right, right, And if I could make what I wanted him to do, is know that I was helping him. So it wasn't like I was just doing it generically. But I was engaging in this relationship. And I was only twenty years old, and I was engaging in this relationship. I was trying to figure out what was important to him what was important to his boss. I wanted to know his boss. I wanted to figure out all those things and figure out how to create the thing that he was trying to create. So my boss was one of the real up and comers. He just did a was doing great job, and as he got bumped up, so did I. I wanted to making more money. Bonus. All that kind of stuff came behind when I was helping my boss win. So I didn't own that hotel. I wasn't you know, I wasn't a manager. I wasn't. But as he succeeded, so did I, and my life was better and it wound up giving me more purpose at work. It was more fun. It was a more fun job to do when I knew that my my productivity would help all of us get better, right as fulfilling his vision? There it is, yeah, generation ze, listen up. There's something about that. There. Yeah. All right, well, hey, thank you so much, Chris. And then, like I said, tomorrow is a very special day. So our listeners don't want to miss out on the episode just follows this episode today. Do they know why? No? I don't think so. I almost blew it. I think if they look around a little bit. They might figure it out, but I'm not going to tell them. Tomorrow is the big day, big day. Okay, are you ready? Yep? Okay. So we are in First Samuel, and let me give you some background up to this point. Now, Samuel was like a boy, a young man, and serving Eli. God speaks to him. He continues to be faithful through the time. Eli continues to work. Eventually Eli dies as God had said. The Philistines are causing trouble. They actually come in, they raid, they steal the Arc of the Covenant. It gets really bad. Then they decide God brings judgment on them for stealing the Ark of the Covenant. They decide to bring it back. They just give it back. Okay, we don't want this anymore. It's a really funny story. It's really funny story. You should read it. It's in First Samuel, first couple chapters. And then it comes to a town and like all these people go, hey, let's go look and see what's in the Ark of the Covenant. And they open the arcat of the Covenant and seventy people die. Guy said, do not touch the Arc of Covenant. They did. They open it up if I found the Archa of the Covenant, I want to look at it. Well, it happened Indiana Jones. It happened in Raiders the Lost Art. Yeah, they guys, they opened it up and they melted. Right. Yeah, so so God, God's not messing around. Exploded. Yeah, God's not messing around. He says, don't touch the covet the ark of the Covenant. They do, they die. So then they're like, hey, get this thing out here, and they send it back. They re established the tabernacle, all those kinds of things. This whole time. Samuel now is the leader. There's a great He leads the people in this incredible victory, a battle against the Philistines. God wins the battle actually with thunder. He scares the Philistines really intimidating thunder. They're frozen in fear, and the Iselites are able to defeat them and finally brings a little bit of peace. So now Samuel has led the nation for years and years and years, and now he's starting to get some years on him, he's getting some miles on him. He's becoming an older man. His children have grown up, their adults. He's doing ministry all around the country. So with that being said, in chapter eight, it says, as Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons to be judges over Israel. Joel and Abijah, his oldest sons, held court in Beersheba. But they were not like their father, for they were greedy for money, and they accepted bribes and perverted justice. Finally, all the elders of Israel met at Rama to discuss the matter with Samuel. Look, they told him, you are now old, and your sons are not like you. Give us a king to judge us, like all the other nations have. Samuel was displeased with their request and went to the Lord for guidance. Do everything they say to you, Lord replied, for it is me they are rejecting, not you. They don't want me to be their king any longer. Ever since I brought them from Egypt, they have continually abandoned me and followed other gods, and now they're giving you the same treatment. Do as they ask, but solemnly warn them about the way the king will reign over them. So Samuel passed on the Lord's warning to the people who were asking him for a king. This is how a king will reign over you, Samuel said, the king will draft your sons and assign them to his chariots and his charioteers, making them run before his chariots. Some will be generals and captains in his army. Some will be forced to plow in his fields and harvest his crops, and some will make his weapons and chariot equipment. The king will take your daughters from you and force them to cook and bake and make perfumes for him. He will take away the best of your fields and vineyards and olive grows and give them to his own officials. He'll take a tenth of your grain and your grape harvest, and distributed among his officers and attendants. He'll take your male and female slaves and demand the finest of your cattle and donkeys for his own use. He'll demand a tenth of your flocks, and he'll you will be his slaves. When that day comes, you will beg for relief from this king you are demanding. But then the lord will not help you. But the people refuse to listen to Samuel's warning. Even so, we still want a king, they said. We want to be like the nations around us. Our king will judge us and lead us into battle. So Samuel repeated to the Lord what the people had said, and the Lord replied, do as they say and give him a king. Then Samuel agreed and sent the people home. Yeah, it's you know, this reminds me of this is a very strange analogy. But I remember when I was about eight years old, I tried to sneak a cigarette from my mom. Oh, and she smoked at that time. And I think everybody smoked back then. Yeah, I think we all smoked. You're right, we all smoked. I didn't light up, but man, every restaurant you went to full of smoke, every plane you got on full of smoke. Everything was his second hand smoke. Yep. We all smoked and didn't want to. Yeah, but anyway, but I remember I trying to sneak a cigarette and I was trying to hide it and I had a lighter and I was heading out and she was sitting there with her friend and she saw me and she goes, what do you got there? And she busted me and I said, oh, it's a cigarette, you know. And I thought I was gonna get in trouble. And she goes, oh, she goes you know what. She goes, why don't you go ahead and light that up? And I was like eight years old, and I said, what are you serious? And she said, yeah, oh yeah, let's do that right now. She goes, let's go and do it. So she took it and she she lit it up and she goes, uh, go ahead and puffet. So I went and she goes, no, no, no, she goes, you have to inhale. Let me show you. So she got a cigarette like this and she goes, she goes, go ahead, do that. So I did it and then I, of course, you know, just gagged, right. I just started started coughing and you know, and then they made fun of me in front of everybody, in front of like the whole room of women, and they were just pointing and laughing. And she goes, now give me that thing. And she goes, now get out of here and don't ever touch that again. And guess what it worked. Wow. I never came close to anything like that. I thought to myself, I'm like, well, she gave me what I wanted, right, and I got what it was, had it and I wish I hadn't had it. That to me, it's like it also reminds me of Luke chapter fifteen, where it says, remember the younger came to him and begged, give me the share of my inheritance. And it says then his father just gave it to him, right. And it's like it's almost like you almost wonder if what the father was saying to the younger son was I think this is the only way you're going to learn, because it's you're going to learn by misery, and you have chosen misery, and you won't stop. You're convinced that this is what you want. I'm going to give you what you want, and you're going to see and you're going to learn the hard way. And and and Samuel, you know, hears from God, and God basically says they've done this continually. Right, judges have ruled for three hundred years and and Samuel and longer than that now because same as old right, and and and so, and it's almost like what God is saying is like, hey, tell them all the bad that's coming, tell them it's a bad idea, but give them what they want, because they just won't shut up. They just won't stop. They're like children. He's fed up with it. Yes, and and that's that to me. So when I read that, I think of my mom's cigarette. Yes, so them getting their king was almost a punishment from God. Yes, right, yes, give what they want then they'll see yeah right. And at that point there's no getting out of it. Right. So so it's interesting Samuel, you know, as an old man. The Bible says that he had set up there were three Let me see if I can find those those cities. There were three cities that he had set up. Each year he traveled around setting up his court, first at Bethel, then at Gilgel, and then at Mizpah. He judged Israel out of these places and then he'd return home to Rama and he's your case is there? Right? So he had these four places where he just he was kind of like this itinerant judge that would travel around Israel provide justice, he'd provide godly leadership. He do all these things. And the people loved Samuel, yes, they loved him. But Samuel's sons just didn't have any character. Yeah, and it's it's interesting. So God held Eli accountable for his sons. Sorry, God held Eli accountable for his sons, and hey, you're going to lose your ministry and you and your sons are going to die. But there's not that same kind of consequence for Samuel. And I often think I wonder why. I think I might know why I think Samuel. I mean, I think Eli. The Bible is pretty clear Eli knew that his sons were doing the wrong thing, and he was warned, yeah, and he didn't do anything about it. He was allowing them to do the wrong thing. And a lot of times, you know, parents, oh, well, you know how Johnny is. You know, that's just how his personality is. That's just what he does, and we don't want to confront them. And it seems like maybe that was a pattern the boy's whole life, Like he indulged them and you know, spoiled him rotten. And so God was like, hey, you are the cause. You're the one who you're the enabler for that, as opposed to in this situation. Now, Samuel is an old man, and in his old age he appoints his adult sons, who Now it's not about how Samuel raised his sons, it's about how his sons are choosing to behave as adults. Right. I think that there's a difference here, probably because he's an old man appointing his grown men sons. And it turns out when the opportune because I think you just don't know. You don't know how you're going to respond until you get around money. You don't know how you're going to respond until you get around power. You don't know how you're going to respond until you get around temptations of any kind, right, right, And in this situation, it turns out that his sons were very tempted by money and they were taking bribes. But it wasn't that Samuel was endorsing it. Samuel wasn't winking at it. Samuel wasn't going, oh, well, you know how my sons are. It was more like apart from you know, your adult children can do whatever they want to do. You're not in control anymore. Whereas with Eli, it seems like that was the pattern of their boys' lives and the dad was the one that was co signing it. That you know, Elio, it seemed like maybe was enabling and so God held Eli accountable along with the sons as opposed to hear. But that made is real frustrated. It is really frustrated because they were like we don't want these guys leading us. They're not as good as you, so give us a king, right, yeah. Yeah. And by the way, there's a little chart and the Life Application Study Bible that talks about every warning that Samuel gave to them was fulfilled. Isn't that crazy? So when he says he'll draft young manage your army, he said that verse number eleven and twelve. If you fast forward just what was at age. Six chapters later, it says, so whenever Saul observed a young man who was brave and strong, he drafted him into his army. Yep. Yeah, so whenever saw, when ever saw, which. Is every time the name of the king, I want that one. I want that one, you want that one? Yep. And then it says having the young men run before his chariots in chapter fifteen, that came, you know, to fruition making slave laborers. Second Chronicles, chapter two, it happened. That's how kings behave, right, Solomon did that, taking the best of your fields and vineyards. In First Kings, the Future Kings stole enables vineyard. At least that was an example. They probably probably happened waiting before that. Yeah, sure, right, and then and then demanding a tenth of your harvest and flocks. Well, there's examples of that as well, right in first kings, and I'm sure it happened. So everything that Samuel said happened. And what they're saying is, we want to be more like everybody around us. We're tired of being different, right, We're tired of being the outcasts, the ones that aren't looked upon with respect, the ones that aren't feared like the other ones. You know, perhaps you know, people don't understand the fact that our king is invisible. You know, our king is you know, like, we don't want that anymore. And ever since, you know, God says, they've done this, ever since we've delivered them from slavery from Egypt, they've said these things. James Madison said, you know, one of the founding fathers of America said that we've staked our ability to be free people on our ability to keep the Ten Commandments. Right, So we've staked this whole nation on the idea that we would choose to be moral people. We are freest when we choose to limit ourselves and govern ourselves under the laws of God, and we are less and less free the more we require government to force us to do what the general population believes is the right thing to do. Right, And so this is exactly what happened. I was like, you're free, you are free people. Right. Other than your tithes and offerings to the temple, I mean, to the tabernacle, there's nothing else. You just do good in the community. You live free, own your land, do your thing, run your businesses. And he says, if you choose to throw off this freedom for a powerful government, this government will take everything from you. You will never be free again. Right, And that's exactly what happened to them, and so our founding fathers they referenced these ideas in their writings. They talked about this specifically, that this whole concept that if we put a king, or if we make a strong government, take everything from us. Do you remember the motto of Jamestown. So, Jamestown one of our first you know, settling nations. Right, settlements, settlements, Yeah, or. What I say, nations, settlements in our nation, they actually have had a motto, and the motto was love god fully, then do what you want. Wow, isn't that great? Yeah? Yeah? Be free? Yeah, be free? Well, that's I love that. So there is a note, and maybe this is the right place to end because it's so practical to our culture today. First Samuel, chapter eight five and six in the Life Application Bible says the people clamored for a king, thinking that a new system of government would bring about a change in the nation. But because their basic problem was disobedience to God, their other problems would only continue under the new administration. What they needed was a unified faith, not a uniform rule. Had the Israelites submitted the God's leadership, they would have thrived beyond their expectations. Our obedience is weak if we ask God to lead our family or personal life, but continue to live by the world's standards and values. Faith in God must touch all the practical areas of life. So they were looking at the other kingdoms of the world and going, we want what the world has, and God's like, I'm offering you so much more right. And they thought that a change in their political system would make all the difference. And I think, right now, we've got a lot of people on both sides of the aisle thinking, man, a change in the political system make all the difference in the world, And it won't because most of our problems in our anxiety are because of our rebellion against God, not about not because we need one more policy or one more law, right, yeah, and and and the kings we choose will never fulfill us or take care of us like they promise. So that's great. Well, look, that looks like it's our time. So hopefully tomorrow for a very special episode, you'll tune in out just out of sheer curiosity, hopefully, and we'll see you then on the Bible. Guys,