Israel’s Rebellion and the Rise of Saul

Many people think this way about marriage. A certain woman, for instance, may demand a husband. “Oh, God, I have to be married. Please, God, do not leave me single! I need to be married, and now!” Sometimes God says, “Fine. So you do not trust Me? Here is Mr. Perfect. Enjoy.” But Mr. Perfect can never satisfy the role God is supposed to fill, so the marriage becomes a mess.

One of the worst judgment statements in the Bible is Romans 1:26: God turned them over to the desires of their heart. In other words, God’s judgment on them was to answer all their prayers with a yes.

The reverse is also true. Some of God’s greatest mercies to us come in the form of unanswered prayers. This should change how we think of unanswered prayers. Some people get so mad at God for not answering their prayers. But what if He is refusing to answer your prayer as a way of protecting you? It may not seem like protection. After all, what is the harm in being married? What is so bad about making an extra $20,000 a year? But the greatest blessing God could ever give is the ability to be happy in Him alone. Sometimes He has to teach us that lesson by withholding blessings we think would be beneficial.

This happens with ministers just like everyone else. Some pastors get really upset at God for not answering their prayers to make their churches big. But many of them may be experiencing God’s no because they are incredibly arrogant. The worst thing for them would be for God to give them success and fan the fire of their ego. So God keeps their ministry small as a mercy to them, so that they would learn to trust Him and be fulfilled in Him.

To clarify, it is not inherently wrong to desire money or marriage or success. It is not wrong to ask God for them. There is nothing sinful about praying, “God, I really want to be married,” or, “I really want to have children,” or, “I really would like a raise.”

The problem comes when a person craves those things and feels like they could not be happy or secure without them. That sort of passion is what the Bible calls epithumia—a desire that has taken on so much weight that it drives everything about a person. It is the “lust” for worldly goods in 1 John 2:16-17. Epithumia is a craving that controls (Rom 1:24). This is what Israel feels about a king. Their desire for a king is a craving they could not live without.

Israel was not supposed to avoid having a king at all costs. They were supposed to avoid being consumed by the idea. Whenever life is consumed with things—even good things—then it shows that God has been displaced. He has been outweighed by some lesser thing.

The result of this displacement is never pretty. It leads to unhappiness, anxiety, and depression. These things are like smoke from a fire, and if you follow the smoke down to its source, you will find the fires of idolatry.

So God gives Israel their king, telling Samuel, “You must solemnly warn them and tell them about the rights of the king who will rule over them” (v. 9). Samuel does exactly that, warning Israel of the devastating consequences of their idolatrous request (vv. 11-18).

The dominant word in this description is take. The king will take your sons and daughters; he will take your crops and your lands; he will take the best years of your lives. And he will exploit them for himself.

The irony here is tremendous. The Israelites look to a king to guarantee prosperity and security. What they receive instead is a king who would take those things from them. They wanted a king whom they could control. Instead, that king ends up controlling them.

This is an Old Testament version of a New Testament principle: when you have other kings besides God, those kings do not save you; they tyrannize you.

Whatever you depend on for happiness and security, you become the slave of that thing. For example, if you have to be married to be happy, you become the slave of marriage. You feel miserable all the time if you are single. You live with depression because you are alone. You make bad relationship decisions and end up dating terrible people and doing foolish things.

This does not get better once you get married, either. If you depend on marriage to be happy, then once you get married, you become co-dependent. You constantly feel like your spouse lets you down. You are constantly tempted to leave your marriage and find fulfillment in a new marriage or an extramarital affair.

If you have to be successful to find fulfillment, you become the slave of success. You overwork; you get jealous of other successful people; you resent others their opportunities, promotions, and praise. You are devastated when people talk about you without giving you due credit and recognizing your value. We say that certain people are “driven by success,” but a better way to say it might be that they are “enslaved by success.” Success drives us until we destroy our families, our health, our very lives.

If you have to have some physical escape to release stress or feel relaxed, it can quickly enslave you. It starts out as an enjoyable escape that you can control, but it ends up as a tyrant that controls you. The type of escape varies—pornography, drugs, alcohol, overeating. But the pattern is the same. It begins as something you can go to on your own terms to escape the tedium of your day. But then you begin to crave it, and more of it, and worse types of it. And you cannot turn the drive off. The physical pleasure you once mastered quickly masters you, ruining relationships and souring every aspect of your life.

Every life has a king. A king in your life is whatever you must have in order to be happy and secure. And kings make all their subjects into servants. The apostle Paul says it this way: “But in the past, when you didn’t know God, you were enslaved to things that by nature are not gods” (Gal 4:8); and “Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey . . . ?” (Rom 6:16). Or as Bob Dylan says, “You’re gonna have to serve somebody.”

Now, there are always some free spirits who feel like they have gamed the whole system. “‘You’re gonna serve somebody,’ huh? Well, not me. I don’t need anything or anybody. I’m not enslaved to any of that stuff. I’m a free man.” But these are the same people who are afraid to commit in their relationships. Precisely because they are “free,” they will not allow anything to stand in the way of their absolute independence. Independence becomes their king, and they become its slave. They must have selfish independence to be happy.

Everybody serves something. There are no exceptions. You are either enslaved to something that brings life (God), or you are enslaved to something that brings death.

First Samuel 8 ends with God warning the people of Israel of all the bad consequences of receiving a king. They demand one anyway, and in the next few chapters, God gives them exactly what they ask for. God gives Israel a king named Saul, who was smart, a good leader, and physically buff. Saul promises change, gives the people hope they could believe in, and guarantees that Israel’s status in the world would be restored.

But after a good start, Saul starts to do exactly what God said he would. He starts to use the people for his own advantage. He turns out to be a self-idolizing, self-willed tyrant.

Christians who read the story of Saul cannot end by saying, “Poor Israelites, they should not have done that. Bad Saul, he should not have been so bad.” No, Saul is being set up in contrast to God’s true King, Jesus. What Saul fails to deliver for the people of Israel, Jesus would fulfill in magnificent ways.

Note some of the parallels between Saul and Jesus. When Saul is anointed king, he is filled with the Spirit and he starts to prophesy (10:1-13). When Jesus is anointed, the Holy Spirit descends from heaven like a dove, and Jesus begins to speak with the voice of God (Matt 3:16-17; 4:17).

But note the contrasts. Saul would start well, but Jesus would end well, faithful unto death. Saul thought of his own interests, but Jesus thought primarily of ours. Saul made Israel his servants, but Jesus said, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve” (Matt 20:28). Saul’s sinful, selfish choices would cause many in Israel to die. Jesus’ loving choices would cause many in Israel to live. Israel had to die for Saul’s sins, but Jesus would die for ours. Saul was harsh and unforgiving with those who disappointed him. When Jesus’ subjects disappointed and rebelled against Him, He laid down His life for them.

Jesus, God in the flesh, was the King the people of Israel were seeking. He alone could satisfy and save. Every king says, “Please me, obey me, and I will guarantee you happiness.” Money says, “Find me and you will be happy.” Marriage says, “Find me and you will be happy.” Family, success, fame, independence—all make these claims.

But every king also says, “If you disappoint me, I will make you miserable.” Money says that: “If you fail to get me, and you become poor, you will be miserable.” Marriage says, “If you fail to get me, and you grow old single, life will be terrible.” As Tim Keller says, “Jesus is the only Lord who, if you receive him, will fulfill you completely, and, if you fail him, will forgive you eternally” (The Reason for God, 179).

We all have to choose a king. Each of us has already chosen one. We are either enslaved to something that brings life or enslaved to something that brings death. What will we choose from this point forward?

All earthly kings disappoint. But God is an altogether different King. He showed Israel time and time again that He had been faithful to them, even when they were not. They were unbelieving in the wilderness, but God gave them manna. They served idols, which led to other nations afflicting them; but when they called out to God in repentance, He immediately came to their aid and delivered them. Here is a King who not only supplies the needs of His own but also forgives and has mercy on those who fail Him. Why would anyone desire another king than Him?

We have the chance to make the choice that Israel did not make—the choice of faith. And we have more evidence to analyze than they did. We have a longer history of God’s faithfulness to reflect on, more stories of His faithfulness in the midst of human faithlessness. Most importantly, we have the cross, the ultimate display of God’s love and faithfulness to us. There is no king we could serve who gave more for us than God did.

Many people find the idea of the Christian God just fine—provided they can institute certain conditions. “As long as God does this, prevents me from that, provides me with this, then I will follow Him.” But that is not faith at all. That is rebellion because conditional obedience is still disobedience. To follow this King, we must step out in faith, with absolutely no conditions and no exceptions.

How can we be sure God will take care of us? How can we lean back into the unknown with confidence that God will actually hold us up? We need only to look at the cross, where God poured Himself out for us. There, on Calvary, God proved that His compassion for us was beyond anything we could have imagined. There, once and for all, He proved that He is a King worth trusting with absolutely everything.