I prefer you to read the whole chapter for context
1 Samuel 8:7-10, 17-22 BSB “And the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you. For it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected Me as their KING.
8 Just as they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking Me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you.
9 Now listen to their voice; but you must solemnly warn them and show them the manner of the king who will reign over them.”
10 So Samuel spoke all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king.
17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves.
18 When that day comes, you will beg for relief from the king you have chosen, but the Lord will not answer you on that day.”
19 Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We must have a king over us.
20 Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to judge us, to go out before us, and to fight our battles.”
21 Samuel listened to all the words of the people and repeated them in the hearing of the Lord.
22 “Listen to their voice,” the Lord said to Samuel. “Appoint a king for them.” Then Samuel told the men of Israel, “Everyone must go back to his city.”
Verse 20: “We will be like the other nations.”
Do you compare your life with others? Maybe not from the world, but now perhaps with others in our own church? Or maybe compare your lives, children, wives, and husbands to the Pastors and their children?
Comparing with respect to what they possess in authority, position, and material gain?
What does King Saul represent? What does King David represent? They represent two realms of authority and reality. King Saul represents a blessing demanded within this world, according to the world. King David represented a heavenly blessing birthed and cultivated in the Fire of God according to heaven’s Will.
God can and will give you what you demand. If you challenge God’s goodness by demanding HE answers according to His goodness, then HE will, with warning, give you what you ask, seek, and knock. You may experience His goodness on this earth just as the Israelites were blessed in the wilderness. They did not have their clothes or shoes worn out. This meant they were well fed, and God took good care of them through the forty years, even though they had rejected Him. They lived a good life on earth, but they dropped dead during the forty years and were not allowed to enter heaven.
King Saul had many victories, and at the start, it looked fairly good. He was allowed to reign for 40 years as king. But although Israel got their king Saul, this represented something they personally wanted, and it looked like the Will of God from the outside. However, over the past forty years, there have been constant economic struggles. Even the Philitines controlled the blacksmithing. They were in constant struggle with their enemies, like the Philitines. There was spiritual instability. Due to unfinished wars, there was national insecurity for the people of Israel as a nation. Are these your struggles? Constant battles with demons in which they make you lose ground? Always an economic uphill for you?
When things did not go right for King Saul, what did he do? What are his traits? He gets paranoid about losing his position to David. He tries to kill David, but he needs David to play the harp to have some peace. Many of you may be offended at your Pastor, but ironically, you still know you need me. You may threaten to leave our church. You may do irrational and unwise things or intentionally ask childish questions to the Bishop to sabotage our authority, which can represent you trying to spiritually kill me.
King Saul made impulsive and bad decisions because he was an insecure person. There was political tension or family problems that brought division within his own ranks. Although he was a king and he reigned for 40 years, his tenure was neither peaceful nor full of righteousness. Yes, we can say even King David had problems, but there was grace, mercy, repentance, and salvation.
In King Saul’s case, the people got what they wanted while living on this earth, but still many thorns and thistles within their lives. It appears they wanted to trade a good life on earth rather than for eternal life in heaven. If they waited patiently, praising and giving God gratitude, they would have received what God was preparing for them. HE was preparing a way for Him through King David, whose lineage would later also usher in the True Messiah.
I see people in my church impatiently demanding God give them what they want so they can be like others, but not necessarily compared to others in the world, but in our own church. You can have it now and perhaps forfeit heaven or wait for God to thread the camel through the eye of the needle so you may make it Home!
Senior Pastor Steve Kim