A Cry for Relief

In the book of 1 Samuel there is an interesting story in Chapter 8.  Let me quote from it first and then I’ll add some comments at the end.

1 When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as Israel’s leaders. 3 But his sons did not follow his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice.

4 So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. 5 They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”

6 But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. 8 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 them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights.”

10 Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. 11 He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. 12 Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for 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 groves and give them to his attendants. 15 He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. 16 Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. 17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. 18 When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”

19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. 20 Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”

The reason I mention this passage is because there are some principles in it that I think are pertinent to life in the United States today.  For the rest of these Ramblings I’d like to enumerate some of those principles and comment on them.

1)   The nation of Israel wanted to be like all the other nations, so they asked Samuel to give them a king.  They said it was because they didn’t like the fact that Samuel’s sons were being dishonest, but the Lord said the real underlying reason was because they didn’t want to have the Lord as their king. – So, one principle I see is that as a nation moves further away from God, the more it feels the need for a stronger form of human leadership (or government).  We humans apparently have a built-in need to have someone leading us … and if it isn’t going to be God, then the vacuum is going to need to be filled by other humans.

2)   The people had very simply asked for (demanded really) a king, but had apparently not considered at all the full extent of the ramifications of what that would mean to their individual daily lives. – Look at all that was going to follow from their ill-conceived request.  Instead of an army that would be called from among them by the Lord only when needed, there would now be a regular standing army that would have to be raised up.  This army would need to be equipped and clothed and fed on an on-going basis, and that was not going to come cheap.  Also, the king himself was going to need a very large number of people to oversee all the various functions of government and they were all going to need to be equipped and clothed and fed on an on-going basis, and that was not going to come cheap either.

3)   Lastly, the Lord predicted that someday a time would come when the burden of all of the additional taxation would overwhelm them to the point that they would cry out to the Lord for relief. – The implication is that governments do not shrink on their own, and they do not remain at a plateau on their own … left on their own governments grow until they become an almost impossible burden.

Right now our country is in the middle of a struggle to determine whether our government has become too large a burden.  As of yet, as a country we have not made up our minds regarding the answer to that question.  But one thing seems clear from scripture, and that is that if we keep moving further away from the Lord, then we will increasingly look to human leadership fill the vacuum.  And that as we do the burden of the increasing taxation will eventually overwhelm us; but by then it will be too late.