August 23, 2025 • 31 mins
Samuel's aging and his corrupt sons created a leadership crisis in ancient Israel. Rather than trusting God's theocratic model, the elders demanded "a king such as all other nations have." This pivotal moment reveals the fascinating interplay between human free will and divine sovereignty that continues to challenge believers today.
"It is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king," God tells Samuel, unveiling the deeper spiritual rebellion behind Israel's political request. Despite God's warnings through Samuel about the harsh realities of monarchical rule—conscription, taxation, servitude, and potential slavery—the people stubbornly persisted in their demand.
What unfolds is a powerful demonstration of what theologians call God's "permissive will." Though not His perfect desire for Israel, God respects their freedom to choose, while allowing the natural consequences to follow. The narrative serves as a sobering reminder that sometimes God's most difficult lesson comes when He gives us exactly what we've demanded against His better wisdom.
The story challenges us to examine our own hearts. How often do we reject God's unique design for our lives in favor of worldly patterns? When do we demand our own way despite clear warnings? And most importantly, how might we return to trusting God's sovereign plan even after our rebellion?
As Billy Graham wisely noted, "The will of God will not take us where the grace of God cannot sustain us." Even in our poorest choices, God's grace remains available—though we may have to experience the painful consequences of our decisions before embracing His better way.
Share this episode with someone wrestling with difficult choices or questioning God's sovereignty in challenging circumstances. Together, we can learn to trust the One whose wisdom exceeds our understanding.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, welcome back to Overopinionated.
We're going to cover somethingI think is pretty important
today.
We're going to be talking aboutfree will and God's sovereignty
.
I did a lesson this as ofrecording.
I did a lesson Wednesday at ourweekly Bible study at church on
(00:23):
Wednesday night service and Iwant to get into the first
chapter.
I want to get into the eighthchapter of the first book of
Samuel, where it has some goodmoral lessons for us.
But I also think it shows howGod works in his sovereignty in
(00:47):
relations to the free will thathe allows man to have.
Before that, as we always do now, we're going to open up with
the Lord's Prayer in theApostles' Creed Our Father,
which art in heaven, hallowed bethy name.
Thy kingdom, come.
(01:09):
Thy will be done on earth as itis in heaven.
Give us this day our dailybread and forgive us our
trespasses, as we forgive thosewho trespass against us, and
lead us not into temptation, butdeliver us from evil, for
divine is the kingdom, the powerand the glory forever and ever.
Amen.
Okay, the Apostles' Creed.
(01:30):
I believe in God, the FatherAlmighty, creator of heaven and
earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, hisonly Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the powerof the Holy Spirit and born of
the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under PontiusPilate.
He was crucified, died and wasburied.
He descended into hell.
(01:50):
On the third day he rose again,he ascends to the right, he
ascends into heaven and he isseated at the hand of the Father
.
He will come again and judgethe living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,the Holy Catholic Church, the
communion of the saints, theforgiveness of sins and the
resurrection of the body andlife everlasting.
(02:13):
Amen.
Once again, the sin and thehell.
Many people take that as justhim being buried.
And the Holy Catholic Churchmeans universal, not the Roman
Catholic Church of today.
So it would be everyone.
But yeah, I want to justpresent to you some of my faults
(02:36):
from 1 Samuel, chapter 8.
And in this chapter Samuel isgetting older, he has corrupt
sons which he appointed forjudges and we'll get into that
and the people are asking for aking.
(02:56):
I believe this chapter reallydoes show us.
I believe this chapter reallyshows us the contrast between
man having free will and Godbeing sovereign.
So let's start the chapter 1Samuel 8, verse 1 in the New
(03:18):
International Version.
When Samuel grew old, heappointed his sons as Israel's
leaders.
The name of his firstborn wasJoel, the name of his second was
Ajab, and they served at BaalSheba.
But his sons did not follow inhis ways.
(03:40):
They turned aside afterdishonest gains and accepted
bribes and perverted justice.
All the leaders of Israelgathered together and came to
Samuel Ramoth and said to himyou are too old and now your
sons do not follow your ways.
(04:01):
Now appoint a king to lead overus, such as all other nations
have.
Before we get real far, let'saddress something.
So Samuel appointed his sons tobe judges of Israel, and his
(04:21):
sons did not walk in his ways.
They were corrupt, theyperverted justice, they were
taking bribes, doing a lot ofungodly things.
Sadly, um, this says a fewthings.
Just because you have, justbecause you are a godly person,
doesn't mean everyone in yourhousehold is going to follow
(04:42):
your ways, at least initially,and this is sad.
But it also shows us that ouractions can impact other people.
We don't live in a vacuum.
Yes, I do believe in havingsome individuality for sure we
(05:03):
don't want to be robots andhaving some individuality for
sure we don't want to be robots,but our decisions directly
impact other people's abilities,and that is just true.
Our decisions impact otherpeople's abilities, what they
(05:23):
can and can't do, what otherpeople will say about them.
If you're related to someone,someone could say, well, look at
how their son's doing, or lookat this or that, and it is a
reflection on you.
It doesn't mean it's fair.
It reminds me of a verse in 1Timothy, chapter 3, 1 Timothy,
(05:48):
chapter 3 and 4.
Niv says he must manage his ownfamily well and see that his
children obey him, and that hemust do so in a manner worthy of
full respect.
And so that's actually aqualification of being an elder
is having your household inorder.
And that always makes me pauseand say, well, how is that fair
(06:11):
for ministers?
They can't help what theirchildren do.
I could be wrong, but part of mebelieves that this would only
apply to children that aren'tadult children, that this would
only apply to children thataren't adult children.
They'd only apply to childrenthat are smaller in your
(06:32):
household.
I could be wrong about that,and it's the general effort to
discipline your children in love, not abuse.
But that doesn't mean your kidsaren't ever going to be
rebellious.
Um, that that's how I take it.
You could take it a differentway.
(06:52):
So we, but we do see godaddress this in first um, first
timothy, chapter three, throughpaul, when he's describing the
characteristics of an elder.
An elder is what we call apastor today, but Samuel's not
an elder, he's not under thatruling.
He is an Old Testament prophetand his children were older, but
(07:16):
they affected his father.
It also shows that just becauseyour family member is in good
spiritual leadership because oftheir life they've lived and
their calling does not mean thatyou automatically get to.
There are a lot of examples inlife where godly men, pastors,
(07:40):
the head of institutions andtheir sons or daughters have
come along and they have notlived up to their father or
mother's I'd say authority,moral life and they have failed.
It's not universally true, butthere are instances and it seems
(08:03):
like part of me thinks that thekids feel overwhelmed because
how great their parent is.
I have to be very careful onone instance of this that sticks
out to me.
I'm not trying to condemn him,but it's very open, as jerry
falwell jr in his fallen sexualsin when he was the head of a
(08:26):
huge college university, libertyUniversity.
I love Liberty, I've been therea few times.
It's a great campus thatpromotes Christ and his gospel
Absolutely.
But he wasn't living up to thesame standards that their
students have and Liberty forcedhim.
He was forced to resign.
(08:48):
He was fired, I think he wasforced to resign and I'm glad he
was Now.
I don't think Junior was apastor I could be wrong but his
dad I really really like his dad.
His dad at first didn't want toget involved in politics but
then he realized that Christianshave to get involved in
(09:09):
politics over moral issues likesame-sex marriage and abortion.
He started the Institution ofLiberty University.
He helped start a church inLutzburg.
There that has grown and just agodly man that pursued God's
heart.
So I think that's a goodexample and I hope that Jerry
(09:32):
Falwell Jr has repented sincethen.
It's been a few years now, butthat is just one example that
stuck out to me, but I want tocontinue.
So we have.
We'll start at verse 3 again.
But his sons did not follow hisways.
They turned aside afterdishonest gains except bribes,
(09:53):
and perverted justice.
So all the elders of Israelgathered and came to Samuel at
Rapham and said to him you areold and your sons do not follow
your ways.
Now appoint us a king over us,such as all other nations have.
Okay, let's break down thisverse.
(10:13):
You are old.
Your sons don't follow yourways.
They're thinking about thefuture.
They're thinking about what arewe going to do when Samuel is
no longer around.
They're seeing the corruptionof Samuel's sons and they really
want a king.
The main thing is at the end ofthe verse.
We want a king such as allother nations have.
They're rejecting God's planfor his theocratic rule in the
(10:38):
nation.
It's a rejection of God's plan,and they used two things they
used Samuel's age and they usedthe corruption of his sons.
Now, if his sons weren't ascorrupt, I still believe they'd
want a king.
If Samuel was in his 40s,middle age or younger, I still
believe they'd want a king.
If Samuel was in his 40s,middle age or younger, I still
(10:58):
believe they'd want a king.
But they are using that.
They're taking legitimatecriticisms and they are using
them to exploit them forsomething much larger that they
want.
I will say this when we werehaving our Bible study, someone
said to me what if Samuel wasslipping up in his old age?
(11:20):
And his exact words were whatif Samuel was having Joe Biden
moments?
I'm not making this political,but that's what he said.
That's not what the textindicates to me.
I did think about that.
With age, sometimes mental slipsand a cognitive decline does
(11:40):
happen.
Not all the time, though, and,um, I'm very careful, uh,
especially when in the politicalrealm, when some people say we
should have a wage in age limit,we should set it at 75.
After that you have to retire.
I do think that falls intoageism and discrimination,
because there's a lot of 76 yearolds who their minds are still
(12:05):
there and they're still prettysharp.
Um, so I'm not.
I don't like the idea of agelimits, I don't like ageism.
Um, a better solution, ifyou're going to have a
hypothetical thing, would be acognitive test which all people
could take.
But that's just not how ourConstitution is set up.
(12:27):
But I don't see this.
I don't see Samuel havingmental slips up.
I just don't.
He's just getting older, and Iunderstand you have to have a
contingency plan in place forwhen you're no longer around, no
matter if it's a company, achurch or a nation.
(12:49):
You should be planning for thefuture.
That doesn't mean that you kickthe older generation out.
Let them live as long as Godhas them to live on this earth,
and we should be willing tolisten to their wisdom.
With age comes wisdom.
They've been around the block,they've seen a thing or two, so
(13:11):
we should listen to them.
And this is a holy man that Godhas appointed.
And this is a holy man that Godhas appointed.
And the peoples are hardeningtheir hearts.
They want a strong man to leadthem, they want a king to lead
them, and they see everyone elsearound them have a king or a
(13:32):
monarch leading them, leadingtheir nations, and they desire
that, instead of wanting thethings of God, they want the
things of the world, and that iswhat gets them in trouble and
that's what gets us in trouble.
Let's continue.
Verse 6.
But they said give us a king tolead us.
(13:53):
This displeased Samuel, so heprayed to the Lord.
Give us a king to lead us.
This displeased Samuel.
So he prayed to the Lord, andthe Lord told him Listen to all
that the people are saying toyou.
It is not you they haverejected, but they have rejected
me as their king.
So, yeah, this would hurtSamuel, because he knows what
they're asking is wrong, and Ithink that Samuel probably took
(14:14):
this somewhat personal too,because it was his sons.
They were saying that he wastoo old.
So I do think it hurt him.
After years of following God'swill and doing the best for the
nation of Israel, they come tohim and ask for a king.
He has to feel betrayed andlisten to what God says.
(14:34):
They have not rejected you, butthey have rejected me.
So I think God's probablyreassuring him a little too Like
listen, this isn't about you,this is about them not wanting
my will.
This isn't about them dislikingyou.
So I think God's reassuring him.
And God says they have rejectedme as king.
(14:58):
God was their king, samuel wastheir messenger.
But no, we must have an earthlyking, even though that's not
what God wanted for them at thetime.
God wanted a theocracy.
The people wanted an absolutemonarchy.
They wanted to be like theworld Instead of wanting what
(15:21):
God wanted Verse 8.
As they have done from the dayI brought them out of Egypt
until this day, forsaking me andserving other gods.
So they are doing now.
So they are doing now.
So the nation of Israel hasalways rebelled against God.
(15:45):
In the Bible we see Israel beingrebellious the entire book and
sometimes it's hard not to readit and say why aren't you
appreciative?
And it makes me think, man,these are a horrible group of
people, but we all are.
If God picked a different groupof people, they would have
failed just as much.
(16:05):
They are the same as me and youand their flesh.
Pursuing the flesh instead ofGod's will.
We would have done no betterthan Israel, and maybe we could
have even done worse.
So I think that's a thing, butwe can't serve other gods.
(16:26):
There's one God.
The whole message of the Bibleis there's one God and we should
worship him.
That is one of the biggestmessages in the Bible.
There is only one God and wemust worship him and him alone.
So that's a huge thing, guys.
(16:48):
We need to avoid doing what theIsraelites did in Egypt and
what the Israelites did whenthey were in Israel and they
rejected God Verse 9.
Now listen to them, but warnthem solemnly and let them know
what the king, who will reignover them, will do as his right.
(17:12):
So I think this right here isstarting to show the contrast
between free will and God'ssovereignty.
God is saying we'll listen tothem, we'll let them have what
they want under his permissivewill.
There's a term calledpermissive will, where God will
allow things to happen under hiswill, but that is not what he
(17:35):
wanted in his I mean, okay, thatis not what he was desiring for
the people, but that is abetter way of saying it, forgive
me for tripping up.
So, yes, that's not the bestthing, that was not the best
thing that he wanted for hispeople, but he allowed it to
happen.
He permitted it to happen.
(17:56):
His permissive will out ofdealing with their sin instead
of letting the greater thinghappen.
The greater thing, um, andhaving the greater thing would
be his perfect will.
Okay, there's a few differentwills that we can see that God
(18:17):
has, but he allows us to havehis permissive will in rebellion
.
Verse 9, now listen to them,but solemnly warn them and let
them know what the king who willreign over them claims is his
right.
And the free will part would bethat God allows us to either
(18:40):
choose him or rebel.
But remember, you can onlychoose God if you have the Holy
Spirit Outside of the HolySpirit giving you at the very
least pervenient grace to accepthim.
You will never do it, but Ibelieve that all that hear the
gospel message at some point intheir life will have the
(19:01):
opportunity to answer the call.
Verse 10, samuel told all thewords of the Lord to the people
who were asking him for a king.
He said this is what the kingwho will reign over you will
claim as your rights.
He will take your sons and makethem serve with his chariots
(19:22):
and horses and they will run infront of his chariots, some with
some.
He will assign to be commandersof thousands and commanders of
fifties and others.
He will plow his ground andreap his harvest and still
others make weapons of war andequipment of his chariots.
(19:43):
He will take your daughters tobe perfumes and cooks and bakers
.
He will take the best of yourfields and vineyards and olive
groves and give them to hisattendants.
He will take a tenth of yourgrain and your vineyards and
give it to the officials inattendance.
Verse 17.
(20:04):
Flock and of your sheep willand of yourselves will become
slaves.
When that day comes that youwill cry out for the relief from
the king you have chosen, butthe Lord will not answer you on
(20:27):
that day.
So what we see here is we seeall the consequences of having a
king.
He will take your sons to gofight, to work in his vineyards.
He's going to take 10% of yourharvest, which is equivalent to
our income in a lot of ways, sohe's going to take 10% of it.
He will use your male andfemale slaves.
(20:48):
He will turn you into slaves ifhe desires.
Your women will become bakersand cooks and anything that he
desires them to make.
This is what the cost of a kinghas.
It is an absolute monarchy.
In this country, the head ofstate is the president and he
(21:12):
has to run for re-election everyfour years if he desires to be
re-elected.
In the modern day, he's onlylimited to two terms.
So you can have two terms fouryears each's only limited to two
terms.
So you can have two terms offour years each.
You're limited to eight years.
And on top of that, he has toworry about the judicial system.
(21:33):
Striking down one of hisexecutive orders is
unconstitutional.
On top of that, he has to worryabout a Congress, which he has
a midterm in two years, that canput the president in check.
He has to worry about aCongress, which he has a midterm
in two years, that can put thepresident in check and not give
him any laws to sign.
So he has constitutionalrestraints that an absolute
monarch doesn't.
Absolute monarch means whateverthey say goes.
(21:58):
This isn't the monarch today ofGreat Britain, who is basically
a ceremonial role.
He is an absolute monarch whocan control all, and the people
want a strong man to lead them.
(22:19):
This falls kind of into strongman theory in government.
They want a strong man to leadthem.
This falls kind of into strongman theory in government.
They want a strong man at thegates to protect from the
barbarians, to protect them fromthe craziness around the world,
to have a strong military.
I think that's part of it, andthey want him there to protect
them from the outside.
(22:40):
To protect them from theoutside.
But.
But with that comes Lifelongrule and him doing whatever he
wants.
And the people are saying wewant a king.
God comes back, they're goingto do all these things.
No, god, we want a king to ruleover us so we can be like the
(23:04):
world and not want what you want.
Then verse 18 ends on this noteand it's concerning when that
day comes.
You will cry out for the relieffrom the king you have chosen,
but the Lord will not answer youin that day.
Man, that's scary.
What he's saying is theIsraelites were going to cry out
(23:26):
to God because the king is sohard, but God will not deliver
them from the king in the dayBecause they chose not to listen
to God and want it to be likethe world.
I don't want to be in thatposition.
I don't want anyone else beingin that position, you or anybody
(23:47):
else.
Now, god is all gracious, butsometimes, when we ask God to
rescue us from our problems, ifwe've repeatedly went away from
him, I believe sometimes there'sa consequence.
There.
A good analogy is if you have achild that gets in trouble with
(24:08):
the law all the time and theparent keeps bailing you out of
jail.
I think what God's basicallysaying is I'm going to let you
sit in jail for a while andlearn your lesson because you
didn't listen to me Verse 19,.
But the people refused to listento Samuel.
No, they said we want a kingover us.
(24:29):
They're saying no, we want that.
We want that.
That's oh my gosh.
How many times have we donesomething so stupid that we look
back on and say how could wewant that instead of the better
thing that God wants for usVerse 20.
Then we will be like all theother nations, with a king to
(24:51):
lead over us, to go out beforeus and fight our battle.
See, they want a strong man tofight for them.
Fight for them Instead oftrusting God to fight for them.
They want to be like the restof the world and put their trust
in a worldly concept to protectthem Instead of allowing God to
(25:14):
work through his will.
Verse 21,.
When Samuel heard all that thepeople said, he repeated it
before the Lord.
The Lord answered listen tothem, give them a king.
Then Samuel said to theIsraelites everyone, go back to
(25:34):
your hometown, and then heappoints this is just me Samuel
goes and he appoints Saul asking.
Now we know that Saul, whathappened to him, and if you've
been listening to this podcast,you know a little bit about King
Saul.
As we go slowly through thelife of King David and his
(25:58):
failure and jealousy in notlistening to God, just like
Israel did.
And God will give you what youwant.
God will give you what you wantunder his permissive will, and
he will allow your free will todo as it pleases, and that
(26:18):
doesn't contradict hissovereignty, because he's
allowing.
It doesn't contradict hissovereignty.
Did not surprise him whenisrael asked this, but then he
gave them a warning and they didnot heed to it.
God gives you a warning, try toheed to it.
We have to.
(26:38):
If not we don't, we might getgod's permissive will.
I do believe that there is somehope.
So I do have a quote for youguys that I believe relates to
this bill.
Uh, billy graham, the lategreat revivalist and um spreader
(27:00):
of the gospel, a man I look upto, greatly said the will of God
will not take us where thegrace of God cannot sustain us.
So, even in God's permissivewill, god's grace can still
sustain us.
And God's grace did abstainIsrael and they still, even to
this day, israel can repent andbelieve in god and trust in god.
(27:26):
Um, that's a final thought.
Let's uh, I want to say aprayer and let you go out of
here.
It's a little little bit of acondensed episode, but I think
it's important.
God, thank you for today.
Please be with everyonelistening to this podcast.
Let them listen to you.
It's hard.
(27:47):
Listen, I know how it is.
It's hard.
I've rebelled against youbefore.
I don't want to rebel againstyou anymore, but help people,
please help people.
Please lead them with your HolySpirit.
Thank you for our free will,but also thank you on top of
that, for giving us the HolySpirit that we can choose you
through your prevenient grace inthe Holy Spirit.
(28:11):
Lord, thank you for beingbetter than us.
Thank you for being moremerciful than us.
Please bless everyone that haslistened to this and let them
grow.
Thank you for them being withus throughout this week.
In your name, we pray Amen.
(28:31):
Thank you everybody, and wewill see you here next week.
God bless.
Hello, welcome back to Overopinionated.
We're going to cover somethingI think is pretty important
today.
We're going to be talking aboutfree will and God's sovereignty
.
I did a lesson this as ofrecording.
I did a lesson Wednesday at ourweekly Bible study at church on
(00:23):
Wednesday night service and Iwant to get into the first
chapter.
I want to get into the eighthchapter of the first book of
Samuel, where it has some goodmoral lessons for us.
But I also think it shows howGod works in his sovereignty in
(00:47):
relations to the free will thathe allows man to have.
Before that, as we always do now, we're going to open up with
the Lord's Prayer in theApostles' Creed Our Father,
which art in heaven, hallowed bethy name.
Thy kingdom, come.
(01:09):
Thy will be done on earth as itis in heaven.
Give us this day our dailybread and forgive us our
trespasses, as we forgive thosewho trespass against us, and
lead us not into temptation, butdeliver us from evil, for
divine is the kingdom, the powerand the glory forever and ever.
Amen.
Okay, the Apostles' Creed.
(01:30):
I believe in God, the FatherAlmighty, creator of heaven and
earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, hisonly Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the powerof the Holy Spirit and born of
the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under PontiusPilate.
He was crucified, died and wasburied.
He descended into hell.
(01:50):
On the third day he rose again,he ascends to the right, he
ascends into heaven and he isseated at the hand of the Father
.
He will come again and judgethe living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,the Holy Catholic Church, the
communion of the saints, theforgiveness of sins and the
resurrection of the body andlife everlasting.
(02:13):
Amen.
Once again, the sin and thehell.
Many people take that as justhim being buried.
And the Holy Catholic Churchmeans universal, not the Roman
Catholic Church of today.
So it would be everyone.
But yeah, I want to justpresent to you some of my faults
(02:36):
from 1 Samuel, chapter 8.
And in this chapter Samuel isgetting older, he has corrupt
sons which he appointed forjudges and we'll get into that
and the people are asking for aking.
(02:56):
I believe this chapter reallydoes show us.
I believe this chapter reallyshows us the contrast between
man having free will and Godbeing sovereign.
So let's start the chapter 1Samuel 8, verse 1 in the New
(03:18):
International Version.
When Samuel grew old, heappointed his sons as Israel's
leaders.
The name of his firstborn wasJoel, the name of his second was
Ajab, and they served at BaalSheba.
But his sons did not follow inhis ways.
(03:40):
They turned aside afterdishonest gains and accepted
bribes and perverted justice.
All the leaders of Israelgathered together and came to
Samuel Ramoth and said to himyou are too old and now your
sons do not follow your ways.
(04:01):
Now appoint a king to lead overus, such as all other nations
have.
Before we get real far, let'saddress something.
So Samuel appointed his sons tobe judges of Israel, and his
(04:21):
sons did not walk in his ways.
They were corrupt, theyperverted justice, they were
taking bribes, doing a lot ofungodly things.
Sadly, um, this says a fewthings.
Just because you have, justbecause you are a godly person,
doesn't mean everyone in yourhousehold is going to follow
(04:42):
your ways, at least initially,and this is sad.
But it also shows us that ouractions can impact other people.
We don't live in a vacuum.
Yes, I do believe in havingsome individuality for sure we
(05:03):
don't want to be robots andhaving some individuality for
sure we don't want to be robots,but our decisions directly
impact other people's abilities,and that is just true.
Our decisions impact otherpeople's abilities, what they
(05:23):
can and can't do, what otherpeople will say about them.
If you're related to someone,someone could say, well, look at
how their son's doing, or lookat this or that, and it is a
reflection on you.
It doesn't mean it's fair.
It reminds me of a verse in 1Timothy, chapter 3, 1 Timothy,
(05:48):
chapter 3 and 4.
Niv says he must manage his ownfamily well and see that his
children obey him, and that hemust do so in a manner worthy of
full respect.
And so that's actually aqualification of being an elder
is having your household inorder.
And that always makes me pauseand say, well, how is that fair
(06:11):
for ministers?
They can't help what theirchildren do.
I could be wrong, but part of mebelieves that this would only
apply to children that aren'tadult children, that this would
only apply to children thataren't adult children.
They'd only apply to childrenthat are smaller in your
(06:32):
household.
I could be wrong about that,and it's the general effort to
discipline your children in love, not abuse.
But that doesn't mean your kidsaren't ever going to be
rebellious.
Um, that that's how I take it.
You could take it a differentway.
(06:52):
So we, but we do see godaddress this in first um, first
timothy, chapter three, throughpaul, when he's describing the
characteristics of an elder.
An elder is what we call apastor today, but Samuel's not
an elder, he's not under thatruling.
He is an Old Testament prophetand his children were older, but
(07:16):
they affected his father.
It also shows that just becauseyour family member is in good
spiritual leadership because oftheir life they've lived and
their calling does not mean thatyou automatically get to.
There are a lot of examples inlife where godly men, pastors,
(07:40):
the head of institutions andtheir sons or daughters have
come along and they have notlived up to their father or
mother's I'd say authority,moral life and they have failed.
It's not universally true, butthere are instances and it seems
(08:03):
like part of me thinks that thekids feel overwhelmed because
how great their parent is.
I have to be very careful onone instance of this that sticks
out to me.
I'm not trying to condemn him,but it's very open, as jerry
falwell jr in his fallen sexualsin when he was the head of a
(08:26):
huge college university, libertyUniversity.
I love Liberty, I've been therea few times.
It's a great campus thatpromotes Christ and his gospel
Absolutely.
But he wasn't living up to thesame standards that their
students have and Liberty forcedhim.
He was forced to resign.
(08:48):
He was fired, I think he wasforced to resign and I'm glad he
was Now.
I don't think Junior was apastor I could be wrong but his
dad I really really like his dad.
His dad at first didn't want toget involved in politics but
then he realized that Christianshave to get involved in
(09:09):
politics over moral issues likesame-sex marriage and abortion.
He started the Institution ofLiberty University.
He helped start a church inLutzburg.
There that has grown and just agodly man that pursued God's
heart.
So I think that's a goodexample and I hope that Jerry
(09:32):
Falwell Jr has repented sincethen.
It's been a few years now, butthat is just one example that
stuck out to me, but I want tocontinue.
So we have.
We'll start at verse 3 again.
But his sons did not follow hisways.
They turned aside afterdishonest gains except bribes,
(09:53):
and perverted justice.
So all the elders of Israelgathered and came to Samuel at
Rapham and said to him you areold and your sons do not follow
your ways.
Now appoint us a king over us,such as all other nations have.
Okay, let's break down thisverse.
(10:13):
You are old.
Your sons don't follow yourways.
They're thinking about thefuture.
They're thinking about what arewe going to do when Samuel is
no longer around.
They're seeing the corruptionof Samuel's sons and they really
want a king.
The main thing is at the end ofthe verse.
We want a king such as allother nations have.
They're rejecting God's planfor his theocratic rule in the
(10:38):
nation.
It's a rejection of God's plan,and they used two things they
used Samuel's age and they usedthe corruption of his sons.
Now, if his sons weren't ascorrupt, I still believe they'd
want a king.
If Samuel was in his 40s,middle age or younger, I still
believe they'd want a king.
If Samuel was in his 40s,middle age or younger, I still
(10:58):
believe they'd want a king.
But they are using that.
They're taking legitimatecriticisms and they are using
them to exploit them forsomething much larger that they
want.
I will say this when we werehaving our Bible study, someone
said to me what if Samuel wasslipping up in his old age?
(11:20):
And his exact words were whatif Samuel was having Joe Biden
moments?
I'm not making this political,but that's what he said.
That's not what the textindicates to me.
I did think about that.
With age, sometimes mental slipsand a cognitive decline does
(11:40):
happen.
Not all the time, though, and,um, I'm very careful, uh,
especially when in the politicalrealm, when some people say we
should have a wage in age limit,we should set it at 75.
After that you have to retire.
I do think that falls intoageism and discrimination,
because there's a lot of 76 yearolds who their minds are still
(12:05):
there and they're still prettysharp.
Um, so I'm not.
I don't like the idea of agelimits, I don't like ageism.
Um, a better solution, ifyou're going to have a
hypothetical thing, would be acognitive test which all people
could take.
But that's just not how ourConstitution is set up.
(12:27):
But I don't see this.
I don't see Samuel havingmental slips up.
I just don't.
He's just getting older, and Iunderstand you have to have a
contingency plan in place forwhen you're no longer around, no
matter if it's a company, achurch or a nation.
(12:49):
You should be planning for thefuture.
That doesn't mean that you kickthe older generation out.
Let them live as long as Godhas them to live on this earth,
and we should be willing tolisten to their wisdom.
With age comes wisdom.
They've been around the block,they've seen a thing or two, so
(13:11):
we should listen to them.
And this is a holy man that Godhas appointed.
And this is a holy man that Godhas appointed.
And the peoples are hardeningtheir hearts.
They want a strong man to leadthem, they want a king to lead
them, and they see everyone elsearound them have a king or a
(13:32):
monarch leading them, leadingtheir nations, and they desire
that, instead of wanting thethings of God, they want the
things of the world, and that iswhat gets them in trouble and
that's what gets us in trouble.
Let's continue.
Verse 6.
But they said give us a king tolead us.
(13:53):
This displeased Samuel, so heprayed to the Lord.
Give us a king to lead us.
This displeased Samuel.
So he prayed to the Lord, andthe Lord told him Listen to all
that the people are saying toyou.
It is not you they haverejected, but they have rejected
me as their king.
So, yeah, this would hurtSamuel, because he knows what
they're asking is wrong, and Ithink that Samuel probably took
(14:14):
this somewhat personal too,because it was his sons.
They were saying that he wastoo old.
So I do think it hurt him.
After years of following God'swill and doing the best for the
nation of Israel, they come tohim and ask for a king.
He has to feel betrayed andlisten to what God says.
(14:34):
They have not rejected you, butthey have rejected me.
So I think God's probablyreassuring him a little too Like
listen, this isn't about you,this is about them not wanting
my will.
This isn't about them dislikingyou.
So I think God's reassuring him.
And God says they have rejectedme as king.
(14:58):
God was their king, samuel wastheir messenger.
But no, we must have an earthlyking, even though that's not
what God wanted for them at thetime.
God wanted a theocracy.
The people wanted an absolutemonarchy.
They wanted to be like theworld Instead of wanting what
(15:21):
God wanted Verse 8.
As they have done from the dayI brought them out of Egypt
until this day, forsaking me andserving other gods.
So they are doing now.
So they are doing now.
So the nation of Israel hasalways rebelled against God.
(15:45):
In the Bible we see Israel beingrebellious the entire book and
sometimes it's hard not to readit and say why aren't you
appreciative?
And it makes me think, man,these are a horrible group of
people, but we all are.
If God picked a different groupof people, they would have
failed just as much.
(16:05):
They are the same as me and youand their flesh.
Pursuing the flesh instead ofGod's will.
We would have done no betterthan Israel, and maybe we could
have even done worse.
So I think that's a thing, butwe can't serve other gods.
(16:26):
There's one God.
The whole message of the Bibleis there's one God and we should
worship him.
That is one of the biggestmessages in the Bible.
There is only one God and wemust worship him and him alone.
So that's a huge thing, guys.
(16:48):
We need to avoid doing what theIsraelites did in Egypt and
what the Israelites did whenthey were in Israel and they
rejected God Verse 9.
Now listen to them, but warnthem solemnly and let them know
what the king, who will reignover them, will do as his right.
(17:12):
So I think this right here isstarting to show the contrast
between free will and God'ssovereignty.
God is saying we'll listen tothem, we'll let them have what
they want under his permissivewill.
There's a term calledpermissive will, where God will
allow things to happen under hiswill, but that is not what he
(17:35):
wanted in his I mean, okay, thatis not what he was desiring for
the people, but that is abetter way of saying it, forgive
me for tripping up.
So, yes, that's not the bestthing, that was not the best
thing that he wanted for hispeople, but he allowed it to
happen.
He permitted it to happen.
(17:56):
His permissive will out ofdealing with their sin instead
of letting the greater thinghappen.
The greater thing, um, andhaving the greater thing would
be his perfect will.
Okay, there's a few differentwills that we can see that God
(18:17):
has, but he allows us to havehis permissive will in rebellion
.
Verse 9, now listen to them,but solemnly warn them and let
them know what the king who willreign over them claims is his
right.
And the free will part would bethat God allows us to either
(18:40):
choose him or rebel.
But remember, you can onlychoose God if you have the Holy
Spirit Outside of the HolySpirit giving you at the very
least pervenient grace to accepthim.
You will never do it, but Ibelieve that all that hear the
gospel message at some point intheir life will have the
(19:01):
opportunity to answer the call.
Verse 10, samuel told all thewords of the Lord to the people
who were asking him for a king.
He said this is what the kingwho will reign over you will
claim as your rights.
He will take your sons and makethem serve with his chariots
(19:22):
and horses and they will run infront of his chariots, some with
some.
He will assign to be commandersof thousands and commanders of
fifties and others.
He will plow his ground andreap his harvest and still
others make weapons of war andequipment of his chariots.
(19:43):
He will take your daughters tobe perfumes and cooks and bakers
.
He will take the best of yourfields and vineyards and olive
groves and give them to hisattendants.
He will take a tenth of yourgrain and your vineyards and
give it to the officials inattendance.
Verse 17.
(20:04):
Flock and of your sheep willand of yourselves will become
slaves.
When that day comes that youwill cry out for the relief from
the king you have chosen, butthe Lord will not answer you on
(20:27):
that day.
So what we see here is we seeall the consequences of having a
king.
He will take your sons to gofight, to work in his vineyards.
He's going to take 10% of yourharvest, which is equivalent to
our income in a lot of ways, sohe's going to take 10% of it.
He will use your male andfemale slaves.
(20:48):
He will turn you into slaves ifhe desires.
Your women will become bakersand cooks and anything that he
desires them to make.
This is what the cost of a kinghas.
It is an absolute monarchy.
In this country, the head ofstate is the president and he
(21:12):
has to run for re-election everyfour years if he desires to be
re-elected.
In the modern day, he's onlylimited to two terms.
So you can have two terms fouryears each's only limited to two
terms.
So you can have two terms offour years each.
You're limited to eight years.
And on top of that, he has toworry about the judicial system.
(21:33):
Striking down one of hisexecutive orders is
unconstitutional.
On top of that, he has to worryabout a Congress, which he has
a midterm in two years, that canput the president in check.
He has to worry about aCongress, which he has a midterm
in two years, that can put thepresident in check and not give
him any laws to sign.
So he has constitutionalrestraints that an absolute
monarch doesn't.
Absolute monarch means whateverthey say goes.
(21:58):
This isn't the monarch today ofGreat Britain, who is basically
a ceremonial role.
He is an absolute monarch whocan control all, and the people
want a strong man to lead them.
(22:19):
This falls kind of into strongman theory in government.
They want a strong man to leadthem.
This falls kind of into strongman theory in government.
They want a strong man at thegates to protect from the
barbarians, to protect them fromthe craziness around the world,
to have a strong military.
I think that's part of it, andthey want him there to protect
them from the outside.
(22:40):
To protect them from theoutside.
But.
But with that comes Lifelongrule and him doing whatever he
wants.
And the people are saying wewant a king.
God comes back, they're goingto do all these things.
No, god, we want a king to ruleover us so we can be like the
(23:04):
world and not want what you want.
Then verse 18 ends on this noteand it's concerning when that
day comes.
You will cry out for the relieffrom the king you have chosen,
but the Lord will not answer youin that day.
Man, that's scary.
What he's saying is theIsraelites were going to cry out
(23:26):
to God because the king is sohard, but God will not deliver
them from the king in the dayBecause they chose not to listen
to God and want it to be likethe world.
I don't want to be in thatposition.
I don't want anyone else beingin that position, you or anybody
(23:47):
else.
Now, god is all gracious, butsometimes, when we ask God to
rescue us from our problems, ifwe've repeatedly went away from
him, I believe sometimes there'sa consequence.
There.
A good analogy is if you have achild that gets in trouble with
(24:08):
the law all the time and theparent keeps bailing you out of
jail.
I think what God's basicallysaying is I'm going to let you
sit in jail for a while andlearn your lesson because you
didn't listen to me Verse 19,.
But the people refused to listento Samuel.
No, they said we want a kingover us.
(24:29):
They're saying no, we want that.
We want that.
That's oh my gosh.
How many times have we donesomething so stupid that we look
back on and say how could wewant that instead of the better
thing that God wants for usVerse 20.
Then we will be like all theother nations, with a king to
(24:51):
lead over us, to go out beforeus and fight our battle.
See, they want a strong man tofight for them.
Fight for them Instead oftrusting God to fight for them.
They want to be like the restof the world and put their trust
in a worldly concept to protectthem Instead of allowing God to
(25:14):
work through his will.
Verse 21,.
When Samuel heard all that thepeople said, he repeated it
before the Lord.
The Lord answered listen tothem, give them a king.
Then Samuel said to theIsraelites everyone, go back to
(25:34):
your hometown, and then heappoints this is just me Samuel
goes and he appoints Saul asking.
Now we know that Saul, whathappened to him, and if you've
been listening to this podcast,you know a little bit about King
Saul.
As we go slowly through thelife of King David and his
(25:58):
failure and jealousy in notlistening to God, just like
Israel did.
And God will give you what youwant.
God will give you what you wantunder his permissive will, and
he will allow your free will todo as it pleases, and that
(26:18):
doesn't contradict hissovereignty, because he's
allowing.
It doesn't contradict hissovereignty.
Did not surprise him whenisrael asked this, but then he
gave them a warning and they didnot heed to it.
God gives you a warning, try toheed to it.
We have to.
(26:38):
If not we don't, we might getgod's permissive will.
I do believe that there is somehope.
So I do have a quote for youguys that I believe relates to
this bill.
Uh, billy graham, the lategreat revivalist and um spreader
(27:00):
of the gospel, a man I look upto, greatly said the will of God
will not take us where thegrace of God cannot sustain us.
So, even in God's permissivewill, god's grace can still
sustain us.
And God's grace did abstainIsrael and they still, even to
this day, israel can repent andbelieve in god and trust in god.
(27:26):
Um, that's a final thought.
Let's uh, I want to say aprayer and let you go out of
here.
It's a little little bit of acondensed episode, but I think
it's important.
God, thank you for today.
Please be with everyonelistening to this podcast.
Let them listen to you.
It's hard.
(27:47):
Listen, I know how it is.
It's hard.
I've rebelled against youbefore.
I don't want to rebel againstyou anymore, but help people,
please help people.
Please lead them with your HolySpirit.
Thank you for our free will,but also thank you on top of
that, for giving us the HolySpirit that we can choose you
through your prevenient grace inthe Holy Spirit.
(28:11):
Lord, thank you for beingbetter than us.
Thank you for being moremerciful than us.
Please bless everyone that haslistened to this and let them
grow.
Thank you for them being withus throughout this week.
In your name, we pray Amen.
(28:31):
Thank you everybody, and wewill see you here next week.
God bless.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.