So, the people are very concerned about leadership when Samuel is gone. He’s an old man and there is no one to succeed him. It’s not wrong to want leadership. However, it is short-sighted and a lack of faith to insist on what they did. Of course, this is what happens when people focus on short-term concerns, isn’t it? We’ve seen it so often in political campaigns. “It’s the economy, stupid” was a stroke of genius in discerning the single great fear of people and focusing on that. No matter the other issues. It’s government by the polls. Leaders find out what the public wants and they move in that direction. Or, it is government making promises they can never keep just to keep themselves in office. Witness Greece and Italy. People have been deluded for generations and the eventual price they are called on to pay is seen as betrayal.

What’s so interesting to me is the Israelites are so concerned about the future at a time when things are going well for them. The economy is good. They are at peace and their traditional enemies – the Philistines – are quiet. They are secure…but not secure enough. They want more. They want guarantees of a risk free future. Normally, it is a crisis that generates such a change but there is no crisis. The only threat is to the status quo and that is enough to overwhelm them. In a way, Samuel had failed them not only by the performance of his sons but by failing to prepare them for his own passing. They were dependent on him still. They did not want an election. They did not want another judge. They wanted him to appoint a king. It’s not simply history is it? It is true even today. We want to keep our prosperity but are weary of personal responsibility. We could understand it more easily if it was a situation similar to the people many years later when they were taken captive by the Babylonians in the time of Jeremiah. What did they say then? “We will go and live in Egypt, where we will not see war or hear the trumpet or be hungry for bread.” That I could understand…but not this. It’s not really a crisis that’s precipitating such a change. It is their wanting to be like the nations around them. They are rejecting the rule of God – not just wanting a king.

The governance of a judge is far different from that of a monarch – which they would soon discover.

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[c] 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.

It’s not just true in Biblical times. Even today some of you work for judges and others for monarchs. See what you think.

The rule of a Judge is characterized by:
1. Dependence on decentralized decisions. Tribes and clans are given authority.
2. An itinerant authority without a central location of control.
3. Elders and local traditions are important.
4. An assumption of individual responsibility and independence.
5. Matters are settled at the lowest level possible before moving up.

The rule of a Monarch is characterized by:
1. A central figure surrounded by a court of military and political vested interests.
2. An expensive bureaucracy supported by taxes.
3. Delayed decisions moving through increasing layers
4. Upward delegation and loss of personal responsibility
5. Centralized power
6. Isolation of leadership from the people

That is what Samuel was trying to tell them but they would not or could not listen. They wanted to trade their freedom for a false sense of security…and they did just that. There is something in us that desires a king.

Look at the language. Whereas they were used to operating as a loosely organized confederation of tribes that would respond together whenever there was a threat they were now asking for something very different.

“We want a king over us.”
“We want a king to go out for us.”
“We want a king to fight for us.”

In the past they had organized themselves to fight but now they wanted someone to do it for them. Samuel was not a military leader so the people fought their own battles. What was required was right standing with God through fasting and confession. However, it was easier and more appealing to find a hero than it was to fast and confess and depend on the Lord. They wanted a champion. They wanted a leader and someone who would take over their personal responsibility and risk. It’s interesting to me to see what character traits they wanted. None are mentioned. They are not looking for integrity or godliness. All they want is someone who will do it for them. They want a winner.

Too often, the same is true in church and our religious organizations, isn’t it? Yes, we want our leaders to be spiritual but we also want them to be celebrities and winners. I read an article by Mark Galli this week that points that out. The title is Why We Need More Chaplains and Fewer Leaders.  Sounds odd at first but listen to what he says.

“A few years ago, one website encouraging “innovative” ministry listed five types of pastors that a church might call: Catalytic, Cultivator, Conflict-Quelling, Chaplain, and Catatonic….At the top of the list were Catalytic pastors, who are “gifted in the prophetic and tend to be charismatic leaders. These pastors have lots of energy and are focused on the mission of the church … that is, reaching the community for Jesus Christ. In the ‘right’ church, they’ll grow it without a doubt.”

“A Chaplain pastor, on the other hand, was mired near the bottom. A Chaplain pastor is “wired for peace, harmony, and pastoral care. This is the type of pastor that has been produced by seminaries for several decades, though a few … a very few … seminaries are retooling. Chaplain pastors eschew change and value status quo. They don’t want to stir the waters; rather, they want to bring healing to hurting souls.” And if that weren’t bad enough, “Chaplain pastors don’t grow churches. In fact, a Chaplain pastor will hasten a congregation’s demise because they tend to focus on those within the congregation rather than in bringing new converts to Jesus Christ.”

We find ourselves in an odd period of church history when many people have become so used to large, impersonal institutions that they want that in their church as well. Thus the attraction of mega churches, where people can blend in and not be seen if they want.

In an increasingly secular, capitalist culture, it’s understandable that so many clergy are fascinated with the idea that they can be leaders and entrepreneurs. These are the people our culture admires most—those like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates or whoever has made a ton of money and a practical difference.

Such is the culture we live in, where successful business people seem to enjoy really important work, and pastors, if they are not careful, will be chaplains, mere servants.

When Matthew wanted to sum up what Jesus did over and over, time and again with people, this is the sort of thing he said: “He healed them.”
It’s also interesting to note the way Jesus framed how his disciples should think about their ministries: “And Jesus called them to him and said to them, ‘You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles like to be seen as “leaders,” “entrepreneurs,” “catalysts for growth,” and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many’ ” (Mark 10:42-45).

So who told us that the pastor is primarily a leader/entrepreneur/change agent and anything but a curer of souls? And why do we believe them?

So many of us want to be fans of Jesus – but not followers.

In 8:10-20 Samuel tells them the consequences of what they are asking. How many times do we get to hear the consequences of our decisions and choices ahead of time? Sadly, we are more like Israel than we care to admit. We’ve heard all our lives of the consequences of chasing after success, power, security, prestige, recognition and a particular lifestyle but we do it anyway. He did what they asked but he told them what they could expect. Someone once wrote that freedom has an expiration date and it may be true. It was a little over 200 years between the time Moses delivered them from slavery in Egypt to the time they chose a different kind of slavery. They wanted to be like the rest of the world around them. They were willing to give up their uniqueness but still keep what they had.

In the end, hundreds of years later, their desire to be like the rest of the world around them destroyed them. The ways of God are contrary to the ways of the world.

It’s true that there is something in us that desires a king…but a King worthy of our hearts and service. It is not the king we would choose but one who has chosen us. It is the king of Philippians 2.

6 Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.