Samuel's Rule Of Israel

During the time of the judges, the Israelites were not ruled by any king but govern by the word of God that was delivered by the Prophet Samuel. In the book of 1 Samuel 8:1-2, it says that “Samuel was old and he made his son’s Judges over Israel. Now the name of his first born was Joel, and the name of his second, Abiah, they were were Judges in Beer-Sheba”. At the time that Samuel was the acting prophet there were a lot of corruptions and sins occurring. Samuel’s sons were corrupted, not acting in the way of God and cheating the people. Eventually the elders of Israel got together and concluded that they wanted a king like other nations to rule over them. The people of Israel desired a king for several a reasons such as, (1) due to Samuel

The people seemed to focus on Saul’s outward appearance rather than his heart” (Hindson & Yates: Essence, Ch. 16). In this sense the people of Israel should have requested for Samuel to speak to God on their behalf to choose the right king for them that will rule in the way of God not the way of Men, at the right time, instead the people of Israel put themselves in more sin. Samuel told the people of Israelites that they have rejected God in requesting a king, showing God that he was not sufficient enough for them. The people of Israel looked at the victory that Saul had over Nahash the Ammonite in which solidified to the people of Israel that Saul’s is truly the first king of Israel. Saul in the beginning of his reign as king was adhering to the voice of God through Samuel, but eventually Saul’s decision to not adhere fully to the word of God subsequently lead to the downfall of his rein and being rejected by the people of Israel. Also in thinking about the rein of Saul, I believe that God new what he was doing because it appeared that God had in his mind to choose the right king for the people of Israel but their lack of patient led them to choose Saul. God could have easily not listen to the people of Israel but instead he chose to give them the type of king they had in order to fulfill their desire of the type of king they wanted so when it was time to give them the right king which was David they can see the true difference in a proper king ruling in the name of the God then a king ruling in the name of men. One of the historic events that occurred to solidify the end of Saul’s rein had to do with him disobeying in “following the divine command of exterminating the Amalekites” (Exodus 12: 8-16), caused God to fully