From Judges to Kings over Israel

Questions for Thought

1. Why do people sometimes think they know more than God and their plans are better than His?
2. Into what kind of trouble can thinking we know more than God get us?
3. How does the request for a king fulfill the prophecy in Deuteronomy 17:14?
4. Do Christians today sometimes have a desire to be like others just as Israel did when they wanted a king like all nations?

In the next to last blog, we were studying about the judges. We left off with Samson as the last judge in the book of Judges. Before going on to 1 Samuel where we will read about the judge Eli, there are a few more events recorded in the book of Judges that need to be remembered.

The people had again become very wicked in God’s eyes. In Judges 17-21 a theme that keeps occurring is the fact they had no king in Israel. In Chapter 17, we have the account of a man named Micah who it seems had stolen silver from his mother. She had dedicated the silver to the Lord to make a molten image. She gave the silver to a silver smith who made the silver images which ended up on Micah’s house where he consecrated one of his sons to become a priest. In Judges 17:6 we read: “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.”

A Levite, which if we remember was the tribe of the priests, then came to Micah’s house looking for a place to stay and Micah hired him to become his priest. Micah said all would go well with him now since he had a Levite as his priest. Again in Judges 18:1, we read: “In those days there was no king in Israel…” We also read to this point the tribe of Dan had not taken the land God had given them and they were seeking an inheritance in which to dwell. The tribe sent out some men to search out the land and they too ended up at Micah’s house and stayed with him a while. They met the Levite and knew he was of the tribe of priests. They asked him to inquire of God to know if their journey was going to be prosperous. He told them it would be prosperous. The spies went on and looked at the land and then returned to the tribe and told them they could easily take the land. The tribe sent out 600 men to take the land and as they passed by Micah’s house they stopped in and took his images and persuaded the Levite to go with them so he could be a priest to a tribe instead of just to one family. Micah went after them when he found out what they had done, but there were too many of them for him to retrieve his possessions so he returned home. The tribe of Dan overcame the residents of the land and took it for themselves renaming it Dad. They set up the graven image and and continued to worship falsely until the day of captivity of their land.

Judges 19 begins with the familiar statement: “And in came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel…” Then comes another example of how godless the people were. In this account, a Levite had taken a concubine or a secondary wife who had rights under Hebrew law but did not have the same status as a wife. This concubine had become a whore and left him going back to her dad’s house for four months. The Levite went after her and her dad was pleased to see him. He stayed with the family five days. When the Levite prepared to leave on the fifth day, the dad begged him to stay another night but he would not so he and the concubine left. When night came, the Levite, his servant, and the concubine stopped at Gibeah which belonged to the tribe of Benjamin to spend the night. An old man coming home from work saw them on the street looking for a place to stay. The old man took them in and provided food for them and for the mules. Much like the account we had of Sodom and Gomorrah, the men of the city surrounded the old man’s house and beat on the door wanting him to send out the Levite so they could have sex with him. The old man refused and instead offered his daughter and the concubine. The Levite sent out his concubine and the men abused her all night until the morning. It was so bad she died. The Levite cut her body into 12 pieces and sent them into all the coast of Israel.

When the chiefs of Israel saw what was done, they came together in an assembly of 400,000 chief men who asked what had happened. The Levite told them what had happened and asked for their advice. The men of the assembly sent men to the tribe of Benjamin demanding they deliver the men of Gibeah who had done the wickedness to the concubine into their hands. The men of Benjamin refused to deliver them and chose to protect them instead. So Israel went to the house of God to ask if they should battle Benjamin. God told them yes and they did but lost the first battle. They went back and asked again and God said yes but they lost the second battle. Then they asked God again and He said yes and according to Judges 20:35, God smote Benjamin. The children of Israel destroyed their city with fire and killed the fighting men.

The men of Israel had sworn they would not give their daughters to the Benjaminites as wives but after the battle, they repented and decided they had to make provisions for the men of Benjamin to have wives or else a whole tribe would be cut off. They checked to see if there were any men who had not come out to help in the fight and they discovered the men of Jabesh-gilead had not sent any fighters. So they went and killed the men of Jabesh-gilead along with any women who were not virgins. They ended up with 400 virgins which they brought to the Benjaminites for wives. Of course, this was not enough women, but there was a feast coming up in Shiloh where the young women would be out dancing. The elders of the congregation told the Benjaminites to go to the feast and wait in the vineyards and when a man saw a maiden he wanted, he was to take her. They did so and by that means the tribe of Benjamin was preserved.

Again at the very end of the book in Judges 21:25, we have: “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” So now we go into 1 Samuel where we find the woman Hannah who longed to have a child so strongly she was crying and not eating according to 1 Samuel 1:7. In verses 10-18 we find Hannah at the temple praying. The priest, Eli, watched her mouth move but heard nothing, so he assumed she was drunk. He reprimanded her and Hannah told him she was not drunk but was of a sorrowful spirit and had poured out her soul before the Lord. Eli told her to go in peace and he said, “the God of Israel grant thee thy petition.”

Hannah’s request to God was granted and she had a son she named Samuel. When he was weaned, Hannah took him to Eli and reminded Eli of her prayer to God for a child. She had promised the child to the Lord, so she left Samuel with Eli. She made him a coat each year and took it to him at the temple. The child ministered to the Lord before Eli but Eli’s own sons were evil according to 1 Samuel 2:12. Because of their evil, God sent Eli word that his sons would both die in the same day and then God would raise up another priest who would be faithful.

In 1 Samuel 1:3, God began speaking to Samuel. It was night and Samuel had lain down to sleep when the Lord called him. Samuel thought it was Eli and ran to see what he wanted. This happened three times and on the third time, Eli told Samuel to go back and lie down and if he heard the voice again, he was to say: “Speak, Lord; for they servant heareth.” Samuel did so and God reveled to him the plan to overthrow Eli’s house and remove them from the priesthood. The next morning when Eli asked what God had said, Samuel told him everything and Eli said it is the Lord: led Him do what seems good to Him.

At a certain time, Israel went to war with the Philistines. In the first battle, Israel was beaten badly, so the leaders sent to Shiloh to get the Ark of the Covenant in hopes God would be with them in battle. Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas were with the Ark. When it arrived in the camp, the Philistines were scared because they said the God of the Israelites had come to fight for them, but they did not run away. Instead, the Philistines fought again and defeated Israel. In the battle, the Ark was taken and Eli’s two sons were killed. A messenger carried the news to Eli. He told Eli his two sons were dead and then he mentioned the Ark having been taken. When Eli heard that news, he fell off of his seat backwards and broke his neck and died.

The Philistines put the Ark of the Covenant in the house of their god, Dagon and the next morning Dagon the idol was on the ground. They set him up and the next morning, he was again fallen upon his face to the ground and his head and hands were cut off with only the stump of Dagon left. God punished the Philistines to the point they wanted rid of the Ark so they sent it to Gath where God was against that city too. Then they took it to Ekron where things were not any better. Finally the Philistines put offerings inside the Ark and placed it on a cart which they hitched up to two milk cows. The cows took the Ark back to the Israelites and left it at Bethshemesh where the inhabitants looked inside. The Lord killed 50,070 men because they looked inside. The Bethshemites then sent word to the people of Kirjathjearim to come and get the Ark. They went after the Ark and brought it to their land where it stayed for 20 years.

With Samuel as judge, the people returned to God for another period of time. The Philistines were put back in their place and God’s hand was against them. All was well as long as Samuel was the judge, but when he was old, according to 1 Samuel 8, he made his sons judges over Israel. His sons were not faithful like Samuel but instead they took bribes and made dishonest gain. The elders of Israel went to Samuel and told him they wanted a king. In verse 5, we read, “…now make us a king to judge us like all nations.”

Samuel was not happy about their request, but when he prayed to God about it, God told him to go ahead and do what they said. God said the people had not rejected Samuel, but they had rejected God as they did not want Him to reign over them. Imagine that. They were rejecting God, their creator, their deliverer, and their king. They wanted an earthly king much like the religious world today wants an earthly leader.

In 1 Samuel 8:10-18, Samuel told the people what the king would be like. The king would take their sons, chariots, and horsemen to be his own. He would make them work for him. He would take their daughters to be his cooks and bakers. He would take their fields, vineyards, and olive yards to give to his own servants. He would take a tenth of their seeds and vineyards and sheep. He would take of their servants for his servants. Finally, Samuel said the people would cry to the Lord because of the king they had chosen but the Lord would not hear them.

The people of Samuel’s day were much like we are today in that they would not listen to Samuel but insisted on having their own way. In the next blog, we will begin to look at life of the Israelites under the kings in the united kingdom. Our study will begin in 1 Samuel 9.