I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 8-10.

    When Samuel got old he appointed his sons to resolve disputes among the people of Israel. Unfortunately, Samuel’s sons were no better than Eli’s had been. So, the people of Israel decided they needed a king, a powerful central government. After centuries of being in a loose confederation, only coming together under a central leader in times of difficulty, they decided that they needed a central government with more clearly established authority. Samuel warned them that such a central authority would expand its authority and abuse them. The people were sure that the limits in the Law of Moses would keep that from happening, and, besides which, the benefits would outweigh the liabilities. The writer of the Book of Judges (perhaps “compiler” would be a better word for this person) agreed with the people (which is why the Book of Judges several times refers to the lack of a king as an explanation for why everyone did what was right in their own eyes). It is here that we see that the writer/compiler of the two books of Samuel disagreed.
    The people of Israel had experienced two times in a row where the successors to their informal leader had proved to be venal and corrupt. First, there was Eli followed by his sons. Then there was Samuel followed by his sons. Reading this reminded me of the debates regarding the writing and ratifying the U.S. Constitution, and some of the quotes from men of that period about it. What the people of Israel did not understand was that the failure of their “government” (using quotes because they did not have what we would recognize as a government during most of this period) was not due to poor design of that “government”. Rather, it was a result of their failure to remain faithful to God. Instead of doing what the Law of Moses instructed them to do, they did what they decided for themselves was right. The exception was when a leader rose up and guided them to follow God’s laws, but even then, they did so because of the leader, not because they chose to follow God’s commands.