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

When the Israelites asked Samuel to give them a king, they were asking him to give them a government.  They did not need a government to give them laws, God had already given them laws.  They did not need a government to judge between them when they had disputes, God had provided them with judges.  They wanted a government to enforce the laws , to force people to abide by the decisions of the judges, and to be responsible for providing for the common defense.  Those were all things which God had either promised to provide for them, asked them to do for themselves, or a combination of those two things.  The desire for a king, the need for a government, stems from our unwillingness to fully depend on God, or to follow His commands.  Samuel tried to warn them that the government for which they were asking would be composed of the same sorts of people who were why they were asking for a government.  Our society needs a government for the same reason that the Israelites wanted a king, but we must always remember that the more power we give to the government, the more likely that those who make the government work will reject God.  Asking the government to protect us means that we do not trust God to do so.  And yet, even so, God has ordained a government to rule over us, just as He gave the Israelites a king.

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