In 1 Samuel 8, we see where Israel’s monarchy came
from. Samuel the prophet was
getting old and his sons were judges, but they were perverting judgment—turning
aside for money, taking bribes, and so forth, so they would not be good
successors to his righteous judgment.
The elders of Israel got together and went to Samuel with
their concern about this issue and their solution was to make a king over
Israel. The text gives their
reason—“now make us a king to judge us like all the nations” (v5). Another version of their reason is,
“That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and
go out before us, and fight our battles” (v20).
We usually jump on that reasoning that is repeated that they
want to be like all the other nations and we point to that as their problem,
but I think it is not that simple.
We have to understand their society and take into account their history.
Reading through Judges, we see that Israel had these men
that the Lord raised up to deliver Israel from their difficulties, difficulties
that were often caused by their unfaithfulness to God. This rise of deliverers was good, but
if we can imagine life between judges, how uncertain it was when the next judge
would be raised up or who it would be.
If there were competing voices about this, how easy would it be to tell
who to get behind? (Consider Abimelech, who campaigned against his 70 brothers,
all sons of Gideon.)
They really needed a prophet, but it doesn’t seem like there
was any spiritual line of succession of who that would be. It should have gone with the priests at
the tabernacle, but we get no hint that they were involved in anything like
that. (Of course, there may
someday be lost records that come out about that era and we may get a different
picture altogether.)
The surface problem Israel seems to have been anxious to solve is
the problem of leadership succession—who are they people going to get behind
when war threatens? Kingship can
solve that problem—it’s hereditary.
Unfortunately, another problem they had was the problem of judges (and
priests) with wicked sons, and monarchy did not solve that problem, but made it
worse. An efficient election
process would solve that, but considering the only governments around them were
monarchies, it might be hard for them to imagine what that would look like.
It would have been easiest to just get rid of Samuel’s sons as judges
and put in better men.
Again, what they really needed was a prophet to lead them in battle
or to pick someone to general for them. (But they already had that. They had Samuel. So there's a deeper problem as well.)
The Lord told Samuel to warn the people of the disadvantages
of having a king, and we have the list preserved for us.
Notice all the times Samuel says “he will take” about what a
king would do. The things the king
will take represent nearly everything the Israelites have that is most valuable
and productive.
He will take your
sons and appoint them as charioteers and horsemen and runners. (v11). This is a warning of how a king would
create a standing army, which would have to stay in readiness all the time,
require pay and supply, and a place to stay. Men standing constantly at readiness to train and fight
aren’t cultivating the land. They
also require weapons to be made for them, necessitating an arms industry.
This might have sounded good to the Israelites, making it
seem like their children would have opportunities for advancement (or even
prestigious positions), but in reality their scope for growth would be limited
by their superiors’ perception of their merit and the number of openings
available. Real merit might be
passed over for any number of reasons, whereas at home their advancement would
depend upon their ingenuity and how hard they could work.
He will appoint
captains over thousands, fifties, and tens, and set them to harvest his crops
and make his weapons (v12). This
is about the creation of bureaucracy and permanent military hierarchy. Large numbers of helpers leads to need
for chains of command. With
systematic organization, you will also get passing the buck, red tape delays,
and turf wars.
He will take your
daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers (v13). This warns of girls taken from their
families and having to work around strangers who may exploit them or mistreat
them, and teach them highly specialized skills of concocting luxurious foods
and other things beyond what is needed for normal life such that normal skills
of running a household are neglected and only the richest can pay for their
skills. And instead of
becoming queens of their own households, they would be servants in another’s.
He will take the best
fields, vineyards, and olive yards to give to his servants (v14). This warns about how resources would
begin to be concentrated in the hands of a few and an increase in social stratification. It may also be an early mention of
eminent domain in the scriptures.
He will take the
tenth of seed and fruits (v15) and tenth of sheep (v17) to give to his officers
and servants. This is warning
of taxes. For a king to have
something to pay his servants, he has to have a source of revenue. That revenue has to come from somewhere
and unless he takes office with great wealth already, he won’t have time to
earn it because of his other duties.
Thus it has to come from taxes.
He will take your
servants and best young men and your beasts of burden and put them to his work
(v16). When royalty wants to
hire good servants, they generally get them from somewhere, but the people they
take them from have no way of competing to keep those human resources because
everyone thinks it is an honor to serve royalty. Good servants are hard to find and hard to replace, so
they’d lose their best workers, while the king might not have openings to best
use the talents of the people serving him.
And this is if the king is still trying to be just. Injustice makes the taking even worse.
So basically, serving royalty is a big diversion of people
and stuff and labor because for the king to do his job protecting he has to
have resources to protect and govern with. To have their standing army ready, they have to have
something to pay them, or lots of farms to feed them with. The kings also have to negotiate with
other heads of state and their bargaining position is strengthened if they have
prestige that comes from a wealth of resources at their disposal. However, that means all those resources
are either sitting around, or they need bureaucracy to work them, so waste and
inefficiencies are introduced and monarchy becomes a resource suck.
In the past, Israel made do by having someone blow the
trumpet and summon everyone to come do their bit for the country and they just
had to trust that it would be enough and people would come. And it worked, but it was so uncertain and always looked upon as a miracle
that it worked, but I guess they really wanted something they could
automatically resort to.
What is cool about
this chapter is that the people saw the problem with Samuel’s sons as judges
and brought the matter to Samuel’s attention and proposed a solution. The solution wasn’t a good one, but
they were at least involved. What
is also cool is that three times the Lord says to Samuel, “Hearken unto the
people.” Even as the people want
the wrong thing as a solution, the Lord is honoring their collective
agency. We get a hint of that
principle more fully mentioned in the Book of Mormon that the voice of the
people and what they want is a bellwether about the direction society is
going. When the voice of the
people want what is good, great!
But when they don’t, it is a very sad thing and indicates destruction is
coming.
I have to wonder if the Lord’s instructions to Samuel,
“Hearken unto the people” is also for Samuel on a personal level as well as a
political level. He may have felt
very unhappy about being rejected by the people wanting a king. It is hard to make wise decisions and
react appropriately when you’re feeling attacked or rejected, especially by
many people. (I’ve had a little
dose of that myself and it is painful.)
It’s possible that hearkening to the people and putting energies into
understanding their view would help Samuel get over his personal feelings. (Actually, I know that is true because
I’ve had recent experience where listening more closely to my husband’s
concerns helped me get over defensive and resentful feelings.)
I also have to wonder what would have happened if, after
Samuel warned the people, the people had relinquished their desire for a
king. If they had said, “Okay, no
king. What should we do instead?”
what would have happened? Would
they have created more judges in a more systematized way like the Nephites in
the Book of Mormon? Would they
have created some sort of representative government? Would they have gotten more of a prophetically chosen system
of executives? Who knows?
I like how this chapter shows us a sample of dialogue
between the Lord had His people through the prophet. The people ask Samuel, Samuel goes to the Lord, the Lord
answers and tells Samuel what to say, Samuel passes the message on, the people
answer, Samuel takes that answer to the Lord, and back and forth. It shows the people at least have
the faith that Samuel really does
speak to the Lord and for the Lord, and that seems like an improvement from the
time of Moses. It’s just too bad
that the people have already made up their minds about what they want no matter
what the Lord tells them.
Hopefully we can learn to be smarter with our prayers and be willing to
take “No” and “Not a good idea” answers when they come.
What is also kind of cool about this story is how Samuel
serves as a mediator between God and the people, taking messages between them
and sharing his own concerns with the Lord. It is neat to realize that we have a prophet today who does
the same thing.
It’s good to remember that the Lord knew what was going on
in Israel without the people having to go to the prophet and the prophet having
to tell Him everything. He doesn’t
need prayers to know. Rather, it
is the people and the prophet who need it. Prayer is for us to help us learn honesty, to learn trust in
the Lord, to learn spiritual sensitivity to the Lord, to learn how to follow
the impressions received. It is
the way our will is brought to correspond with the Lord’s, and if that doesn’t
happen, then our prayers are vain.
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