Game of Thrones – Careful What you Wish For

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Equipping Men with Biblical Knowledge and Leadership Skills

Category: Personal Study

Thread: Game of Thrones

Post Topic: Be Careful What You Wish For – the people demand a king.

Post in Thread: #2

Previous: The Last Untainted Judge

Scripture: I Samuel 8:6-22

¹⁷He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. ¹⁸And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.
I Samuel 8:17-18

Observations

Context

The last judge, Samuel, was getting old, and his two sons had proven corrupt.
The people knew the time was ripe to demand a king, like all the other nations around them.
They brought their demands to Samuel, with condemning words about his sons.

Samuel’s reaction

Bitterly disappointed, after all his peaceful years as judge, Samuel prayed about it.
God consoled him:
- God told Samuel that it was not Samuel whom they were rejecting.
- The people were rejecting God as their king.
God told Samuel to allow them a king, but to warn them about what they were choosing.
So Samuel warned them. And boy, did he warn them:
- He will appoint your sons to his chariots and to run in front of the chariots
- He will appoint for himself commanders to plow his ground, reap his harvest, and make implements of war
- He’ll take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks
- He’ll give the best of your fields to his servants
- He’ll take a tenth of your grains and vineyards
- He’ll take your best male and female servants and donkeys to work for him
- He’ll take a tenth of your flocks
- You’ll be his slaves
But the people wanted a king like all the other nations.
- To lead them into battles.
- To judge and rule them.
God told Samuel to allow them what they wanted.

Interpretation

Setting

At the time Samuel was confronted by tribal leaders about corruption, he was stationed in Ramah, just to the north of modern-day Jerusalem.

Genre

Narrative description.

Author

The author is unknown, but they had access to the records of the kings and possessed a thorough knowledge of the life and times of Samuel and the events surrounding the first kings of Israel.

Imagine

You’ve led the southern tribes of Israel into an unprecedented time of peace. You’ve judged wisely from city to city. But lately you’ve heard the rumblings from the younger generation, who want a different form of power. Who want a piece of that power. Who feel that the old ways are antiquated. “Why are we the only nation without a king?” they say. “Imagine our strength if all the tribes were united under one ruler, instead of all these judges.”

“We are under one ruler,” you reply. They know you are talking about the God that led their forefathers out of Egypt, yet you notice their eye rolls.

And now your detractors have ammunition. What did you do wrong? The sons of your mentor Eli turned from God, and now, so have yours. Your boys were supposed to clean up the corruption down south, not add to it.

Angrily, you turn to God. Surely, he’ll put an end to it. But no. “Give the people what they want,” he tells you. “But warn them to be careful what they wish for.”

You muster all your strength and belt out the warning. But to no avail. The mob grows more boisterous. You have no choice. They’ll get their king.

Takeaways – Samuel’s warnings came true

The people wanted a human king rather than a Godly king.
The people were more interested in emulating the world around them than setting themselves apart.
There were a few good kings, but Samuel’s warnings ultimately came to pass.
- Their first king, who we’ll study next, turned away from God.
- The kingdom split in two a few generations later, with a string of kings on both sides.
- Moral decay was a trademark of most of these kings. They truly had turned away from God, and turned toward the idols and ways of the pagan nations around them.
- Eventually, both kingdoms were invaded and the people hauled into captivity.

Correlation

Deuteronomy 17:14-20 – Moses predicted that the people would want a king to be like the nations around them.
Samuel’s predictions about future kings came true:
- I Samuel 14:52 – …when Saul saw any strong man, or any valiant man, he attached him to himself.
- I Kings 21:5-7 – King Ahab and his wife Jezebel stole Naboth’s vineyard.
- Hosea 13:10-11 – The prophet states how God gave the people a king in his anger (for them rejecting God as king), and now in his wrath has taken their king away.
Romans 12:2 – Do not be conformed to the things of this world, but renew your mind in Christ.
Psalm 29:10 – King David declares the Lord as King over all. With humility, David knew his earthly throne was due to the grace of God.

Application

Generic Applications

God is king of all.
Don’t love the ways of the world so much that we turn our attention away from what God has for us.
Listen to warnings God puts in the hearts of our spiritual leaders. We should confirm those warnings in Scripture, but also take them seriously.

Personalize it

Am I humbly acknowledging God as Lord and King of my life?

Bible study methodology adapted from Searching the Scriptures with permission from Tyndale House:

Swindoll, Charles, Searching the Scriptures. Tyndale House Publishers, 2016.

Daniel P Warner