Few prayers are more dangerous than “God, give me what I want”—especially when what you want looks strong, secure, and respectable. In 1 Samuel 8, Israel asks for a crown “like all the nations,” rejecting the King already among them, and God grants the request—setting in motion a search that turns from outward stature to the hidden allegiance of the heart.
The following study questions and transcript are AI generated and may contain errors.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may contain errors.
The sea behind us, the desert before us, we still needed His help, now more than ever. The pillars of mist, the fire we followed, He spoke at the mountain, gave us His law, showed us the way forward, but we chose to ignore it. A cycle of forgetting, generation after generation, chasing idols, the prophets warned us, but injustice kept rising. Kings failed, people rebelled, temple destroyed. A nation in ashes, we abandoned His law. Had He abandoned us?
You know, before we get started here, I just want to take a moment to thank our worship teams. We’ve got great worship teams here at Harvester, and we’ve got Garrett at our O’Fallon campus leading us—him and the team—in a great time of worship, Brad at our St. Charles campus. What I love most about these guys is just their recognition that it’s not just us in this room singing songs to the Lord, but the Lord is here as well.
We’ve been talking about it from Eden to eternity, that God’s heart is to be a God who is with His people, and that’s what worship sets us up with: that acknowledgment that it’s not just us here in these buildings, and it’s God who’s not just in the building but in our presence and in us and through us as well. To step out of moments like that is just a reminder of what we’re getting ready to talk about, something that God has been doing and emphasizing for years.
We’re in this series called Eden to Eternity. If you’re new to Harvester, welcome, glad you’re here. We’re in week number seven, or episode seven as I’m calling it, so if you have your companion guides, episode seven is on page 28. You can open it there and take some notes. If you brought your Bible, hold your Bible up; let me see your Bible, whether it be a printed version or a digital version, it doesn’t matter. Open up to 1 Samuel chapter eight. That’s where we’re going to be today, 1 Samuel chapter eight—that’s how far along in the story we are. We got a long ways to go, so if you’re new to Harvester, welcome. You’re going to get to the good part. You’re going to be here for the good stuff too.
Today’s going to be an interesting one because of where we ended last week. Last week we talked about the book of Judges, and the book ended with this saying: “There was no king in Israel and everybody did what was right in their own eyes.” There was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
Now, let me remind you of who God desired to be. God desired to be a God with His people and has been making every effort to be with His people to the point where He builds up a people, then He takes His people, He gives them a land. In that land, He has them build this tabernacle, this temporary tent that symbolizes His presence and His reign with the people. With the tabernacle there, the people say, “We have no king.” Now, the reality is they did have a king. We learned about this last week, and what was the name of the king? God. Yes, God was the name of the king, and so God was there but the people were like, “No, we got no king. There’s nobody who rules us; we’re a free people now. We rule ourselves and so we’re going to do whatever we want to do.”
Believe it or not, that didn’t work out so well for the people. Anytime you get a group of people who are like, “We want freedom,” anarchy never really works out. Society plummets to the point where eventually the people are like, “You know, maybe we do need a king. Maybe we do need somebody who makes decisions here and leads us in a certain direction.” And so they began to say, not “We don’t need a king,” but “Give us a king. We want a king.” And they make this claim to an interesting guy in the Bible—His name is Samuel.
Samuel is an interesting guy because he serves a role that very few people held in the Bible. In fact, he holds three roles for the nation of Israel. Samuel serves as one of Israel’s judges, which means he is essentially the hand of the king. Whatever God wants him to do, whatever He wants him to lead the people towards, Samuel does that because he’s one of the judges. But Samuel is also a prophet, which means he is the messenger of the king. So if God is the king, Samuel listens for the voice of God, he hears from God, and then he proclaims that truth to the nation. He’s a prophet.
He is judge, he is prophet, but he’s also priest, meaning that he is also the pastor of the nation. He’s clergy, he leads them in worship, he forgives them of their sins, he leads the sacrificial process at the tabernacle, and he serves three of these roles for the nation of Israel.
Now, he begins to get old, and Israel begins to say, “We recognize that Samuel’s not going to be here forever,” and so they begin to say, “We want a crown.” And so the first part of this message, I want to look at Israel saying that they want a crown, and it’s going to feature the very first king of Israel, and his name’s Saul.
Here’s how it goes down in 1 Samuel chapter 8, verses 4-7. It says, “Then all the elders of Israel gathered together, and they came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, ‘Behold, you are old.’ Poor guy, he knows he’s old, but that’s how they start off, ‘Samuel, you’re old.’” Maybe it’s their way of saying, “We know you’re not going to live forever, and we’re starting to think ahead of what’s next,” and they say, “Your sons, they do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king. Give us a king to judge us like all the nations.”
And I want to pause right here and just highlight this phrase: like all the nations. What is Israel asking for in this moment? They’re saying, “Samuel, we appreciate what you’ve done for us and how you’ve served us as judge, as prophet, and priest, but we’re missing something here. We look around us, and all of these other people who are nations, all these other countries, they’re rising up, and they’re rising up in power, and we think that they’re powerful because they have a king, and we look at ourselves, and we don’t have a king. So give us a king, because we want to be like all the nations.”
This shows us a glimpse of Israel’s heart that is incredibly twisted and sad, in my opinion, because let’s remember number one, Israel has a king, and number two, that king’s desire for his people. Right in the beginning of the book of Genesis, when we started this series, we said that God created man in His image; that they are created in the image of God, which means they were created to reflect God, that God’s desire is that the human heart that He created would reflect His goodness and His reign to all of creation.
Instead, the human heart reflected temptation, it reflected its own desires, it reflected its own guilt, its own darkness. And then God tells Abraham, “Abraham, I’m going to, from you, bring a people, and this people is going to reflect me to all the nations, and they’re going to be a blessing to all the nations.”
God’s desire is that this people would be different than the nations so that they could reflect God to those nations. But here’s their prayer: “Samuel, we want a king, and we want this king to not reflect God. We want this king to reflect the world because that would make us look big, that would make us look mighty, and that would make us look strong.”
It goes on to say, “But this thing displeased Samuel when they said, ‘Give us a king to judge us.’” And Samuel prayed to the Lord, and the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, they have rejected Me from being king over them.”
“Samuel, I know it looks like they’re rejecting you and your household, but let me tell you who they’re really rejecting. They’re rejecting Me as their king. They don’t see Me as a king. They don’t see Me as their ruler. They don’t want to listen and obey My voice. They want somebody from their ranks that reflects not Me but the world to lead them.”
“Samuel, give them what they want. Give them what they want.”
So Samuel goes out in the next few chapters, and he finds this young man named Saul. Saul is exactly what they want. And so Samuel brings Saul to the people to present this new king of Israel to the people, and it happens this way in 1 Samuel chapter 10, starting with verse 19.
Samuel looks at the people, Saul by his side, and says, “Today you have rejected your God who saves you from all of your calamities, and who saves you from your distresses. And you have said to Him, ‘Set a king over us.’” Verse 24: “And Samuel said to all the people, ‘Do you see him whom the Lord has chosen? There is none like him among all the people.’”
And all the people shouted, “Long live the king! Long live the king! Long live the king!” The people took one look at Saul and said, “That’s exactly what we were hoping for. That’s exactly what we were hoping for.”
The scriptures do describe Saul and what they would have seen in him. Saul was this man who, like if the other nations were to see him, they would shudder in his presence. Saul was described in the scriptures three ways: that he was wealthy, he was handsome, and he was tall. That’s how the scriptures describe him—wealthy, handsome, and tall.
Now tell me that’s not a good dating profile. Israel’s like, “Swipe right! Long live the king! This is what we’ve been praying for, Lord. This is the man. I knew there was a man for us.” And they swipe right on him; they make him the king, and he becomes the king of the nation.
Now, we’ve got to notice what’s missing from the description. And maybe you should look for this in your dating profiles as well: anything about the heart, anything about his faith, anything about his submission to God as king. None of that is mentioned in this.
Now, the reality is, Saul starts off pretty strong in this role. He puts the crown on his head, and he wears it in a way that honors God. He prays to God, he seeks God out. But the moment danger or trouble comes Saul’s way, all of a sudden this insecure heart, this fearful heart, rises up in him. And something dark within him begins to control the crown that’s on his head.
Because this crown became everything to him. Instead of God being his everything, the crown was Saul’s strength. “As long as I wear this crown, I’m in power, and I have strength and control.” This crown, this position, became his identity. To the point where he begins to hear of, there’s this other king that might take over the throne: “I can never lose this. God, I don’t care what You want, but I’m not giving over this crown, even if it is Your plan.”
Without this crown, he had no clue who he was. It became his sole identity, and keeping that crown mattered more to him than obeying God Himself. He fought desperately to hold on to that crown, even as Israel suffered for it.
Israel prayed, “God, give us a king that reflects the nations,” and Israel got exactly what they wanted, and Israel suffered for it. God answered their prayer.
I think that requires us to pause a moment and ask this question of our prayers: Is there any more dangerous prayer than, “God, give me what I want”? Maybe one of the most dangerous prayers that the heart can pray. “God, give me what I want.”
Now, we rarely say it that way, but I wonder what percentage of your prayers is simply, “God, give me what I want.” You know why I call that a dangerous prayer? Because sometimes He’ll give you exactly what you want, and you’ll suffer for it.
I think it’s probably wise to, on occasion, just pause and pray this prayer: “God, thank You for saying no to some of my prayers. God, thank You for saying no.” When’s the last time you thanked God for saying no? When’s the last time you just paused and said, “God, thank You for saying no”?
The older you get, the more you begin to realize, man, there’s things I wanted when I was younger that I’m so glad God said no to. I’ve got kids who are now a little bit older, high school and college age and beyond. One of the things that they like to do now, because they’re in that relationship phase, is they like to prod into my wife and I’s past relationships in middle school and high school, like, “What was your middle school girlfriend like? Or what was that guy that you had a crush on? What were they like?”
All I could answer to those kinds of questions is, “I’m just grateful that God said no to those prayers in middle school. So grateful that God said no.” I mean, isn’t that true for you? I mean, what about that guy that you were sure was the one after two weeks of knowing him? “Lord, thank You for saying no.”
What about those of you who are Gen X and remember in high school, you wanted a tattoo? Barbed wire tattoo? Thank the Lord. Unless you did get the tattoo, then God answered that—good for you.
But in the 90s, everybody wanted a barbed wire tattoo for some reason, and thank the Lord that Mom and Dad and the Lord said no. Or what about that job that you applied for that you were sure was the right, the perfect job for you? And then you got the rejection letter, and now looking back on it, you’re so grateful for that because what God did next was so much better than what you hoped for then.
Thank the Lord that He says no, and maybe our prayers need to be, “God, protect me from my own prayers. Lord, protect me from my own prayers.”
Israel wanted a crown. God gave them what they’d asked for when God had something better in mind all along. Israel wanted a crown, but where we go to next in the story is that even though they wanted a crown, God wanted a heart. God was looking for a heart.
God wasn’t upset that they wanted a king. God was okay with them having a king, but if they were going to have a king, He wanted a king that reflected His heart, not the nations around him. And that’s where David pops onto the scene.
Eventually, Saul, his kingdom is coming to a close because he’s just being so disobedient to God that God lets Saul know that his reign is not going to last, and that He has somebody else in mind.
In 1 Samuel chapter 13, if you flip over there, 1 Samuel 13, starting with verse 13, it says this: Samuel comes back to Saul and he says, “Saul, you have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, with which He commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever, but now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”
And onto the scene steps this short, rooty, red-headed shepherd from Bethlehem that everybody looked down upon. He was a nobody in everybody’s sight, and God says, “This is the king. This is the kind of person I’m looking to reign over my country.” And David steps into the scene.
Another way it happens is Samuel goes to this farm in the Bethlehem area, and he looks at all these people who live there, all these brothers of the son of Jesse, and he sees some guys who are like, “Man, that’s a tall, handsome-looking guy. He could be king.” God’s like, “Nope.” What about this guy? He’s tall, handsome-looking. What about this guy? He’s not tall, but he’s handsome. And God’s saying no to each one of them until he gets to the end of the list, and little David pops onto the scene, and God says, “This one right here.”
And Samuel’s like, “Are you sure? Are you sure? Like, this one?” Not even his dad believed in him. He didn’t even bring him here to be looked at, to be considered for king. And God essentially tells Samuel, “Man looks at the appearance. Man looks at the outward appearance, but I look at the heart.”
And he’s contrasting what the people wanted versus what God wants. The people wanted a Saul; what I want is someone who on the inside has their heart that knows who the king is. And so Samuel anoints David as king.
We don’t have time to go through David’s story, but man, what a story he has in the coming chapters and books of the Old Testament. His story is one that’s worth reading, worth studying. Israel’s greatest king was King David.
But I’ll tell you this: David was far from a perfect king. I think the mentality can be, “Well, Saul was bad, David was good.” Well, the reality is neither of them really were perfect. But the difference between the two was that when Saul wore the crown, Saul was convinced that he was king. When David wore the crown, David knew who the king really was.
That was the difference between the two. David wore the crown, but in his heart, his heart knew that God was reigning above. And so his role was to listen to God, to hear from God, to know God’s heart, and then to express that through his reign, through his position.
Which means when David won victories—and he had a lot of victories—you’ve heard of the David and Goliath story. You’ve heard of him recapturing the Ark of the Covenant from the Philistines and bringing it back to Israel.
When he had those victories, how did he respond in victory? He responded with worship of God. He also had a lot of defeats, and a lot of times where his heart was showing sin like our hearts do. And in those moments of trouble, what did his heart do? His heart cries out for God.
When he commits sin and he’s confronted by someone, he doesn’t blame other people. He doesn’t lie about it. But when he’s confronted with sin, what does his heart do? His heart repents.
It seems like whatever happened to him, his heart was always seeking God. Like every time something good was happening, he would step closer to God. Every time something bad was happening, he would step closer to God.
One of the most interesting books we have in the Bible is the book of Psalms. The Psalms are simply David’s diary, his journal of his entire life, the ups and downs and the valleys of it, and how he responded to each moment.
In the Psalms, we see these moments where David experiences this great victory in life. He never stands up and says, “Look at me, look how great I am. I am a strong king.” In the victories, he always goes to God and says, “God, You are my strength. You are my rock. It’s not by my power that any of this happened. It’s not because I’m wearing the crown, but it’s because You are wearing the crown that anything good happens in this world.”
In the victories, he sings out to God. But then in the defeats, whenever he’s experiencing sin, whenever he’s experiencing maybe distance in his relationship with God, he doesn’t distance further, but rather he pulls into God and says, “How long, oh Lord, am I going to remain here in this darkness? Lord, rescue me. God, I put my trust in You.”
He always moved closer to God. And I think that’s a very interesting contrast to Adam and Eve and their relationship with God when they sinned, as opposed to David’s.
Remember Adam and Eve, how they responded to their sin. They ate of the fruit of the tree, and in the midst of that, they recognized immediately that they had done something wrong, to the point where they noticed their nakedness, as if like they were exposed now, that who they really are was out for everybody to see.
And in that moment, they drew back in shame. And they hid in the bushes, afraid to be near God.
Now David experiences the same thing. David commits one of the most heinous acts in the Old Testament where he uses his power to sexually abuse a woman, kill her husband, and through his power, makes her his wife. And then he’s confronted with it.
And in that moment, all of a sudden, nakedness—everybody sees and knows what I’ve done. And shame.
And what does he do with that? He doesn’t draw away from God. He takes that, and he courageously walks towards God as if to say, “It’s true, and I’m Yours.”
It’s this heart that says, “God, I’m not walking away. I’m not moving away from You. I’m taking everything, the victories and the defeats, to You.”
And God wasn’t looking for a perfect person, a sinless person. What He was looking for was a heart that would draw into Him no matter what. God is a God after the heart.
You know, David becomes the greatest king despite his imperfections and his failures. And he gets to near the end of his reign; he’s becoming an older man now. He’s accomplished a lot of victories. One of the biggest ones was that he solidifies the capital in this new land, in the city of Jerusalem. He builds his palace and he makes that the center of the nation, but also the center of worship. And that’s where people are coming to worship God.
Near the end of his life, he knows his reign is getting ready to be over. He knows that he’s wearing the crown for now, but God will wear it forever. And so the way that he wants to express that to God, he says, “You know, God, I would love to build You a house.”
“You’ve been living in this tabernacle, this temporary tent that can be torn down and built up. You’re not temporary though. I’m temporary. I’m not going to be here. You’re going to be here forever, God. So I want to build You a temple out of stones that just reflects the glory of who You are.”
And what I love about this conversation between him and God is that God, He honors that conversation, but He does something special for David in the moment. He pulls David out of what we’ve been calling the lower story, the day-to-day things that are happening in the scripture, and He gives David a picture of all time, what He’s up to and what He’s been up to since the Garden of Eden and what He’s going to do in eternity.
He says, “David, can I show you something? I know you want to build a permanent house for Me, but can I show you the house that I’ve been building since the beginning?”
And He says it this way in 2 Samuel chapter 7. God says to David in verse 12 and following, “David, when your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build My house for My name. This thing that you want to do, this temple you want to build, he shall build this house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”
Now here, verse 14: “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to Me a son.” Now we’re going to come back to this, but notice this: He’s saying, “David, there’s a guy coming, a person from your own body, from your own flesh, who is going to reign forever, but I’m going to be his father. He’s going to be My son. He’s going to look up to Me, not you, as his father.”
He goes on to say, “When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but My steadfast love will not depart from him as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And David, your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before Me. Your throne shall be established forever.”
What’s God trying to tell David here in this passage? Two things that I think are worth noting.
Number one is I think God’s trying to emphasize to David that He’s a dwell-with kind of God. He’s a dwell-with kind of God.
We talked a few weeks ago that God’s not a God who stays on the mountains. God’s not a God who wants to stay in heaven and associate us with us from a distance. He’s a God who wants to be with us, and that’s why the tabernacle was built. It was the representation of God with us among the people.
And so David’s like, “Well, if that’s how You’re with us, then let me build You a permanent house.” And I think what God’s trying to tell David is, “I’m not really a tabernacle kind of God. I’m not really a stay-in-the-temple-here’s-your-place kind of God. I’ve got bigger plans than tabernacle and temple. You want to build a house for Me, but what I’m building is bigger than a house. I’m building a household. That’s what I plan on living in. I don’t want to live in a building. I want to live in a people. I don’t want to live in a building. I want to live in a heart that is chasing after Me. And it’s going to come from your son, David. It’s going to come from your son.”
Now we’ve got to ask, who’s this son that is being talked about here? Who’s this son that’s being talked about here? Because obviously God is telling David something that’s coming in the future.
I think in the immediate, the son that He’s talking about is David’s literal son, this physical son, Solomon, who’s going to take the throne very soon. Solomon is David’s son through Bathsheba, and he’s going to sit on David’s throne next. And he is going to be the one who actually builds the house, who builds the temple of God.
And then Solomon is not as good as his father. When he sins, God does discipline him. When he commits iniquity, God does bring stripes and discipline on him.
But when you look at the rest of this passage about this son who’s going to sit on the throne forever, this kingdom that is always going to last, that no one’s ever going to take it away, it has to be more than just Solomon that He’s talking about here. Because what we’re going to find out real soon is that when Solomon takes over, Solomon’s reign is not going to last forever. Solomon is going to die, and he’s going to give up the throne. His sons are going to take the throne. Israel is going to have a civil war, and they’re going to split. Eventually, they’re going to lose the entire nation. The temple is going to be destroyed. The people are going to be exiled out of the land.
And so there must be somebody else that this is talking about. Because we go through this time, and all of Israel is saying, “God, You promised a king, You promised a throne that will last forever. How is it possible if it’s not Solomon?”
Eventually, what begins to happen in the people’s heart is that they begin to take that promise off of Solomon and put it onto another king that’s coming. Another king sits on the throne. Maybe it’s him, not him. Another king comes. Maybe it’s him, not him.
And eventually, the people begin to see what God is up to—that this promise was always bigger than Solomon. He’s building something bigger than David. He’s building something bigger than Solomon. And that a better king must be on the way. A better king must be on the way.
And so their first request becomes their heartfelt prayer. Remember their first request? “God, give us a king like the nations.”
Now they’re beginning to pray, “God, give us a king like David. You promised that David’s son is going to reign forever. God, give us that kind of king. Give us a king, a king who longs for You, and a king who longs for Your heart. God, give us a king who rescues us from our hearts. Give us a king who will conquer sin. A king who will conquer death. Give us a king who will never die. Give us a king who will reign as David’s son and as Your son, and You as his father forever. God, give us a king.”
That’s a prayer God will answer.
I love what God does for David here though. He shows him that bigger picture of what’s happening and hints at what’s to come. Let’s look at that promise and how it’s been passed down from generation to generation.
Week one, we talked about Eve, Adam and Eve, and their failure and how God pulled them out of the darkness to give them a glimpse at what was coming. And God looked at Eve and said, “Eve, someday an offspring of yours will crush sin and death.”
“I know the darkness of your heart. You’ve wandered away from Me, and now sin and death is a reality, but I’m not done yet. One day a child of yours, Eve, is going to come and crush it all. Defeat sin and death.”
Adam and Eve die, but the promise goes on to the next generation and the next generation, and then it lands in Abraham’s lap. Abraham and his wife Sarah, who were old in age and Sarah unable to have a child. God comes to Abraham and Sarah and says, “You’re actually going to have a child, and that child will bless all the nations.”
That child will have a family tree that is more than the stars in the heavens. You won’t even be able to count them, and through you, Abraham and Sarah, what was promised to Eve will be passed through as a blessing to the nations.
And then Abraham and Sarah go to the grave, but the promise keeps going on to the next generation and the next generation to where we get to David. And now David is told that a child of his will reign forever as God’s son.
And God is beginning to give us a little glimpse of the upper story, what He’s been doing throughout the whole thing. I know the Bible’s hard to read, but what we see in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, the Kings, Samuel, Chronicles, and beyond—and the prophets—is that God’s doing something big here.
He’s bringing about the answer to Eve’s prayer. He’s bringing about the answer to Abraham’s prayer. He’s bringing about the answer to David’s prayer. He’s bringing about a King who will reign over it all, a King who will crush sin and death, a King who will be a blessing not just to Israel but to all the nations, and a King who will reign forever.
Though he is flesh, somehow he is also God. This is a King that Israel needed.
What the story shows us is that while we are a people that wander, God remains faithful. That there’s a God who meets with His people in their mess, that He cares for them as a father, and He carries that promise from one generation to the next.
And the God who did that for Eve, the God who did that for Abraham, the God who did that for David can do it for you too. He can come into your mess, and He can be your King. The question is, is that the kind of King you want?
Israel, they have a King. They have a kingdom. David is that King right now, but a better King is coming. And I’ll tell you this: what we’re going to learn next in the story is that Israel is going to need a better King because they’re getting ready to lose everything. But that’s a story for next week.
Church, would you stand with me, and let’s pray.
Father, I thank You for Your faithfulness to us in the middle of our unfaithfulness to You. But God, my prayer is that as we stand here as a people who believe in You, who have been baptized into Your name, who confess You every single day, a people that desires to be Your sons and daughters, that number one, You forgive us of our sins and number two, that You keep showing us that we are Your sons and Your daughters.
Show us Your faithfulness. Show us Your goodness and teach our hearts to sing out to You in worship in the mountaintops and in the valleys because, after all, You’re the King and we’re not.
So in Jesus’ name we pray. Everybody say it with me. Amen.
Amen.
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