1 Samuel 8:6–18

But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” So Samuel prayed to the LORD. And the LORD said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day—with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods—so they are doing to you also. Now therefore, heed their voice. However, you shall solemnly forewarn them, and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them.”

So Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who asked him for a king. And he said, “This will be the behavior of the king who will reign over you: He will take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots and to be his horsemen, and some will run before his chariots. He will appoint captains over his thousands and captains over his fifties, will set some to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and some to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers. And he will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his servants. He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage, and give it to his officers and servants. And he will take your male servants, your female servants, your finest young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take a tenth of your sheep. And you will be his servants. And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the LORD will not hear you in that day.”

You can almost feel the grand sweep of history in this passage. The LORD is letting Israel make a huge mistake. Samuel is right; having a king will be a great burden and won’t solve their problems anyway.

But they need to do it to learn an essential lesson—that nothing less than a savior will do.

That’s not just an essential lesson; it’s the essential lesson. It’s what the Old Testament is all about.

The whole Old Testament points to Christ.

The LORD is using a brutal teaching method that would be later explained by President Grant.

“I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution.” — Ulysses S. Grant

The cold truth is that some kinds of learning can’t be made easy. Learning usually takes hard work, and sometimes it even takes pain. The difference is in the kind of learning.

The toughest kind of learning, the kind that’s painful, is unlearning. It’s hard enough to learn something new, but it’s harder to change something that you thought you knew. We don’t let go of ideas easily.

It will take a long time for Israel to unlearn the idea that having a king would be a good thing.

These Monday—Friday DEEPs are written by Mike Slay. The Weekend DEEPs are written by Matt Richardson. To subscribe to all the DEEPs click here:

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The weekly study guides, which include the Monday–Friday devotionals plus related questions for discussion or meditation, are available for download here:

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV stands for the English Standard Version. © Copyright 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved. NIV stands for The Holy Bible, New International Version®. © Copyright 1973 by International Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved. KJV stands for the King James Version.