Bible Studies

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Samuel, the old and tired circuit court judge, appoints his two sons to replace him as judges in Israel.
“But his sons did not follow his ways. They were swayed by profit; they took bribes and they perverted justice.”(Hebrew Old Testament, Stone edition 2Samuel 8)

“Instead of traveling the cities of Israel as their father had done, they set up a central court in Ramah . . . So that their legal officials and scribes could earn fees from litigants. When great people make important decisions based on such financial considerations, it amounts to bribery.” (Jewish commentary.)

To put it simply, their legal decisions were for sale. They did not serve God. They served the “mammon of wickedness.” in the Greek language “mammon” means both the god of greed, and wealth personified. The false god Mammon was their king. (See Jesus’ words about mammon at Matt 6:24; Luke 16:9,11,13.)

This satanic spirit ruling Samuel’s two sons, influenced the elders of Israel who saw the perversion of justice. They told Samuel:
“Behold, you are old and your sons did not follow your ways. So now, appoint for us a king to judge us, like all the nations.”
Samuel, upset that they had said, “Give us a king to judge us” brought the situation to the Lord in prayer. The Lord answered Samuel like a hurting parent talking about his children. A parent who tried and failed to gain his children’s trust. Like a dad who sees his children heading for trouble, and can’t do anything to stop them because they ignore his advice and help. The Lord said to Samuel (verse 7)l:
“Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for it is not you they have rejected, but it is me whom they have rejected from reigning over them. Like all their deeds that they have done from the day I brought them up from Egypt until this day - they forsook me and worshiped the gods of others. So are they doing to you as well.”

The Lord told Samuel to warn the people of the consequences of having a ruler other than Him. This warning is for all Believers today.
“He will take your sons to be his army, field hands, and servants. He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers. He will confiscate your best fields , vineyards, and olive trees. He will take a tithe of your sheep, and produce, and you will be slaves. He will take your maidservants and servants and your best young men and your donkeys and press them into his service.”(paraphrased)

Notice! The “king” will “take and confiscate.” The people had prospered in personal freedom under God’s appointed Judges and Prophets. They fought their own battles, raised their own crops, owned their property, raised and taught their own sons and daughters family values and traditions, paid tithes only to God, and helped one another. But they surrendered their freedom to another human being. They wanted to be like the other nations. The pagan nations that God detested. They rejected the Lord God and accepted a mere man to be their god: Like their ancestors in the desert who asked Aaron to make a god for them because Moses was so long returning from the mountain.

We don’t need to leap far off the pages of The Book to understand Scripture. Even the elusive mystery of 666 in Revelation is revealed in The Book. A small but important piece of this puzzle is found in 1 Samuel 8:1-22. A hint at the solution is Verse 7.

God did not want a human king for His people. He allowed it to happen because of their stubbornness! Their rejection of God, as king and lord, resulted in Solomon’s golden empire. An empire that today stands both as a tombstone, and as a warning to man’s never-ending attempts to “do it himself”: To build a golden, materialist, prosperous world empire on earth, ruled by mammon Satan) As a result, most Christians are missing the true meaning of God’s “prosperity” message: we have been looking at the genealogy of the wrong “Son of David.”
Jesus Christ is King and Lord!

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