So Samuel spoke all the words of the Lord to the people who had asked of him a king. 1 Samuel 8:10 NASB

Spoke all the words – Does history really repeat itself? Well, if you read Hebrew history from a biblical perspective, you might come to that conclusion. The text certainly draws your attention to phrases that occur over and over, reminding you that the stories are connected. Samuel speaks all the words of the Lord to the people. But someone else did the same thing centuries before. Moses, the first prophet, also warns the people with all the words of God. This should help us realize that what is occurring in Samuel’s time is a pattern that already occurred in the time of Moses. Once the people were rescued from Egypt. Now they want to return (once again). In fact, in verse 8 there is a specific reference to a violation of the first commandment. They have chosen other gods.

This setting helps us understand the disturbing situation at the beginning of Israel’s monarchy. It demonstrates the level of apostasy among the people. But we need even more background to explain why they are so willing to fall back under the authority of a new Pharaoh, even if the new Pharaoh is appointed by YHVH. The rest of the background is found in the book of Judges. It is a tale of civil unrest, moral decline and social disregard for life itself. “Every man did what was right in his own eyes” is a summary of chaotic behavior; behavior that left the general populace in a state of constant risk. Under the judges (really, chieftains), each tribe had its own agenda and its own rules. The tribes fought each other, and the members of each tribe knew no safety. Judges ends with near social collapse. It is the story of Ruth that begins to heal the entire population by establishing characteristics necessary for a return to order and respect for God. But not yet.

Now, at the moment when the population can no longer deal with the chaos, they ask for one chief, one ruler, one authority. Perhaps that will bring the change they desperately desire. Perhaps that will heal the broken land and the shattered people. What is entirely missing from this perfectly understandable request is God. There is no call for revival, no general repentance, no teshuvah. There is only the request for a political solution to a spiritual problem. God grants it, as He does with most human inadequate attempts, but the consequences are inevitable. Pharaoh returns with a vengeance. It just takes a few decades.

Does history repeat itself? We should hope not, but unfortunately, it certainly seems that it does. We should hope that Israel would learn its lesson. We should hope that we would learn the lesson. But apparently we don’t. We propose the same political solutions to the same spiritual problems again and again, never recognizing that the history of human solutions is a nightmare. And here we are again—back to the Golden Calf—claiming that all we really need is an authority we can see, and things will be better. When will we recognize that the problem is also invisible, buried deep within human consciousness. And you don’t fix an invisible problem with a visible god.

Topical Index: monarchy, Judges, Ruth, Pharaoh, 1 Samuel 8:10