How Kings First Rule The People If Israel After The Period Of The Judges

There are many different themes common on the subject of Kingship in Israel that are highlighted throughout scholarly analysis of the subject. Sages of the time, thought to have written Proverbs, believed that the king was a person way beyond the normal run of things. This piece from “Proverbs 30:29-31” is a prime example:

He shows he is weak and not ready to lead. (1 Samuel 9:21). Saul even hides when he is supposed to show himself to the Israelites as the chosen King (1 Samuel 11: 22). Although Saul knows that he cannot lead, he has no choice, he has to follow the Lord’s order. At last, God realizes that Saul was indeed not a leader-type person and chooses another person. God must have known that people are not forced to be leaders, but they themselves should be aware of the ability to be leaders.

The surrounding nations had an influence on the people of Israel and this was not pleasing to God. They wanted a king. They wanted to be like other nations and have a leaded. A king they could see.

During the time of Samuel, the people of Israel desire a king. God had promised to provide for the Israelites and in return God asked for obedience and love. Throughout the Old Testament God always provided for the Israelites yet God’s people regularly rejected him.

As Samuel grew in age he intended to appoint one of his sons as the king of Israel. His sons however did not follow the ways of their father or God. “They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice” (I Samuel 8:3). The people of Israel desired a king, “a king like all the other nations” (Hindson and Yates, 2012. P.164). The people had grown tired of oppression and felt that “the lack of a strong human leader as the cause and did not realize that the reason for the oppression was a spiritual on-their failure to serve God” (Harbin, 2005, p.219). Saul was not God’s choice for the throne but “he was the people’s choice” (Hindson and Yates, 2012. P.164). Saul’s appointment as king was against the “old

First, foreseeing the day that Israel would have a king, expressed in Deuteronomy are instructions for such a time. At this point it should be noted that the idea of Israel having a king, began in the mind of God. Contrary to what some believe about the idea of kinship and God’s supposed disdain for it, Howard mentions the fact that “God has spoken of kings to Abraham from the beginning (Gen. 17:6, 16; 35:11)”; furthermore, he noted that the problem with anointing a king was intention of the people to be like the nations

Jews made it to Caanan for 20 years they settled there. There were 12 tribes each tribe had one judge. The rulers were to unite the kingdom of Israel and prevent outside and invasion. King Saul was the first king. Then came king David.

In 1020 BC, the Israelites appointed Samuel, who was a prophet and judge, to choose the first king. He chose Saul, who was a handsome and mighty warrior. Although Saul had won many battles against Israel’s enemies, he had displeased God and caused him to appoint David as the new king. King David ruled from 1000 to 970 BC and was widely known his bravery, as well as his friendship with King Saul’s son, Jonathan. Due to David’s rising popularity King Saul ordered him

1 When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. 2 The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beer-sheba. 3 Yet his sons did not follow in his ways, but turned aside after gain; they took bribes and perverted justice. 4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, 5 and said to him, “You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways; appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations.” 6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to govern us.” Samuel prayed to the Lord,

Our Old Testament Scripture Reading found the tribes of Israel uniting with their new king, King David. The books of 1 and 2 Chronicles lead us to believe that in ancient Israel, there was the hope that this would be an enduring dynasty, meaning that a descendant of King David would always rule over Israel (2 Samuel 5:1-3). The Davidic dynasty did last several hundred years, but to make a long story short, Israel eventually ceased to exist as a nation with a King. There is an Israel today but it is a democracy, like us, and it does not have a king.

When King Solomon’s heart was turned away from the living God to idol, and the Lord vowed to take away the kingdom of Israel away from him only living the tribe of Judah to Solomon’s offspring because of his father David (1 Kings 11:4-13). When Solomon died, the united kingdom of Israel was divided into two kingdoms under king Rehoboam’s reign, Solomon’s son. The tribe of Judah and Benjamin became the kingdom of Judah, while the other ten tribes of Israel, became the northern kingdom, and was governed by Jeroboam the son of Nebat who reigned over the ten tribes known as the house of Israel (1 kings 12:1-25).

The book of 1 Samuel, a part of the Old Testament, sparks the dawn of the United Kingdom of Israel by telling of its first king, Saul. Samuel is one of the first talked about pre-literary prophets in the bible perhaps because he anointed the first king of the United Kingdom. He is a prophet by definition because he possessed the ability to converse with the almighty Yahweh. Samuel and Saul are key players to the rise of the kingdom but Saul runs into trouble and disobeys God, which leads him to his own inevitable demise.

Aside from conflicting religions, Jewish people also encountered other problems with the monarchy. Hebrews believed that Yahweh was their king and his laws were their laws. In the monarchy, the tribes of Israel appointed a human king and obeyed his laws instead of divine law. This created conflict between the Hebrews that followed the laws of the king, and the Jewish that followed Yahweh and the law of the Torah. The Children of Israel that settled in Palestine between 1250 and 1050 BC found themselves amidst a corrupt monarchy. The monarchy thrived on arbitrary power, large divisions in the economical gap, vast poverty, heavy taxation, slavery, bribery and

Because the judges were corrupt, and because everyone else had a king, Israel asked for one too. They were rushing God’s timing, by asking for a king “like all the other nations have” (1 Samuel 8:5 NLT). They wanted someone they could see to fight their battles for them. They, in a sense, rejected God as their king. This attitude indicates that the people were looking at the other nations and at those rulers’ outward characteristics. So, when the people demanded a king for the second time, God gave them what they demanded.

In The Bible there are multiple ideal societies which are presented, each denoted by the God's approval of that society and its leader. One of these societies is that portrayed in the story of Saul. In this story Samuel, a prophet of God, is given the task of revealing Saul, the ruler who is specified