1Samuel 8 Rejection

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The book of 1Samuel shows us God’s dealings in the provision of a King for the nation of Israel. As all Scripture is inspired by God, 1 Samuel has a special place in the canon of scripture. We will learn valuable lessons about God’s dealings with the nation of Israel, and God’s dealings with individuals.  There are some peculiarly stressful issues that God’s people in Israel faced, and yet they are issues common to every man in every time. I like to read the books of 1 and 2 Samuel because they give us insight in how to behave godly in a confusing and difficult world.

1 Samuel skips over most of Samuel's life, going from his childhood to old age in the space of a few chapters.  Samuel has been very faithful in ministry during the intervening years and God has used him mightily in the leadership of his people.  But now he finds himself in a very unexpected situation, facing rejection by the very people he has led for decades. 

1. Rejection.  Is there anything in all of life that is harder to handle than rejection?  I don't know about you, but I have experienced a profound sense of rejection several times in my life.  Once was in soccer.  Selection time: last every time! Some of you have faced rejection at work, sometimes called “downsizing” some at  school, or by a family member. I talked a few weeks ago with a very prestigious world renowned doctor, who, because of his race, faced the rejection of his children by an old boys club in the school system.

Rejection hurts!

The Israelites were rejecting Samuel.  But the Lord clarifies the situation.  1Samuel 8:7 But the Lord told him, “Listen to the people and everything they say to you. They have not rejected you; they have rejected Me as their king.  8 They are doing the same thing to you that they have done to Me, since the day I brought them out of Egypt until this day, abandoning Me and worshiping other gods.

Reasonable Reasons For Rejection.

From the ‘practical’ point of view, there was a great deal to be said for the reasonableness and political wisdom of the elders’ suggestion. Samuel had shown that he felt the danger of leaving the nation without a leader, by his nomination of his sons, and the proposal of a king is but carrying his policy a little farther. The hereditary principle once admitted, a full-blown king was evidently the best. There were many inconveniences in the rule by judges. They had no power but that of force of personal character and the authority of an unseen Lord. They left no successors; and long intervals had elapsed, and might again elapse, between the death of one and the rise of another, during which the nation appeared to have no head to guide nor arm to defend it. Examples of strong monarchies surrounded them, and they wanted to have a centre of unity and a defender in the person of a king.

Real Reasons For Rejection.

The true bottom of it was rejection of God. There was an inability to grasp the thought of the unseen God.  They wanted a king ‘to go out before them’ and ‘fight their battles’ (v. 20).  After all, every body else had one! We too are ever being tempted to prefer the solid security of visible supports and delights, to the shadowy help of an unseen Arm. How many of us would feel safer with a good balance at our bank than with God’s promises ! How few Christians, really and habitually ‘walk by faith, not by sight’!

Divine Reasons For Rejection

“Listen to the people and everything they say to you.

God’s dealing with nations and individuals, according to which He lets them have their own way, that they may ‘be filled with their own devices.’  Proverbs 14 :14  The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways: and a good man shall be satisfied from himself.  ESV The backslider in heart will be filled with the fruit of his ways, and a good man will be filled with the fruit of his ways.

My dad had his first job at Small’s Chocolates. He stayed there for a few years. As I grew up I always wondered why he never seemed to like chocolate, particularly dark chocolate. There was a practice there to let the young guys eat as much chocolate as they wanted whenever they wanted. They soon grew sick of chocolate.  I remember dad driving past the Small’s factory, and the smell of rich dark chocolate filled the car, and he was almost physically sick.

There is a tendency in God’s sovereignty for god to give us what we want, even when it is bad for us, for then we will see sin for what it is.

The prodigal son gets his part of the inheritance, the part he craved, and is allowed to go into the far country, just so that he might discover for himself how good and happy it is to starve among the pigs.  Why, not because his father is angry with him, but simply because this experience is the only way make him long for his father’s house.

 God had promised Israel a king (Deuteronomy 17:14,  “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, take possession of it, live in it, and say, ‘We want to appoint a king over us like all the nations around us,’). The elders may have thought that they were only asking for what was in accordance with God’s plan.

But their motive was wrong. God’s plan was to introduce kingship into Israel. There had to be the preparation for the Kingly Messiah! Yet what they were doing is wrong.  God’s Sovereignty is amazing. As Charles Haddon Spurgeon used to quip, He can take a mighty crooked stick and make a sharp straight blow!

Men may wish for right things in a wrong way, and that God uses sin as well as obedience as His instrument. Nothing can stop the march of God’s great purpose through the age.

Acts 2:22 This Jesus the Nazarene was a man pointed out to you by God with miracles, wonders, and signs that God did among you through Him, just as you yourselves know.  23 Though He was delivered up according to God’s determined plan and foreknowledge, you used lawless people to nail Him to a cross and kill Him.

God uses sinful man with sinful plans to achieve His holy purposes.

There will be times when we are rejected for reasons we cannot control, just as Samuel couldn't control his age.  Some of us may have experienced rejection because of our height, looks, personality, gender, social status or race.  These are things we can't do anything about, and we simply must not waste precious emotional energy worrying about them.  If someone rejects us for such things it still hurts, but we must say to ourselves, "Self, I can't do anything about that; that's how God made me.  If someone refuses to accept me because of that, he's got a bigger problem than I have." 

There will be times when we are rejected because of the sinful plans of sinful man. Yet we must understand that God is still working his purposes out.

Responses to Rejection (6-22)

I see two kinds of responses on his part–one emotional and the other spiritual.

Emotional responses.  Verse 6 reads, "But when they said, 'Give us a king to lead us,' this displeased Samuel."  He became discouraged.  Anger welled up in his heart and he probably said to himself, "Well, of all the ungrateful people!  I've worked my tale off for umpteen years at a salary less than I was worth, and this is the thanks I get?"  Have you ever felt like that or said something like that?  Some people even get angry with God when they experience rejection.  Samuel could have said, I suppose, "Look, God, why did I have to grow up separated from my parents and reared by Eli if this is the result of all my preparation for leadership?  Didn't I respond to your call when I was a little boy, saying 'Speak, for your servant is listening?'  Haven't I done everything you've asked of me?  Now look how you're treating me."  And such emotions are understandable, because rejection hits at the heart of our self‑worth.  Defense mechanisms like anger and resentment are almost automatic as we strive to protect our fragile self‑images.  And probably such reactions are relatively harmless unless we allow them to linger and to control our behavior.  And it's exactly here that we can learn so much from Samuel because he refused to wallow in it.  He allowed spiritual responses to overcome his initial emotional response to rejection.  In fact, I see four different spiritual responses that carried him to higher ground:

Spiritual responses:

1.  Prayer.  Look at verse 6 again:  "But when they said, 'Give us a king to lead us,' this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord."  Wouldn't you like to see a copy of that prayer?  I imagine Samuel poured out his hurt to the Lord, telling him many of the things we imagined a few moments ago.  But there's a big difference between being angry at God and praying about our anger to God.  I would imagine he also prayed for wisdom and understanding in his time of loneliness.  Friends, there is no time we need to pray more than when we feel rejection.  We need to bare our soul before God; tell Him what we're feeling; ask Him for wisdom to discern the difference between legitimate and illegitimate reasons for the rejection; ask Him to reveal the hidden agendas; be open to Him using the experience for growth in our lives; and allow Him to help us cope. 

2.  Patience.  Verse 7 continues, "And the Lord told him:  'Listen to all that the people are saying to you.'"  It's another way of saying, "Count to ten, Samuel, before you blast off!"  Not bad advice for all of us.  We must be careful not to react until we've heard everything the other person has to say.  Sometimes people have important criticisms to offer us but they aren't very good at saying them (or maybe we're not very good at listening).  A third party may even be needed to interpret their words to us. 

3.  Perspective.  The reason patience is so important is that one's perspective often changes as one thinks about it and hears more of the facts.  God tells Samuel in verse 7 that he needs the proper perspective:  "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected as their king, but me.  As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you."  This is crucial because we have a great tendency to take rejection personally even when the problem may be a spiritual problem between the other person and the Lord.   What the Lord says to Samuel here must have been a great encouragement to him:  "Samuel, you just happen to be in the one in the middle.  It really wouldn't make any difference if Moses were their leader‑‑they'd still be rejecting his leadership in favor of a king.  They're tired of the theocracy I have set up for them.  They no longer want Me to rule them through godly leaders.  They want a man to rule them.  When you see it in that perspective, Samuel, you will not take it so personally." This principal of perspective has been very helpful to me as a pastor.  I suppose every pastor feels personal rejection when someone leaves the church to attend another fellowship.  The pastor's life is so wrapped up in the church that he can hardly help feeling like he has failed when someone leaves.  But I have learned over the years that there are many different reasons why people leave a church, and while some are spiritual, others are carnal.  Some people are just out of sorts with God, but since they have a hard time expressing their anger toward Him, they express it to me as God's representative.  There may, of course, be other times when someone leaves because I've been a jerk, and if that happens, I have to take it seriously and do my best to correct the problem.  Seeking perspective is a most important response to rejection.

4.  Protest.  It is not the case that every rejection should be met with gentle acquiescence.  We are not called to be "wimps for Jesus."  If through prayer and evaluation we perceive that the rejection we are experiencing is undeserved and perhaps even harmful to others, it may be that God will call upon us to protest.  That's the case with Samuel.  In verse 9 God says to Samuel, "Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do."  In other words, God asks Samuel to inform his rejecters of the consequences of their actions. 

Repentance can come too late.  God tells the people through Samuel in verse 18, "When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the Lord will not answer you in that day."  Willful sin is very dangerous.  When a person has been warned clearly that a certain path of action is displeasing to the Lord and still persists in spiritual stubbornness, he may find a deaf ear from Heaven when he most needs god to hear. 

Does this warning of Samuel get their attention?  Unfortunately, no, for the people refuse to listen to him.  "No!" they say, "We want a king over us." 

1. When we experience personal rejection, we need to remember we're in good company.  We stand in a great and noble train.  Joseph experienced rejection.  Moses experienced it, as did David, nearly all of the prophets, the Twelve, the Apostle Paul, and of course, our Lord Jesus Christ.  In Luke 19 in the parable of the talents the people say of the nobleman, who represents Jesus, "We don't want this man to be our King."  And you remember John 1:11, "Jesus came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him (i.e. they rejected Him)."  Of course, recognizing that we are not the first to be rejected doesn't necessarily make rejection easy to handle, but it does help us gain strength and courage from these examples of godly perseverance.

2. When we experience personal rejection we need to remember that God has not rejected us.  We may go through hard times and lonely places, but our God loves us and stands by us.  We are important and valuable because we were created in His image and gifted for His service.  As the Psalmist says  in Psalm 56:  "Be merciful to me, O God, for men hotly pursue me; all day long they press their attack.  My slanderers pursue me all day long; many are attacking me in their pride.  (Do you ever feel that way?)  When I am afraid, I will trust in you.  In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid.  What can mortal man do to me?"  

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