Unfortunately, sometimes people will take any kind of leadership—including throwing away centuries of good—if that leadership change promises to make everything hunky-dory . . . as if any change could do that. After all, isn’t that how Hitler rose to power? And in our own century, isn’t that the promise which has led to the establishment of countless totalitarian governments? Often it seems that we will surrender precious matters, in exchange for a political leader who promises to take away all our pressing difficulties, instead of dealing with the tough issues ourselves.

Sure, it’s not a major election year; all the more reason to be thinking, praying, and learning. Here’s a sermon from . . .

What’s wrong with a Centralized Power? Be Careful What You Ask For or You May Get It

1 Samuel 8:1-13, 28 & 1 Chronicles 10:13-14

This year’s election sermon is preached early—one reason is so that we do not confuse partisanship with exposition. I started doing this in 1996, and I believe that it is a helpful practice for most congregations. A fair test is: Would I preach this, like this, at this time, if I pastored in Washington, DC? Yes. Regardless of candidate or party? Yes.

Modern politics is infatuated with power. Powers is accrued in many different ways.

For example, when a congressman votes to raise the dole, he expects his constituents to vote him back in to office at the next election. That is a form of political power

The President also has political power in various forms: he may sign executive orders, nominate key judges, and lead his cabinet.

Still greater is the power of a Monarch. For example, a king can make decisions, carry them out, and no one can stop that, unless they overthrow him.

God, who knows human beings better than we know ourselves, thought that the accumulation of such political power would be an ill, not a good. He originally had social groups ruled as families. Patriarchs led groups, and Abraham had a small army, lots of property, and there were no such things as national governments in early human history.

Probably the first mega-ruler recorded in Scripture, who ruled a group larger than his own family, was the mighty hunter, Nimrod, in Genesis 10, who gathered five cities of power.

Then later, God used the model of Exodus 18, in which:

• Administration was dispersed: Jethro advised Moses that there were too many people for one person to rule;
• Broke the population into smaller units;
• Established an appeal system;
• In essence, created an early republicanism.

After this, God used Judges.

Following the time of Moses, various leaders/judges arose. It was a decentralized power and not always the most efficient. Samuel was one of these. 1 Samuel 7:15 tells us that Samuel continued as a judge, going on an annual circuit to deal with hard cases. He “judged Israel” (7:17) from Ramah and worshiped God.

But the people wouldn’t be satisfied with that. They wanted more. They lusted to be like their neighbors—always wanting to conform to images other than those established by God. They coveted the apparent streamlined efficiency of surrounding governments. They seemed stable with a king, it appeared that they could handle matters with consistency and order.

So they come to their leader, Samuel, and ask for a king. Instead, he wanted to appoint his sons to be judges, the people were not satisfied with that. Of course, part of the problem was that his sons were following the pattern of Hophni and Phineas, turning “aside after dishonest gain and accepting bribes and perverting justice.” (8:3) No wonder people did not want their leadership.

In vss. 4 and following from this chapter, we will see:

1. The people’s request and their motivation: If political power is shaped after the current worldly configurations of power, it will fail.
2. Samuel’s response: Weak responses to efforts to centralize power will fail.

III. Samuel’s warning: Centralized power will fail and lead to abuses.

All of this is based on how well God knows us, and his knowledge of what works best.

The temptation to sin ever stalks. In this case, it sought to create little political gods—a re-enactment of Garden of Eden.

In this sermon, I want you to see that God has better patterns for leadership positions than the finest managers and political scientists. All leadership is basically of the one and same nature, and we can learn good leadership patterns best—not from the most current leadership bestsellers—but from the patterns in God’s Word.

The theological dynamics of life are also the same throughout history. By that I mean that God is the same—unchanging. This we call his immutability. God is the same in any period of history. Man is also the same; we’re always characterized by sinfulness and depravity. And the process of salvation is always the same. The Covenant, the nature of man, the character of God, and the possibilities of history are always basically the same . . . in every age, on every continent, and among every religious group. No group of humans has or will manage to escape the basic theological dynamics. They are part of the real world. And in that they are basically the same in all ages and all times . . . then we are fundamentally one with all humans and with each epoch which has gone before us. We can learn from this OT section because these people were just like us. The theological dynamics are the same in every age.

We can learn from these portions of the OT because we can learn from history. God has made us—in his image, with observation-capacity, with the ability to benefit from the lessons of past history, if we’ll commit ourselves to recognizing God’s eternal principles as they occur in our history. Make history your friend, and you’ll be the wiser for it. Remember the 2nd grade Sunday School definition of

history = His Story.

History, then is the ever-unfolding tapestry of God’s purpose.

Several NT verses speak of what we can learn from OT history.

Romans 15:4 says, “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” The OT is for us!

Also consider 1 Corinthians 10:6. Speaking of the time when Israel passed through the Red Sea and were “all baptized” into Christ, Paul writes “Now these things [OT] occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.” Hence the OT is a relevant and effective teacher to NT Christians!

Hebrews 11:39-40 also indicates that NT saints are better off when they are united together with the company of OT saints.

Remember also that according to the NT all scripture is inspired and profitable for our upbuilding (2 Tim. 3:16). So if this is part of that inspired corpus of scripture—and it is—then we can profit from study of it. How can we best profit?

Tonight, let’s consider the selection and origination of the first Monarch of Israel, Saul. Have you ever asked for something . . . perhaps prayed fervently for it and yearned desperately for it? And then received it, only to later wish that you’d never gotten it? I know I have. Sometimes we pray for certain things, thinking that we must have those to survive . . . and then when we get them, we wish that we’d not gotten them.

Haven’t you prayed for:

• A girlfriend/boyfriend in high school, only later to regret a less-than Godly relationship?
• A job that looks ideal, only to discover that it is filled with messes?
• An ideal house, only to find that it has defects?
• A leader for the nation or your church, only to learn that he will not do things the way you want them done?
• Some plan in the church or community that utterly backfired?

That’s why I often counsel people “Be Careful what you ask God for in prayer . . . or you just might get it?” That is applicable to the people of Israel as they begged for their first King, and then got what they requested.

In fact, the history of God’s dealings with his people is seen in this recurring theme. Recall the people during the time of Moses who so desperately wanted a Deliverer?

God gave them one, and all they did from that time on was grumble.

• They wanted to leave Egypt . . . and as soon as they got what they asked for . . . they were sorry.
• As soon as they got in the wilderness they grumbled because they got what they asked for.
• Time after time they asked for something and got it and grumbled about receiving what they asked for—ARE WE ANY DIFFERENT TODAY? Hardly. The theological dynamics are the same! Times haven’t changed.

They grumbled for something. Then got it . . . And then grumbled because they got what they asked for.

They asked for meat and got all the quail they could stand. And then they grumbled because they got what they asked for. Still today be careful what you ask for . . . or you just might get it. That is one of the central lessons that we can learn from the installation of Saul as the first King of Israel.

Be careful what you ask for or you might get it!

Let’s recall a little background on this episode.

The approximate date is 1080 BC. We are in the day of Samuel, the last of the great Judges. Although Samuel is referred to as a “prophet,” he was also a political leader, on the order of a Judge [So was Eli, who led Israel for 40 years at the end of ch. 4].

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