77. The Great King Swap: An Epic Fail!

G', day, Dave.

Here.

Welcome to Stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

Do you ever feel like you have something good but you want something better?

Like what you have isn't quite right?

Do you dream about what it would be like to have the best thing?

Like maybe you have ice cream and chocolate sauce for dessert, but what you really want is a triple chock sundae with sprinkles on top.

Or you have a family car, but what you really want is a family helicopter or a family tank.

Sometimes we dream of having something better than what we already have.

But can you imagine having the best thing in the world and then wanting to change it for something worse?

Like you have the best teacher in the world, but you'd prefer to be taught by a chimpanzee.

Or you have the best parents in the world, but you really want a computer to be your parent.

Or you have the best sports coach in the world, but you just want to watch coaching tips on YouTube.

That'd be really silly, wouldn't it?

What's weird is that we have the best king in the universe, King Jesus.

And yet often we do the things that he doesn't want us to do.

Instead of doing what he says is best, we choose to do things that are much worse.

In today's story, the people of Israel have someone who's the absolute best king in the universe, but they want to trade him in for someone who's nowhere near as good as.

I wonder if they'll get what they want.

Well, we're about to find out.

Get ready for our next episode of stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

At the end of our last episode, things seemed to be going really well for Israel.

They had repented and turned back to God.

God had given them victory over the Philistines, and he'd also given them a really good leader in their judge, Samuel.

Things were going as good as they'd ever been for Israel.

Now it's many years later, and Samuel's getting old.

He's starting to think about what things will be like after he's died.

Will Israel have a judge to lead them and help them to trust God?

By this stage, Samuel has two sons, Joel and Abijah.

Samuel decides to set them up as judges just like him in a town called Beersheba.

Earlier in the book of 1 Samuel, we met another man who had two sons, Eli, the high priest.

Unfortunately, his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were horrible.

They stole from God's people and they treated women really badly.

But Eli, their dad, he was pretty bad as well.

It isn't really surprising that his two sons turn out the way they do.

But Samuel, he loves God and does lots of good things.

Surely his sons are going to be fine, right?

Unfortunately, it doesn't always work like that.

Sometimes really horrible parents have really great kids, and sometimes it goes the other way.

Samuel's sons are horrible.

When people ask them to decide what's good and what's bad, who's done what's good, who's done what's bad, they don't judge that based on what's good.

They judge it based on who's given them the most money.

They take bribes, which is gifts to make people do what you want.

Imagine if someone punched you but got away with it because they'd paid or bribed the judge.

This is terrible.

What's Israel gonna do?

Samuel's getting old and could die, and they'd be left with these two horrible guys as their judges.

Well, the elders of Israel, the older leading men, get together for a little chat with Samuel.

It seems really good that they don't want Samuel's sons to be judges.

But what they ask Samuel for instead isn't great either.

In fact, it's really bad.

In 1 Samuel, chapter 8, verse 5, they say this to Samuel.

They say, you're old and your sons don't live as you do.

Give us a king to rule over us like all the other nations.

Hang on, hang on.

What's so bad about asking for a king?

All the other countries have a king.

Why can't Israel?

The short answer is they can have a king.

In fact, they already have a king.

God is their king.

But now they're asking for a different king, a human king, a king who can never be as good as God.

In those days, kings had some pretty important jobs.

One, they gave laws to the people to live by.

Two, they judged people to decide whether they had lived by those laws or not.

And three, the king would lead them in battle and hopefully give them victory.

So it's worth asking, does Israel have laws?

Yes, they have the perfect law given to them by God after he brought them out of Egypt.

Does Israel get judged?

Yes.

Sometimes God gives them a human judge, like Samuel, who's really good.

And sometimes God does it even without a human.

Like when he made them lose against the Philistines because they'd done evil.

So what about leading them in battle?

Does God lead them in battle?

Yes, because when they repented and came back to him, he defeated the Philistines and he drove them away.

Just like he defeated the Egyptians.

God is the perfect king.

The Israelites have the best king in the universe.

He's perfect, and any human would be less than that.

But time and time and time again, the Israelites have said, we want someone or something other than the God we have.

This is just the latest version of that.

Samuel is really angry.

He prays to God, and God says to him in verse seven, listen to whatever the people say to you.

They have not rejected you.

They have rejected me from being their king.

They are doing as they have always done.

When I took them out of Egypt, they left me.

They served other gods.

They are doing the same to you.

Now listen to the people, but give them a warning.

Tell them what the king who rules over them will do.

A warning?

What could the warning be?

Well, they want a king who will give.

He'll give laws and fairness and peace and security and victory in battle.

They think if we have a human king, like all the other countries, he'll give us lots of things.

But actually, if they get a king like that, they've got to understand the big thing about him won't be that he's a giver, it'll be that he's a taker.

He'll take and take and take.

And after he's taken so much, they'll be sorry they ever asked for him.

So Samuel says to the people in verse 11, if you have a king ruling over you, this is what he'll do.

He will take your sons.

He will make them serve with his chariots and his horses.

They will run in front of the king's chariot.

The king will make some of your sons commanders.

Over 1,000 men or over 50 men.

He'll make some of your other sons plough his ground and reap his harvest.

He will take others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.

This king will take your daughters.

Some of your daughters will make perfume.

Others will cook and bake for him.

He will take your best fields, vineyards and olive groves.

He will give them to his servants.

He will take one tenth of your grain and grapes and give it to his officers and servants.

He will take your menservants and girl servants.

He will take your best cattle and your donkeys.

He will use them all for his own work.

He will take one tenth of your flocks and you yourselves will become slaves.

When that time comes, you will cry out because of the king you chose.

The Lord will not answer you.

Then do you see the problem?

They have the perfect king, the king who gives them so many good things, things they could never get themselves.

But if they say, no, we don't want him, we want a different king, it's going to be awful.

It'll be so bad, they'll come back to their perfect king, God and ask him for help and he'll be like, nope, this is what you asked for.

Now you have to put up with it.

And have you ever had grown ups warn you not to do something and you're like, nah, I don't need to listen to them.

And so you do it anyway and it goes really badly, just like the grown ups said.

That's kinda like what happens here.

The elders say to Samuel in verse 19, no, we want a king to rule over us.

Then we will be the same as all the other nations.

Our king will judge us, he will go with us and fight our battles.

In other words, we want a king who does everything that God does, but worse.

And God says to Samuel, you must listen to them, give them a king.

What's God doing?

Why is he letting the Israelites get away with this?

Well, on the one hand, he's kind of punishing them by giving them what they want.

He lets them have the king knowing that it's going to be really bad.

They'll get everything they deserve.

On the other hand, God has a really good plan, a really kind plan, a really loving plan.

You see, Israel's going to go on and have lots of human kings.

Some of them will be better than others.

Some will really work hard to try and listen to God.

They'll understand that God is the true king and they're just working for him.

Others will be terrible kings like Ahab, who we heard about right back in the very first episode of Stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

Kings who say, let's worship other gods and who'll treat the Israelites really badly.

But all of the kings, whether they're better or worse, all of them mess up.

They all sin.

They all don't look after God's people as well as God can.

And it shows the Israelites they need a better king, a perfect king, a king like God, and at just the right time, in the perfect way.

God did send the perfect human king.

He's the perfect human king because as well as being the perfect human, he's also the perfect God.

God the son, Jesus.

Jesus is perfect in everything he tells his people to do.

He's perfect in judging what's good and bad.

And he's the perfect warrior king.

He defeats our greatest enemies, sin and death.

And instead of trying to do something different to God the Father, he perfectly, faithfully keeps God's plans forever in your life.

You're going to be tempted to listen to all sorts of people.

Lots of people will try and get you to do things that Jesus doesn't want you to do.

They'll try to lead you away from God instead of towards Him.

Don't give up what's best to get something that's worse.

Jesus is the good perfect king we really need stick with Him.

Back in Israel, God's decided who the first king will be.

Will he be a good king?

Will he be a bad king?

And also, will he be able to find his donkeys?

Well, that's a story for next time.

Thanks for listening to this episode everyone.

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Thanks everyone.

Keep trusting Jesus.

Bye for now.