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Spiritual Gifts, Volume 4a
If the Hebrews had continued to obey God after they left Egypt,
and had kept his righteous law, he would have gone before them and
prospered them, and made them always a terror to the heathen nations
around them. But they so often followed their own rebellious hearts,
and departed from God, and went into idolatry, that he suffered them
to be overcome by other nations, to humble and punish them. When
in their affliction they cried unto God, he always heard them, and
raised them up a ruler to deliver them from their enemies. They were
so blinded they did not acknowledge that it was their sins which had
caused God to depart from them, and leave them weak and a prey to
their enemies, but they reasoned that it was because they had no one
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invested with kingly authority to command the armies of Israel. They
had not kept in grateful remembrance the many instances God had
given them of his care and great love, but often distrusted his goodness
and mercy.
God had raised up Samuel to judge Israel. He was honored by
all the people. God was to be acknowledged as their great Head,
yet he designated their rulers, and imbued them with his Spirit, and
communicated his will to them through his angels, that they might
instruct the people. God also gave special evidences to the people,
by his mighty works performed through the agency of his chosen
rulers, that they might have confidence that he had invested them with
authority which could not be lightly set aside.
God was angry with his people because they demanded a king. He
gave them a king in his wrath. Yet he bade Samuel to tell the people
faithfully the manner of the kings of the nations around them; that
they would not be as a judge of difficulties of church and State, to
instruct them in the ways of the Lord, like their rulers: that their king
would be exalted, and would require kingly honors, and would exact a
heavy tax or tribute; that they would be oppressed; and that God would
not manifest to them his mighty power, as in Egypt, to deliver them,
but when they should cry unto him in their distress he would not hear
them.
But the people would not receive the advice of Samuel and contin-
ued to demand a king. “And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto
the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee; for they have not
rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over
them.” Here God granted to rebellious Israel that which would prove a