1 Samuel 12 · a question people ask
Was it wrong to ask for a king?
This chapter uses strong words. Samuel speaks of "your wickedness" in "asking for a king" (12:17), and the people say, "we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for a king" (12:19). Yet the same chapter says, "Behold, the LORD has set a king over you" (12:13), and gives the people and the king one set of terms (12:14-15). Moses' law had spoken of this very request: "I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me" (Deuteronomy 17:14). Chapter 8's honest question sets out the two main readings Christians hold; here they are again, resting on this chapter's words. Both agree that the LORD set the king over Israel (12:13), that people and king alike were to follow the LORD (12:14), and that "the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake" (12:22).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
A king was allowed; the reason and the way were wrong
Those who read it this way note that Moses' law gives the terms for a king without forbidding one: "you shall surely set him whom the LORD your God chooses as king over yourselves" (Deuteronomy 17:15). Kings were promised long before: "Kings will come out of you" (Genesis 17:6), and "The scepter will not depart from Judah" (Genesis 49:10). In this chapter the LORD sets the king over Israel (12:13) and gives him and the people the same terms (12:14). They find the wrong in when and why Israel asked: "When you saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, you said to me, ‘No, but a king shall reign over us,’ when the LORD your God was your king" (12:12).
Deuteronomy 17:15 · Genesis 17:6 · Genesis 49:10 · 1 Samuel 12:12-14
Asking for a king was itself the wrong
Those who read it this way take the words of this chapter as the verdict on the asking: "you will know and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the LORD’s sight, in asking for a king" (12:17), and the people's own "we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for a king" (12:19). Samuel answers, "You have indeed done all this evil" (12:20). They set these beside the LORD's words in chapter 8, "they have rejected me as the king over them" (8:7), and Samuel's at Mizpah, "you have today rejected your God" (10:19). They read Deuteronomy 17:14-15 as the LORD setting terms around a request he knew Israel would make.
1 Samuel 12:17 · 1 Samuel 12:19-20 · 1 Samuel 8:7 · 1 Samuel 10:19 · Deuteronomy 17:14-15
The verses
“Now therefore see the king whom you have chosen and whom you have asked for. Behold, the LORD has set a king over you. If you will fear the LORD, and serve him, and listen to his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then both you and also the king who reigns over you are followers of the LORD your God.”
“Isn’t it wheat harvest today? I will call to the LORD, that he may send thunder and rain; and you will know and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the LORD’s sight, in asking for a king.””
“All the people said to Samuel, “Pray for your servants to the LORD your God, that we not die; for we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for a king.””
“For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the LORD to make you a people for himself.”