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Remember that Judges ends with a story that looks exactly like Sodom. The author shows that Israel isn't just broken people struggling to follow God but they are now in the seat of the oppressor, not looking out for the wanderer or marginalized. They are oppressing even their own nation and it's from there that the biblical narrative roles into the time of the kings.
Deuteronomy 17
14 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,” 15 be sure to appoint over you a king the Lord your God chooses. He must be from among your fellow Israelites. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not an Israelite.
God doesn't find the request for a king in 1 Samuel 8 to be a problem
1 Samuel 8
4 So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. 5 They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead[b] us, such as all the other nations have.”
6 But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. 8 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. 9 Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights.”
10 Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. 11 He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. 12 Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. 15 He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. 16 Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle[c] and donkeys he will take for his own use. 17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. 18 When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”
19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. 20 Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”
21 When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the Lord. 22 The Lord answered, “Listen to them and give them a king.”
Notice verse 19 is particularly striking - Israel wants to be like the other nations. Not only that but they say they want a king "to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles" which is exactly what Yahweh had done for Israel all throughout Abraham to Moses to Joshua.
Saul
Saul is the man tho "looks impressive to the eye". He's the kind of king that Israel, as they want to be like other nations, would want.
There are many lessons here.
- Saul is a donkey herder for one, who has kind of lost his donkeys and needs to go to the prophet/seer in order to find them
- Israel is supposed to be sheep with a shepherd, but Israel is acting like freaking donkeys so God gives them a king who is not a shepherd but a donkey herder
- Saul is also from the most despised tribe to this point in history from Israel - Benjamin.
David
David is not the kind of man who would be chosen as king... He's the youngest of 8, tending to sheep (probably out with his older sisters). Marty assumes David is 8 years old here.
David is the youngest of 8, a shepherd from the tribe of Judah, who God picks from the "bottom" to lead his people. Yahweh teaches that he alone is the true King, it is not the human king who truly leads the people - the king should lead according to following Yahweh just like the priests were to lead Israel such that Israel could lead the nations back to Yahweh.