There is an interesting exchange between Samuel and the people of Israel. They have demanded that he crown for them a king. Up until this point, Israel was lead by Moses, then Joshua, then a string of judges who would be raised up in their time of need.
Looking around, the people decided they liked the way other nations were led instead. They didn’t want a judge who would step in for a time and then wait until God sent them another judge. They wanted a continuous monarchy family line.
They didn’t trust God’s way of choosing leaders, but God instructs Samuel to allow them this request anyway. However, to impress upon them the seriousness of their sin, he first sends a thunderstorm during the wheat harvest. Wheat needs to dry for harvest, so this was a loss of some of the year’s food.
Admission of Guilt
And all the people said to Samuel, “Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for ourselves a king.”
1 Samuel 12:19
This is a proper response to the judgement of God. Knowing the history of Israel, a person could be forgiven for expecting them to be stiff-necked and angry at the judgement, but this time they are seriously repentant!
Samuel realizes they are aware of their sin, and he comforts them starting with “Do not be afraid.” How do you think the rest of his statement goes? The natural reflex, the way our society thinks about sin now, is to assure them that they aren’t in that much trouble. It wasn’t that bad. Maybe we’d point out mistakes in our own lives that were way worse to comfort them right?
And Samuel said to the people, “Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty. 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. Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you, and I will instruct you in the good and the right way. Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you. But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.”
1 Samuel 12:20-25
Godly Comfort
Rather than attempt to downplay their guilt, he acknowledges the fullness of it. Not only that, he doesn’t flatter them by playing up how important they are to God that he just had to forgive. Instead, he points to how great God’s forgiveness and faithfulness is to have forgiven them and requiring Samuel to pray for and teach them despite their unworthiness, because he has chosen them knowing full well they didn’t deserve it.
We often deal with sin by minimizing it. We deny it or attempt to offset it by talking up how our good outweighs the bad. We will comfort people by saying how much God longs for a relationship with them because of something in them or how others have been forgiven of way worse. At the heart of this view is legalism. It’s the idea that we can outweigh bad with good and that’s why sin must be weighed less and our value esteemed more.
Instead, in this time of Easter celebrations and reflection, we consider how the sacrifice Christ gave for those whom he’s chosen on the cross couldn’t even begin to be earned. Further, that the sins which lead the Son of God to humiliations and suffering of that level cannot be overstated, and to try to downplay them is horrible!
It is inescapable that our sins are great and we have done nothing worthy of redemption. We can’t run from it. It may seem depressing, but there is a greater comfort than simply believing we are “mostly good”. Instead, we are completely forgiven by a God who has chosen us even when we didn’t deserve it at all. We can never be so bad that he doesn’t forgive. We can never fail to be good enough to earn it. We can’t earn it at all, but he chose us anyway!
