{"id":91017,"date":"2025-10-04T16:14:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T21:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=91017"},"modified":"2025-10-04T16:14:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T21:14:07","slug":"was-israel-having-a-king-sinful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-israel-having-a-king-sinful\/","title":{"rendered":"Was Israel Having a King Sinful?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

by Perry Hall<\/p>\n

A common position is that Israel’s wanting a King was sinful (I Samuel 8). Israel even confesses, “Pray for your servants to Yahweh your God, so that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil by asking for ourselves a king<\/em>” (quoted I Samuel 12:19).<\/p>\n

I suggest to you that Israel having <\/b>a king was not sinful and that God always intended for Israel to have <\/b>a king.<\/p>\n

If the above is true, then why did both God and Samuel condemn Israel for asking for and wanting a king?<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. God said they rejected Him as king.<\/li>\n
  2. They wanted a king like the nations to lead them in battle and judge them.<\/li>\n
  3. They were leading God, rather than letting God lead them.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The problem wasn’t in having <\/b>a king. The problem was not waiting for God to introduce the idea of having <\/b>a king.<\/p>\n

    What evidence do I present that having<\/strong>\u00a0a king was not sinful?<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. God was a king. So Israel had a king.<\/li>\n
    2. The book of Judges is an apologetic for having a king.<\/li>\n
    3. There is a difference between wanting a king like Yahweh (i.e., a man after God’s own heart) and wanting a king like the nations.<\/li>\n
    4. God anoints the kings, giving His approval, and God doesn’t anoint sin.<\/li>\n
    5. Jesus came to be king, but not like the kings of the nations.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      A good analogy would be the temple. Having a temple was not sinful. But building a temple without God’s authority was. When Solomon built the temple, God anointed it by filling it with His glory.<\/p>\n

      The problem for Israel wasn’t about having <\/b>a king. They wanted a king like the nations, and one based on their own authority.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      by Perry Hall A common position is that Israel’s wanting a King was sinful (I Samuel 8). Israel even confesses, “Pray for your servants to Yahweh your God, so that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil by asking for ourselves a king” (quoted I Samuel 12:19). I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1062,621],"class_list":["post-91017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-i-samuel","tag-kings"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":27985,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-was-the-real-sin-for-israel-asking-for-a-king\/","url_meta":{"origin":91017,"position":0},"title":"What was the real sin for Israel asking for a king?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 5, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How does I Samuel 8 as a whole fit in with regards to God's history of redemption and what was the real sin for Israel asking for a king? Answer: This sounds like a question out of a theology class book. I generally decline to answer such questions. But\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1980,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-did-king-david-do-as-king\/","url_meta":{"origin":91017,"position":1},"title":"What did King David do as king?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 14, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What did King David do as king? Answer: I don't know if you are asking for a summary of David's accomplishments or what the duties of a king were in David's time. Below is a quick overview: The Accomplishments of King David David successfully defeated the enemies of Israel,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":85108,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/submission-vs-acquiescence\/","url_meta":{"origin":91017,"position":2},"title":"Submission vs. Acquiescence","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 26, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Chadwick Brewer \"And Samuel said to all the people, \"Do you see him whom the LORD has chosen? There is none like him among all the people.\" And all the people shouted, \"Long live the king!\" (I Samuel 10:24). 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After King David sinned with Bathsheba God said to David if you had only asked \"I\" (God) would have given\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43828,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/both-david-and-saul-sinned-and-admitted-they-sinned-so-why-was-the-kingdom-taken-from-saul-but-not-david\/","url_meta":{"origin":91017,"position":4},"title":"Both David and Saul sinned and admitted they sinned, so why was the kingdom taken from Saul but not David?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, Good day to you. I hope you are well. My question is about two men from the holy Scriptures: King Saul and King David. When Saul sinned against God, God took the kingdom away from him, but when David sinned, God did not take away the kingdom from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33901,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/king-saul-an-i-problem\/","url_meta":{"origin":91017,"position":5},"title":"King Saul – An “I” Problem","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 4, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Ross Ward Text: I Samuel 9-15 Looks to himself - at Gilgal I Samuel 13:5-14 - Saul offers sacrifice Samuel delayed Philistines prepared to attack Saul's soldiers ran scared King Saul's 'I' problem I saw, I said to myself, I have not, I forced myself I Samuel 12:24-25 -\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91017\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}