In mid-October, as unrest spread through parts of Paris, a shopkeeper named Hassan watched his life's work disappear on his phone. He had come to the city around the year 2000, worked in restaurants to save money, and finally opened a shop selling electronics. Expecting trouble that night, he locked up and stayed away. Then his security cameras showed about thirty people inside the store.
He talked his way past the police to reach the building, but a young man raised a glass bottle and threatened him if he came any closer. So he stood back and watched as boys of about fifteen passed out phones and watches, and even cut open the parcels waiting to be shipped. Ten years of work, as he put it, destroyed in one night by human greed.
Pastor Glenn Hill opened with Hassan's story to close an eight-part series on the first chapters of 1 Samuel, "Living in Messy Times." The final message carried the title "Broken Legacy," and a single question: what do you do when your legacy cannot continue?
From revival to a request
The series had already walked through Israel's mistakes and recoveries. When Hophni carried the ark into battle as if it were a lucky charm, an object that would make God do what they wanted, Israel lost. Months later, at that same place, God gave them victory, and Samuel set up a stone and named it Ebenezer, "stone of help."
By the end of chapter 7, Samuel is judging Israel on a yearly circuit between Bethel, Gilgal and Mizpah, "a four church district," Pastor Hill joked, always coming home to Ramah. Israel has put away its idols. There has been revival. Then the page turns.
When Samuel grew old, he made his sons Joel and Abijah judges in Beersheba. "But his sons did not walk in his ways." A child turning out different from a parent is not necessarily bad, Pastor Hill noted, but these two turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes and perverted justice. Everything was about them.
So the elders of Israel came to Samuel at Ramah with bad news: you are old, your sons are not like you, so give us a king to judge us like all the nations. People rarely ask for change when things are going well, he observed. They look for the weak point, and they had found it.
Samuel took it to God
But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” So Samuel prayed to the Lord.
Pastor Hill remembered working on the maintenance crew at Andrews University, when the boss asked a coworker to stop using strong language. "Well, what am I supposed to say?" the man asked. "This displeases me," the boss offered, to laughter. It never quite conveyed how anyone felt.
Yet the Bible speaks kindly here about a hard emotion. Samuel was not merely grumpy; he knew exactly what was wrong. And instead of blowing his lid at the elders, he prayed. Whether it is anger, grief or fear, Scripture repeatedly shows God's people bringing their feelings to Him: this is what I feel, it's wrong, deal with it.
"They have rejected Me"
And the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.”
Our strongest emotions often come from asking what is being taken away from me, Pastor Hill said. God reframes it: it isn't about you, it's about Me. He compared it to Jesus on the cross, praying "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" while they caused Him so much pain. It is part of the great controversy.
God also told Samuel that Israel had been forsaking Him and serving other gods ever since He brought them out of Egypt: "so they are doing to you also." Samuel was experiencing nothing God had not already experienced, over and over.
It's helpful to realize I'm not in this alone. God has already walked that path.
The cost of a king
God told Samuel to listen to the people, but to solemnly warn them first and show them the ways of the king who would reign over them. Samuel spelled it out. A king would take their sons for his chariots and horsemen, to plow his ground and make his weapons. He would take their daughters as perfumers, cooks and bakers. He would take the best of their fields, vineyards and olive groves, a tenth of their grain, their servants and their donkeys. In the end, Samuel said, you will be his servants.
And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the Lord will not hear you in that day.
"That's horrible," Pastor Hill admitted. Thank God it doesn't end there: as hearts turn back to God, His response turns back to them. But the warning is solemn.
Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, “No, but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.”
Reading it for the first time, you want to shout, please don't do it. But they wanted to be normal. Parents know the argument, he said: everybody's doing it. Which usually means three people in the class.
And they wanted a king to fight their battles. Pastor Hill recalled Abigail's words to David in 1 Samuel 25, that David was the one who fights the Lord's battles. There is a difference.
Do I fight Glenn's battles or God's battles?
When we fight our own battles, he said, we are often not in a position to do what God wants.
Seven highlights for a lost legacy
Samuel listened to all the people's words and repeated them in the hearing of the Lord. God answered a third time: heed their voice, and make them a king. Samuel sent everyone home. The story is left unresolved, Pastor Hill said, and the series could pick it up again later.
Samuel's sons would not carry on his work, just as Eli's sons had not carried on his. Maybe you know that feeling: something you hoped your life would accomplish, cut short. Pastor Hill drew seven highlights from chapter 8 for that moment.
- Take it to God. Samuel was displeased, and he prayed.
- Be specific. God already knows, but telling Him exactly what is bothering you is a step toward the healing He provides.
- Sometimes let people face consequences. "Heed the voice of the people." Parents sometimes give a smaller consequence to spare a child from a deadly one, but there are times when we need to let people experience the results of bad choices.
- Remember it isn't about you. "They have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me." Dwelling on what is being taken from me is what deepens the grief, the anger and the fear.
- God has been there too. "So they are doing to you also." God understands from experience; that is the whole purpose of the incarnation. Jesus lived here and faced what we face.
- Give the warning. "Solemnly forewarn them." There are times to share a warning, whether or not it is accepted or believed.
- Let go. "Heed their voice." Even when it is difficult, sometimes we have to let others walk the path they choose.
There's nothing that I can experience today that God has not experienced in some kind of way.
Next steps
Pastor Hill invited everyone to make a simple commitment: I choose to be completely open with God as I tell Him specific details about what's bothering me. I trust Him. It might be messy. For some, he said, the next step is to be baptized, and he invited anyone ready to come forward during the closing song.
That song was "I Must Tell Jesus," chosen because it echoes 1 Samuel 8: "I must tell Jesus all of my trials; I cannot bear these burdens alone." As Samuel did, take it specifically to God. He knows; He has lived this path; He will give us strength.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Header image: Gustave Doré, Samuel Blesses Saul (1866), public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.