“Grant what you command, and command what you will.” This prayer by the great theologian Augustine, Bishop of the north African city of Hippo, stirred up intense opposition from a British monk named Pelagius in the early fifth century. Pelagius was concerned that many Christians, and even many of the clergy, were morally corrupt people, and he blamed it at least in part on Augustine’s teachings. After all, if God must grant what he commands, it follows that we don’t have the ability to obey what he commands apart from divine grace. But if we don’t have that ability, how can God hold us responsible for not obeying him? And if we don’t have the ability to obey God apart from grace, then aren’t we removing all incentives for Christians to try to obey God at all? And thus was born a teaching in the church known as “Pelagianism,” a teaching that affirmed human ability to obey God apart from the internal working of God’s grace. Pelagians argued that when Adam fell into sin, that event did not have any direct effect on us. We do not inherit a sinful nature from Adam; yes, Adam left us a bad example, but all people are born into the world in the same condition as Adam when he was created.
Against Pelagianism, Augustine argued that the Bible teaches that the effects of Adam’s sins on us are radical, leaving us hopeless apart from grace. Consider, for example, Paul’s statement in Romans 8:7-8: “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” It’s not just that unregenerate man does not please God; it is that he cannot please God. The capacity is not within him because of the effects of sin. Or consider Paul’s statement in Ephesians 2:1: “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.” The biblical testimony to the radical effects of sin on us is clear and pervasive.
Augustine won the theological battle. The Council of Carthage in the year 418 condemned Pelagianism as a false teaching. The larger Council of Ephesus in 431 reaffirmed that condemnation, and ever since then Pelagianism has been officially deemed a heresy, a teaching that is fundamentally at odds with the Christian gospel. And yet, Pelagianism hasn’t gone away. It has continued to rear its head in various forms throughout the centuries, even among Christians who wouldn’t want to be labeled Pelagians. And the reason is because Pelagianism seems to be the default mode of our hearts. We have trouble accepting the truth that Scripture plainly declares about the extensiveness and depth of our own sin. We are like fish in water. Do fish know they are in water? Probably not. So it is with us and our sin.
This radical doctrine of sin is necessary to give us a radical doctrine of grace in our salvation. We confess that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, because we confess the extent to which sin has ruined us. But there is something else a radical doctrine of sin does for us: it puts us on a wartime footing with respect to the sin that remains in us who are believers in Christ. Yes, we have been born again by the Spirit of God, but the power of the flesh has not yet gone away. As Paul writes in Galatians 5:17, “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other” (Gal. 5:17). If you are not killing sin, guess what: sin is killing you.1 My concern is that far too many believers do not see this present age as a time of war. They drift along, letting the desires of the flesh carry them wherever it wants, underestimating the power of sin that remains in them, and failing to put up much of a fight. Sinful patterns of thought, sinful motivations, and sinful habits will naturally fester in us if they are not addressed.
This story in 1 Samuel 8, which marks a transitional moment in Israel from the period of the judges to the time of the monarchy, has much to teach us about the deceptive power of sin. May it be for us a window into our own hearts to give us renewed motivation to be aware of what is in us and to fight against the sin that remains.
I want to make four observations from this story about sinful desire that I hope will help equip you to fight against it in your own life. First,
Samuel has been a righteous judge, a godly leader who brought Israel out of a dark time that they formerly experienced under the leadership of the house of Eli. But now the elders of Israel approach Samuel in his old age and ask him to transform their governing structure by appointing a king for them. A king would hold far more power than a judge, not only in his rule but also in the succession of the kingdom to his descendants through a presumed hereditary monarchy. Israel no longer wants to be led by Spirit-empowered men we know as the judges; they want to be led by a king. But why? Notice the way the elders say it in verse 5: “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” The elders of Israel looked around them and saw that their pagan neighbors all had kings, and they wanted to look more like their pagan neighbors, apparently believing that something was working well for the other nations that Israel currently lacked. On this verse the great Baptist theologian John Gill wrote, “It was their greatest honour and glory, as well as happiness, not to be like other nations; as in their religion, laws, and liberties, and so in their form of government; God being their King in such a peculiar sense as he was not of others, but with this they could not be content.” So then what was it specifically that made them want to be like the other nations?
We get our answer in verses 19-20: “But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, ‘No! But there shall be 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.” There it is. They wanted a strong man, a warrior in whom they could place their trust for deliverance and protection from their enemies. Notice how much this vision of a leader contrasts with Samuel. One chapter earlier we read of a time when Samuel called a gathering at Mizpah to express the people’s repentance, and the Philistines seized on that opportunity to attack them. The people implored Samuel to pray for them, and Samuel did. He sacrificed a nursing lamb, cried out to God, and God answered, scattering the Philistines with terrifying thunder from heaven. Samuel was not a military leader. But he was a man whose prayers mobilized the powers of Heaven against the enemies of Israel. Sadly, it seems the elders of Israel had by this point lost sight of that truth, and they no longer wanted to trust in the Lord to deliver them from their enemies. They wanted a deliverer they could see with their own eyes, a strong man who could get the job done for them. We are left with no doubt that this was their motivation when we turn over just a couple of pages to Samuel’s farewell address in chapter 12, where we read in verse 12: “And when you saw that Nahash, the king of the Ammonites came against you, you said to me, ‘No, but a king shall reign over us,’ when the LORD your God was your king.” Israel is apparently aware of a rising threat from the Ammonites, and they want a warrior-king who will go out to battle against them, just like all the other nations have.
And this is why the Lord interprets their request, not as a rejection of Samuel, but as a rejection of himself. Verses 7-9 read, “And the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you.” Now, it may seem hard to square this statement with Moses’ instructions, given many years earlier, in Deuteronomy 17:14-20. The Mosaic Law permitted Israel to appoint a king one day. In fact, Deut. 17:14 even mentions that if Israel one day says, “I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,” then that is something they are permitted to do. But here we need to understand the difference between a law that expresses what God approves, such as, “Love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, and might” (Deut. 6:4) and a law that regulates sinful desire and behavior (e.g., a law pertaining to divorce and remarriage in Deut. 24:1-4). I think the law about the king fits the latter category. God knew they were going to desire a king one day because of their sin, so he told them in the Mosaic Law, “Go ahead and appoint a king, but here are the regulations.” And all the regulations are meant to restrain the king from becoming like the strong men of the other nations! He can’t be a foreigner. He can’t multiply horses for himself. He can’t multiply excessive wealth for himself. He can’t multiply wives for himself, using marriages for political alliances to advance the interests of his kingdom. Above all, he must be a man who knows the Law of God and seeks to rule under it. The vision of kingship you see in Deuteronomy 17 is almost the polar opposite of what the elders of Israel request here.
So what is going on here? Israel does not want to have to trust in the Lord anymore. He delivered them in the past through the effective prayers of Samuel, but they are now seeking to put themselves in a position where they don’t have to trust him to do that again. They are trying to seize control from the Lord and set up their own plan for security and blessing, one that looks more like pagan wisdom than biblical faith. Their sinful desire has deceived them into placing their trust in man over the Lord.
What about us? Does sinful desire ever lead us to try to seize control from God? If you hoard your resources instead of being generous in giving, where is your trust? Isn’t it in the resources you can accrue for yourself rather than in God? If you hold a grudge against someone who has wronged you instead of releasing that matter to the Lord, what are you saying about God? Aren’t you saying that you can’t trust him to handle it? You have to address that wrong that God won’t? When you decide that you want to be married so badly that you are willing to date an unbeliever in clear violation of God’s command, what are you saying? Aren’t you saying that God can’t be trusted, and you have to take this matter into your own hands? When you seek to numb the pain of life with alcohol or by getting high, what are you really trying to do? You are trying to control the pain instead of handing it over to the Lord, because you don’t really trust him with it. Seizing control from God can take a thousand different forms, but at root it’s all the same problem: a lack of faith in the God who has proven time and time again that he can be trusted. Don’t be fooled by the deceptive power of sin. Stay on guard against the temptation to seize control.
A second observation on this story that gives us insight into our own sin is this:
It is interesting to note that this story begins with a genuine problem. Verses 1-3 tell us that Samuel’s sons, whom he appointed as his successors, were wicked men who took bribes and perverted justice. Samuel’s succession plan has the potential to be a train wreck.
I want to make a sidenote here. This story sounds strangely similar to the story of Eli, who also had two wicked sons. And yet in Eli’s case a prophet came and pronounced harsh judgment upon Eli that was fulfilled in his own sudden death and in the destruction of his priestly line. Nothing similar is ever spoken to Samuel. Why not? It seems that Eli’s position as high priest and guardian of the holy place is what makes the difference here. That is, Eli was not judged because he had wicked sons. He was judged because he left his wicked sons in positions of authority in the holy place where they defiled the Lord’s offerings. Samuel is not a steward of the holy place, and while his sons sin grievously, they do not defile the tabernacle. That seems to be the major difference. The fact that Samuel is never blamed for his sons’ character may point us toward the conclusion that godly parents don’t have ultimate control over the hearts of their children. As a parent, if you have raised your children in the teachings of the Lord and they do not walk in those teachings as adults, I want to put your conscience at ease. Don’t add to your own distress over your children the burden of guilt that you are not called to bear. We have every reason to believe Samuel taught his sons well, but Samuel was not sovereign over their hearts.
Now, back to the point at hand: there is a genuine problem in Samuel’s succession plan, but think again about how the elders of Israel respond to it: “Samuel, you are old and your sons are scoundrels. So here’s how we want you to address that: change the structure of the government of our nation by appointing for us a king.” Was that request really the most natural way to address the problem? After all, couldn’t the elders have simply said, “Please remove your sons from being judges, and ask the Lord to raise up a leader who will take your place”? Wouldn’t that kind of request have made much more sense? And on top of that, were the elders of Israel assuming that the problem they perceived in Samuel’s sons was a problem they would be able to avoid by giving exponentially more power to one man? If two men with less power can take bribes and pervert justice, how much more can one man with more power! As a true southerner might say, “That dog won’t hunt.” So what is really going on here? The elders of Israel are using the problem at hand as an excuse to justify something they desire for sinful reasons. It’s a lot easier to say, “We want a king because your sons pervert justice,” than it is to say, “We want a king because we don’t want to depend on God anymore,” but the latter is what was really true.
Sometimes we can convince ourselves that what we are pursuing out of a sinful motive is actually for the sake of righteousness. How many Christian women in difficult marriages have reasoned themselves into filing for divorce based on the claim, “Well, God doesn’t want me to be unhappy”? How many Christians who are dating have given themselves over to sexual immorality because they weren’t on guard against it, assuming that putting in place practical boundaries and accountability is “legalistic”? How many Christians have left churches because they want to escape from accountability, but in the process they find something wrong with the church to serve as a more acceptable justification?
Sinful desire is very skilled at disguising itself. Sometimes it even disguises itself as a form of godliness. The only way we can stay on guard against it is by constant exposure of our hearts to the Word of God, the light of truth that reveals what is really in us. I once had a seminary professor who said that the task of reading the Bible is not so much about interpreting the text, but about letting the text interpret me. Look at the example of sinful rationalization that the elders of Israel engaged in here to try to hide their distrust of God. Take the warning, and watch your own heart.
A third observation about the deceptive power of sin is this:
God tells Samuel to grant their request for a king. Verse 9 reads, “Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.” And then in verses 10-18 Samuel lays out for them a clear warning about what will happen when they have a king. The key verb throughout verses 10-18 is translated, “He will take.” It appears over and over. The king will take your sons to serve in his army, to be his personal bodyguards, to work in his fields, to make his weapons of war. He will take your daughters to serve in his palace as perfumers, cooks, and bakers. He will take your land and your crops to pay off his favored officers. He will take your servants and livestock to work for him, not for you. This warning presupposes the inherent goodness of having a right to your own life, family, and property. The Bible authorizes governments to demand taxes, but it does not authorize them to take whatever they want whenever they want. The biblical ideal is for a government to be small, non-intrusive, and therefore not oppressive. One of the dangers of moving from judges to a monarchy is the expansion of centralized government power that will result in greater opportunities for oppression of the people.
And so all of God’s warnings to the people through Samuel culminate in verses 17-18: “He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the LORD will not answer you in that day.” Do you hear the irony in that verse? The Lord had delivered Israel out of Egypt, out of the house of…slavery! They had cried out to him, and he had answered them. Now here they are in the land of promise, asking God to give them a king who will become a new slave master over them. But this time it will be different: this time they will cry out, but God will not listen. He will allow them to suffer the consequences of their own foolish actions.
So think about what just happened. Samuel has delivered a solemn warning from God to the people of Israel telling them about disastrous consequences if they move ahead with this plan for a king. And Samuel has been known to be a prophet of the Lord. In 1 Samuel 3:19, we have already seen that the Lord let none of his words fall to the ground. That means that Samuel has a proven track record of speaking for God, and what he says will happen, happens. Every single time. God’s warning could not be clearer. So how do the people respond? Verses 19-20: “But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, ‘No! But there shall be 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.” Samuel, thanks but no thanks. We’re pressing on. Think of how deceptive sinful desire must be to cause us to say, “I know what God has said, but I know better this time.” Sinful desire makes us take God lightly and to ignore what we know he has spoken.
In the Scripture there are numerous warnings about sin. In Matthew 5:21-22, Jesus warned that everyone who nurtures anger against his brother is in danger of falling under the judgment of God. In Matthew 5:27-30 Jesus warned against lust, saying that if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away, because it is better for you to be maimed and enter into life than to have your whole body thrown into Hell. In 1 Timothy 4:10 Paul warned that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evils, and in Mark 10:23 Jesus warned, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And yet how many of us, knowing what the Bible says, allow our anger to seethe? How many of us, knowing what the Bible says, allow our lustful desires to go unchecked, and even feed them by what we put in front of our eyes? How many of us, knowing what the Bible says, continue to orient our lives around the prospect of making more money, even at the expense of worshiping and serving the Lord? Sinful desire is so deceptive that it can cause us to pursue sin even when we hear plainly and unmistakably the voice of God Almighty warning us against it. Blinded by our desires, we take God lightly and easily dismiss his warnings, as though we don’t really expect him to follow through on what he has said.
But I don’t want to end on such a negative note today. One final observation from this passage about sin:
I’m alluding here to Joseph’s words in Genesis 50:20, where Joseph assured his brothers that through their wicked act of selling him into slavery, God was at work bringing his plan for their good and his glory to fulfillment. So it is with our sins and failures if we are in Christ. We have seen in this story that the sinful desire of the people on this occasion is grievous. They do not want to trust the Lord. They are rationalizing their actions. They are ignoring the plain warnings of God Almighty. And yet, God tells Samuel to grant their request and appoint for them a king. Why would God do that?
I think there are two reasons. One reason to grant their request is because in time it will vindicate God’s wisdom over Israel’s. This is why God warns them before he grants their request. He wants the warning to be on the record as a testimony, so that when they suffer exactly as the Lord foretold they would, they can look back and see that he knew better than they did the whole time. Sometimes God allows us to pursue our own folly for a time so that we may experience the consequences of it and learn to regard his wisdom with more reverence than before. In handing us over to our own folly, God disciplines us for our own good.
But there is a second reason God granted their request, and that was to prepare the way for his Messiah. Here let’s take a step back and look at what has come before this text in the biblical storyline. Do we get a sense that God is inherently opposed to kings? No, not at all. In Genesis 17:6 one of God’s promises to Abraham was, “Kings shall come from you.” In Genesis 49:10 Jacob pronounced a word of prophetic blessing over his son Judah regarding the tribe that would descend from him: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.” The prophet Balaam repeated a similar idea in his word of blessing pronounced over Israel in Numbers 24:17: “a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall arise out of Israel.” And if you have been reading closely the book of 1 Samuel so far, you may recall that Hannah’s prayer of praise in chapter 2 after the birth of Samuel ends in 2:10 with these words: “The LORD will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.” There has been a developing theme through the Scriptures up to this point about a king who will arise from Israel and bring blessing to the world. Before that can happen, Israel must become a monarchy. And so while the motives of the elders of Israel are not pure in the least, God nevertheless uses their sinful desire to advance his plan for the salvation of the world through his Messiah, his anointed King, Jesus Christ.
How does this truth apply to us? It does not apply before you have sinned, as though it justifies your pursuit of a sinful action. If you are faced with a sinful desire, and you conclude, “Well, God’s going to use my sin for good,” then you have not heard me correctly, and you may give evidence that you don’t even know the Lord. This teaching never justifies sin. But you can and should apply it when feeling the guilt of your past sins and failures. This wonderful truth gives you the confidence to pick yourself back up and trust the Lord after you have sinned. The devil’s strategy is to make you fall to the ground and then kick you while you are down, trying to keep you from ever thinking you can get back up again, that God wants nothing more to do with you. That’s simply not true. If God can bring the Messiah out of Israel’s foolish, sinful desire, he can bring redemptive good out of your past sins.
It's ironic that Pelagius, who was so concerned with moral laziness among Christians, taught a doctrine of sin that would lead us to underestimate its power and cause us to fail to be on guard against it. Beware of the Pelagian tendency to underestimate the power of sin that remains in you. It is a deceptive power that remains in the flesh as long as we are in this present age. So how do we fight it? We fight it by faith. Sin grows in the soil of a heart that doesn’t trust God. When you doubt that God truly loves you, desires your good, and even delights in you, you will search desperately for something else to become a god to you. And so the greatest way we can fight the deceptive power of sin in our hearts is by taking hold of the love of God for us in Christ once again. “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32). If you have Christ, what do you lack? What appeal can sinful desire have to the heart that is already full? So let us eat and drink once again at the Lord’s table to declare our trust in the Lord who loves us. Amen.