Despite the Disappointment--September 15, 2017
"Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, 5and said to him, ‘You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways; appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations.’ 6But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, ‘Give us a king to govern us.’ Samuel prayed to the Lord, 7and the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Listen to 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. 8Just as they have done to me,* from the day I brought them up out of Egypt to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so also they are doing to you. 9Now then, listen to their voice; only—you shall solemnly warn them, and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.’ 10 So Samuel reported all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. 11He said, ‘These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots; 12and he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plough his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. 13He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his courtiers. 15He will take one-tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and his courtiers. 16He will take your male and female slaves, and the best of your cattle* and donkeys, and put them to his work." [1 Samuel 8:4-16]
There's an old line from a They Might Be Giants song that goes, "If it wasn't for disappointment, I wouldn't have any appointment."
Samuel gets that. And he probably gets that better than most of us. He knows what it is to be disappointed when people who were supposed to "get it" turn out to be all headed in the wrong direction. And he knows what it is to see the living God be vulnerable enough to endure being rejected... and still to love anyhow.
This story from the book we call First Samuel is a weird one (that's kind of what I love about the family scrapbook that we call the Bible--it's got weird family stories from the people of God). This is the story of the time the people of Israel wanted to be like everybody else and to have a king "like other nations." Samuel, who had been the de facto leader for the people, (but as a prophet and judge, rather than as a king), feels like he is being rejected. After all, he wasn't doing so bad a job leading the people, and for that matter, he could hardly believe his ears that the people didn't want to be different, unique, and special by not having a king. Israel was supposed to be God's countercultural alternative to the ways of power and politics and conquest, and Samuel had thought that the people understood that. Being different from all the "other nations" wasn't something to be ashamed of--no! It was what made this nation of former slaves beautiful--their communal DNA was supposed to be founded on the memory of what it was like to have lived under Pharaoh when they were the aliens and the ethnic minority in Egypt, so that they would never repeat those patterns and not become a new version of Pharaoh's Egypt.
And that's what is so disappointing to Samuel. It's not about his ego, not really. It's that he had always assumed that the people "got it" about what was supposed to make them holy, different, and blessedly weird... and instead, here they were willing to sell out those values to instead have a king tell them things they wanted to hear and make impossible promises about keeping them safe and prosperous and great. Samuel knew that the whole notion of having a king was more about the people all projecting their wishes onto the idea of someone who could convince them he would give them all they ever hoped for. And what was most heartbreaking for Samuel was that, perhaps up until that moment, he had thought that the people were wiser than falling for a demagogue whose most notable qualities were that he looked like a winner (seriously, the text says that Saul was popular as a leader because he was taller than everybody else, and they thought that would make him a strong Commander in Chief). Samuel knew neither of his sons were a good choice to succeed him, but he had hoped (wrongly) that the people were grounded enough not to make the worse choice of giving their allegiance to a strongman who promised them security. And when he heard the people clamoring for a king--and the baggage that kings tend to bring along with them--Samuel knew that the people had sold out to their worst impulses. That was his disappointment.
So, like I say, this wasn't simply about Samuel's ego, or that he felt like he had "lost" to the pro-king lobby, but rather that Samuel had always thought the people had been listening to God's directives all along about what was supposed to make them different, and instead they were hornswoggled into chasing after big empty promises of political strongmen. Don't mistake Samuel's woundedness in this story for a case of sour grapes--he was disappointed that his own people hadn't been listening to God's beautifully peculiar vision for them.
Listening, it turns out, is another funny part of this story. Because even though Samuel is so downhearted because the people haven't listened, God helps dear Sammy to hear something he had missed in all of this scene. God's response to Samuel, when the old prophet needs to vent to God, is, "Samuel, you think they are rejecting you as leader over the people--but really they are rejecting me!" It wasn't just that the people wanted to trade up a Prophet Samuel for a King Saul, but that God was supposed to have been their true Shepherd, their Leader, their Guide, and their Protection. And instead the people gave their hearts and their allegiances away into the idea that some strongman or authoritarian could make everything great simply by the force of his personality. It wasn't just Samuel who was disappointed and rejected--it was the living God.
Now, this would be one of those moments that you might expect God to dust off the old lightning bolt and start zapping the people who were foolish enough to go after a king. You might expect that God would wipe out these fools and sinners and then maybe reward Samuel for being a good sport so far.
But instead God tells Samuel to listen again... "Listen to what the people say. And give them what they are asking for."
This is amazing, is it not? God is willing to do things the hard way, and to openly accept the fact of the people's rejection, both of God and of the prophet Samuel. And God chooses to let them reject the Maker of the universe... for tall, attractive Saul. And--wonder of wonders--God later chooses to use even this act of rejection, because centuries later, none other than Jesus himself would be the descendant of King David and his dynasty.
Stop and think about that for a moment. Stop and think about that before we get too comfortable ascribing everything that happens in history to "This is what God must have wanted to happen." To hear the book of 1 Samuel tell it, God was not in favor of Israel getting a king, and Saul wasn't a great choice in the end himself. Just because Israel got a king and God let the people have their way (by rejecting God as their true king, mind you), the text itself doesn't really give a ringing endorsement to King Saul as "God's candidate for king." Rather, the story itself talks in terms of a God who is big enough--and whose love is big enough--to endure rejection, and still to love anyway. And so God tells Samuel... "Listen to the people, and let them have what they are asking for."
But there is one more instance of listening that has to happen yet. God also tells Samuel that it is his job to tell the people what they are in for if they get their king. (Sometimes, it turns out, the worst thing God can do to you is give you exactly what you ask for.) So Samuel makes the people listen, because while Mercy is willing to bear rejection, it is also compelled to tell the truth when the people are settling for something less than God's goodness. If the people get the king they are all clamoring for, if they decide they cannot live without a ruler to make them "great" like the "other nations" around them, kings and kingship will make them into a new Pharaoh's Egypt, and the king will not be a servant, but a strongman. He will live in luxury at the people's expense, raking in profits and relaxing in pomp off of the labor of their sons and daughters. And in that moment, the people will have chosen to become a new version of what they left behind in all those years of slavery. The reason God didn't want the people to get a king wasn't because God was, or is, petty--it was because it would lead them down the road to mortgaging their beautifully blessed weirdness, the very thing that made them unique and special. What a disappointment.
This God of ours is a strange character, wouldn't you say? Most of us have so much ego we couldn't stand to face rejection like that without taking it personally... and probably quite a lot of us would then also lash out with petty whining about the rejection and passive-aggressively sabotage the new king in town. But ours is a God who says to Samuel (even though Samuel has a right to feel like he's been treated like chopped liver), "Listen. Listen to the people, and give them what they are asking for. It will make their lives--and their salvation--infinitely more complicated, but I am willing to do this the hard way for their sake. Listen, Samuel, and give them what they think they want."
And at the same time, ours is a God who still insists to the people, "You, too, must listen--you need to listen to what you will get that you don't know you are bargaining for. Listen, and know the truth."
And yet, despite all the disappointments in this story, in the end, the living God does not give up on this fickle group of people who don't know the good thing they already have. This is the God we meet in the Bible--the God who keeps telling us when we are about to paint ourselves into a corner or sell ourselves into trouble, but who still rolls up the ol' divine sleeves to stick it out with us even when we have made boneheaded choices and rejected the One who loves us.
That blows apart theology textbooks and catechisms. That gives us a God who is sovereign enough even to work through contrarian choices, but who is vulnerable enough to allow being rejected. That gives us a God who doesn't give up on the people who have just said, "No, we don't want you!", but rather a God who ultimately says, "Even if you reject me, I will not reject you."
There are going to be times in this life when we meet with disappointment, too--as often as not, it will be disappointment with the choices we have made for ourselves that turned out to be worse than we had expected. But in those times, when the things you thought were going to be worth it didn't pan out, when the friends you put your trust in were fickle and faithless, or the King Sauls you had pinned your hopes on turned out to be all hat and no cattle, in such times, know that the living God has a way of taking our rejection and still seeking our good.
And in those times we remember why all we can ever do is to put all our trust in this God, and the Mercy who is strong enough to be vulnerable.
Lord God, thank you for not giving up on us. Make us to listen to your relentless love.
And that's what is so disappointing to Samuel. It's not about his ego, not really. It's that he had always assumed that the people "got it" about what was supposed to make them holy, different, and blessedly weird... and instead, here they were willing to sell out those values to instead have a king tell them things they wanted to hear and make impossible promises about keeping them safe and prosperous and great. Samuel knew that the whole notion of having a king was more about the people all projecting their wishes onto the idea of someone who could convince them he would give them all they ever hoped for. And what was most heartbreaking for Samuel was that, perhaps up until that moment, he had thought that the people were wiser than falling for a demagogue whose most notable qualities were that he looked like a winner (seriously, the text says that Saul was popular as a leader because he was taller than everybody else, and they thought that would make him a strong Commander in Chief). Samuel knew neither of his sons were a good choice to succeed him, but he had hoped (wrongly) that the people were grounded enough not to make the worse choice of giving their allegiance to a strongman who promised them security. And when he heard the people clamoring for a king--and the baggage that kings tend to bring along with them--Samuel knew that the people had sold out to their worst impulses. That was his disappointment.
So, like I say, this wasn't simply about Samuel's ego, or that he felt like he had "lost" to the pro-king lobby, but rather that Samuel had always thought the people had been listening to God's directives all along about what was supposed to make them different, and instead they were hornswoggled into chasing after big empty promises of political strongmen. Don't mistake Samuel's woundedness in this story for a case of sour grapes--he was disappointed that his own people hadn't been listening to God's beautifully peculiar vision for them.
Listening, it turns out, is another funny part of this story. Because even though Samuel is so downhearted because the people haven't listened, God helps dear Sammy to hear something he had missed in all of this scene. God's response to Samuel, when the old prophet needs to vent to God, is, "Samuel, you think they are rejecting you as leader over the people--but really they are rejecting me!" It wasn't just that the people wanted to trade up a Prophet Samuel for a King Saul, but that God was supposed to have been their true Shepherd, their Leader, their Guide, and their Protection. And instead the people gave their hearts and their allegiances away into the idea that some strongman or authoritarian could make everything great simply by the force of his personality. It wasn't just Samuel who was disappointed and rejected--it was the living God.
Now, this would be one of those moments that you might expect God to dust off the old lightning bolt and start zapping the people who were foolish enough to go after a king. You might expect that God would wipe out these fools and sinners and then maybe reward Samuel for being a good sport so far.
But instead God tells Samuel to listen again... "Listen to what the people say. And give them what they are asking for."
This is amazing, is it not? God is willing to do things the hard way, and to openly accept the fact of the people's rejection, both of God and of the prophet Samuel. And God chooses to let them reject the Maker of the universe... for tall, attractive Saul. And--wonder of wonders--God later chooses to use even this act of rejection, because centuries later, none other than Jesus himself would be the descendant of King David and his dynasty.
Stop and think about that for a moment. Stop and think about that before we get too comfortable ascribing everything that happens in history to "This is what God must have wanted to happen." To hear the book of 1 Samuel tell it, God was not in favor of Israel getting a king, and Saul wasn't a great choice in the end himself. Just because Israel got a king and God let the people have their way (by rejecting God as their true king, mind you), the text itself doesn't really give a ringing endorsement to King Saul as "God's candidate for king." Rather, the story itself talks in terms of a God who is big enough--and whose love is big enough--to endure rejection, and still to love anyway. And so God tells Samuel... "Listen to the people, and let them have what they are asking for."
But there is one more instance of listening that has to happen yet. God also tells Samuel that it is his job to tell the people what they are in for if they get their king. (Sometimes, it turns out, the worst thing God can do to you is give you exactly what you ask for.) So Samuel makes the people listen, because while Mercy is willing to bear rejection, it is also compelled to tell the truth when the people are settling for something less than God's goodness. If the people get the king they are all clamoring for, if they decide they cannot live without a ruler to make them "great" like the "other nations" around them, kings and kingship will make them into a new Pharaoh's Egypt, and the king will not be a servant, but a strongman. He will live in luxury at the people's expense, raking in profits and relaxing in pomp off of the labor of their sons and daughters. And in that moment, the people will have chosen to become a new version of what they left behind in all those years of slavery. The reason God didn't want the people to get a king wasn't because God was, or is, petty--it was because it would lead them down the road to mortgaging their beautifully blessed weirdness, the very thing that made them unique and special. What a disappointment.
This God of ours is a strange character, wouldn't you say? Most of us have so much ego we couldn't stand to face rejection like that without taking it personally... and probably quite a lot of us would then also lash out with petty whining about the rejection and passive-aggressively sabotage the new king in town. But ours is a God who says to Samuel (even though Samuel has a right to feel like he's been treated like chopped liver), "Listen. Listen to the people, and give them what they are asking for. It will make their lives--and their salvation--infinitely more complicated, but I am willing to do this the hard way for their sake. Listen, Samuel, and give them what they think they want."
And at the same time, ours is a God who still insists to the people, "You, too, must listen--you need to listen to what you will get that you don't know you are bargaining for. Listen, and know the truth."
And yet, despite all the disappointments in this story, in the end, the living God does not give up on this fickle group of people who don't know the good thing they already have. This is the God we meet in the Bible--the God who keeps telling us when we are about to paint ourselves into a corner or sell ourselves into trouble, but who still rolls up the ol' divine sleeves to stick it out with us even when we have made boneheaded choices and rejected the One who loves us.
That blows apart theology textbooks and catechisms. That gives us a God who is sovereign enough even to work through contrarian choices, but who is vulnerable enough to allow being rejected. That gives us a God who doesn't give up on the people who have just said, "No, we don't want you!", but rather a God who ultimately says, "Even if you reject me, I will not reject you."
There are going to be times in this life when we meet with disappointment, too--as often as not, it will be disappointment with the choices we have made for ourselves that turned out to be worse than we had expected. But in those times, when the things you thought were going to be worth it didn't pan out, when the friends you put your trust in were fickle and faithless, or the King Sauls you had pinned your hopes on turned out to be all hat and no cattle, in such times, know that the living God has a way of taking our rejection and still seeking our good.
And in those times we remember why all we can ever do is to put all our trust in this God, and the Mercy who is strong enough to be vulnerable.
Lord God, thank you for not giving up on us. Make us to listen to your relentless love.
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