Samuel's Farewell - 1st Samuel 12

The people of Israel are still in Gilgal and have just coronated and accepted Saul as their king and because Samuel’s role as main judge in Israel is diminishing and Saul’s is rising, chapter 12 is known as Samuel’s farewell address, even though Samuel is not dying or leaving and will still be heavily featured in the future. Samuel stages this as a kind of courtroom type of scenario, and it’s quite legal from the ancient culture perspective. Samuel says that he has “walked before you from my childhood unto this day,” meaning that he’s served them and led them since he was a child. He says, basically, that there is the king in front of them all and if anyone has any accusations against Samuel of corruption, accepting bribes, defrauding or oppressing anyone, that this was their time to come forward and formally accuse him in front of the new king. No one came forward to accuse him and everyone agreed “thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken ought of any man’s hand.” It’s interesting because this is kind of a king Benjamin type of speech and mirrors what he says in his farewell address, that he had not oppressed or defrauded anyone, so I wonder if that was an ancient thing that rulers did during their farewell speeches or if perhaps Benjamin had read Samuel’s words here and used them in his own thing. It’s another tie into the Book of Mormon from the Bible that I like a lot.

Everyone agrees that Samuel had always acted honestly and fairly, and this was done in front Saul the king and God, so legally no one could come back later and say that Samuel had done these things. Samuel says, “great, you can’t accuse me, but I’m going to accuse you.” Samuel brings up that “your fathers” cried to God for deliverance from slavery in Egypt and God sent Moses and Aaron, but after the deliverance, they rebelled against God. So God “sold them into the hand of Sisera” and the Philistines and the king of Moab. I think it’s interesting that God takes ownership of these events because they would have been terrible for the people, they would have suffered a lot because of these wars and oppressions, but God doesn’t say “these other people oppressed you,” or even “I let these other people oppress you,” He says “I used them to oppress you.” I think, and even TB mentioned that so many people today think that God will never actively work against you, especially if you are Christian, but this verse, as well as many others and my own lived experience, show that this is not the case. God actively works against us many times but He does it because it’s ultimately in our best interest. That sounds very counter-intuitive and it’s something that I’m still working to put together logically, but God’s will and plan is to bring people to Him and everything that He does is to further that purpose. Humans are such that many times we will not turn to God or we will not learn specific lessons unless we are crushed, unless we hit rock bottom. Unfortunately for us, that means that we much be crushed and hit rock bottom in order to turn to God, and if that’s what it takes then so be it. And many times God has to be the one to curate those situations. If we truly believe that He sits with us in the midst of our tribulations like in a refiner’s fire, then we have to believe that our sufferings will only last as long as it takes to accomplish the task of teaching us that specific lesson and not a moment longer because God is not cruel and meaningless suffering is not allowed by God. If we can only suffer to the very limit of what we need, then we have to deduce that God is compete control of that suffering meaning that he allows it, guides it, and dictates it which means that he sometimes works against us to accomplish His will.

Samuel recounts this cycle of oppression, the people praying for deliverance, then God sending a deliverer such as “Jerubbaal (Gideon), and Bedan (TB says that this probably means Barak), Jephthah, and Samuel (TB says that Samuel would have been too modest to list himself here so it almost certain was meant to be Samson).” But even after all those times that God delivered Israel from their enemies by raising up judges, they still decided that they wanted a king “when the Lord your God was your king.” So here’s your king, your earthly king that you wanted so bad. What I find interesting is that Israel wanted a man to be their ruler to save them from Nahash, when ironically, God had been raising up these quasi-kings this whole time, but the people still rejected that form of government, they rejected God’s version of the very thing that they asked for, they just wanted it on their own terms.

But what now? They rejected God as their king even though He had been delivering them the whole time, but even now with a king, “if ye will fear the Lord, and serve him, and obey his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then shall both ye and also the king that reigneth over you continue following the Lord your God.” Even though you rejected God, if you will be righteous and keep the commandments, then you will be blessed, but if you don’t “then the hand of the Lord be against you as it was against your fathers.” It seems possible that the people thought that if they rejected the judges system that God enacted, then God would not have the power to oppress them when they disobeyed either, and from a pagan god view point that seems possible but we know that’s not how it works with our God.

Just to emphasize the point that they rejected their best protector and ruler, Samuel does a little demonstration “now therefore stand and see this great thing, which the Lord will do before your eyes.” It’s wheat harvest season and there is rarely rain during that time but Samuel says that God will send thunder and rain, ‘that ye may perceive and see that your wickedness is great, which ye have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking you a king.” Samuel is about to demonstrate to the people God’s power, but also that He’s not pleased with them asking for a king “and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day: and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel.” It’s all fun and games until the people are reminded of the great power of God and what it feels like to work against Him. I also think it’s interesting that of all the ways that God could have manifested his power because he controls the whole universe, he chose to simply control the weather. I remember watching the Below Deck reality show, I really like it but there was one episode where the guests were multi-billionaires and they were on the yacht and couldn’t leave the dock to go sailing because the weather was so bad. I remember watching that and thinking, “even with all the money they have, they can’t even control the weather.” In this the people think they are going to do so much better with a king in charge instead of God, but the people can’t even control the weather. And crazy thunder and rain is intimidating to people, the people were probably scared, thus God indicating His displeasure with the situation.

It works, the people are scared and ask Samuel to Pray for them “that we die not: for we have added unto all our sins this evil, to ask us a king.” They realize now just how badly they screwed up but it’s too late now, but Samuel’s answer is great, he says “yes you were wicked in asking for a king but just don’t screw it up.” He says “turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart; and turn ye not aside: for them should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain.” TB had a really good point when reading this part, he basically said that when we repent, we know that what we have done was really wrong and our natural instinct is to make some grandiose gesture to either earn our way back or to show God just how sorry we are. But TB says that Samuel’s point here is that God doesn’t want all that, he just wants us to come home, just do what he wants us to do, He just wants us to live our same lives but do better to keep the commandments. God just wants these incremental steps to improved righteousness that build over time into new and transformed people. After one big grand gesture, we aren’t transformed, transformation takes time, it takes sustained effort and the power of God working in our hearts, it’s an extensive education. It takes time, we can’t force it or rush it, it comes as we grow and become ready, it can’t just be a one-time thing. God wants us to live our regular lives and work to make small improvements over time, build new habits. Even Joseph Smith and Alma, they had miraculous visions the first time, but it took sustained fasting, prayer, and scripture study for them to build their testimonies and their knowledge base of the gospel. Even Paul went into the deserts of Arabia for 3 years after encountering Christ on the road to Damascus. Conversion doesn’t happen in one sitting and neither does repentance.