Wednesday Bible Study: How can I miss you if you won ' t go away?

Ch. 12 is billed as Samuel ' s farewell address. But the weird thing is he doesn ' t go anywhere. He continues business as usual as Yahweh ' s representative, even going so far eventually as to depose a king. So this seems to belong several chapters later. A couple of points. He goes to some length to deny being corrupt. Obviously if this is true, the people already know it, and they affirm it. So if this has a point it is to assert a norm that leaders should not enrich themselves at the people ' s expense. As we know, in all of history, this has been violated more often than not.Samuel continues to say that the people ' s desire for a king was a moral error, which God evidently granted reluctantly. This is puzzling, since in this telling monarchy will remain the form of government for the Israelites henceforth, this document was produced under a monarchy, and by most scholars ' opinion was actually commissioned by a king. The reestablished nation of Israel has the form of a parliamentary democracy, something that had not been imagined when this was written. But there is an ultra-nationalist element that seems to aspire to something different -- as there is in the U.S. right now. We ' ll see where that goes.12 Samuel said to all Israel, “I have listened to everything you said to me and have set a king over you.2 Now you have a king as your leader. As for me, I am old and gray, and my sons are here with you. I have been your leader from my youth until this day...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs