God is King Youth Bible Study on 1 Samuel 8

Brief: God allows us to have human governments, but Christ will return to rule over the earth.

(Printable Student Sheet)

Needed: Nothing

Intro Question

What would happen if we didn’t have a president for the country? How would life be different?

What are some of the good things that the president does?

What would be something good about not having a president?

For a long time, the people of Israel didn’t have a king or a president. They had leaders, people like Moses and the judges and priests and Samuel, but they didn’t have anyone who was really in charge of the whole country.

Scripture: 1 Samuel 8:1-7; Matthew 24:30; Read Micah 4:1-4; Isaiah 66:18-21; Zechariah 14:16-19; Isaiah 11; Isaiah 65:19-20

1 Samuel 8:1-7: When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as Israel’s leaders. ² The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second was Abijah, and they served at Beersheba. ³ But his sons did not follow his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice.

⁴ So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. ⁵ They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”

⁶ But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. ⁷ And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected Me as their king.

God says that the people wanting a human king means that they have rejected God as King, because before, God was in charge of Israel, not a human being. How do you think our country would be different if God was in charge instead of the President and Congress?

I think that we wouldn’t argue about what laws to make or what policies to set. God would tell us what to do. He would tell us the right thing and the best thing to do, and we would just do it. Everything would run perfectly because God would tell us the best way to do things instead of us trying to think and argue about it.

The country would also be better because everyone would believe in God and follow Him or else they’d be breaking the law.

But God let the people choose a king. And He lets us have kings and presidents and congresses and everything else that countries might have. For now. One day, Jesus is going to come back to Earth, though, and when He does, He will be King over the whole world.

Matthew 24:30: “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.”

Why would people mourn when they Jesus coming back?

There are two reasons for people to mourn when they see Christ returning. One is because they are afraid of Him; the other is because they realize how wrong they were not to believe in Him. My guess is that most people will accept and believe in Jesus when they see Him coming back.

Micah 4:1-4: In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and peoples will stream to it.

² Many nations will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths.” The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. ³ He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. ⁴ Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the Lord Almighty has spoken.

Jesus will be reigning from Jerusalem, and all the nations will come to Him to learn His ways. He will judge fairly between the nations so that there will no longer be any need for war. When all peoples are God’s, and Christ is ruling them fairly, there will be no division or discord, only unity and peace.

And for those who don’t come on their own, Jesus will send out missionaries.

Isaiah 66:18-21: “And I, because of what they have planned and done, am about to come^[a] and gather the people of all nations and languages, and they will come and see My glory.

¹⁹ “I will set a sign among them, and I will send some of those who survive to the nations—to Tarshish, to the Libyans^[b] and Lydians (famous as archers), to Tubal and Greece, and to the distant islands that have not heard of My fame or seen My glory. They will proclaim My glory among the nations. ²⁰ And they will bring all your people, from all the nations, to My holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the Lord—on horses, in chariots and wagons, and on mules and camels,” says the Lord. “They will bring them, as the Israelites bring their grain offerings, to the temple of the Lord in ceremonially clean vessels. ²¹ And I will select some of them also to be priests and Levites,” says the Lord.

And it will be against the law for people not to believe in God and serve Him as King.

Zechariah 14:16-19: Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, and to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles. ¹⁷ If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, they will have no rain. ¹⁸ If the Egyptian people do not go up and take part, they will have no rain. The Lord will bring on them the plague He inflicts on the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles. ¹⁹ This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles.

For the most part, however, there will be peace – not just between nations but throughout creation.

Isaiah 11: A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. ² The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord— ³ and He will delight in the fear of the Lord.

He will not judge by what He sees with His eyes, or decide by what He hears with His ears; ⁴ but with righteousness He will judge the needy, with justice He will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth; with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. ⁵ Righteousness will be His belt and faithfulness the sash around His waist.

⁶ The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling^[a] together; and a little child will lead them. ⁷ The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. ⁸ The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. ⁹ They will neither harm nor destroy on all My holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

¹⁰ In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to Him, and His resting place will be glorious. ¹¹ In that day the Lord will reach out His hand a second time to reclaim the surviving remnant of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the Mediterranean.

¹² He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; He will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth. ¹³ Ephraim’s jealousy will vanish, and Judah’s enemies will be destroyed; Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah, nor Judah hostile toward Ephraim. ¹⁴ They will swoop down on the slopes of Philistia to the west; together they will plunder the people to the east. They will subdue Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites will be subject to them. ¹⁵ The Lord will dry up the gulf of the Egyptian sea; with a scorching wind He will sweep His hand over the Euphrates River. He will break it up into seven streams so that anyone can cross over in sandals. ¹⁶ There will be a highway for the remnant of His people that is left from Assyria, as there was for Israel when they came up from Egypt.

Isaiah’s prophecy shows us a time when the animals will be at peace with each other just as they were in the Garden of Eden before sin entered the world. With the Creator actively ruling the world once more, creation will no longer be in chaos but will return to its original tranquility.

Isaiah 65:19-20: I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in My people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more.

²⁰ “Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; the one who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere child; the one who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.

When Christ is reigning, people will live to be a hundred or more. How will this happen?

In a world where the nations are at peace and creation is at peace, people will no longer die by war or disease. We won’t have to poor money into defense budgets but will be able to focus all our resources on researching ways to heal and extend life. Besides this, the Great Physician Himself will be present and available for those who may need to call on Him.

So, God lets the people have a king. He lets us have our governments. But the time is coming when Jesus will return, and God will be King again.