WEBVTT NOTE The Biblical Prophet: He Told It Like It Is 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.000 The story of the prophet who refused is taken from the Old Testament. 2 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:17.000 Whether you view the Bible as the inspired word of God or as a collection of stories put together by men, the fact remains that it contains many important truths. 3 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:29.000 It is fascinating to realize that as early as 1100 B.C., certain wise men had already glimpsed the danger that arises from government. 4 00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:35.840 The prophet Samuel was just such a wise man. He became a kind of circuit-riding judge who 5 00:00:35.840 --> 00:00:41.880 traveled among the various tribes, visiting each village in turn and settling disputes, 6 00:00:41.880 --> 00:00:48.240 serving as a counselor and as a friend. If one may take the account in the book of Samuel 7 00:00:48.240 --> 00:00:54.060 literally, it appears that in those early days the Israelites did not have a government 8 00:00:54.060 --> 00:00:56.500 as we normally think of government. 9 00:00:56.500 --> 00:01:02.800 Rather, the Israelites had accepted a theology which required honesty and fair dealing, each 10 00:01:02.800 --> 00:01:04.380 with the other. 11 00:01:04.380 --> 00:01:11.980 And learned men, like Samuel, provided a focal point so that no government was needed. 12 00:01:11.980 --> 00:01:17.360 Samuel earned no salary through taxation, for there was no taxation. 13 00:01:17.360 --> 00:01:24.040 The scriptures say, and I quote, Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life, and he was 14 00:01:24.040 --> 00:01:33.040 He went from year to year in circuit, from Bethel, Gilgal and Mizpah, and judged Israel in all those places. 15 00:01:33.040 --> 00:01:42.040 Apparently, he was an honored guest, and he subsisted on the generosity and hospitality of those who benefited by his presence among them. 16 00:01:42.040 --> 00:01:49.040 He did not represent a government, nor did he have any written law to try to dignify and uphold. 17 00:01:49.040 --> 00:01:55.040 Rather, he was able to use his reason and to reach conclusions based on common sense 18 00:01:55.040 --> 00:02:01.000 and an innate sense of what is useful and right as opposed to what is not useful and 19 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:03.100 is clearly wrong. 20 00:02:03.100 --> 00:02:07.440 But I want to tell you about a specific day in the life of Samuel when this venerable 21 00:02:07.440 --> 00:02:12.000 old prophet had become very old indeed. 22 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:17.640 He had grown less and less active, and now he had his own home in the village of Rama, 23 00:02:17.640 --> 00:02:24.080 And from this center he became a profound influence for good on the lives of all in the various tribes. 24 00:02:24.080 --> 00:02:30.420 Samuel's two sons were named Joel and Abiah, and Samuel took great pride in them. 25 00:02:30.420 --> 00:02:34.780 He had trained them from the earliest days to become judges even as he was, and when 26 00:02:34.780 --> 00:02:40.080 he had grown too old to travel his sons took over his regular circuits. 27 00:02:40.080 --> 00:02:46.580 But as so often happens with the best laid plans of parents, Samuel's sons did not follow 28 00:02:46.580 --> 00:03:13.420 So I'd like to tell you the story of how this prophet refused to crown a king. 29 00:03:13.420 --> 00:03:17.060 Marcin is laid on the front terrace of Samuel's home in Rama. 30 00:03:17.060 --> 00:03:22.120 The house is built on a little eminence overlooking a broad and fertile valley. 31 00:03:22.120 --> 00:03:26.140 It is a one-story building with wide, spacious rooms. 32 00:03:26.140 --> 00:03:31.660 Samuel, bearded and venerable, is seated on the veranda where his eyes can observe the 33 00:03:31.660 --> 00:03:35.340 dusty road that winds in from Misbah. 34 00:03:35.340 --> 00:03:40.240 It is afternoon, and the elders of Israel from all of the various towns and villages 35 00:03:40.240 --> 00:03:45.240 have assembled below the terrace and are talking angrily among themselves. 36 00:03:45.240 --> 00:03:49.240 Now they turn and move up the slope to where the old man sits. 37 00:03:49.240 --> 00:03:55.240 A spokesman steps forward and then kneels humbly before the beloved Judge of Israel. 38 00:03:55.240 --> 00:04:05.240 Behold, Samuel, we are the elders of all Israel, and we are come to thee to help us, as thou hast always helped us in the past. 39 00:04:05.240 --> 00:04:16.240 Thy two sons, Joel and Abiah, we thought to have made judges in thy place, for thou art now too old to travel and to carry on the work of maintaining order and justice. 40 00:04:16.240 --> 00:04:28.240 But thy sons walk not in thy ways. They are given to bribery and to the taking of money for favors. Their decisions are not to be trusted, and the people murmur against them. 41 00:04:28.240 --> 00:04:58.240 We face a serious problem. For years, thou hast been the central figure of the tribe of Israel, and we have loved thee. But now, thou art too old. Thy sons cannot be trusted, and we must have a king. So we must have a political solution. If we have a king, he can rule over us and judge us, and, mark you, Samuel, we could crown such a king ourselves. But the people revere him. 42 00:04:58.240 --> 00:05:16.240 The venerable old man sat very still, and his eyes were as though a mist was before them. 43 00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:23.240 The scriptures say he prayed silently for some time while the elder stood by uneasily, awaiting his decision. 44 00:05:23.240 --> 00:05:41.480 Arkin, unto me, ye elders of Israel, This thing ye have asked is displeasing. 45 00:05:41.480 --> 00:05:44.620 Politics is an abomination. 46 00:05:44.620 --> 00:05:50.200 Ye have asked that I select an anointed king to rule over you. 47 00:05:50.200 --> 00:05:57.720 But ye should have known that ye are more blessed now than with a king, for now ye are free. 48 00:05:57.720 --> 00:06:03.440 Do ye not see that if ye have a king thy freedom will vanish, for ye will no longer be able 49 00:06:03.440 --> 00:06:06.400 to do the things which now ye do? 50 00:06:06.400 --> 00:06:11.680 Ye will be governed, controlled, taxed, almost without measure. 51 00:06:11.680 --> 00:06:16.160 For whatever king ye have, he will take thy sons and appoint them for himself, for his 52 00:06:16.160 --> 00:06:19.640 chariots, and for his horsemen and for his foot soldiers. 53 00:06:19.640 --> 00:06:24.680 He will build himself an army composed of thy sons, and he will cause them to listen 54 00:06:24.680 --> 00:06:29.680 for rumors of war, and he will make them into his instruments of war. 55 00:06:29.680 --> 00:06:34.760 And he will take thy daughters and use them as confectioners and cooks and bakers. 56 00:06:34.760 --> 00:06:39.960 He will tax thee by taking certain of thy fields and vineyards, even the best of them. 57 00:06:39.960 --> 00:06:44.560 These he will give to his servants, and he will tax thee one-tenth of thy seed and one-tenth 58 00:07:14.560 --> 00:07:37.760 Samuel's voice ceased, and there was a long moment of silence as his head sank upon his breast. 59 00:07:37.760 --> 00:07:41.440 Breaking free from his reverie, Samuel turned and entered his house, 60 00:07:41.440 --> 00:07:53.440 The Story in the scriptures does not stop there. It goes on to tell how time and again the elders sought him out and brought pressure to bear against him. 61 00:07:53.440 --> 00:08:07.440 And Samuel listened, as was his want, but always he continued to tell the people that government meant controls, that kings meant war, and that controls and war meant taxation and the loss of liberty. 62 00:08:07.440 --> 00:08:20.440 Approximately 3,000 years have passed since Samuel made these observations, yet nothing has happened in all that time to cause anyone to doubt the wisdom of what he said. 63 00:08:20.440 --> 00:08:31.440 Unfortunately, in the end, Samuel yielded and followed the urgings of the kingmakers of his time, and thus he gave his consent to the very process he knew was wrong. 64 00:08:31.440 --> 00:09:01.440 There is a widely held notion that government means law and order and that a lack of 65 00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:18.440 The definition of government means chaos. But this is not what history shows. What it reveals, if we care to look beneath the political pleadings of special interests, is that freedom is the mother of order, and that government is the father of chaos. 66 00:09:18.440 --> 00:09:25.120 It is axiomatic that no human being wishes to be victimized. Indeed, it is his fear of 67 00:09:25.120 --> 00:09:30.840 being victimized that causes him to place his faith in government in the first place. 68 00:09:30.840 --> 00:09:37.920 But government, by its nature, must tax and regulate and compel all men to operate along 69 00:09:37.920 --> 00:09:44.380 the lines that are pleasing to the ruler and not the lines pleasing to them as individuals. 70 00:09:44.380 --> 00:09:49.820 This creates frustration, as honest and hardworking people are thwarted in their natural endeavors 71 00:09:49.820 --> 00:09:54.100 to provide for themselves and those who depend on them. 72 00:09:54.100 --> 00:09:58.940 Frustrations breed resentment, which, while it may smolder for years without breaking 73 00:09:58.940 --> 00:10:05.560 out, will ultimately emerge in acts of aggression, and aggression breeds further frustration. 74 00:10:05.560 --> 00:10:10.860 If we examine the human record closely, we will see that as governments enlarge, acts 75 00:10:10.860 --> 00:10:17.780 Effects of criminality and violence increase in frequency and intensity. 76 00:10:17.780 --> 00:10:20.780 Criminality finally is organized as riot. 77 00:10:20.780 --> 00:10:22.880 Riot breeds rebellion. 78 00:10:22.880 --> 00:10:24.580 Rebellion comes to revolution. 79 00:10:24.580 --> 00:10:30.700 In the end, the very order we have wanted is swept away in the disorder of opposition 80 00:10:30.700 --> 00:10:32.340 to tyranny. 81 00:10:32.340 --> 00:10:37.180 If we wish to learn the lesson implicit in the statement of the Prophet Samuel, we must 82 00:10:37.180 --> 00:10:44.180 Let's learn that self-control is the very backbone of what it means to be free. 83 00:10:44.180 --> 00:10:49.860 However difficult it may be, we have reached a point in time where we can no longer afford 84 00:10:49.860 --> 00:10:54.620 the luxury of unbridled government. 85 00:10:54.620 --> 00:11:00.860 The antidote to the abuses of government is the practice of responsible self-restraint 86 00:11:00.860 --> 00:11:03.180 in our dealings with others. 87 00:11:03.180 --> 00:11:11.680 1100 years before the birth of Christ, we find the ancient prophet Samuel giving us a lesson which we sorely need today. 88 00:11:11.680 --> 00:11:19.180 Unfortunately, the prophet who refused to crown a king was not permitted to uphold his wise and just decision. 89 00:11:19.180 --> 00:11:22.680 But our story is not concerned with that which followed. 90 00:11:22.680 --> 00:11:31.980 It is enough for us to know that here is an early instance in which the dangers which threaten us were clearly seen and understood. 91 00:11:31.980 --> 00:11:43.980 Had Samuel been heated in those days of long ago, who knows what progress, what liberty, what freedom we might have all enjoyed today.