The story of the prophet who refused is taken from the Old Testament.
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.
It is fascinating to realize that as early as 1100 B.C., certain wise men had already glimpsed the danger that arises from government.
The prophet Samuel was just such a wise man. He became a kind of circuit-riding judge who
traveled among the various tribes, visiting each village in turn and settling disputes,
serving as a counselor and as a friend. If one may take the account in the book of Samuel
literally, it appears that in those early days the Israelites did not have a government
as we normally think of government.
Rather, the Israelites had accepted a theology which required honesty and fair dealing, each
with the other.
And learned men, like Samuel, provided a focal point so that no government was needed.
Samuel earned no salary through taxation, for there was no taxation.
The scriptures say, and I quote, Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life, and he was
He went from year to year in circuit, from Bethel, Gilgal and Mizpah, and judged Israel in all those places.
Apparently, he was an honored guest, and he subsisted on the generosity and hospitality of those who benefited by his presence among them.
He did not represent a government, nor did he have any written law to try to dignify and uphold.
Rather, he was able to use his reason and to reach conclusions based on common sense
and an innate sense of what is useful and right as opposed to what is not useful and
is clearly wrong.
But I want to tell you about a specific day in the life of Samuel when this venerable
old prophet had become very old indeed.
He had grown less and less active, and now he had his own home in the village of Rama,
And from this center he became a profound influence for good on the lives of all in the various tribes.
Samuel's two sons were named Joel and Abiah, and Samuel took great pride in them.
He had trained them from the earliest days to become judges even as he was, and when
he had grown too old to travel his sons took over his regular circuits.
But as so often happens with the best laid plans of parents, Samuel's sons did not follow
So I'd like to tell you the story of how this prophet refused to crown a king.
Marcin is laid on the front terrace of Samuel's home in Rama.
The house is built on a little eminence overlooking a broad and fertile valley.
It is a one-story building with wide, spacious rooms.
Samuel, bearded and venerable, is seated on the veranda where his eyes can observe the
dusty road that winds in from Misbah.
It is afternoon, and the elders of Israel from all of the various towns and villages
have assembled below the terrace and are talking angrily among themselves.
Now they turn and move up the slope to where the old man sits.
A spokesman steps forward and then kneels humbly before the beloved Judge of Israel.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The venerable old man sat very still, and his eyes were as though a mist was before them.
The scriptures say he prayed silently for some time while the elder stood by uneasily, awaiting his decision.
Arkin, unto me, ye elders of Israel, This thing ye have asked is displeasing.
Politics is an abomination.
Ye have asked that I select an anointed king to rule over you.
But ye should have known that ye are more blessed now than with a king, for now ye are free.
Do ye not see that if ye have a king thy freedom will vanish, for ye will no longer be able
to do the things which now ye do?
Ye will be governed, controlled, taxed, almost without measure.
For whatever king ye have, he will take thy sons and appoint them for himself, for his
chariots, and for his horsemen and for his foot soldiers.
He will build himself an army composed of thy sons, and he will cause them to listen
for rumors of war, and he will make them into his instruments of war.
And he will take thy daughters and use them as confectioners and cooks and bakers.
He will tax thee by taking certain of thy fields and vineyards, even the best of them.
These he will give to his servants, and he will tax thee one-tenth of thy seed and one-tenth
Samuel's voice ceased, and there was a long moment of silence as his head sank upon his breast.
Breaking free from his reverie, Samuel turned and entered his house,
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.
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.
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.
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.
There is a widely held notion that government means law and order and that a lack of
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.
It is axiomatic that no human being wishes to be victimized. Indeed, it is his fear of
being victimized that causes him to place his faith in government in the first place.
But government, by its nature, must tax and regulate and compel all men to operate along
the lines that are pleasing to the ruler and not the lines pleasing to them as individuals.
This creates frustration, as honest and hardworking people are thwarted in their natural endeavors
to provide for themselves and those who depend on them.
Frustrations breed resentment, which, while it may smolder for years without breaking
out, will ultimately emerge in acts of aggression, and aggression breeds further frustration.
If we examine the human record closely, we will see that as governments enlarge, acts
Effects of criminality and violence increase in frequency and intensity.
Criminality finally is organized as riot.
Riot breeds rebellion.
Rebellion comes to revolution.
In the end, the very order we have wanted is swept away in the disorder of opposition
to tyranny.
If we wish to learn the lesson implicit in the statement of the Prophet Samuel, we must
Let's learn that self-control is the very backbone of what it means to be free.
However difficult it may be, we have reached a point in time where we can no longer afford
the luxury of unbridled government.
The antidote to the abuses of government is the practice of responsible self-restraint
in our dealings with others.
1100 years before the birth of Christ, we find the ancient prophet Samuel giving us a lesson which we sorely need today.
Unfortunately, the prophet who refused to crown a king was not permitted to uphold his wise and just decision.
But our story is not concerned with that which followed.
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.
Had Samuel been heated in those days of long ago, who knows what progress, what liberty, what freedom we might have all enjoyed today.