God's Support For Small Government

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When the children of Israel left Egypt and conquered the Promise Land they did not create a kingdom as every country at that time but a loose confederations of 12 tribes. This seemed to be the best for the children of Israel, but God did give his prized creation free will. From first Samuel chapter 8 the tribal elders confront the prophet Samuel demanding a king. Samuel approached God with the request for a king, God responded by telling Samuel to give them the king if that is what they really wanted, but to warn them of the great price of centralized government. Samuel warns the people that a king would mean several things: involuntary military conscription (v. 11-12); daughters taken into domestic servitude (v. 13); claims of imminent domain over the best fields and crops of the nation (v. 14); involuntary taxation to support his army and servants (v. 15); conscription of the best servants to serve the king (v. 16); and finally, slavery of all the people through increased taxation taken by force (v. 17). A final warning was issued: And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day (I Samuel 8:18 ). The prophet Samuel tells the people that keeping the leadership local and intentionally small is much better than allowing a central authority to have control over the land and the people. The people would not be persuaded by the small government argument, and pushed Samuel, saying “But there shall be a king over us, that we may be like the rest of the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out to fight our battles” (I Samuel 8:19-20) Any of this sound familiar?