There is something subtle that most Western readers miss in this chapter. It’s not a question of having a single leader; Samuel was already that. In the past they had Moses, Joshua and a few judges who played that role. There’s no sin in asking for another judge. There’s no sin in asking for a senior national elder. But a king is a different matter.
Had the people asked for restoration of the Tabernacle and a High Priest, it would have helped a great deal. They didn’t seem to care much about that. They wanted to be like the nations around them, which is precisely the wrong thing to request. It was a slap in the face of God, who was their true King. If God is King, then the resource burden is confined to His tithe, His devoted tribe of servants, etc. With a human king, it adds another tithe on all produce and people and labor, and more.
The first three verses of this chapter show us there is a valid complaint. This is the weakness of inherited leadership over divinely appointed leadership. Samuel should have had the sense to seek the Lord for a better successor long ago. Who can say how things broke down with his sons, but it was a bad situation and they were not judging righteously.
So the tribal elders gathered to Samuel at his old home, Ramah (Ramathaim-zophim AKA Rathamin). Instead of asking his guidance, they presented a demand they had agreed upon before they came. When Samuel approached the Lord, he got a sympathetic ear. But the Lord took it as a personal insult Himself. In essence, the response was to give them what they wanted, but to also warn them what it would cost.
Thus, Samuel counts out for them the kinds of things a human king must have to reign. It’s an impressive list, and just scratches the surface. Then Samuel added a warning: You can choose your own king, and when things go bad, God will not deliver you from what may come to seem like your worst enemy ever.
They didn’t care at all about that. They insisted on being like every other nation in that region. This was the voice of fear, wanting a cheap answer to a complex problem they had made for themselves. So Samuel returned to the Lord to hear from Him; was Jehovah sure He wanted to do this? Yep. Give them what they want. Samuel dismissed the assembled elders because it wasn’t going to happen that day.
From this narrative, we learn just how truculent Israel was. They refused to see what a grand and special nation they could be, not requiring the follies of fleshly accommodation typical of the rest of the world. Yet it also shows just how weak the Covenant could be against the sins of laziness (refusing to occupy all the land and driving out the Canaanites) and fear (wanting a fearsome human ruler instead of an even more fearsome God). This is part of how the Law teaches us not to expect much, even when men have a direct revelation from God, unless they are individually redeemed and walking in faith.
I wonder what they saw or heard about in the other nations that established a monarchy, that made them clamor for it. Pomp and circumstance?
They had been watching those nations for years. Ancient kings were more like warlords with all the hype of so-called professional wrestlers, like Hulk Hogan, cheering crowds, etc.