Proper 5 Year B

Proper 5

1 Samuel 8.4-11 [12-15] 16-20 [11.14-15]
2 Corinthians 4.13-5.1
Mark 3.20-35


So: did God want Israel to have a king, or didn’t he? The question haunts not only this passage in 1 Samuel but much of the rest of the account of the monarchy, from the ill-fated Saul right down to the exile. Of course, David himself, and then Solomon, are fêted and celebrated (albeit with devastating criticisms). Hezekiah and Josiah are seen, later, as models. But most of the kings lived up to Samuel’s warnings, and more so. Verse 18 says it all: your king, whom you have chosen for yourself. It sounds like God’s contemptuous words to Moses in Exodus 32.7...

Taken from Twelve Months of Sundays Year B by N T Wright