(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
1 Samuel 12:1–5, “And Samuel said unto all Israel, Behold, I have hearkened unto your voice in all that ye said unto me, and have made a king over you. And now, behold, the king walketh before you: and I am old and grayheaded; and, behold, my sons are with you: and I have walked before you from my childhood unto this day. Behold, here I am: witness against me before the LORD, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? and I will restore it you. And they said, Thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken ought of any man’s hand. And he said unto them, The LORD is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that ye have not found ought in my hand. And they answered, He is witness.”
This must have been a hard moment for Samuel. He had been the faithful leader of Israel for many years, had obeyed God and taught the people to follow the Lord. At the end of his life the people came and asked him for a king. He felt rejected but the Lord told him that they weren’t rejecting him. He was an old man and had been serving in the Temple since he still just a young child. Never the less, he was able to stand before the people and ask them to say if he had done anything wrong all the days of his life. No one was able to point to any act of corruption or even an act of selfishness. They were all able to say that even the Lord wound’t be able to find fault with his behaviour as leader of Israel. This is a sobering thought. How many leaders today could stand before the people and ask if anyone could show even one act of selfishness all during the time of their leadership. Particularly if they had been a leader for decades? We cannot answer this question but each of us need to search our own hearts and see if we can say that before the Lord.
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