On their arrival in the promised land from slavery in Egypt, Israel organized itself into what may be described, oxymoronically, a theocratic republic. The first book of Samuel in Bible tells the story of its transformation into a despotic monarchy. It is told in a language full of irony and foreboding of tragedy. The story begins with Israeli elders asking the seer Samuel to appoint a King for them like the Kings of other nations. Samuel, knowing that God alone can be a ruler fit for his people, was saddened at this demand which amounted to rejection of divine overlordship, but conveyed it to the Almighty. God asked Samuel to first explain to the people the ways of earthly monarchs and then, if the people still insisted, to let them have their wish. Samuel's speech to the people, describing the ways of monarchs is a merciless criticism of despotic government and, in a way, of all earthly systems of government. It is one of the worst pictures ever drawn of the institution of state.
Samuel tells - These will be the ways of the King who will reign over you:
He will take your sons and appoint them to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots. He will appoint some to plow his ground, reap his harvest and to make implements of war. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. He will take your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and your asses and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your flocks and you shall be his slaves. 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.
In spite of these warnings, the people insisted on having a King so that they may be like other nations. The demand was conceded inaugurating a tragic era of a chain of mostly evil kings.
Political thinkers of diverse persuasions have formulated theories on the origin of state. The most famous are theories of thinkers like Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Rousseau based on the idea of social contract. These thinkers essentially argued that state originated when the the general public agreed to surrender their freedoms fully or in part to an individual, group or groups of individuals in return for security. This in itself is a cynical view of the origin of state. The Bible in the book of Samuel takes a much more cynical position. However, this did not prevent kings and ruling classes in earlier ages and even our own times arguing for divine right of kings on the [nonexistent] authority of Bible! You never hear the above passage from the book of Samuel read in churches. Well, you don't expect responsible shepherds to expose innocent flock to subversive writing, do you?
