But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the LORD. And the LORD said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”
Comment: We are told what we are told because that is what we need to know. There is a sense in which Samuel should have been ashamed that people came crying for a different style of leadership. He must have heard the evil things that his sons were doing and realized that his own time was limited because of age. But there had never been an earthly king over the Hebrews or Israel They had always (at least in their faithful times) seen the Creator God, Jehovah, the great I AM, as their King. So displeased he cries out to God, who answers him.
‘It is not you, but Me, whom they are rejecting. Their cry is in total line with the way they have treated Me ever since I delivered them from slavery in Egypt.’ So, Samuel was told to grant them what they desired but, when he did so, he was to warn them what an earthly king would be like!
Prayer: I would own You as my King, O Lord. Help me to live faithful to You.
As I read it! 