Samuel grew older and appointed his sons as leaders. Like Eli's sons, they too turned away from God. There are rather a lot of examples in the Bible of sons not following in their father's footsteps. We have Eli and Samuel's sons here. David's sons were hardly exemplary. One rebelled, Solomon's performance was mixed! These are children of godly men. So what are we to learn from this? When told His family were looking for Him, Jesus said that those who obeyed the Father were His brothers, sisters and mother.
The elders of Israel reacted against this and came to Samuel. So they asked for a king. Samuel was displeased and prayed to God. God said to Samuel that it was not Samuel they were rejecting, but God.
Now we need to look at this more closely. For the people's reaction is perfectly understandable, even good. They are rejecting godless leadership, which is a reasonable thing to do. The mistake they are making is looking for a worldly solution, instead of looking to God. Perhaps they should have prayed to God for Him to give them good leadership. So the motives are good, the reaction is wrong. We need to beware of situations where we are half-justified in what we do, for the other half will come back to haunt us (if you'll allow me to use that phrase!).
So the people were allowed to have a king, but God warned them what would happen. The kings would end up being as evil as Samuel's sons. They would exact tribute from the people and send their sons to war. But the people were so consumed by the problems of the current situation that they would go for anything.
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