| THE FIRST KING |
| Every other nation had one - why not Israel? |
| If both you and the king who reigns over you follow the Lord your God - good! But if you do not obey the Lord . . . his hand will be against you. 1 Samuel 12:14-15 |
| Making a single nation out of a dozen tribes was not easy. Unity came hard for Israel; it also came hard for the United States. U.S. history may shed light on 1Samuel's story. Most people think George Washington was the first president of the United States, but that honor actually belongs to Samuel Huntington. He never achieved fame because the states he presided over weren't united. They had no Constitution, only Articles of Confederation that made them 13 independent nations loosely linked together. Congress under Siege Two years after Huntington took office, on June 21, 1783, 500 unpaid federal soldiers laid siege to Congress in Philadelphia, breaking windows and shouting threats because Congress, which was supposed to pay them, had no money. The jealously independent stated had given them none. Driven out of town by the soldiers, Congress became nomadic, meeting in Princeton, Annapolis, Trenton, and New York City. That same June, George Washington wrote, "It is yet to be decided whether the Revolution must ultimately be considered a blessing or a curse." Troubles continued. In Shay's Rebellion, 1,500 hostile farmers surrounded courtrooms, refusing to let courts meet. The army should have quickly dispersed them, but the national army consisted of only 700 men. Shay's Rebellion made obvious the need for a stronger central government. The next year a constitutional convention met in Philadelphia to hammer out the document that still unifies Americans. Washington was elected president. Why Israel Needed a King The 12 tribes of Israel, like the 13 states, were a nation in |
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