- Samuel's farewell does not mark a change in the covenant — only a change in who holds the office of
- Samuel's clean record is a rebuke to what the office of king tends toward.
- He invites the people to accuse him: have I taken your ox, defrauded you, oppressed you? (vv. 3–4).
- Israel cannot accuse him. This is in direct contrast to 1 Sam. 8:11–17, where Samuel warned that the kings would
- Samuel himself did none of it.
- This points forward
- the true king to come will be the one leader of God's people who can be accused
- David will soon enter the story soon as a type of that king, Christ.
- Israel's sin was not in their desire for a king — it was desiring a king instead of God rather than under God (v. 12).
- God grants them a king anyway — grace operating through judgment, sovereign over their sin.
- The covenant call is unchanged (vv. 14–15)
- fear the Lord
- serve Him
- obey His voice.
- God's faithfulness is grounded in His own name, not Israel's merit (v. 22), fully realized again in the provision of