The people of Israel not only displeased Samuel but also offended God by rejecting Him as their King for a replacement. "Jehovah said to Samuel, Listen to the voice of the people according to all that they have said to you; for it is not you whom they have rejected, but they have rejected Me from being King over them" (v. 7).
In 12:12 Samuel said, "You said to me, No; but a king will reign over us, though Jehovah your God was your King." From this we see that actually God was the King over the people of Israel.
Their asking for a king was equal to rejecting God for a replacement. This was a great wickedness, a great evil, in the sight of God (vv. 17, 19).
God charged Samuel to listen to the people's voice but to warn them solemnly and declare to them the king's cruel reign over them, telling them of the custom of the king who would reign over them (8:9).
Samuel did what God charged him, speaking "all the words of Jehovah to the people, who had asked him for a king" (vv. 10-18).
The people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel (v. 19a). Instead, they said, "No; but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles" (vv. 19b-20).
Samuel heard all the words of the people and then consulted Jehovah, speaking their words in the hearing of Jehovah. Then Jehovah told him to listen to their voice and appoint a king to them (vv. 21-22).
By insisting on having a king, the elect of God turned from God to a man. From this we should learn the lesson that no matter what we do, no matter how good, "spiritual," and even scriptural it may be, as long as we have a replacement for God, that is evil. We may do good things, but those good things are evil in the sight of God as long as we reject Him as our Head, our Husband, and our King. It is not a matter of good or bad, right or wrong; it is a matter of whether we take God as our King or reject Him. Even in small matters such as shopping, we often take a replacement rather than God Himself. This is why the Nazarite must always keep his hair long, covering his head with God Himself as his authority.
We need to learn to take God as our Head in our married life. When we argue with our spouse, the only way to settle the disagreement is to stop arguing and come to our King, our Head. Although I am the husband, I would not exercise my headship. Rather, I would go with my wife to my Husband, to our Husband, to see what our Husband, the very God, would say to us. Whatever He would say, we would take. This settles every problem and maintains a good and proper married life.
We need to learn the same lesson concerning the service of God in the church life. Concerning any problem related to God's economy, we should stop any quarreling, struggling, debating, and reasoning and go to our Head. We should stand on the position that we keep our hair long; we should keep our vow as a Nazarite.
I encountered rebellious ones at least three times in the past forty-four years. Every time, I told the brothers, "Let us stop and go to the Lord and pray together. Let us gather the leading ones in the Lord's recovery and come together to pray and fellowship." But they would never agree. We all need to learn from this to accept the Lord as our Head, our Husband, and our King. This is the only way to participate in the fulfillment of God's eternal economy.