1 Samuel 8:1-3 English Standard Version (ESV)

Israel Demands a King

¹ When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. ² The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. ³ Yet his sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice.

Let it be said that Israel did not complain about how Samuel judged them. Their complaint was in how his sons judged Israel. They did not want to be judged by and unjust judges. Here is an interesting twist on their demands for a king.

In verse 5 they said, “….appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” God had saved Israel out of Egypt and brought them into a land of promise to show the world that He was a God of promise and that His people were a special and unique people. Now they wanted to be like everyone else.

This is a problem that is ever present within Christianity. We are hated for His sake.

Luke 21:17 English Standard Version (ESV) You will be hated by all for my name’s sake.

Do we want to be like everyone else or do we want to be God’s chosen people?

1 Peter 2:9 English Standard Version (ESV) But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

The difference between Israel of 1 Samuel 8 and 1 Peter 2:9 is that we serve a just King. He is righteous in all His judgments and sitting on the throne of heaven cannot be touch by greed and will not pervert justice.

Love our just judge, do not want to be like everyone else.

Luke 18:42 English Standard Version (ESV) And Jesus said to him, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.”

Other translations replace “well” with saved. Which is it, to be healed or to be saved? It is both if we understand the context properly.

Vine’s Expository Definition of sozo G4982;

“to save,” is used (as with the noun soteria, “salvation”)

(a) of material and temporal deliverance from danger, suffering, etc., e.g.,  (AV, “preserve”);  from sickness, “made… whole” (RV, marg., “saved”);

(b) of the spiritual and eternal salvation granted immediately by God to those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, RV “(those that) were being saved;”  “were we saved;” ; of human agency in this, 

(c) of the present experiences of God’s power to deliver from the bondage of sin, of human agency in this, 

(d) of the future deliverance of believers at the Second Coming of Christ for His saints, being deliverance from the wrath of God to be executed upon the ungodly at the close of this age and from eternal doom, 

(e) of the deliverance of the nation of Israel at the Second Advent of Christ

(f) inclusively for all the blessings bestowed by God on men in Christ, 

(g) of those who endure to the end of the time of the Great Tribulation, 

(h) of the individual believer, who, though losing his reward at the Judgment-Seat of Christ hereafter, will not lose his salvation, 

(i) of the deliverance of the nations at the Millennium.
See Salvation

Salvation is not just one thing. This is a long list of conditions that can be boiled down to one universal understanding. Sozo is to heal what ails us. This sozo is a continual blessing for those in Christ which covers, what ailed us, what ails us, and what will ail us.

What ails us? Sin.

Matthew 1:21 English Standard Version (ESV) She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.