Beware of asking for a Saul-like leader, for that is who we will get

The people of Israel were asking for a king. God gave them the type of leader they wanted, which was King Saul. God warned the people about asking for such a king. The prophet Samuel was communicating to the people and to God:

Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, “You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways; appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to govern us.” Samuel prayed to the Lord, and the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. Just as they have done to me, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so also they are doing to you. 

Samuel 8: 4-8

God warned the Israelites through Samuel that they would soon be in despair under the rule of this king:

And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”

But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; they said, “No! but we are determined to have a king over us, so that we also may be like other nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles.” When Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord. The Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to their voice and set a king over them.” Samuel then said to the people of Israel, “Each of you return home.”

Samuel 8: 18-22

King Saul's leadership started off well, but then he became jealous of David's fame and accomplishments after David killed Goliath. King Saul would frequently try to kill David.

Would you want a crazy deluded leader? Surely not. Yet, because that is what the people of Israel were seeking, that is who God gave them. 

Today, many candidates being fielded by both ends of the political spectrum in democracies seem very Saul-like. There is often an emphasis on looks and posturing, and an appearance of what seems like arbitrary decision-making. If those leaders are who we as a people want, that is what God will give us. He allows us free will and the ability to select our own leader. 

Ultimately, any leader is going to fall short of the ideal. We are made for God to lead us, as He will do in heaven. On this earthly world, human leaders are merely a (very poor) placeholder for God. 

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