"Samuel said to all Israel, 'I have listened to everything you said to me and have set a king over you. Now you have a king as your leader. As for me, I am old and gray, and my sons are here with you.'" (1 Samuel 12:1-2a) When the elders of Israel came to Samuel on behalf of the people to demand a king, they said, "You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways." (1 Samuel 8:5a) In our text today he clearly states he is stepping back and so are his sons, for most scholars believe when he says, "My sons are here with you," that his sons have been demoted from the offices they held and are standing among the assembly as ordinary citizens.
If anyone has anything against Samuel, now is their chance to make their grievances known. If they feel he has wronged them in any way, they must speak now or forever hold their peace once he has handed the reigns over to Saul. "I have been your leader from my youth until this day. Here I stand. Testify against me in the presence of the Lord and His anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I cheated? Whom have I oppressed? From whose hand have I accepted a bribe to make me shut my eyes? If I have done any of these things, I will make it right.'" (1 Samuel 12:2b-3) Samuel knows he has not done any of these things and can be confident that no one will accuse him of doing them. A judge was in a position to cheat people and accept bribes, and those who did not know him very well (and who had a poor opinion of political figures in general) might have harbored suspicions about him. Samuel may be semi-retiring but he's going to do so with his reputation intact. His sons behaved dishonestly when they traveled to other towns to assist him in his duties in his old age but he has done nothing dishonest himself.
"'You have not cheated or oppressed us,' they replied. 'You have not taken anything from anyone's hand.' Samuel said to them, 'The Lord is witness against you, and also His anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand.' 'He is witness,' they said." (1 Samuel 12:4-5) They publicly declare Samuel innocent of corrupt behavior in the sight of God and in the sight of King Saul (the Lord's anointed king). They cannot come back later and claim he did steal from them or that he accepted bribes to judge cases unfairly.
Samuel has lived an honest life. He has listened to and judged the people's legal cases fairly. As a prophet he has relayed the words of the Lord exactly as He spoke them. The Lord also has treated them faithfully and fairly, as Samuel testifies next. "Then Samuel said to the people, 'It is the Lord who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought your ancestors up out of Egypt. Now then, stand here, because I am going to confront you with evidence before the Lord as to all the righteous acts performed by the Lord for you and your ancestors. After Jacob entered Egypt, they cried to the Lord for help, and the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, who brought you out of Egypt and settled them in this place." (1 Samuel 1:6-8) The Lord mercifully rescued them from the mighty hand of Egypt.
Yet after settling in the promised land and becoming comfortable there, their prosperity caused them to become complacent about the Lord. Many of the people drifted from their relationship with Him and dabbled in idolatrous practices. "But they forgot the Lord their God; so He sold them into the hand of Sisera, the commander of the army of Hazor, and into the hands of the Philistines and the king of Moab, who fought against them." (1 Samuel 12:9) Because they did not remain wholeheartedly faithful to the Lord, He allowed oppressors to come against them as a form of discipline.
But when they saw the error of their ways and cried to the Lord for help, He had compassion on them. "They cried out to the Lord and said, 'We have sinned; we have forsaken the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtoreths. But now deliver us from the hands of our enemies, and we will serve you.' Then the Lord sent Jerub-Baal, Barak, Jephthah and Samuel, and He delivered you from the hands of your enemies all around you, so that you lived in safety." (1 Samuel 12:10-11)
"But when you saw that Nahash king of the Ammonites was moving against you, you said to me, 'No, we want a king to rule over us'---even though the Lord your God was your king." (1 Samuel 12:12) We learn something here that we weren't previously told. We didn't know that, at the time the elders came to Samuel and demanded a king, Nahash was already threatening the nation. His army was approaching. Rumors of an impending war were spreading. This---perhaps more than the fact that Samuel was old and his sons were immoral scoundrels--- prompted them to choose this particular time to want a king so they could "be like all the other nations". In that case it appears as if they feared Nahash more than they trusted their true King the Lord and they thought perhaps news would reach Nahash that Israel had elected a king to command the army.
We don't always make the best decisions when we are driven by fear. We are more likely to focus on our circumstances than on our God. As a result, to our human eyes our troubles start looking bigger and bigger while our God starts looking smaller and smaller. Instead of looking around frantically in a blind panic, we need to look straight to the God who promises: "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." (Isaiah 41:10)
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