Beginning of the End - Ellen G. White

the burdens that a king would lay upon them and the contrast
between such oppression and their present freedom and prosperity.
Their king would imitate the pomp and luxury of other monarchs.
Heavy demands on themselves and their property would be
necessary. The king would require the best of their young men for
his service. They would be made charioteers and horsemen and
runners before him, and they must fill the ranks of his army and be
required to work his fields, reap his harvests, and manufacture
implements of war for his service. To support his royal state he
would take the best of their lands. The most valuable of their
servants and cattle he would take and "put them to his work."
Besides all this, the king would require a tenth of all their income,
the profits from their work or the products of the soil. "You will be
his servants," concluded the prophet. "And the Lord will not hear
you in that day." Once a monarchy was established, they could not
set it aside whenever they pleased.
The People Reject God as King
But the people returned the answer, "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."
"Like all the nations." To be unlike other nations in this respect
was a special privilege. God had separated the Israelites from every
other people, to make them His own special treasure, but they
wanted to imitate the heathen! As those who claim to be the people
of God depart from the Lord, they become ambitious for the honors
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