1 Samuel 8: 1-22 ***** We want a king and no God ***** VS. IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776 The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America ***** We want God and no king ***** Part 1 of 7 1 Samuel 8: 1-2 . Comments on the 1 Samuel 8 section The “Declaration” Part 1, the beginning Comments on the 1776 Declaration Section Common Thread Between Samual and 1776 Declaration 1 Samuel 8:1-2 1And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel. 2Now the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abiah: they were judges in Beersheba. The government is passed down to the next generation in a family. This makes some people “more equal” as the old phrase states. When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. The writers look to the Laws of God that make one people separate and equal. They look to God for government and not a birthright system that was imposed on them. The birthright system is established and a birthright system needs to be separated from. Calling on God’s way. Part 2 of 7 1 Samuel 8: 3 . Comments on the 1 Samuel 8 section The “Declaration” Part 2, starts at first underscore Comments on the 1776 Declaration Section Common Thread Between Samual and 1776 Declaration 1 Samuel 8:3 3And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment. The birthright government did not treat everyone equally, they actually made life misserable because doing right was now wrong, and doing wrong was now right, depending on who you were. ___We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. The writers once again look to God for “equal at birth” rights. Life and a peaceful way of life comes from God. Unequal treatment by corrupt birthright rulers vs. looking to God for equal opportunity of a peaceful life that God gives. Part 3 of 7 1 Samuel 8: 4-6 . Comments on the 1 Samuel 8 section The “Declaration” Part 3, starts at second underscore Comments on the 1776 Declaration Section Common Thread Between Samual and 1776 Declaration 1 Samuel 8:4-6 4Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, 5And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. 6But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD. The birthright government is not working out, we choose to be ruled by a king. ___That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, The writers acknowledge the people have a right to choose there government but it only has just powers, as opposed to unjust powers. Both see unjust powers, one ask for a king to fix it, one says that God given rights are protected by men choosing a government with only just powers. Part 4 of 7 1 Samuel 8: 7-9a . Comments on the 1 Samuel 8 section The “Declaration” Part 4, starts at third underscore Comments on the 1776 Declaration Section Common Thread Between Samual and 1776 Declaration 1 Samuel 8:7-9a 7And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. 8According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee. 9aNow therefore hearken unto their voice: The people have not looked to God at all, they see injustice and they want a man, a king, to rule over them. ___That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. After repeatedly calling on God’s way of government, the writers now define what they are allowed to do when living under man’s corrupt government. They then explain why people continue to live under corrupt goverments. In Samuel’s day, the people rejected God and they will get what they asked for, in the 1776, they called on God, and define what happens when you call on God and you don’t reject Him. Part 5 of 7 1 Samuel 8: 9b-11a . Comments on the 1 Samuel 8 section The “Declaration” Part 5a, starts at four underscore Comments on the 1776 Declaration Section Common Thread Between Samual and 1776 Declaration 1 Samuel 8:9b-11a 9bhowbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them. 10And Samuel told all the words of the LORD unto the people that asked of him a king. 11aAnd he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: Samuel is told to protest to the people and warn them what it will be like if they ask for a king. ______Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. The writers say it is time to alter the corrupt system and they “protest” to the world in the form of a list to fact. A warning that you really don’t want a king, a statement that we really don’t want a king. Too much corruption. 1 Samuel 8: 11b-17 . Comments on the 1 Samuel 8 section The “Declaration” Part 5b, starts at first “He has…” underscore. Comments on the 1776 Declaration Section Common Thread Between Samual and 1776 Declaration 1 Samuel 8:11b-17 11b He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots. 12And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. 13And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. 14And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. 15And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. 16And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. 17He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. They are told the what it “will” be like if they keep asking for a king. ___ He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. ___He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. ___He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. ___He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. ___He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. ___He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. ___He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. ___He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers. ___He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. ___He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. ___He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. ___He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power. ___He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: ___For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: ___For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: ___For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: ___For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: ___For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences: ___For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies ___For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: ___For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. ___He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. ___He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. ___He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. ___He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. ___He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. They list what it “has” been like living under the king. The king “will” and the king “has” acted exactly like God said it would be if you don’t want God and then ask for a king. Long lasting effects. 1 Samuel 8: 18 . Comments on the 1 Samuel 8 section The “Declaration” Part 5c, starts after the last “He has…”. Comments on the 1776 Declaration Section Common Thread Between Samual and 1776 Declaration 1 Samuel 8:18 18And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day. God warns them that He will not listem to their cry if they reject God and ask for a king. In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. The writers say that when they humbly cry to the king, he does listen the them, but the punishment only gets worse. Life under a king will leave you with no one to helping to make life better. Part 6 of 7 1 Samuel 8: 19-21 . Comments on the 1 Samuel 8 section The “Declaration” Part 6, starts at second to last underscore Comments on the 1776 Declaration Section Common Thread Between Samual and 1776 Declaration 1 Samuel 8:19-21 19Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us; 20That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles. 21And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of the LORD. These people refute God’s warning and say a king will be great for us and the king can judge us, so give us a king. ___We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. The writers appeal to God, the Supreme Judge of the world, to look at their honest intentions. Their intention is to let God be their judge and they are free people now. They make God their judge now and separate from the king over them. A complete reversal takes place, it starts with rejected God and asking for a king, and ends with asking for God and rejecting a king. Part 7 of 7 1 Samuel 8: 22 . Comments on the 1 Samuel 8 section The “Declaration” Part 7, starts at final underscore Comments on the 1776 Declaration Section Common Thread Between Samual and 1776 Declaration 1 Samuel 8:22 22And the LORD said to Samuel, Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king. And Samuel said unto the men of Israel, Go ye every man unto his city. They get the king they ask for. All the men go away to their cities. ___And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor. *********************************** The following is a list of locations for each man that signed their names: Delaware: George Read | Caesar Rodney | Thomas McKean | Pennsylvania: George Clymer | Benjamin Franklin | Robert Morris | John Morton | Benjamin Rush | George Ross | James Smith | James Wilson | George Taylor | Massachusetts: John Adams | Samuel Adams | John Hancock | Robert Treat Paine | Elbridge Gerry New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett | William Whipple | Matthew Thornton | Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins | William Ellery | New York: Lewis Morris | Philip Livingston | Francis Lewis | William Floyd | Georgia: Button Gwinnett | Lyman Hall | George Walton | Virginia: Richard Henry Lee | Francis Lightfoot Lee | Carter Braxton | Benjamin Harrison | Thomas Jefferson | George Wythe | Thomas Nelson, Jr. | North Carolina: William Hooper | John Penn | Joseph Hewes South Carolina: Edward Rutledge | Arthur Middleton | Thomas Lynch, Jr. | Thomas Heyward, Jr. | New Jersey: Abraham Clark | John Hart | Francis Hopkinson | Richard Stockton | John Witherspoon | Connecticut: Samuel Huntington | Roger Sherman | William Williams | Oliver Wolcott | Maryland: Charles Carroll | Samuel Chase | Thomas Stone | William Paca | They are putting their faith in God, hoping, without a guarantee that this has been enough to reverse the curse of living under a king (the punishment from long ago). In the old time, they were going to get the misery’s by asking for a king. In current time, they could only hope that reversing the “ask” would free them from the misery’s. They laid it all out in writing, point by point. Now it was going to be a life in freedom under God, or they would lose it all.