1 Samuel 12:16

A MIRACULOUS CONFIRMATION OF SAMUEL'S WORDS

"Now therefore stand still and see this great thing, which the Lord shall do before your eyes. Is it not wheat harvest today? I will call upon the Lord, that he may send thunder and rain; and you shall know and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking for yourselves a king." So Samuel called upon the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day; and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel."

The great miracle here was in the timing of the thunderstorm, which came directly and immediately upon Samuel's praying for it in the presence of all the people. Such a thing as a rain during the wheat harvest was about as unusual as anything that could have happened, just like snow in July or August! In fact, the author of Proverbs gives us this:

Like snow in summer, or rain in harvest,

so honor is not fitting for a fool. (Proverbs 26:1).

"You shall know and see that your wickedness is great ... in asking for yourselves a king" (1 Samuel 12:17). Some very excellent scholars suppose that Israel's wickedness consisted not in their asking for a king, but in their sinful motives in so doing. The Bible does not justify that distinction. Their sin consisted in rejecting the government of God by their demand for an earthly ruler instead. God would never have abolished the kingship of Israel nor have twice destroyed their temple if either one of them had been according to God's will. The passage in Deuteronomy which speaks of Israel's kings is not divine permission for their demanding a king, but a prophecy of what the people would eventually do, along with instructions applicable at the time foretold when they would commit that sin of demanding a king.