Israel already had a king. They had always had a king. The Great King himself sat on Israel’s throne, and the suzerain-vassal treaty was the constitution of the people’s national life.

So when the elders come to Samuel in 1 Samuel 8 and demand a king like all the nations around them, they are not asking for something new. They are asking to fire God as the Great King and hire a human replacement.

The Great King tells Samuel plainly: “they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them” (1 Samuel 8:7).

LDS readers who know Mosiah 29 already know how this ends. King Benjamin’s son Mosiah abolishes the Nephite monarchy specifically because of what wicked kings cost their people.

The lesson runs straight from 1 Samuel 8 through the Book of Mormon.