Who should have been the first king of Israel?--Introduction to Shmuel I

I'm so sorry for the long delay in posting.   So I'll get right to it.

First, the book of I Samuel and II Samuel (Shmuel Alef and Bet) are really one, big book.  If I recall correctly, the division into two books was done by Christian scholars, and it is a division we retain for convenience purposes.

Second, the overall timeline of the book of Shmuel is not so large-- it spans the lives of Shmuel, Saul, and David.  Compare that to Judges, which covered a period of several hundred years, and to Kings, which also spans hundreds of years.

Third is the main point I want to discuss in this post.   Shmuel's birth is preceded by the famous story of Chanah's prayer in Chapter 1.   He is dedicated to God from before birth, and lo and behold, he becomes a successful servant of God.  God speaks to him when prophecy had otherwise ceased.  He serves God in a devoted fashion.  He leads the people.  

On the one hand, compare him to the only other Judge who was dedicated to God before birth--Shimshon.  While Shimshon was the low point (see this post here), Shmuel is the high point, at least as regards leadership.  He lives up to his potential as a religious personality and as a Shofet, a Judge.   Shmuel is the culmination of the period of Judges, and he is the most successful, righteous Judge.
Take home message:  Shmuel was one of the Shoftim, the Judges.

On the other hand, when the people ask for a king in chapter 8, Shmuel sees this as a rejection of his leadership.  God says to him, "They're not rejecting you, they're rejecting Me."    The question is, why would Shmuel see this as a personal rejection?   After all, the reason they get upset is because Shmuel makes his sons into Shoftim when he gets old, and they become corrupted, taking bribes, running after gain.   Aren't they just fed up with the system of Shoftim, some better and some worse?

Now this is my theory, and I take responsibility for it and the likelihood that it is incorrect.   But I think that what is happening here is that Shmuel sees himself as being able to pass the "Judgehood" on to his sons.   But this is the very thing that characterizes a king!  After all, recall in the book of Judges that the Judge Gidon did not want the honor of kingship, and his son, Avimelech, tried to become king. 
My suggestion is that Kingship is centralized rule by dynastic succession, and Shmuel tried to set that up in his own life.  Not for personal glory-- we see that he is indeed, a holy person.   But rather, in order to create the continuous, centralized authority that was absent during the period of the Shoftim.

Thus, there is reason to think that the people are rejecting Shmuel when they ask for a king, and therefore, God tells him "No, they're not rejecting you, they're rejecting Me."   Because the people's choice of a king is motivated not only by their dissatisfaction with the corruption of Shmuel's sons, but by a more negative reason as well.  (Which we will probably discuss later).

To sum up:  Shmuel is a bridge between the period of the Judges and the Kings.   He rules as a Shofet, a Judge.   But he has a centralized power and tries to pass it on, in the manner of a king  (We will see also how he finishes the king's job of killing Amalek when King Saul does not do it.  This is another example of how Shmuel is not just a judge and prophet, but also a type of king).   And, of course, he is the last of the Judges, who acts in God's name when he anoints the first king of Israel.  He is thus a bridge in the sense that he himself is both a judge and a king, and in the sense that he ushers in the transition between the judges and the kings.