Now therefore stand still and see this great thing, which Yahweh will do before your eyes.
"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.