For the Sake of the Message

And Samuel said to all Israel, “Behold, I have obeyed your voice in all that you have said to me and have made a king over you. And now, behold, the king walks before you, and I am old and gray; and behold, my sons are with you. I have walked before you from my youth until this day. Here I am; testify against me before the LORD and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Or whose donkey have I taken? Or whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Or from whose hand have I taken a bribe to blind my eyes with it? Testify against me and I will restore it to you.” They said, “You have not defrauded us or oppressed us or taken anything from any man's hand.” And he said to them, “The LORD is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand.” And they said, “He is witness.”
(1 Samuel 12:1-5 ESV)
Samuel does something rare here. It is something that we see Paul do on rare occasions as well: he defends his life as a servant and spokesman for God.  As a general rule, these men and other prophets and apostles did not flout their lives and say "look at me!" But in situations like this, there was a reason: people were not listening to the message of the messenger.  Samuel and Paul did not care so much about what people thought about them as the messenger as the did about a serious message God was sending that seemed to be ignored.  God had been telling them through Samuel that is was a grave mistake to think that a king could do a better job of leading and delivering them than God had. But it seemed like Samuel was wasting his words on deaf ears.  It is hard to be ignored as one who speaks the Word of the Lord to the hearers peril.  It makes the speaker ask: "What is it about this messenger that causes you to ignore the message he brings? Ultimately, these people admit what is so often true of us: it's not the messenger; it's the message we refuse to accept, and the One who sent it.