1 Samuel 31
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. Wow, lively this morning. It's Labor Day weekend. My name is Spencer. I am one of the pastors here. We are in 1st Samuel 31, which means that we are coming to the end of First Samuel today. So this is the final chapter. We said at the beginning that first and Second Samuel were all written together. It's one story that when they originally were recording this down, they did it in scrolls. It was too big of a story for one scroll. They split it into two, which is why we have first and Second Samuel. So there's part one, there's part two. We're finishing part one. We are not going to immediately jump into Second Samuel. We're actually going to take a break from that. We're going to do a new series starting next week called Remember, this is an opportunity for us to look at why membership is important and to look at our membership commitment. And we're going to teach through our membership commitment throughout the fall to understand what are the things that we commit to as this local body. And then we will do our give series in December and we'll return to Second Samuel in the new year sometime. So we are in 1st Samuel today, concluding it. This is the final part, really, of the downfall of Saul. We followed this story. We've seen how ugly it has gotten for him. And this chapter just kind of ends very quickly. It's a very brief description of how Saul dies, and it ends this really sad story in a hurry. So what I want to do is I want to walk through the story here of what we have today, and then I want to recap and go back to look at parts of First Samuel to really see where Saul started to go around, to see some of the decisions he made, and to see how pride and self interest ultimately became his downfall. So we'll get to recap and see First Samuel in a clip, and then we will have an opportunity to step back as Christians and look at this and see what this means for us as we try to understand this and apply the truth of the Scriptures to our lives. So I'm gonna pray for us, and then we're going to walk through this together. Heavenly Father, I pray that you might help us be present to hear your word, that you give us ears to hear and that we would not just listen to what your word has to say, but we would seek to respond. God, may you bring us to faith and. And to repentance and to delighting in you over all the things in this world they would seek to rob us of life with you we ask this in Jesus name. Amen.
All right, so we're in verse one now.
> Now the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa.
And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons, and the Philistines struck down Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchishua, the sons of Saul.
> And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons, and the Philistines struck down Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchishua, Saul's sons.
So it just jumps straight into this very sad moment. If you've been following First Samuel with us, this is sad because this is the death of Jonathan. Jonathan is what was supposed to be the next king in Lyme, but he realizes fairly quickly that God has chosen David to be the anointed king. So he submits to the will of God and then he becomes a fierce friend to David, that he loves David. I mean, we see such loyalty within him. And if you remember a few chapters ago, there's this hope in him that he said, one day, David, you're going to be the throne. I'm going to be by your side. There's this hopefulness that he'll never get to see. And one of the things I appreciate here is that even as he seeks to obey the Lord and his desires, not his own, and he seeks to befriend David, that he's at his father's side, which means he's still trying to honor his father as well. Makes Jonathan one of the most beloved people in the Scriptures. But he dies in battle. Two other brothers due to Abinadab and Malka Shua. Now absent from this list of sons is Ish Bosheth, which we're going to learn more about at the beginning of 2 Samuel. There's going to be a rivalry that brews between him and David, but he's not there in the battlefield, it seems.
Now we pick up in verse three,
> And the battle pressed hard against Saul, and the archers found him, and he was badly wounded by the archers. Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, Draw your sword and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through and mistreat me. But his armor-bearer would not, for he feared greatly. Therefore Saul took his own sword and fell upon it. And when his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell upon his sword and died with him. Thus Saul died, and his three sons and his armor-bearer and all his men on the same day together.
So they're losing, they're retreating. They're retreating to Mount Gilboa, his sons have died, his army's falling. Everything that Samuel said is coming to fruition, and that he's struck, he's struck by archers. And at this point, he knows it's over. And he does not want to be overtaken by the Philistines because he knows what's going to happen. He's been a thorn in their side for decades. At this point, they get ahold of him. They're going to mistreat him. He doesn't want that. He looks at his armor bearer and says, kill me. Kill me right now. But his armor bearer would not, for he feared greatly and rightfully so. This is the Lord's anointed king. This is not a small thing for this request to come through. He's not doing this. Therefore, Saul took his own sword and fell upon it. And when his arm bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell upon his sword, died with them. Thus Saul died, and his three sons and his armor bearer and all his men on the same day together. Saul ends his own life. His arm bearer follows suit. And Saul, a man that grew prideful as the years went on, he decides how he is going to die.
Verse 7.
> And when the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley and those beyond Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities and fled, and the Philistines came and lived in them.
So when the people in nearby towns hear that their king of 40 years has died and they have lost the battle, they make the right decision. Because in this period of time, actually even into today, if you lose and the army is coming, you just abandon everything. You get your family, you get out. Philistines come in, they settle into these towns.
Verse 8.
> The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.
So they cut off his head and stripped off his armor and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to carry the good news to the house of their idols and to the people. The Philistines suffered Saul under Saul and all of the battles they lost against him for 40 years. So when they are doing what you do after you win the battle and they're searching all the bodies, they're taking loot. They are trying to identify if there's any major figures that have been killed and they finally find Saul, they are ecstatic because they get the opportunity to humiliate this thorn in their side that they've Lost to for many years. And they cut off his head. And if you remember back in 1st Samuel, chapter 5, when the Ark of the Lord was captured and the ark of the Lord is brought into the Philistines, the temple of Dagon, the Lord cuts the head of the false God and that statue off. And that's as we established then, that's a sign of dominance and humiliation against your enemy. That's why David, after he defeats Goliath, he cuts off his head. It's a sign of dominance and humiliation of your enemy. And they do the same to Saul to establish dominance and humiliation in their victory. And this just shows, this is judgment against Saul, that he dies in a similar manner as Goliath. He's humiliated like Dagon. He is being judged. We learn from 1st Chronicles, chapter 10. If you read 1st Chronicles and 2nd Chronicles, they have parallel stories to 1st and 2nd Samuel and 1st and 2nd Kings. And when you look at 1st Chronicles 10, you get a little more information that they didn't just cut his head off, they took it actually to the temple of Dagon. They devoted it to their idol. Humiliating. And they spread this humiliating good news throughout the land of the Philistines.
> They put his armor in the temple of Ashtaroth and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan.
So they take his armor, a military flex of power. They devote it to another false God that they worship. They take his headless body and they string it to the wall of Beth Shan for any Israelite that will come and see. They're going to see their king of 40 years, headless on the wall, humiliated. But nearby in Jabesh Gilead, they hear of what happened to their king. And if you remember the story of Jabesh Gilead, this is when the Ammonites were surrounding Jabesh and they were humiliating them. The people of Jabesh were able to get a message out. And this is one of Saul's bright moments where he, the spirit of the Lord rushes upon him and he gathers the people and the Israelites defeat the Ammonites. So the people of Jabesh, that's decades ago, but they remember it, and they're going to retrieve the desecrated body of their king.
Verse 11.
> But when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men arose and went all night and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan. And they came to Jabesh and burned them there.
They Risk their lives. They go, they get his body, they get his sons, they go back to Jabesh, they burn his bodies. They burn their bodies. They then
> took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk at Jabesh, and they fasted seven days.
So even in this, at the end of the final verse of this book, where there's a bright spot here, you see that the loyalty of the people of Jabesh, as I look at this, more even in this small little bright spot of their loyalty, there's so much of God's judgment upon Saul and how all this went down that he, Saul is the king. He doesn't get a burial like a king. He doesn't even get a burial like an Israelite because the Israelites didn't do this. They didn't burn bodies. They didn't cremate. That's not what they did. That was dishonorable. And people ask the question, well, why did they go all to the trouble? They risk their lives and they go and they bring them back and they do this type of burial. And the best explanation I saw, and I think it's pretty convincing, is that they risked their lives to do this. They might have been hunted down for doing this. And they had to do the quickest way to take care of his desecrated body already to cremate, take the bones. Can I be recognized? And they buried him under a tamarisk tree, which, as I read that, I just was like that. This is more of God's judgment upon Saul. The only other time that you see a tamarisk tree mentioned in the. In the whole Bible is back in 1st Samuel 22. And that is when Saul is. He makes. He makes his judgment arrogantly against the priest of Nob under the tamarisk tree. And that's when he murders all of the priests of Nob and their wives and their children. And the same place where he made this arrogant judgment, the same type of tree. At least he's buried under this tree. So all of this shows God's judgment upon Saul and a sad ending to his life. And I think this cements the judgment against him. And if you go on and you read into 1 Chronicles and you see one of the final passages in the Bible that's going to mention Saul, you just get a blunt summary of this judgment upon him.
> So Saul died for his breach of faith. He broke faith with the Lord in that he did not keep the command of the Lord and also command consulted a medium seeking guidance.
So for not obeying the Lord's command, that's a reference to 1st Samuel 15, when he was told to kill the Amalekite king, and he doesn't. And for consulting a medium, he is appointed to die like this. And that's the end. That's the end of the story of Saul. And what I want to do is I want to just briefly go back through parts of First Samuel and. And I want to trace for us how he got here and why all of this happened. So we'll start in 1st Samuel, chapter 2. His downfall was prophetically foreshadowed in the prayer of Hannah. And I just want to read a snippet of her prayer. If you remember, Hannah, this is. She was. She loved God. She was praying for a son. She could not have a son. And then God finally hears her pray, blesses her, and her son is Samuel, the final judge from the period of the Judges, and the great seer and prophet of the land. And in this rejoicing, prayer and worshiping the Lord, she previews the whole, all the events of the next hundred years. If you go back and read Hannah's prayer, you get a picture of first and Second Samuel, what's about to happen. And in that prayer, in verse nine, it says, she says,
> He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked shall be put to silence in darkness; for by power no one prevails. The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; against them he will thunder in heaven. The LORD will judge the ends of the earth. And he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.
And it's this declaration that those who are faithful, who keep faith in the Lord, who love God, who follow him, God will give strength to them. He will guard them. But the wicked who trust in themselves will fail. You cannot trust in your own strength. Not by might shall a man prevail. And there's this declaration of God will give strength to his anointed king. And this anticipation of the kingship that is going to come. And who is this king going to be? And is he going to have this type of blessedness where God gives him strength to be the king that this nation needs? And then finally, as we followed and kept going, we began to see who's going to be the first king. And it comes from a place that no one expects, that God chooses a king from the tribe of Benjamin. We were in 1st Samuel, chapter nine. We saw that Benjamin was the lowliest of the tribes. It was the smallest of the tribes. If you go back to the Book of Judges. It has a checkered past. The people didn't think much of the tribe of Benjamin. They didn't think much of themselves. But God chooses this king that's going to lead his people from this humble tribe. So much so that when Saul is chosen from the tribe of Benjamin, he says in 9:21,
> Am I not a Benjamite, from the least of the tribes of Israel, and is not my clan the humblest of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then have you spoken to me in this way?
Saul gets it. He's like, I'm from the tribe of Benjamin and I'm from one of the most humble clans, one of the humblest, the smallest of towns of people. Who am I that I would be king? And as you read this, if you don't know what's coming ahead, there's this hopefulness, because this is what God does. He chooses the lowly. He raises them up. And maybe that this is going to be the leader that leads the people with a type of humble leadership, that God is the one who gives the strength, that he doesn't trust in himself. But that hope quickly begins to fade. And the first evidence of his pride and self interest shows up in 1st Samuel 13. As you flip the pages, you get to the moment that he's supposed to, as the king. He's supposed to, before he goes into battle, wait on Samuel to come and make the offering, the sacrifice to the Lord. He is the king, he's not the prophet or the priest. But then he arrogantly assumes the role of prophet and priest. He offers the sacrifice, Samuel shows up. And then we see very quickly, oh, no, this is starting to go poorly. Saul thinks so highly of himself that he would step out of bounds and make this move. And that arrogance continues into 1st Samuel 15, when he is told to obey the voice of the Lord to destroy the Amalekites, that God had finally prepared judgment for them. And he doesn't. He's willing to kill all the people except The Amalekite king.
> But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and of the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them.
And when we walk through that chapter, what we saw is that he was willing to take the loot and he was willing to do what so many pagan kings in their time would do. They would keep the defeated king alive. And that would be a king that you paraded around like a slave that would exert your dominance and make your name great. His pride and self interest infected him. That he would not obey the voice of the Lord. That he would seek to make himself great. And that is when Samuel comes and declares, your kingship will end, that you will no longer be king. That God has sought a king after his own heart. And listen, in that moment Saul had the opportunity to realize his grievous sin and to say, what woe is me that I did not obey your voice. Forgive me. And then he could have said, and I submit to your decision, God. I'll do what you want. You don't want me to be king anymore, that's fine. You choose the king that you want. I'll trust you with whatever secession plan that needs to happen. He could have in that moment submitted to the will of God. But he spends every waking moment defying the will of God over and over and over again. So much so that right after that Samuel's afraid of Saul. There's a threat of violence against the great prophet. And then when it becomes clear that David is the next anointed king, he tries to kill him in 1st Samuel 18, he tries to murder him again in 1st Samuel 19. And he continues his murderous rage against David, pursuing him, pursuing him. And then he comes to 1 Samuel chapter 22, when he comes upon the town of Nob and all the priests. And then he's got it. It's so infected his soul and his mind, he thinks, oh, the priests of Nob are on the side of David. And then he arrogantly murders every priest he can, and their wives and their children. 1st Samuel 22 and Nob, the city of priests, he put to the sword both man and woman, child and infant, ox, donkey and sheep. He put to the sword that he slaughters the priesthood. And then he continues to try to kill David in first Samuel 23. And then one Samuel 24 he tries to kill him. And David spares him. And there's a moment of maybe contrition that maybe it's going. Maybe he'll stop his murderous rage. Maybe he'll stop his endless pursuit of power and self exaltation. He doesn't. This travels to First Samuel 26, where David spares him again. And by the time you get to 1st Samuel 28, he's so blind, he's so. He so doesn't know God that he consults the medium of Endor and practices the wicked and abominable practices of the four nations. Consulting help. And then it ends here. At every step he refuses. He refuses to humble himself before the Lord. He is solely concerned with himself. And it's so clear. Saul forgot where he came from. He absolutely lost himself. He forgot his origin story. He, if it wasn't for the Lord and God's sovereign choice would still be on a farm with his donkeys and Benjamin. But he forgets all of them and he gets a taste of power and he spends the rest of his days pathetically pursuing it. He's like Gollum in the end of the Lord of the Rings and Return of the King. At the very end where him and Frodo are fighting over the ring and the ring spills over the cliff into the lava below. He just desperately jumps, just for a few seconds to be able to hold it again as he falls into the flames. And that's Saul, just so, clinging to power, so infected with pride and self interest, destroying everyone he can and himself in the process. From the anointing of his head by Samuel to the beheading Paul let, or Saul let pride and self interest become his ruin.
And as Christians, when you read the story of Saul, it has to be a cautionary tale for us. It has to serve as a warning for us. Because the reality is the same prideful pitfalls that plagued Saul all of his life, that's so offered to us because it's so easy to forget where you come from. And as Christians, as we understand the Gospel, we should know that more than most. Because where we come from is humble beginnings like Saul, even more so that as Christians, we come into this world with a mountain of sin and sin debt. The Bible tells us that we're dead in sin, with a record of debt that stands against us with its legal demand. That's our humble origin story. That's where we come from. We're lowly, we're lost, we're blind, and we have no righteousness, no eternal righteousness to count to ourselves at all. We have sin and the record of sin that stands against us with no righteousness of our own but God in His grace and in his mercy and in his kindness and in his, he chooses us. He says, I'm going to redeem him. I'm going to redeem her. In spite of their sin, in spite of their brokenness, in spite of all of it, he claims us and he saves us. And then he credits to us through Christ his perfect righteousness that Jesus takes the penalty of sin and death on the cross and that through faith in him, we get all of his perfect Righteousness, all of the eternal rewards that we are brought into the eternal family of God. Romans 8 says that we're co heirs with Christ. Think about that. The eternal king. We're co heirs, we're brought into royalty. And yet when we enter into his kingdom, when we are on the palace grounds, we begin to forget where we came from. We begin to build little kingdoms for ourselves. They're like anthills, just focused on it. There's a giant kingdom that he's offered, it's so much greater, and we're so focused on our own selves. And like Saul, you get used to royalty, used to the riches that come with it. And you think more highly of yourself. We think more highly of ourselves.
> For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
And that's what happens. We get comfortable and we get prideful. When I try to think about this, when I try to think about our church and how this shows up in our lives, there's a few ways that come to mind that I want to point out. I'm going to spend the rest of our time highlighting this because I do think that pride is something that we don't consider often enough on how it shows up. And I just want to point out for the rest of our time three prideful pitfalls that I think we should be aware of so that we don't fall into the same trap that Saul does.
The first is that we become fault finders. When we get comfortable, we start following Christ. We become fault finders. We become people who, when we hear truth, when we listen to a sermon, our first step is not to think. How is this good news for me? We begin to think and listen on behalf of other people. I said, man, I really hope that he's hearing this. I really hope that she's listening right now. We become good at finding the faults of others that when we share in our community group time, when we share in our community group time, how often does the focus of life updates become how other people in our lives have made our lives more difficult? How often when we share life updates, dare I say that our group sometimes become gossip grounds for the prosecution of every co worker and boss that's made our lives difficult. And we just get so good at looking at the fault of others instead of looking within first, realizing the sin beneath the surface that makes us so poor at responding to life. I love what Jonathan Edwards says about spiritual proud. He says the spiritually proud person is apt to find fault with other saints that they are low in grace and to be much in observing how cold and dead they are and be quick to discern and take notice of their deficiencies. But the eminently humble Christian has so much to do at home and sees so much evil in his own heart and is so concerned about it that he is not apt to be very busy with the other's hearts. That the spiritually humble Christian who understands the good news of the gospel, understands how broken we are outside of God sustaining grace in our lives, is so apt to just say, whoa, look at me, to look within. But when you follow Jesus long enough, you can fall into this trap of pride where you become an outward fault finder, so concerned with the faults of others. And I think we're blind to this. I think we're blind to this in ways that we don't even realize. Because, I mean, our church, we are not a church that says, don't drink, don't dance, and don't associate with those who do. That's so not us at all. You know why? Because we're better than that. It is. That's us. We're better than that. Not seeing the irony within that. And we may be a church that has tattoos, that maybe has wine at book clubs, but boy, how quick are we to pass judgment on a messy family that shows up or to see someone's unruly kids and start to. Maybe I'm alone in that, but I feel that. I feel that all of a sudden someone shows up and their kids all over the place, and I'm like, I mean, do you want me to take them out or you. It's just our go to move. It's just outwardly focused. Someone comes in and starts quoting from some weak, mega, churchy Instagram ministry person, and it's just like, oh, just wait till I tell you about desiring God. It's just like. I don't know, maybe it's just confession time for me. I don't think I'm alone in this. I don't think. I don't. I think because what happens is we so will distance ourselves from some of those other churches, that you'll distance yourself from whatever stale Baptist church you grew up in. And you'll be so blind to the spiritual pride that infects your soul. We need to consider this. It's more subtle, but it's just as lethal.
Second way, we become thankless. We become thankless. We'll complain about status, about income, about our situations, about our lot in life. We'll complain inwardly and outwardly and will fall into the mindset that says, listen, I do the right things. I'm a decent person. I come on Sundays, I'm faithful. In going to group, I tithe. And that hurts because groceries are like gold. I do it, y'. All. Some of you are like, they spin the register around at every single establishment now and say, your turn to tip. Even when all they did was they turn around and grab the thing which resembles nothing of waiting tables. And I push the button. I'm a good, decent person who does all the right things. You have this record of all the things that you're doing so well at. And inwardly you're like, but why, God, have you not done this in my life? Why is it so hard? Why have you not blessed me with this? Why have you not given me this person? And what happens is you begin to measure the goodness of God by the things that he does for us in a way that grows a thanklessness that's rooted in pride and self interest. And it's a dangerous game to play because Saul could have done the same thing. He could have said, lord, look at the stuff I saved the people of Jabesh Gilead. Look at the good works that I've done. He could have pointed those things. But the problem wasn't the things. It was that he didn't know God. He didn't know him. And he was so self interested. And he clung to power and he did not cling to Christ. We did not cling to God. And he became entitled to his place on the throne. And it led into judgment. And we can do the same thing. We can become an entitled people. We can have an inward posture that says, God, I'm doing the things. Why have you not responded? I'm doing the things. Why have you made this difficult? I'm doing the things. Why have you not blessed me with the things that are so good? And we can turn and say, here are all the things that I've done and not realize that that comes from the same heart that one day may stand before the Lord and the Lord may say to you, depart from me, I never knew you. Because it's not about the things. It's about knowing and beholding him as more glorious than any way that you might be blessed in this life. Thanklessness flows from an entitled position of pride, and it places the interest of self above God. We become more concerned and we listen, if you fall into this, you will measure the goodness of God by the things that he does for you. And not because he is good. And that is a dangerous place. And it is rooted often in pride and self interest. And it is something we should consider.
Lastly, we become dependent upon the pride of life.
> Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.
Saul got used to the royalty and the riches that came with it, and he spent all of his days trying to defend his position. And it's when our eyes meet, the pride of life, all of the material blessings that he can give us in this world. And that's a dangerous place to be. It's a dangerous place to have our primary energy be focused on gaining the comforts of this present world. Because what you will do is you will take the creative things that he has given us and you'll elevate it above the Creator. It's what we do. And many of us, we live comfortable lives. Many of us live like kings in comparison to the rest of history. And it's like, you don't know me. I don't have to know you. You live in this country, and if you eat three meals a day, you have it better than the majority of people in history. We live like kings. And what happens when you live like kings and you live like queens is you start to. You start to feel entitled to the things that come with that. And basic needs are confused with wants. So much so that it's a need to have Internet, it's a need to have a smartphone, It's a need to have all these things that when we don't have it, we don't feel okay. It's a need to level up to the next thing and the next thing and the next thing. And if we'll think critically about our own soul, we'll realize that there's a pride and self interest within that posture. And the pride of life is a really dangerous thing.
We should consider all of these ways because these are the things that took Saul down. And these are the ways that we will forget where we came from, that we will be so blinded by pride, we will forget that we came from the pit of sin, that we came from a place of deceitfulness of our own heart. We came with the most malice of thoughts. We came from wayward wickedness. And we still would be there had God and his grace and his Mercy not chosen to redeem us. So as Christians, we must take this seriously. We must self examine and we must run to him in repentance. Others of you, this is you may be in a different spot. Others of you, you've never actually known God in the first place. You've never actually surrendered to the Lord in the first place. You haven't done this for a variety of reasons. You think that possibly that you know what's better for you. You don't want the Scriptures and the Bible and faith to impose limits on your life, that you want to live your life and your terms. And I want to tell you something. Saul began to make very similar choices to preserve the best future for him. And it ends in the same spot. And that's judgment. And I want you to see that ultimately choosing all the things that you think is best for you not only does not go well for you in this life, not only is not good for your soul in this life, that is not good for you in eternity. So whether that's you or whether you're a Christian, that's like me, blind to his own pride. The hope is still the same.
> But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." Submit yourselves therefore to God.
God, our God, is a God of grace. Looking at men and women that build their lives around them. He says, I'm still here and I have grace for you. If you'll but humble yourself before me in faith, if you'll but humble yourself before me in repentance, you'll see that I'm better. You'll experience my grace and I will cleanse you of the pride that seeks to destroy him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray that you might help us consider your word. I pray that you help us consider the story of First Samuel and the warnings that are bound up in it. But God, I pray that you would help us consider the hope that you have for sinners like me and God. I pray that you would begin to work in our hearts in a way that would behold you above all created things, including ourselves. In Jesus name, Amen.
We're going to prepare to take the Lord's Supper. I want to read From Mark, Chapter 14 before we take the Lord's Supper.
> And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them and said, "Take; this is my body." And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."
That when we come to the table, we are reminded the prideful people. Jesus loved the prideful people. Jesus died for that. He went to the cross to die for broken prideful people who at times will forget where they came from, who at times will be blinded by their own self interest. And as a Christian, you get to joyfully come to the table with your church family and remember the goodness of the Gospel for prideful sinners. Not in shame, but in joy, because he gives more grace. When you are ready, come to the table. There's gluten free in that corner up there. And there's things gluten free in the balcony as well. But if you are not a Christian, if you're not a Christian, please do not take part in this at all. This is a ritual you will not understand. My hope for you right now is that you take part in Christ. You'd sit in your seat and you'd pray and you do what our God commands you to do. To humble yourself and to listen and to respond in faith. But respond as the Lord leads you.
1 Samuel 29-30
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. Grab a Bible and head to First Samuel, chapter 29. We're gonna be in chapter 29 and 30 today. We are working our way through the book of First Samuel. And what we've been seeing in the story is that the story has followed David until he worked himself into a corner. And right at the moment, you were like, what's gonna happen? Then it was like, hey, let's talk about Saul. And then it worked Saul into an even worse corner, and you were like, what's gonna happen with Saul? And then now it's going, hey, let's go talk about David. It's going. It's going back. That's where we are today.
So what happened was David went to the Philistines. He decided that the best thing for him to do was to go live among the Philistines, that Saul was eventually going to kill him. So he goes and lives among the Philistines, and he begins to attack and raid towns and cities around him. And then going back to Achish, the King of Gath, and saying, here's who I attacked. And he lies to him. He says, I've been attacking the Israelites. I've been attacking Judah. I've been attacking the Kenites, who are friends of Judah and live in that area. And so that's what he's been doing. And then the last thing we saw was Achish said, well, hey, good news. We're going to go kill some more Israelites. All of us are going, and you get to go, too. And David said, well, you're going to find out what I can do. And what does that mean? Find out that you actually will kill Israelites? Find out, are you going to hurt Achish? Like, what's going to happen? It's a little bit like you've been lying and telling people that Adam Sandler is a family friend of yours. And now he's coming to the Colonial Life arena, and they want you to help him get tickets. That's kind of the situation we're in. We're trying to figure out what is David going to do, what's going to happen? And then it stops. Says, let's talk about Saul.
So the Philistines have marched in. Saul is trying to figure out what he's going to do, and God is no longer talking to him because Saul has been rejected as king and no longer has the privileges, the right to seek the Lord and has not ever really seemed like he knows the Lord. And so in his desire to hear what he ought to do, he goes to a medium, a witch, someone's going to speak to the dead on his behalf. They summon Samuel, which she seems really surprised. Works. Samuel shows up and says, you're going to war tomorrow and you're going to die and the kingdom's been taken from you. And then it now we're headed back over to David. So we were watching is this slow motion train wreck where Dave, David is now marching in with the Philistines to go fight against Saul, who's going to die and what is going to happen and what is going to play out. And as we're reading this today, we're going to see that something very bad happens. And you might be like, yeah, we thought that was going to happen, but something very bad happens to David and it's not what we think is coming. But as we read this story today, we're going to see how David responds to this absolute tragedy and hopefully gain some wisdom in how we ought to respond in situations where the bottom falls out for us. So that's the hope. This morning we're gonna pray and then we're gonna step into the text.
Father, we ask for your spirit to be at work, to guide us, to help us to hear your word, to help us to hear your voice and to follow you. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.
> Now the Philistines had gathered all their armies at Aphek; and the Israelites were encamped by the spring that is in Jezreel.
> And the lords of the Philistines were passing on by hundreds and by thousands, and David and his men were passing on in the rear with Achish.
> And the commanders of the Philistines said, "What are these Hebrews doing here?"
> And Achish said to the commanders of the Philistines, "Is this not David, the servant of Saul, the king of Israel, who has been with me these days or these years, and I have found nothing in him from the day he deserted to me to this day?"
> But the commanders of the Philistines were displeased at him, and the commanders of the Philistines said to him, "Send the man away, that he may return to the place from which you have assigned him. Let him not go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he become an adversary to us. For how could this fellow reconcile himself to his lord? Would it not be with the heads of the men here?"
> Is not this David, of whom they kept singing to one another in dances, 'Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands'?
> Then Achish called David and said to him, "As the LORD lives, you have been upright, and it seems to me that you should go out and go in with me in the campaign." And David said to Achish, "Very well, then you shall know what your servant can do."
> And Achish said to David, "I know that you are good in my sight, as an angel of God. Nevertheless the lords of the Philistines have said, 'He shall not go up with us to battle.'
> Now therefore rise early in the morning with the servants of your lord who came with you, and as soon as you have light be on your way." So David and his men rose up in the morning to depart in the first light and to return to the land of the Philistines; and the Philistines went up to Jezreel.
So they're passing on, everybody's getting ready, we're going to war. And all of a sudden the other commanders start going, whoa, who's bringing Hebrews to fight Hebrews? And why are they stupid? We've done this before. The last time we saw this is when Jonathan went up and fought against the Philistines. And it said that the Hebrews that were with the Philistines turned on them and started fighting against them. So they're like, hey, we learned this lesson. We don't want Hebrews to go fight Hebrews. So who's bringing them? Why are they here? And then it says this, Achish says this, it says, what are these Hebrew doing here? And Achish said to the commanders of the Philistines, is this not David, the servant of Saul, king of Israel? Which is just the worst way to start, because that's who they're going to fight. He's trying to work his way out. Have you ever done this? You're trying to work your way out of a situation and you just start the wrong sentence and you're like, wait, wait, wait, let me finish. I started this wrong. But that's what it seems like, because he's like. They're like, who are these Hebrews? He's like, oh, Saul's servant, you guys. And, you know, they gotta be looking at him like, what are you talking about? Okay. He keeps going. He says, this is not David, servant of Saul, king of Israel, who has been with me now for days and years, and since he deserted to me, I have found no fault in him to this day. So what he's saying is, yeah, this guy's against Saul. He used to be his servant, but now he's with us. So this is going to go great.
But the commanders of the Philistines were angry with him, and the commanders of the Philistines said to him, send the man back, that he may return to the place to which you have assigned him. He shall not go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he become an adversary to us. So he says. They say, no, no, no, no, no. You might like him. We don't know him. That sounds terrible. Send him back. Otherwise we might get in the middle of the fight and he might start fighting us. Then they say, for how could this fellow reconcile himself to his Lord? Would it not be with the heads of the men here? Like, wouldn't be like a good way for him to get back in good with Saul, for him to just start killing us? Haven't we seen this guy raise one of the heads of a Philistine above him before? Haven't we. We've lived this out, right? We remember what he did with Goliath. Don't you think that'd be a good way for him to get back in his good graces? That's what they're arguing, and then they say, is not this David of whom they sing to one another in dances, Saul has struck down his thousands and David his ten thousands, which I just. I love this song that has just made its way through this whole book. It was a problem when it first started. Saul was mad about it. This is the second time Philistines have quoted it. This song is such a hit. It's international. It's not just a hit in Israel. They know it. It's like, who let the dogs out? Everyone knows it's not good, but for some reason it just has run across the globe and it's stuck in your head. And there were Philistines, like, bouncing around their house doing yard work, and they hear themselves going, and David is 10th. Come on. That's what happens. So they're like, we know this. This is the guy they have a song about. Absolutely not.
Then Achish called David and said to him, as the Lord lives, you have been honest, and to me it seems right that you should march out and end with me in the campaign. No, he hasn't. Achish is wrong. So he says, look, David, you've been great, and you've been killing all these Israelites. And David's like, mm. He says, so I think you should come, for I have found nothing wrong in you from the day of your coming to me to this day. Nevertheless, the lords do not approve of you, so go back now and go peaceably that you may not displease the lords of the Philistines. So he calls him over and says, hey, man, look, I think you're great, but they don't like you. And we just had a whole meeting where they were real mean to me about it. And I know that you would never lie to me and trick me and that you're totally on our team, but they don't know that. And so you're going to have to leave.
And then David said, David said to Achish, but what have I done? What have you found in your servant from the day I entered your service until now, that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king? So David says, this is an outrage. What do they think? Like, that I've secretly not been killing Israelites and I've been killing other people and that I might turn on you in this battle. Is that what they think? And he's like, yeah, I know, it's crazy, right? And David's like, yeah, this is really unfair. David says that I can't fight against the enemies of my lord the King. It's still unclear to us in this text whether or not he actually means a kish or whether or not he means Saul. David is very tactical in his approach to all of this. He seems outraged, but he's going to leave. And Achish answered David and said, I know that you are blameless in my sight as an angel of God. Nevertheless, the commanders of the Philistines have said, he shall not go up with us to the battle. Now then, rise early in the morning with the servants of your Lord who came with you, and start early in the morning and depart as soon as you have light.
So David set out with his men early in the morning to return to the land of the Philistines. But the Philistines went up to Jezreel. Okay, so a couple of things happened in this text. First of all, we are, I think, intended to see some of the humor of this situation. And I do believe that the Philistine lords are right and that Akish is wrong, but we're not actually going to ever find out what David fully intended to do. But David's leaving. So this slow moving crash that we've been watching is not going to have David in it. And in some ways we see that the Lord is guiding this kind of behind the scenes. Doesn't really tell us that, but it just seems like the Lord's helping David out. But also some of what the text is doing is for all of time and all the readers forever to say, when Saul fought the Philistines and died, David was not there. He had been with the Philistines. He was not there. They sent him home. That's some of the work that this passage is doing is. It's just helping, you know, helping everybody know. It's not skipping this information. David wasn't there.
But I said, david's going to face a tragedy, and it's not what we thought. So we're about to find out what, what has happened, what, what is, what's going on.
> Now when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had made a raid against the Negeb and against Ziklag and had struck Ziklag and burned it with fire,
> and had taken the women and those who were in it captive, both small and great; they killed no one, but carried them off and went on their way.
> So David and his men came to the city and found it burned with fire, and their wives and their sons and their daughters taken captive.
> Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more power to weep.
> David's two wives also had been taken captive, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel.
> And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.
> Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, "Bring me the ephod." And Abiathar brought the ephod to David.
> And David inquired of the LORD, "Shall I pursue after this raiding party? Shall I overtake them?" He answered him, "Pursue, for you shall surely overtake and rescue."
> So David set out, he and the six hundred men who were with him, and they came to the brook Besor, where those who were left behind stayed.
> But David pursued, he and four hundred men, for two hundred remained behind, who were so weak that they could not cross the brook Besor.
> They found an Egyptian in the open country, and they brought him to David, and gave him bread and he ate; and they gave him water to drink,
> and they gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two bunches of raisins. And when he had eaten his spirit revived, for he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights.
> And David said to him, "To whom do you belong, and where do you come from?" He said, "I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite; and my master left me behind because I fell sick three days ago.
> We made a raid on the Negeb of the Cherethites and on the Negeb of Judah and on the Negeb of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag with fire."
> And David said to him, "Can you take me down to this raiding party?" And he said, "Swear to me by God that you will not kill me or deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will take you down to this raiding party."
> And he took him down and behold, they were spread out over the land, eating and drinking and dancing because of all the great spoil that they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah.
> And David struck them from the twilight until the evening of the next day, and not a man of them escaped except four hundred young men who rode on camels and fled.
> And David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken, and David rescued his two wives.
> Nothing was lacking to them, either small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that had been taken; David brought them all back.
> And David took all the flocks and the herds, and drove them before those who were with him, and they drove on before him as far as Aroer.
> And when David came to the two hundred men who were so weak that they could not follow him, they came out to meet him to meet the men who had come with him. And David came near to the people and greeted them.
> But all the wicked men and worthless fellows among the men who went with David said, "Because they did not go with us, we will not share with them any of the spoil that we have recovered, except that each man may take his wife and his children, and be gone."
> Then David said, "You shall not do so, my brothers, with what the LORD has given us, who has preserved us and delivered into our hand the band that came against us.
> For who will listen to you in this matter? But as his share is who goes down into the battle, so shall his share be who stays by the baggage; they shall share alike."
> And he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel from that day onward to this day.
> Then David came to Ziklag, and sent some of the spoil to the elders of Judah, to his friends, saying, "Behold a present for you from the spoil of the enemies of the LORD:
> to those in Bethel, and to those in Ramoth of the Negeb, to those in Jattir,
> to those in Aroer, to the people in Siphmoth, to those in Eshtemoa,
> to those in Rachal, to those in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, to those in the cities of the Kenaites,
> to those in Hormah, to those in Bor-ashan, to those in Athach, and to those in Hebron,
> to all the places where David and his men had wandered."
So when they came back on the third day, the Amalekites had attacked and had burned Ziklag and taken their wives and children. When David and his men came to the city, they found it burned with fire, and their wives and their sons and daughters taken captive. They raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep.
First response is just brokenness, lament, weeping, raising their voices until they're spent. David's two wives also had been taken captive. Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him because all the people were bitter in soul. Each for his sons and daughters. So there's this moment where they start just saying, well, let's just kill David. They're bitter in soul. They don't really have a good plan. They don't really know what to do, but they just say, well, let's just kill David. If this is what it's like to follow him, let's be done with that.
And there is this moment, and you can see it, where there's something very real about men who spend their lives defending and protecting and caring for their wives and children. And when that's not there, what am I doing and what do we do next? And it says, but David strengthened himself in the Lord, his God. And David said to Abiathar, we're see, somehow he does that. Abiathar, the priest, the son of Ahimelech, bring me the ephod. So Abiathar brought the ephod to David. Now, this is the first time we've seen him do this since chapter 26. The last time we saw David make a big decision, it said he just reasoned it in his heart and did something. And now he's saying, bring me the ephod. And this is good. We've been wanting to see this, but David, in this moment of utter despair, absolutely bottomed out. He turns to the Lord.
And David inquired of the Lord, shall I pursue after this band? Shall I overtake them? And he answered him, pursue, for you shall surely overtake and shall surely rescue. Can you imagine the moment that David hears that? He says, should we chase after him? And God says, go, because it'll work. And you know, David had to go strap his belt on. He said, we're going to. The Lord said, it's going to work. Let's go. We're going to catch them. Let's go. And they would have left some sort of sign. A whole group coming in and a whole group going out is going to leave some sign. Now there's a chance that they could lose it or they could split up, but they've got something to go on and they begin to head in that direction, tracking after this group that's burned their city and taken their families. And if there's a group of focused men, it's right here.
David set out and the 600 men who were with him and they came to the brook Besor, where those who were left behind stayed. But David pursued. He and 400 men, 200 stayed behind who were too exhausted to cross the brook Besor. So they've traveled up, traveled back, wept themselves dry, and then said, let's go to war. They get to a place that's going to be difficult to travel over, difficult to get baggage across, and 200 of them just can't keep going. I don't know if you've ever been working and working and working or running and running and running and laboring and doing these sort of things, and then you stop for just a bit, drink some water, catch your breath, and suddenly your body doesn't work anymore. And if you hadn't stopped, you might could have kept going. But now it's not functioning. That seems what some of these guys happen, they just, they sit down and they're crazy, cramping up legs. They're just like, I can't keep going. But 400 keep going.
They found an Egyptian in the open country and brought him to David. So as they're traveling along, as they're tracking, they find an Egyptian. And it seems like they have some people out in different areas trying to scout and figure out which way to go. They find this guy, they bring him to David and they gave him bread and he ate. They gave him water to drink. They gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins. And when he had eaten, his spirit revived. Okay, so he was having a spirit problem, for he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights. He was sick. So he was doing poorly before he got left there, but he's been there. So they find a guy who's almost dead and they're just pumping him full of stuff till he can talk. David said to him, to whom do you belong and where are you from? He said, I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite. My master left me behind because I fell sick three days ago. We had made a raid against the Negeb of the Cherethites, which is most likely the way that they refer to the Philistines, and against that which belongs to Judah and against the Negeb of Caleb. And we burned Ziklag with fire.
And David said to him, will you take me down to this band? So they found a guy who was with them and they said, tell us where they're going. He said, swear to me by God that you will not kill me or deliver me into the hands of my master and I will take you down to this band. So he's all hyped up on raisins and figs, and now he's negotiating and he says, yes, I'll take you if you don't kill me, which is a real good chance that they might and don't return me to their master. Well, they're not showing up and giving presents to the Amalekites. So that one, I don't think they were in really any danger of happening. He doesn't seem to know who he's talking to. But these people really want to find them. And they seem to agree to some terms because he makes a statement. And then it just goes to verse 16.
And when he had taken him down behold they were spread abroad over all the land eating and drinking and dancing because of all the great spoil that they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. So they find this group that has suddenly just started taking over this whole section. Partying. And if we weren't upset with them enough, this party has eating. And as Baptists were like, okay, but then drinking and dancing. They gotta die, y'. All. They are celebrating with the spoils that they have this massive celebration spread out across the land. And it says they see them, they've caught them, and here's what happens.
And David struck them down from twilight until the evening of the next day. And not a man of them escaped except for 400 young men who mounted camels and fled. So interesting. This takes a long time. They are just fighting for a long time. At least twilight sometimes can refer to morning twilight, even though we don't use it that way. And evening of the next day, their day started at 6pm so it is possible that what it is saying is the shortest amount of time was one whole day, but it could have been a night and a day or a day and another night, but at least the whole day of working their way through and fighting and differing amounts of, you know, if there's a party going on down there and people start yelling and it sounds like there's a fight, you might. Wouldn't catch you exactly what was happening until it was happening. And it says not a man was left except for 400 of them that got away on camels. Which tells us a couple of things.
One, I just appreciate the way that's worded. Everyone was dead and someone was like, what about those 400, except for the 400 guys on camels? Which makes you think that camels are like the motorcycle of that day. You know, my wife and I watch cop shows and police officers will thank people on motorcycles. They'll be like, thank you for pulling over like that. They'll chase you in a car. Motorcycles are just like. That's what camels are like. They're like, pull. They're on camels. Ain't nobody catching them. But it also tells you that there was a massive amount of people because David shows up with 400 and it says they killed everybody except for 400. Meaning that the amount of Amalekites here, they were way outnumbered, but they win.
And David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken and David rescued his two wives. Nothing was missing. Whether small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that had been taken. David brought back all. David also captured all the flocks and herds and the people drove the livestock before him and said, this is David's spoil. And then David came to the 200 men who had been too exhausted to follow David and who had been left at the brook Besor. So they drove the cattle in front of them. So these guys are exhausted. It's been another, at least day, two days, three days. They're regaining their strength and they're waiting, not really knowing what to do now. And then flocks and herds start showing up. At first you're thinking maybe somebody. And then it's like there's too many of them. And you're like, this is a good sign. And then their families show up. And you know, there's got to be people looking for everybody. And there's moments where you don't know, are they here? Are they here? And guess what, y'? All, it says that they're all there. There wasn't a single husband, father that went out and didn't get that moment of wrapping his arms back around and retrieving what was left lost.
And when they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with them, and when David came near to the people, he greeted them then all the wicked and worthless fellows among the men who had gone with David said, because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil that has been, that we have recovered, except that each man may lead away his wife and children and depart. So some of them say, well, they sat here hanging out by a creek, like, they don't. They can have their kids back, but that's it. But David said, you shall not do so, my brothers, with what the Lord has given us, he has preserved us and given into our hand the band that came against us. Who. Who would listen to you in this matter? For as his share is who goes down into the battle, so shall his share be who stays by the baggage, they shall share alike. And he made it a statute and a rule for Israel from that day forward to this day.
So some of what it's helping us see is like, why that's a rule for them. But it's also, this isn't the main thing we're going to talk about today. But I can't help but point this out. In this, I see a beautiful picture of what Jesus is like. When they're marching all the spoil back. They announce, this is David's spoil, that it was all his and at his discretion. And then worthless fellows get in the middle of it, and he immediately calls them brother. He says, you won't do that, brother. And then it goes to everybody. Everybody's blessed and it's like that's what Jesus does. He's a good, wise king who restores what is lost and brings it all back. That through the work of Christ in the middle of our sin, our sin doesn't win. And he ultimately restores everything the way it was meant to be. He's ultimately eternally going to fix it. And he makes worthless people his brothers. And everybody is brought in and shared with, even the ones who couldn't accomplish anything on their own. So I sorry I can't read that and not tell you how amazing Jesus is.
When David came to Ziklag, he sent part of the spoil to his friends, the elders of Judah, saying, here is a present for you from the spoil of the enemies of the Lord. So he's sending gifts. It was for those in Bethel and Ramoth, of the Negeb, in Jatir, in Aroer, in Sifmoth, in Eshtemoah, in Rachal, in the cities of the Jerahomeliites, in the cities of the Kenites. I got that one in Horma, in Borshan, in Ak, in Hebron, for all the places where David and his men had roamed. So he sends out, he has all this spoil that they got, and he sends it back and out to all the people where he's been wandering around. And he doesn't send any to the zip. It's because they told on him multiple times. But he sends it to the other people near where he had been, and he gives them gifts and says, this is from the enemies of the Lord, and he blesses all of them.
I want to go back in the story to the moment where they find out that their families are gone and their city is burned. Because I want us to take a moment to investigate what does it look like to come out of those kind of moments. And I think David gives us a good example. So I just want to go back to verse four, it says they wept. And then in verse six, it says, and David was greatly distressed for the people spoke of stoning him because all the people were bitter soul, each for his sons and daughters. Okay. I think it is helpful for us to realize that we are perfectly capable of that type of decision making. Is stoning David going to fix anything? No. Will it make the situation worse? Yes. Is David the one who's actually going to lead them out of this problem? Yes. But they're starting to think maybe we should just kill David. And they probably have some reasons, but their reasoning is not good.
And one of the things that we need to know is perfectly within our grasp in these type of situations is for us to have an overwhelming desire to do something, to react, to respond, got to do something. And quite often the thing we pick is unwise, harmful. Quite often the ideas that we come up with are not good ideas. This is one of the reasons why we're blessed to have church family around us. So that when we announce, I'm going to do this, sometimes it's like, no, don't, don't do that. And you're really annoyed by them saying that, don't tell me what to do. It's like, but I don't want to. But, no, don't do that. Telling you what not to do is different. This is, we'll choose people, start making big life decisions, change their job, move locations, run to whatever makes them feel safe, run to whatever makes them forget. This is how we get run. We run to substances, we run to sin, we run to anger, sexual sin. This is how we get hermits and hoarders. Like, this is the stuff where we respond to something and we just got to make a decision that is perfectly within our ability to do that.
But David takes a different track. It says, but David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. So David turns to the Lord in this moment. He does. He has nowhere else to turn. He turns to the Lord, which is the place to turn. And one of the things I think we need to realize is that if you've never turned to the Lord ever, when something really bad happens, then you should. But as Christians, we want to be very practiced in this so that when everything falls apart, this is the only thing we know how to do. This is one of the reasons why people who do like fighting sports and those sort of things, they practice over and over and over and over again so that when they get their bell rung and they're not thinking clearly, they can keep moving and doing what they're. And that's some of what we need to be. You need to be in the Word on a regular basis. You need to. So that when these kind of moments happen in life that you go, I don't know what else to do, but I'm going to read, I'm going to pray. I'm going to get around church, family. You're going to call people and say, y' all need to come read, you need to come pray, you need to come. I don't have the strength for this right now. I need somebody to read this to me. I need someone to talk this out with me. I need somebody when I say some idea that doesn't make any sense. I need some people here who are going to help point me back to Jesus.
But that's what he does. He turns to the Lord, and we're going to see what he does, specifically, how he strengthens himself. David said to Abiathar, the priest, the son of Ahimelech, bring me the Ephod. So Abiathar brought the ephod to David. And David inquired of the Lord, shall I pursue this band? What David seeks is a word from the Lord, some clarity from the Lord, some direction from the Lord, and he goes to the place that he has access to it, which is in the Ephod, but we have access to it in the Scriptures, so that we get to be people who read our Bibles. And in these moments, read more, not less. There are times where as pastors, we'll say, you need to go home and you need to open the New Testament, you need to go to Ephesians, you need to go to Romans, and you need to start reading. And I know that sometimes it's like I don't have the energy for that. It's like, you don't have the energy to not do that. It's like I'm dying in a desert. And we're like, you need to drink water. And you're like, I don't know if I can. It's like, no, you've got to. We get to and have to. We must come to the Word and say, lord, I need your help. I need your wisdom. I need your clarity. And lean into the Word the way that David does. He seeks a word from the Lord.
I think sometimes when we say that, when we say, anytime, we say, you need to read your Bible. It's like, okay, good, but I really want something to do. I really want something actual. And what we mean is something along the lines of stoning David. I want something I can do. I get it. Read my Bible. Then what? And it's like, but you're missing it if that's the way you think about it. When Jesus teaches a sermon on the mount, he ends with, if you'll hear my words and do them, you'll be like a wise man who built his house on a rock. The rains came and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. So if you hear my words and you don't do them, then you'll be like a fool who built his house on sand. And the rains came and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house and the house fell. And great was the fall of it. The storm hits both houses, the winds beat both houses, but one of them has a foundation, has something to hold on to, has something it's built into. It'd be like if you hired a contractor. And I said, how's the house development going? You're like, they're wasting a lot of time on that foundation. We could have a three story house by now. And it's like, with no foundation. What are you talking about? Like, you need the foundation. You need. We have to have that. You need direction before you move.
In the Pirates of the Caribbean movies where Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow and he's doing all this all the time, he's got a compass. And we find out in one of the later movies that that compass isn't a real compass. It doesn't point north. It points towards what Jack most wants. And so many of us, that's the compass we're running around with. It just points towards what we want. And so we're going, I'm looking at my compass and it says, go this way. And it's like, that compass is not a compass. At one point they're out in the ocean and it's pointing at a girl who's on the boat. That's the compass we run around with. So often it's just pointing at something that's moving around that changes from day to day. Do you know how often your moods change, your desires change, how often your wisdom falters and fails? And how many times you've said, if I could just have this, I'd be happy. If I could just have that, I. I'd be happy. And how often your Compass has been bouncing around, and we need one that points to the same place all the time. And if you're in a storm in the middle of the ocean, you don't have any landmarks. So when the clouds begin to clear and you get to set a course, you don't know where you are. And if you have a compass that points nowhere, you don't know where to go. So we need to be people of the Word who know how to move. And that's what happens. David seeks the Lord and it says this. He says, shall I pursue? Shall I overtake? He answered them, pursue, for you shall surely overtake and shall surely rescue. So David set out.
Now, if that had said anything else, we would be furious. If it said, you shall pursue, that's a command. You shall surely overtake. You shall surely rescue. And then it said, so David sat down. So David cried more, louder. He'd be like, what is what go? Because we would be reading the text and saying, you have a promise, you have a command, you have something to stand on, you have something to hold on to. You have something that will help drive you forward. You have something solid. And so often we're in the middle of these situations and I want you to know that the Bible has something solid that we can hold onto. It's got some truth, some promises that have been made to us, some realities that are ours. When Jesus commissions the church, he says, I will be with you always to the end of the age. That there's never a time where he leaves us or forsakes us. And in these moments we can know that, Lord, you've promised to be with me, so be with me. But I'm going to act. I'm going to move as if you're here and you're helping. I'm going to trust your spirit to indwell me. He says that the spirit not to grieve the Holy Spirit who sealed us from the day of redemption. Meaning that if I belong to Jesus, if I trust him, his spirit is in me and I am kept. He tells his disciples, my disciples know my voice. They hear my voice and they follow. My sheep hear my voice and follow me. And he says, and no one will snatch them out of my hand so that you can in these moments go, Lord, I know that you're going to keep me. I know that you're going to hold me, and I need you to that we have promises that we can lean into because what you believe matters. You act out of what you believe. So we have to be people who know what is true, know what is real, know the promises of God and hold onto them. And also know that he holds on to us so that we won't be lost in these situations when we don't know what to do.
I want to read Romans 8 because I just want you to see one of these promises. Romans 8 begins by saying there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ.
> There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
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> Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
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> As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered."
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> No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
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> For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
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> nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
That when you're going, everything is falling apart. Well, there's a promise that you won't be separated from his love, that he'll be with you, that he'll keep you, that he'll get you to the end, that he can't be conquered by circumstance. There's some things that help ground us and hold us so that we might move forward in faith and in hope. He says no. In all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I'm sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation. He covers that. Because if you were like, well, what about this? He said, all of it will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, that if you belong to Jesus, you belong to Jesus and you are his and he will keep you and he will hold you, and you will be able to stand in the middle of these things and you get to run to His Word and say, Lord, I need this more than I need anything else. And then you can move forward with practical steps. But you've got to do this first.
Let's pray.
Lord, we pray that we would be people who in the depths of our despair, because the storm is coming. It hits every house, it hits every life. There's moments where we all have ziklag or smoke rises. Lord, we pray that we would be people who would cling to the promises, that would know your word and would trust you. You. Because a promise is as good as the one who makes it. And you have died for us. You have risen, you have resurrected, you have hope that is ours in you. You are the king of all things. So may we be a people of the word, who seek you in the midst of our despair. Who love one another well in the midst of our despair. And who cling to the hope that's in Christ. Because there's nothing else to cling to. In Jesus name, Amen.
The band's gonna come. We're gonna sing. One of the reasons we sing on Sundays is to worship the Lord. But also to help truth go from our heads to our hearts. And to rehearse for ourselves what is real. And so we're gonna sing together, reminding ourselves and each other of how good the Lord is and the hope that we have.
1 Samuel 28
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
My name is Spencer. I'm one of the pastors here. We're continuing to walk through the book of First Samuel. We are now in chapter 28. We'll be there today. So one of the things that my kids are very aware of is that I made a lot of mistakes growing up. And it's not an uncommon thing for them to ask about a specific thing. Hey, did you do this when you were a kid? And I say, I mean, I don't want to lie in that moment. If I can dodge, I'll do that. I'm very good at changing the subject. But they're getting older and they're getting a little bit smarter, and they're like, no, no, no, no, no. Just stay on point. Did you used to do this as a kid? And what I typically say is, like, yes, I did. And they know at this point that I made a lot of mistakes. You know, I tell them, like, I came to Faith later when I was 17. I didn't love Jesus wholeheartedly. I try to explain that. What I want you to understand is that when you choose this, more bad decisions can come out of that. So it becomes kind of a living cautionary tale. But I try to be discreet. I don't try to share all the things, but that's getting difficult because I have family. And I don't know if it's like a rite of passage for grandparents and aunts and uncles just to volunteer information to your children, but that's a thing. Because the other day they asked very commonly about a thing. Did you used to do this? And we had the whole little thing, yes, you know, I did, but da, da, da, da, like I used to. But, you know, this is a cautionary tale. Don't fall in the same mistakes. Because, you know, I was kind of a bad kid that did bad things at times. And they said, oh, yeah, we know that because he used to throw rocks at cars. And I said, what? How do you know that? I used to throw rocks at carts. And someone in the family had just volunteered the fact that when we were little rebellious children out at the roadside in the woods having fun throwing rocks at cars and, you know, just to see if they would look up in the sky and wonder where it came from. And I was like, yeah, that is a thing I used to do. And I had to do the whole thing. But I'm realizing as I get older that this is going to be a thing, that just some aunt or uncle is just going to volunteer some information, and I'm gonna have to really solidify this point that, yes, I did those things. And if you continue to choose sin, if you continue to choose bad things, it just grows, because that's the reality of sin. So my life gets to be a little bit of a cautionary tear and a parable to my kids to teach that principle, because I want them to understand that. I want them to understand that sin grows, that it is serious, that it has consequences. And one of those consequences is that you might continue to pursue it in a direction to where all of a sudden you're doing worse things that can wreck your life. And boy, oh boy, at this point in First Samuel, we see that so clearly in the life of Saul. We have watched him repeatedly make the wrong decision. We've watched him repeatedly live in his own self interest and to choose sin and how that's grown over time. And we kind of are at the place where he hits rock bottom, where the choices he makes in chapter 28 reveal a heart that is headlong after sin. And my hope is that as we walk through this story and see the truth that is bound up in it, it would remind us and be a cautionary tale for us to take sin seriously. So I'm going to pray and then we're going to walk through the story together. Heavenly Father, I pray that you might help us have ears to hear that we would not see this as simply a story that has all types of interesting details and then that's all it is. But we'd see it as your word that is revealing who you are and who you call us to be. May we have ears to hear and may we respond in the way that you would desire in faith and in repentance and in delighting in you above our own flesh and desires. In Jesus name, Amen.
All right, so where we pick up in 28. So we left off last week, where David, through I really think fear and not trusting the promises of God that he was going to be the future king, he goes to the land of the Philistines where he finds safety there. And that's where we pick up right where Chet left off last week in verse one.
> In those days the Philistines assembled and made war against Israel. And Achish said to David, "Know assuredly that you and your men shall go out with me to battle." And David said to Achish, "Very well; you shall know what your servant can do." And Achish said to David, "Very well; I will make you my bodyguard for life."
And it picks up with some context to set up the story in verse 3.
> Now Samuel died, and all Israel assembled and mourned for him and buried him at Ramah, his own city. And Saul had put the mediums and the necromancers out of the land.
All right, so we get some context here, something that we already saw a few chapters ago in chapter 25. We already know that Samuel is dead. We know his body is buried in rhema. Okay, that's an interesting context. Also, some things we didn't know that at one point, Saul, when he was doing the right thing, he kicks out all the mediums and the necromancers. These are people who were thought to summon dead spirits. So it's like, why are we being told about that? Buckle up. This story is. Is wild.
> And the Philistines assembled and came and encamped at Shunem. And Saul gathered all Israel, and they encamped at Gilboa. When Saul saw the camp of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. And when Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or by prophets.
So as the Philistines are gathering, Saul is seeing this, and he's terrified. Long gone are the days where he heard about the Ammonites and them disrespecting the people of God. And the Spirit of God rushed upon him, and he rallied the people and they defeated them. He is now a scared king who can only see his enemy and is afraid. This is in verse six. And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or by prophets, which is a picture of. As kings would sometimes get dreams from the Lord. And he's been rejected as king. So that's not happening. That the priests. We saw this earlier. In 1st Samuel, the high priest had the Urim stone, the Thuman stone. These were stones that were used to help answer, we think, prayers in a yes or no kind of manner. But we saw that he killed most of the priests at Nob. So the priesthood isn't with him anymore. So he doesn't have his kingly office. He doesn't have help. He doesn't have the help of the priests. Also, the prophets are no longer with him. He's the Samuel has in his prophecy shown that he has been rejected. So you get a picture of prophet, priest and king, that all of it has abandoned him in leadership and he is alone.
> Then Saul said to his servants, "Seek out for me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her." And his servants said to him, "Behold, there is a medium at En-dor."
All right, so Saul, scared, frightened, says, I will find someone to help me. I will go to a medium for help. The same mediums that he rightfully kicked out of the promised land, that he rightfully saw to get rid of because he followed the law. Then the book of Deuteronomy, in chapter 18, it says,
> "When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a charmer or a consultant of ghosts, or one who inquires of the dead. For whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD."
Stop there. He knew the law. That's why he kicked him out in the first place. He knew that all these people with their evil practices did not belong amongst the people of God. And now he has chosen to go and receive help from there. Which brings up a lot of questions. And I just want to pause in the story to deal with some of those questions, because when you read this story, you have questions about, wait a second, do mediums really do that in the Bible? Do they really consult the spirits of the dead? And the follow up question is, does that still happen? Is that a thing that happens today? Now what we're about to read is the only kind of account of seeking a medium, a witch, a sorcerer, anything like that does in these evil practices. The only really detailed account like this that we get in the Bible, and still it doesn't answer all of our questions. But after looking at this and kind of surveying the rest of the scriptures and thinking through this, here are my general thoughts on how to think about this in light of how we think about this today. Mediums, witches, fortune tellers, many of them are indeed con artists. They're fraudsters, they're tricksters, which I don't think takes a lot of explaining for us, because I think that's the default position of the west, is that if you drive through West Columbia, and you see a palm reader, you see tarot cards, or you see someone dealing in fortune telling, you steal that kind of stuff. Our default position mostly is, and that's probably, probably somebody trying to steal your money. It's probably a con artist of some sort. But what I want to push us on here is that in the majority of the world, so the rest of the world, the not Western world, so South America, Africa, Asia, it is accepted that there are people that deal in these evil practices. They consult evil spirits, they consult evil things to gain information. And really, honestly, the majority of history has kind of accepted this as a thing that happens. It really is only until recent history. And I'll be honest, mostly if your background is more of a white Western background, you're more likely to kind of reject this outright and not see that actually this is something that actually truly does happen. And if you can step out of your position and to see how other people in the world view this and how the rest of history thinks through this, I think it expands our scope a little bit. That's what I've been trying to do over the last few years, the last decade of trying to pastor, because I still think that many of them are con artists. I still think that many of them actually do all types of tricks. But as I've tried to think about this more over the last decade of ministry and then even in pastoring and seeing this, that truly there are unseen demonic forces that are at work all the time, and there are people that consult these things, and what comes out of those experiences sometimes is demonic forces that pastoring people and seeing how this shows up in their life, I see it over and over and over again. So, yes, I think some absolutely are con artists. They're playing tricks. But others of them, when they're consulting someone's ancestor, when they're looking for, when someone's wanting to find out something from their grandmother, that what they're actually hearing on the other side of that is not just trickery, that it's actually demonic forces that are actually speaking to and through these people who are engaged in these evil practices. And we don't know all the things. There's a lot of things we don't understand about this, but I think both of those happen quite a bit. And I think that's helpful for us to think through this. And I think I don't know this, but I think that it's quite probably uncommon to have just immediate access to the spirits of those who have died. Now. I think that's important for us as we think about this, what this is. And also I think it's important to ask the question why anyone would engage in these practices in the first place. People engage in these practices because they're trying to understand things and have control over their next steps in their future. An insight that doesn't come from the Lord. I think that's really helpful to understand. I think going back to actually 1st Samuel 15 is incredibly helpful for this. Because in 1st Samuel 15, when the judgment from Samuel is being passed to Saul, he says something that's very helpful and, and how we should think about this. He says,
> "For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king."
What I find helpful about that judgment is it gives us a picture that there's some root issues behind all of this, that ultimately seeking mediums and necromancers is a rejection of the Creator for created things. It's a rejecting rejection of the word of the Lord to gain insight from the evil one, to gain insight to control your situation in life. I was reading a pastor in Africa, in Zambia, who regularly has to encounter people, people that are influenced by witchcraft and witch doctors. And one of the things that he was saying is that as they're seeking to really consult these practices because they have real practical things they want taken care of, they want their crops to grow and they want their kids to get better if they are sick, that as they're trying to control their future, what happens is as they go to these evil practices, it makes them slaves to two demonic forces that captivate and control their life. So the irony of going to seek control over your life by going to these practices, you invite forces in that actually begin to control you. And I thought that was a helpful insight into this to understand why people would do this and the danger that is bound up in doing this. I've seen this. I've sat with someone who engaged in occult practices in the past, and there were demonic forces in. In their life in the present, years later. And I know that our Western minds don't like to wrap our minds. That's hard for us to see. But it is a true spiritual reality now. It's a lot of context to how to think about this, to set up what we're about to. I think we should think about that as you see things from witchcraft to mediums, Ouija boards, Tarot cards, palm readings, even zodiac, horoscopes, and astrology, all of that is in an unseen spiritual realm. But if you are choosing to find insight to control your future by those practices, you are rejecting the Lord and his word and his counsel, and you are inviting evil into your life in a way that is extremely dangerous. Now, all that's helpful, and then we get this, what we're about to read, which is an incredibly unique experience all in itself. And trying to understand it is difficult, but I think we have some insight in how to understand this situation and also how this works broadly.
So now we're going back in the story.
> So Saul disguised himself and put on other garments and went, he and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night. And he said, "Divine for me by a spirit, and bring up for me whomever I shall name to you." And the woman said to him, "Behold, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and the necromancers from the land. Why then are you laying a trap for my life to bring about my death?" And Saul swore to her by the LORD, "As the LORD lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing." Then the woman said, "Whom shall I bring up for you?" He said, "Bring up Samuel for me." And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. And the woman said to Saul, "Why have you deceived me? You are Saul." And the king said to her, "Do not be afraid. What do you see?" And the woman said to Saul, "I see a god coming up out of the earth." And he said, "What is his appearance?" And she said, "An old man is coming up; he is wrapped in a robe." And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the earth and paid homage.
Then Samuel said to Saul, "Why then have you disturbed me, to bring me up?" And Saul answered, "I am in great distress, for the Philistines make war against me, and God has turned away from me and answers me no more, either by prophets or by dreams; therefore I have called you to tell me what I shall do." And Samuel said, "Why then do you ask me, since the LORD has turned from you and become your enemy? The LORD has done to you as he spoke by me. And the LORD has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor David, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD and did not carry out his fierce wrath on Amalek. Therefore the LORD has done this thing to you this day. Moreover the LORD will give Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The LORD will give the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines."
Then Saul fell full length on the earth and was very afraid because of the words of Samuel. And there was no strength in him, for he had eaten nothing all day and all night. And the woman came to Saul and saw that he was greatly terrified and said to him, "Behold, your servant has obeyed you; I have put my life in my hand and have listened to what you told me. Now therefore hear the voice of your servant; let me set a morsel of bread before you, and eat, that you may have strength when you go on your way." But he refused and said, "I will not eat." But his servants and the woman urged him, and he listened to their voice. So the woman took a calf that was fat and killed it at once, and she took flour and kneaded it and baked unleavened bread of it. And she brought it before Saul and his servants, and they ate. Then they rose and went away that night.
All right, so he goes to seek help from this woman. And you should feel really the sad nature of this, that he's taking off his kingly garments, he's disguising himself so he cannot be seen. It's pathetic. This once powerful king is having to do this to get help. It's a sad picture. So he disguises himself in the night, and he goes to her, and he said, divine for me, a spirit by me. Divine for me by a spirit, and bring up for me whomever I shall name to you. The woman said to him, surely you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and the necromancers from the land. Why then are you laying a trap for my life to bring about my death? So he asks this, and she says, says, you realize the irony here is she can't see that it's Saul, but she clearly knows he's an Israelite. You realize that Saul kicked out all of the mediums. The necromancers, like you understand that you're putting me at risk here. She's nervous. And then Saul responds in verse 10. But Saul swore to her by the Lord, as the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you from. For this thing which y'. All that is wildly insane and wicked. Because what he just did was that he invoked the holy name of God to offer protection to a woman who is engaging in evil and demonic practices. That is gross blasphemy. And you're supposed to feel that as he invokes the holy name of God to protect this woman so that she will do this evil thing for him.
Then the woman said, whom shall I bring up for you? He said, bring up Samuel for me. When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. And the woman said to Saul, why have you Deceived me. You are Saul. All right. It's impossible to know for sure what's logistically happening, but I think we can tell a few things. First, this woman did not expect to see Samuel. She is surprised. And when she sees that it's Samuel, she makes the connection that he saw. And she is scared. So she's shocked. And I would argue, I think the reason she's probably shocked that she actually saw and. And a spirit from someone who is dead is because this doesn't happen for her very often. So I think this woman probably is more on the con artist side of this. This is not a thing that normally happens. And if she is consulting evil spirits of some type, it doesn't look like this. So she's caught off guard by this, and she is scared. And once she connects all of this and she says, you are Saul, it says the king said to her, do not be afraid. What do you see? And the woman said to Saul, I see a God coming up out of the earth. Which, again, it's just. This is just shows how all the fools that are involved in here, Saul, a fool engaging this evil. She clearly does not understand how this works. She clearly cannot grasp what's happening. The best thing that she can do, best way she can describe this is it's like a God that's coming up out of the earth. 14 he said to her, what is the appearance? And she said, an old man is coming up and he is wrapped in a robe. And Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground and he paid homage.
So he sees that it's Samuel. And there's this question of that people have when they engage with this. It's like, how does this actually happen? How does an evil person like this, how is she able to bring up the actual spirit of Samuel? Samuel's body's buried in rhema, but somehow she's able to actually bring the spirit of Samuel up. How does this. Why is this even happening? Why does God allow this evil woman to engage in this evil practice to bring about the prophet Samuel? And I think the answer to that question, even I would probably argue that's not the normative thing that happens with the spirits of those who are dead. I think that why God in his sovereignty, allows this to happen in is exactly what we're about to read next. It has to do with what Samuel's going to say to Saul. So God allows it for the purposes of what's about to happen.
Then Samuel said to Saul, why Have you disturbed me by bringing me up? And Saul answered, I am in great distress, for the Philistines are warring against me, and God has turned away from me and answers me no more, either by prophets or by dreams. Therefore I have summoned you to tell me what I shall do. Which just shows the utter foolishness of where Saul is at this point in his life, that he thought that going to get a medium to engage in this evil and wicked and abominable practice to bring Samuel back for him, to help him. He's just. He's a fool. And something I've said multiple times in this series. Saul just. It's clear he doesn't know God. He just doesn't know God. If he thinks that this was going to work out well for him, he doesn't know the Lord. And then verse 16, Samuel said, why then do you ask me, since the Lord has turned from you and become your enemy? The Lord has done to you as he spoke by me. For the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor and David, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek. Therefore the Lord has done this thing to you, done this thing to you. This day, moreover, the Lord will give Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines. And tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me. The Lord will give the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines. So Samuel is brought up for this right here. I already told you, as I declared years ago, the judgment upon you, that the kingdom that you've been grasping onto for so long is not yours. It is being given away. And very soon tomorrow you and your sons in the battlefield will die, and you'll join me in death, and Israel will lose. That is why God and his sovereignty allows Samuel will be brought to declare that message. You are going to die tomorrow. Saul responds.
> Then Saul fell full length on the earth and was very afraid because of the words of Samuel. And there was no strength in him, for he had eaten nothing all day and all night.
Then the woman came to Saul, and when she saw that he was terrified, she said to him, behold, your servant has obeyed you I have taken my life in my hand and have listened to what you have said to me. Now therefore, you also obey your servant. Let me set a morsel of bread before you and eat, that you may have strength when you go on your way. And she's like, come on, eat, get out. At this point she's just like, get out of my home. Because she's taken her life in her hands and she wants him gone. And this medium is trying to get him up off the ground. He refused and said, I will not eat. But his servants together with the woman urged him and he listened to their words. So he arose from the earth and sat on the bed. And the woman had a fattened calf in the house and she quickly killed it. She took flour and kneaded it and baked unleavened bread of it. And she put it before Saul and his servants. And they ate. Then they rose and went away that night. And this is one of the final pictures we get of Saul. And it's sad. It's just sad. And when you think about this in light of his life, it's just like, how did he get here? How has he been so reduced to this sad scene, to having to trust in demonic forces and being told he's going to die? And when you take a step back from the story and you understand the life of Saul, it becomes very clear. He made one sinful decision after the next. He made one self interested decision after the next. And when you see that decision after decision after decision of how this played out, you understand that sin just grew in his life. You go back to 1 Samuel 13, you see that he makes the unlawful sacrifice that he was not supposed to. He disobeys the Lord. You see in 1st Samuel 14 he acts like a fool and he makes a rash vow. You see in 1st Samuel 15 that he refuses to obey the voice of the Lord and to slaughtering the king of the Amalekites. He refuses to do it. You see in 1st Samuel 18 that he tries to murder David. You see in 1st Samuel 19 he tries to murder him again. You see in 1 Samuel 22 he murders the majority of the priests at Nob and their wives and their children. And then from 23 onward, you see this endless pursuit to try to take the life of David, try to murder David and his men. And then he gets spared by David. And there's like a moment where he's sorry over his sin, but he's not truly repentant. And he continues in this. He continues to make sinful choices over and over and over again until his heart is so hardened he cannot see the utter wickedness of deciding that it was a good thing to go and seek the help of a medium. And that right there should serve as a cautionary tale for us. That we should understand the nature and the seriousness of sin and how it grows with every deliberate decision to pursue it. We should heed the wisdom of James chapter one that says,
> "But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death."
That we should see the reality of when temptation comes and how that grows into this desire of sin and how we pursue it, and how when the sin comes, continues to grow in our life, develops, it seeks to destroy us and bring death to us. We should understand the seriousness of sin and how every decision can grow into further pursuing sin. Because here's what happens, y', all, is that sometimes we get so caught off guard by how someone could make such a sinful, foolish choice. People will say, I can't believe that he cheated on her. I can't believe that he would wreck his family and decide to do this. As if it's some surprise when in reality this is what sin does. That he was a man that from early on his teenage years was addicted to pornography and grew this unhealthy, sinful appetite that continued to grow over time. And then maybe he had some freedom when he got married for a moment, but he keeps running back to pornography, keeps running back to these sinful desires. And then in a season where his marriage isn't doing all that well, he gets the positive attention of a co worker. And it inflames that desire in him even further, which develops into lustful thoughts throughout the day, which develops into long lunches with her, which develops into hotel rooms. And it's not a surprise when you understand the nature of sin and how it grows. People will be shocked and ask, I can't believe those friends had this massive falling out. What happened? They were such good friends, like for so long now they seem so cold and distant towards one another. But it's the long road that gets you there of one thing after the next, that it starts with a comment, this person hurts their friend. And then instead of their friend doing the right God honoring thing to go to their friend, and after examining their own heart of why it hurt them to go and say, hey, you've actually hurt me, this was A hurtful thing to say. They just keep it to themselves, and they get angry, and then weeks later, they return fire. Typically, how it goes is, you know, you've been angry for weeks, and all of a sudden something that's completely unrelated just bubbles out in a way that just hurt. Where did that come from? And then no resolution happens there. No reconciliation happens there. Now there's relational weirdness that is set up in the friendship. And now they're both growing resentful, and they're unwilling to repent along the way until finally their eyes see towards each other. They're cold, they're distant, they're calloused. And it's like it was one bad decision after the next. People will be surprised when someone steals from their company. I can't believe that he robbed his company. He's going to prison. Like, what was he thinking? And again, you have to follow the progression here. These things happen over time with decision after decision that years ago that he was a person that started to finally make money. Instead of submitting his finances to the Lord and growing in generosity, he said, I want to spend on myself. And he's continued to fill his life with riches and all types of pleasures. And then as he began to fill his life with things and upholding things over the Creator, he started to grow some debt in his life. And then all of a sudden, there was an easy way to maneuver a little bit of money in a way that no one would ever see. And then he continues this and continues to buy more things and continues to set his heart on material things. And more debt is growing, and more debt is growing. And then all of a sudden, he's in a lot of debt and has some big decisions to make, and there's a big move that he shouldn't have made. And all of a sudden he makes it, and now he's facing prison time. Do you see how this works? Sinful choices that we make over and over and over again. I'll give you one more. People will ask, I can't believe that church split in two. I can't believe that this group all of a sudden just fell apart. What happened there? And y', all, it just. It's. It is a slow fade into this type of disunity. It usually starts with someone who just goes to someone else in their group or goes to someone else in their church and says, I need to vent. I need to. This is the way. This is the holy way to do it. I need the process. Just need to process with you. And then loose Lips rolls out into some gossip, and all of a sudden there's gossip in the air and distrust is in the air. And then eventually slander comes out. And then someone comes back and says, hey, I heard that you said this about me. What's going on with that? And then sides are taken. No one does what they're supposed to do in repenting of their sin and seeking reconciliation God commands us to do. Sides are taken, hearts grow hard and they part their separate ways. This happens over and over and over again. And that's what happened with Saul. He continued to make sinful choices, cementing the position of his heart. And some of you right now have what you might consider to be baby small sins in your life. Maybe some of us have these respectable sins in our lives that we don't think are a big deal. Maybe there's some hidden sin in our lives. And what we do is we justify ourselves, our actions, our thoughts. Thoughts. Are we minimized and say, that's not that big of a deal. Are we covered up with a veneer of righteousness that says, yeah, I know I got this going on. I haven't really confessed it to anyone, but I'm still doing these things. And then that grows, and then it grows and it influences the next decision and the next decision and the next decision, and then it destroys us. We should heed Hebrews chapter three in a way that should sober our souls to reality.
> "Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called 'Today,' that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin."
And the warning there is, be careful in choosing sin, lest you actually, in your pursuit of sin, finally realize that your heart wasn't rooted in belief in the first place, receive the warning of the seriousness of sin, and hope that you have people in your life that will point you. That will point out the choices that you are making, that will ask the tough questions, that will notice the patterns in your life that reveal something beneath the surface that when you dip out for two or three months and you make lots of excuses about not being around, that someone will come into your life, the word of God will come into your life and will reveal what's happening before you, harden your heart in a direction that you do not come back from. We should receive the warning here that we're only a few steps away from wrecking our lives.
Now, here's the good news while Saul chooses evil and he meets this very sad end. We have the opportunity to choose Christ. We have the opportunity to delight in him, to run to him. We have the opportunity to actually turn from path of destruction towards Christ. We have the opportunity to end humility, humble ourselves before the Lord, and pray for a softened heart. We have the opportunity to have groups of Christians in our community group that we have people in our lives that at a moment's notice will give us the ear that we need to listen to begin to walk in the light. We have the opportunity and some of you have the opportunity 4 be very first time to actually choose Christ over the desires of our own flesh and following the ways of the world, influenced by the enemy himself, we have Christ and that's his desire for us. I so appreciate 2 Corinthians 5:15 that says,
> "and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised."
that he died for us, that we on the path towards sin and hell might actually see that we had a Savior who bled and died for our sinful choices, for our bad trajectory, so that we might actually live not to ourselves, but but in submission to Him. And that is my hope as we leave this story today. Do not let the sins in your life grow and expand in a way that would suffocate your soul. Do not live for yourself like Saul did live for Christ, who for our sake died and was raised to free us from choosing evil. Pray for us. Heavenly Father, I pray that you would sober us to the reality of sin in our lives and you would awaken us to the joy that is found and understanding that while we sinned against you, you bled and died for our trespasses that we might trust in you of our own selves. Lord, we cannot do that without your work in our hearts. Lord, may you work in our souls in a way to awaken us to the reality of sin and the reality of your redemptive work on the cross in an empty tomb in Jesus name. Amen.
We're going to prepare to take the Lord's Supper here in a moment. I want to read from Luke chapter 22.
> And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, "Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes." And he took bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, "This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood."
That as Christians we get to come to the table remembering that yes, we make sinful choices and yes, we pursue sin, and yes, we have hidden sin in our life that we need to actually respond by walking in the light. We have all those things. But the offer of Christ is you don't come in your perfection, you don't come in your righteousness, you don't come in your good works. You come needy, humbly rejoicing that his blood was poured out, that his body was broken. And we remember the good news of the gospel that is for, for us, the sinners. So as you consider your sin, consider your Savior. When you are ready, come joyfully to the table. Some of you, you have not actually fully trusted in the work of Christ. Some of you, if you're honest with yourself that your whole life has been won towards only pursuing sin. And where there's been bits of religiousness, where there's been bits of church attendance, where there's been bits of just doing some good things, those are a cover for a life that is fully captured by sin. And my hope right now is that God would soften your heart and open your eyes to the reality that that only leads to death. But the good news of the gospel is that Jesus dies for sinners and that you would not come to the table. Do not come to the table right now. Come to Christ in faith, trusting in his work. And my hope is you wouldn't leave here today without talking to someone, talking to a pastor, talking to anyone, and asking them what does it look like to actually follow Jesus. And then we can talk about what it means to come to the table. But Christians, when you're ready to come to the table, there's gluten free in that back corner and upstairs.
1 Samuel 26-27
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. Grab a Bible and go to First Samuel. We're in chapters 26, 27, and just a little bit of 28 this morning. We are working our way through the book of First Samuel. We are studying it together and trying to learn together what this book has to teach us as we follow this Jesus.
The section that we're looking at today, we're going to look at this story, this saga in the life of David and how he, the Lord, is obviously at work, and then some decisions that David makes following a situation that he has with Saul and kind of what flows out of that. My hope this morning is that we can be instructed by it to see that what David does is something that we are prone to do, so that we might see David's example, learn from it, and not repeat it. So that's the hope for us this morning as we study this text together.
We're going to be in chapter 26, verse 1. If you grab one of the blue Bibles, it'll be on page 142. If you don't own a Bible, take this one home with you. I mean, not the one I'm holding, the one you're holding. You can take that one home with you. We want you to own a Bible. We want you to have it, we want you to read it.
Chapter 26 says this.
> Then the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah, saying, "Is not David hiding himself on the hill of Hakalah, which is on the east of Jeshimon?"
This is almost word for word what happened in chapter 23, verse 19. The Ziphites have come to Saul again and said, "Hey, he's in the same area again." Not exactly in the south, it's in the east. But he's here and he's hiding again. When I was growing up, if you tattled, my dad was prone to call someone who told on somebody a rat fink. The more I've talked to people about this, the more I may be the only person who's ever heard that phrase. I don't know. But that's what I think when I read about the Ziphites. They're rat finks. They keep narcing on David every time he tries to hide. They're supposed to be from his tribe. They're from the tribe of Judah. They shouldn't be telling on him, but that's what they're doing. And so they tell Saul again, "Hey, David's here. He's hiding."
Verse 2 says,
> So Saul arose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph with 3,000 chosen men of Israel to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph.
Saul has 3,000 chosen men. David has 600 random people who owed people debts and were unhappy that have shown up with him. So Saul's got a better force here. The text says Saul encamped on the hill of Hakalah, which is beside the road on the east of Jeshimon. He goes right where they told him.
It says, but David remained in the wilderness. When he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness, David sent out spies and learned that Saul had indeed come. He sees some sort of sign that Saul has come. He sends out spies to lay eyes on him. And indeed he has come.
Then it says,
> Then David rose and came to the place where Saul had encamped. And David saw the place where Saul lay with Abner, the son of Ner, the commander of his army. Saul was lying within the encampment while the army was encamped around him.
It seems that he sneaks over there in the evening, looks at them, sees how they're set up. 3,000 men camping. Saul's in the middle. Then David said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Joab's brother Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, who will go down with me into the camp of Saul? Abishai said, "I will go down with you."
David seems to take these two guys with him to go spy this out, or a handful of guys with him to go spy this out. He looks at these two specific guys and says, who wants to sneak with me into that camp of 3,000 guys who came here to murder us? Abishai says, "I'll go." We don't know what David's plan is. We just know Abishai, he's ready to go. Ahimelech was like, no thank you, stay here. I'll watch this stuff.
David and Abishai went to the army by night, and there lay Saul sleeping within the encampment with his spear stuck in the ground at his head; Abner and the army lay around him. So they go all the way through. They make it there. They see Saul sleeping. Now, Saul always has his spear with him to the point that I half expected him to hug it while he slept. But he doesn't. He has it right next to his head.
Then Abishai said to David,
> "God has given your enemy into your hand this day. Now please let me pin him to the earth with one stroke of the spear. I will not strike him twice."
It'll be very easy.
David said to Abishai,
> "Do not destroy him, for who can put out his hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless? As the Lord lives, the Lord will strike him, or his day will come to die, or he will go down into battle and perish."
At this moment, I always remember, and I want to remind you, as David gives three different ways that Saul might possibly die. They're somehow whispering this to each other while Saul's asleep somewhere close enough to them. This conversation isn't just the conversation they're having. It's like Abishai is like, "Kill me." And David's going, "So I don't know exactly how David is telling him three different ways, because David's like, look, God will kill him, or he'll just die somehow, or he'll go into battle and die." It feels like it was covered in the second one. Like his day will come. And then maybe a little bit of distance. They're whispering. Maybe they're very close to each other, but somehow they're having this hushed conversation about what they're going to do with Saul. I wonder if Abishai is like, "Then why did we come here? What are we doing?" But David says, don't do this.
Verse 11 says,
> "The Lord forbid that I should put out my hand against the Lord's anointed. But take now the spear that is at his head, and the jar of water, and let us go."
David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul's head and they went away. No man saw it or knew it, nor did any awake, for they were all asleep because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen upon them.
That makes a little more sense. God helps David in what David is going to do. It doesn't tell us whether or not David, like, we don't know anything about God telling him to go do this or David asking about it. It just seems like David says, "Hey, let's go do this," and then God backs him up and helps him. But there's no one on guard, no one watching. This is terrible. You don't take 3,000 men to go fight someone and be like, "All right, everybody get a good night's sleep. We'll get up in the morning." Like, you have people guard and watch and pay attention, but not here, not in Saul's camp. They sneak in and do this.
One of the things that's happening in the book of First Samuel here is that we're being shown very clearly — and the people who were the original hearers of this, readers of this, are being shown very clearly — that David was not out to get Saul. He could have killed him in the cave when it was just David and Saul. His men were there, but David's the one who snuck up. David's not going to kill him. But David's also not going to have one of his men kill him. David could have let Abishai kill him, and then Abishai could take the guilt. But David says, "I don't want you to have the guilt for killing him. He's the Lord's anointed. We're going to trust the Lord in this." So David at no point is trying to overthrow Saul. He's not trying to kill him. And it's very clear.
Verse 13:
> Then David went over to the other side and stood far off on the top of the hill with a great space between them. And David called to the army and to Abner, the son of Ner, saying, 'Will you not answer, Abner?' Then Abner answered, 'Who are you who calls to the king?'
David said to Abner:
> "Are you not a man? And who is like you in Israel? Why then have you not kept watch over your Lord the king? For one of the people came in to destroy the king, your Lord. This thing that you have done is not good. As the Lord lives, you deserve to die, because you have not kept watch over your Lord, the Lord's anointed."
David's shouting at the encampment at night. He's very far away on another hill. Abner is woken up out of sleep in a kind of dangerous place. Someone's shouting, trying to figure out what's going on. Like, okay, not immediately in battle. They're trying to listen. Who's yelling? What is this about? He starts kind of running his mouth. "Abner, I thought you were a man," that's his opening line.
Then David says this:
> "And now see where the king's spear is and the jar of water that was at his head."
I think that felt braggy or not connected to anything until he says, "Where's his spear?" At that moment, they had cold chills. "Oh, he was here in the middle of us. Who was on guard? Who was watching what happened?" He had the opportunity. He's telling the truth.
Verse 17:
> Saul recognized David's voice and said, "Is this your voice, my son David?"
David said,
> "It is my voice, my lord, O king."
Saul said,
> "Why does my lord pursue after his servant? For what have I done? What evil is on my hands now? Therefore, let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If it is the Lord who has stirred you up against me, may he accept an offering. But if it is men, may they be cursed before the Lord, for they have driven me out this day that I should have no share in the heritage of the Lord, saying, 'Go serve other gods.'"
David says, "What have I done?" The answer is nothing. He's done nothing to Saul. He's had the opportunity to do things after Saul started trying to kill him, but he's done nothing. He hasn't tried to overthrow him. He hasn't plotted against him. He hasn't tried to become king. He was just going to serve him. He is his servant. He says, "What is this?" And he says, "If the Lord stirred you up, then let me make a sacrifice. Let some peace be made between me and the Lord. But if it's men, let them be cursed, because I've done nothing, and they're running me out of my homeland and telling me to just go belong to someone else."
Verse 20:
> "Now therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth away from the presence of the Lord, for the king of Israel has come out to seek a single flea, like one who hunts a partridge in the mountains."
He says, "You've done all this for someone who doesn't matter, like a massive hunt for one bird." He says, "Don't let me die away from the presence of the Lord." He wants to stay.
Verse 21:
> Then Saul said, "I have sinned. Return my son David, for I will no more do you harm, because my life was precious in your eyes this day. Behold, I have acted foolishly and have made a great mistake."
It would be nice if Saul meant this. He is not genuinely repenting. It's very similar to stuff he said before, and as the story goes on, he's just going to take right back up with what he's doing.
David answered and said,
> "Here is the spear, O king. Let one of the young men come over and take it. The Lord rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness, for the Lord gave you into my hand today, and I would not put out my hand against the Lord's anointed."
David earlier yells, "What have I done? What wrong have I done? What evil is on my hands?" And here he says:
> "The Lord rewards faithfulness and righteousness."
When you're reading the Psalms, there are times where David says, "Judge me, Lord. Try me. What have I done?" I don't think David means he has never sinned. I think David is talking about these kinds of things where he's on the run, and he's saying, Lord, what did I do to deserve the situation that I'm in? And I found that helpful as I was studying this, to think about David in this mindset when he's writing some of those Psalms because he doesn't mean to articulate, "I'm perfect in all things," but he's saying, "My hands are clean. I haven't done what I'm being accused of."
Verse 16:
> "Behold, as your life was precious this day in my sight, so may my life be precious in the sight of the Lord, and may he deliver me out of all tribulation."
Then Saul said to David,
> "Blessed be you, my son David. You will do many things and will succeed in them."
David went his way and Saul returned to his place. So David has another chance to kill Saul; he doesn't take it. Saul leaves. David goes his way.
Chapter 27, verse 1:
> Then David said in his heart, "Now I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will despair of seeking me any longer within the borders of Israel, and I shall escape out of his hand."
After this situation where the Lord protects David again, David's able to walk into an encampment of 3,000 soldiers. They're all asleep. David considers this, and it says he said in his heart, "Saul's going to kill me." That's the conclusion that he draws as he's been on the run. Saul doesn't seem to ever be going to let up. He just decides, Saul's going to kill me. Then he says, there's nothing better for me to do than to go live with the Philistines, which is the very first thing he tried, if you remember.
He went and he got Goliath's sword, and he went to Achish, the king of Gath. Then they were like, "Hey, isn't that David?" He pretended to be insane. Achish said to his guards,
> "Why have you brought me an insane person? What use is he to me?"
David escaped. But now, some time later, David decides that's his best option. Now, I have a question: when we're reading this text, when David says that, when it says that David said in his heart, "There's nothing better for me to do than to go to the Philistines." Did we all go, "Finally he figured it out"? No, I don't think so. I don't read that and think, "What a great plan." You go, "Hold on a second. Did you pray about this? God's with you? Did you ask him? He's a prophet of the Lord. Did you ask him? The Ephod's with you? You've inquired of the Lord before. Did you talk to the priest? Did you work?" It's just something that he comes to a conclusion in and of himself. He just considers it, says this in his heart, locks it in.
What we're going to see in chapter 27 is David locks this decision in his heart, and then he just starts doing stuff. All the things he does make some sense if this is true — if the best thing for him is to just go to the Philistines — then everything else he does just kind of starts making sense. The problem is, I don't think that's the best thing for him. And I don't think if he'd have consulted the Lord, that's what he would have been told to do. But he just decides this in his heart, and he just goes. Then he's going to start making some logical conclusions as he goes ahead.
It says:
> So David arose and went over, he and the 600 men who were with him, to Achish, the son of Maacah, king of Gath. David lived with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, and David with his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail of Carmel, Nabal's widow. When it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath, he no longer sought him.
Some interesting things happen here. First, David gets some confirmation. Saul quits looking for him, which means that Saul wasn't repentant. He just decides, "Well, now he's in the land of the Philistines. I'm not going to chase him anymore." He didn't actually mean, "You're safe with me. Come be my friend again." He didn't mean that. He only stops when he goes to the Philistines.
It also means that David immediately probably was like, "I knew I was right." So he makes this decision, "This is the best thing for me," and then he gets some confirmation. Almost immediately, Saul quits looking for him. He goes, "Yes, I did it. I knew I was right. I knew that was the best thing to do."
Also, it means that David and 600 men and all of their families go to live with Achish and Gath. That's a pile of people. David goes back to the exact same guy that he went to last time. The text doesn't tell us anything about that. But I wonder if Achish was like, "Have we met before?" And David was like, "Nope, don't think so." But then he knew where stuff was around the city, and it got real suspicious. His phone automatically connected to the Wi-Fi. There were some things that were like, "Wait a second."
David goes to Achish, and Achish lets him be there. It makes some sense too because David is Saul's enemy, prime enemy of a Kish. The Philistines hate the Israelites, and David's a great warrior. If he'll join our team, that sounds great. Similar to us having a bunch of German scientists come to the US during World War II. "Yeah, if you'll come be on our team, that'd be great." That's what he does. He just lets them come in.
David said to Achish,
> "If I have found favor in your eyes, let a place be given me in one of the country towns, that I may dwell there, for why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you?"
It's quite possible that David's working an angle and he's trying to accomplish something, trying to get away from Achish. But it's also very problematic that David, the anointed of the Lord who's going to be king of the people of Israel, is having to seek favor with Achish, the enemy of the Israelites. But it makes sense, as long as we follow the train, that it's the best thing for him to do; then going to Achish makes sense. Asking for the favor of Achish makes sense. It kind of follows along with what he's going to keep doing. All line up with this original assumption that David made certain in his heart.
He apparently has found favor. It says:
> So that day Achish gave him Ziklag. Therefore Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day. The number of days that David lived in the country of the Philistines was a year and four months.
David makes this decision, and it affects at least the next year and four months of how he's going to live life. Also, Achish just gives him a city. I don't know if that city was sitting empty, but I doubt it. That was probably surprising for the people who lived in Ziklag when a bunch of Jewish people showed up and were like, "We're in charge now." That's what happens, and they keep it forever.
Verse 8:
> Now David and his men went up and made raids against the Geshurites and the Amalekites, for these were the inhabitants of the land from of old as far as Shur to the land of Egypt.
David starts making raids. Before, David would go out with the army, and it would talk about him basically defending against the Philistines. But now he's not going to war like normal. He's making raids. It's a different word. He's doing what you think of as pillaging and plundering. That's what he starts doing. He starts doing it with the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites.
The Amalekites we've heard of; that’s the people Saul was supposed to get rid of and didn't. The Geshurites are listed as people who were supposed to be pushed out of the land and weren't. The Girzites are only ever mentioned right here in this verse. That's all we know about them.
David starts making raids against these people.
Verse 9:
> David would strike the land and would leave neither man nor woman alive but would take away the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels, and the garments and come back to Achish. When Achish asked, "Where have you made a raid today?" David would say, "Against the Negeb of Judah," or "against the Negeb of the Jerahemites," or "against the Negeb of the Kenites."
Negeb is like a southern dry area. David is saying, "I'm kind of working my way along against these groups of people." He picked people that were either people of Israel or their allies. He goes and attacks this one group and then comes back, gives Achish stuff and lies about who he's been attacking.
It says he kills all the men and women. Some want to read this and say, "Okay, well, David's just fulfilling what they were supposed to fulfill from when Joshua was taking the land. He's driving these people out. He's committing holy war." There are a couple of problems with that. It's called raids, not war. If it's holy war and he's supposed to perform a ban on them, he's not supposed to take the stuff, but he takes the stuff. So he's committing raids.
Verse 11:
> David would leave neither man nor woman alive to bring news to Gath, thinking lest they should tell about us.
David has done so strategically. It doesn't say he's doing it to fulfill promises or to do what God called him to. It says he's strategically not letting anyone live so that no one tells on them.
David decides the best thing for him to do is go live with the Philistines, and then he just starts making decisions downline on what makes sense, what makes sense. It's clever, cunning, strategic. He absolutely tricks Achish, the king of Gath. But it's hard to say that it's faithful and honest, that he has integrity. It’s hard to read this and make it virtuous.
Verse 12:
> Achish trusted David, thinking he has made himself an utter stench to the people of Israel. Therefore he shall always be my servant.
Achish believes him. He doesn't double-check any of that. Nobody comes and gives any report of anything. Otherwise, he would see all the stuff. He thinks, "David has made everybody there absolutely hate him."
Chapter 28 says:
> In those days, the Philistines gathered their forces for war to fight against Israel. Achish said to David, "Understand that you and your men are to go out with me in the army."
David said to Achish,
> "Very well, you shall know what your servant can do."
Achish said,
> "Very well, I will make you my bodyguard for life."
Then the story just changes subjects and starts talking about Saul and what he's up to. So we're going to stop right here.
David has worked himself into a knot. Achish looks at him and says, "We're going to war with the Israelites, and we know how much you hate them and how much they hate you." The text says that David says, "Good, you'll see what I'm capable of." We're all like, "What does that mean? What I'm capable of killing? Who is he going to kill? Israelites? Is he going to turn against his own people?" That's some cryptic, clever way to say, "You about to find out." Achish says, "Good, I'll make you my bodyguard for life." If David means he's going to attack him, I bet David thought, "Well, that'll be short. I won't be your bodyguard for very long." We don't know. We don't know what David is about to do.
The text will change and tell another story on purpose. The Bible is well written. It gets us right here and goes, "What's going on with that?" Then it goes over here and starts talking about something else.
I think it is helpful for us to consider how David got himself from standing over Saul absolutely seeing God at work to marching out with the Philistines, how he worked himself over here. I'll go back to chapter 27, verse 1:
> David said in his heart, "Now I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape to the land of the Philistines."
It says David said it in his heart. He didn't talk it out. It doesn't even say he really reasoned it. He just hearted it out. He felt it just became real. It was very concrete. It would be hard to shake him off of this position.
What I think is helpful is for us to understand that we do that, too. There are some conclusions that you've drawn, and you've got some external circumstances that help back you up. You're not crazy. You didn't just come up with something, but you've got some external circumstances that help you back up.
But all that's really happened is you've just reasoned this out in your heart, and it's real, real, real, real, real, real for you. You believe it almost unshakably, and then it just begins to show up. It makes a lot of sense if this is true.
I've been pastoring this church for 12 years, and I want to share a few of these. I want to give some examples to help you picture what we're talking about, what we're capable of doing, what you're capable of as life plays out settling in your heart:
"I'm unlovable." You can point to this relationship, this friendship, this marriage, this stuff. It's obvious. You don't really think it out, you don't really write it out. You just settle it in your heart, and then it begins to show up in how you relate to people.
So what happens is that somebody in your community group who's trying to follow Jesus, studying the Bible, but you've got this as a set reality for you. Someone in your group who loves you dearly is trying to talk to you over here on this situation. They're making good points, and you listen, and you know that what they're saying is true for everybody but you. You know that's fine. What they're saying is good, but they don't know this about you. If they knew this, they would know that it doesn't really apply to you.
So you begin to undercut the way they're relating to you. They're coming to you and saying, "Hey, we really like our group. You were around, and things were going well. Now you're kind of gone. We want to follow up with you because we care. We miss you. We wish you were back around. We want you back around."
They say it's helpful, healthy for you to belong and be here. We're not us without you. They're trying to talk to you about this.
You're going, "Yeah, that's just what you're supposed to say. It's good that you're saying that. But I know this, and nobody really loves me." Or they're saying, "We love you," and you're going, "Hmm. No." If you knew the real me, you wouldn't. If I really belonged, if I really told you everything, you wouldn't.
You've got some sort of settled position that you've already locked in.
"I ruin everything I touch." You've got some evidence. You've really messed some things up, but you've settled in your heart at some point that "I ruin everything." It begins to show up. Something gets difficult at work, and your energy level to try to fix it just drops because, you know, if I pour energy into this, it's just going to fail. Something gets difficult in a relationship, marriage, friendship, church family. You start going, "Yeah, but people are going, hey, we can work this out. We can figure this out."
You're thinking, "I'm actually doing you a favor by backing out now because if I step in, I'll just make it worse." You don't necessarily word it that way, but that's so true in your heart that it undoes the ability for people to address you.
"I can only trust myself. Can't trust anybody else. Can't have real relationships. I'm the only person who's trustworthy. I can only take counsel with myself. I can't do it." You just repeat over and over, "I can't do it. It."
"I have to be the one in control. If my hands are not on the steering wheel, this ain't gonna work out." You've decided, locked it in, and it's real. You start doing stuff that makes sense if that's true.
"I just don't have enough. Just don't have enough money. Don't have enough power, wisdom, control," whatever you want to put there, "I just don't have enough of it. If I could get it, I'd be okay."
"Things will never get better. The sooner I realize that, the better off I am. The sooner I realize that when I get in a situation, the better off I am."
It helps me to know that nothing will ever get better. This applies to how you relate to people, how you take correction, how you correct other people, how you walk in life, live, serve, work — everything.
Some of your actions make perfect sense as long as that's true.
I want to show you the list. These are things that I know I've interacted with in people, could be anything.
Now, I'll make a few comments on the list. You may have a completely different one. Some might be true if you don't belong to Jesus. Even when you feel these things, none of you as you walk in church family, in community group, say these things to other people. You would not counsel somebody this way.
You've never looked at someone who's struggling and said, "Hey, look at me. I know you're hurting. Things will never get better, but one day you'll die." You've never done that. You might say that to yourself a thousand times a week, but you don't say it to other people because you know what it sounds like. You don't believe it for others but 100% believe it for yourself.
"Hey, you haven't been around group for a while. I just want you to know you're unlovable. Nobody cares. If we really got to know you, it would just get worse."
You don't do that.
The reason we're laughing is that it sounds insane. That's why we work these things out in our heart. We don't work them out out loud. You just talk to yourself about it. You say, "Yeah, but I heard it a thousand times." It's like mispronouncing a word and saying, "That's the way I hear it." It's because you're saying it that way. Stop it. Say it the right way, and you won't hear it that way anymore because no one else says it that way.
Some of these might be true if you don't belong to Jesus, if you haven't trusted in him, if he hasn't saved you from your sin, if his death doesn't apply to you, if his resurrection doesn't apply to you so that your sin's paid for, life is given to you. If you aren't found in Christ, then you can't do it. You're not going to earn it. You're not going to save yourself. You're not going to be good enough, smart enough, moral enough, strong enough.
One of the proclamations of the gospel is you can't do it, but Jesus can. So some of these might apply.
If you belong to Jesus and you've accepted one of these heart-level things or some new one that you came up with, that you've settled in your heart, can I tell you something? You believe it because you think it's true about you, but actually, if you belong to Jesus, it is a lie about him. It's only true if he's not there.
"I'm unlovable." You think that says something about you, but it's actually a declaration about Christ that he doesn't love you, that he can't love you, that he can't overcome your wickedness, that he can't overcome your sin, that you've done too much, that you aren't enough, and somehow you think it's about you, but if you belong to Jesus, it's a lie about him, and it's not true.
I love where Paul says,
> "Christ died for me."
Paul writes "me." He's saying no, no, no, me. We get to read that and go, "Yeah, if I belong to Jesus, me." He loved me and gave himself up for me.
"I ruin everything I touch." Sure, without Jesus, maybe, probably not everything. But without Jesus? No.
"I can only trust myself." We get to trust Jesus. You actually don't factor that in. That's beautiful about belonging to Christ. It's not about me. That's why we show up and sing about Jesus and what he's done and accomplished. We don't have blanks where you get to insert your own name about how you've saved the day. We don't do that because that's not what this is about. That's not where our hope is.
"I can't do it." That's a declaration that everything is going to fall apart. Like Jesus won't empower you, won't give you strength, mercy tomorrow. You won't wake up with renewed ability through the empowerment of the Spirit.
"I have to be the one in control." It's a declaration that Jesus isn't trustworthy, that he's not good enough, and that you can't trust yourself with him.
"I don't have enough." Even though we've been seated with him above all things, and we've been given every spiritual gift in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
"Things will never get better" is only true if you don't belong to Jesus. If you belong to Jesus, he's already working. He's already redeeming, and the promises — it ultimately gets better.
> Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
> — 2 Corinthians 5:17
He has gone to work in us and made us new.
These things aren't true. They don't stick to you. They don't hold you. They don't have claim over you if you belong to Jesus and have trusted him. If you haven't, you can. You can go to Christ and say, "I need help. I need salvation. I need rescue. I need forgiveness," and he will.
Here's what I want us to do.
> We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.
> — 2 Corinthians 10:5
I want you to actively take this heart-level decision and introduce it to Jesus. I want you to make those two in your mind. I want you to make it obedient to Christ. How is this real if I belong to Jesus? Bring it to him and say, "I want to look at this in light of who you are. I want to look at this in light of what your word says. I want to look at this in light of what your word says about me."
In just a moment, I'm going to pray. The band's going to come back up. I want you to take a second to ask the Spirit, "Is there something that I've settled in my heart that's guiding the decisions I'm making but isn't true? Is there something that I only believe for me that I wouldn't believe for somebody else? I would never counsel somebody else this way. I would never accuse Jesus of this out loud. I'm just doing it in my heart."
Then I want you to make it obedient to Christ. We'll take a moment to do that. Then I want you to do that this week with your community group. I want you to try to walk out, "What have I settled? That only makes sense because I don't say it out loud. I just repeat it over and over again in my heart. How does Jesus rescue and redeem and conquer?"
Let's pray.
Father, I pray that right now you'd give us a moment of stillness and clarity. We ask in the name of Jesus that your Spirit would work to reveal deep, heart-level things that we've put in concrete that aren't true, lies that we believe, that we think are true about us, but are just lies about you. Lord, we ask you to help us to listen. Amen.
1 Samuel 25
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning, my name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. Grab a Bible and go to First Samuel, chapter 25. We are working our way through the book of First Samuel. We left off last week where David had the opportunity to murder Saul. Saul's been chasing David, trying to kill him. David finally has Saul right in his grasp in a cave and he does not kill him. He comes, cuts off a piece of his cloak, follows him out of the cave and says, see this? Do you notice that it used to belong to your cloak? Check out your cloak. I could have killed you and I didn't because I don't want to.
Saul and David have this moment where Saul says, I'm wrong, I shouldn't be doing what I'm doing. There's a little bit of a peace. Then it says they head separate ways. We're picking up in chapter 25, and we're going to see this interaction with David and some other people, and we're going to see David actively pursuing sin and how God meets him in that, what happens, how David responds, and how these other people respond. Hopefully, we will learn along with David to appreciate correction.
The verse says this:
> Now Samuel died, and all Israel assembled and mourned for him and buried him in his house at Ramah.
Samuel has passed and his work as the last judge is over. He's the last judge of Israel. He has transitioned under the leadership of God and under the desire of the people to a monarch ruling the land. It hasn't gone well. We've seen how all that's worked out. The last we saw him, David had run to him to try to hide while Saul was chasing him. He is now passed, and it says all Israel gathered to mourn. I think it is likely that that included David and Saul, but if it excluded one of them, it was probably David. The way the text is written seems as if David was there.
It also says that Samuel was buried in his house at Ramah, which makes me think people didn't keep living in that house. I don't know; maybe it became a site for the people of Israel, but the text doesn't give us much information about that.
Continuing in verse 1, it says:
> Then David rose and went down to the wilderness of Paran. And there was a man whose business was in Carmel.
The man was very rich. He had 3,000 sheep and a thousand goats. Take a moment and try to picture that. That's a lot of sheep and goats, a lot of people that have to tend to them. The man was shearing his sheep in Carmel. Now, you may have a picture of what shearing sheep is like. You understand that it's removing the excess wool from a sheep. But culturally, when we just say he's shearing his sheep, I don't think we completely capture the festivity.
This was festive. In order to shear 3,000 sheep, you need a lot of shearers. They gather, it's like a harvest. You've kept these sheep alive all winter; it's now about to get hot, and it's spring. They gather. It's celebratory. A bunch of people together. The wool means wealth—he can use it, he can sell it. People gather, eat, celebrate, shear sheep, and then eventually they have to spread back out because you can't have that many sheep in one place at one time.
So they've been all over the place, gather, shear the sheep, have a festival for however long this takes, a bunch of people together, then spread back out. That's what's happening. Culturally, when they heard "sheep shearing," it's like us hearing it's Christmas time. It's festive in their mind with all it entails.
He's shearing his sheep. Verse 3:
> Now the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail.
There's another cultural thing missed on us here: the word Nabal means fool or boorish; his name is "fool." If you spoke Hebrew, you'd catch that. Names mean things in their culture. Either it was a rough time in the life of his parents when he was born and they took it out on him, or he was born and his mom said, "You look a lot like your father; we're gonna name you Fool." Some family dynamics we don't want to get into. Or he has earned this name over time and just rolled with it.
It'd be like if you introduced him as "my buddy Blockhead," and he'd say, "Sup?" You'd have guesses on what this dude's like. That's what's happening here: his name's Fool.
Then it tells us where we are. The woman, Abigail, was discerning and beautiful, but the man was harsh and badly behaved. So he's earned it; he's lived up to it. At least he was a Calebite, meaning he comes from a prominent family inside the tribe of Judah. David is also in the tribe of Judah, so they would have considered each other kin, more especially kin than just being of the people of Israel.
David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. So David sent ten young men, and David said to the young men:
> Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name. And thus you shall greet him:
>
> Peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have.
>
> I hear that you have shearers.
>
> Now your shepherds have been with us, and we did them no harm, and they missed nothing all the time they were in Carmel.
>
> Ask your young men, and they will tell you.
>
> Therefore, let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day.
>
> Please give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David.
David sends a ten-man delegation to say, "We hear you have shearers, which means it's a feast day. We've been with your shearers and shepherds. We've actually been part of the reason all your sheep are alive. If there's anything you could give us, that'd be great."
This can sound a little extortionary to us: "I helped you out, you owe me." Maybe a little of that is there, but they're of the same tribe. This is a normal thing to be hospitable and to expect hospitality. So what David has helped him, he's saying, "I'm part of the reason why this has gone so well for you this year, and we'd like to participate in this feast."
The next layer is that we're of the same tribe. They belong to each other. Another layer is you should just say yes to this anyway, no matter who shows up and asks because that's what the people of Israel are supposed to be like: hospitable and welcoming.
Well above our cultural pressures to be hospitable and welcoming, this is a normal cultural thing that you would say yes to.
It's a little bit like if someone says, "Hey, is there anything you could do? It would be really helpful. You know it is Christmas." Saying "It's Christmas" adds this "You should" kind of thing to it. But they should say yes all the time. At sheep shearing time, it's more festive and more hospitable; there are all kinds of layers to why Nabal should say yes to this. It's expected, it's good, it's what he ought to do.
Remember his name, right? Let's see how he acts.
Verse 9:
> When David's young men came, they said all this to Nabal in the name of David. And then they waited.
And Nabal answered:
> David's servants, who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters. Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it to the men who come from nowhere, whom I do not know?
That would be rude to us. It is wildly, excessively rude to them. You ever watch a Western? You know how there's a moment where one calls the other a liar, and everything gets tense? They stand up because you've called me a liar. Obviously, I have to shoot you now. That's the kind of thing happening.
Or in the play Hamilton, they've seen multiple duels in writing letters back and forth. You can tell these are fighting words, working toward a duel. Culturally, we don't have that anymore. We don't do duels anymore; that's probably good for us.
Every once in a while you meet someone and think, "I wish someone had hit them upside the head," but in general, culturally it's good that we turn the other cheek, that we're calmer, that we don't overreact or defend our honor in that way.
But what Nabal has done is aggressively, intentionally disregarded, dishonored, picked a fight with David in pride. He said, "Who is David? Who's the son of Jesse? You come from no one; you are worth nothing." He says there are many people who have broken away from their masters and are roaming around the woods these days. You want me to feed all of them? Like, no.
This is very aggressive.
They go back to David. Let's see how David responds.
Verse 12:
> So David's young men turned away and came back and told him all this.
David said to his men:
> Every man, strap on his sword.
Every man strapped on his sword; David also strapped on his sword. About 400 men went up after David, while 200 remained with the baggage.
He leaves 200 and takes 400, saying, "Put your swords on. Let's go talk to Nabal ourselves."
Verse 14:
> But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, "Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master, and he railed at them. Yet the men were very good to us. We suffered no harm, and we did not miss anything when we were in the fields. As long as we went with them, they were a wall to us both by night and by day. All the while we were with them, keeping the sheep."
Now, therefore, know this and consider what you should do, for harm is determined against our master and against all his house. He is such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him.
There’s a handful of things going on here. Somebody watches this interaction and says, somebody go tell Abigail, somebody get Ma—she'll handle this. That's the assumption.
You can actually see the kind of respect and the position that she held in this household by the way they're responding. I don't know if your life has been like mine, but I've been wildly blessed by ladies like this who can handle things, who will sort stuff out, who, when something's going poorly, you say, "Yeah, go get them. Explain this to them. They'll step in, make this better, know what to do." That's the situation she's in: somebody goes to say, "Hey, real quick, Nabal was Nabling, and I need to talk to you about what just happened."
They explain it to her.
I also want to point out that they say, "You know what he's like. You can't talk to him. He is such a worthless man. No one can speak to him." I just want to tell you that you don't want that to ever be true for you. You don’t want people to say, "Well, you know what it’s like to talk to them? They don’t listen. They’re hard to talk to."
You want to actively fight that in yourself. When someone says, "Hey, I need to talk to you about something," you want to go, "Okay, this is my chance. Lord, help me. Don't get defensive. Help me listen," because that's a bad spot to be in.
They say he was very rude to them, and they've been great. David was great to us. It was great to be with David. We didn't worry about anything. As long as we were with them, there was nothing to worry about. They helped us; they protected us; they defended us.
Not only should he probably not respond that way to anybody, but he certainly should be good to these guys because they’ve been very good to us. That's the situation they're saying to him.
Verse 18:
> Then Abigail made haste and took 200 loaves and two skins of wine and five sheep already prepared, and five seahs of parched grain, and a hundred clusters of raisins and 200 cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys.
That's a lot of food just ready to go.
She starts piling this on donkeys: 200 loaves, five sheep already prepared, 200 cakes of figs. He’s very rich.
We’ll find out later it’s not like she went and cleaned out buffets. They don’t even notice this stuff is gone. Not only should he have said yes, he actually had the ability to say yes and not even notice it. So he’s got all this ready to go at the moment. It's unnoticed.
She puts it on donkeys.
Verse 19:
> She said to her young men, "Go on before me; behold, I come after you."
But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
As she rode on the donkey and came down under the cover of the mountain, behold, David and his men came down toward her. She met them.
David had said:
> Surely in vain have I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him. And he has returned me evil for good.
>
> God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him.
David’s plan as he’s traveling is, when we get there, we’re going to kill every man. David says to himself that it was a huge waste of time that he defended his sheep.
If you lived in a modest home backed up to somebody's massive acreage and could see all the wealth they had, and at some point their fence broke and their little yappy dog got out, you helped catch the dog and fixed the fence. Then later, you go around and say, "Hey, you wouldn't happen to have any eggs?" and they say, "I can't be giving handouts to people who can’t afford eggs." What does that look like? Charity? "Get off my lawn before I call the police."
You might go back to your house and think, "I'm going to break their fence and steal their dog." Originally, you weren't doing it because you knew one day you were going to need something, but there might be something in you that goes, "That was a waste of time. This guy's such a jerk. He doesn't deserve any good thing I’ve ever done for him."
You might just be losing it in your backyard.
That’s a little bit of what’s happening with David here. He's responded violently and is saying to himself, everything that I did that was good was a waste of time. He’s decided he’s going to kill everybody.
He gives an interesting curse—we’ve seen several curses in First Samuel. This is one of the better ones because of how he words it. Most curses we’ve seen have followed a pattern: "May the Lord do so and more also to me if I don’t blank to them." But David says:
> May the Lord do so and more also to my enemies if I don't kill all of them.
A double outward-facing curse. It seems like a better way to word it. If I don’t kill them, may the Lord kill them. He just puts it out that way; he doesn’t bind himself in a curse.
His plan is to go kill everybody.
I want you to hear this clearly: David is wrong. Don’t read your Bible and think this is one of the good guys. Not everything he does is good. The Lord is good, and what he does is good. You can see what he’s doing and say that’s good (Jesus is good). The Bible isn’t about good people and bad people; it’s about bad people and Jesus.
You see Jesus at work; you can say, "This must be good," but you can’t do that with anybody else.
What David is about to do is wrong; he’s going to defend his pride through massacre. Nobody talks to David like that; that’s where he’s at.
But who just met him? Abigail.
David’s coming with 400 men, all with swords strapped on. They don’t look pleasant; they’re on their way to harm people. She comes to talk to them.
What she’s about to do is insanely courageous.
You know how you have things you’re afraid of? Meeting new people, large crowds, public speaking, facing down an army, possibly being murdered, conflict. She’s about to do all those, and handle them extremely well.
When you look at Proverbs 31, which talks about what a woman should look like—a wife should look like—Abigail is Proverbs 31 on display: using intelligence, ability, wisdom for the good of those around her.
She could have avoided this situation. She knew something bad was coming. She could have left; it would have affected her household. But she was involved.
She jumps right in the middle for Nabal’s sake and for David’s sake. She sees two foolish men. She actually knew that something bad was going to happen.
As soon as she heard the situation, she said David's on the move. She was right. She said, "I don’t think you can talk stuff to David like that without there being a lot of bad things that happen next."
She’s right.
She’s going to intercept David and Nabal, jump in the middle of them and this brokenness where pride, arrogance, anger are about to slam into each other.
Suddenly there’s Abigail on a donkey, about to give the largest speech of any woman in the Old Testament. She’s going to share wisdom, clarity, humility, faith.
This is what she says.
Verse 23:
> When Abigail saw David, she hurried and got down from the donkey and fell before David on her face and bowed to the ground.
She begins with a very humble posture. She shows up, bows to the ground. It does not tell us if she gets up. It's possible she continues speaking from that posture or maybe stands.
Verse 24:
> She fell at his feet and said,
>
> On me alone, my lord, be the guilt.
>
> Please let your servant speak in your ears and hear the words of your servant.
>
> Let not, my lord, regard this worthless fellow Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him.
Quick pause: I don’t believe this gives wives license to speak however they want about their husbands, even their foolish husbands. Which I know is a follow-up question.
Put your hand down.
But if you are negotiating good for his entire household and trying to save his life, I think the rules get looser than when you’re at book club with your friends. She doesn’t speak in a very honoring way of her husband. He has actively done dumb things. She is trying for the sake of their household to bring good.
She’s trying to bring blessing to him, even though he’s acted like that.
But this isn’t how I think you’re allowed to talk about them all the time.
Even if she did, you still shouldn’t.
She starts off by saying we don’t want Nabal representing her house. This is on me.
Don’t let him lead you into this. That’s what she’s saying.
She continues:
> But I, your servant, did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent. Please forgive me. This is on me. If I had seen him, we wouldn’t have this problem.
Verse 26:
> Now then, my lord, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, because the Lord has restrained you from blood guilt and from saving with your own hand, now then, let your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my lord be as Nabal.
She says it’s so good the Lord restrained him from blood guilt. She assumes graciously and boldly that he’s going to stop. The Lord has intercepted him to keep him from doing something foolish.
She doesn’t say "foolish," but it’s baked in.
The fool was about to create folly, and she’s thankful the Lord helped stop it.
Then:
> May the Lord make all of your enemies like Nabal—not dead, but foolish. Let them act foolish, but don’t let you act foolish.
Verse 27:
> And now let this present that your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord. Please forgive the trespass of your servant, for the Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord is fighting the battles of the Lord, and evil shall not be found in you so long as you live.
> If men rise up to pursue you and seek your life, the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living in the care of the Lord your God, and the lives of your enemies shall he sling out as from the hollow of a sling.
She’s wise in words, uses sling metaphors for David. He gets it immediately.
She brings blessing. She shows up in the middle of sin, takes guilt, and brings blessing.
She brings physical blessing and then verbally blesses him. She says, “Take this gift,” and then she blesses David, his house, family, future.
Verse 30:
> When the Lord has done to my lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you and has appointed you prince over Israel...
It seems known that David has been anointed and that he's going to be king; that has spread at least to the people in Judah.
Verse 31:
> My lord shall have no cause of grief or pangs of conscience for having shed blood without cause, or for my lord working salvation for himself.
> When the Lord has dealt well with my lord, then remember your servant.
She says when she shows up, "I’m glad the Lord let me intercept you to keep you from blood guilt." She ends with, when he makes you king, you won’t feel bad about this. You won’t have pangs of conscience that you tried to save yourself or shed blood without cause.
It’s wise, clear, corrective, humble.
Verse 32:
> David said to Abigail,
>
> "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me.
>
> Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you who have kept me this day from blood guilt and from working salvation with my own hand.
>
> For as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel lives, who has restrained me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, truly by morning there had not been left in Nabal so much as one male."
David erupts in worship:
Oh, thank the Lord! Blessed be the Lord! Blessed be your discretion! Blessed be you that you came because I was about to do something so foolish!
Y'all, may we respond like David when we’re corrected. May we love the people who correct us.
Culturally, we celebrate, "I want my friends to match my energy." Like, if I’m amped up, I want you to get amped up with me.
I saw a clip from a movie: a guy comes in, looks at his friend, says, "Hey, you can’t ask me questions; I need you to come with me. We’re going to hurt some people. We can never talk about this again." His friend looks at him and says, "Are you driving, or am I driving?"
Culturally, we say, "Yay! Best friends! Secret murders!"
That’s what we want. We want friends who ride or die. We want you to hop in the car if I say, "Let’s go."
Reality is, no. You need some calm, patient, wet blanket friends. Some people who say, "Why aren’t you mad?"
You need people who have wisdom, discretion, who slow you down, love you enough to risk a relationship by correcting you.
I’m not talking about argumentative, contrary people. I’m talking about people who love you enough to say, "Hey, we need to talk because what you’re doing is unwise, unhelpful, foolish, sinful."
We want to learn to be people who say, "Praise Jesus that you listened to the Spirit when I didn’t! Thank you, Lord, that you sent them to be around me."
You’re doing things over your life that are unwise. You’re doing things that aren’t good. You’re sinning.
The last time you were corrected is maybe the last time someone showed you genuine love.
If you go long seasons without correction, you need to begin to work on how you respond to correction and the type of people you surround yourself with.
May we be people like Abigail who love people enough to say something. She jumped in the middle, could have left, but she was involved.
Verse 35:
> Then David received from her hand what she had brought him.
>
> He said to her, "Go up in peace to your house. See, I have obeyed your voice and granted your petition."
Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding a feast in his house like the feast of a king.
Nabal’s heart was merry within him; he was very drunk.
She told him nothing at all until morning.
Verse 37:
> In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things.
>
> His heart died within him, and he became as a stone.
>
> About ten days later, the Lord struck Nabal, and he died.
She went and explained: you said this, I did this, I met David with 400 men coming to kill everybody, the gift I gave him.
He locks up; something happens to his heart, his body. He dies ten days later.
Verse 39:
> When David heard that Nabal was dead,
>
> He said, "Blessed be the Lord, who has avenged the insult I received at the hand of Nabal and kept back his servant from wrongdoing.
>
> The Lord has returned the evil of Nabal on his own head."
This principle runs throughout Scripture: we aren't meant to get vengeance ourselves. We're to trust the Lord that He will respond, will care for us, and this is not to be taken into our hands.
We are to say, "Lord, I will bear insult, trusting you’ll bring about good."
That’s how David responds when he hears that: "Thank you, Lord, for letting his wickedness fall back on him and not on me."
"For me not getting involved, me not doing wrongdoing, You kept me back from him."
Verse 40:
> Then David sent and spoke to Abigail to take her as his wife.
When the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her:
> David has sent us to you to take you to him as his wife.
She rose and bowed with her face to the ground, saying:
> "Behold, your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord."
Abigail hurried, rose, mounted a donkey, and her five young women attended her.
She followed the messengers of David and became his wife.
First of all, she has little notes: she has the largest lady entourage of anybody in Scripture.
She’s wealthy and well attended to. She humbly accepts this. She even responds, "I’ll just be a servant." I think she knows she’s going to get married, but she humbly says, "I’ll be a servant." She’s gracious.
The story begins with David sending men to say, "Hey, Nabal, can we have some food from your feast?"
It ends with him going and getting Nabal’s wife.
It’s a wild story.
One thing is when David’s corrected by Abigail, he loves her for it; he responds.
I want to read the last of this chapter before considering a few things:
Verse 42:
> So she became his wife.
David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and both of them became his wives.
Saul had given Michal, his daughter, David’s wife, to Palti, son of Laish, who was of Gallim.
Personally, I wish that note was somewhere else, because it feels like you see this interesting little love story play out, and at the end they’re getting married, but then there’s another lady also, and you’re like, "Wait, what?"
Historically, men in power had multiple wives.
We see David wrongfully, angrily respond to a thing. We see him begin to take multiple wives.
He’s not handling everything well.
One of the things for kings is they wouldn’t have too many wives. He’s not even a king yet; he’s just roaming the woods.
He already has two and a half because we’re not exactly sure what’s going on with Michal. She’s married to someone else but also married to him.
We’ll see how that plays out.
That’s the situation.
Looking back, consider something beautiful in this text.
Abigail rides in to intercept in the middle before things go wildly wrong.
David loves her for it.
He walks under the shadow of the mountain, ready to murder.
He leaves praising the Lord.
His heart is softened at her correction.
Nabal is hardened at her correction. He turns to stone, and it kills him.
We have softening and love, and death born out of the same action.
This reality is how Jesus comes to us.
He intercepts us in our sin.
He comes to correct us, call us away from sin, stepping into situations He didn’t have to but does because He loves us and wants to rescue and bring blessing.
He steps in to take guilt on Himself, saying, "Let the guilt fall on me."
All who hear this message will either, like David, soften and love Him or will harden and say, "Who does He think He is? Why do I have to worship Him? Why do I have to follow Him? What does He mean He died for my sin? What is sin? He made the rules. Why would I have to?"
You will twist on it.
There’s a way to respond that brings life, blessing, joy, hope.
There’s a way that hardens you up.
If you belong to Jesus, your heart ought to be very soft to Him and His correction.
You ought to see with joy the love He shows when He corrects.
You ought to be soft in correction to those around you who say, "I think you're wrong about this."
You ought to say, "Thank you for loving me."
Try to listen as best you can, understand what they're saying, sort it out, be patient.
Praise the Lord for people who will correct you.
None of us want to harden ourselves against Jesus or His people so we might work closer to death, locking ourselves into stone so we can’t hear His voice or listen.
Let’s pray.
God, may You in Your grace let us be soft and receptive.
May we be receptive to Your Spirit when You call us to repentance.
May we be receptive to the people in our church family and those around us who know us and love us and love You who correct us.
May it be a delight to our soul as David was blessed and continued to bless Your name for turning him away from wrongdoing.
Lord, may we love the people in our church and those close to us enough to correct them.
I pray in Jesus’ name and by Your Spirit’s work, for those who have hardened themselves against Your calls to repentance, may You not let them do it.
May You not let them harden their heart or turn to stone so they cannot hear Your voice or listen to Your people.
May You intercept them by Your grace even now.
May they hear and repent.
We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
As a church, we are going to take communion together.
I’d like to read from Luke chapter 22.
This is Jesus on the night He was betrayed, at the last supper with His disciples.
Luke 22:19 says:
> And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying,
>
> "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me."
When we take communion together, we take a loaf and remember that Jesus' body was broken for us.
Our hope is not that we would suffer and die for ourselves, atone for our sin, but that He has.
We share in one loaf, and when we do this together, we remind ourselves and each other that our one hope is Jesus and Jesus alone.
And then likewise the cup:
> "This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood."
This hope is made sure because it is covenanted with us through the blood of Christ, sealed through His work.
If you have trusted Christ, we take communion as a remembrance of this moment and the covenant made with us.
We take it in hope of the day coming when all things are restored and made new, forgiven fully and made free.
If you have not placed your faith in Jesus, this is not for you.
We say Christ is for you. His offer of salvation is for you. Repentance is for you.
But we ask you not to take communion until you understand fully what you’re celebrating.
For those who’ve placed faith in Jesus, take a moment, listen to the Spirit.
If there’s somewhere you need to repent, if there’s someone you need to talk to, do that, then come joyfully.
Remind your soul your sin has been paid for, and your hope is held sure because of Christ’s work.
If you have a gluten allergy, we have gluten-free back there.
1 Samuel 23-24
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. We'll continue to walk through First Samuel. We're going to be in chapter 23 and 24 today, so you'll walk through those two chapters together.
In high school I played baseball and my freshman year we won state. Going into sophomore year, our senior class was kind of a little bit big headed. Before the season started, you had to pass a conditioning test called the country mile. It's about a four and a half mile run. Our seniors decided that because of where our coach was positioned—he parked his truck and the school was out in the country—it just was a run where you're running down that stop sign and back and around the school near the cow field. They realized that he didn't have visibility in every part of the run, so they thought, we're going to take some shortcuts. We're not going to run the full four and a half miles. We're going to shortcut here, here, and here.
When you're 15, 16, 17, you're dumb; you're not thinking through things. We thought we were because we thought, here's what we'll do. We'll all bunch up together here and we'll release here. We had a guy on our team who was about 300 pounds, so we didn't think through that he needed to be way back and finish way late. Our coach picked up pretty quickly that we were cheating. He saw the times and said this is very curious that the biggest guy on our team is running a seven and a half minute mile pace.
They finally said, all right, you guys have been running so well and doing so good. Like a cross country team, I've got your times, and that's the time you have to pass in order to make it on the baseball field. If you pass it, you go straight to the baseball field, but twice a week you have to make this run and then go to the field. He said, all right, now it's time to do it. Here are your times. We positioned all the coaches at every part of the run to see how good you were.
We quickly learned that cutting this race short and taking the shortcuts was a terrible decision. For weeks as we tried to make those times, I was one of the faster guys. It was like 28 minutes. I'm not a cross country runner; I'm not going to make close to six-minute pace for four and a half miles. I'll finish that story later and what happened. But I learned there, and I think we learn in life, that shortcuts are not good. They are short-sighted. We take them because we think that's ultimately what is good, that if we take the quickest route to get what we want, that's what's best. It's our own nature to trust in our own instincts and to actually not trust in the Lord, when oftentimes He lays out the more difficult road, a difficult path filled with suffering and difficult obedience.
Today we're in the part of David's story that feels, when you're in chapter 23, that for years he's been on the run for his life and he's been through trials and suffering and betrayal and the threat of death. He's been in it. But when we shift into chapter 24, he's going to have an option, a shortcut to the throne. We're going to see how this plays out and what this means for the Christian life as we consider what it means to have a long life of obedience to our Lord, even when it is difficult.
Let me pray, and then we'll walk through this together.
Heavenly Father, I pray that You would help us receive Your word as we walk through these chapters to see Your truth. God, I pray that we would not just be hearers of the Word, but doers of the Word, responding in faith and repentance and ultimately delighting in You above all things. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
All right, so verse 1:
"Now they told David, Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are robbing the threshing floors."
We pick up where we left off last week, where David and his men are on the run. They just heard about the priest of Nob being slaughtered for proceeding to help them out. They're feeling the threat of death. At this point, they hear of a town called Keilah, a town in Judah on the border between Philistine's land and the people of Judah, and they're being robbed by the Philistines.
Verse 2:
"Therefore David inquired of the Lord, Shall I go and attack these Philistines? And the Lord said to David, Go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah."
David gives us an example here of what it looks like to walk with God. He sees a difficulty. He asks the Lord. The Lord responds, and he's willing to do it. But his men hear this and have questions.
Verse 3:
"But David's men said to him, Behold, we are afraid here in Judah. How much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?"
Which is a legitimate question, because if they go into Keilah, they expose themselves. They've been hiding in caves throughout the land. To go and help this town, chances are Saul will hear about it and come. It might be a situation where they're fighting the Philistines and Saul’s army is coming. This seems risky.
So David goes back to the Lord.
Verse 4:
"Then David inquired of the Lord again, and the Lord answered him, Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand."
David and his men went to Keilah, fought the Philistines, brought away their livestock, and struck them a great blow. David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.
Verse 6:
"When Abiathar the son of Ahimelech had fled to David at Keilah, he had come down with an ephod in hand."
Abiathar was the remaining priest from the priest of Nob story last week. He comes and brings an ephod. Ephods are priestly garments that priests wore, but this is probably the main ephod that the high priest wore. This is important because in it were two stones—the Urim stone and the Thummim stone. We don't know for sure how they were used, but they generally helped answer prayers in a yes or no fashion, like, should we go here or there? The priest did some type of pulling out or casting of stones.
Verse 7:
"Now, it was told Saul that David had come to Keilah, and Saul said, God has given him into my hand, for he has shut himself in by entering a town that has gates and bars."
Saul finally hears about it and says, aha, I’ve got them. They're in Keilah, a place with gates and bars. We'll stop the men there and finally take David down.
Verse 8:
"Saul summoned all the people to go to war, to go down to Keilah to besiege David and his men. David knew that Saul was plotting harm against him."
He says to Abiathar the priest, bring the ephod here.
Verse 9:
"Then David said, O Lord, the God of Israel, your servant has surely heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah to destroy the city on my account. Will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard, O Lord, God of Israel, please tell your servant."
They seek the Lord, asking if the city will betray them after David’s protection.
Verse 11:
"And the Lord said, He will come down. Then David said, Will the men of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the Lord said, They will surrender you."
David and his men, about 600 now, arose and departed from Keilah and went wherever they could go. They asked the question, should we trust Keilah? The answer was no, as you see from the Lord's response.
When Saul was told that David escaped Keilah, he gave up the expedition. David remained in the strongholds in the wilderness, in the hill country of the wilderness of Ziph. Saul sought him every day, but God did not give him into his hand.
David saw that Saul had come to seek his life. David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh. Jonathan, Saul's son, rose and went to David at Horesh and strengthened his hand. He said:
"Do not fear for the hand of Saul. My father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you."
Saul, my father, also knows this. The two of them made a covenant before the Lord. David remained at Horesh and Jonathan went home.
Jonathan, David's friend, hears about these troubles and encourages him. From Psalm 34, which was written while David was in the cave fearing his life, we know the Lord is near the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. David, on the run for his life with deep discouragement, has this friend encouraging him.
This encounter is significant because Jonathan has hopefulness. He says, one day you’ll be king, and I’ll be beside you. This foreshadows that Jonathan will never see David be king; he will not live to see him on the throne. This is their final encounter. Jonathan, in his last friendship act, encourages David, telling him not to fear and to trust God's promises.
Verse 19:
"Then the Ziphites went up to Saul at Gibeah saying, Is not David hiding among us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the hill of Akilah, which is south of Jeshimon? Now come down, O king, according to all your heart’s desire to come down, and our part shall be to surrender him into the king’s hand."
Saul said:
"May you be blessed by the Lord for you have had compassion on me. Go make yet more sure. Know and see the place where his foot is and who has seen him there, for he is very cunning. See and take note of all the lurking places where he hides, and come back to me with sure information."
They went ahead to Ziph as spies.
If you read Psalm 54, David expresses his distress at this betrayal by his own countrymen:
"For strangers have risen up against me; ruthless men seek my life; they do not set God before themselves."
David is deeply discouraged by continual betrayal, even from people of Judah.
David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, about five miles south of Ziphara in the Arabah. Saul and his men went to seek him. David went down to the rock and lived in the wilderness of Maon. When Saul heard that, he pursued David there. Saul went on one side of the mountain and David and his men on the other side.
David was hurrying to get away from Saul, who was closing in to capture them.
A messenger then told Saul:
"Hurry and come, for the Philistines have made a raid against the land."
Saul returned from pursuing David and went against the Philistines. Therefore that place was called the Rock of Escape. David then lived in the strongholds of En Gedi.
At the last moment when Saul was about to capture David, God sovereignly intervened. Saul did what a king should do and protected his people, and God preserved David’s life again.
Chapter 23 gives us more examples of David continually facing the threat of death and betrayal. Think—he escaped death at Nob, at Ziph, at Maon, at Gath, and at Keilah. This is years of hunting, suffering, and fear. Every time trying to go to sleep, hearing a branch break, wondering, is it the day? Years of hardship and trauma under the threat of constant death.
This sets up First Samuel 24, where David has the opportunity to end it.
Verse 1:
"When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, Behold, David is in the wilderness of En Gedi. Then Saul took 3,000 chosen men out of Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the Wild Goats Rocks."
Saul handles the Philistine raid, then he finds that David is near Wild Goats Rocks, basically a rocky hill where wild goats live.
The story takes an interesting turn.
Verse 3:
"He came to the sheepfolds, where there was a cave. Saul went in to relieve himself. David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave."
Saul goes into the cave to use the bathroom, for privacy. David and 600 of his men are hiding inside that cave, which hopefully gives you an idea of how big it was.
David’s men were very excited because Saul was most vulnerable now, when using the bathroom. This was a moment on a silver platter—David and his men could have ended all the hardship with one swing of the sword.
Verse 4:
"And the men of David said to him, Here is the day of which the Lord said to you, Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you."
They urged David to take this opportunity.
David rose stealthily and cut off a corner of Saul's robe. He could have ended it all but instead cut a piece of his robe.
Verse 5:
"And afterward David's heart struck him because he had cut off a corner of Saul's robe. He said to his men, The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord's anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord's anointed."
David persuaded his men not to attack Saul.
Saul rose and left the cave, going on his way.
David knew God’s heart and the heart of the king. Saul was the Lord's anointed king, even if evil had been done. David would not decide when Saul’s kingship ends. He trusted the Lord and obeyed, not murdering a man while he was vulnerable.
His men, who have been under the threat of death for years, followed his example. That shows David's leadership.
After Saul left the cave, David boldly confronted him.
Verse 8:
"David arose and went out of the cave and called after Saul, My lord the king."
Saul looked back. David bowed with his face to the earth and paid homage.
David said:
"Why do you listen to the words of men who say, Behold, David seeks your harm? Behold this day your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you today into my hand in the cave. Some told me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, I will not put out my hand against the Lord, for he is the Lord's anointed."
David pleaded:
"See, my father, see the corner of your robe in my hand. I cut off the corner and did not kill you. You may know and see that there is no wrong or treason in my hands. I have not sinned against you, though you hunt my life to take it."
He called out:
"May the Lord judge between me and you. May the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you."
He even said:
"Out of the wicked comes wickedness, but my hand shall not be against you. After whom has the king of Israel come out? After a dead dog, after a flea? May the Lord therefore be judge and give sentence between me and you, and see to it and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand."
David showed that he would not sin to get what God promised. He humbly lowered himself to be insignificant—a dead dog, a flea—and pleaded with Saul to see that he was not the enemy.
Verse 16:
"As soon as David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, Is this your voice, my son David? Saul lifted up his voice and wept. He said, You are more righteous than I, for you repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil. You have declared this day how you have dealt well with me and that you did not kill me when the Lord put me into your hands."
Saul has moments of clarity and contrition. He weeps and realizes David is the better man.
There's a cool link to Judah and Tamar back in Genesis 38, a picture of having evidence in hand and declaring righteousness.
Saul continued:
"Now behold, I know that you shall surely be king, that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hands. Swear to me by the Lord that you will not cut off my offspring after me, and that you will not destroy my name out of my father's house."
David swore to this.
Saul went home; David and his men went up to the stronghold.
Saul finally sees it: David will be king. He pleads for the protection of his offspring, as it was common in history for successors to kill rival family members.
When you think about chapters 23 and 24 back to back, you see how long David suffered and how many years of hardships he endured. He had the opportunity right then to end all his hardships with one swing of the sword and take the throne. But he did not. He trusted the Lord and was obedient to the will of the Father.
This is a beautiful picture of trust in God.
It's also a foreshadowing of the more righteous path of Christ.
Jesus also would be offered a shortcut to the throne during His temptation in the wilderness.
In Matthew 4:
"The devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. He said to Him, All these I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.
Then Jesus said to him, Begone, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve."
Jesus was offered the throne but rejected the shortcut because He trusted the will of the Father, even when that road was filled with suffering—the road to the cross.
Jesus suffered agony, physical pain, separation from the Father as the full cup of God's wrath bore down on Him.
Even when Jesus was suffering, He could have called down angels to end it, but He did not.
He endured to the final breath, with redemption in mind for us.
When He finished His work on the cross, He ascended to the right hand of God, where He rules over all kingdoms forever.
Amen.
Going back to 10th grade, when we were running this unreasonable time every day before practice, it was clear we were never going to make our times.
Finally, our coach said, all right, I’m going to bump up the time to what it should have been.
You smaller guys got 32 minutes, which was a pretty steady pace.
I hate running. To this day you won’t see me running; I’m not a runner. I don’t want to be a runner.
Because I hated running so much, I was determined to make the time. I ran faster than I ever had in my life. I was blazing fast.
Coming around the final turn, about a quarter of a mile left, my coach said, you’re not going to make it.
I sprinted, after running four-ish miles, with everything I had.
The final few steps before the finish line, I puked. Then I puked walking across the finish line because I was not going to miss this time.
He said 29 minutes.
I was like, are you kidding me? I could have walked.
What we failed to see about this conditioning test was we could only see what was right in front of us—a stupid run we had to do.
You may think, why do baseball players have to run? It’s because of endurance for the season.
When you play 30 games in high school, 60 plus in college, or 162 in pro baseball, you have to get in shape, or your body will break down mid-season.
At 15, you don’t see what the coach is doing. You don’t see that the suffering he puts you through over and over again is for a greater good, so you can make it through the season and not break down.
We didn’t trust our coaches. We saw what was good in our minds, so we took the shortcut.
But that’s what we do all the time in life. We see the easier option right in front of us and want to take it.
We have wonderful examples from Scripture about what it looks like to be obedient and how good that is.
David could have taken a shortcut to the throne, but didn’t.
Jesus was obedient to the Father, even through suffering, for our redemption.
We have wonderful examples of the long road of obedience, even when it’s difficult.
So the question today: What shortcuts are we tempted to take?
In business or work, we know shortcuts: how to cut corners, how to cheat.
We see others do it and wonder why we have to do it the right way.
But God calls us to integrity and obedience for our good.
In relationships, it’s common now to simulate marriage without the covenant.
Living as if married, moving in together, enjoying pleasures without commitment.
It’s hard to be obedient in that and honor the Lord.
But God has good for us when we trust Him in obedience.
We fail to see that when we take shortcuts.
Some feel a desire for vengeance when they've been wronged.
Shortcut is to take vengeance ourselves.
God calls us to trust Him for justice, which is far better.
In parenting, there are shortcuts.
Moments needing patience, control of emotions.
Shortcut is to lose control or discipline wrongly.
In marriage, conflict, and other struggles, shortcuts abound.
We often coach people to confront, to avoid gossip, to be faithful to God’s calls.
Some suffer deeply and may see shortcuts like substances, self-harm, or worse.
We cannot see the long obedience God calls us to.
As you consider today, what shortcut options are you taking when God calls you to obedience?
My hope is we consider David’s actions and the better David, Jesus Christ, and follow their lead.
Matt will come up and lead us in one final song.
As he comes, don’t shift or move, just listen.
The wrong response to the call is to say, "I’m going to do this by my strength," trying to muscle obedience.
The response is to look to Jesus.
Hebrews 12 says this after chapter 11:
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race set before us,
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."
Our example is to look to Christ, put our hope in Him, who endured the cross and now rules from heaven.
May we first look to Christ by grace through faith and be people who trust God every step in obedience.
Let me pray.
Heavenly Father, I pray that You would help us hear the good news of the Gospel that calls us to trust You, so that we might not take the shortcuts in life that do not bring joy, honor You, or bring good to us or those around us.
God, I pray for faithfulness, but that it comes by first trusting in You.
We have failed, sinned, and chosen shortcuts.
May You cover us in grace, by Your grace, through the blood of Jesus shed for us.
May we leave here as a people obedient to You, even when it is hard.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
1 Samuel 21-22
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning, my name's Chet, I'm one of the pastors here. If you will grab your Bible and go to First Samuel, chapter 21. We're going to be in chapters 21 and 22 today. We're looking through both of those chapters.
When I was growing up, probably three to five, I think I watched Mary Poppins 42,000 times. I'm pretty sure that we only had like a handful of VHS that my grandmother had recorded from her television. So I also have a lot of commercials really, really memorized. But I watched that on a regular basis. And there's this scene towards the end of the movie where the children had been in a bank and there was some bank trouble. And I don't want to get into a whole discussion of finance, but they had to run out of the bank and they get lost in London. And thus begins a series of back to back to back to back moments that were utterly terrifying to me.
It was like they took all the vulnerabilities of a four year old and just pummeled them. So they're lost in a city. Terrifying. Just not knowing where your parents are for like 12 seconds when you're four and five is scary. They're running through a city. This is, you know, it's awful. Then they come around a corner in an alleyway and an old lady pops out and goes, come with me, children. And it's like, why would she do that? And you don't know if she was intending to be helpful. They run away. She seemed scary. So they take off. Then they come around a corner and a dog jumps out and starts barking aggressively at them. When you're a child, a dog is the size of a bear. Like, I mean, you know. Then they turn and they run and they go down an alleyway and a shadowy figure grabs them. Turns out that that's their friend, but you don't know it at the time.
I just remember like this seared in my brain, this series of events. And I remember even as a little kid, like, I'm pretty sure there were times where I just stopped watching the movie before that I was like, well, let's move on. I know they make it at the. And I think there were other times where I just left the room and like waited till I heard the song start back up, you know, because it's a children's movie where things are supposed to be happy. And then I returned, but it was really this interesting peek into things that made me feel very vulnerable and very alone. And this real dive into fears that I had.
As we're reading through this text today, we're going to see how Saul, David and a handful of other people deal with fear. What it does to them, where it takes them. There's a reality to fear, that it drives us towards something, towards someone, it exposes us in a way. And so what I hope we see in this text is we're going to see them as they interact with it. They're going to see how they handle it. And what I hope we'll learn together is the scariest place to be and the safest place to be as we study this text together.
So let's pray quickly for us and then we'll move into chapter 21 of First Samuel. Lord, we ask for your help. We ask for your Spirit to speak in a way that we can understand, that you would help us to deal with our fears and to see what fear does to us in a way that draws us to you. In Jesus name, amen.
So David's on the run. Saul wants to kill him. Saul's the king. David was very close to Saul, was a general, was his bodyguard, was all these different things. And he's now having to flee for his life. And that's what we saw last week as Jonathan, Saul's son, helped David escape.
Chapter 21.
Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. So he goes to Nob, and we're going to find out that Nob is a whole city of priests. It seems as if after everything, after Shiloh was destroyed and the ark was taken, they get the ark back, and it seems like now the center of the priesthood is here. It's unclear whether the ark is also here, but the priests are. And this is where priestly activities will be taking place for the people of Israel, the sacrifices and all that.
So he goes there to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David, trembling, and said to him,
"Why are you alone and no one with you?"
So it's odd for David to be by himself. Ahimelech knows David, but David usually has like a whole crew. He's either with the king, he's with his military units that he's overseeing. For David just to show up is what business does he have? Did something terrible happen? What's going on?
So he comes out, that's why he's trembling. And he says, what? What's going on? And David said to Ahimelech, the priest,
"The king has charged me with a matter and said to me, 'Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you and with which I have charged you.' And I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever is here."
So David just says, secret king business. And I've got some people that I'm definitely meeting who are real at a very specific place that you can't know about, and I need bread. None of that is true, except for that David wants bread, but he's on the run and he is just trying to get out of here.
And the priest answered, David,
"I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread if the young men have kept themselves from women,"
which just has to do with sexual activity, makes you unclean in the law. So that's what that is. It's not just like women, some mean thing about them. It just has to do with sexual activity.
David answered the priest,
"Truly, women have been kept from us. As always, when I go on an expedition, the vessels of the young men are holy, even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy?"
So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there, but the bread of the Presence which is removed from before the Lord to be replaced by hot bread on the day that it is taken away.
So the tabernacle seems to be here, the bread of the Presence is here. They would set it out on the Sabbath before the Lord as a picture of the meal, the connection, the communion that we have with the Lord, that they have with the Lord. And then they would rotate it out on the Sabbath. And the old loaves were allowed to be eaten by the priests. And Ahimelech breaks that rule to give to David in a time of need.
Jesus references this and says that he did right, that this was correct to do, to break a ceremonial law for the sake of caring for someone. And he says this in this argument with the Pharisees about the Sabbath, saying that some things were built for our good and our blessing, and therefore, if there's opposition, we can bless others in those moments. And that's what he's talking about.
So David takes that bread and he now has five loaves of bread that was the bread of the Presence, but the priest is allowing him to have it.
Verse 7.
Now, a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. His name was Doeg, the Edomite, the chief of Saul's herdsmen, he's detained before the Lord. It may be a Sabbath if they've just swapped the bread out. So it's possible he wasn't allowed to travel very long. It's also possible he's doing some sort of thing because he's an Edomite to become a follower of God. It's also possible that he has some sort of sickness or skin disease and he's having to be watched because there's all these. These are several of the reasons why you might be detained before the Lord. He could also just be there doing some, basically, some holy days for himself as he worships the Lord.
But that's it. That's all it tells us about him. It just in the middle of this story goes, hey, Doeg, the Edomite is here. And it's going to go right back to the story. And that's foreshadowing. So remember him, he'll show up later, but he doesn't do anything here.
Verse 8.
Then David said to Ahimelech,
"Then have you not here a spear or a sword at hand? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me because the king's business required haste."
And the priest said,
"The sword of Goliath, the Philistine, whom you struck down in the Valley of Elah. Behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the Ephod, if you will. Take that, take it, for there's none but that here."
And David said,
"There is none like that. Give it to me."
So David says, I was in such a hurry, I don't even have any weapons. Do you have any weapons? He says, you gave us Goliath's sword. It's still here. And David says, great, that sword is awesome. I will take it. And so he has a nice, probably fairly large sword that he leaves with.
Verse 10.
And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish, the king of Gath.
Okay, David doesn't have any options. That's what this just told us. The plan that he's come up with is, I'm going to show up to Gath with Goliath of Gath's sword and see how that goes. It seems like he's intending to maybe be like a mercenary. He's just going to go there and serve there. He's absolutely on the run from his home, his people, his everything.
And the servants of Achish said to him, to Achish,
"Is not this David, the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances? Saul has struck down his thousands and David his ten thousands."
So if David was planning on being undercover, he shows up and they're like, mmm. And they go to the king and they're like, I'm pretty sure they have a song about how good he is at murdering us. I'm pretty sure that's him.
And David took those words, these words to heart. So he somehow overheard this. In this situation, was much afraid of Achish, the king of Gath. So he changed his behavior before them, pretended to be insane in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard.
So somehow, on his way before the king, he just starts acting insane, drooling, marking up the walls. That's the best disguise he can come up with on the fly, you guys. And it works.
Then Achish said to his servants,
"Behold, you see, the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? Do I lack mad men that you've brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?"
So they're like, hey, we've got David. And then he goes, you brought a crazy person here. Thank you so much. Did you think that was what I really needed? I needed those.
Some of y'all like to memorize verses for specific situations that you can remind, you know, rehearse yourself or say to other people. Maybe this one for, like, when your family's coming over for vacation or something, or your in-laws are coming and you can just quote to your spouse,
"Do we lack mad men in their house? Are we gonna let this fellow in just for y'all?"
Bible memorization, you're welcome. Probably won't be one of our monthly verses, but it's a good one.
All right, chapter 22.
David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam.
So David then leaves. He heads back over into Israelite territory and hides in King Achish's. So his plan to go to Gath does not work and he escapes. Now, an interesting thing happens as we get to follow this story and as we have the whole revelation of the Scriptures, because this text doesn't tell us a lot of what's going on with David, what he's thinking. We just hear what he's doing. We hear some of what he says, but we don't get to see what's going on with him.
And so far, in the midst of fear, he's just run and he's come up with what arguably is an ill-advised plan to run to Gath. But that's all he comes up with. He ends up in this cave. But in the book of Psalms we have songs and poems and worship that David writes. And there's one that has this inscription above it. It says, this is Psalm 34. It says of David when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, so that he drove him out and he went away.
Now this text calls him Achish, which seems to be a title, and Abimelech seems to be his name. So like if you said he was in front of Caesar and then later it says Nero, it's the same guy. So Achish and Abimelech.
So we actually get to hear what, how David responds after this moment when he gets to escape. And so it seems like he wrote this while in the cave or on his way to it. He starts off in the first four verses, worshiping, praising. He says,
"I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them."
So he says, I had fear and he rescued me. And those who fear the Lord he protects. So David's interaction with fear is shifting here. He's saying, in my fear I began to go to the Lord, and now I fear him. He's the most fearful, so he's been on the run. It doesn't seem like he's handled everything so well so far. But now, as everything slows down, as he's trying to process through this, and he's worshiping the Lord for rescuing him out of Gath, this is what he's writing.
Verse 8,
"Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack."
He keeps going.
Verse 18,
"The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit."
In verse 22 he says,
"The Lord redeems the life of his servants. None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned."
This is how he ends it. So he says, I'm hiding in him. I'm taking refuge in him. My hope is in him. That's David as he deals with this fear.
So chapter 22, let's pick back up in the text.
David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him.
David on the run, hiding in a cave, trying to figure out what he's going to do, trying to lay low, writing some songs from his expert hiding place. He looks out one day, keeping a good lookout, and he's like, mom.
Because his whole family shows up. They all come to him, which makes sense. And maybe he had to go out for supplies. Maybe word spreads at some point where David is, but his whole family comes to him, which makes sense, because if David's on the run from Saul, they're probably not that safe from Saul. And Saul may go look to them to find David.
So they all go to David. Then it says this.
"And everyone who was in distress and everyone who was in debt and everyone who was bitter in soul gathered to him. And he became commander over them. And there were with him about 400 men."
So his mom, his brothers, his dad, they all show up. Then other people just start showing up. And it's like, why are you here? I am stressed beyond belief. Everything out there is terrible. I heard David was in a cave, and I thought, I'm gonna go get in that cave. Somebody else shows up. Why are you here? I owe so many people so much money. Cave started sounding pretty good. Everyone who's bitter in soul, so the most frustrated, angry people who are, they're not going to read, they're not going to vote for Saul when reelection time comes back around like, this hasn't worked for them. That's who's showing up to David. And then it says he becomes commander of them. So they showed up and they were like, everything is awful. And he's like, okay, do some push ups. It's time to start training. I guess y'all are gonna have to listen to what I say if you're hanging out in my cave. And they do. So now he has 400 distressed, bitter in soul people who owe a lot of money to other people. They're all with David now, plus his mom and his brothers and his dad, okay?
And David went from there to Mizpah of Moab. So now he leaves again. He takes all these people with him, it seems. And he said to the king of Moab,
"Please let my father and my mother stay with you till I know what God will do for me."
And he left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold.
So reading some commentaries on this, there was a couple of different ideas as to why the king of Moab would let him do that. Some of the things they put out were housing fugitives because the Moabites were enemies of the Israelites. So the king to house fugitives that are against Saul seems like maybe that's a good idea.
There's also just a general cultural thing of hospitality. So it's possible they're just doing what their culture does, which is show hospitality in these sort of situations.
There's a theory that it's possible that one of the reasons they went to Moab was that Jesse is the grandson of Ruth, who was from Moab. So there's some family connection here.
And I've come up with my own theory, which is that David showed up with 400 desperate men and said, hey, will you watch my mom? And they were like, sure. You and your friends gonna leave? He's like, we're gonna hang out a little bit, but just keep an eye on them until we figure out what's gonna happen.
So any one of those is possible as to why they've said yes to this, but they do say yes to this. David leaves his parents with the king of Moab, and he left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold.
Then the prophet Gad said to David,
"Do not remain in the stronghold. Depart and go into the land of Judah."
So he says, we're not going to stay in Moab. The Lord wants you to go back to Judah. And he does. And we're going to see Gad show up periodically through the story of David.
So David departed and went to the forest of Heref.
Now the story is going to shift to Saul. So we've seen David dealing with fear. We've seen him on the run, and we've seen him as this process is happening, growing in worship and saying, he's going to trust in the Lord.
And now we're going to see Saul as he deals with fear.
Verse 6.
Now, Saul heard that David was discovered and the men who were with him.
If you're playing hide and seek and someone finds you, you may not have had the best hiding spot. If your entire family finds you, plus 400 strangers, you don't have a good hiding spot.
So David now is discovered. They know he's out. They know kind of where he is. And he's got 400 people traveling around with him. And this news makes it to Saul. So he's no longer incognito. He's known.
Saul was sitting at Gibeah under the tamarisk tree on the height with his spear in his hand. And all his servants were standing about him, which first of all, of course he has a spear in his hand. He seems to always be holding a spear. But also what is happening in this text, it says he was sitting at Gibeah under the tamarisk tree on the height with his spear. And all his servants, all of those things are markers of leadership and kingship. That you would sit under an obvious tree, they would hold court there, they would answer questions there, they would judge there that he's on a height, that he's got servants, that he's holding his spear. So in some ways this text says Saul the king was out kinging in a very kingly way. That's kind of what that text is doing. It's building him up as much like he's super kinging. Right now. We got David hiding in a cave, wandering around other places, trying to figure out what he's going to do, hiding in a forest. And now we've got Saul, the kingiest king that ever did king.
And Saul said to his servants who stood about him here now,
"People of Benjamin."
Okay, that's interesting. Benjamin is the tribe that Saul is from. He's been king for a long time. He's been king over all of Israel for a long time. It's possible that he only always has kept just Benjaminites the closest to him. Or as he's grown more and more paranoid and more and more fearful, he's gotten rid of everybody who doesn't belong to his tribe and now has perfectly surrounded himself with Benjaminites. But either way, he's paranoid and fearful.
And we're going to hear from his speech how far that goes.
But these are only people from his clan. He's suspicious, fearful.
"Hear now, people of Benjamin, will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards? Will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, that all of you have conspired against me?"
So he stands there and says, you just are so certain that David's gonna bless all of you, that he's gonna care for all of you, that you're all gonna be so important when he becomes king, that you've all conspired against me? And that's not true. But he now doubts everyone that's around him.
Still, in verse 8, he says,
"No one discloses to me when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse. None of you is sorry for me or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me to lie in wait, as at this day."
He is correct that Jonathan did make a covenant with David, but it was because they loved one another. It was a covenant of friendship to care for one another. They make a covenant that they're not going to harm each other. And Jonathan goes out of his way to keep his dad from sinning against David.
But he is not helping David lie in wait against Saul.
David isn't lying in wait against Saul. David's not out to get Saul. Saul's out to get David. Saul is actually not in danger, not from David, but he thinks he is. And he's saying, everyone's against me.
And Saul's entire world has shrunk to just him. It's just him. Everybody's an enemy. Everybody's in on it. Everything's a secret. Everything's falling apart.
Then answered Doeg, the Edomite, who stood by the servants of Saul,
"I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, and he inquired of the Lord for him and gave him provisions and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine."
We actually don't know if he inquired of the Lord from him. Our text doesn't tell us that. But Doeg says he did. But that's something you do before military stuff. He doesn't say he gave him five loaves of bread. He calls it provisions, just militarizing it up a little bit. And he gives him a sword. He basically says, hey, Ahimelech's in on it.
Then the king sent to summon Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub and all his father's house. The priests who were at Nob and all of them came to the king. It would have taken a couple miles away, so to go get them to come back. This took a couple hours, but they all come.
And Saul said,
"Hear now, son of Ahitub?"
And he answered,
"Here I am, my lord."
And Saul said to him,
"Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread and a sword and have inquired of God for him, so that he has risen against me to lie in wait as at this day?"
Then Ahimelech answered the king,
"And who among all your servants is as faithful as David, who is the king's son-in-law and captain over your bodyguard and honored in your house? Is today the first time that I have inquired of God for him? No. Let not the king impute anything to his servant or to all the house of my father, for your servant has known nothing of this, of all of this. Much or little."
So Ahimelech just says, it's David. David, your bodyguard, your son-in-law. I've done this. I do this. I would do this for him anytime he comes. I'm not in on something. I didn't know any of this. Don't add that to me. Don't add that to my family. That's not the case.
Aside from those noises, that's what he said. He may have said it really calmly, I don't know, but he just kind of lists out like five things in a row where he's just like, I didn't have anything to do with anything, and this is normal for me to do whatever David asks.
Verse 16.
And the king said,
"You shall surely die, Ahimelech. You and all your father's house."
And the king said to the guard who stood about him,
"Turn and kill the priests of the Lord, because their hand also is with David. They knew that he fled and did not disclose it to me."
But the servants of the king would not put out their hand to strike the priests of the Lord.
You got to hear the sentence that Saul said. He looks at his servants and says, that's it. Kill all the priests of the Lord because they're on David's team. Priests of the Lord. They're on David's team.
And then I don't know if y'all can see the fear and the frustration. And Saul's face turned purple as all of his soldiers are just like, nope, I'm not.
I love his soldiers in this moment because they all know there's going to be a day I stand before the Lord and it won't be Saul. There's a day that I will stand before my king and it isn't Saul. And I'm not going on record as killing a priest, it's not happening. You can kill me. That's fine. Then I'll go stand before the Lord and go, do you see me not kill that priest? Do you see what I just died for? Like, they just don't move.
And again, I'm sure this just confirms in Saul that everyone is against him. His whole world has shrunk down to his center of gravity and Doeg.
Then the king said to Doeg,
"You turn and strike down the priests."
And Doeg, the Edomite turned and struck down the priests. And he killed on that day 85 persons who wore the linen ephod. Doeg is an Edomite. He doesn't care.
So he kills them, 85 of them. They brought all the males from that household. They kill all of them. And Nob, the city of the priests, he put to the sword both man and woman, child and infant, ox, donkey and sheep. He put to the sword.
Saul does to the city of the priests what he was not willing to do to the Amalekites when it was for the Lord and it was holy war, he was unwilling to do it. When it's for him and it's his trying to keep his seat of power, he's willing to.
Verse 20.
But one of the sons of Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled to David.
Alright, so something very interesting has happened in this passage.
In chapter two, a man of God comes to Eli and says the priesthood is not going to stay with your family because you've dishonored me. He says they're going to be wiped out. There will only be left one who will cry his eyes out. That's what just happened. Abiathar is that one.
And eventually it's taken from him. He doesn't get to carry on serving the Lord. So the curse of God is poured out on this family through the wicked choices of Saul.
So Saul is very wrong to do what he does. But we also see the hand of God at work in fulfilling his promises. It's a very interesting thing that happens here. But it doesn't mean that Saul's right to do what he does. It just means that when God says something, it happens.
And Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the priests of the Lord.
And David said to Abiathar,
"I knew on that day when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul, I have occasioned the death of all the persons of your father's house."
David's response is, that's on me. While David was on the run, while David was doing what he did, he said, I knew that. I knew he was going to tell him. And I don't know if David fully understood what was going to come from that. I don't see how he could have. But he just says, yeah, that's. I'm the one to blame for this.
Verse 21,
"Stay with me. Do not be afraid for he who seeks my life seeks your life with me. You shall be in safekeeping."
So that's his response to Abiathar.
There's a very interesting call it a social phenomenon that's happening in this text. But everybody who's absolutely desperate is going to David. If everything has fallen apart, if you have no hope of a future, if everything has fallen around your ears, they go to David.
And I can't help but see that and see that that's exactly what happens in the New Testament with Jesus. That when Jesus is on earth, the people who flock to him are the poor, the destitute, the sinners, the weak, the small, the outcasts.
This actually is one of the things that he and the religious leaders get into arguments over all the time. They're like, you hang out with absolute human garbage. And Jesus is like, right, because the sick need a physician, not the well.
And there's this thing where if you really know that you're in need, you start looking for somewhere to go, some bit of hope, someone to run to.
And so we see in this story as it plays out that you have fear, legitimate, real, terrible fear, actual bad things.
And David, as we follow this out, he runs to the Lord and there's all of these people that run to David. And then there's Saul who tries to handle everything in his own strength.
And I told you earlier that we would see. I'm trying to tell you the scariest place to be.
The scariest place to be is where you are the biggest person in the world.
The scariest place to be is where you are utterly, completely, absolutely self-sufficient.
The scariest place to be is where the center of existence has boiled down to your center of gravity, where it's all up to you.
That's where Saul is.
Trust, no one believes, no one hopes in nothing, just whatever he can tooth and nail and claw and grab, whatever he can get done, all up to him.
And I don't know if you know it, but that's what our culture has told you over and over again is what you need to go do.
Express yourself, find yourself, succeed, accomplish, win, earn.
It's up to you.
The most powerful snowflake in the world that you've got to on your own. Be sufficient, be capable, be good.
That's what religion shows up and tells you so often is be good, be moral, do it. It's up to you.
That's terrifying.
The guards around Saul know something that we need to know is that one day you're going to stand before the real Lord, the real King.
And on that day you do not want to stand in yourself self-sufficient.
You do not want to stand before the King and say, judge me, evaluate me, I am big enough, I am good enough, I am capable.
That's terrifying.
You don't want to live your life that way.
And you certainly don't want to end your life that way.
We get to do with Jesus what Abiathar does with David and we get to have the same response.
We get to run to him and say, I have no hope anywhere but with you.
And what David says to Abiathar is what Jesus says to us.
Your life is connected to my life and with me you'll be in safekeeping.
That we get to hide ourselves in Christ.
That when he died for sins, he died for us.
That when he was buried, we were buried.
When he rose, we rise.
We get to be hidden in Christ and what he has accomplished.
And we get to stand before the Lord in Christ and not in ourselves and not in our sufficiency.
But we get to say, I have hidden in him.
And no one is put to shame who takes refuge in the Lord.
David prophetically says it at the end of his psalm.
"The Lord redeems the life of his servants. None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned."
And then we get to live like that in all the fears of life.
You get to go to the Lord. You get to do what David did. He's in the, he's in the cave and he's rehearsing.
You know how long it takes to write a song? It's possible that this just came out, but I think a lot of it is he's working on, he's rehearsing, he's remembering and he's reminding himself over and over and over and over again.
My hope is in you. My trust is in you. I have no good apart from you.
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.
Nobody who is condemned, who places their hope in you.
Nobody who runs to you in refuge, oh, let me hide in you.
Over and over and over and over again.
And then we get to do the same thing that we don't in the middle of fear go, I must act, I've got to do something.
But we get to in the middle of the fear go, okay Lord, if you don't help, I'm in trouble. If you don't show up, I'm in trouble.
I see so often in my own sin. I'll talk to the Lord and I'll say, Lord, if you aren't merciful, if you don't forgive sinners, I have no hope.
But oh thank you that you do. And let me hide in you.
Let me. Let the righteousness of Christ be applied to me.
Let his life and death and burial apply to me.
Let me hide in him.
It's one of my favorite songs is Rock of Ages.
And just at the end it says,
"Let me hide myself in thee, let me hide in you."
And let it be about you.
And so if you've never seen that you actually are not capable enough, strong enough, good enough, if your whole world is about you and you still think you are strong enough, I would say no, come to the Lord.
But if you know you're in debt, in sin, you're destitute, you're distressed, you're bitter, come to the Lord, run to him and say, I need to hide in you.
And for the Christians in the room who are struggling with fear, rehearse for yourself what's true about him.
Start with Psalm 34.
Read it, pray it. Sit. Remind yourself my hope is bound up in you.
That's what Colossians 3 says,
"Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory."
We are hidden with him.
His life and our life, our life is bound up in him.
And with him we are in safe keeping.
Let's pray.
Lord, I pray right now in the name of Jesus, for every person in this room who is self-sufficient. For every person in this room who, when it all boils down, it's just them. Just them and their wisdom, just them and their morality, just them and their strength, just them and their ingenuity, that it's just them.
Lord, I pray that you would, through your Spirit, help them to see how small and how vulnerable and how scary that is, that they might run to you.
Lord, we pray for the person in this room who already sees that, who already feels debt, distress, destitute, desperate, that they would run headlong to you and say, oh, let your life cover me, let your righteousness apply to me. Let me hide myself in you.
And Lord, may the Christians in this room rehearse that over and over and over again. That in fear we might fear you more and know that no one is condemned who takes refuge in you.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
The band's going to come back up. We're going to respond in communion and worship.
1 Samuel 20
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. If you weren't here earlier, I said, my name is Spencer, I'm one of the pastors. We are going to be mostly in First Samuel, chapter 20 as we jump back into First Samuel. We took one break last week, but we're jumping right back in. But we're going to start in actually going back something we've already read back in chapter 18 today. Because what we're going to be seeing in chapter 20 is the friendship of Jonathan and David. But that really begins in 18. And I just wanted the first verse to kind of give us a preview of where we're going.
But in 18:1 it said as soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, this is David.
The soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David. And Jonathan loved him as his own soul.
So this is after David kills Goliath, he sees Jonathan, Jonathan sees him and it says their soul was knit together. And this is the beginning of one of the most famous friendships in all of history. And it begins with two souls knit together in a deep, lasting friendship.
Now as we read this and as we follow the story today, there are parts of us that long for that, that long to have a friendship like this. But where we are kind of culturally, we're not set up well to understand this. I mean, there's lots of warning signs about this. You can look at statistics on this. They've measured kind of friendship and loneliness in America. The bigger problem actually is male friendship and male loneliness. So last year in 2024, they did a study that said that 26% of men reported having six or more close friends. Now back in 1990, that was 55%. So it just kind of shows that over time men are growing lonelier, don't have deep friendships with others like they used to. It's a problem for men and women.
They surveyed all adults. 12% of all adults say they have zero close friends. That 12% of all American adults don't have a friend at all. And we feel the difficulty of that. It gets more complicated, it seems, as you get older to keep friends. That at the end of the movie Stand by Me, a movie from the 80s that captures friendship amongst 12 year old boys, but at the very end he's an adult and he's reflecting back on that summer. And I'll clean up the quote a little bit because it's not appropriate, but he says, I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was 12. Goodness, does anyone.
And it's just capturing, like, yeah, I mean, the type of you remember as a kid how innocent you jumped into friendships? I got a. My youngest, she meets everyone. She's like, I'm gonna be your best friend. Just jumps in immediately. And there's this depth you have that you begin to lose over time. And it begins to get more and more difficult.
One of the jokes that's been thrown around the last few years is that no one talks about the miracle of Jesus having 12 close friends in his 30s. And it's like there's some merit to that where it's just. It's difficult, friendships are difficult. But there's. As culture is seeing this, there's a problem here. There's an epidemic of loneliness, particularly in men. And there's all types of risks associated with this. There's risks to physical health, mental health, to all types of risk of suicide. There's this epidemic of loneliness that hits everyone, that hits men particularly the most.
And a problem for us as we approach this story is that we don't have categories to think about these two men and the closeness that they have culturally. The culture doesn't have a category for this without trying to think that something romantic is going on. And that is because closeness and friendship has even been over sexualized. I mean, years ago there was a very weak attempt to try to fabricate a romantic relationship between David and Jonathan. There's nothing in the text, there has never been anything in these stories to say that over 3,000 years of commentaries on this backs that up. There's nothing here. So that attempt, though weak, isn't around as much anymore. It certainly was agenda driven trying to legitimize homosexuality. But I think it's also symptomatic of a culture, especially amongst men, that cannot conceive of closeness amongst two men. That two men's souls being knit together is literally seen as God gay by our culture. And that's a problem. It's a problem that we can't conceive of nearness like this in men or women, but particularly a problem for men.
So what I'm hoping today is as we walk through this, we're going to view this friendship between David and Jonathan and we're going to see three essential aspects of what it means to be a godly friend. And then my hope is, is that as we learn from David and Jonathan, as we glean from this passage, that we would see where to find the purest form of friendship.
So let me pray and then we'll walk through this together. God, I pray that you give us ears to hear this certainly is not a neutral subject. There are folks here that are struggling in friendships right now. There are folks here that are longing for friendship, feeling lonely. God, I pray that you would speak to us this morning. And we respond as the church is supposed to, by loving you and obeying your word in Jesus name. Amen.
All right, so the verse one said as soon as going back to chapter 18, as soon as he had finished speaking to Saul,
The soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David. And Jonathan loved him as his own soul. And Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father's house. Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David and his armor and even his sword and his bow and his belt.
Okay, so what we see from here and some examples here, but also the thread that gets pulled throughout this story is the first essential aspect of, of godly friendship. And that is that godly friendship is selfless. The godly friendship is selfless.
We see that Jonathan loves David, and we see later on that David loves Jonathan. It says their souls were knit together, that they kind of make this covenant of friendship. And one of the first things that Jonathan does is a seeing Jonathan seeing David and his soul as more valuable than his. So he loved him like it was his own soul. And then he gives up, says his robe and his armor and his sword and his bow and his belt, that he considers David as more important. He's selfless. He shows a deference here. And that's what godly friendship is. It's caring about your friend more than you do your own self.
But that is not what our culture values in friendship. Our culture doesn't see friendship that way. Our culture sees friendship mostly as back scratching. I scratch your back, but then you got to scratch my back. And if you don't scratch my back, we got a problem. We have an invisible scoreboard for friends in our lives that they have to keep up. They got to do the same. They got to be able to reciprocate. And if they don't, it's a problem. And what happens is when your friend is actually struggling, you're like, what have you done for me? I'm pouring myself out. What are you doing for me?
And there's certainly, listen, there certainly is some wisdom in not burning yourself out on fools. I mean, the Proverbs make that clear. They'll be friends of fools. So there's some wisdom in that. But I think largely what happens is, is that we've made friendship consumeristic. We've watched a lot of Seinfeld, a lot of Friends, a lot of How I Met Your Mother, a lot of shows that make friendship about fun and what they can be given to you and the fun they add to your life. And the moment that your friend is struggling and the moment that your friend is not as fun as they used to be, well, their utility has been used up and then we move on. That's what happens.
But we should look for friends that are selfless. And we should be a friend that is selfless. That's helpful when you go through seasons that are difficult. Last year in particular was not a fun year. This was not a fun year for me, not a fun year for my family. We just had a lot of difficulties and a lot of trials that we were working through. And I was so thankful to Jesus that I had friends that displayed this selflessness, that I had friends that would, at a moment's notice, drop everything and come and watch our children. I had friends that I knew prayed for us regularly. Like they didn't. Just like they didn't say they did, but they actually did it. Actually, I knew that they were regularly praying.
I had friends that would ask questions, difficult questions. I had friends that would embody Proverbs 27:6 that said,
Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but profuse are the kisses of an enemy.
Meaning that good friends are willing to risk relational discomfort in wounding you temporarily for your ultimate good. To have friends that are willing to risk relational capital and make things difficult, to say difficult things to you because it's ultimately for your good, because they care more about you than do the comfort of friendship. We need that.
I was so thankful to God that I had that. And we should seek to be these types of friends like Jonathan, who was selfless.
One of the things that you see throughout this story is that as from this point forward, Jonathan begins to decrease and David begins to increase in favor. Going into chapter 20, you see that Jonathan, who was the son of King Saul, that they start to decrease and Jonathan and David grows in favor with the people. And not for a moment do you see Jonathan respond in selfishness and jealousy and envy of what his friend is getting.
That's wonderful.
One of the things I appreciate about Chet Phillips, which let me give a caveat here, what I'm about to say is something actually really genuine about our friendship. Because I know if you've been here long enough, you know, we poke fun at each other a lot. We burn each other. That's what we do. He preaches, he makes fun of me. I preach, I make fun of him. We're savage towards each other. It's part of our love language.
I'm not going to comment on how he gives awkward hugs. I'm not going to comment on how his face is naturally very angry looking. Looks like the kind of dad that would yell at the refs at a youth football game. I'm not going to say any of that. What I'm about to say is actually quite genuine.
That I appreciate about our friendship is that he is not jealous. There are times where God has blessed me and he's eager to know about it. And he digs. He says, no, no, no, no, tell me more about him. I was like, well, I mean, you know, this happened and that was good. And this happened and that was good. And some folks when you share with, sometimes you're like, you can tell. They're like, oh, I'm so happy for you. It's so good. I'm so glad that God has blessed you. And you're like, okay, I'm gonna reel it back in a little bit.
But with him, he just says, no, tell me more. I want to know. I want to be able to, I want to be joyful when God has blessed you. And that's selflessness. And I appreciate that about the friendship that we have. And that's what Jonathan is to David. As David increases in favor, Jonathan is not envious. He's not clinging to favor of the people, but he's selfless towards David.
Now we're through chapter 19. We saw that Jonathan's father, Saul, King Saul, is trying to kill David over and over again. And then finally we saw at the end of chapter 19 where Saul comes to boldly kill David at the feet of the prophet Samuel. And that God defends David with prophecy, that Saul is stricken with prophecy, prophetic praise. That's how chapter 19 ended.
Years have gone by at this point and Saul is growing in rage towards David. David. And now it's very clear that Saul has it out completely for David. Everybody knows it. And the friendship of Jonathan and David is really being tested in chapter 20 as his rage has been unrelenting. And there's this wonder, did Saul actually, was he changed by God when he was prophesying? Or does he still want David dead? And David thinks, absolutely, he still wants me dead.
So we pick up in verse one of chapter 20, it says,
Then David fled from Naioth at Ramah and came and said before Jonathan, "What have I done? What is my guilt and what is my sin before your father that he seeks my life?" And he said to him, "Far from it! You shall not die. Behold, my father does nothing either great or small without disclosing it to me. And why should my father hide this from me? It is not so." But David vowed again, saying, "Your father knows well that I have found favor in your eyes." And he thought, "Do not let Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved." But truly, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death."
David's like, your dad wants to kill me. No, really, he wants to kill me. And Jonathan's like, no, no. And then David's like, no, you don't understand. He's trying to. He's still trying to kill me. And Jonathan's like, don't you know that if I find out about this, I'm gonna let you know? And David's like, yeah, but your father knows. He knows of our friendship. He knows of our love for one another. He's gonna hide this from you.
And David, you can tell how distressed he is. And he's like, I'm a step away from death. And then Jonathan hears all this and he says,
Then Jonathan said to David, "Whatever you say, I will do for you."
Okay, whatever you say, I'll do for you. Which again highlights the selflessness of Jonathan. All right, I hear you. I'm listening. What can I do?
Verse 5.
David said to Jonathan, "Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit at the table with the king. But let me go, that I may hide myself in the field to the third day at evening. If your father misses me at all, then say, 'David earnestly asked leave of me to run to Bethlehem, his city, for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the clan.' If he says, 'Good,' it will be well with your servant. But if he is angry, then know that harm is determined by him."
So David comes up with a plan. They're going to test the wrath of Saul. He says, I'm not going to show up to the new moon festival. This is a time of festivities where they would make sacrifices to the Lord. He was expected to attend as being a part of the king's court. And he says, if I don't show up and your father is okay with it, we'll know that his wrath has subsided and I can come back. But if he's angry and that shows up in my absence I will know that he wants me dead.
Verse 8.
Therefore deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the Lord with you. But if there is guilt in me, kill me yourself, for why should you bring me to your father?"
And Jonathan said,
Far be it from you! If I knew that it was determined by my father that harm should come to you, would I not tell you?
Then Jonathan said. Then David said to Jonathan, "Who will tell me if your father answers you roughly?" And Jonathan said to David, "Come, let us go out into the field." So they both went out into the field.
So again this back and forth of how am I going to know? How am I going to know that I'm going to be safe? And Jonathan brings them out into the field and they continue this.
In verse 12 it says,
Jonathan said to David, "The Lord, the God of Israel, be witness when I have sounded out my father about this time tomorrow or the third day. Behold, if he is well disposed towards David, shall I not then send and disclose it to you?"
He said, if I find out, I'm going to let you know.
Verse 13.
But should it please my father to do you harm, the Lord do so to Jonathan. More also, if I do not disclose it to you and send you away, that you may go in safety."
He says, if I catch wind that my father wants you dead, I will let you know so that you can safely escape. May the Lord be with you as he has been with my father.
Which Paul's right there. That is the recognition very clearly from Jonathan that the favor of God has shifted from Saul in his house to David. And what he's going to say next is the recognition and the acceptance that David is the anointed king, the one who Samuel anointed to be the next king.
Verse 14.
"If I am still alive, show me the steadfast love of the Lord, that I may not die. And do not cut off your steadfast love from my house forever, when the Lord cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth."
And that is a part of this friendship covenant. This agreement is the request: when you become king in your steadfast love towards me, do not take this out on my descendants. My children live as you become king. And Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying,
"May the Lord take vengeance on David's enemies."
And Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him, for he loved him as he loved his own soul.
So they're bound together in this covenant of friendship that will outlive them. And I want us to see the second essential aspect of godly friendship, and that is that godly friendship is steadfast. The godly friendship is steadfast.
Show me the steadfast love of the Lord. Do not cut off your steadfast love from my house forever.
Jonathan asks. Godly friendship is steadfast. You need friends who are steadfast, who are faithful when times are difficult. And you should want to be the type of friend who is steadfast, immovable, faithful to your friend when they are struggling. You should want to embody this type of friendship.
This is what the Proverbs are capturing in Proverbs 18:24, when it says,
A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
Proverbs 17:17 says,
A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity,
that you want friends and to be the kind of friend who loves at all times, who's born for the difficult moments of life.
So Matt Freeman, who is one of our pastors, and if you've been coming around, if you're new, been around the last couple of months, you haven't seen Matt. He's been on sabbatical for the last three months. This is actually the final week of sabbatical. Be back next week, which is exciting. Yeah, you can celebrate that, ten of you.
But one of the things I've appreciated about the friendship that Matt and I have is that over, really, the close to the last decade of doing ministry together, I know that Matt is going to be steadfast. I know that he's going to be there when things are difficult, when you do ministry together, like, there are things that are wonderful that you get to celebrate of how God is at work in some powerful ways. And there's also a lot of moments of difficulty. And I've just known for years, like, he's there, that he's in it with me, that he's going to stick closer than a brother, that he's going to be steadfast.
I know that when things get difficult, he's going to be there. He's going to. I know that I'm going to get a message from him asking, how are you doing? How's your soul? How's your walk? With Jesus, how's your family? I know he's going to ask. I know he's going to ask difficult questions because he's there with me, side by side. Even when we get in each other's grill sometimes, because every now and then we'll have an argument, we'll have a dust up, because that's what happens when you work together. And there are times when my wife is like, oh, you guys got an argument, and there's tension in her voice and it's like, it's okay, like, we're fine. We're for each other. We're for each other's good. We're going to disagree at times, but I know that he's going to ride or die. I know that we're going to stick it out together because there's this steadfastness, this loyalty, this faithfulness within him.
And that's the type of faithfulness and steadfastness that Jonathan and David display towards each other. That in the face of death, in the face of some really big political changes that are happening, they are knit together, their love and their friendship is. Is steadfast, it is going to make it and traverse through any of the storms they're about to face.
And that is the type of friendship that we should seek and the type of friends we should seek to be. There's a steadfastness in their friendship.
It continues in verse 18 as they're working out this plan.
Then Jonathan said to him, "Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed because your seat will be empty on the third day. Go down quickly to the place where you hid yourself when the matter was in hand, and remain beside the stone heap. And I will shoot three arrows to the side of it as though I shot at a mark. And behold, I will send the boy, saying, 'Go find the arrows.' If I say to the boy, 'Look, the arrows are on this side of you, take them,' then you are to come, for as the Lord lives, it is safe for you and there is no danger. But if I say to the youth, 'Look, the arrows are beyond you,' then go, for the Lord has sent you away. And as for the matter of which you and I have spoken, behold, the Lord is between you and me forever."
So they devise this plan because it seems like they can't even be seen together at this point that they're going to have. He's going to go out, he's going to shoot arrows, and he says, I shoot him. And they land on this side. And I say to my arrow boy, go to this side and if you get the arrows, you'll know that's the signal. It's safe to come out, it's safe to come back.
Saul doesn't want to kill you. But if I shoot beyond and I tell my arrow boy that the arrows are beyond, you should know that you need to run because my father wants to kill you. So that's the secret sign that they work out together.
All right? Verse 24.
So David hid himself in the field. And when the new moon came, the king sat down to eat food. The king sat on his seat, as at other times on the seat by the wall. Jonathan sat opposite and Abner sat by Saul's side. But David's place was empty.
Verse 26.
Yet Saul did not say anything that day, for he thought something has happened to him. He is not clean, surely he is not clean.
He just thinks, okay, he might be ceremonially unclean. So if you're ceremonially unclean, you can't be in the presence of others. You gotta do some rituals, come back. He'll be back the next day.
Verse 27.
But on the second day, the day after the new moon, David's place was empty. And Saul said to Jonathan, his son, "Why has not the son of Jesse come to the meal either yesterday or today?"
Jonathan answered Saul,
"David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem. He said, 'Let me go, for our clan holds a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has commanded me to be there.' So now if I found favor in your eyes, let me get away and see my brothers.' For this reason, he has not come to the king's table."
So I'm going to sugarcoat that straight up lie. Bible's not prescriptive and sometimes like this very descriptive of what's happening here. So he lies. Saul doesn't buy it at all.
Verse 30.
Then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan. And he said to him, "You son of a perverse rebellious woman!"
Which that's his wife taking shots everywhere.
"You son of a perverse, rebellious woman, do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame and the shame of your mother's nakedness? For as long as the son of Jesse lives on earth, neither you nor your kingdom shall be established."
Which what he does there is he appeals to the base desire of power. Don't you know that David sits on the throne that you're supposed to sit on next? That he's taking the throne from you to your own shame? Jonathan, will you not turn him over? Turn him in so that you can be the future king.
He appeals to this base desire for power.
For as long as the Son of Jesse lives on earth, neither you nor your kingdom shall be established. Therefore send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die."
And Jonathan answered Saul, his father,
"Why should he be put to death? What has he done?"
But Saul hurled his spear at him to strike him.
So Jonathan knew that his father was determined to put David to death.
And Jonathan rose from the table in fierce anger and ate no food the second day of the month. For he was grieved for David because his father had disgraced him.
So Jonathan seeks to again make the case he's done nothing to you. He's only done good to you.
In this country does what Saul does repeatedly, which is pick up. I don't know if he has these spears handy all the time. I mean, he just must rule with a spear. But he also, he's not good at it because he misses again. Happens multiple times in the story. He keeps missing.
And Jonathan is grieved. He's grieved because he knows that his father seeks to kill him. And this is going to change things going forward.
Verse 35.
In the morning, Jonathan went out to the field to the appointment with David and with him, a little boy. They're going to enact a plan, he said to his boy, "Run and find the arrows that I shoot." As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. And when the boy came to the place of the arrow that Jonathan had shot, Jonathan called after the boy and said, "It's not the arrow beyond you," it's the signal." And Jonathan called after the boy, "Hurry, be quick and do not stay."
So Jonathan's boy gathered up the arrows and came to his master. But the boy knew nothing. Only Jonathan and David knew the matter.
And Jonathan gave his weapons to his boy and said to him,
"Go and carry them in."
Carry them to the city so that signals you need to run. My father wants to kill you.
Verse 41.
As soon as the boy had gone, David rose from beside the stone heap and fell on his face to the ground and bowed three times. And they kissed one another and wept with one another, David weeping the most.
Then Jonathan said to David,
"Go in peace, because we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord, saying, 'The Lord shall be between me and you and between my offspring and your offspring.'"
For
And they rose and departed, and Jonathan went into the city.
So when the arrow boy is there, their emotions are held together and they begin to be released.
Now you might be thinking, as I thought, why did you go to all this trouble to do this sign if you're just going to pop out and talk? As I had the same thought, I don't fully know my best, my best take is that that was the plan. But they're so overwhelmed by emotion and they're so overwhelmed by their love for one another that this can't be the last time they see each other, that they're willing to risk safety for the sake of embracing one last time as friends.
So he comes out, bows to the ground, showing deference and respect. They kiss, which this is like Italians do today. This is a cultural greeting for them. So this is kissing on both sides of the cheek. New Testament says, greet each other with a holy kiss.
You've been here long enough, you know, we don't do that. We're not going to start. But this is dapping each other up. This is bro huggin. This is the culturally appropriate way to greet one, to greet a friend like this. So they greet, they embrace, and they weep.
This is David. So David wept the most, weeping bitterly. And I think the reason, A, why they're willing to risk coming out in the open and B, why this is such a grievous moment, such a sad filled moment is because they know everything's going to change. Their friendship and the way that it has gone is not going to continue. David's going to be on the run for the rest of his days. They won't be together anymore and their hearts are broken because of the love they have for one another as friends and what they're having to give up to continue.
And that brings me to the third essential aspect of godly friendship. And that godly friendship is sacrificial. The godly friendship is sacrificial.
It's hard to tell when Jonathan knew fully that David was the one that Samuel had anointed to be the future king of Israel. Some are going to argue and say that in the beginning of chapter 18, when he gives up his cloak, he gives up his, his robe and his armor that's symbolic of the passing of the torch and that Jonathan in that moment was conveying that. I think that's a little speculative, but I wouldn't lean and say that's put a ton of force on that. It certainly shows a great amount of deference and respect.
But boy, oh boy, when you get through chapter 19, if you're not convinced by the end of chapter 19, it's so clear here in chapter 20 that Jonathan knows that God has chosen David to be king and not him. He knows it.
Which means that every single step that Jonathan takes in helping David is solidifying David on the throne and not him. That every time, that he continues to help David, every time he helps save and preserve his life, that he is counting the future of David as more significant than his own. That he's sacrificing his place on the throne.
He's not fighting the will of God. He's trusting in God's will and his choice. And also loving his friend sacrificially. It's a beautiful picture. What friendship is supposed to be in sacrificial friendship.
One of the themes that shows up in the Lord of the Rings and the series is friendship. One of the main themes of that story. And particularly if you focus on the friendship between Samwise and Frodo, the two hobbits, that is one filled with sacrificial friendship.
In the first movie, when Frodo has decided that he's going to go on his own, he's going to take the Ring himself, that he gets on the boat and Sam, who cannot swim, follows him out into the water and begins to drown himself because he's so committed for the betterment of Frodo to help his friend that he's willing to sacrifice his own life to make the point.
The books quote and say, "I'll knock holes in all the boats." That's this thing. You're not going without me. I'm giving up my life, my safety, for the sake of helping you and the burden that you are carrying. I'll sink every boat and we'll sink together. But you're not going out alone.
And when you follow that story throughout all three of the movies or books, you see this over and over and over again, all the way to the very end where they're almost there to deliver the Ring and they're starving and they only got a little food left. And Sam gives Frodo the majority of the food, sacrificing for the sake of his friend who's so deeply burdened. It's a beautiful picture of sacrificial friendship.
Are you willing to be the type of friend that says, I will sink this boat? You're not going anywhere until we talk this through, until you tell me what's going on, until you let me help you. Are you willing to be the type of friend who's willing to go without that your friend is struggling and they're in their season of adversity. And when you talk, they're mostly sharing about their problems. But you're willing to sacrifice sharing your life for the sake of helping them bear this burden. Because you love them and because you count them more significant than yourself. Are you willing to be a sacrificial friend on behalf of your friends?
That's what Jonathan was to David. It's a beautiful picture of sacrificial friendship. To love your friend at cost to yourself. Your friendship was filled with selfless, steadfast and sacrificial friendship.
Now as you walk through this, you may be receiving this and may be thinking and evaluating. Man, I wish I had friends like that. You may be thinking about the friends in your life. I wish that person was more selfless. That person, they're not steadfast, they're not faithful like they should be. They're not sacrificing.
And what I want to push on is I think you've missed a step. Because if you're immediate response to this story is to begin to evaluate all the ways that your friends have failed you, you haven't looked in the mirror first.
Jesus says,
"Take the plank out of your own eye, so that you can see the speck in your brother's eye."
You should do the soul work of examining your own heart and asking difficult questions.
Have I been selfless? Like, really considering others more significant than myself? Are you steadfast? Are you there when things are difficult? Are you looking for an exit as soon as things get difficult, as soon as the fun stops? Do you sacrifice? Do you give up time? Do you give up energy? Are you willing to give away for the sake of your friend and your friends?
And maybe you do that soul work and you say, yeah, I need to repent here. I need to change here. I need to have a conversation there. And then you come to the conclusion, but, yeah, but there's still this longing within me. Like, I've tried to be a friend for years and this type of deep friendship has eluded me for years. And this becomes really a story of pain for you.
What I'd like to suggest is two things.
The first, don't give up. I think the Church of Jesus Christ is a beautiful place to find friends, to find deep friendships that embody the friendship of David and Jonathan.
So first is, don't give up. Press in.
The second is that it's very possible that you have placed your hope in the friendship of men and women. And what I want to very clearly say is that your ultimate hope should be in friendship with God. That this deep longing and desire will only be fully satiated and satisfied in friendship with God.
Because while Jonathan and David are a wonderful example of friendship, and they are, and we should learn from them, they are not the purest form of friendship that is found in this life.
You see, Jonathan and David start as two men who love each other. But the friendship that God offers doesn't start that way. The friendship that Jesus offers us is to people who are hostile to him, to people who oppose his very ways.
You see, when you read the Gospels and you get to a passage like Luke 7, when chapter 7, verse 34, when the Pharisees, the religious leaders are taking a shot at Jesus and they say,
"The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, 'Look at him, a glutton, a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.'"
That when we read that, we most often think about the self righteousness of the religious leaders because Jesus is willing to be friends with the lowliest, the sinners.
But what gets lost in them is that Jesus befriends crowds of people whose very lives and the choices that they make every day oppose the way that Jesus has set out for creation, that they, with every deliberate choice to sin against God, they have chosen to sin against Jesus.
And what this ultimately is, is foreshadowing of what Jesus offers us in the Gospel that we, as the passage we read earlier, were alienated and hostile in mind. What Mike was preaching about last week, that as Jesus displays kindness to us, we don't start that way. We are enemies of God.
So this isn't two people who love each other initially. This is Jesus who loves hostile sinners. And the love and the friendship that he offers us breaks through to our hearts in a way that captures us.
And another foreshadowing that Jesus does in his ministry. In John 15, Jesus says,
"Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends."
Which is a foreshadowing of what's about to happen in an act so selfless, so steadfast in love, so sacrificial, that Jesus lays down his life at the cross for enemies to make them friends.
That is the purest form of friendship that you can discover in this life. It is friendship with God and fellowship with him that you get a picture of now that resounds more beautifully, more wonderfully into eternity.
That is where our hope should be.
So yes, as we learn this and as we talk about this in groups this week, we absolutely should learn from David and Jonathan and we should see the selflessness and the steadfastness and the sacrificial nature of their friendship. And we should walk away from this, evaluating ourselves, the friends that we can be.
But for those of us that are longing for fellowship, those of us that are longing for friendship, we must first take the step of finding that in Christ and the most perfect and most pure friendship that is offered in him.
The band's going to come up and we get to do that and consider that for a moment, that we should consider Christ and what he offers.
And it is possible that for some of you, the loneliness that you feel in this life is not just because you don't have good friends. It's because you actually don't have Christ.
And my hope for you this morning is that you would find your hope for fulfillment and friendship in Christ and Him alone.
And for those of us who have trusted in Jesus, some of us need to walk away and we need to. We might need to have some conversations with some people this week, might need to confess some sin and confess some ways that we have failed, might need to consider the ways in which we need to grow in this so that we can be the type of godly friend that desires that God desires his people be.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, I pray that you might help us see the friendship that is offered in you, the friendship that is offered in our Savior, in Christ, the friend that we have in him. God, I pray that that would compel our hearts towards faith and surrendering to have fellowship with you from here into eternity. God, I pray that we would not leave this word without reflecting on our own hearts and the ways that we have failed to be the friends that God has called us to be and that we would change. And that the fruit that comes out of the effort this week results in reconciliation. It results in love, results in service, results in godliness and friendship. We ask this in Jesus name, Amen.
1 Samuel 18-19
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
We're continuing to walk through the book of 1 and 2 Samuel or first 2 Samuel. We're in 1 Samuel chapter 18 and 19 today. So we have two chapters to work through. So you can go ahead and turn there. It should be on page 138 in the blue Bibles.
You can follow along. The text will be on the screen as well. So in American western culture, one of the things that uh that is prevalent in our mainstream thought is that each of us have this worldview that we're at the center of our own lives. That we're like kings and queens of our own lives. In fact, some people use the language of I'm a king.
I'm a queen. Just we have this idea of just I'm the center. and it shows up all over the place in how we view the world. One of the ways that I've realized this, how it's infiltrated my soul, uh, is on the roadways. So, when I'm driving, uh, if I got to get to point A to point B, it's I it's this is my road.
I'm driving like I everyone else needs to clear a path because don't they know I'm supposed to be getting where I'm going and the moment that you cut me off at any given time, it's a problem. Doesn't help that I'm seated in a car which feels like a race car even though it's a Prius humming down the road as fast as I can go barreling getting everyone out of my way. And I've tried to make this shift and I think I'm getting some progress in this in my own soul of realizing and making a shift that says actually this isn't all about me. This I share the road with others. everyone's trying to get somewhere and having the mindset of being a little more gracious, letting people in, not taking it so personally when somebody cuts me off.
Like I'm growing in this, but it just that happens. Like we just we have this just built into our cultural mindsets that we're at the center of our own lives. And at the root issue of that is is one of pride, right? It's this high view of self that that the view of self is is is high on our own eyes as opposed to seeing ourselves in light of creation, light of who God is and seeing ourselves as small. And that sin of pride that makes us think that we're the center of our own lives is very prevalent in this story today in the life of Saul.
that leads Saul to begin this rivalry with David that we caught a glimpse of in the reading of Psalm 59 earlier that causes all types of of chaos, death, and turmoil in all the chapters that we're about to see that come out of this rivalry. And I want us to see clearly what's happening in Saul, but also uh uh not be so distancing ourselves from the story, but actually see how this affects us as well. So, I'm going to pray for us and then we'll walk through this together. Heavenly Father, he have help us have eyes to see and ears to hear your word in a way that would not distance ourselves but would actually help us see the reality of sin, the hope of the Gospel that would lead us into worshiping you and to delighting in you and to hoping in you above all things in Jesus name. Amen.
All right, we're going to start in verse one of chapter 18. As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, so this is coming after last week, David and Goliath defeats Goliath, cuts his head off, head in hand, talking to Saul. That's right. This is what's happening. Okay.
As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David. And Jonathan loved him as his own soul. So Jonathan, the son of King Saul, sees David head in hand and says, "We just became best friends." That That's my boy right there. Like I watched him take Goliath out. Like this is happening.
And they are knitted together. And we're not going to spend time on it this week. We'll come back to this passage in a couple of weeks. But we're going to see this friendship of Jonathan and David and how it's a beautiful picture of friendship in the Scriptures. But verse two, and Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father's house.
Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David and his armor and even his sword and his bow and his belt. And David went out and was successful wherever Saul sent him, so that Saul set him over the men of war. And this was good in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul's servants. So David is brought into the inner circle of Saul.
I mean, he's he's brought into the inner circle, and this is the only time when things are good between Saul and and David. there moments of of peace against the backdrop of a rivalry. But the rivalry has not begun yet. Things are actually for the moment good. And also, as we're going to see, David is going to continue to gain favor.
God has shown favor to David. He's shown judgment to Saul, and he's going to keep getting favor with the people. Even the servants of Saul, everyone is favoring David. And Saul is going to quickly realize this. Verse six.
As they were coming home, when David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tambourines, with songs of joy, and with musical instruments. So, this is also common. This is what happened. Men would go off to war. They'd come back and they're victorious.
The women would be in the streets dancing and singing with tambourine. And King Saul undoubtedly has experienced this. He's won victories. He's seen this scene before. It feels familiar.
And then they begin to sing. Verse 7. And the women sang to one another as they celebrated. Saul has struck down his thousands and David his 10 thousands. So they start praising Saul and Saul hears the first line and it's like, "Yes, I like this song.
It's a It's a banger. This what I I like what I'm hearing." And then the next line is sung. Saul has killed his thousands. David is 10 thousands. And it immediately becomes the worst song he's ever heard.
He's just I I hate this song. And it's like, I mean, you kill one man. He's a big man. You kill one man and all of a sudden the people shift and now you're getting all the attention, all the affection, all the favor. And he's furious.
He's furious. Verse eight. And Saul was very angry and this saying displeased him. He said, "They have ascribed to David 10 thousands and to me they've ascribed thousands and what more can he have but the kingdom?" And Saul eyed David from that day on. So two things are clear.
Saul is blinded by his own pride. He can only see himself in this situation. He can only focus on his greatness being infringed upon by David. So, first thing is he's blinded by his own pride.
Second, from context here, he's known Saul for quite some time that Samuel went and anointed someone else to be king. My guess is he's probably been scanning Israel wondering who is the person that's going to come forward that's going to become the next king. And the moment he begins to hear that David has his 10,000s, the moment he begins to see the people shifting their favor towards David, he's beginning to put the pieces together and he says, "What more can he have but the kingdom." So he's starting to realize David is this anointed future king. And the rivalry begins. The era of peace between them, very shortlived, is over.
And from this point forward, Saul views David as a real threat and rival. Verse 10, the next day, a harmful spirit rushed upon Saul and he raved within his house while David was playing the liar as he did day by day. So, first part, Isaac covered this a few weeks ago, this language of harmful spirit from God that rushed upon Saul. It's either an evil spirit that God is sovereign over that comes and afflicts Saul or it is a a good spirit that comes and brings harm upon Saul. So Isaac walked through those.
You can listen to it more depth a couple of weeks ago in his sermon. But the same net thing happens. God in his sovereignty has desired to bring judgment upon Saul. And this harmful spirit is afflicting him. And he raved with madness in his house.
and David is there to play the liar. So, if you don't know what a liar is, I got a picture of one. This is a recent liar, okay? It's just an instrument. And David is playing this instrument.
And it's there to kind of soothe the the inner madness that's taking over in Saul's mind. And then as he's playing, he attempts to murder him. Saul had his spear in his hand. And Saul hurled the spear for he thought, "I will pin David to the wall." But David evaded him twice. So Saul hurls a spear.
He evaded him twice. I don't know if he missed the first time, picked it back up through it again. I don't know if this is the magic spear theory that just somehow ricocheted and came back. Don't understand what's happening here, but he evades him twice. And Saul is in 10th commandment breaking the tenth commandment and coveting the attention that David is getting.
It has led to now breaking the sixth commandment attempted murder that he wants to kill and murder David. But David again has favor from God. It's not that David is so agile that he can just dip, dodge, dug all the things, dodge. He can. It's it's that God has favor upon him.
Verse 12, Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him but had departed Saul. Saul removed him from his presence and made him a commander of a thousand. And he went out and came in before the people. So Saul removes him because the favor has left him and he doesn't want him in in a circle and he says, "I I'll make you a commander of a thousand. at least keeps you away from me.
And it says he went in and came out before the people, which is just the language of he led the people. That's what that means. He led the people in and out of battle. Verse 14. And David had success in all his undertakings, for the Lord was with him.
And when Saul saw that he had great success, he stood in fearful all of him. But all Israel and Judah loved David for he went out and came in before them. So you get this repeated phrasing of the Lord was with him. It's this the text is telling us this. The favor is with David.
The Lord is with him. He's not with Saul. He's with David. And the nation loves him. His own tribe Judah, the whole whole of Israel, they love David.
He wins battles. He leads the people. God has given him favor with the people. And Saul begins to think, "How can I politic my way through this in a way that will end out end up in his own favor?" Verse 17. Then Saul said to David, "Here is my eldest daughter, Merb.
I will give her to you for a wife. Only be valiant for me and fight the Lord's battles. For Saul thought, "Let not my hand be against him, but let the hand of the Philistines be against him." So, back in 1st Samuel 17 last week, we saw that it was it was said that if if whoever defeats Goliath, they're they're going to be able to marry into the family of Saul. He's going to give one of his daughters to. And now that's happening.
And this good offer of giving his daughter Merb to David disguises ill intent because what he wants to do is he wants the Philistines to be against David because he wants the Philistines to be the one that takes David out. So, he's using his daughter as a means to mess with David, ultimately get him removed from the situation, which means that he's trying to outmaneuver God in this situation because God has shown who the king is going to be. He's shown who his favor is upon and he thinks he can outmaneuver God. That's Saul's position. David responds to this much differently.
Verse 18, and David said to Saul, "Who am I? and who are my relatives, my father's clan in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king?" David responds and says, "Who am I? I I'm unworthy to be your son-in-law." To Mary and to the king's family like, "I'm lowly." He responds with humility. And in contrast to Saul's pride, David responds in humility, lowering himself as Saul raises himself up. Saul sees this and then he responds with really arrogant disdain against David.
Verse 19, but at the time when Marb Saul's daughter should have been given to David, she was given to Adriel the Mahalite for a wife. So he dangles marriage and he says, "Ah, no. and then he gives her to someone else. And then while all this is happening in the background, another daughter is starting to fall in love with David. So in verse 20 it says, "Now Saul's daughter, Michael loved David.
And they told Saul, and the thing pleased him. Saul thought, "Let me give her to him that she may be a snare for him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him." Therefore, Saul said to David a second time, "You shall now be my son-in-law." And Saul commanded his servants, "Speak to David in private and say, "Behold, the king has delight in you, and all his servants love you. Now then, become the king's son-in-law." and Saul's servants. And Saul's servants spoke these those words in the ears of David. So Saul this time is not just going to dangle his daughter, but his his daughter's love as a means of making sure that the Philistines are going to try to take him out.
Again, he's trying to outmaneuver the favor of God. He's trying to outmaneuver the Lord in this. And David responds again in humility. And David said, "Does it seem to you a little thing to become the king's son-in-law since I'm a poor man and have no reputation?" He responds in humility, "Don't don't you see I'm I'm a lonely man." He adds, "I'm a poor man. I don't come from wealth." And then Saul hears that as an opportunity.
And the servants of Saul, verse 24, told him, "Thus, and so David, so did David speak." Verse 25. Then Saul said, "Thus you shall say to David, the king desires no bride priced except a hundred foreskins of the Philistines that he may be avenged of the king's enemies." Now Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines. So this is foreign to us in a variety of ways. First, we're not used to we don't do bride prices. It's not something in our culture.
Their culture that was common grooms family come bring money, exchange happens, families unite, but that's foreign to us. And he hears, "Oh, you don't have you don't have to come from wealth. You don't need money. It's not a traditional bribe price. What I want is a hundred Philistine foreskins." And again, that part is foreign to us.
It may seem a little bit crude. But here is the reality of what's happening. The Jewish people under the old covenant are circumcised people. The Philistines are not. And this just in a very similar way, the Native Americans used to take scalps as a body count.
That's what this is. You This is not This is not This is unclean Philistines. This is the You have a hundred. Here we go. we can prove you've killed.
That's what's happening here. If we hear that, it's like, oh, this is foreign to us. But for them, it's not all that out of the realm of possibility. Verse 26. And when his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king's son-in-law.
Before the time had expired, David arose and went along with this man and killed 200 of the Philistines. And David brought their foreskins which were given in full number to the king that he might become the king's son-in-law. And Saul gave him his daughter Michael for a wife. But when Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David and that Michael Saul's daughter loved him, Saul was even more afraid of David. So Saul was d's enemy continually.
Then the commanders of the Philistines came out to battle. And as often as they came out, David had more success than all the servants of Saul said that his name was highly esteemed. So David hears that challenge says, "Say say no more. I'll be back soon." Comes back 200 presents it and then he's given and they are married. And then it says, every time they go out to battle, David is the one who has the most success.
He's the thorn in the Philistines signs. He's the one that the people love. He's the one that has the favor. His name was highly esteemed even amongst the servants of Saul. And as he's starting to gain more favor, Saul is growing angrier and angrier.
And this leads Saul to be more vocal about his plans to kill David. And it's not that at some point David didn't realize that Saul was trying to kill him. He had evaded him twice with the spear. So he at least understands that. But that maybe could have been attributed to, well, Saul is afflicted with this raving and he's mad and it's so that but it's about to become abundantly clear.
This is not just a one-off thing. This Saul wants your head. Starting in verse one of chapter 19. And Saul spoke to Jonathan his son, and to all his servants that they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul's son, delighted much in David.
And Jonathan told David, "Saul, my father seeks to kill you. Therefore, be on guard in the morning. Stay in a secret place and hide yourself. And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are. And I will speak to my father about you.
And if I learn anything, I will tell you to Saul at this point. He's telling Jonathan, he's telling his servants, he's being vocal. He wants David dead. Jonathan hears this and he loves his friend David. And then and he's he goes and he tells him he intercedes to to protect David from harm and he says stay out here I'll go and talk to my father but it shows a an immense love that Jonathan has for David and this is against the backdrop of Jonathan was Saul's son who was means that Jonathan was supposed to be the next in line.
So, we we'll look at this more in the in in a couple of weeks, but just Jonathan's love for David and his understanding of covenant faithfulness that David has gotten from the Lord is pretty powerful. But he goes and he intercedes and he confronts his father. Verse four. And Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father, and said to him, "Let not the king sin against his servant David, because he has not sinned against you, and because his deeds have brought good to you. For he took his life in his hand, and he struck down the Philistine, and the Lord worked a great salvation for all Israel.
You saw it and rejoiced. Why then will you sin against innocent blood by killing David without cause? And I so appreciate this passage for the character of Jonathan, for his love for his friend, but also the way in which he shows his father honor and corrects him that he doesn't stay silent. and he sees his father in sin and he in an honorable way with careful words corrects his father and says why are you sinning against David don't don't kill him don't murder him don't you see the good he's done for you don't you see the good he's done for this nation for our people why would you sin in this manner verse six and Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan Saul swore as the Lord lives he shall not be put to death. And Jonathan called David, and Jonathan reported to him all these things.
And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as before. So Jonathan reasons with his father. His father listens, and Saul swears, "As the Lord lives, he shall not be put to death." So there's a moment here of of of peace. And this happens a few times in 1 and 2 Samuel. There's there's there's some peace But it's shortlived.
And the reason is because there are moments where Saul displays this moment of clarity and contrition. He feels sorry, but it's not true repentance because it doesn't last. He doesn't actually repent of his murderous desires, of his threats against David. This is only going to be for a moment. The rest of Saul's life is one of unrepentant covetousness that yields a consistent flow of murderous rage against David until the day that he dies.
So once that time passes, Saul reverts back to his hatred of David. And there was war again, which this happens quite a bit in this story. And this is happening over a period of years. And there was war again. And David went out and fought the Philistines, sought with the Philistines, and struck them with a great blow, so that they fled before him.
Then a harmful spirit from the Lord came upon Saul as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand. And David was playing the liar. And Saul sought to pen David to the wall with the spear. But he eluded Saul so that he struck the spear into the wall. and David fled and escaped that night.
So continues to win battles and then is also faithful enough to bring his liar and to come and play before Saul, which had to have been hard given the past history he has with Saul. But he's faithful to the anointed king. He plays and again Saul seeks to murder him. And he fled and he escaped that night. Verse 11.
Saul sent messengers to David's house to watch him that he might kill him in the morning. But Michael, David's wife, told him, "If you do not escape with your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed." So Michael let David down the through the window and he fled away and escaped. So that right there is a good wife. She says, "Your dad, my dad's going to kill you. You got to go.
If you're here in the morning, he's going to kill you." So she lets him out through the window and he escapes away and then she's going to try to buy him some time. Verse 13, Michael took an image and laid it on the bed and put a pillow of goat's hair on its head and covered it with clothes which shows two things. The first before Ferris Beer's Day Off, before Braveheart, there was this idea of putting a dummy underneath some pillows and maneuvering away where it looks like it's a real person. This is 3,000 plus years old. Second, it is a little it kind of sticks out.
Michael took an image. That word image is the same word for idol. So, this shows there's a household idol and with them this Rachel in the Old Testament, she also with Jacob, she had household idols. So, at some point, David's going to need to leave his home better.
They're going to have to make some decisions to get rid of all these household idols. But she uses this to buy him some time. Verse 14. And when Saul sent messengers to David, she said, "He is sick." Then Saul sent the me sent the messengers to see David, saying, "Bring him up to me in the bed that I may kill him." And when the messengers came in, behold, the image was in the bed with the pillow of goat's hair at its head. Saul said to Michael, "Why have you deceived me thus, and let my enemy go so that he has escaped?" And Michael answered Saul, "He said to me, let me go.
Why should I kill you?" So she's a little deceit, little deception, saves David. He escapes and David goes to Samuel. Verse 18. Now David fled and escaped. And he came to Samuel at Rama and told him all that Saul had done to him.
And he and Samuel lived and went and lived at Naeth. And it was told Saul, "Behold, David is at Naeth and Rama." Then Saul sent messengers to take David. So even still, this is what's wild here. After all of this, he thinks that he's going to send messengers to take David from the feet of Samuel, the great prophet of the land. He thinks that he's going to go capture David.
And this this is where guys, as I'm reading 1 Samuel, this this time around, I'm just it's so clear to me Saul doesn't know God. He just doesn't know God. if he thinks that after all of this he still can go and sees David by force. He doesn't know the Lord. He doesn't know that his word is going to come to pass.
So he sends messengers to go and take him. And when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying and Samuel standing as head over them, the spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul and they also prophesied. And it was told Saul he sent other messengers and they also prophesied. And Saul sent messengers again the third time and they also prophesy. And it's just it's wild.
God directly intercedes to defend David. And every time a group of messengers comes to take him, he defends them with prophecy. Now from the context here, this is not the traditional way in which we think about prophecy in the Old Testament. This is not the traditional sense of prophecy where they are uh foretelling something that is going to happen later. It's not that type of prophecy.
This seems to be some type of joyous praise, euphoric praise that as they get closer to David, they lose sight of the mission. Just begin and euphoric praise praising God. Every group of messengers keeps doing this. And finally Saul says, "I'm going to do it myself." Verse 22. Then he himself went to Rama and came to the great wall that is in seeu and he asked, "Where are Samuel and David?" And one said, "Behold, they're at Naith in Rama." And he went there to Naeth and Rama.
And the spirit of God came upon him also. And as he went, he prophesied until he came to Naoth and Rama. He too stripped off his clothes. And he too prophesied before Samuel and laid naked all that day and all that night. Thus it is said, "Is Saul also among the prophets?" So Saul in his arrogance thinks, "I will seize David before Samuel." And as he approaches, he falls into the same prophecy, begins this praising of God and is so humbled and humiliated before the Lord and everyone else that the king strips his clothes and says lays naked on the ground all day, all night, completely humbled and humiliated, unable to seize David.
And as you read this in its context over the next few chapters, it's just so clear like Jonathan makes it clear. There's a foreign king that knows this and I I'm you look at from the context here, Saul knows this. They all realize David is the next king. They they realize that David is the one who's going to take the throne. and he and his arrogance when the Lord has spoken his word and his will is unfolding believes that he can oppose the will of God and take out the Lord's anointed y'all.
And this like I as you're reading this, this is like if you read it through the first time, like there might even be this hope where it's just oh man, like maybe finally the Lord has broken through to his heart. He's naked on the ground just praising God, humbled, humiliated. That maybe this is the moment where he finally says, "I've had enough. I'm not supposed to be on the throne. God, you decide who's on the throne.
We'll work out some type of secession plan and David can take the throne." But no, Saul wants to be on the throne and his pride. He wants to be the one that is in control of the kingdom. He wants to be on the one who's on the throne. He opposes the decision of God when God is ultimately the one who decides he's on the throne. And we're going to see coming out of this that he will continue to oppose the Lord and his will.
And we'll continue to see an an attempt to take David out. And as I read this story and as we read it, we should consider the same prideful instinct that is within us that also seeks to take center stage on the throne. We should see the same prideful, selfc centered instinct that's prevalent in our culture and prevalent in our lives that wants to put us and place us at the seat of our lives that that wants to make us the center of our reality that wants to put us on the throne. There's a illustration I've used for years in teaching and counseling and and evangelism that I found to be incredibly helpful. It's called a throne diagram.
I'm going to show you. But before I show you, just maybe preface this. I hand drew this because I usually handdraw this. Okay?
Whether it's on my office or wherever and I'm and I'm not an artist. I we attempted for a few minutes this week to hand this to Raz and see if we could get a really cool AI generated version of this. We made a lot of progress and we never finished. So don't be distracted by the wildly distracted uh distracting uh uh lack of being able to illustrate. But I have found this to be so incredibly helpful and understanding what true lordship looks like.
So first one, get it out. Let it go. Get out the way. Okay.
So, that chair is a throne, person in the middle. Okay. Think about the aspects of your life that require the most time and energy. So, this is me.
This is family, hobbies, Church, work, friends. Okay? These are the areas of your life that get the most energy, the most of your focus, the most of your time, the most of your affection, the most of your energy, money, etc. And one of the things that happens is that as we think about our own lives, we begin to think about all these things. And some of these things can be good, some they can be bad.
Like there can be bad things in your life. There could be uh hidden sin that not everyone else sees, but but is there. It gets a lot of energy. And there can be good things like Church and being a part of a Church family and being a good husband, being a good wife, being a faithful boss. And what happens is the way that we approach the Christian life sometimes is we think, "I've just got to make these things better.
I got to be a better Church member. I got to be a better worker. Be a better boss. I got to choose good friends and be a good friend. I need to be a good wife.
I need to be a good husband. Be a good son. Be a good daughter. My hobbies need to be good. I've chosen some bad ones.
Need to kick them out. Need to bring some good ones in. And much of our effort is spent trying to fix all these things around us and make and improve all of these things. and you can live a good moral life where one day someone will preach your funeral and they will say he was such a good uh Church member that she was such a faithful wife that he was such a good friend and all everyone will celebrate and sing and think about how good of a moral person you are and you will be in judgment for eternity because if this is the life that we choose to live it leads to destruction ction because it puts us at the center and there's so many of us that can't see that clearly that we're the center of our existence that we sit on the throne and the reality is is that the Christian life is one where Jesus takes the throne. So the difference next next part of the picture on this far side this is what the Christian life is supposed to look like.
Christ becomes center in your life. When we say Gospel center that Jesus takes over the seat of existence in reality in your life and that he becomes central in every other aspect of your life so that when you are at work you seek to be not a person that's disconnected God from your work but that Christ becomes central in how you think about work. He becomes central in how you think about your friends and your family. It becomes central in your hobbies and some of the bad things in your life begin to be cleared out entirely and some of the good things in your life he begins to begin begins to take over entirely.
But those right there are two different lives. There is no middle ground. You can have it one way or the other, but you cannot have it both ways. And the reality is is that some of you have lived a life where Jesus has never taken center stage. You're like Saul.
Saul would not give up the throne. He would not give it up. And you're clinging to the throne, clinging to be the one that orders your life. And yeah, God may be a part of it. He may be an aspect of your life, but he is not your life.
and salvation and believing that Christ died the death that we deserved and conquered death at the resurrection and ascended to the right hand of God the Father from which he is now Lord and King over all creation. Salvation is not disconnected from lordship. You cannot be saved and him not be lord. That that that is not a concept. That is not a thing.
When Jesus is your savior, he is your Lord. Romans 10:9, but if because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. He is both savior and he is Lord. He is not one or the other. And faith in Christ is a surrendering to him where he takes the throne.
And some of you live good moral southern Christian lives, but that isn't following Jesus. And my hope this morning is that God would wake your eyes up to see this clearly and you would not respond like Saul, but you would respond in faith and invite Jesus to take the throne of your life and to take over every aspect of your life. Some of you have done this. You've believed in Jesus as savior and lord. You're a follower of Christ, but there are still aspects of your life that you were just closedfisted trying to stay in control of.
And it never works. It never brings joy. It never brings satisfaction. And there are parts of your life that you are still trying to do your way on your terms. For those who are married, you're trying to be trying to have marriage your way.
and and and the problems in your marriage or about the other person would just be better if they just would change here. And Jesus is like, I want I want the I want this be the center of that. I'm on the throne. Give me that. Yield it to me.
Let me be the center of your marriage. Those of you that want to be married, you have a desire to be married, you might have so many criteria for what that person needs to be, and Jesus at the center of your life isn't the main one. It's like y'all, he can have bad teeth. You can fix that later. You can't fix the fact that they don't love Christ.
That should be your overarching criteria. And everything else is so secondary, it doesn't matter. We do this with work and with school that we make school and work about the advancement of our own good as opposed to the advancement of God and being faithful what he's been given us. We do this with money. We make money about our comforts and our satisfaction, not his kingdom.
We do this with the Church that the Church that the community groups that all of it exists to serve my needs and my wants as opposed to serving God and his desire. Do this with time. You draw a bubble there and you can say, "No, my time is precious." Even the phrase, "My time is an indictment that we don't understand that it's the Lord's." So, you should consider all the different aspects of your life and begin to ask the Lord, where have you not taken center stage? And then as God reveals that to us in repentance, we go, Lord, take it. May I not be like Saul who cling to a seat of power that did not belong to him.
May I yield everything in my life so that you can be Lord. The band's going to come up and we get to close in worship. And as we close in song, may we let the reality of the Gospel infiltrate the core of who we are and every aspect of our lives. Which means that some of you need to be honest about where you are. But there are two different thrones and either you're on it or he is.
And my hope this morning is that you'd ask some very difficult questions of the Lord to reveal where where where are you? Are you like Saul clinging to a throne that is not yours? Or have you yielded to Christ? And for all of us who are Christians who have failed in so many ways to yield control to Christ, my hope this morning that as we worship, you begin to reveal some of that sin in our lives. That as we meet in our community groups this week, that we begin to see the ways in which we need to change and we would open our hands to the lordship of Christ in every aspect of our lives.
Let me pray. Heavenly Father, I pray that you might help us see you at work in our lives in a way that would change our hearts. God, save those that have not yielded the throne to you. May you be king of their lives this morning. And for everyone else, may we walk joyfully in repentance, knowing that though there are parts of us that don't we don't want to give it up.
There are parts of us that don't want to give up the throne, we know that your way is better than our way. Lord, help us walk in faith and repentance in Jesus name. Amen.
1 Samuel 17
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Chad. I'm one of the pastors here. Grab a Bible and go to First Samuel, chapter 17. We're working our way through the book of 1 Samuel.
It'll be on page 137. If you grab one of the blue Bibles that is um in the seat in front of you, if you grab one of the black Bibles, the words will be bigger, but I don't know what page it'll be on. Uh go to 1st Samuel chapter 17. If you don't own a Bible, you can take one of those blue ones home with you. Uh we want you to have a Bible.
We want you to read it. We are working our way, like I said, through the book of 1st Samuel. And today, we've made it to the story of David and Goliath. If if you don't know much about the Bible, you've probably heard of David and Goliath, even if it was only in connection to like a a sports event where they said it was a real David and Goliath story. But that that you you've heard of this.
And one of the things that we're going to see as we go through this is that there's a certain way that because of our understanding of the New Testament that we are to see and to read this text. There are uh there are some movies that have twist endings and there they there's such a twist ending that you can't ever watch the movie the same way twice. But the really good ones make you want to go back. The really good ones like you're like what?
No. And then you want to go back and see, did that was that real? Did that really show up in the And then you watch it and the really good ones you're like, oh wow, yeah. Okay.
Um, and so what I'd like to do is is list off all those and tell you what the twist is real quick and just ruin about seven movies for you. No, I'm just kidding. But there is something too when we see the New Testament and we see the the Revelation of the mystery of Christ that when we come back to the Old Testament, there's certain places where we go, "Hold on a second. There's something else going on here. God's doing something bigger here.
And this is one of those stories. So, I'm excited. We're going to just walk through the text, walk through the story, see how it fits inside of the narrative for of First Samuel, and then we're going to see how it fits inside of what God does in redemptive history. So, uh, let's ask the Lord for some help and let's get started because we got a whole chapter to go through.
Lord, we ask we ask for help. Um, we ask that your spirit would be at work so that we might listen. Lord, we're so heart of hearing and our hearts are so often dull. So we pray that your spirit would be at work that we might hear your voice that we might follow you in obedience and faith and that we might delight in Christ this morning in Jesus name. Amen.
Uh, chapter 17 verse one. Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle and they were gathered at Soo which belongs to Judah and encamped between Soo and Azaka in Ephesam. So they've already encroached on Judah's territory. So the Philistines have already marched in. They're encamped in an area that belongs to Judah, but they're already there.
In verse two it says, "And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered and encamped in the valley of Ela and drew up in line of battle against the Philistines. And the Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side with a valley between them. So they've reached a stalemate. The Philistines are moving in. This is constant.
The people they would gather for war, go to war. They're always fighting over territory. This is we'll see as we keep going through 1 and 2 Samuel, this is just non-stop. They're always fighting. Um, but they they reach a spot where they're on one mountain and there's a valley in between them that's actually a really it's the valley that kind of helps you get into the hill country of Judah.
So they it's the best place for them to come in, but they're on a mountain and now the army of Israel is on the other mountain and there's a valley in between. first army to go down into the valley has a tactical disadvantage. So if you want to charge into battle by running down into the valley and back up, it's it's bad for you. Uh fighting people uphill is bad. It's harder to fight uphill.
People running downhill that you have more momentum and also you can reach their feet and they can reach your head. So it's it's not a good setup. So what they've done is parked on two mountains with a valley in between and then what? Stare at each other down and to see who's going to go first. And for the Israelites, this is kind of good.
They've stopped the advance of the Philistines and we're kind of stuck here. Verse four. And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. And you're like, "What?
Six cubits?" Yes. And a span, you guys. A cubit is about 18 inches. A span is about nine. He's 9 foot n in tall.
What? Six cubits in a span. Yes, he's 9 foot n in tall. This man is massive. He comes out from them and it says he's a champion.
And we're going to see what that means where he's going to say, "I will fight on behalf of our entire army. You send forth someone who will fight on behalf of your army." That's a champion. No need. Neither one of us is going to charge down into this valley. Well, we can fix this.
Just send out your best guy. That's what he's going to do. That's what he's going to holler at them to do. And we're going to find out a little more about him. So, 9 foot 9 in tall.
And it's going to tell us more about him. It says this. He had a helmet of bronze on his head and he was armed with a coat of male. And the weight of the coat was 5,000 shekels of bronze. That's 125 pounds.
If you're like my wife and I and you stay up on the weekends and watch cop shows, um, what'll happen a lot of times when a police officer catches someone, which they do periodically, they'll announce to that person how heavy their belt is. They'll say, "I caught you and I'm wearing a 25 pound belt." They usually say like this, "I caught you and but they they this guy has 125 pounds of just his chain mail, not including his helmet. He's he is wearing a massive amount of armor. Some of the people in this room weigh 125 pounds or less than 125 pounds. He He wears you into battle.
All right. He had bronze armor on his legs and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam. And his spear's head weighed 600 shekels of iron. That's 15 pounds.
I I'm going to go out on a limb and saying getting stabbed by any spear is bad. A 15lb spearhead is over. And his shieldbearer went before him. So, he had somebody just carry his shield out.
Now, if he's anything like Dwayne the Rock Johnson, that shield bear is about 4 feet tall, just to add to the intensity level of what he looks like when he comes walking out. I want to show y'all a picture of someone who is 8' 11 in tall. Goliath makes him look small. So, when I said it's bad to fight uphill, Goliath is always on his own hill.
You can reach his bronze shield greaves, shin greaves, but he's up here. The parts that you need to get to are far away. This is a difficult place, difficult person to fight. He is massive. Now, I don't want to give anything away.
If you haven't heard the story and you don't know where this is going, but there's a reason why they know exactly how much all of his stuff weighed. They're going to have a lot of access to it later. He didn't come out and announce it. They got that stuff later and waited and we're like, "Look at how big this is." All right.
Anyway, sorry. Where are we at? Uh, okay. So, his shield bearer went before him.
Verse eight, he stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, "Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine? And are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants.
But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us. And the Philistines said, "I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together." She says, "Send out someone." He wins. We surrender. I win.
You surrender. Send me a man. Verse 11. When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. The tone of this standoff has changed because before it was a tactical disadvantage to march down into the Nobody's going to do that, be silly.
They'd write about you in the history books and say you were stupid. But now every single man there has been personally challenged and had to decide I'm a coward. I'm not doing that. And it seems like they didn't even all they're just dismayed. It's like none of them even thought that was an option.
We don't even have someone who Jonathan's not going. We've seen that he none of them are just it just is it doesn't seem like there's any shame upon Saul to not go. It just is like well this is but now we're just sitting here. He's given us a way to to navigate through this but nobody's going to go. That's the situation that they're in.
Verse 12. Now David was the son of an Ephrothite of Bethlehem and Judah named Jesse who had eight sons. In the days of Saul, the man was already old and advanced in years. This he's not out with the army. He's home.
The three oldest sons of Jesse had followed Saul to the battle. And the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab, the firstborn, and next to him, Abinadab, and the third, Shama. David was the youngest. The three eldest followed Saul, but David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem. So, if you remember from chapter 16, David's met Saul, and he's been playing music for him, but he hasn't just stayed with Saul.
It even said at one point he was his armor bearer, but he hasn't gone into this battle with him. He's back and forth, and now he's back with his dad tending sheep, but his three brothers have gone for 40 days. The Philistine came forward and took his stand morning and evening, every day. In the morning, he would walk down and do this. And in the evening, he would walk down and do this.
So, for 40 days, the armies would line up. He would defy them, curse them, mock them. I It doesn't tell us. I assume he came up with new ones over time, challenge them, and for 40 days, so 80 times, nobody's answering this. It's it's a long that's a long time to mentally have to decide I'm not the person for this.
Everybody's really settled in. We don't know what we're going to do. Nobody has a plan. But they've all had to deal with the fact that they they they are insufficient. They cannot do this.
Nobody stepped up. Verse 17. So, but they've been gone for a while. And that's what leads to this next part. And Jesse said to David his son, "Take for your brothers an epha of this parched grain and these 10 loaves and carry them quickly to the camp of your brothers.
Also, take these 10 cheeses to the commander of their thousand. See if your brothers are well and bring some token from them." Couple of things. Uh the grain he sends is just he's trying to help feed them, make sure they're eating enough. It's not very expensive or nice things. He does send 10 cheeses to the commander of a thousand, which I think we've lost this as a gift, but I think 10 cheeses would be a great gift to give somebody.
So, just, you know, hey, I just picked you out 10 different types of cheese. I mean, you know, that sounds wonderful. And then he says, bring back some token. We're going to see later David does show up with a token. Is it different than what he thinks?
Okay. Verse 19. Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Ela fighting with the Philistines. And David rose early in the morning and left the sheep with the keeper and took the provisions and went as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the encampment as the host was going out to the battle line shouting the war cry.
So he shows up about the time they're all geared up walking out shouting. And it seems like they probably did this every day. Get your gear on. We're going to go out and be like, "Ah, we'll fight you except for that one specific guy." And also, no, we're not going to do that.
Then the Philistine comes out, defies them, and they just kind of hang out. But it seems like every day they went and shouted on the mountain. We're like, we're still here. Uh 21. And Israel and the Philistines drew up for battle, army against army.
And David left the things in charge of the keeper of the baggage, and ran to the ranks and went and greeted his brothers. And isn't that just what it's like with a younger brother? You are you're in line for battle. And he just shows up. He's like, "Hey, where's your commander?
I got cheese for him, you know. But he just runs up into the ranks and starts talking to him. But it does seem like a little bit like this is a little pump. They're just kind of doing it, but they're not about to fight. So David comes over and starts talking to his brother.
Then it says this, verse 23, as he talked with them, behold the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines and spoke the same words as before. and David heard them. I love that line. He's been saying this over and over again. The only difference this time is that David heard them.
And immediately David's like, "Oh, hold up." All the men of Israel when they saw the man fled from him and were much afraid. So they just they back up. I don't know if they break rakes and run. It says they flee from him, but I don't know if this is just kind of a a posture of cowardice, but it says that they flee from him. It says, "And the men of Israel said, "Have you seen this man who has come up?
Surely he has come up to defy Israel. And the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father's house free in Israel. He won't have to pay taxes. Probably won't have to join battles." And David said to the men who stood by him, "What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel?
For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? And the people answered him in the same way, so shall it be done to the man who kills him. So David immediately frames this up in covenantal language. He's an uncircumcised Philistine. He's not a part of the covenant people, and he's defying the armies of the living God.
He's brought reproach on Israel by defying the armies of the living God. David's thinking about this differently than it seems like they are. Now Eliab, his eldest brother, heard when he spoke to the men. And Eli's anger was kindled against David. And he said,"Wh have you come down?
And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your presumption and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle." And David said, "What have I done now?" Was it not but a word? And he turned away from him and toward another and spoke in the same way. And the people answered him again as before. Now, if you'll remember, Eliab was the tallest, bestl looking brother who Samuel thought, surely this is the one who's chosen.
He's not chosen. None of the other brothers are chosen. And then David is chosen. Well, David shows up and thinks about this differently, approaches this differently, starts talking differently, and in some ways alive just has to deal with the fact that he hasn't stood up to this challenge. He doesn't like the way David's talking, and he just starts accusing David of things.
And you can tell, you can just read in the conversation, there's a little bit of tension here that seems to be ongoing because David doesn't say, "What did I do?" He says, "What did I do now?" And then he said, "Isn't it just a word?" He said, "I asked the question, why are you fussing at me?" But if you're I don't if you come from a family where there's a lot of children, you end up I think David's ended up with multiple fathers. Like I know my older son tries to parent his brother who's three years apart. Well, Eliab and David, they're way apart. So, I think David's just like, "What is going on?
Why am I being fussed at?" But David just moves on, starts asking someone else, and they answer the same way. Verse 31, when the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul, and he sent for him. I think this is interesting, but word gets to the king. Hey, there's a person here who isn't really scared. He's asking some questions.
He talked about the armies of the living God. He caused him an uncircumcised Philistine. He didn't seem scared. He seemed I just we thought we'd let you know. Like word gets to Saul to the point that David is brought to him.
David said to Saul, "Let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine." So he goes in and sees Saul and says, "Y'all don't need to be afraid. I'll go fight him. I've been here for 12 seconds. I heard this guy once and he's going to need to die.
And Saul said to David, "You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth." And he has been a man of war from his youth. He says, "You're you're young. He's been doing this since he was young." Like you can't you can't David's not even with the army. He's been watching sheep. It's not this isn't he just is like, "What are you talking?
You can't go do that. I can't send you forward. That won't work. But David said to Saul, "Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion or a bear and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth.
And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has struck down both lions and bears. And this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God. Okay.
David says, "Y'all don't need to be afraid. I'll go fight him." Saul says, "You can't do that." And David says, "So, I'm a shepherd." Sometimes bears or lions come and they take sheep. When they do that, I pop them and I tell them, "No, and I get that sheep back. And if they bow up at me, I grab their beard and kill them. You know how you grab a lion by the beard for murdering purposes.
And then he's like, I noticed Goliath has a beard. He's not anchoring this in himself. He is talking about his experiences, but he's saying he's defied God. It His fight's not with me. I'll go.
His fight's not with me. And this is what he says. He struck down both lions and bears. He says he's he has defied the armies of the living God. Verse 37.
And David said, "The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of the Philistine." And Saul said to David, "Go and the Lord be with you." So David says, "The Lord's delivered me from all of that. He'll deliver me from this. He said, "I've seen him at work before in my life. I know what he's like. I know what this guy's done and he's already he's already stepped all in it.
He's already defied the Lord. This is I'll just be the one who goes." And so Saul said to David, "Go and the Lord be with you." He sees the Lord at work in him. He sees the only person who seems to want to volunteer for this job. And I don't think David blinks. He seems confident.
He says, "Okay, yeah, the Lord be with you." Verse 38. Then Saul clothed David with his armor. He put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of male. And David strapped his sword over his armor, and he tried to go in vain, for he had not tested them. Then David said to Saul, "I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them." So David put them off.
Okay. I have a personal bone to pick with every cartoon I've ever seen of David and Goliath. in the cartoons, which I know you're gonna be surprised aren't super accurate all the time. What happens in this moment is that little shepherd boy, David, who usually looks like he's 11. Saul takes his Saul was the biggest guy in the Israelite army.
He was the tallest person in Israel. Saul puts his armor on David and David looks like a child in adult armor and then goes, "I can't move." With his little arm sticking out like a turtle or something. That bothers me because that's really stupid. And I don't think Saul would be like, "Here's massive armor that doesn't fit you. Good luck." It would have fit reasonably well.
Now, it may have been Saul's actual armor because they didn't have a lot of armor, but it would have fit in an intelligent manner. He what it says, David doesn't say, "I can't take these because they're way too big." He says, "I can't take them because I haven't tested them." He says, "I don't know how to fight an armor. I don't I don't use a sword. I don't This is This is all weird for me. I'm not used to a helmet like that.
Today is not the day to learn how to use this stuff. I appreciate it, but it's not it's not going to happen. And in some ways, there is this disconnect even he's not even going to be bearing. He doesn't even wear Saul's uniform. Saul's not connected to this at all.
David's going to walk out only David. So, that's happening in this as well. It's a little bit layered in, but the reasoning being I haven't tested them. He takes it off. Verse 40.
Then he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd's pouch. His sling was in his hand. And he approached the Philistine. Sling, twisted leather cord, pouch in the middle. You have one side that's going to stay connected to your hand and one side that you're going to release.
Swing. A lot of times you spin to get more momentum, then you release one side of the pouch and the rock flies out way faster than you could ever throw it. That's what it's talking about. So he had a sling and they would use these in battle. And we see later where they're used in battle.
Verse 41. And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David. So David comes walking out. For the first time in 40 days, something different starts happening. Someone starts heading down and Goliath had said come down to me.
Which means I think that Goliath was walking down into the valley. So it's almost like stadium setup. There's a valley down here. There's an army up here. There's an army up there.
And David starts walking down the hill. This hadn't happened. Tone changes. And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David with his shieldbearer in front of him. And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him.
for he was but a youth ruddy and handsome in appearance. You ever see someone so attractive it makes you angry? Goliath walks down there and they've sent someone pretty out to fight him. You know how like if someone sets you up on a blind date, they've gauged you. You can tell where they think you rank or whatever.
So when David comes walking down, that's what that's what Goliath is dealing with. Y'all, this this is who he he's mad. He wanted their biggest baddest. He wants some gnarly looking. What is What?
What? So he hate he's he's infuriated. It's dis it's disrespectful to send David down here. He disdained him. Verse 43.
And the Philistines said to David, "Am I a dog that you come to me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. So he's mad that he's carrying a stick. It's just just he doesn't even what? And he just starts cursing him. And the Philistines said to David, "Come to me and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field." Then David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied." So he says, "You come to me with a stick." And he said, "No, not a stick." He says, "First of all, you're outfitted with as much military might as you can find.
You got a sword, a spear, and a javelin. I'm not coming to you with anything except for the name of the Lord of hosts. You've defied the Lord. That's the response. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand.
And I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth. That all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hand.
He says, "You come to me and I'm going to feed you to the birds." David says, "I'm going to come to you. I'm going to cut off your head and we're going to kill everyone behind you. And then everyone will know that there's a God and the battle belongs to him. And I'm here in his name." Now, if you're an Israelite, I I don't know how you feel about David headed down there.
You You were afraid to go. David's going. He doesn't You don't know him. There's been a lot of, I'm sure, whispering about him, somebody who's willing to go. He does say he's going in the name of the Lord.
And if for faithful Israelites, they would understand that's good and that God can deliver. I think if you're a Philistine, you're about as confident as you can possibly be. Imagine like a Clemson fan but worse. Just so confident. But you you you're David's coming down.
He doesn't have armor. He doesn't have anything. He even if you can't hear what they're saying, just the tone of their voice. Have y'all ever heard Andre the Giant talk?
Like when Giants talk, it's like a this is a booming I'm just saying they would sing in different parts of the choir like when David responds. I just think it hits your ear differently. And I think there's quiet. So we're waiting to see what's going to happen. 48 When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line, the battle line to meet the Philistine.
And David put his hand in his back, took out a stone, slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground. Goliath starts marching forward. You're like, "Here we go." David starts running. He does a thing, and Goliath falls over.
They're not even near each other yet. Maybe you would have known the motions of what just happened, but Goliath is now on his face like that. So, David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone and struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David. So, it's just saying that when David entered into this, he had no weapon.
He He wins with a sling and a stone. It does say he killed him, but it's going to tell us in a second that he killed him. So, I think that this is like a summary statement of David prevails with a slinging stone and kills Goliath. Killing being summary statement because it's going to tell us he kills him in a second with Goliath's sword. So, it says 51.
Then David ran, stood over the Philistine, which I would assume the the Philistines are still trying to see is Goliath going to move, is he going to do something? You know, you have those moments where you're like, something could happen. What? What?
And David stands on top of him, took his sword, drew it out of its sheath, killed him, and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. And the men of Israel and Judah rose with a shout and pursued the Philistines as far as Gath and the gates of Echrron, so that the wounded Philistines fell on the way from Sherim, as far as Gath and Echron. And the people of Israel came back from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their camp. And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armor in his tent.
Okay, a whole lot just happened there. Hits him with a stone. Goliath falls on his face. I don't know if he spun backwards and fell on his face or if he was moving forward. When he got hit, he just fell forward, but he he's laying on face down.
David pulls his sword out, kills him, cuts his head off. Everybody's watching this for a shocked 35 seconds, minute. I don't know how long it took him to get all the sword out and do all the stuff he did. David, it's over. And when that happens, the Philistines break and run.
They have no intent on being servants. They're just trying to get out of there. Then the Israelites take off after them and just start. This is this is the most casualties in these kind of battles happen when somebody when the team breaks and runs because they're just easier to kill as they're running away. So they chase them just wherever they can chase them all the way back to their cities.
Then they come back and plunder everything. David. My my understanding of what it means that he took the head to Jerusalem and put the armor in his tent was that David on that day took the armor in his tent and that from then on he Goliath's head traveled with him. So when I said he brought a token to his dad, he was like went well. The brothers are fine.
Cheeses were a big hit. Verse 55. As soon as Saul saw David go out against the Philistine, he said to Abnner, the commander of the army, Abnner, whose son is this youth? And Abnner said, as your soul lives, O king, I do not know. Abnner is Saul's uncle who's the commander of his army.
The there is a little bit of wait. I thought Saul knew David. Yeah, he does know David, but also Saul is a king. who's older. And I'm sure he was like, "Hey, nice to meet you.
What's your dad's name?" And then completely forgot that. So that later when David's going out to do this, Saul goes, "Who? Wait, who is this kid again?" Like he just he knows who he is. He knows David. He's met him.
He's played music for him. But I just think he didn't apparently didn't keep up with all this stuff. And now he's figuring out, well, who's this household? We've got to bless his dad. We got to bless this family.
We got to know where they're coming from. What position is he in? We got to know all of that. So I think that's why he's asking And the king, verse 56, said, "Inquire whose son the boy is. And as soon as David returned from striking down the Philistine, Abner took him, brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand." Hadn't let that go.
And Saul said to him, "Who son are you, young man?" And David answered, "I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite." David, not not long before this, walked in and said, "Don't be afraid of Goliath." And then he walks back in the next time, holding his head and says, "I'm the son of Jesse the Bethleamite." This in 1 Samuel as we're following the story, we know that David's been anointed. He's going to be king. We know that the spirit's on him and he's moving in that direction. This is David's introduction to the nation of Israel. From here on, everybody knows who David is.
And this is actually this moment, it's going to happen very quickly, where Saul's very thankful for David and then their relationship immediately just breaks. And we'll see that as we go into the next chapter. But this is the thing that propels David into who he is, what he's going to do, moving towards being king. And on the national in the national psyche, they understand who he is and what's going on and his connection to Saul from this day forward. It says he stays with him.
He's going to keep moving forward. Now, when we read this text, I I think there's times where we look and go, "Okay, so I want to be like David." I think that's reasonable response. I want to I want to be like that. I want to be able to in the face of opposition and fear. I want to trust God.
And I think we could say that you should trust God the way David trusts God. You should be able to see the times that he's provided in the past and apply that to the future. You should be able to say, "I know he's protecting me from this. I know he can protect me in this." You should be able to face anything trusting that God is good and that he provides and that he protects. But I don't think the primary thing that's happening in this story, the primary thing that we should get out of it is if you could just be like David, you could face down any giant in your life.
I I don't think that that's in tune with the rest of the Scriptures. I said earlier that we've read the whole Bible. So, we can't read it the same way twice. Once you know what's happening in the mystery being revealed in Christ, you can't read this the same way and come out of it with we should all go be like David. Because the storyline of the Bible, the story line of the Gospel, the hope that's fulfilled in Christ is not you can be like David.
And y'all, this is actually wonderful news. What's happening here, what we get to see here is so much better and so much more beautiful than if you'll navigate everything well. If you'll be the one who stands among a h 100red thousand, who's confident enough, who trusts enough, then everything will work out for there's something so much more beautiful happening here that as we read this with New Testament understanding, there should have been a moment when we were going, "Oh my goodness. God's going to do this again. There's going to be a son of Jesse from Bethlehem that nobody expects who's going to go save again.
There's going to be someone that God sends that you wouldn't have thought could do this that when people ran into him, they said, "This this isn't you're you're you're nothing. You can't do this." But he's going to do this again. That we can almost see flashes of when David's headed down the hill holding on to a staff. You can almost see Christ headed up the hill holding on to a cross because God's going to send forth a champion again. That's the story of the Bible.
That's the hope of the Bible. Not that we would all be like David. That's not the hope. The Gospel message is so much better. It's that there is someone who was like David, Jesus Christ, who came when there was no hope of solving the problem.
Who showed up from the most unlikely setup. When there was nobody who could fix this. When everybody else had failed and had to stare into the face of I can't do this, there was somebody who showed up who accomplished it for us. that Jesus conquers the giant of sin and death and hell. This is the New Testament authors in Acts chapter 13.
Paul is preaching and he says, "Then they asked for a king and God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for 40 years. And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, "I have found in David, the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my will." Of this man's offspring, God has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus, as he promised. So he says, "David, the son of Jesse, comes and that God has worked through that line and brought about Jesus." And then he finishes, he goes through and he starts quoting these things that they think are about David. And he says, "That's not about David. about Christ.
And he says, "Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses." He says, "Jesus has gone before us. He offers forgiveness of sins and we're made free because of him." We get to watch Jesus go out to battle and then we get to run and plunder. We get the spoils that he won. We get the victory that he won. We get the hope that he grants.
That we have a champion. That we should look at this and go, "How wonderful is it that someone shows up and accomplishes this. That someone shows up and saves." And that we have that in Christ infinitely more, eternally sealed, ultimately accomplished. This is why Jesus says, "Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest." Because what qualifies us for Jesus, what qualifies you for a champion is being insufficient. Are you weary?
Have you looked at yourself and thought, "I can't do this. I don't know how to fix this. I'm trying. I can't I can't straighten myself out." This is one of the things that happens every once in a while. I'm the one who's caused me more problems than anybody else.
I've lied to myself more. I've sinned more. I've twisted things up more. Even the people I really love are just the people I get closest to me so I can hurt the best. It's really messed up, but that's how that works so often.
And what I don't need is a bigger, better, stronger, more powerful version of me. I I don't want to look in the situation and go, I in the middle of my sin, I just need more me. if we just have more me here. It's like, no, I need Christ. I need a redeemer.
I need hope. I need a champion. And we get to look as we read stories like this and go, "Praise be to Jesus that he went before us and that we get to follow after him." And if you're here this morning because you're trying to straighten yourself out, you're trying to be enough, do enough, fix it. What I would say is the Gospel is such better news than that. You have a champion in Christ who has gone before you and accomplish the victory.
And all you need to do is trust him and get behind him. That's the hope. Let's pray. Father, we thank you. We thank you that we see in this story how you save and how you provide a champion for yourself to deliver your people.
We we thank you that you go out of your way multiple times in this text to say he's a son of Jesse. He's a son of Jesse. He's a son of Jesse. So that when you point forward and say there's going to be a root of the tribe of Jesse who's going to bring salvation, we can know that you're doing something here. We're thankful, Lord, that the battle is yours, not ours.
And that victory is yours, not ours. And that someone went before us in faith and obedience to secure a victory that we could not earn. So Lord, may your name be praised, may you be glorified, may you be honored. May you be submitted to. May you be worshiped.
May you be obeyed. May there be delight and joy in the hearts of your people as we consider your works and your salvation and the hope that is found in you. And for every person here who is trying to save themselves, may they surrender to the victory of Christ. May his blood cover them. May forgiveness of sins be applied to them.
May your spirit be at work to free them from all the things that could not they could not be freed from under the law. May they trust you. And this is all to the praise of your glorious grace and your wonderful name. Amen. The band's going to come back up.
One of the things we do regularly as a Church family is we take communion together. And communion helps center us in where we are in history. It helps ground us in where we are in human history. helps ground us in where we are in the story as we follow the Lord. Communion is for Christians, those who have placed their faith in Jesus.
So if you are not a Christian, this is not for you. If you have not trusted in Christ, we would call you to believe in him, to be baptized, to to join following him. But this morning, we would ask you not to take communion. Communion is where Jesus, the Lord's table, the night before he is to suffer, he says, "This is my body. that's broken for you.
This is my blood that's shed for the forgiveness of sins. He says, "Take all of you." And he's talking to his disciples and he says, "Do this in remembrance of me." And Paul says that when we practice communion, we proclaim his death until he comes. We ground ourselves where we are in history, which is that he has died. He has risen. His sacrifice covers us.
And we long for the day that he returns. and we get the full extent of the glory of Christ. If you belong to Jesus, take a moment to consider yourself to walk in repentance, to consider his broken body, his shed blood, to not just do this as a as a ritual that you forget what it's about. There's a reason why it's tangible. There's a reason why at times when I'm dipped this and I'm walking back, you see people walking around our Church family with their hands like this as they've taken the the bread and dipped it and it's dripping down their fingers and it's a tangible reminder that he really died.
He really came. He really rose and it really has been accomplished for all who believe and that he will not put to shame any who come to him. And so you get a tangible reminder this morning of the victory that has been won. And we proclaim his death until he comes when all things are set right. So as the band plays and as you're ready, come take communion.
There's gluten-free communion in the back over here.
1 Samuel 16
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Morning. Happy Father's Day to all my fellow dads. Yeah, I get to add that last part now because you know I'm a veteran two and a halfmonth old dad. So, I just got it figured out.
Uh but so, uh if this is your first time with us this morning, we're glad you're here. My name is Isaac. I'm one of the pastors here. And we have been working our way through the book of 1 Samuel. And to be honest with you, as of late, the story has kind of been a bit of a downer.
Uh but today things are getting exciting. And in the middle of this excitement, we see that the spirit of God is at work to accomplish his will. So let's pray and we're going to jump into the story. Father, we thank you very much for this time, this opportunity where we get to gather together as your people to make much of your name. We get to open up your word and we get to hear your truth.
So would your spirit be speaking to us the truth that you would have for us in Jesus name. Amen. So the specific place that we left off last week is that God rejects Saul as king over the people. And he sends Samuel to deliver that message. And unsurprisingly, it's a bit of a confrontation.
There's some tension between Samuel and Saul. And what we saw at the end of the chapter is that Samuel and Saul go their own ways. And this is where we pick up in the story in chapter 16 verse one. And I'll be honest with you, there's a lot in this passage that we could talk about. There's a lot of rabbit trails.
I'm going to do my best to stay on topic, but we're going to be moving quick. So, here we jump in in chapter 16, verse one. The Lord said to Samuel, "How long will you grieve over Saul since I have rejected him from being king over Israel?" So it appears that the Lord here has given Samuel some space to grieve over what would have been as devastating reality for Samuel. He would have been putting in a lot of effort and energy and care into Saul who inevitably we see this downfall in him and it's heartbreaking to Samuel and what kindness the Lord shows uh to Samuel to allow him to grieve. as well.
This question is trying to call Samuel on because as we're going to see, the Lord is moving on. The Lord is the one who rejected Saul and he's moving forward with his plan. Let's continue. So he says to Samuel, "Fill your horn with oil and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I provided for myself a king among his sons." So God tells Samuel that he's got a plan.
And this plan, oh, it's a brilliant plan. It's a genius plan as we're going to see today and in the coming chapters of First Samuel. And it starts by God sending Samuel to this little town Bethlehem. Now, Bethlehem at this time, it's not a town of great renown.
It's just a little place, maybe not even on a map. Of course, you and I. I mean, we even recognize this name today. Every Christmas, you're familiar with the tune, oh little town of Bethlehem. No.
Anybody? No. Some maybe. I don't know. I don't think Pentatonics has picked that up on their Christmas album yet.
But anyways, so Samuel is sent to this little town of Bethlehem. And this is a common theme for the Lord at work to take what is insignificant and use it in his mission. And Samuel responds to the Lord in verse two. And Samuel said, "How can I go?
If Saul hears it, he will kill me." So we saw this tension last week that remains here between Samuel and Saul. And more so than that, what the Lord just asked Samuel to do is in essence participate in a coup. He's asked him to be involved in the overthrowing of the existing king on the throne. This is dangerous stuff. And Samuel knows it.
So he's saying, "How can I go do this?" But the Lord responds to him. Continue on verse two. And the Lord said, "Take a heer with you and say, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord and invite Jesse to the sacrifice and I will show you what you shall do and you shall anoint for me him who I declare to you." So the Lord understands the difficulty that Samuel is in. And he responds to him by saying, "Look, I haven't asked you to go to the rooftops and declare what you're doing. You just get to go and do your normal everyday stuff.
Go to Bethlehem, take an offering. This is what you usually do. Nobody's going to be taken by surprise that that you're going to show up to make a sacrifice." And uh so Samuel is responding to this. And this for me is the beginning of this genius, this creativity of the Lord on display to allow Samuel an opportunity to get in and accomplish this purpose. So continue on verse four.
Samuel did what the Lord commanded and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling and said, "Do you come peaceably?" And he said, "Peaceably, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice." and he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. So Samuel accepts the plan that the Lord gives him and he goes to Bethlehem and the Lord said, "You're going to find among Jesse, among his sons, the one whom I have chosen." And so when Samuel shows up, the elders greet him.
And apparently they're terrified that Samuel shows up. Now, in this text, it doesn't tell us why they're afraid, but I would venture to guess that it's related to the last time we saw Samuel. It says that he hacked a guy to pieces. And that's the exact language that showed up in the text in 15. Now, maybe the elders didn't witness that, but I don't know about you, but if I had heard about a guy who hacks other guys to pieces, if he came walking into the room, I'd be on the edge of my seat.
So, they're on the edge of their seats. They're concerned that do you come in peace? And Samuel says, 'Yes, I come in peace.' He's sticking to the plan. I've come to make an offering to the Lord. And he's making sure he says,"I want Jesse to be there.
I want Jesse and his sons to be there." So, this is what happens. They're all starting to to get ready for this offering. This word uh consecrate means that they're preparing themselves for the offering. It would involve washing themselves, making themselves clean uh to come and participate in this sacrifice. And they're ready to join Samuel.
And uh as a quick note for context here, what makes the most sense is that the type of offering that Samuel has come to make would be a peace offering or a fellowship offering. And what that would look like uh in short would be that they would take part of the animal and sacrifice it for the Lord. And then the rest of it they would cook and eat among themselves as a sign of peace and fellowship with one another and with God. So that's what Samuel has come to do. They're starting to get ready to participate in this together.
Verse six, when they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, "Surely the Lord's anointed is before him." So when Jesse and his son show up and Samuel's getting ready for this offering, Jesse uh Samuel sees Jesse's oldest son, Eliab, and he thinks that's got to be the one. Apparently Eliab looked like the stuff that kings are made out of. Now, we don't get a whole lot of description of him as we'll see in a second. It appears that he's tall. He's handsome.
Uh but I don't know. I don't know if he, you know, was built well. I don't know if he had a nice chiseled jaw, slick back hair. I think mullets have made their way back in. I don't know if that was a thing back in the day.
Whatever he looked like. I mean, when Samuel saw him, he was like, "Man, the Lord knows how to pick them." But verse seven, but the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." So this is the difference between man's choosing and God's choosing. Both are making here an evaluation of this man Eliab.
Both are trying to discern whether or not this man would be fit for the position. Samuel's looking though at the physical, at the temporal aspects of this man trying to judge whether he could be a leader. But what God is looking at and what he is concerned with is what is in his heart. What is at the core of this man?
what's in his inner being. The language that uh was used a couple chapters ago is that God is interested in a man after his own heart. Does this man that God is going to choose to be king care about the things that the Lord cares about? And is that going to show up in the way that he leads and loves people?
So I think on one hand, as a quick aside, we don't have time to post up here for a bunch, but I think we understand this idea. I think when we read this, it doesn't jump off the page as super extraordinary. And I think there are plenty of ways in which it shows up in our life. And for the life of our Church, one of the ways that came to mind is that we have an elder and training process. Uh if you don't know, we have an elder and training process.
So for those that are interested in becoming elders and joining our pastor team here at uh Mil City, there's a process where these men will stay with us through the course of years so that we can evaluate if they're fit to be on the team. Now if we just showed up one day and uh Mike Goal, who is currently in the process of being an elder in training, if we just showed up next Sunday and said, "You know what? We have knited him as an elder because look at his luscious locks. you just you can't resist them. That would be your response.
You would laugh at us and then if you thought we were being serious, you'd start to be concerned that that was the reason because we understand that what matters, especially in the the positions of of leadership, is that it's the heart, it's the character at play here. But even though we do have uh a kind of an understanding of this, uh I think we would do well, and once again, this isn't the main point, so we're not going to be able to post up in here, but you can take this thought and meditate on it later. We would do well to reflect on do we evaluate as men evaluate or do we evaluate as God evaluates? Are we more concerned with the temporary aspects of people or the eternal aspects of people?
I just think that's something that's worth our time to consider and meditate and reflect on in our own hearts. But what's going on here is that Samuel sees Eliab and he thinks based on the way he looks that he's going to be a good king. But God says, "No, I haven't chosen him. I'm looking for a man that's after my own heart." So let's continue on.
Verse eight. Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel, and he said,"Neither has the Lord chosen this one." Then Jesse made Shama pass by, and he said, "Neither has the Lord chosen this one." And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, "The Lord has not chosen these." Now, in this passage, it never directly says that Samuel tells Jesse what's going on. Unlike in Saul, whenever Saul's anointed, Samuel directly says, "I'm anointing you as prince over the people." He doesn't say exactly what's going on, but it's clear that he's choosing. And Jesse here is parading essentially his children, his sons in front of Samuel so that they can be evaluated.
And one goes by, no. Another goes by, no. Another goes by, no. Seven of his sons come by and none of them are chosen. And that leaves us with a question.
at least at least more importantly leaves Samuel with a question because God told him he was going to go to Bethlehem to the house of Jesse and one of his sons was going to be chosen. So this is what he says. Then Samuel said to Jesse verse 11, "Are all your sons here?" And he said, "There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep." So apparently David, the youngest one, gets forgotten out taking care of the sheep. I I mean, in fairness to him, there's a lot of kids. There's seven sons before him.
He's the eighth. There's some daughters. There's a lot. It's Father's Day. We'll give him pass.
He says, "Yeah, there's there's the youngest one. He's out taking care of the sheep." And Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here." So Samuel tells Jesse, "Go get the youngest one that's out in the field. We're not going to sit down." Or, in other words, we're not going to participate in this offering, this thing that I have come here to do until you go and get the youngest out in the field. Verse 12. And he sent and brought him in.
Now he was ready and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, "Arise, anoint him, for this is he." Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Rama. So finally, the one that the Lord had chosen appears.
He shows up. And when David walks onto the scene, the Lord tells Samuel, "This is the one that I have chosen. Anoint him." Now, briefly, if I'm honest, I'm a little confused about the description of David because we just read a verse that said, "The Lord doesn't look on the outward appearance." And then we get an outward appearance description of David. Very quickly, what I've come to think and meditate on this is that number one, the description of David is not actually directly tied to the choosing of him. He just shows up and we get a description.
And I think that one of the big reasons why we get a description of what he looks like is, I don't know if you know this, David's basically going to become the main character of the story at this point. He's going to show up a lot. And now you and I kind of know a little bit what he looks like. He's ready. That would mean that he has reddish skin tone.
So, you can picture that as you will. And he's got beautiful eyes and he's handsome. And at this time, he's probably pretty young. We don't know exactly, maybe late teens, mid late teens. We don't know exactly, but he's this young, handsome, beautiful boy.
And he comes walking in and the Lord says, "This is the one that I have chosen." And Samuel anoints him as king. And this anointing that he does, it's this clear marker that he's being set apart for God's work. That's what anointing was for. So David here is being set apart for the work that God has for him. And when he's anointed, it says that the spirit of the Lord rushed upon him from that day forward.
God's personal presence comes to dwell upon David in a way that he hadn't known to empower and equip him for the work that the Lord had for him. And it's going this strenuous road ahead that David has to walk as we'll see in the chapters to come. And it says here that it was from that day forward. So it gives us a hint into surely this is going to look different than Saul. David's going to look different than Saul as king.
So we see that David here is anointed by God as king of the people. What an amazing event. But there's a king of the people. What about Saul?
We understand that God has rejected him from king over the people. I don't think the people have rejected him yet. As a matter of fact, I think the people probably like him fairly well. Militaristically speaking, Saul's done. I He's got a good record.
He's defeated enemies. He's kept them safe. And if he really kept up his peopleleasing acts, I guess some people are satisfied with Saul as king. So, I can imagine that it probably wouldn't go very well if Samuel just walted up with David and said, "Behold, message from the Lord.
Saul, you're not king anymore. This young pretty boy David, he's your king now." I I don't think people would buy it. Now, if God really said to do that, they should, but come on, we know how people work. So God needs a way to shift the masses of people to understand the direction that he is going with the anointing of David. And that's what we're going to see taking place in the rest of the book of First Samuel.
And right now we get to look at the first step of this master plan of the Lord to get David onto the throne. Because David one day will be on the throne. He's not. He goes back to sheep today, but he will be on the throne. The Lord has anointed him.
The spirit of the Lord has rushed upon him. And this sp the spirit, this mention of the spirit, it's the the link between the end of Saul's reign and the beginning of David's, as we'll see here in verse 14. So, let's continue on. Now the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him. Now that's intense.
And not only is it intense, it also raises some questions. So we see that the spirit of the Lord rushes upon David. The spirit of the Lord departs from Saul and then a harmful spirit from the Lord torments him. Now, I think there are two primary questions that are worth asking before we continue on in this story.
The first being, if the spirit of the Lord left Saul, will he leave me? Now, that question, if you have that question in your head and that causes you to get held up before we move on, pause that at the end. We're going to come back. That's where we're going to spend most of our time at the end of this. So, we're not skirting the question.
We're just getting to it later. Second question that I think we ask is, are there harmful spirits that the Lord uses to torment people? Is that a thing? What's going on here?
Now, what I want to do is I want to offer two interpretive options to understand what is going on here. I'll tell you the one that I lean toward and then I'll also tell you I don't think however you interpret this actually matters to the difficulty we have in asking the question. So here's a couple interpretive options. Interpretive option number one that what's being described here as a harmful spirit that is tormenting Saul is that it is an evil spirit or in other words a spiritual being that is against the will of God that God allows to torment Saul by removing his protection from him. So you would come to that understanding probably from seeing that it says that the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul.
So surely that involves removing some of his protection from Saul and what's going on and that uh we don't see it in the ESV translation but some translations are going to uh say that it's an evil spirit not a harmful spirit. So that would be another way that you would come to that understanding is that this is a spiritual being against the will of God who comes in cause uh harm and uh torment Saul because God's protection has left. That's option number one. option number two that exists and this is the one that I lean towards. This is a spirit who submits to the will of God.
This is a spiritual being who submits to the will of God. And it is inside of God's will that harm would befall Saul. Last week, the last two weeks, we saw the disobedience of Saul on display and we saw the judgment of the Lord coming upon him because of it. So, we've already gotten to wrestle with some of this.
And that I think is actually at the core of the question that when we are concerned with what's going on here, we're primarily concerned with that God would be directly involved in harm befalling someone. And so, no matter how you interpret this, that's at play. And luckily for me in our time this morning, two weeks ago, Spencer spent a whole sermon just talking about God's wrath and judgment. And so if you get hung up on that question and you weren't here two weeks ago, I would encourage you as you continue to wrestle with this, go back and listen to that sermon.
You can find it on our website or on our YouTube page. And also, as a quick aside, all of our sermons are recorded. So, if you're looking for a database of all good information on the Bible, you can go to our uh website or our YouTube page and see all sorts of stuff. But if this question just you wrestle with it and it's difficult, my encouragement would be go back, listen to it. But unfortunately, for time sake, that's all we have to be able to discuss today.
But what's going on here is that the spirit of the Lord rushes upon David. The spirit of the Lord departs from Saul. Saul's been rejected as the one who's going to reign as king ultimately because call Saul has rejected God. And then there's this harmful spirit that comes upon Saul. And this is this is directly related to the plan.
This is directly related to the genius that is taking place as we're going to see to get David to the throne. So let's continue on. Verse 15. And Saul's servants said to him, "Behold now, a harmful spirit from God is tormenting you.
Let our Lord now command your servants who are before you to seek out a man who is skillful in playing the liar. And when the harmful spirit from God is upon you, he will play it and you will be well." So somehow Saul's servants know exactly what's going on. And more than that, they know that playing a liar, playing a stringed instrument is the exact fix that Saul needs for his problem. Whatever the way is that they know this, this is directly linked to God's plan of working to get David onto the throne, as we'll see. Verse 17.
So Saul said to his servants, "Provide for me a man who can play well, and bring him to me." One of the young men answered, "Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethleamite, who is skillful in playing, a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence, and the Lord is with him. Therefore, Saul sent his messengers to Jesse and said, "Send me David, your son, who is with the sheep." So, Saul likes the idea. Maybe he didn't have other options. He thinks, "That's a good one. I'll pursue that one." He says, "Go find me someone who can play." Lo and behold, one of the servants says, "I've heard a young guy happens to be David from Jesse.
He's great at playing the liar." And more than that, David's really getting talked up. I mean, he's brave. He's seen combat. He's a guy that's careful with his word. He's just got a good presence to him.
You know, he's got good vibes. The Lord is with him. These are good attributes. As we'll see, these characters, this character of David is going to be on display for us in the rest of Samuel as it plays out. But Saul, he really likes this idea.
And so, he sends to go get David and bring him in. Verse 20. And Jesse took a donkey laden with bread and a skin of wine and a young goat and sent them by David his son to Saul. And David came to Saul and entered his service. And Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armor bearer.
And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, "Let David remain in my service, for he has found favor in my sight." And whenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the liar and played it with his hand. So Saul was refreshed and was well and the harmful spirit departed from him. So Saul likes a plan. He sends to get David. David comes to be in Saul's service and the plan it works.
David plays the liar and it soothes Saul. Just imagine heart on the doulamer playing it. It's just beautiful melody that's coming out that just soothes you. That's what's happening here that Saul it works. the plan is working.
And not only that, Saul really likes David. Like, he really likes David. I mean, he even makes him his armor bearer. We saw a couple weeks ago Jonathan and his armor bearer when they went handinand into combat to defeat a Philistine garrison. The amount of trust that you have to have to make someone your armor bearer, to be the one that would fight alongside you, to be the one that would tend to that which protects you in war.
Man, Saul really likes what was this nobody little boy from this nobody town who's come to be with the king. David is now on the inside. David has inched closer and closer to the throne because of this masterful maneuvering of the Lord and this dicey political situation. David has been anointed as king. God has chosen him.
He has poured his spirit out upon David. I told you we'd come back to this idea of the spirit here because in this story it is the central connecting point between what we see happening with Saul and what's happening with David in that question that we asked earlier it's been left lingering which is if the spirit of God leaves Saul will it leave me now to answer this I think we have to have an understanding of what God is doing in the bigger narrative of the different covenantal periods or another way of saying that is through the different testaments. So in your Bible you have Old Testament, you have New Testament. There's a central figure as we'll see here that marks the difference. Now today our story is taking place in the Old Testament.
The narrative, the big narrative of the Old Testament is that there's going to be a promised one who would come to bring about redemption. That is the big picture of the Old Testament. That there is a promised one who will come, who will bring about redemption, who would bring about God's rule and reign here on earth. Saul was a king. Saul was king of God's people.
He was supposed to in part bring God's rule and reign, but he failed. He couldn't. David, as we'll see, he's renowned as the greatest king that Israel has ever known. He's seen as a man after God's own heart. I hate to spoil it for you if you don't know, but David fails.
We need something. We need someone better that can accomplish what God desires and coming to be and to dwell among his people. The Old Testament is screaming that out that we need someone to do this work. And the one who accomplishes that work shows up on the front pages of the New Testament. And his name is Jesus.
Jesus comes to be the better David. Jesus comes to be the better king, the one who is going to usher in the rule and the reign of God among his people in the way that he desires. And the message of Jesus is that he is God himself come to be among people like you and I so that he could rescue and save us by going to the cross by atoning for the sins of the world. In the Gospel of John, there's a popular set of chapters called the Upper Room Discourse. It's right at the end of Jesus's earthly ministry.
And he's it's this very intimate setting between him and his disciples. And what he says to them is,"I am going to have to leave so that I can accomplish my work because if I go and accomplish my work, I get to send to you the helper. I get to send to you the spirit, my spirit." that Jesus if he goes to suffer and die at the cross to atone for the sins of the world so that he can rise from the dead in resurrection power and ascend to the throne. If he can do that then he can send his spirit his helper to be among his people and that is where you and I live. We live in the finished work of Jesus.
He did go and accomplish that work and he did send his spirit to be in his people. So we come back to the question, if the spirit left Saul, will he leave me? Well, as we just saw, we're living in the finished work of Jesus. So my response to that question would be rooted in what Paul says in Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1:13, "In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it." This is language of finality.
We are sealed. The spirit is our guarantee. Guarantee is not a maybe. Guarantee isn't a if you can do well enough. Guarantee is final.
The spirit of the almighty creator. If you belong to Christ, he dwells in you. Just think about that for a second. You and I, the spirit of the living God, the very essence of who he is, dwells within you and I. What amazing love and grace that the father has for us that as sons and daughters he would give himself to us.
One of the beautiful things about the spirit that I want to focus on for the rest of our time here is that the spirit doesn't just show up at the beginning of your relationship with Christ and then show up at the end to give you your inheritance. It's not just a beginning and end thing. The spirit of God is in you in the everyday. He's with you when you rose this morning and when you brushed your teeth and when you came in and got coffee. As we sit here now, the spirit of God dwells within us.
He's in the everyday stuff of life. And surely that means something. Surely that shows up in some kind of way if the essence of our creator is within us in the everyday. So what I want to do is now we could spend a lot of time talking about all sorts of ways in which the spirit shows up in our everyday life, but what I want to do is just look at in the rest of Ephesians, Paul mentions several places how the spirit is at work in the life of a believer. So we're just going to go through there are five different ones that I want to point out this morning that Paul pointed out to the Church in Ephesus about the spirit that could be at work in them.
So, number one that we're going to look at, the spirit reveals. The spirit of God reveals. In Ephesians chapter 1, just a couple verses later from what we just read, Paul says this. I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of Revelation in the knowledge of him. that Paul says, "My prayer is that the spirit will be revealing in you the knowledge of Christ." Do you know that your knowledge of Christ has come to you by the Revelation of the spirit of God at work in your life?
I can remember when this first began to be real for me in the most potent, powerful way. freshman year of college, the pages of Scripture coming alive, the spirit beginning to actually reveal to me this man, Jesus, and who he is and what he's done. It's not always that potent in life. Sometimes you just have a day. But do you know that what you know about Jesus is revealed to you because of the spirit of God?
Shouldn't we long for the spirit of God to reveal to us the mysteries of Christ? Because I don't know if you know this, that's the news that has changed our world. That's the news that has changed your world. Don't we want to know him more?
That's the work of the spirit in our life. So the spirit reveals. Second thing, the spirit unifies. The spirit unifies. In Ephesians chapter 2, Paul says this, for through him, that's Christ, we both have access in one spirit to the father.
So then, you no longer you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. There is one spirit that binds us in unity. Now maybe if you see our cultural moment, you see any of the Church, you might have a question. Really?
Does he really do that? One of the things that I was thinking about reflecting on was even in all the attempts of the spiritual forces of darkness and the ignorance of man, the Church is still here. Yes, we have muddied things up, but the spirit has been at work in God's people to bring about unity. What a beautiful thing. I don't know about you, but I might not know any of you if it weren't for the work of the spirit.
We surely wouldn't be in this room all sitting peaceibly together. We have something that is transcendent within us that binds us together. May we long that the spirit would bring us unity and cast out any opportunity for gossip, any opportunity for relational hurt that would keep us from being able to be at peace. The spirit unifies. Third thing, the spirit equips.
Paul in Ephesians 4 says this. There is one body and one spirit. Just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. And then he goes on to talk about gifts that he has given to the Church, members in the Church for the building up of the body of Christ.
The spirit of God dwells within us, equipping us, equipping you and I. The spirit of the living God lives within each one of us and you and I so that you and I can build one another up. What a beautiful and amazing thing. One of my great joys in life is being able to help others with building things and fixing things. And thank you, Phoebe.
And what I've come to understand is that that's a gift. as a gift the Spirit's given me to help build other people up. And I pray that he continues to allow me to use that gift for the building up of one another. I don't know how the spirit of God has equipped you. We'll get to talk in our community groups this week about that.
But in whatever way he has equipped you, it's for the purpose of building us up. If you look in the room, there are other people. It's for the building up of us in this room here. Ultimately, he says, so that we can attain to the unity of the faith. Comes back to this unified aspect.
They're all intermingled. It's one spirit. You can't really easily parse them all out. But the spirit equips. The spirit equips.
One last thing I want to say on this real quick. I got to move quick here. A lot of times I think we can think in a Church context that uh people like me, people like the ones who play instruments or watch kids, that's it. That's the extent of the service that we can give to each other and it's limited to what happens on a Sunday morning. That's not it's just like a tiny little sliver of what happens.
And what I love about our community groups is that you get to actually be connected to one another in life and that those are the places where the spirit really gets to move to build one another up because you're actually intimately connected to know what is the way in which I need to build this person up. So, just as a quick aside, if you feel like, man, I don't I can't speak in front of people, I can't play an instrument, I can't do this, I can't do that. It doesn't have to show up in the way that we do stuff here on Sunday, but the spirit does equip you to work in the life of our brothers and sisters who are here in this room in the everyday. Number four, the spirit convicts. Ephesians 6, Paul has a fairly popular passage uh about the armor of God.
Here's what he says. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God. And he gives a list of different things. And one of them is this.
The sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Now, you take this understanding with Hebrews chapter 4. The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing through the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and marrow, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. The spirit of God reveals in us the part of us that is weak, the part of us that is broken and hurting, the part of us that is bent away from the things of God. last week uh the other night uh was you know as I said at the beginning my wife and I we've got a newborn son and it's been a wonderful journey uh and we were setting him down at night.
Honestly, he's been doing great at night. It's wonderful that he sleeps longer. Uh but for some reason after I set him down I was going to bed like my mind just wouldn't turn off and I was awake and I was just frustrated. Why won't you just shut off so you can go to sleep?
He's asleep. just shut off so she can go to sleep. So, I'm getting angsty and then he starts crying. I'm getting I'm I'm frustrated. I'm tired.
I'm getting up. He's crying. He needs a diaper change. I'm putting him on the table. I'm trying to change his diaper.
He's crying. He's flanneling about. That's the most aggravating thing. It's like, I'm trying to help you, kid. Just stop moving your legs.
I'm trying to change him. My My anger my anger just starts to get the best of me. My wife comes in because, you know, maybe there's a ruckus at this point in the room. And in her in her grace and wisdom, she's trying to help. She's trying to say, "Ah, you should you should maybe step away.
I'll take this one." And I'm, you know, I just obviously handle that so well. Just such peace and gentleness. No. So, she does take them and in her love, she handles it way better than I.
And I go back to the bed. It takes me a little while longer, but eventually I fall asleep. I wake up the next morning. I'm just feeling this sense of conviction. I'm having to pray before my father, please forgive me.
I have to later that day when I see my wife. I'm sorry. The anger got the best of me. one day because I'm sure it won't be the last. I'll have to tell my son I'm sorry.
That's the work of the spirit within me to reveal that and then empower me to live in the truth of Jesus that I am forgiven. May we be like David in Psalm 139. Search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. and see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.
Father, would you in your spirit reveal in us the ways in which we're grieving you? But then would you lead us in the way everlasting? Would you remind us? Would you reveal to us again the truth of Jesus, the love and forgiveness he has for us?
The spirit convicts. Lastly, the spirit sins. Right after this verse in Ephesians 6, talking about the armor of God, this is what Paul says. Praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints and also for me that words may be given to me and opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the Gospel.
Paul says, "Be in prayer always." And in that prayer, remember me that the spirit might equip me with the words to say to proclaim the mystery of Christ. The Church in Ephesus alone wouldn't have been there if the spirit had not sent Paul to proclaim the mystery of Christ. Mil City Church wouldn't be here if the spirit had not sent men to proclaim the message of Christ. And one thing I am being more and more convicted of and convinced of is that I am sent here. This isn't happen stance.
It's not coincidence that you find me here in this area. The spirit has sent me. Do you know that it's not a coincidence that you're here in this chair? The spirit has sent you wherever you are. in your home, at your work, in your neighborhood, with your family, your friends, wherever it is the spirit has sent you.
May our prayer be that of Paul's that the spirit would equip us to speak boldly of Christ. The spirit sins. What gift the father has given us that he would allow his personal powerful presence to dwell within you and I. What I want to do with the rest of our time, maybe you noticed earlier that we didn't have a time of prayer. It's been shifted to now.
In Ephesians chapter 3, the same book, this is what Paul says. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being. Paul longs for. He gets down on his knees before the father, praying that the Church in Ephesus would be filled with the power of spirit in their inner being to accomplish that which God has called them to. So what we're going to do right now as a Church is we're going to pray.
We're going to pray through each of these things that we just talked about that the spirit of God would be working in us in our inner being to reveal, to unify, to equip, to convict, and to send us. So, the way it'll work is I will say a quick prayer uh for each bullet point to start off that section. And so I'll pray that the spirit would reveal and that'll uh open up a time for all of us to pray together and then I'll say a short prayer about the spirit unifying and so forth and so on. That's what we're going to do with the rest of our time and then the band will come back up and we'll sing. Let me pray.
Almighty Father, what grace that you have given us that the very essence of who you are in your spirit would come to dwell within lowly people like us. And Father, we pray that you would be revealing the truth of Jesus in our life wherever we are at right now. Father, it's all too easy for us to be at odds with one another. Father, would you give us your spirit that unifies Father, you have equipped us and you will equip us as you see fit in your spirit to accomplish your desires in this Church. Would you make it known to us the ways in which you have equipped us for the building up of one another?
Father, you know our hearts. You know how we're twisted. Would you in your spirit and in your kindness reveal to us the ways in which we need to repent, turn to you, and give us the strength in your spirit to do so? Father, you have sent us. You've sent us into this community of the greater Colombia area to be ambassadors to be ministers of the Gospel to be those who would be empowered by your spirit like Paul to boldly proclaim the message of Jesus.
For this reason we bow our knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named that according to the riches of his glory he may grant us to be strengthened with power through his spirit in our inner being. So that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith. That us being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that we may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think according to the power at work within us. To him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever.
Amen. The band's going to come up. We're going to sing we're going to sing a song called Your Will Be Done. And that's at the core of this desire that the spirit would be at work with in us. That it would not be our wills that we would be seeking to accomplish, but it would be the spirit of God and work within us to reveal to us his will and what he's doing.
So, let's sing together as a Church.
1 Samuel 15 (part 2)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Spencer. I'm one of the pastors here. So, we are in week two of 1st Samuel 15.
So, we were originally going to I was going to approach this all in one clip and then after looking at it, we realized that uh we'll see in a few moments in kind of beginning in verse three and four is a very visible display of the wrath of God. And uh in our western culture, we're not the best prepped to be able to receive that uh even though that's not the main point of the text. So last week, we spent some time uh looking at that uh this passage in light of uh the wrath of God as an essential part of God's character that flows from Genesis into the New Testament. So if you weren't here, I encourage you uh you can go back and listen to that. But we're going to look at what is actually the main point of this week.
It is Saul's disobedience that leads to his rejection of his kingship. So, we're going to walk through this today and we're going to see that one of the biggest reasons for Saul's failure here, but also elsewhere is that Saul simply just doesn't know God. He doesn't know God. And what flows out of that is disobedience. And we're going to look at three different aspects of his disobedience after we walk through this story that kind of give us three warnings and three lessons for us as the Church to see the importance of both knowing God and not falling into some of the same traps that he fell into.
So I'm going to pray and then we're going to walk through this together. Heavenly Father, I pray that you might help us have hearts to receive your word. God, I pray that we would not just be hearers of the word, but we be doers of the word. We respond in faith and repentance and in worship and in delighting in you above all things. We ask this in Jesus name.
Amen. All right. So, we're going to start off in verse one. And Samuel said to Saul, "The Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel." Now, therefore, listen to the words of the Lord.
Thus says the Lord of hosts, I have noted what Amalecch did to Israel and opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and strike Amalecch and devote to destruction all they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey, which pause, that's what we spent all of last weekend is trying to understand that right there in light of the rest of the Scriptures. So, if you're new here or you weren't here last week and you're encounting that for the first time, I would encourage you go back and listen to last week as we sat in that idea as an aspect of God's character, his wrath.
But we're going to move on. Verse four. So Saul summoned the people and numbered them in to 200,000 men on foot and 10,000 men of Judah. And Saul came to the city of Amalecch and lay in wait in the valley. Then Saul said to the Kennites, "Go depart.
Go down from there. go down from among the Amalachites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kennites departed from among the Amalachites, which this, as you remember last week, God's judgment is on the Amalachites. The Amalachites were the ones who opposed the people of God, sought to exterminate them, sought to war against them in the book of Exodus.
The Kennites are actually a people that were good towards God and his people. So the judgment is for the Amalachites. The Kennites leave. And then verse seven, and Saul defeated the Amalachites from Havala as far as sure, which is east of Egypt. And he took Aag, the king of the Amalachites alive, and do devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword.
But Saul and the people spared Aag and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, of the fattened calves, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless, they devoted to destruction. So they devote to destruction, the Amalachites, men, women, they they they they fulfill part of it, but then Saul leads the people and decides Aag will be spared and the best of their livestock. So he disobys the Lord. And when you look at all the destruction that happened that he doesn't follow through with the rest of this, it's like why?
What's happening here? And this greatly displeases the Lord. Verse 10, the word of the Lord came to Samuel. I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments. And Samuel was angry and he cried to the Lord all night.
So God judges Saul. So I regret that I made him king. He's not performed my commandments. And Samuel's angry. He's upset.
He cries to the Lord all night because this is difficult. Samuel loves Saul. Loves him. Has a heart for him. And if you've ever invested in someone, if you ever given your life away to someone that you've loved and you spent time with and you and you gave your energy to and you help them, point them to God and they you show them what it looks like to follow God, what it looks like to love God, what it looks like to know God, what it looks like to obey his commands, and then they reject that and self-destruct.
I mean, it is painful to see people that you love do this. And Samuel feels that through the night as he's crying out to the Lord. Verse 12, Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. So he wakes up and it was told Samuel, Saul came to Carmel and behold, he set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on and went down to Gil. So, not only is Samuel receiving the reality that Saul has disobeyed the Lord, he's been rejected.
He hears of there's a monument that Saul has set up to his own greatness. He doesn't he's blind. He doesn't even see this is to his own re disobedience, to his own rebellion against the will of God that he's making monuments to his own sin and he can't see it. Verse 13. And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, "Blessed be you to the Lord.
I have performed the commandment of the Lord." And listen, the rest of this just reads very much like Saul is a thoughtless child. Like he he doesn't get it. He's like, "Look," sometimes I tell my kids, "Yeah, clean up clean up your room. Go in." Like, "Look, I've cleaned it. It's great.
And there's candy wrappers, which that's a problem. You're not supposed to have candy in your room. Now, I got to address that. Also, there's toys everywhere.
Completely blind, but they've not done what they're supposed to do. And Sam, he g Saul says, "Look, Samuel, I've done it. I performed the commandment of God." Saul is quickly confronted with reality. Vers 14. And Samuel said, "What then is this bleeding of the sheep in my ears and the loing of the oxen that I hear?" It's like, "What?
What then? What is the candy wrappers and the toys in the ground? What why do I hear the bleeding of sheep? Why do I hear the loing of of oxen?
If you've performed the commandment of God, then what is that sound, Saul?" He's quick with an explanation. Verse 15, Saul said, "They have brought them from the Amalachites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction." So, in true childlike fashion, quick with an explanation, let's go. Now, we we we saved these for the Lord. That what happened was is that we that's what we did. We saved these for the Lord.
See, this is a good thing that we've done, Samuel. And Samuel in true father-like fashion is like, I'm done with this. I'm I'm I'm I'm done with this fixing. Then Samuel said to Saul, "Stop. I will tell you what the Lord said to me this night." And he said to him, "Speak." And Samuel said, "Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel?
The Lord anointed you king over Israel. The Lord sent you on a mission and said, "Go devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalachites, and fight against them until they are consumed." It's like, "Though you, Saul, are small in your own eyes, being from the tribe of Benjamin, the smallest of the tribes. You are chosen as the king. You were chosen as the one who has authority to lead the people in obeying my voice." It was you that was chosen, raised up for this moment to finally bring judgment on the enemy of the people, the Amalachites. It was you.
Verse 19, why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord? which had to be the question that sat on Samuel's soul all night is why why did you do it? Why did you disobey God?
Why did you pounce on the spool? Why? It's because Saul can't see that God has a bigger plan here to bring judgmental. He can't see it. He hears this.
He interprets how he should do it. Does what he wants. And still he's defending himself. Verse 20 it says, "And Saul said to Samuel, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on mission on which the Lord sent me.
I have brought Aag, the king of Amalecch, and I have devoted the Amalachites to destruction." But the people took of the spoil sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, sacrificed to the Lord your God in Gilgal, which is a bit of blame shifting there. Now he's moved the goalpost a little bit. So uh no it was but but the people did but but even even the people did that. It's still a good thing. You know we we obeyed the voice of the Lord and this this livestock.
It's it's going to be set up for the Lord. It's going to be for a good reason. I will we will honor the Lord with sacrifices. And it's clear as you read this, like again, Saul just doesn't know God. He doesn't know God.
Doesn't understand the importance of how all this is tied into your history as a people into the law and to the history that goes back to Exodus 17. Like you you don't know God to think that you are going to offer sacrifices and somehow get away. That's not how this works. At this point, Samuel shifts into which is this. What we're about to hear is is the word of the Lord to Saul.
And it's we can't see this in the English, but this little section in Hebrew rhymes. It's poetic in form. It rhymes and it's going to be sticky and remembered by the people of God for centuries. Verse 22. And Samuel said, "Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as and obeying the voice of the Lord?" Meaning that does God you think God cares more about your offerings than obedience than obeying the voice of God?
He says, "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams." He says it's it's better for you to listen and obey than to think the fat of rams which again this isn't to put down sacrifices. Sacrifices are good. In the book of Levit Leviticus you see this intentional structuring of sacrif the sacrificial system that was meant for the people of God to come and worship to remember what sin costs. The fat of rams was a good thing for the people to worship in. But that was not disconnected from a heart that loved God wholly and knew him and was obedient to his voice and what he commands.
Says for this for rebellion is the sin of divination and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. meaning that this sin is like all the other sins in the sense you you're rebelling against the will of God because you have rejected the word of the Lord. He has also rejected you from being king. And this is the final pronouncement of judgment on Saul and his kingship. It's over.
That what was started in his disobedience and the unlawful sacrifices that we saw a few chapters ago is now finalized here. It's over for you as king. And the thought still lingers. Why?
Why go through this massive battle, all the all the destruction and and you do this? Like what were you thinking, Saul? And then finally in verse 24, we get a glimpse into what he was thinking. We see part of the problem. Verse 24, Saul said to Samuel, "I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.
Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may bow before the Lord. The final reason comes out. Saul fears his own people. Which means that probably when the battle was wrapping up and they were securing victory, the people did what all the armies in ancient near east did. They started grabbing spoils of victory.
started grabbing sheep and oxmen. And in that moment, the people are hungry to celebrate their own victory. And as Saul sees this, he doesn't have the courage to stand in that moment on the convictions to obey the voice of the Lord. They start murmuring about how much they deserve this. And he fears their opinion more.
He fears them more than God. Because in that moment, he could have used his king authority, his kingly authority, and said, "The next man that grabs a sheep will be struck dead along with that sheep. We will obey the voice of the Lord. Everything will be devoted to destruction. He has given us this victory and we will secure this final victory from God." Nobody grabs anything and they're going down with it.
He could have and they'd have step two, but he doesn't because he fears the people over God. And then also this, he spares Ag, which reeks of pride and arrogance because that right there is what the kings of the ancient near east did. When you conquered and defeated a people, you would take their king and they would become your slave. It was a way to parade around your power. Look at all these kings that I've defeated.
Look at all these these nations I've brought blow. It was it was a power flex to his own glory and not to the glory of God. I mean, you see this in in history. You see this in the Scriptures later with the kings of Judah. This is what happens.
And he acts just like the other kings of the ancient near east, making much of his own glory. Which leads me to believe also that some of this is not just ignorance, but he's also, I think, a little bit lying here. That all this was not just, oh, this is for your glory, God. We're going to do sacrifices. That he's just making up excuses like a child who's been caught.
And he wants Samuel, but but do just do this to me. Return with me that I may bow before the Lord. Which also again, it's like you you you still don't understand the you don't can't read the moment. It's like that's a little bit of I I want to look good in front of the tribal leaders. I want to look good still.
It's like you don't understand. Saul 26. And Samuel said to Saul, I I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel. As Samuel turned to go away, Saul seized the skirt of his robe and it tore. And Samuel said to him, "The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you." Which that in itself is powerful because that action is like a real time parable of what's to come.
Grabs his robe, piece is torn off, and he says, "Yes. The kingdom has been torn from you. It will be given to another, which is how this is going to play out. 29 Also, the glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man that he should have regret.
Then he said, I have sinned, yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me that I may bow before the Lord your God." And it seems a bit of Samuel's compassion shows up here because he does love Saul. So he concedes on that. So Samuel turned back after Saul and Saul bowed before the Lord. Now Samuel's going to finish the job. That's what we saw last week.
We skipped to this part. Verse 32. Then Samuel said, "Bring here to me Aag, the king of the Amalachites." And Aag came to him cheerfully. Aag said, "Surely the bitterness of death is passed." And Samuel said, "As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women." And Samuel hacked Aag to pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. So he brings the judgment upon as you as you have done all of this evil, Ag, this is being brought upon you.
Hacks him to pieces. Verse 34. And Samuel went to Rama. And Saul went up to his house in Gibia of Saul. And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death.
But Samuel grieved over Saul. And the Lord regret that he made Saul king over Israel. So they part ways and Samuel is grieved. And Saul again displays. He does not know God.
He does not heed his commands. He doesn't have a heart and a zeal for obeying the Lord. And his disobedience becomes his downfall. So what I want to do for the rest of our time is I want to take a closer look at his disobedience as warnings for us. I want to examine three examples of his disobedience that serve as a caution for us as we seek to know God and obey his commandments.
So there are three lessons here starting with this first one. The first is follow when you cannot clearly see why. Follow when you cannot clearly see why. They grieved by Saul's disobedience. Samuel says, "Why?
Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord?" And what becomes clear here is that he can't understand why God would call for total destruction. Like he in his ignorance decides, I'm going to hear this command and I'm I'm going to fulfill part of it and just kind of do what I want. I mean, it it really is clear that he's ignorant to their history. He's ignorant to the law that he's supposed to delight in the law of the Lord because the moment that he receives that command to destroy the Amalachites.
I mean, should have remembered the book of Exodus. Should have remembered the book of Deuteronomy. Should have remembered the judgment that God had proclaimed that was going to come on the Amalachites. He should have known. But it's clear he doesn't know God.
And when he receives this command, he does what he wants. And that lesson is incredibly important to us to follow when you cannot clearly see why. Especially if you are new to following Jesus or starting to get serious about your faith and you have not read the rest of the Scriptures and understood many of its teachings. If you don't understand the big picture of faith and then you receive a command and you kind of do what you want with it, it doesn't go well. My son is seven and he's really really gifted.
Uh he's got really an engineering mind in a way that I never did. He got that from his mom. Like he's just really he's really good at at building things and he got this uh this uh STEM gift uh which is a picture of how much my family hates me that they would give my son a STEM gift that I'm going to have to be involved with knowing that I'm not good at this kind of stuff. But they gave him a small engine kit to build a small engine. And it was cool to see him.
I mean, he just jumped in and was like, I mean, just putting it together. I was like, I could never do that at seven. I could barely do that at 36. With my wife's help sometimes, but he's just going for it. And then all of a sudden, he's trying to fit together parts and it's not fitting and it's getting frustrated.
He asked for help. So, we sit down, we disassemble it, and then it's clear. He just said, "Buddy, you you you skipped this step. You didn't do it." In that moment, he just looked at it and said, "Ah, it's not important. I'm going to keep going." And it's like, "That you can't do that, buddy.
You don't know how this works. You don't understand the big picture of how small engines work. You You've got to follow the steps because you don't actually understand this. That's I have to do that all the time. Give me the IKEA set." And it's like I'm one, two, three, four.
I ain't freewill in that. I have freewheel that it's not gone well. And it's like if I if you can't if you don't clearly understand the big picture of why God calls us to obedience, you cannot make it up as you go along. You you can't freew will it. You can't hear a command from God and decide, well, yeah, but I'm just going to obey part of this without understanding these commands are rooted in the Scriptures for a reason in the bigger history of God's people over and over again.
I mean, there there are commands like like flee sexual immorality or or or the the continued command to give to the Lord, give generously to the Lord. Or a third one, the uh uh be slow to speak. All three of those commands show up throughout the Scriptures in different parts. I mean, you can trace through history in different books of the Bible, how important it was for the people of God to heed those commands. But if you receive those and then you just start freewilling it.
Yeah, I know I'm supposed to flee from sexual morality, but like I mean God's a God of grace and I mean he understands like I mean purity is hard and it's like I mean I just just a little. I mean I'll be okay. Like God God's gracious, right? I know I'm supposed to give but right now like I've got a bunch of things I'm trying to do. Like God knows I got I got needs I got to take care of.
So I I just I mean I I'll be generous at some point but right now I've got this stuff to take care of. Not understanding that generosity is it's not about the end. It's not about the means. It's about the end. It's our hearts that we would not worship things but worship God the giver of things.
They might hear yeah I know I'm spo I'm supposed to watch my mouth and stuff but I'm Italian. It's our family. We are expressive people. Doesn't God want me to be my true self?
and we'll rationalize obedience. And that's what Saul did. So, go devote the destruction all that they have. Do not spare them. And he says, "Yeah, but I'll ag that that'll be okay.
You can't do that." We need to know God. We need to know him and understand why he calls us into obedience. But if we have not learned more of who God is and why he commands us to do the things that we do that until we get to that point as we seek to know him, when we see something in the Scriptures that calls us to obedience, we step too. We don't we don't move in the direction that we want. We move in the direction that God wants.
As we seek to know him and understand that in knowing him, I'll fully better be be a be able better to appreciate why he commands me to do this in the first place. Because this type of obedience actually leads to joy. I love what J Packer says about this. He says, "Knowing God is a relationship calculated to thrill a man's heart. And once you understand that in light of also the commands that he gives us that those commands even though difficult at times are meant to thrill our heart in knowing more of God.
So the first is follow when you cannot clearly see why which is something Saul failed to do in obedience. The second is fear God not man. Fear God, not man. So Samuel finally gets to the bottom of it in verse 24 and it says Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned for I transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. It's like Saul doesn't know God.
He doesn't because he doesn't fear him like you should. Again, he was given God granted authority as king over his people. But the voices of men were loud. They were loud in his heart. And when he heard the voice of men and what they desired, he feared them over the Lord.
He shrunk down and feared what they thought and what they wanted over what the Lord wanted as they began to pick the spo of victory for themselves. And it's like he's not hearing the voice of the Lord and he's not fearing the Lord in his power. I love how Tim Keller used to talk about this. Tim Keller used to talk about this is this fear of man, this approval that we seek from others. This how much we care about others.
used to talk about in a way that that we become slaves to the opinions of others. That when you care so much about what other people think that whatever they want, you step two because you care more about what they want as opposed to fearing the Lord and his power and seeking to honor him above what others think, which is important, especially if you're a teenager in the room. Teenagers, listen for a moment. Right now, you're going to feel this intense pressure to care so much about what other kids your age think, to care so much about their opinion, what they think of you, and they're going to call you into doing things that disobey the Lord.
They're going to call you into things that don't honor God at all. And you're going to feel this pull and this desire to so much care about what they think about what the Lord thinks. And let me tell you something, that's not going to change with age. Well, it'll change a little. The people will grow up.
Actually, it'll change a little bit more. Some of those people that you care so much about right now, you real talk, you're not even going to know in 10 years, which is wild if you think about it. that you so structure your life in a way that you care so much about someone that very realistically you're not even going to know in 10 years from now. But the way that it doesn't change is that same desire continues until you become an adult. Because when you become an adult, all of a sudden there are other people that you care so much about in your life.
When your boss tells you to do something, you're so fearful of them and you so desire their approval that you're willing to step to because you care more about them. You care more about who it is that you have in your mind right now that you're fearful of as opposed to being obedient to the Lord and being fearful of him above all things. There's a quote attributed to Spurgeon. Says, "The fear of God is the death of every other fear. Like a mighty lion, it chases all other fears before it." And it's like those voices may seem loud, but if you'll listen intently to the Lord, when the lion roars, everything else is small by comparison.
We want to know God so that we can understand his power and his might to see how much bigger and more powerful and more almighty he is than any of the people in your life than that boss or that supervisor you're so seeking to please. Y'all literally see it for what it is. Your boss might have a gluten allergy. You know what that means?
A piece of bread will take him or her out. They're not big. They're not mighty. They're not powerful in comparison to the almighty eternal God. Like, you've have to see this for what it actually is.
We have to stop caring so dagam much about what other people think about us because their opinions are small and they change with the wind. They shift. I mean, quite literally, the people that we care so much about right now and their opinion of us, y'all, they are going to be dead in 150 years, nobody's going to remember them. Nobody. Maybe some of them might have some great great grandson who goes on whatever the future is of ancestry.com and cares about it, but really they're not they don't last.
And you need to see how that see the eternal scale of how much we should fear and know and revere God in comparison to the people that we order our whole lives around. our peace that gets robbed because we care so much about others. All right. Think I've hit that point hard enough. Fear God.
And hopefully as we seek to do this as God's people, the voice of men, no matter how loud they seek to be, will just seem so small that you can smile and say, "That power is cute by comparison. I just I want to worship and fear the Almighty God instead fall into the same trap as Saul. Third, forsake empty sacrifices. Forsake empty sacrifice. I hope you saw there's three ups up there.
Super Baptist, you guys. Forsake empty sacrifices. Verse 22. And Samuel said, "Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, to listen the fat of rams." That right there becomes, this gets repeated over and over again throughout the script. That's part of why I think it's it rhymes. This is going to stick in the people's memory for centuries. It gets repeated in Psalm 40, Psalm 50, Proverbs 21, Isaiah 1, Jeremiah 7, Micah 6, Hebrews 10. All those either reference or allude to this passage.
The first time it's actually stated right here. It's not again that God thinks little of sacrifices. Far from he thinks much of them. The law makes clear that sacrifices are important, but they are not a charade. It's not a performance.
It's not disconnected from a heart that seeks to know God. It was meant to flow out of a heart that worshiped God, that feared him, that revered him, that loved him, that desired him, that loved him with your whole heart and your soul and your mind and strength. And it cannot be a charade. It was meant to be of a people that took God and their sin seriously. Y'all, this is a massive danger for us to come to the Lord with empty sacrifices.
Presenting yourself as a good Christian when your hidden life is filled with disobedience is not a place you want to be in. is not a state of hardened heart that you want to continue in. And y'all, we we're tempted and we do this that we can make Sunday worship attendance and being in a community group, we can hit every every week, twice a week, and our hearts can be far from God because all this can be a charade. There are other ways that we do this. One of the things that I noticed about me and when I corporate prayer with other people is that uh they would be praying and then I would be thinking about the words that I was going to pray because I was concerned about how my prayer sounded and that it made sense and was coherent and was so fixed on that that made prayer about me and how I sounded as opposed to praying along with them to the Lord and being unconcerned concerned and self forgetful in the moment to actually worship God.
You if if that's you, you're making prayer charade. It's it's an empty sacrifice. Other ways that we do this, people can do this with money. You can be generous and show their generosity, but it's performance. It's not out of a heart that seeks to love and obey and delight in God over all things, but it's made to look good before others.
We do this sometimes. Some of y'all may be doing this in your community groups with confession. One of the things you realize in our groups is that we we we're real people with real stuff and we take sin seriously. You might see that that okay, yeah, confession, they care about confessing and and okay, and then you what you're doing is that you'll join in confession, but it's just some small stuff, but really there's some really big stuff right over here and you're not confessing it.
And what you've done is not only been disobedient in confession, but you've made confession a charade to where you're just kind of playing the part to fit in. We do this with singing on Sundays. You may be singing expressively out loud. You may be raising your hands. You may be doing it.
But your mind is completely elsewhere. Your heart is completely elsewhere. And it's just a charade. We do this with good works. any amount of good works that we're that there's this this temptation to do a bunch of good works to think that that's going to gain us favor with God.
I want to get right with God. I want to do these things. I'm here to tell you it's an empty sacrifice. It's a gesture. It's a sh.
This is what Saul thought he could do. Blind to his own hypocrisy. that the fat of any of those rams was not going to make him right with God. So we need to see the danger in that. And as a people this side of Jesus, we should heed this as a cautionary tale.
We should heed Saul, this man who did not follow God, did not obey him, he did not fear God, and that he somehow believed that he could perform empty rituals in order to be right with God and gain favor. All of that flows out of a heart that simply does not know God. Now, as people, this side of Jesus, we have a ritual that reminds us of the God that we fear. That reminds us of the God that we love. That reminds us of the God who sent his son to be crushed for our sin on the cross.
To give us a way to have a life with him, where we get to joyfully follow him and know him. And the result of knowing him flows out of obedience. And one of those rituals, one of those signs is the Lord's Supper, which we're going to take in a moment. I want us to consider the words of 1 Corinthians 11 in preparation as we take the Lord's supper. And I want us to also see the danger of approaching this table as an empty gesture or approaching this table without knowing God.
1 Corinthians 11 23. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you. But the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, he took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he returns. Something we regularly will practice in our Church to come remember what his death meant to us and that he is coming back. Verse 27, whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and the blood of the Lord. that a person examine himself then and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That if you come to the table not considering who our God is built on a faith that seeks to know him, that seeks to joyfully receive the grace that he's given us in Christ Jesus. that if this becomes a charade, you're we're we're in danger of this bringing judgment upon ourselves. So, we should consider this.
This meal was ordained to proclaim the Gospel. And if your life exists to proclaim the Gospel, then come to the table in unity to declare his death until he returns. If your life does not exist to proclaim the Gospel, then do not come to this table. Come to the Lord. Come to Jesus in faith.
Discover what it means to know him and to delight in him and to follow him and then the joy that's found in obeying him. But don't come to the table yet. So, what I want to do is I'm going to pray and then we're going to take a moment to prepare ourselves. Band included is going to stay where they're at. In silence, we're going to prepare our hearts and when we are ready, we're going to come joyfully to the table to remember what Jesus has done for us.
If you have a gluten allergy, there's gluten-free in that back corner over there. Let me pray for us. Heavenly Father, I pray that you might prepare our hearts to receive this wonderfully beautiful gift that you've given us. this reminder of your blood that was shed for us. God, I'm thankful that we have a better sacrifice than salt that we have your blood shed for us.
And I pray God that we would understand the value and the importance of that as we come to you in faith, as we come to you in repentance, as we come to you seeking to know you better. And that would change the way that we live. God, if there's anyone here that does not know you, that their life does not exist to proclaim you and make much of you, God, I pray right now that you would pierce through their heart, that they wouldn't come to this table, that we would come to you in faith. Lord Jesus, may you work in our hearts. Amen.
Come when you're ready.
1 Samuel 15 (part 1)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Spencer. I'm one of the pastors here. So, we typically walk through books of the Bible.
We've been walking through First Samuel. Now, we are in chapter 15. So, you can go ahead and turn there. Uh my kids a couple of years ago uh were at a grandparents house and they discovered the game Operation. But you remember the game Operation?
He's got a little dude. He's got different organs and bones. He's got tweezers and you got to carefully extract every single organ bone from uh this uh guy who's being operated on. But if you hit the edges, what happens?
buzzer goes off. And uh as a kid, I hit the buzzer a lot. I was not going to be a surgeon. Just was not didn't have the steady hand. And I watch my children engage in the same practices just and nailing the edges at every point.
Just trying to get that one little bit of uh organ, one little main thing out. And that is what 1st Samuel 15 feels like. It feels like there's this really good truth in it, this main point, uh, that that you're just trying to to get out of it. But if you move too far to the left or right, you're going to hit the edges, and there's a buzzer that goes off in our minds. The main focus of 1st Samuel 15 is uh, as we continue to watch Saul fall on his face, this is the time that really solidifies the end of his kingship.
like this is this is the last uh form of disobedience that he takes to where God is moving on completely from him. And I I I'd love to focus on that, but there's some edges that we hit that buzzers just go off in our brains where it's like, I don't know if I can focus on that because I just hit this. And what we're going to run into is a very vivid display of the wrath of God. that God's wrath in this passage is vivid in a way that is uh different than a lot of other places in the Scriptures and it's just we're going to hit that edge well all over this chapter. So instead of doing this all in one sermon this week I decided this need to be two sermons.
So 1st Samuel 15, we're going to do it again next week and we're going to hit this main point of what's actually happening in the story. But we got to reckon with this vivid display of the wrath of God because I think there's a weakness within us as we approach the text as Western Americans approaching this text. Like I've got a I've got a weak lower back. It's not getting any better. It's probably always going to be a little bit weak.
So I've had to learn if I'm going to lift something, I've got to take really exaggerated good form. Like I've got to sometimes got to put a belt on and tighten it up really. I might have to get some help to come lift it up. And we've just we've got a little bit of a weak lower back when it comes to the wrath of God as an essential aspect of his divine character. So, we got to slow down.
We're going to take some good form. We're going to get some support here. And we're going to look at this. And my hope in looking at this in 1st Samuel 15 today is this. That we would see God's wrath, this essential aspect of his character, in a new and better way.
that we wouldn't run away from it, but we lean into it. So, let me pray for us, then we'll walk through this together. Heavenly Father, I pray that you would give us ears to hear. Lord, culturally, we we we don't love this subject that we would, if it was in our own choosing, we'd avoid it. We just pick the parts of 1 Samuel that we enjoy more to focus on.
But we know that your word is good. that every single letter is inspired and that it helps us see more of who you are. And that's what we want, Lord. We want to see more of your greatness. So, open our eyes and give us hearts to receive in Jesus name.
Amen. All right. Start over in verse one. And Samuel said to Saul, "The Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel. Now therefore, listen to the words of the Lord, which is Samuel reminding Saul, I am a prophet, and I have a message to you from the Lord.
Verse two, thus says the Lord of hosts. I have noted what Amalecch did to Israel and opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and strike Amalecch and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey and we'll stop there. Now, if you've read the Bible before, maybe you were with us in the book of Exodus few years ago, come across passages where God takes the Egyptian army and casts them into the Red Sea, kills the whole army.
It's like, oo, that's a lot. That's a lot of death. It's a lot of destruction. But those are that's an army that God defeated. And we can rationalize a bit in our minds, but yeah, I can understand that.
But when you read, "Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant." I mean, there is something in us that says, "What? Did God just tell the Israelites to kill babies?" And there's a part of us that that pauses and says, "What's what's happening here?" I became a Christian in the 2000s uh when Richard Dawkins was all the rage and his brand of atheism was making its way through. It's died down a bunch since then, but I heard when I became a Christian, I started talking about Jesus, I came across people that had that brand of atheism that say, "Do do you do you read your Bible? Do you know that your God is a genocidal maniac?
Have you read these stories where he tells them to genocide whole people and babies?" And I'd hear those arguments and I'll be like, "Oh, well, I have to read this." And it was tough to grapple with. Now you may not be as cynical as that crowd because that brand of belief is quite cynical. But there is something in us that looks at this and goes, "Goodness, how how awful would it have been to receive that command and have to go in and out of homes looking for women and children?" And you may think, how is that in the Bible? And really the core of that issue is how can God be good and command something like this?
That's the heart of that question. So what I want to do is I'm going to we're going to work through not the entirety of 1st Samuel 15. I want to get a gist of this story and I want to come back and I want to interact with that idea. So let's keep working through this so we can get a gist of what the story what's happening here.
Verse four. So Saul summoned the people and numbered them in Tam 200,000 men on foot and 10,000 men of Judah. And Saul came to the city of Amalecch and lay and wait in the valley. Then Saul said to the Kennites, "Go depart, go down from among the Amalachites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt." So the Kennites departed from among the Amalachites, which for a moment, let's just understand who the Kennites are.
The Kennites are not the Amalachites. This is actually where the uh uh Jethro, Moses's father-in-law, this was his people, part of the Minionites. God doesn't have judgment for the Kennites. So somehow either the tribal leader comes out to them or they send someone in hooded to sneak into the city and talk to the tribal leader. They says, "You need to get all of your people out of here because destruction is coming upon the Amalachites." It's the the Kennites leave.
It's just the Amalachites. Verse 7. And Saul defeated the Amalachites from Havala as far as which is east of Egypt. So they defeat them and the battle as they retreat would have extended even further as they're running away as far east of Egypt. Verse eight.
And he took Aag, the king of the Amalachites, alive, and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Aag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen, of the fattened calves, and and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless, they devoted to destruction. So, this is where we're going to spend a lot of our time in next week.
Saul receives this command, disobys this command. He kills lots, women, children, but leaves their evil king, Agag, and the best of their livestock. And next week, we're going to focus on what's happening there. What why did he do this?
And and all the things that follow out of that with Samuel, the prophet, coming to confront him in his disobedience. But eventually when you skip down to verse 32, Samuel is the one who ends up finishing the job. He's the one who fulfills the Lord's command. Verse 32 at the end of this chapter. Then Samuel said, "Bring here to me Aag, the king of the Amalachites." And Aag came to him cheerfully.
Aag said, "Surely the bitterness of death has passed." And Samuel said, "As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women." And Samuel hacked Aag to pieces before the Lord and Gilgal. So he finishes the job and he hacks Aag to pieces. And while indeed there are bigger things in this story than this, there's a bigger main point of what's happening here. I don't think that many of us with our cultural ears hear anything past the killing of children and then ending in the hacking the pieces of their king. Buzzers go off and we're just we we there's something within us that just ah this is hard for us to for our soul to do the heavy lifting of grappling with God's wrath being poured out like this.
So, what do we do with this? What do you do with a story like this? Because many, I'll be honest, have read this and reacted and said, "I I could never worship a God that would condemn the killing of children like this." People have reacted and said, "A good and loving God would never tell his people to do this, to kill an entire another people." And what I would say is that that gut reaction is like jumping into one episode, part of one episode of an entire series and then making a judgment call on the entire series itself. So if you have a if you're at a workplace and your friends are all talking about this television show, you got to watch this show. It's great.
and you say, "All right, I'm going to do it." And you go home and you pull it up and you say, "You know what? I'm gonna go to season 4, episode three." And then you just skip 30 minutes in. And then you watched five minutes and said, "It's not for me." Get back to work the next day. They said, "Did you watch it?" I did. I didn't like it.
Word. You didn't like it. What? What?
I mean, I know the first episode's a little slow. They're developing plot lines, but like I mean, but but by the end of the first episode, I mean, you That's It was good, right? Oh, no. No, no, no. I I I started in season 4.
What? Yeah. Actually, not season four, like episode three. Like I chose like the 30 minute mark and I just didn't like it. Everyone would look at you and say, "I I don't think you understand the story.
You You jumped into this. You don't understand what's actually happening here." So I would say I I don't think we should draw conclusions about the character of God without understanding this story in light of the greater context of God's wrath towards sin. So what I want to do with our time today is I want to take a step back and I want to provide some context to how to understand this story that so visibly displays the wrath of God in light of God's wrath throughout the Scriptures. And we're going to do that. You got to start at the beginning.
You start in Genesis. God makes Adam and Eve and everything is good. Everything is good. It's the way it's supposed to be. But Adam and Eve, when tempted and lured by uh their own desires and tempted by the enemy, they decide to reject God's commands and reject his his goodness that he's offering to them to seek their own version of goodness, what they think is ultimately good.
And when they do this, they bring sin into the world. And sin is like a cancer that infects and invades and destroys and corrupts. And if you've ever walked with someone you love that has cancer and seen what that disease does to them, you hate you hate cancer. There's a whole festivals and movements devoted to the hatred of cancer. And and sin is like a cancer that it it it corrupts and it destroys relationships and it destroys people.
But it's not just like a cancer and that it's a disease in itself. It's actually something bigger than that. Because sin is not just this impersonal force that weaves its way in and out of people. That sin is actually personified. It's embodied by people who are sinners that make valitional choices of their own decisions to disobey God and his commands in favor of what ultimately we want.
So we don't just have sin within us. We are sinners and it's important to understand that and honestly I think we we get that right. I I think that if if someone murdered your child, you would not think of the situation and that person as this murderous instinct within them that was responsible for the death of your child, for the murder of your child. We don't think about sin that way. You wouldn't go to the judge and say, "Have mercy on them.
Courts have mercy on them." Because it was actually the murderous instinct within them. No, we think how it is their murder. And you'd feel wrath towards that murder. It's not an impersonal force within us. We as sinners make an embodied choices to disobey the Lord.
And sin is also in and works through people. And God has wrath not just towards sin but towards sinners. towards us when we consistently and persistently reject him in favor of what we want. And some will look at that and say, "Okay, but if God is so big, like he he's he's a God of love, like why why can't he just overlook this?
Why why does he need to be filled with wrath?" As if love is the opposite of wrath. It's not. I love what the author Becky or Becky Becky Pippert says. She says, "Think how we feel when we see someone we love ravaged by unwise actions or relationships. Do we respond with benign tolerance as we might toward strangers?" Far from it.
Anger isn't the opposite of love. Hate is. And the final form of hate is indifference. God's wrath is not a cranky explosion, but his settled opposition to the cancer, which is eating out the insides of the human race he loves with his whole being. God does not look upon sin with indifference.
He loves his imagebearing creation that he made in his image. When we consistently and persistently reject him and pursue our own desires that further corrupts his creation, the holy love that he has for his creation necessitates a holy hatred of evil. And sinners like you and me make deliberate and repetitive choices every day to reject God's good desire for our lives in favor of what we ultimately think is good. And that's what Adam and Eve did. And that is what continues to happen.
I mean, it spirals out of control quickly. You keep continue to read in Genesis. All of a sudden, their son Cain murders his brother Abel. And then we get this this picture of creation continues to spiral out of control. So much so that by the time Genesis 6 comes around, this is how God describes creation.
And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on earth. And it grieved him to his heart. So that the Lord said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals, and creeping things, and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them." that every thought and intention of the heart sin had made its corruption so deep that God was sorry that he made humanity. But he sees Noah.
We if you're familiar with this story and he preserves Noah and his family and a selection of animals and preserves them as he floods the earth with wrath and with rain and he kills the rest of humanity. And yeah, people I mean people will they'll struggle with the flood stories as well. That's a hard story to grapple with. I think it's a little bit I think we're honest. I think that 1st Samuel 15 people struggle with this story more than the flood narrative.
I heard one commentator who was a little snarky who said that, you know, the flood narrative gets, you know, plush toys and animated picture and and and and all types of really cute things that sanitize it. And you don't see that ever with 1st Samuel 15. And it's like I I see your point. But there's something in us that struggles with this. But I want to help us see that God has divine right to bring judgment on the very creation that he made.
He made us. He's sovereign and he has rights over us. Y'all, we get mad when your pet, your dog or your cat destroys your house when you're away at work. You come home and you see that your dog has wrecked your house. Our our dog recently defecated on every rug in our house.
Everyone, every single one she could just ruined every rug. Not the hardwood floors that would have been easy clean up. No. Chose every rug upstairs and downstairs that she could get a hold of. And you get angry when that happens.
And guess what? You didn't make that animal. You bought that animal. Whether it was an adoption fee that you felt good about yourself or you went to a breeder like you did not make that animal. You did not form that animal in your image.
But God made us. He made us. He forms us in the womb. He makes us in our image. and he sustains every heartbeat and every breath is by his providential hand.
So he absolutely has rights over his creation that he made and we need to see that. We need to see how God responds to creation, how it is just. Now, after Noah gets off the ark, sin still corrupts. You follow that thread all the way to Genesis 15. But alongside of the corruption that's happening in the earth, God is working together a plan of redemption and salvation.
So, he chooses a man to bring about a people whom he will bring redemption through, and that is Abraham. And he tells Abraham that through him he's going to bless the nations that ultimately as we look at this and the grand picture of the Gospel this is God's redemptive plan through a people through Abraham and he places them in a promised land. He says I'm going to put you in a promised land. But I want us to help us see how even the Lord speaks about the promised land centuries before he puts Abraham and his Israelite people in it. And talking to Abraham, he says, "And they shall come back here." Here he's talking about his lineage, his the his people in the fourth generation.
For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. Now that right there, the iniquity of the Amorites, the Amorites are one of the people groups that are in the promised land. What that is a picture of is that the evil of the people in the promised land is being stored up and being seen and remembered over time. And when you read the Old Testament law, you see how wicked the people of the promised land were. This is a people that would sacrifice their own children to foreign gods, that would uh engage in all types of abominable practices.
And God says the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. They are storing up judgment for themselves. Pull that thread further and then you get to the book of Exodus. The people of God are have been saved and brought out of Egypt. They're sojourning and wandering in the wilderness.
And one of the people in and around the promised land hears about the Israelites nearby. And they're the Amalachites. And the Amalachites come out to destroy the Israelites in Exodus chapter 17. That's what first that's what Saul uh Samuel was referencing at the beginning of 1st Samuel 15 when he says they came out when you were coming out of Egypt. It's this story right here.
I just want to read a few parts of it. In Exodus 17, it says, "Then Amalecch came and fought with Israel at Refidum." So this is they they come out, they wage war, they have this battle. This is the battle if you if you remember the book of Exodus where Moses has to keep his hands up the whole time. If they fall down, they're they're losing. He keeps them up, they're winning, and they end up winning the battle.
But then God hints at that he is going to finish the war. And then verse 14 it says, 'Then the Lord said to Moses, write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalecch from under heaven. And God decides right then and there that they they will get judgment for coming out to to defy me and destroy my people. They will get judgment. This is further reiterated in the book of Deuteronomy when Moses is reading the second reading of the law before they enter into the promised land.
Deuteronomy chapter 25 again says, "Remember what Amalecch did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary and cut off your tail who were lagging behind you and he did not fear God. Therefore, when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, and the land of the Lord God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalecch from under heaven. You shall not forget." And we get further imagery of the evil that they engaged in coming to take out the Israelites. And God says, "You will blot them out." And then if you read the book of Deuteronomy, I think the clarification is also helpful because you might get the impression that okay, they're it's just this group is wicked and the people of God are really good.
If you actually read uh the story, the people of God, they failed. They're sinners, too. But there's a wickedness in the land that has to be judged. So much so that in Deuteronomy chapter 9, he tells his people, "Do not say in your heart after the Lord, your God has thrust them out before you. It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in the into possess the land.
Whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you. But they have continuously rebelled against God and rejected him and engaged in all types of sinful ways. And the same wrath that was poured out in the floodwaters in Genesis is now going to be poured out through his people. And then we get to fast forward to our story today and we read that they defeat the Amalachites. Now I think the most precise way to understand what this defeat is is that this is national destruction.
This is the destruction of the Amalachite nation in a way that they will no longer threaten the people of God as a nation again. God raises up nations and he takes them down. And I think that's the most precise way to think about this because the Amalachites are actually not completely annihilated. I mean, you keep reading. We're going to see this in 1st Samuel chapter 30, but when you get to chapter 30, show back up when it says, "Now when David and his men came to Ziglag on the third day, the Amalachites had made a raid against the Ngev and against Ziglag." So we see that the these people in some form actually do exist, but they do not exist in this national threat that they once were.
They will no longer threaten the people of God like they once did. They will be destroyed. And I also want to help us see the Amalachites and and how the the worthy of judgment and how much they opposed and hated the people of God. So much so that if you keep following the thread of the New Testament, you get the book of Esther, which is in the middle of the Old Testament, but it's actually uh the period is actually the very end of the writings of the of the Old Testament. If you get all the way to the book of Esther, you see a descendant of Aag, an Amalachite, who still wants to exterminate the people of God.
When you get to the book of Esther, chapter 3, it says, "After these things, King Hasseras promoted Hmon, the Hmon, the Agagite." That's a descendant of Aag, the very king, the Amlite king that was hacked to pieces by Samuel. But some of Heamadathan advanced him and set him on the throne above all the officials who were with him. And it goes on to say in verse six, Hmon sought to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mori throughout the whole kingdom of Heserus. So there's this instinct to want to destroy the people of God even still. This is why if you if you read some of the writings and hear some of the things that were said by the Jews in the Holocaust, why they called the Nazis Amalachites.
This is a people that wanted to destroy them. This is very much a kill or be killed situation with the Amalachite nation. And God when his people are threatened and he is defied like this he has divine right to bring a nation down. Job 12 says he makes nations great and he destroys them. He enlarges nations and leads them away.
Our God, the sovereign ruler over all things, is within his divine prerogative and rights to bring a nation low. Now, I hope hopefully that gives us some context for what's happening here in 1st Samuel 15. And yet still, I think there is something within us that struggles with this. And what I want to push on a bit is that that struggle actually I think is more of a cultural one because I'll be honest there are many cultures outside of the west outside of America that struggle with different parts of the Bible. They actually don't struggle as much with this.
They don't struggle with God bringing wrath on a people and bringing judgment on them. the other cultures that have a higher view for the justice of God that there other cultures that have endured all s types of injustice where they they can't they they don't want to think of a God as good if he's indifferent towards evil. Other cultures have endured true injustice in ways that we are insulated from that they long for a God to bring justice. They long for a God to pour out wrath. They don't want to worship a God who's indifferent towards evil.
But that's not a high value for us. And what happens is is that in the west you stumble upon stories like this and then we make the judgment, no, this is not a good God. I love what Tim Keller says in Reasons for God when he's talking about the wrath of God. He says, "Why should Western cultural sensibilities be the final court in which to judge whether Christianity is valid?" And it's like we we don't have the final say. We're pretty star spangled awesome, but we don't have the final say and who God is and his character and if it's good or not.
So, some don't like this. Others have tried to distance themselves from this. They try to distance Christianity from this. You'll hear the argument, okay, yeah, but that's the Old Testament God, but the New Testament God is way different.
Like when Jesus comes and like he's holding children and he's teaching, he's a sage. Like this is way different. And that's like two things. First, I don't think you've read this Jesus. I don't think you've read this New Testament.
Get to that in a moment. Second, that's not a new new teaching at all. It's called Marcianism. That's a heresy from the third century. So that's been around a long time.
this idea of that the Old Testament God is completely different from the New Testament God. But back to my first point, I don't think that you've actually read the words of Jesus. Because if you think that this form of wrath that we see in 1 Samuel 15 is categorically different than the wrath that it shows up in the New Testament, well, in some ways I might agree with you because what Jesus talks about, I think I would argue is probably way worse because Jesus still takes seriously sin and how it incurs wrath. He says in Matthew 10, he says, "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
And as Jesus is developing this doctrine of hell for us to understand eternal punishment, he says in Mark chapter 9, "And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. for everyone will be salted with fire. That's the language of the New Testament. And I would argue that's a far worse judgment that was poured out on the Amalachites.
I would argue that if you accept the reality of hell, which we do, the judgment of the Amalachites is benign by comparison. So we see from all the new the whole Bible that God has wrath towards sin and sinners and we deserve it. We deserve wrath. And and here's the deal. I I think even Westerners like us.
I think we even are on board with that idea to an extent. Like I think we we get that. But I think the difference is is we want to be the ones who dictate what is worthy of wrath and what isn't. I mean, because the moment that we read a story of of of someone who murdered a child, it's like, let him burn. The moment that you read a story like Birdie Maidoff, who swindled people out of billions of dollars and ruined so many people's lives, it's like, oh, there's a special place for him there.
And so, I think even part of us agrees, yes, some people deserve wrath, but we are the ones who want to dictate who deserves wrath. So I think we feel this but we are creatures. We are creation and creatures do not dictate what is worthy of justice. A holy God does. The creator God does.
So when God sees the evil of the Amalachites over generations and decides as a judge that he's going to destroy this nation and their reign of terror, he is right in doing so. And it vividly ends back in 1533. And Samuel said, "As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women, highlighting all the evil of Aag." And Samuel hacked AAG to pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. Our God does not let the guilty go unpunished. Wrath is a part of the character of God.
God cannot be good if he does not have wrath towards evil. God cannot be good if he does not have wrath towards injustice. God cannot be good if he does not oppose evil. That's all over the Scriptures. The Old Testament, one of the the the best summaries of God's character shows up in Exodus chapter 34 when God is giving Moses the Ten Commandments.
And God describes himself in a description that gets repeated throughout the whole rest of the Old Testament. And I think it's a wonderful summary of the character of who our God is. He says, this is the Lord speaking audibly. The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. that God was slow to anger with the Amalachites from generation to generation and then he brings judgment because God will by no means clear the guilty.
Aag could not flagrantly and repeatedly defy God without judgment. And Aag stood in judgment as he was hacked and pierced to death. And if that causes us to be fearful of God, Amen. we should we we're commanded to we should fear the power and the might of God. But our God also is abounding in steadfast love because we like AAG flagrantly and repeatedly defy God's will.
We boastfully defy and disobey his commands. We celebrate how we listen to the commands of God and do the exact opposite. And the good news of the Gospel is that we get an offer of escape from the wrath of God. That God does not make us stand in our judgment like AAG if we don't want to. We get a substitute.
The prophet Isaiah looking forward to Jesus says this. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds we are healed.
Jesus comes to stand in the place of the wrath of God the father. And Jesus comes to take the hacking that Aag received, the destruction of his flesh. Our God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. And the most abounding example of the steadfast love is of God is Jesus coming and standing in our place and the wrath of God being directed back at himself as he's hacked to death. The good news of the Gospel is that we do get a substitute for the wrath.
And my hope is that as we consider how difficult some of these stories are to receive, we contextualize it and bring it into the greater story of God's wrath. And we remember, praise God, I deserve wrath, but Jesus stands in my place. And then we worship Christ alone. The band's going to come up and we're going to worship. And Christ alone is a song we'll sing.
And I love one of the verses. It says, "Till on that cross, as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied." That as Christians, we accept the whole council of God's word. And we don't run away from the wrath of God, but we celebrate that we know where that wrath was ultimately and most gloriously displayed. It was at the cross. And my hope is two things.
that a that if you don't belong to God, if you've not laid down your life, if you not I mean that the testimony we heard from Marion earlier of deciding I want I want to be a Christian. I want to be allin with Christ. I want you to see that the vivid display of God's wrath that was we saw in in 1 Samuel that Jesus hints about that that teaches about later that that wrath will fall out on us if we stand in our own sin. But the good news of the Gospel is that Jesus Christ comes to stand in the gap. And my hope is that you would believe and that you'd put your full hope and faith in Christ as your substitute.
My other hope is this for us as Christians reading this story. I think there are times where we so seeing and celebrate the goodness of the Gospel and how he paid for sins that sometimes we forget what sin costs and how destructive the force of sin is in our lives. My hope is is that we sing and worship in this song that we'd consider our own sin that that earned judgment that Jesus paid for with his precious blood and we who are living in sin would say I don't want that anymore. this would this would energize us towards repentance. And in our groups this week, we'd look at our sin and just say, "Oh, I don't I don't want to sin anymore.
I know I've incurred wrath." And that would lead us to Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, I pray you've given us hearts to hear your difficult word. God, I pray that you would give us faith. You'd give us obedience. You'd call us into repentance.
by not running from your wrath, but leaning into it and celebrating and worshiping you as a fearsome, holy, wonderful, loving God. But we need your work in our hearts to see this with clear eyes. So Lord, go to work in Jesus name. Amen.
1 Samuel 13:15-14:46
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Chad. I'm one of the pastors here. If you will grab a Bible and go to First Samuel chapter 13. Um, when my wife and I were going to get married, uh, I remember sitting down with the the pianist who was going to be playing for us.
He was just a guy from our Church and he was he was really good at piano and he was asking questions of like, "All right, so what songs when everybody's sitting down and stuff, what songs do you want me to play? What do you want me to to do?" And I was sitting there, it was me, I think my mom was there, I know my EI was there, my my grandmother. And uh, he just asked questions of like, "What kind of um, what songs you want?" And I started just saying like, well, I just listed off, you know, hymns that I that I appreciated. And I know what you're thinking. You know, I was a 21-year-old uh man.
So, I had thought a lot about my wedding and uh you know, really had planned this sort of thing since I was little. I never done any of this. So, I just was like, I guess I like these songs. And I was listening them off and my my grandmother was squirming a little bit. And then I said, you know, that I like the hymn In the Garden.
And she goes, stop. Just stop. and she said the opening line of that hymn is I come to the garden alone chat you are getting married you are not alone and she just took over from that point she was just like no eras all of that you here are the songs that you need to play and she just started and what she did was and I've had several moments like that in my life where someone just says stop what you want is dumb what you should want is this better thing and I'm reminded of that as we read this text this morning uh that there's a there's something in it as I was studying it that felt like that stop the thing you want is dumb and there's some better thing and what we're looking at in this text is we're in 1st Samuel and really 1st Samuel 13:14 and 15 are kind of a big long story together and it's showing the the downfall of Saul and it's going to continue but this is kind of this big long picture of trying to help us see some of how what Saul did and some of just the events of of the this time in history, but also uh how he messes things up and how it he loses the kingdom. And we saw the beginning of that last week. And we're going to continue in that.
And today we're going to see him paired uh kind of against contrasted against Jonathan, his son, uh as we read through the story. And so what we're going to do is we're going to read through this text all of chapter 14. It's a lot. There's a lot going on. So, we're going to read, we're going to talk, we're going to read, we're going to talk.
We're try to understand what's going on here. And then we're going to as we finish up, we're just going to kind of zoom out and see something that's going on in redemptive history that we see in this text, but that really points us towards a greater hope in Jesus. So that's that's the hope for today is that we would understand this text a little better, that we would uh see what's going on in it, and then collectively as Christians as we look at this text that we would look and see something about Christ uh that that I think um this text helps us appreciate. And so I'm going to pray uh just quickly and ask the Lord for help and then we're going to we're going to go and we got a lot of reading to do.
So everybody buckle up and get ready. Lord, we ask for help. Uh we ask that you would help us to see in your word Christ reflected and the hope of the Gospel displayed in the middle of you working out uh redemptive history in your people. And we ask for your help this morning just that we would we would listen that we would think clearly and that your spirit would minister to us to help us to to come away from sin and to walk closer in faith in a way that honors you in Jesus name. Amen.
All right. Chapter 13 19. It says, "Now there was no blacksmith to be found throughout all the land of Israel. For the Philistines said, lest the Hebrews make themselves swords or spears." So, if you'll remember where we left off, Jonathan had led a successful attack on a garrison at Gibba.
And then the Philistines had marched in. And it says they were as numerous as the sand on the seashore. They had 30,000 chariots. They just march into Israel in force. And then all the people start scattering from Saul.
Saul makes a sacrifice he shouldn't make. He ends up with 600 and he's hiding. And most of the other people are hiding in sistns and tombs and and caves. I mean, they're just scattered as the Philistines have marched in. But what we just read was the Philistines marched their army in, but they had already been exerting an immense amount of influence and control over the people of Israel to the point that the Philistines say, "You can't have blacksmiths." And the Israelites are forced to comply with that.
That the Philistines have so much control over this area that they have outlawed blacksmiths, which is really interesting to me that the Israelites have a king but no blacksmiths. So the Israelites got together like we're have a king now. And they're the Philistines are like neat. We aren't scared of you. Like they just they don't have any sort of real control here.
So it says, it says verse 20, but every one of the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen his plowshare. It's the thing that rides behind an ax, his madic, which is like a pickaxe, his axe or his sickle. And the charge was 2/3 of a shekele for the plow shares and for the maddox, and a third of a shekele for sharpening the axes and for setting the goats. So that's neat. It's cheaper, you know, if you just need your axe sharpened.
It's only going to cost you a third of a shekele, you know, and I'm willing to bet there are some Israelites who are like, I remember when it used to be a fourth of a shekele. Anyway, this is a real thing that happened in history and they've jotted down for us how much it actually costs. Okay. Verse 22. So on the day of the battle, there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people with Saul and Jonathan, but Saul and Jonathan his son had them.
So Saul and Jonathan have swords or spears or maybe both, but nobody else does. Everybody else has a sickle, a pickaxe, an axe, or some sort of pruning shear or plow share that they've mangled into something, tied it to a stick, and are going to try to smack somebody in the head with it. Like that. This army does not look good. There's 600 of them, and there's two swords.
It's not it's not going well for them. And that's the situation that they're in. And the garrison of the Philistines was out went out to the pass of Mcmash. So the Philistines had been on the move and now we're told that they're in this area, this pass of Mcmash one day. This verse uh verse one of chapter 14.
one day. So during this whole setup, Jonathan the son of Saul said to the young man who carried his armor, "Come, let us go over to the Philistine garrison on the other side." But he did not tell his father. So Jonathan, his armor bearer, said, "Let's go check out what the Philistines are up to." Saul was staying in the outskirts of Giba in the pomegranate cave at Migran. The people who were with him were about 600 men, including Ahijah, the son of Ahitub, Icabad's brother, son of Phineas, son of Eli, the priest of the Lord, and Shiloh, wearing an ephod. All right, let's see this for a second.
It's already been prophesied to the line of Eli that the priesthood is taken from them. And it's already been prophesied to Saul that the kingship is going to be taken from him. So, we have a rejected king and a rejected priest hiding in a cave. There's 600 soldiers with them, so they probably aren't all in the cave, but they've basically set up camp hiding from the Philistines in in fear and with a very small force, especially compared to the amount of the force that the Philistines have. But one of the things you got to realize is it's not just that Saul's like in a bad spot and rightfully scared.
There's a reality to as the king of Israel and as the people of Israel, they are being disobedient because this is in the law. This is in Deuteronomy chapter 20 says, "When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them. For the Lord your God is with you who brought you up out of the land of Egypt." So, it was it was for the king to to have his own copy of the law to keep reading it and to know how he's supposed to handle situations like this. That rest of that chapter in Deuteronomy goes into how to send people home from your army. The priest is supposed to show up and start dismissing people because they don't need them because the Lord their God will fight for them.
That's that's what there's to understand. That's the situation that they to see that they're in, but they they don't. And honestly, I think for us, one of the ways that we can wrap our head around some of how this can apply to us is that as Christians, I think this is how we're supposed to see missionary work. that we actually aren't supposed to stare the odds down and go, "Well, that's a really hard country to get into. Those people really don't want to hear it.
That's really dangerous. That's really violent." I mean, we're supposed to we can notice that stuff, but then we're supposed to move forward in faith that the Lord conquers and can protect and can do what he wants. But in this situation, Saul is hiding. He doesn't have a very big force. And it says this, "And the people did not know that Jonathan had gone.
Within the passes by which Jonathan sought to go over to the Philistine garrison, there was a rocky crag on the one side and a rocky crag on the other side. The name of the one was Bozes and the name of the other Sinn. The one crag rose on the north in front of Mcmash and the other on the south in front of Gibb. So, it's a rocky area and there are basically caverns and jutted out crags that are hanging over and they said there's one this way and one that way and he's trying to work his way through.
Verse six, Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armor. Okay, so he had uh people who had armor have armor bearers. Uh if you're familiar with the idea of like a knight and a squire, it's similar that when you have certain pieces of armor, do you need someone to help you get them off like to tie them on in the back and to put them back on? So they usually had someone who was helping you do some of that if you were more important and had nicer armor. And so Saul has armor, his son has armor, and that's it.
There's not a whole lot of other pieces of armor or military paraphernalia in this entire army. But so Jonathan has someone who helps him get his armor on and off, tie him up, get him ready to go. And it's just interesting to think before a battle that you're like, "Hey, could you lace me up in the back?" But that's what's happening. And so that's who's with him, his armor bearer.
So he says, this is what Jonathan says, "Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will work for us, for nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few. So, Jonathan gets it. First of all, he calls them the uncircumcised, meaning that he's understanding we're the covenant people of God. We're the people who have the marks of the covenant, the sign of the covenant.
We belong to him. And he says, "These people don't." He says, "So, let's go over there, just me and you, and maybe God will do something because God can do whatever he wants." It doesn't nothing stops him whether we have a lot or a little. And it feels almost like Jonathan might have been saying that to his dad like, "Hey, don't worry about how many people we got. Nothing can stop the Lord." But we we don't know. We just see at his armor bearer and says, "I'm tired of sitting around.
Let's see if God wants to do something." And nothing can stop him so he can work with us if if he wants to. So, let's go over there and see if he'll work through us. And his armor bearer said to him, "Do all that is in your heart. Do as you wish. Behold, I am with you heart and soul." So, one of the very first ride-or- die friends in history, he says, "If you're rolling, I'm rolling.
Do what you want. I'm with you." And y'all, if you We didn't know much about Jonathan or his armor bearer, but now we should all be in love with them. These guys are great. Jonathan says, "We're going to trust the Lord and we're going to go." And his friend says, "Let's roll.
I'm with you." And they're going to go see what the Lord's going to do. And that's what they're doing. And they head out. So Jonathan's going to come up with a plan. It says this, verse eight.
Then Jonathan said,"Behold, we will cross over to the men, and we will show ourselves to them. And if they say to us,"Wait until we come to you, then we'll stand still in our place, and we will not go up to them. But if they say to us, "Come up to us," then we will go up, for the Lord has given them into our hand, and this shall be the sign to us." Okay, Jonathan just makes up a scenario. He's like, "We're going to pop out. Show ourselves." If they're like, "Stay there," then okay.
But if they say, "Come to us," then we'll know God wants us to go kill them and he's handed them over to us. He's walking in faith. This is just a story. I don't think this is meant for you to start living your life coming up with weird scenarios and just being like, "This is how we'll know what God wants us to do." But he we are to see that he just trusts the Lord and he's trusting the Lord can do whatever he wants. And so he's just walking it out in faith.
So it's more of a descriptive story rather than a prescriptive story. We get to walk in the Holy Spirit. It's a little bit different for us. So uh but that's what he does. He just says we're going to do this.
So now let's see what happens. Verse 11. So both of them showed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines. And the Philistines said, "Look, Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have hidden themselves." So, these are some cocky fellows uh who have been walking around apparently looking for some Hebrews to kill and they've all hidden.
So, they see two guys that Jonathan and his armor bearer pop out and they look at each other go, "Oh, hey, look. They've crawled out of their holes. Neat. And then they say, where we at?" So, they said they've come out of the holes where they've hid themselves.
Verse 12. And the men of the garrison hailed Jonathan and his armor bearer and said, "Come up to us and we will show you a thing." Said, "Hey, come here. We want to show you something." Now, we are not ever going to find out whether they actually wanted to show him something. That may have been a trick, you guys. I don't know.
They might have been cocky enough to think, "We'll just get these two up here." And they were going to show them something like how big their army was or whatever or what it's like to get stabbed. I don't know what they were planning on showing them, but they say, "Come up here. We want to show you something." And Jonathan said to his armor bearer, "Oh, wait. Sorry." Then Jonathan climbed climbed up. Oh, wait.
Nope. Hold on. I can read. Give me a second. I was right.
And Jonathan said to his armor bearer, "Come up after me, for the Lord has given them into the hand of Israel." So he says, "Oh, the Lord's handing them over to Israel." Then Jonathan climbed up on his hands and feet and his armor bearer after him. So he has to scale basically some kind of a cliffside to get up there, which if they know you're coming is one of the worst ways to attack somebody. But the he the Lord's handed him over to him. The Philistines just wait for him to come up. And it says, "And they fell before Jonathan and his armor bearer killed them after him." So Jonathan starts working his way through all the Philistines that he's running into and he's dropping them and then his armor bear is coming behind them and dispatching them.
So they're injured and then no more. That's the way they're working their way through this this group. And that first strike which Jonathan and his armor bearer made killed about 20 men within as it were half a furrow's length in an acre of land. Okay.
So God is handing them over to Jonathan. And we're a little bit messed up because we've watched way too many movies where one person just beats up 20 people. And so we're like just 20. And it's like 20 y'all like this is difficult to do. Fighting one person and winning is hard.
Fighting two people is more than twice as hard. It gets it gets exponentially more difficult. There's 20 and they just are cutting through them. So, you can use movies you've seen to help you picture what it looked like, but you also need to know that this is difficult and that the Lord is handing them over, that this is a display of God's work on their behalf as they're cutting through this first strike.
and it's not a very big place. And suddenly there's a whole bunch of dead Philistines. Verse 15. And there was a panic in the camp, in the field, and among all the people. The garrison and even the raiders trembled.
The earth quaked. And it became a very great panic. So this first strike happens. People start freaking out. They're looking over and they're seeing that they're being attacked and they're watching Philistines die.
And then I'm assuming they're watching the Philistines run. and a panic hits. Then the earthquakes and it goes from a panic to a very great panic. It It's falling apart very quickly. And the panic's in the camp and the field and even among the raiders.
And who who are they? I don't know. But they seem to be highlighted as more scary people who shouldn't have panicked, but they're also panicking that it's just working its way through the camp. And so everyone is freaking out and starting to break apart.
This is what it says. Verse 16. And the watchmen of Saul and Giba of Benjamin looked, and behold, the multitude was dispersing here and there. So, he's got some scouts watching the camp, and they're not on the march.
They're panicking. He's watching as the camp just starts to break up. Then Saul said to the people who were with him, "Count and see who has gone from us." And when they had counted, behold, Jonathan and his armor bearer were not there. So, he says, "Line up formations.
Tell me who's missing." So they line up in formations. He's got different leaders. This wouldn't have taken forever to count. And they find Jonathan and his armor bearer aren't here. So he's trying to figure out what's going on over there.
And who's left? Have people gone to start fighting? What's going on? So Saul said to Ahijah, "Bring the ark of God here, for the ark of God went at that time with the people of Israel." Now while Saul was talking to the priest, the tumbolt in the camp of the Philistines increased more and more. So Saul said to the priest, "Withdraw your hand." Then Saul and all the people who were with him rallied and went into the battle.
Okay, we get a little glimpse of how Saul operates. He's hanging out. He gets the news that this is breaking apart. He says, "Count, see what's going on." He realizes Jonathan and his armor bearer aren't there. Then he yells for the priest, "Bring the ark.
Bring the ark. Bring the ark." While he's getting that all set up and the priest is trying to figure out, they're going to try to see like what does the Lord want us to do? We're going to inquire of God. They're bringing it over here. Let's figure out what's going to happen.
Then it starts happening more and he just yells at the priest, "Stop." So he's like, "Bring the ark." And then he's like, "Quit. We're not doing that." And then he then he takes off. And you can just kind of see that Saul doesn't ever really know what to do. He He's not cool, calm, collected. Him hiding in the baggage when they were calling him to be king is kind of a good picture of what he's like.
He just seems to kind of he's just trying to figure it out as he goes. And he doesn't really ever seem like he's got clarity. And some of it, I think, is that Saul doesn't know who God is. Doesn't know how to trust him. He's not He's anchoring it in himself and he's anchoring it in the people around him and how things are going.
He's always based in his circumstances. And so he's whipped around rather than being able to just kind of see ahead and stay steady. But they go into battle and behold, every Philistine's sword was against his fellow, and there was very great confusion. Okay, so the Lord is at work in this panic.
He's at work in this confusion, and they they don't know they don't know what to do. People are running, people are shouting, they're starting to stab each other, they feel like they're under attack. If if you're in a camp and suddenly it's very obvious because of all the stuff that's going on that you're under attack, but they're there's only two guys that actually are on the other team at this first little bit of moment before the other people start coming. And it seems like they're all just seeing people running, seeing swords moving. Everybody's panicking.
and they're starting to attack each other, which is a picture of how God works because the Israelites don't need swords if they'll just trust the Lord. These guys have swords and they'll stab each other with them. Verse 21. Now the Hebrews who had been with the Philistines before that time and who had gone up with them into the camp, even they also turned to be with the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan. So, there are some Hebrews who had basically been captured or conscripted and they were just with the Philistines and all of a sudden when the Philistines start stabbing each other, they're like, "Well, we're not just going to let you stab each other.
We're going to help. You know, we will also stab you." And so, they hop in. Likewise, when all the men of Israel who had hidden themselves in the hill country of Ephereim heard that the Philistines were fleeing, they too followed hard after them in the battle. So the Lord saved Israel that day and the battle passed beyond Beth Aan. So all of a sudden, remember when they were like, "Hey, look, they've come out of their caves." They do that and they also join in fighting the Philistines and the Lord saves them and the battle breaks up.
And now we're going to hear more about how the rest of this day plays out. Verse 24. And the men of Israel had been hardpressed that day. So Saul had laid an oath on the people, saying, "Cursed be the man who eats food until it is evening, and I am avenged on my enemies." So apparently, prior to coming in with his 598 soldiers and one sword, Saul says, "No one's allowed to eat until it's night time, and you'll be cursed." That's how he sends them into battle. So none of the people had tasted food.
Verse 25. Now when all the people came to the forest, behold, there was honey on the ground. And when the people entered the forest, behold, the honey was dropping, but no one put his hand to his mouth, for the people feared the oath. So they've been told, "Nobody's allowed to eat." They're on the march. They've been fighting.
At first, that's fine. You're riding in the battle, whatever. Then it's like, "Okay, this is getting harder and harder." As they're chasing people, they enter into the forest. And y'all, it's like entering Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. Honey was the sweetest thing they had.
It's the sweetest thing they knew. This is they they enter into a magical dream forest where it's flowing with milk and honey. Like, it's actually happening, you guys. The honey's here, and they're not allowed to have it because there's been this curse that's breaking that up, that's messing up this hope that they would have been able to enjoy. They they come in and honey's just dripping.
Maybe the only time in their life they ever saw this and they're like, "I'll be cursed if I eat it." I just want y'all to feel sad with them. This is sad. But Jonathan had not heard his father charge the people with the oath because he was out, you know, trusting the Lord and winning a battle. So he put out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and dipped it in the honeycomb and put it his hand to his mouth and his eyes became bright. Then one of the people said, "Your father strictly charged the people with an oath saying, "Cursed be the man who eats food this day and the people were faint." So they're working.
Jon, they've all caught up with Jonathan now. Jonathan, they're going through, they're fighting. Jonathan sees this. He starts eating some honey and he's like, "This is good." That's his eyes became bright. He was like, you know, like a cartoon like it was nice.
And then one of the guys is like, "Hey, your dad said not to do that." And they're all, you can almost see all these tired guys. It says the people are faint. They're all sitting there like, and they're like, "He he said you'd be cursed if you ate food." And then Jonathan said, "My father has troubled the land. See how my eyes have become bright because I tasted a little of this honey. How much better if the people had eaten freely today of the spoil of their enemies that they found for now the defeat among the Philistines has not been great.
He just like why why would he say that? Like he's made this harder. We've got to go fight. Why is he making it harder?
If people could have just eaten, we we'd have more strength. We like it. We're all tired. We're not catching them like we ought to. That's basically his response.
We could have done more. My father's troubled the land. Verse 31. They struck down the Philistines that day from Mcmash to Halon. And the people were very faint.
So earlier they were faint. Now they're very faint. The people pounced on the spoil. So it is evening now. That day's ended.
That's why they did this this day to here. And then the people pounced on the spoil and took sheep and oxen and calves and slaughtered them on the ground which is bad. And the people ate them with the blood. That's why it's bad. They were to slaughter the animals in a way that would drain the blood out.
They start just killing them and starting to eat. And they told Saul, "Behold, the people are sinning against the Lord by eating with the blood." And he said, "You have dealt treacherously. Roll a great stone to me here." And Saul said, "Disperse yourselves among the people and say to them, "Let every man bring his ox or his sheep and slaughter them here and eat, and do not sin against the Lord by eating with the blood." So every one of the people brought his ox with him that night and they slaughtered them there. And Saul built an altar to the Lord. And it was the first altar that he had built to the Lord.
So he brings a big stone. They start slaughtering them the way they're supposed to to drain their blood out so they can eat them. And the reason they had pounced on them and started eating was because as soon as the sun dipped down, they all said, "It's time to eat." And they were very, very hungry and very, very faint and they handled it poorly. Verse 36. Then Saul said, "Let us go down after the Philistines by night and plunder them until the morning light.
Let us not leave a man of them." And they said, "Do whatever seems good to you." So they've eaten, rested a little bit, and he says, "Let's go while it's still dark and attack them. We'll plunder them now." But the priest said, "Let us draw near to God here." So he says, "Wait, let's ask God if we should do that." And Saul inquired of God, "Shall I go down after the Philistines? Will you give them into the hand of Israel?" But he did not answer him that day. And Saul said, "Come here all you leaders of the people and know and see how this sin has arisen today." So Saul's inquiring of the Lord. Priest is inquiring of the Lord.
And the Lord's not answering. So he says, "Something's gone wrong. We've sinned. Somebody's broken faith. There's a problem." So he summons all the leaders and says, "Y'all come here.
For as the Lord lives who saves Israel, though it be in Jonathan, my son, he shall surely die." But there was not a man among all the people who answered him. Okay. So he says, "Everybody get here." And then he says, "Even if it's Jonathan, we're going to kill him." Nobody says anything. But I do think there was one guy in the crowd who had a flashback to Jonathan eating honey and was like, but they all just kind of watching to see how this is going to play out. They also ate blood.
So it's a little unclear as to what's going on here. Then he said to all Israel, "You shall be on one side, and I and Jonathan, my son, will be on the other side." The people said to Saul, "Do what seems good to you." Therefore Saul said, "Oh Lord, God of Israel, why have you not answered your servant this day? If this guilt is in me or in Jonathan, my son, oh Lord, God of Israel, give Uram. But if it the guilt is in your people Israel, give Thumbum." And that's the way they would cast lots and the priests would do it. And Jonathan and Saul were taken, but the people escaped.
So they cast a lot, and it falls to Jonathan and Saul. Then Saul said, "Cast a lot between me and my son Jonathan." And Jonathan was taken. Now, I wonder if there was a moment there where the the men of the military who were watching this were hoping that it would land on Saul. He lands on Jonathan. Then Saul said to Jonathan, "Tell me what you have done." And Jonathan told him, "I tasted a little honey with the tip of the staff that was in my hand.
Here I am. I will die." Now, that's a curse that Saul pronounced. God doesn't respond to Saul and the lot falls to Jonathan. Meaning that the curse that God that Saul pronounced as the Lord's anointed and as the king and in the position he's in is effectual. It's real.
It actually applies. So there's a curse that only exists because of Saul and it falls on Jonathan who in this story has been great, who's led the way that Saul should have led, who's accomplished what Saul should have accomplished, but the curse is on him. Now, he did break the nature of the curse, but when you're reading the story, it seems as if that curse should have never existed. Then Saul said to Jonathan, "Tell me what you have done." And Jonathan told him, "I tasted a little honey with the tip of the staff that was in my hand. Here I am.
I will die." And Saul said, "God, do so to me and more also. You shall surely die." Jonathan. Then the people said to Saul, "Shall Jonathan die who has worked this great salvation in Israel? Far from it. As the Lord lives, there shall not be one hair of his head fall to the ground, for he has worked with God this day." So the people ransomed Jonathan so that he did not die.
Then Saul went up from pursuing the Philistines, and the Philistines went to their own place. And what we have in that section of text is the accounting of an interaction that happens and no commentary from the Bible on what should have happened. It seems as if Saul shouldn't have made that curse. And then you really shouldn't keep promises that are to do bad things. But also, there are times where there are curses placed and people should reap the consequences of them.
So, it's one of those things where it's like Saul shouldn't just listen to his men as they say that we shouldn't do something if it's the right thing to do, but he does give in to what they want, which also seems like the right thing to do. And it's this big convoluted mess. And that's kind of what you get when Saul's in charge. That's some of what seems to be playing out in the story is that if Saul's in charge, it he places a curse, but then it lands on Jonathan. But he said even if it's Jonathan, we'll kill him.
And then it lands on Jonathan because Jonathan, you know, gets sideways with the curse. And then he says, "Okay, well, I definitely will and God will do more to me even if I don't." And then all the people say, "No, you won't." And he says, "Okay." And in some ways, the curse that he places on Jonathan, we do see that Jonathan, the kingship doesn't go to him, and he does die. And it seems like there's possible possibility that some of this curse still follows him. I I don't I don't know. the curse seems real enough that the Lord doesn't answer and the lot falls to Jonathan.
And I I do think that there's a there's a glimmer of a reflection of Christ here where he's the one who does everything right and then he goes and absorbs a curse that should have never been there that was caused by someone else. and that at the end rather than all the people ransoming him, he actually does die and ransoms all the people. So there I I do see that that moment set up there where I I I don't think that's really what the text is doing, but I can't help as we read the Bible, we we we are meant to look to Christ to understand Christ as we understand the text. And that's how Jesus reads the Bible. He says that these Scriptures point to him.
But in the big picture of redemptive history here, there's something playing out that I want us to see as we look at verse 47 and and through the end of the chapter. When Saul had taken the kingship over Israel, he fought against all his enemies on every side, against Moab, against the Ammonites, against Edom, against the kings of Zoba, and against the Philistines. Wherever he turned, he routed them. and he did valiantly and struck the Amalachites and delivered Israel out of the hand of those who plundered them. So, the story that's working through here and telling us about Saul takes a moment to pause and give kind of a recap of some of his kingship and some of what he does before it goes into how this place where he does valiantly with the Amalachites, he also really messes it up, which is what we'll look at next week in chapter 15.
But he does fight off Israel's enemies. Verse 49. Now the sons of Saul were Jonathan, Ishvi, and Malashua. And the names of his two daughters were these. The name of the firstborn was Marab and the name of the younger Michael.
And the name of Saul's wife was Ahanoam, the daughter of uh Aimaz. And the name of his the commander of his army was Abner, the son of Nurr, Saul's uncle. Kish, so his cousin was his general. Kish was the father of Saul. Ander, the father of Abnner, was a son of Abio.
There was hard fighting against the Philistines all the days of Saul. And when Saul saw any strong man or any valiant man, he attached him to himself. So Saul, for all his faults, we're given this section here that says he was fighting nonstop and he routed people and he delivered them from those who had plundered them and he fights the Philistines nonstop. And I realized as I'm reading this text and there's so many things going on that one of the things that was happening to me as I read it and as I read the beginning of it where it says that there's no blacksmiths in Israel and the ending where it says he's fighting non-stop is that I honestly what I want is for Saul to just be good at fighting. And it gets the end and it says he's routed them and he's kicked off the people plundering them.
I'm I'm like yeah okay. So he can mess things up, but as long as he's good at that, that seems good. Like I read the beginning of the story and it's like what I want is for Israelite, the Israelites to be so powerful. Like that they all have swords. I want a montage of battles where the Israelites start having more and more gear the whole time.
That's what I That's what I want to see. I want to see by the end of it to be like a really good-look army, shined up, polished. and they're all outfitted and Israel has grown in strength. That's what I'm reading this desiring. And as I was considering that, I was reminded of a prophecy in Isaiah chapter 2.
I want to read it to y'all talking about the future Messiah, talking about the future kingdom of Israel. says, "It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains and shall be lifted up above the hills and all the nations shall flow to it." It's going to be the center of existence. And many people shall come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. So saying in the latter days in the future there's going to be a kingdom set up where the king reigns.
The Jerusalem will be the center of existence. Verse four it says he shall judge between the nations and shall decide disputes for many peoples and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. My grandmother's saying, "Stop. What you want is bad.
There's something better." And I'm reading this and I'm realizing that y'all, that's the story of human history. that God created us and we began in a garden where there was peace and joy and life and fruitfulness and then we rebel and go into sin and death and violence and pain and sorrow enter the world. And all of human history is taking plowshares and trying to turn them into swords. All of human history is taking gardening tools and having to try to arm ourselves with them, which has happened throughout history over and over and over and over again, which has happened in your story over and over again. We still can see the remnants of the garden, the things that are beautiful, the things that are good, the things that are delightful, the ways that God is at work in grace and goodness.
And then we also see all this brokenness, this violence, this hatred, this sin, this despair, this sorrow. And so much of our stories, if you'll think about it, is basically something that was going to be good having to be twisted because of something terrible so that we might defend ourselves. that some of your story is, yeah, this was beautiful, but now this is why I react this way in these situations because this thing happened and it's just how I had to take my gardening tool and turn it into something to fight with. And that throughout human history, we've taken gardening tools for cultivation, for peace, for delight, for enjoyment, and we've had to learn how to fight with them. And where I was setting my sights was, could we just be tough enough that we're capable of fighting well?
And there's a coming king who says, "We're going to do something unheard of in human history. We're going to turn swords into plowshares. We're going to get to go back to the garden." that because of the work of Jesus, he's actually going to undo the brokenness in the world to the point that there gets to be a garden again where nations no longer learn war, where the Naval Academy doesn't exist, where we aren't having to teach our children how to fight and defend themselves. We're not having to outfit all the ladies in our in our society with ways to protect themselves and to defend themselves because of how awful all the situations are. We aren't having to constantly try to figure out what could have been a garden and how do we turn our weap our our tools into weapons so that we can protect ourselves.
We actually get to go back to where he has redeemed. And he does that in our souls too because of the work of Jesus who's working in this redemptive story that the promise of David is coming is going to come to Christ and he's going to show up and he's going to live perfectly and he's going to die so that we might be redeemed and he's going to ransom a people for himself and he's going to work in our souls to straighten out what's broken. And then he's going to do that ultimately so that we have a home and a future and an eternity where we don't need warriors because we have a king who has set everything right. The band's going to come back up and we're going to sing. I want us to sing as people who have a better hope.
I want us to sing as people who have a greater king. I want us to sing as people who have an eternity that is coming where everything is set right. And if you have not trusted Christ, if you have not looked to him to see what only he can do because he is the king who has come that ultimately brings this redemption, I will tell you that if you do, he'll begin to do this in your soul. He'll begin to straighten things back out. And then ultimately, he'll fulfill his promise that there's a kingdom with him at the center where there is no war.
There's just peace and joy and hope. and it's better than anything we could hope for as we try to play this out here. Let's pray. Lord, may we be confident in faith. May we trust in you as sovereign, as good, as holy.
And Lord, in all the places where we've set our sights too low, in all the places where we're willing to accept this brokenness and we don't have a better mental picture of how it could be better, Lord, we ask that your spirit would go to work to help us to see how you can redeem in miraculous ways that undoes the brokenness. And may you give us the faith to trust you to do that in our relationships, in our attitudes. Lord, may we not accept, well, this is just how it is, so this is just how I have to act, or this thing happened to me, so I just have to be like this, like I'm stuck in this spot. May we come to you and say, Lord, you can turn a sword into a plowshare, and will you do that?
And then, Lord, may we look forward to the day when you rule the nations and they learn war no more. And may we sing as a redeemed people longing for that redemption in a way that honors you in Jesus name. Amen.
1 Samuel 13: 1-15
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
I'm one of the pastors here. If you'll grab your Bible and go to First Samuel chapter 13. If you didn't bring a Bible with you, if you don't own a Bible, there should be a blue one stuck down in the seat in front of you. If you don't own one, take this home with you. We want you to have a Bible.
Um, I would take a moment as we begin this morning to remind you why we're here and what we're doing here. If you belong to Jesus, you belong to a way of life. You've been called into a new existence because of the work of Christ and you are following him in faith. When we gather on Sunday, we do some things repetitively, intentionally repetitively because it's through repetition that we develop. It's through repetition that we grow.
Everything you've ever learned, you've learned by doing more than once. And if you do something once and you you learn it, then you have to do it again six months later, a year later, you go, "Ah, I I did do this once, but I don't remember how." Because that's how we learn through practice. So what we've what we're doing when we gather on Sundays is our Church family who is in community groups throughout the week, is walking in life together, who's trying to follow Jesus together, trying to be missionaries together, we're gathering to practice together, studying the Scriptures, singing, praying collectively. This is participatory. It's it's not something that you just do.
This isn't the whole of Christianity where you show up to an event. That's not what this is. that we have gathered as the people of God to do this collectively. And I just want to remind us of that as we go into the word this morning and study it together, that you would remember and be intentional about participating and being actively involved in your own growth as we repetitively try to study the Bible together as people who belong to Jesus and to each other. We told you a couple of weeks ago, Spencer did that Saul was not going to turn out well for him.
And then the following week, I said it won't turn out well for him, but we're not there yet. All right, team. We're there. It It's the beginning of the end. We're going to start things are going to start going poorly for Saul for a long time.
We're going to read a lot of things going poorly for Saul pretty much from here on out. So, if you'll go to chapter 13 verse one, it says this. Saul lived for one year and then became king. And when he had reigned for two years over Israel, Saul chose 3,000 men of Israel. Okay, so in the SV, the way that's worded is a little odd.
And if you have some other version of the Bible, it's quite possible that your version of uh chapter 13 verse1 says something different. Some versions just have dot dot dot. It'll say Saul lived dot dot dot and he was king over Israel dot dot dot. Some of them say he was 30 years old when he became king and he ruled for 42 years. And all of that is an indication that in the original manuscripts that we have, so there was an original version of this and then there are manuscripts that are hand copies.
We don't exactly know what what verse one says. It's the kind of the normal uh setup to explain a king. They would normally say became king at this age and reigned for this amount of time. That the best text we have says that Saul was one year old when he became king. Seems farfetched.
We saw him looking for donkeys and he was the tallest guy in Israel. So, he'd be a really tall one-year-old. Uh it it doesn't say one-year-old. It says he was a year old. And so, it seems like it's possible.
What it's saying is he had reigned for a year and then he did this once he had become two years. He actually was reanointed as king. It's possible that there's just some data missing. Um and there's a lot of people who do a lot of investigation in the text and try to understand when we match manuscripts together. We have a very reliable Scriptures, the most reliable historical document that exists.
But there are a few places that we go we're not exactly sure what was originally written here. And this is one of those. but doesn't change doctrine. Doesn't even really affect this story. Move to verse two.
Uh it says, "Saul chose 3,000 men of Israel. 2,000 were with Saul in Mcmash and the hill country of Bethl. And a thousand were with Jonathan in Gibia of Benjamin." This is the first time we've been introduced to Jonathan. Jonathan is Saul's son. So, there has been some amount of time from the time that he was anointed because we were told he was a young man when he was anointed and now he has a son old enough to lead troops.
Saul also now has a standing army. Samuel told the people of Israel this would happen in chapter 8. They said he's going to take your sons and he's going to make them into a military. And he's doing that. When he called them all together, he had 330,000 fighting men.
Well, now he's down to 3,000 that he's going to keep ready to go. So 1% uh of what he had the first time when he went and fought in Nahash he has with him. It says the rest of the people he sent home, every man to his tent. So he's got a standing army. Verse three, Jonathan defeated the garrison of the Philistines that was at Gea.
And the Philistines heard of it, and Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, "Let the Hebrews hear." So Jonathan goes and leads his forces to win a victory at Gibba. Now Gibba was a Levitical city. The Levites weren't given um an aotment of land the way the rest of the tribes were. They were dispersed because they were the priests and they were going to help the people follow the Lord. And this is one of their cities.
And apparently as the Philistines have taken over and are exerting rule over the people of Israel, they have different places where they have more authority. And this is one of them. And Jonathan, who we just got introduced to, next verse, he's winning battles. That's great. But he uh defeats the garrison of the Philistines there.
And the Philistines find out about it. And then Saul announces it to the people of Israel. Let the Hebrews hear. And it says this, "And all Israel heard it said that Saul had defeated the garrison of the Philistines, and also that Israel had become a stench to the Philistines, and the people were called out to join Saul at Gilgal." Okay.
So when Nahash of the Ammonites came and surrounded uh the city, and Saul found out about it, he uh called for all of Israelite, all the Israelites to gather. 330,000 came. So now, uh, he's doing the same thing. He's announcing, "Okay, it's time to go.
We've started something with the Philistines. Y'all show up and let's go." That's what's happening. So they're they're putting out a call for the people together. Verse 5. And the Philistines mustered to fight with Israel 30,000 chariots and 6,000 horsemen and troops like the sand on the seashore in multitude.
Can you imagine getting that scouting report? They had 30,000 chariots. They had 6,000 horses. How many troops?
You ever been to the beach? It's like that. Just scarier. I mean, it is massive. The amount of Philistines that have arrived to fight that have mustered to to come to war.
And it says they came up and encamped at Mcmash. Now, if you're paying attention, that's where Saul had been. He's moved to Gilgal, but they've now come all the way in to where he was had. He had a standing army. They've arrived to exactly where he just was and they have covered the land.
So it says they came up and encamped at Mcmash to the east of Beth Haven. When the men of Israel saw that they were in trouble, for the people were hardpressed. The people hid themselves in caves and in holes and in rocks and in tombs and inistns. And some Hebrews crossed the fords of the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead.
Saul was still at Gilgal and all the people followed him trembling. This massive invading force comes and the people scatter and hide. And behold, villages and cities look like ghost towns. People have gone to caves. They've gone to rocks, meaning they've gone to places that are uninhabited and unlikely to have an army march through.
They've gone into sisterns, which are big containers to catch rain water. So, it's unclear to me whether they had rain water in them or these were sistns that weren't functioning or if it was dry at this time. They go to tombs. It's bad. They're terrified.
All of normal life has ceased. And it says those who are with Saul are trembling. It also means that nobody's coming to Saul. The announcement, gather, let's fight.
All people heard was, oh no, the Philistines, and they went and hid. Verse eight, he waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel. Okay, so we've just jumped into something that we don't have all the details on. The Bible gives us all the details we need. There are a lot of times it doesn't give us all the details we want.
So, whenever you're reading a text, it's giving you the information that you need. It's giving you the information that you should have, but it doesn't necessarily give us all the answers that we want. So, we know that Saul and Samuel have some agreement. Saul's in Gilgal and he's waiting. Now, we know that he's waiting on Samuel and that there's some sort of agreement between the two of them and that Samuel has appointed a time.
Now, in chapter 10, there was a time where Samuel told him, "Go to Gilgal, wait 7 days, I'll be there and we'll we'll do uh burnt offerings and peace offerings." And it seems like it's possible that this was somewhat regular or this is information at least that's happened before. And so, he tells him, "Go to Gilgal." And he's got some instructions. And we're going to find out in a moment that he's going to break the commandment that was given to him that Samuel's going to say it was a commandment from the Lord. So that what Saul is doing is waiting at Gilgal for Samuel on the word of the Lord for what he's supposed to be doing. So here's what happens.
He waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from him. So Saul said, "Bring the burnt offering here to me and the peace offerings." And he offered the burnt offering. So he was apparently waiting for Samuel to come offer the burnt offering and the peace offerings. Samuel doesn't arrive.
So Saul just says, "Bring it here to me." Now, this situation is terrible. Saul's the king. Everybody's looking to him to lead, you know, because he's the king and it's his job to protect the people of Israel. That's what those worthless fellows that we read about in chapter 10. They said, "How will this man save Israel?" And, you know, we said they had a point because he was hiding when they were trying to come get him.
And they were like, "I don't think this guy can do it." And that's his job, though, to save, to protect. and he now is uh he has 3,000 people that he's gathered to him. There's 30,000 chariots, 6,000 uh horsemen, and countless multitude of soldiers. And it says his people are starting to scatter. So he just says, "Bring the burnt offering to me." And he offered the burnt offering.
As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came with I mean, sitcom timing. As he offered the burnt offering, as soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, Samuel came and Saul went out to meet him and greet him. And Samuel said, "What have you done?" which is not what you want a prophet or God to ask you. That's what God asks Adam in the garden. That's what God asks Cain after he's killed his brother.
That's what Joshua asks Achen after he has taken some of the devoted things and led them to destruction. That's what Samuel asks Saul. What have you done? He shows up at the end of the burnt offering. Samuel Saul goes out to meet him.
It says he went to meet and greet him. We don't know his posture. We don't know if he went down kind of like, "Oh, hey." Or if he was actually genuinely excited to see him, really relieved to see him. He's in trouble. And Samuel's been in this sort of thing before.
We don't exactly know. But immediately Samuel says, "What have you done?" The prophet of the Lord is standing with the king of Israel and he says, "What have you done?" And Saul said, "When I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines had mustered at Mcmash, I said, Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the favor of the Lord." So I forced myself and offered the burnt offering. Now, if you'll notice, we're going to point out a few things here. One, the question was, "What have you done?" The answer is, "I offered the burnt offering." But there were a lot of words before we got to that, which as a parent of two young children, I experienced this on a weekly basis. Why is your brother crying?
Earlier this morning, I was having my breakfast. It's like, no, no, no, no, no. What did you do? Why is this broken?
Well, you see, while in the course of human events, no, no, no, no, no. G, get me to the answer. And he he puts off the answer, but he gives a lot of his reasoning. He's going to lay the groundwork for here's why I've done what I've done as he starts to explain it. And if we're being honest, if I'm reading this text, y'all, he was in a bad spot.
And none of the things he says sound to me like they have real good, clean answers. He says the people were leaving. Okay, that's a legitimate problem. I I mean, if we're there and you start seeing soldiers packing up in groups and heading out and people are starting to go, "Well, if Samuel's not coming." And they they're like, "Let's best thing to do is pick a cave.
Let's go." Like you you they've been looking to Saul to do something. And what he's been telling them is, "Wait, we're waiting for Samuel. We're waiting for Samuel. We're waiting for Samuel." Well, Samuel doesn't show up at the appointed time. Now, we don't know if this was later in the day on day seven or if this is day eight or day nine.
It just says you didn't show at the appointed time. I have a feeling that Samuel feels a little bit like where Gandalf says that a wizard is never early or late. He shows up right when he wants to. I think he probably feels that's what prophets get to do. Prophets aren't late.
They show up when they want to. Like I'm whenever I'm here, it's go time and not a second before. But he says, "You weren't here." The only answer he apparently had been giving them was we're waiting for Samuel or Samuel doesn't come. He'd been telling them we're waiting seven days. We're waiting seven days.
He's coming. He's coming. He's coming. He doesn't come. Then he says, I saw that they had gathered and I started thinking they're going to attack us.
So I I forced myself. I was forced. I had to. I had to. And y'all, do you ever feel that situation where you feel like you've got to do something?
People are expecting something of you. You feel like something's got to happen. Something's got something's got to be handled. And you just This was bad. This is bad.
This is bad. This is bad. I had to. As a pastor, I'll talk with people and they'll go, "What what do you want?
What do you How would you do this? How would you handle this? How would you handle this?" And there's really no there's no good earthly answer. Samuel doesn't have Well, here's how to keep the morale of people. Have y'all ever tried to lead something where where like you had to keep morale?
Like y'all, I've I've worked at a fireworks store my pretty much my whole life. Grew up in it. I managed a firework store since the time I was 18. And I've been managing for two busy days around Fourth of July 20 teenagers. Two days.
And they're getting paid to be there. there. And I've had times where I'm like, "Oo, this is falling apart. I got to send some of them home because of their attitudes, but I can't send all of them home. I can't have a coup." Like, I just trying to manage some teenagers for two days.
Go coach a little league team. See if you don't have some morale issues where you're like, "I'm losing it. I don't know what to do. I don't know how to lead this." He's trying to lead the people of Israel in a very terrible situation. And he feels like I I had to.
Here's what Samuel says. Verse 13. And Samuel said to Saul, "You have done foolishly." What you said is so foolish. What you've done is so foolish. Your approach to this is so unwise.
You've done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God with which he commanded you. You were commanded a command. A command from the Lord. A command.
You were commanded a command. You didn't do it. That's Samuel's response. Saul's saying, "What what do you expect me to do?" Samuel says, "I expect you to obey. That's what I expect you to do.
I expect you to have followed the command of the Lord." I think we need to see in this text that there is no set of circumstances that excuses disobedience. That there there is no set of circumstances that excuses sin. That there is not a time when you get to look at the Lord and say, "I had to." There is not a time where obedience wasn't an option. We don't get to say things like, "Well, I if I didn't if we didn't sleep together, they'd break up with me. If we don't live together, I don't know how we'll pay our bills.
If I tell the truth about this, I'll never I'll I'll be the worst salesman in the company." Well, this is just how our industry works. There just isn't a time when we can list out a set of circumstances. Y'all, this is as bad as earthly stuff gets. There's not a time where obedience isn't an option. There's not a time where disobedience is excused.
That's Samuel's answer. What What would you do? What would you have me do? He says, I'd have you obey. I'd have you act like the Lord is the Lord.
So this what he says. You've done foolishly. You've not kept the command of the Lord your God with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue.
So prophetically proclaiming, it's not going to follow your line. Y'all are done. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart. That's David. We're going to see that.
And the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you. Okay. What Saul did in his in this moment of absolute trying to fix the situation was what? He He offered a burnt offering. That's what he did.
That was the disobedience. He offered a burnt offering. And that apparently he had been commanded to wait for Samuel to do that. So he does a a thing that Samuel was going to do, a good thing. The activity is good.
It not his place to do it. But the problem is he does it in disobedience. So he does a good religious activity that he thinks this is a good thing we're supposed to do. We're going to seek the favor of the Lord. He does that action, but it's wrong.
That that is actually the disobedience that he has is in that exact moment. So there's obedience that's driven by faith. There's obedience that's driven by faith. That's what Samuel expected from Saul. And there is religious activity that's driven by fear.
When Saul does this, it's very clear that he doesn't know the Lord. He doesn't understand him. He He's treating him with a fundamental misunderstanding of his goodness, of his sovereignty, of his kindness. He's doing a religious activity. He's doing a thing that's okay to do, a thing that's even good to do, but he's doing it with the wrong motive.
He's doing it with the wrong heart. Samuel was going to show up and offer a burnt offering. But Samuel was going to do it to a Lord that he knew, to a Lord that he trusted, and because the Lord is good. Saul did it. same thing, same activity, but he did it trying to seek the favor of the Lord as if he's not in a position where the people of Israel are already favored, where he as the king is already favored, where God is already good and kind and merciful and gracious.
He did it as if somehow God could be bought. He's not treating him like he knows him. He's treating him like a mob boss. Do you realize that?
Like it could be the same gift, a nice watch, and it can be given to someone because you love them. You want them to enjoy it. You enjoy the relationship. You're trying to develop the relationship. Or it could be given as a bribe.
If I give it because I love them, I'm I'm honoring them. If I give it as a bribe, I'm dishonoring them. I'm saying, I think you're the type of person who will accept a bribe, who needs one, whose favor must be bought. So that in doing this action, he actually dishonors the Lord and fundamentally shows he doesn't understand who he is and what he's like and how kind he is and how merciful he is. And there's a way for us to do things to do the practices of Christianity over here like Samuel would have where it's in response to who he is and how good he is and how glorious he is and how kind he is.
And there's a way for us to do it like Saul was going like Saul did it. That this is faith-based and based off of who he is. It's in dependence on God and his goodness. This is somehow circularly self-reliant. What I mean by that is Saul's like, "Yeah, I did the thing.
Now he does his thing somehow based off of Saul's activity. This shows up in our life. You'll hear it. You may hear yourself say it. You may hear someone else say it.
You may feel it when you're thinking through things. You'll say things like, "I don't know why it's not working. I'm doing what I'm supposed to." Meaning, I I did my religious activity which rolls up to God who goes, "Thank you for your payment." And then here come your blessings. You'll hear people say, "Yeah, I tried Christianity. It didn't work." Meaning, I did the activities.
And the things are the same. Prayer, being a part of a community group, walking in Church family, being kind, being generous, sharing the Gospel. serving. Same activities, completely different heart posture. There's a way for you to be utterly terrified and exhausted in your relationship to Jesus.
You're like, "This is so hard. It's so hard to be a Christian." And it's possible. That's because you're over here. There's no joy. There's no peace.
There's no forgiveness. There's no hope because he's not that good. It's really hard to appease a mob boss and hope you get good things out of it. That is a stressful situation. There's a way for us to be full of activity and have zero faith.
So obedience is expected. There's actually no other option but obedience. But it's obedience from this heart posture that God is good, that he's sovereign, that he's kind, that he's merciful, and that we can trust him. That Samuel would be like, "Yeah, how about you just trust him?" You know, you know Samuel was there when God defeated the Philistines with thunder.
Saul's like, "The army's leaving." Samuel's like, "They are I don't see how you don't know how unimportant your army is. If the God if God is for you, who can be against you? But all Saul sees is what's right in front of him. And he wants there to be obedience that's faith-based. Not obedience.
You could say, "Well, I'm doing all the stuff." But see, what happens a lot of times is we excuse our sin and then try to do enough religious activity to make God pleased with us. Rather than to walk in obedience, trusting the Lord to be kind and good because he is where there's joy and peace and forgiveness. Okay. Verse 15. Samuel arose and went up from Gilgal.
And the rest of the people went up after Saul to meet the army. They went up from Gilgal to Gibia of Benjamin. And Saul numbered the people who were present with him about 600 men. So when he said people were scattering, he went from 3,000 fighting men hoping people were going to be showing up, waiting for them to get ready, waiting for the people to come to him at Gilgal. And all that ends up happening is he gets down to under 25% of what he had.
In Judges chapter 7, the Midianites were like the sand on the seashore. And Gideon had 10,000 men and God said, "It's too many." And wielded him down to 300 and then won the victory. If Saul knew what God was like, if he knew what he was like, he'd be looking at 600 being like, I don't know, maybe too many. But Saul's not Gideon. And his heart isn't towards God because that's what Samuel says.
He's going to go find someone whose heart knows it, whose heart drawn toward him. And Saul and Jonathan his son, and the people who were present with them stayed in Gibba of Benjamin, which is the place they won. But the Philistines encamped at Mcmash. And raiders came out of the camp of the Philistines and three companies. One company turned towards Oprah to the land of Shuall.
Another company turned towards Beth Horon. and another company turned toward the border that looks down on the valley of Zebuim toward the wilderness. So, we're going to pick up there next week. Philistines are on the move and this is going poorly. But I want to show you what what Samuel says.
Look back at 13. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart.
And the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you. This text, this situation, the people of Israel is crying out for a faithful king, someone who will obey the commandment of the Lord, have a kingdom forever. And he says he's gonna find him. Ultimately in the story of 1 Samuel that's David and then the promise of an eternal kingdom is made to David that from David is going to come a king who this is fulfilled in the people who are hiding. They need someone to stand in for them and be faithful.
They need someone if Saul just had faith if he just trusted. If if Samuel had shown up and it was just Saul and Jonathan and he says, "Where is everybody?" And he said, "They all left, but we waited on you and we trust the Lord." You can feel, you almost know Samuel would say, "Oh, the Lord is trustworthy. It's going to be just fine." But he doesn't. But they needed somebody to stand in, somebody to have faith on their behalf, somebody to go ahead of them. And they don't have it.
Samuel says, "God's going to get it." And that is ultimately fulfilled in Christ. And I want you to know that we have that. that in the midst of our disobedience that we try to excuse by our circumstance and in the midst of our religious activity that dishonors God rather than honors him, in the midst of the times that we think he owes us something, that we actually have someone who has gone before us, who has ex executed his kingship faithfully, who has fulfilled the commandments of the Lord and who has stood in to claim the victory on behalf of all of us. That our hope is not in our behavior or our religious activity. It's not in our obedience.
that's in his and then we follow him in obedience. Not placing our hope in our obedience, but placing our hope in him. The king who's gone before us, who has secured the victory. What what the people hiding in rocks and tombs and sistns are waiting for is the news that hey, come out. The king has won.
Come out. He was faithful on our behalf. Come out. Hear hear the good news of the rescue and the hope. And I would say to you that if you are like the New Testament says, dead in your trespasses and sins, there is a king who has been who has fulfilled the commandment on your behalf, who is good and has gone before and who has won the victory.
And you can come put your trust in him. You can come place your hope in him. And that Church family, as we follow him, we get to fall in joyful obedience because he's already accomplished everything for us. This text begs for the king that we get to have. So may we rejoice that we don't have to hide.
That we aren't going to be conquered because our hope is finished and fulfilled and accomplished in Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your grace and your mercy. And we thank you that we get the hope that is missing in this story. That you do have a king after your own heart who has followed your commandments and has a kingdom forever.
And may we rejoice and may we follow in obedience. May we put aside all our religious activity that is somehow set up to make you pleased with us and trust that Christ has has done the work to bring us in and that your pleasure is for all those who have trusted in him. We have freedom and hope. May we repent of sin and our disobedience and may we run to Jesus in Jesus name. Amen.
Band's going to come back up. We're going to take communion which is a practice given to us by Jesus to proclaim his death until he comes. It is for the Church if you have not placed your hope in Jesus. Communion is not for you because it is us saying that what stands between us who has gone before us where our hope lies is in the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus. It is a tangible reminder of the reality of the cross, the hope of the resurrection.
And so, Church family, take a moment to consider your sin and your obedience, your religious activity to see whether or not that you are excusing rebellion or practicing religious activity for the sake of putting God on your good side in a way that dishonors him rather than acknowledges who he really is. and then joyfully come take communion where you remind yourself that Jesus Christ paid the penalty. Jesus Christ is the king who has executed faithfully the office so that he might have an eternal kingdom and that we are free. When you are ready, we invite you to take communion. And if you have a gluten allergy, there's communion in the back.
1 Samuel 12
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Spencer. I'm one of the pastors here. So, we are going to continue to walk through the book of 1 Samuel.
Uh we we typically just keep working through books of the Bible. We don't typically have a lot of Mother's Day or Father's Day sermons, but uh we will keep working through 1 Samuel. And we are in chapter 12 as we continue to walk through this uh this book. So when I was around five, six, somewhere in that range, I got to have this magical Christmas morning where I'm excited getting ready to tear down the stairs. Just go down and see what awaits.
So my brother and I at the top of the stairs just waiting. Can't go down till my mom and my stepdad uh come and then they go downstairs. They kind of make sure everything's ready and then we're we're ready. And they say, "Come on down." So, we descend down the stairs.
My brother's uh 18 months older than me, so this point a little bit faster. And he gets there and before he hits the bottom step, he says, "Spencer got more than me." He evaluated the situation. He looked without touching anything and said he got more than me, which I didn't have a problem at all. And what was happening is he was seeing what he did not have and was coveting, desiring was not this. And my stepdad, which I think this might have been one of his first uh few Christmases with us, was containing wrath.
Just was like seeing this child coveting, entitled bratty, just was holding it together to not ruin Christmas morning. It's an amazing memory, you guys. What uh my brother was was coveting. He was just he just saw something he didn't have. It's so visceral.
It's it's not it's natural to a lot of children and to humanity. Seeing things you don't have and desiring it. And that's what we've seen from the Israelites these last few chapters that they desired to have a king like the nations. They wanted an earthly king to rule them and to reign over them and fight their battles for them. And much like my stepdad, uh Samuel the prophet is angry.
He is upset with this. And we're going to see that in this address today. Now, if you have a blue Bible and you're reading through this in our Bibles, sometimes you'll see these these headings that kind of describe the text below it. And a lot of times they're really helpful. They can help us understand, you know, main idea what's about to happen in this text.
And a lot of them will say Samuel's farewell address. Uh but this is not the end of Samuel. This is one of those times I'm like h you know probably wouldn't call it a farewell address. This is he's not going away. In fact the very next chapter he's got some very important work to do.
This is a transitionary point between the era of the judges and the era of the kings. So in that sense there's some transition here. This work's not done. And he's not George Washington doing his final speech riding off into the sunset at Mount Vernon to retire and never be seen again. But in this address of what he has to say to the whole nation of Israel, we're going to see why it was wicked for them to desire to have a king like the nations.
And I want us to sit in that and understand it uh both from their perspective but also from this side of Christ as well. So let me pray for us then we'll walk through this together. Heavenly Father, I pray that you might help us understand your word. That you'd give us ears to hear. That we would be not just hearers of the word, but we'd be doers of the word.
And we would respond how you desire and in faith and repentance and in delighting in you above all things. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. All right.
So just refresher the last few weeks what we've seen is that the people uh desired this king. They go to Samuel. So we want a king. And then Samuel listens to the people. He gives them a king.
He sees Saul. God chooses Saul. He anoints him, coordinates. We saw last week the coronation, the installation. He's the king.
And then we saw how the Ammonites led by Nahesh rose up against the people of uh Jabeshgilead. And then Saul gathers the people together. All the tribes come. They fight. They defeat the Ammonites.
And we pick up here in chapter 12. Now, we don't know if this is directly after that victory or if this is sometime later, but he's got all the tribes together to address him here. And I want to give some structure to what we're going to see in this speech because sometimes in the Scriptures you'll see these these passages are structured in a certain way. And the speech is structured in this way. It's called a kayazm or some will call it kayastic.
But here's the structure of the speech. It starts with it's going to be Samuel's faithfulness followed by God's response. And here's where the kayazm comes. The kaism comes from the Greek letter kai which is an X. So you're going to see part of an X here.
This is why it's called this. So the center point is going to be covenant faithfulness which in a kayazm that's the main idea. That's the big part of this speech. And then it mirrors backwards. It's going to followed by God's response ending in Samuel's faithfulness.
So it's a very creative structure. You see this sometimes in the Scriptures, but that's a helpful interpretive key because that's going to help us understand what is the big problem with choosing an earthly king. So that is how this is going to go. And we're going to start with Samuel's faithfulness in verse one. And Samuel said to all Israel, "Behold, I have obeyed your voice and 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. So, Samuel has been leading the people of God for for many decades at this. He's been leading the people of God faithfully since he was young. I mean, remember how First Samuel began.
Remember Hannah who desiring a child when she did not have one, prayed earnestly, a godly woman, praying before the Lord for a child and making a vow to the Lord and say, "Lord, if you if you would bless me with this child, if you would do this, I'll I'll dedicate him in service to you all of his life," which it is Mother's Day. And just to appreciate that idea right there of praying for your children earnestly that God might work in them in mighty ways and then God answers that prayer and then Samuel comes and he spends the rest of his life serving the Lord and now he's old and he's gray. just to see how that story comes together that he's at the end of his days and he's got a few more things ahead of him. But it is this big transition. He's heading off leadership to the era of the kings and that he is in here solidifying that I was faithful in my leadership.
Verse three, here I am. Testify against me before the Lord and before his anointed. That's the king soul. 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. So he puts forth this resume of faithful leadership. One of the things that I appreciate about this resume, it it's not a list of accomplishments of all the things that Samuel has done. It's a list of faithfulness and character. You see that he says, "I haven't taken your oxen.
I haven't taken your donkeys. Who have I defrauded? Who have I oppressed? I've not taken bribes and as a judge in this land and enriched myself." He points to his integrity and his character, which I appreciate is just a picture of leadership in general. that godly leadership is one that is centralized on character.
I mean you get that in the New Testament too in 1 Timothy chapter 3 and in Titus 1 when it gets qualifications of an elder and overseer pastor that you see these qualifications are character mostly characterbased and that's what he's pointing to see how I've walked in integrity faithful leadership testify against me oh everyone here the nations King Saul have I not walked in integrity and the people respond 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 is anointed is witness this day. You have f not found anything in my hand." And they said, "He is witness." So the nation affirms this. Yes, Samuel. All these many decades you've been a faithful leader, a godly man in service in your leadership.
Now that's part one of this. Now we're going to shift to God here and the focus is going to be on God. Now to understand the next part and to really appreciate what we're about to read, you need to understand the backdrop of the two covenants that the people live under. There are two covenants that the people of God at this point in the history of Israel that they live under. The Abrahamic covenant and the Mosaic covenant.
So the Abrahamic covenant is goes back to their father Abraham had many sons. Many sons had father Abraham that Abraham back in Genesis. It goes back to Abraham when God makes a covenant with Abraham establishing that I'm going to make a great nation and a mighty people through you Abraham. And in that covenant it's called a unilateral covenant which just means it's all on one party and the party is God. that God says it's on me that I will bless you Abraham and make a great nation through you and your line and all the 12 tribes of Israel are under that covenant.
They come from Abraham. So that is a covenant that they live under as the people of God. The second covenant that they live under is the Mosaic covenant. This is the covenant of Moses. This is the law.
And this covenant is different. over here is an unconditional covenant through Abraham that's all on God. The second one is called a bilateral covenant means it's two parties involved in this agreement and it's a conditional co where on one side God says I will bless you if you obey the law. If you'll follow the law, it will go well for you. That's that's Deuteronomy chapter 30 as Moses is is reading the law before they're getting ready to enter the promised land and says, "If you follow the Lord, you'll be blessed.
If you don't, you will be cursed. Bring curses upon yourself." And that's the Mosaic covenant. Now, it's important because both of those covenants, if you do a careful reading here, you're going to see the language show up all throughout the rest of this. So, it's helpful to have that in mind.
The people understood as they're about to hear the next part of this as Samuel shifts the focus from his faithful leadership to the Lord. Starting in verse six, and Samuel said to the people, "The Lord is witness who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. Now therefore, stand still that I may plead with you before the Lord concerning all the righteous deeds of the Lord that he performed for you and your fathers. So he says, "Stand still and listen." You need to hear everything that God has done for you. Sometimes I got to get my children's attention and say, "Do you realize all the things that we do for you as parents?
I need you to listen to me here. I need you to trust me here. I need you to follow what I'm saying here. You are five and I am older. Just listen.
Listen to all the things that God has done for you. When Jacob went into Egypt and the Egyptians oppressed them, then your fathers cried out to the Lord. The Lord sent Moses and Aaron who brought your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this place. But they've forgot the Lord their God. What we're getting here is history of God's faithfulness to children of Abraham.
Remember how you were in Egypt as slaves and I rescued you and brought you out of Egypt. Remember how I gave you the promised land, a land flown with milk and honey. I gave it to you. I defeated your enemies. I brought you into this land.
And then it continues. And he sold them, but they forgot their lord. They forgot the Lord their God. Verse 9. And he sold them into the hand of Cicora, commander of the army of Hazard, into the hand of the Philistines, into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against them.
And that is I gave you the promised land. So we're going Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, you settle the promised land. Book of Judges. What happens in the book of Judges when you read the book of Judges is that the people of God reject God. They go after lesser gods.
And then the Mosaic covenant, if you do not follow the law, you bring curses upon yourself. And that's what happens. All these enemies here, so Cicero, the Philistines, the king of Moab, they come and they rule over the people. This is over centuries of time. And it says, ' And they cried out to the Lord and said, 'We have sinned because we have forsaken the Lord and have served the bales and the Ashth, but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies that we may serve you.
That's a again that's from the book of Judges where at times the people of God realize they've they've messed up. They've gone after foreign gods and they're pleading with God, save us. And God responds to that cry. And the Lord sent Jerob Gerobal which that's Gideon and Barack and Japth and Samuel to love. Samuel's the final judge and love.
He just puts himself and sent me the final judge and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side and you lived in Satan. So God helps him remember in these covenants you are a special people because you belong to Abraham. But when you are weward and you reject me and you chase after other gods and you don't live in covenant with me, remember what happens. He's helping them remember this is what I have done for you as my people. The evil in your wayward.
I still respond in grace and ascend faithful leaders to come. And then we get to verse 12, which all of that is helpful for setting up the indictment that Samuel's about to levy against the people. And when you saw that Nahash, the king of the Ammonites came against you, you said to me, "No, but a king shall reign over us." When the Lord your God was king. Now, that's a very helpful verse.
I want you to remember what we've read this far the last few weeks. People come to Samuel. They ask for a king. Samuel listens to the Lord, gives them Saul. Saul is anointed.
He's established. Then we see the story of Nahash and the Ammonites. They come, they surround Jabesh Gilead. Saul unites the tribes. They come and fight.
They defeat the Ammonites. Nowhere in those few chapters did it mention this important piece of information that the Ammonites were already a looming threat. It was already in their mind that the Ammonites next door were getting bigger and getting strong getting stronger and they had this mighty king Nash and they see that and in their fear they desire what they should not want. They covet and they say, "We want a king like that. We want a king like the enemy has and not you, oh Lord." And that is a big deal because here's how this was supposed to work.
What was supposed to happen is that when they settle the promised land, they live in covenant relationship with their God. They see the laws and what we we sang Psalm 19 this morning. all the language of how wonderful the law is, how wonderful the word of God is. They're supposed to love the law and and and the way that was set up was you had these 12 tribal regions and really in the center is what the tabernacle was. And every few months they'd go to the tabernacle and they'd worship the Lord and they'd offer sacrifices.
They do festivals like the Passover, which is a festival that helps them remember the God who saves you, the God who rescued you from Egypt. They would worship God and delight in him. And they didn't need an earthly king because they just have the Lord and they have worship and he's he's ruling and reigning from the tabernacle. And if ever there was going to be an enemy that knocked on the door of Israel and made threats against them, they could just plead before the Lord for help and he would respond. This is the God you see sometimes in the Old Testament.
They don't even go out to battle against their enemies. He just causes confusion in the camp and they kill each other and they're done. That's how powerful and mighty God is. He can Thanos snap and done. They're just done.
That's how God can work. They just would trust him if they would trust their covenant God. That's how it's supposed to be. They don't want that. They don't believe that God is good.
They don't believe that God can protect them. They don't believe God provide for them. They don't trust God. Their hearts are chasing after lesser gods, lesser things. We want a king who will rule us like they want a king who will go out and fight our battles like they.
They were supposed to be different, y'all. They were supposed to be a holy nation. They were supposed to be a light among the nations. They were supposed to The other nations were supposed to look at Israel and see there's something different about this people. They just they love their God.
They have one just just the one and they love their God and they worship him and he'd be mess with them because we we know the stories of those who mess with this God and his people and they supposed to look so good and so wonderful living in covenant relationship with their God that the people would even wonder who maybe we should just worship this God alone supposed to be but they reject that and the rejection is not small and is a massive projection of covenant God, symptomatic of a bigger problem of covenant unfaithfulness than the people of God. Verse 14, if you will fear Lord and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, that both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God, it will be well. But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king. So I think I might have skipped verse 13, but the verse 13 going back says, "And now behold the king whom you have chosen for whom you have asked. Behold the Lord has set a king over you." Which is just this.
You have asked for it and you've gotten him. And that's where you are now as you've rejected God in favor of an earthly king. And you're here now. So as you're here, if you will fear the Lord and you'll serve him and know you will obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord and that both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord, it will be well. That is the language of the Mosaic covenant, you guys.
That's what's happening here. So I'm not I'm not not abandoning you. You still are my people, the children of Abraham. So now respond in faithfulness. But if you don't, if you will not obey the voice of the Lord, if you rebel against him, the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king.
And there's this picture of curses will come upon you. And again, that's the language of the law. That's the language of Deuteronomy 30 when Moses is telling the people before they enter the promised land after years of watching them rebel be a stiff necked people says that you you need to follow the Lord serve him with your whole heart love him above all things or it's going to go poorly for you that's also the speech that Joshua gives the end of the book of Joshua in Joshua chapter 24 says you need to follow the Lord with your whole heart. If you don't, it's going to go poorly for you. And this rejection and and and desiring this earthly king is symptomatic of this covenant unfaithfulness.
They don't love God. They don't trust God. They don't serve him with their whole heart. They're divided amongst lesser gods and lesser things. So, at the very centerpiece of this speech, Samuel is saying, "Here's the here's why what you did was so wicked.
You you want an earthly king and you live in covenant unfaithfulness." And here's God's continued response starting in verse 16. Now, therefore, stand still. Same language as above. Stand still and see this great thing the Lord will do before your eyes. He's about to confirm this.
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, and 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. So he's like here here's some confirmation of your wickedness, of your rejection of God as your king. What's going to happen is thunder and rain. It's going to come in the middle of the wheat harvest.
Now, it's hard for us to put our minds in in their minds and see how big of a deal this is because we are so used to we see we think so scientifically about the weather. Just pull out your app and see well we know how weather we don't see the providential work of God at work and the weather. And for them like that that our God is in the heavens. They understand that. So God is in control of all of this.
So they just they're just more clued into the providential nature of how God works even in the weather. But it's wheat harvest which in their climate is a time that is dry. The rainy season was before. We're in the air at dry season now. It's the middle of wheat harvest.
So the I the fact that a storm is just going to appear out of nowhere is confirmation of their wickedness. And the moment that the sky turns black and the lightning strikes, the thunder roars, the rains fall, they get it. And it's terrifying. They understand they have really really sinned against God. They understand this starting in verse 19.
And all the people said to Samuel, "Pray for your servants to the L pray for your servants to the Lord your God that we may not die. For we have added to all our sins this evil to ask for ourselves a king. We we we've added to our sins. We've rejected you, God. We've asked for a king, and we don't want to die for our wickedness.
Verse 20. And Samuel said to the people, "Do not be afraid. You have done all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart." Again, that's the Mosaic covenant at work. It's God's grace. You're not going to be just You're not going to be destroyed in judgment right now, but now is the time to turn aside from hearts that chase after lesser things.
Return to the Lord. Serve him with all of your heart, not divided. All of your heart. Verse 21. Do not turn aside after empty things they cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty.
The Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake because it flees the Lord to make you a people for himself. And that's that's the language of the Abrahamic covenant that this is God's people that he claimed for himself, for his glory, for his name's sake. See, both of those at play here when the people say, "We we've messed up. We don't want to die. Don't bring judgment.
And Samuel says, "Not going to, but return. Now's the time for repentance. Now is the time to return back to the Lord. Now is the time to uphold the law as good. For he's chosen you for his name's sake, for his glory." And then he adds of this in verse 23.
Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you and I will instruct you in a good and right way. So as we're moving back in this kayazm, it's now this is his faithfulness on display. Now, I heard somebody comment on this the other day and they were talking about this passage and they said, I mean, I bet this is more Samuel saying, "I'm going to pray for you because y'all y'all have messed up." And it's the same line as Joshua because Joshua kind of says that I'm going to pray for you is going to the promised land, but probably not going to work out for you based on everything I've seen. And Moses kind of has a little bit of the same posture in Jeremiah 30. I'm going pray for you.
And I think, sure, there might be some elements of that where it's like, I'm I'm going to pray for you. But I think even more to what's happening here is it just displays Samuel's faithfulness and saying, "No, go. Y'all have messed up. I'm devoted to trying to to help you still. And I will I my faithful leadership is I will not stop praying." And it's such a a a godly example of of of good leadership.
I'm not going to stand against the Lord. I know my calling. I will continue to pray ceaseless prayer for you and I will continue to teach you the good and right way. I think this is more just know this is this is Samuel being a faithful leader even still. And this is how this chapter ends.
Verse 24. Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you. But if you still do wicked, you shall be swept away, both you and your king. So he says, "Fear the Lord.
Serve him faithfully because of the great things that he has done. And if you don't, surely judge me." That address period of the judges. It's over. The era of the kings has begun. It's a new era of leadership.
They will serve the Lord both. Notice the king and his people. If the king and his people will both serve the Lord wholeheartedly and faithful, it's going to go well. You'll be blessed. And if you read the rest of 1st Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1st Kings, 2 Kings, 1st Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, you know it is not going to go well because both the king and the people are continuously going to reject God, worship other gods instead, and ultimately curses are going to come upon them.
But I want to help us see how they are marked out of this whole passage has the backdrop of these two covenant. The back end chapter back in verse 22 when it says for the people will not forsake for the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself. That's God saying you you belong to me that my people belong to me for my glory. And then also verse 20 that they are people of the law of Moses and the Mosaic covenant. And Samuel said to the people, "Do not be afraid.
You have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. Do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver for they are empty. They belong to the Lord as his people. They still you follow the Lord.
They'll turn aside and they do over and over again. I mean it's it's it is a tragic story over and over where you see glimpses of God's faithfulness to his people. They're the people of God as children of Abraham. And then you also see they just keep folding on their face. They keep worshiping the Bales and Ash and all these other lesser gods.
They keep doing horrible practices all the way to sacrificing the king sacrificing his own child to a foreign God. You'll see this over and over and over again. When I read how the people were called to live and this faithfulness to the Lord through his law, it's it's it's it's kind of overwhelming to think this nation living under the under the conditional covenant of the law of Moses that just hung over to them, how they fall short over and over again. But on this side today as we read this now from our vantage point I can understand from their perspective that's overwhelming and also from our perspective thanks thankfulness that we no longer live under the Mosaic covenant. We don't live under the law.
We're not people of the law. Because when Jesus comes and he begins his ministry and in Matthew chapter 5 when he's teaching the sermon on the mount, he says this. He says, "Do not think that I've come to abolish the law of the prophets. I do not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them." There's so many Israelites that failed to uphold the law. They could not fulfill the law.
They could not obey the law. When Samuel says, "Don't turn aside. Don't turn aside and chase after lesser things." There's only one who does. Jesus doesn't turn aside once. Every letter of the law, every mark perfectly.
And Jesus fulfills the law perfectly. And then he goes to the cross. And that in Christ and faith in what he has done, we get this unbelievable offer of his perfect record and his perfect righteousness. School growing up, I was not a great student. I had to work hard for every grade I got because I'm just doesn't come naturally to me.
So, you know, sometimes C's get degrees, you guys. So, that and I just I had to work and struggle just to make decent grades. And there were always people in the class. There's always someone one or two or three people that just were so good at it. They just made it just came easy to them and they just made straight A's.
They just killed it. And so many times I just want to sit behind them and look at that test and just get every one of those answers down so I could just at one point finally just be ex at school. Uh and the offer that we get in Christ is he hands us the test. Perfection and says it's yours. Bad students, bad followers of the law, can't check all the boxes.
Not even close. Here it is. You can have this if you just trust in me. That's the offer that is given to us this side of the law. Christ in Galatians 3 captures this in even more detail in chapter 310.
It says, "For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the law and do them." There's this picture of the Mosaic covenant that same that language right there that were people were called to live out the law and all of its teachings and they couldn't and because of that they were cursed. Verse 11, now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law for the righteous shall live by faith. It's the language of being a child of Abraham. But verse 12, the law is not of faith.
Rather, the one who does them shall live by them, Christ redeemed us from the cursed law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on the tree. And that's the good news of the Gospel that Jesus has the perfect life. And then we who cannot fulfill the requirements of the law and should receive the judgment that comes with that, Jesus takes that judgment, that curse upon himself on the tree. When he rises from the grave and defeats the power of death and its grip on us, that offer is made to all of us in faith so that in Christ Jesus, verse 14, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles.
That's us. So that we might receive the promised spirit through faith. So when I read stories like this in the Old Testament and I see the high calling that they were called to live and the bar that was set, I'm just thankful. I'm just thankful to live in the covenant Christ and what he has done for us. So that when I go back and I read verse 24 when it says, "Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart.
Four. Consider what great things he has done for you. For them, they had the history up until that point. And we have so much more. We should be a people who consider, who consider, who stare deeply at, who ponder upon, who meditate on the great things that God has done for us.
And that is the redemption that we have in Christ to his life, death, and resurrection that we just walked through. But there's so much more that we get to consider as Christians that we should consider in Christ and the great things he has done for us. I just want to list a few of these. We should consider that Christ is our king. It's one of the great things he has done for us is that he established a kingdom that will never end and a kingdom that's better than this world.
That as 1 Timothy 6 says that he is the king of kings. that when he ascended to the right hand of God the Father when he rules and reigns, he offers a better kingdom. And so much of our effort and our toil is building kingdoms in this world that won't last. Building kingdoms that we think are good that never satisfy. And we have a king that loves us so much to so that he gave up his life for us and he invites us into a better kingdom.
We should consider our king. We should consider that Jesus is our high priest as Hebrews 4 teaches that he stands in the heavens as our great high priest. Meaning that even when we are struggling and even when we are falling on our face and sin that we can come before the Lord and come before the father in prayer boldly and confidently not because of us because Jesus our high priest stands offering prayers on behalf of his people. It's a wonderful gift that we've been given to have access to God even though we still fall short of the glory that he has called us into. We should consider that he is our mediator.
1 Timothy chapter 2, he is the man in the middle that stands between us and God the father. That every time that we feel the shame of our sin, we can look to our savior and say, "Thank you, Jesus, that you're our mediator. You stand in the middle. That you take my place." We should consider that Jesus Christ is our friend. John 15 teaches that he's a friend to us.
That he's mighty and he's powerful and he's worthy of worship and he also has this intimate nearness that is given to us to be friends God. We should consider that he's a victor over evil. that Colossians 2 teaches that he put the enemy, that's Satan and the demonic, to open shame and triumphing over them. That when we're attacked by the enemy, we can look to Christ as our victor over evil. That we can pray the Lord's prayer.
We can receive what God has given us. We should see Jesus as our wonderful author and finisher of our faith as Hebrews chapter 12 teaches that he is the God who began our faith and will finish it. Philippians 1 that he carries us through to complete him. And that's on him. Every time that I'm tired, every time that I'm struggling, and in seasons where I just feel how hard it is to follow God, I remember he's the one who began it.
Now, he's the one that will carry me home. I can remember Ephesians chapter 2 that Jesus is our cornerstone. Meaning, he's the foundation that my faith is built upon, which means that I don't have to be the strength in this faith. I can rest upon the rock that is Christ. And all the times I get that twisted and I think that it's on me.
God enliven and awakens my eyes to see, it isn't. It's on Christ. that we get to consider. I'll just give you one more. That he's our good shepherd.
That as John chapter 10 teaches that Jesus Christ is our good shepherd. He's the best pastor, y'all. The chief shepherd. And at times we're weward. And at times where we're struggling, at times we're like a sheep that's wounded and limping.
That he lifts us up and he sustains us and he heals us and he carries us and we can't even walk. There's so many things that we get to consider in Christ that makes this God has done great things for us. And sometimes I just I'm so prone to being like an Israelite that forgets that. It just forgets it. And so easily I'll chase after lesser things.
And so easily I'll trust in human power like they did, looking for an earthly king to come. trusting myself, trusting in anyone else but God. Each of us fail to consider in so many ways the great things that God has done for us. But the good news is that Jesus Christ bled and died for men and women that fail, etc. So may we heed the call of Samuel to consider what God has done and to put our hope in him and him alone.
The band's going to come up. We just get a moment to end and worship. And as we worship, I just want us to take the time to do that, to actually consider to consider Christ. For some of you, I want you to be honest your own heart before the Lord. I want you to be honest and ask him questions because it's possible you've actually never considered the Lord.
You never considered him as your hope. as your only hope. You may have considered the things of this world, the empty philosophies of this world. You may have considered you and your strength and your power and your righteousness and your good record. You may have considered a whole bunch of other things, but you actually haven't considered Christ and Christ alone.
And my hope right now is that you would actually for the first time consider him in faith and trust in him alone. For those of us that belong to God, that we are children of Abraham through faith, may we consider the great things that he has done for us. And may that lead us to worship and delighting in him, anything this world has to offer. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, I pray that you would help us be a people that consider that as we heed Samuel's address and consider the ways in which what we have is so much better that it would lead us to faith. That it would lead us to worship that would lead us to trusting you above all things. But that comes through your work and the spirit at work in us. And we ask that you go to work in Jesus name. Amen.
1 Samuel 11
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We are in First Samuel chapter 10, and we're picking up where we left off last week. Last week, we read about Saul being anointed as king. He went looking for some lost donkeys, and eventually, he went to a place where there was a prophet. It turned out that prophet was Samuel. Samuel sees Saul, and God tells Samuel, "That's him. That's the guy I told you was going to be king. I told you you'd see him today." And there he is. He anoints him as king. Saul goes to a dinner where he sits at the head of the table. Then he goes home and tells no one that he has been anointed king.
We're going to pick up today where we left off. Spencer told us a little bit about where this ends up with Saul, and that it doesn't go well for him. But we're not there yet in the story, and today we're going to look at how his story begins. It starts off okay. So, we're going to look at verse 17 of 1 Samuel chapter 10. It says this: Now Samuel called the people together to the Lord at Mispa. He said to the people of Israel, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I've brought up Israel out of Egypt, and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you. But today you have rejected your God, who saves you from all your calamities and your distresses, and you have said to him, 'Set a king over us.' Now therefore, present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your thousands."
They said they want a king. They're bringing together to give them a king. Normally, in these sorts of things, the first person who gets up and talks pumps some ceremony and highlights the importance of the day. Samuel gets up and says, "You used to follow God who saves you from everything. You've rejected him, and today you won't have God. You'll have some guy." Now, line up. It's not the best start, but they're going to line up. They're going to choose a king by lot.
By lot just means a system for randomly choosing. We do some things by lot culturally; we don't call it that, but we draw straws, flip a coin, pull a name from a hat, hold a lottery, or a raffle. Paper rock scissors is just competitive lots where you feel like you won something, even though it was still pretty random.
A lot of things were done by lot historically and culturally all over the place. It just means they have a random system for choosing. They would use urim and thummim. They had the breastplate of the high priest that they would use for this at times. They also may have used some other different methods. People trusted that God would give them the answer through this.
This is not uncommon to them. We see a whole section of this playing out in Joshua chapter 7, where they are trying to find out who sinned against God, and they walk it all the way down to the household of Achan. So they're going to choose by lot. Samuel, verse 20, brings all the tribes of Israel near, and the tribe of Benjamin was taken by lot.
Now, God already told Samuel who was going to be king. Samuel already told Saul he was going to be king. They're going to do this now by lot. Samuel is going to see, and Saul's going to see, that God is overseeing the lot. But for everybody else, they're just going to see that this is how God works in choosing, and they may not have known or wouldn't have known already that Saul is the one to be chosen. But Benjamin is the tribe he comes from, that Saul is from.
It says the tribe of Benjamin was taken by lot. He brought the tribe of Benjamin near by its clans, and the clan of the Matrites was taken by lot. Saul, the son of Kish, was taken by lot. But when they sought him, he could not be found.
So, however they were taking lots and doing this, there was some sort of representative tokens or something used to pick a person because they selected a person who's not there. So the lot falls on Saul, the son of Kish, and he's not there.
They looked for him. So they're doing this, and they're like tribe of Benjamin. They move up, and then they do the next process, and they say the clan of the Matrites. Then everybody moves off, and the Matrites come near somehow and then they say Saul, the son of Kish. So is Saul here? Where's Saul? Like, they have to go look for him, and the whole country's here, and now we're looking for Saul. The whole process has stopped to the point that it says, "But when they sought him, he could not be found."
Verse 22: So they inquired again of the Lord, "Is there a man still to come?" It slows down so much that they're like, "Let's ask God again." They inquire of the Lord, "Are we waiting for somebody else? Did we do what is happening?" And God says, "Behold, he has hidden himself among the baggage."
We know that Saul showed up, but we don't know at what point he hid. Maybe it was right when they said line up. Maybe it was when Benjamin got picked and he thought, "Oh no." Maybe he waited till it was the Matrites, then he was like, "Oh no." But he definitely wasn't there when they said Saul, the son of Kish. The baggage is the luggage that everybody has shown up with; they just piled all their gear up, all their supplies in a certain spot. And Saul goes and hides, which is a real cute look for your new king.
So God tells them, "No, I picked the right person. He's hiding." Then it says, "Then they ran and took him from there." I would assume, just trying to picture this, they're excited. They run. I also think that means there's a lot of children involved. They say he's in the supplies, and everybody just takes off. This whole group takes off and finds Saul hiding.
I don't know how he hid. The text doesn't tell us. It's possible there was no one near the supplies and he just went there. It's possible he hid. You remember playing hide-and-seek? The better your hiding spot, the more awkward it is to get out of it once you've been caught. We're told that Saul's a big dude. I don't know if he was just tucked behind stuff, and they were like, "God told us you were here," and he came out. Or if he was in stuff, and they had to be like, "Hey man, get up," and he had to crawl out of things. But it's not a good look.
They bring him out. Samuel said to all the people, oh sorry, they ran and took him, and when he stood among the people, he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders upward. They bring him out, and he's a head taller than everybody. Samuel said to all the people, "Do you see him whom the Lord has chosen? There is none like him among all the people."
There are a couple of ways to understand what he's saying there. He possibly is just saying now that he is king, he stands above everybody else. Here's your king, and no one’s like him. It's a from now on kind of thing. It's also possible that all he's saying here is look at him, remember what he looks like, and he looks different than everybody. So later, when you see a guy who's taller than everybody, you can say, "Oh yeah, I remember that. That's our king." It's possible he's just commenting on what he looks like. It's also possible that what he means is now he stands above everybody, not literally but figuratively.
All the people shouted, "Long live the king." They've chosen the king. They know who it is, and they all shout, "Long live the king."
Samuel told the people the rights and duties of the kingship, wrote them in a book, and laid it before the Lord. We don't know what he wrote. My guess is it included some of the stuff we've read in Deuteronomy about what a king is supposed to be like. It probably included some things Samuel said—that if you get a king, he's going to do all this stuff—but he gives some restrictions, this is what a king is allowed to do, and duties, here's what he's supposed to do, has to do. He declares it all to everybody, like, "Alright, y'all got a king now and here's what a king can and can't do and should do." He writes it all down and puts it before the Lord.
Samuel sent all the people away, each to his home. We're going to get more information about how this plays out. I appreciate the detail. They get everybody together; they choose a king. Then they go play hide-and-seek with the king, find him, then Samuel says, "Look at him." He announces, and then he just goes, "Alright, go home."
We're told Saul goes home because they've never had a king before. He doesn't have a palace. He's no castle. They just say, "Here's what kings are allowed to do. You got one. Yay. Go home."
It says, "Saul also went to his home at Gibeah." He just was like, "Okay, I'm king now. I'm going home." With him went men of valor whose hearts God had touched.
God begins to work and sends brave, capable, valiant men with Saul. But some worthless fellows said, "How can this man save us?" They despised him and brought him no present. Other people were apparently prepared to give something to honor the king. But they're like, "We're not doing it. He'll get no present from us. We don't like him."
They despised him, brought him no present, but he held his peace. We're told God touches the hearts of valiant men, and these worthless men reject Saul. But I can't help but feel like the worthless men have a point. They're in a time of war. Part of the reason they've picked a king is they want someone to save them. That's part of the reason Samuel's upset with them: God saves them.
But they are constantly at war with the people around them. They want someone to go out and fight their battles. They say, "How can this guy save us?" Saul's start isn't a good one.
What do we know about Saul at this point? We've read chapters 9 and 10 and were introduced to him in chapter 9. We know his dad is wealthy. If you wanted to talk about that nicely, you'd say he's from a well-off family. If you didn't like Saul, you'd say, "Yeah, daddy's rich." You could spin that one way or the other.
We know his family is wealthy. We know Saul is tall and handsome, so if you wanted to date him, these are the categories you'd pick. I told you a couple of weeks ago that they're not the best ones, but tall, handsome, rich—that doesn't make you king.
So far, we've seen him unsuccessfully find donkeys, and then hide when they called his name. That's what we know of Saul. He was humble, but he seems humble to the point of not wanting to do this.
I don't know if we would like him. Some people would like that he was tall, might like that he was wealthy, and you might appreciate that he's handsome. But I don't know if we'd pick him as king.
In our country, Kennedy and Nixon have a debate, and Nixon was sweaty and people were like, "Seems real sweaty. Can't elect that guy." He lost. I can tell you it's a big deal because I know about it.
The first election I was able to vote in was Obama, way after Kennedy and Nixon. If Nixon had been hiding in the back under a table, not well, hyperventilating, and they had to start off by saying, "Candidate Nixon is hiding in the back under a table, breathing in a bag, refuses to come out, says that he'd like to speak to his mother," they would have had a tough time. They would ask Senator Kennedy what he thought about that. But Nixon was just sweaty. He glistened too much on TV, and people said, "Can't trust him." People were kind of right.
So there you go. This guy hid. They had to go find him. What makes him special? Why is God blessing and sending valiant men with him? And why are these people called worthless? He didn't win a battle. He didn't accomplish anything. He didn't win a tournament. He wasn't the most anything, really—most tall. I want to show you all what it says.
Verse 24: Samuel said to all the people, "Do you see him whom the Lord has chosen?" Now we know why he's special—the Lord chose him. Therefore, it's worthless to reject him whom the Lord has chosen, and it's a good thing to do to follow him whom the Lord has chosen because he's chosen.
That's what makes him special—God, in his divine choosing, chose him.
But everybody goes home. Saul keeps his peace. We're going to chapter 11.
Then Nahash the Ammonite went up and besieged Jabesh Gilead. We've been hearing about problems with the Philistines on the west. Israel is in the middle. Jabesh Gilead is over here on the east, and the Ammonites are over here. The Ammonites have now besieged Jabesh Gilead on the other side of the Jordan.
Isn't it nice to live where and when we do, where this doesn't happen as often? Historically, this was super common: an army shows up, you're hanging out, suddenly you see people marching, your walled city is surrounded, and they just besiege it. If you have a big enough army, you're ready to go get some stuff.
All the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, "Make a treaty with us and we will serve you." That phrasing is actually "cut a treaty with us," which is how they would cut a covenant. They would cut up an animal, mingle the blood, then walk through. It's officially called a suzerain and vassal covenant, where you have one ruling authority over a vassal state that will pay tribute, taxes.
So they say, "That's a nice besieging army you have there." They send out an envoy and say, "We'll cut a covenant with you and start sending you money. Deal." Nahash says, "Deal." But Nahash the Ammonite said, "On this condition: I will make a treaty with you that I gouge out all your right eyes and thus bring disgrace on all Israel."
They’re not going to cut up an animal; they’re going to cut up you. Line up. I'll pop out all your right eyes and bring shame on all Israel. That'll be the covenant, then you'll owe me taxes.
The elders of Jabesh said, "Give us seven days' respite that we may send messengers through all the territory of Israel. Then if there is no one to save us, we will give ourselves up to you."
That's desperation. What else can they do? They said, "Let us go through all Israel and ask." He says yes, which seems crazy culturally—that he would say yes.
They basically say, "Give us a chance to see if someone wants to come kill you. If they do, thanks for waiting. If they don't, you can gouge our eyes out." It makes some sense because his goal was to bring shame on all Israel.
They said, "Let us go through all Israel and ask." He apparently says yes because next we hear: when the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul, they reported the matter to the people, and all the people wept aloud.
They heard the news; they were heartbroken. This is awful. They seem despondent. What are we going to do?
The people of Israel have been a loose collection of peoples, tribes, and have never really banded together for some things. That's part of the reason Nahash thinks, "Sure, try to get those people together."
Now Saul was coming from the field behind the oxen. He's gone back to work. Saul said, "What is wrong that the people are weeping?" They told him the news about Jabesh.
The spirit of God rushed upon Saul when he heard these words, and his anger was greatly kindled. He took a yoke of oxen, cut them in pieces, and sent them throughout all Israel by messengers, saying, "Whoever does not come out after Saul and Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen."
Then the dread of the Lord fell upon the people, and they came out as one man.
Imagine someone rides into your town with two-day-old ox pieces, tosses it down, and says, "Hey." Everybody's like, "What are you doing?" He says, "Saul, our king, cut that ox up." He says, "Get your weapons and muster or he's going to cut your oxen."
It's an effective message. The dread of the Lord fell on the people, and they come as one man.
Verse 8: When Saul mustered them at Bezek, the people of Israel were 300,000, and the men of Judah 30,000. They told the messengers, "Say this to Jabesh Gilead: Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you shall have salvation."
Their city's besieged. To get that message in, these people must cross back through. Nahash knows they're going back in; people are returning now with the answer. When the messengers told Jabesh, they were glad.
Verse 10: They said to Nahash, "Tomorrow we will give ourselves up to you and you may do to us whatever seems good to you."
That phrase is fair translation, or, "We'll come out to you. We'll march out." They intentionally tightrope walk—"We'll come on out; you can do whatever you want to."
There's a little eye play on words, too: "We'll let your eyes do what you want to do," which is what they said.
Verse 11: The next day Saul put the people in three companies; they came into the midst of the camp in the morning watch, before sunrise, and struck down the Ammonites until the heat of the day. Those who survived were scattered so no two of them were left together.
Nahash surrounded a city, very confident, then 330,000 Israelites showed up in the middle of the night, and it went very poorly for Nahash.
Verse 12: The people said to Samuel, "Who said Saul shouldn't reign over us? Bring those men so we may put them to death." Those who stood against Saul did it publicly. After Saul showed he can lead, muster, bring rescue, they said, "Who said Saul wasn't going to be in charge? Let's kill them, too."
Those guys are there because they all showed up, and they were like, "No, this turned real quick."
Saul said, "Not a man shall be put to death today, for today the Lord has worked salvation in Israel."
Samuel said to the people, "Come, let us go to Gilgal and renew the kingdom." All the people went to Gilgal; there they made Saul king before the Lord. They sacrificed peace offerings before the Lord, and Saul and the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.
So we've seen Saul anointed, chosen, and now solidify as king.
We've seen bits and pieces of his character. One thing to keep asking: what makes him special? Why is he special? What's worked here to make this good?
Reading the text, God chose him and empowered him. The Spirit of the Lord fell on him, kindled his anger, then Saul acted. The last time we saw him do something good was prophesying when the Spirit fell on him.
He's been chosen and empowered by the Spirit. God hasn't just picked out the best guy—he's picked someone and is empowering them.
I want to take a moment as a church family, as Christians, those following Jesus, to wrap our heads around what Saul has. We have something even better.
What happened for Saul? Something even better has happened for us. So, turn with me to Ephesians 1.
Paul writes to Christians about what it means to belong to the Lord. In verse 3, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places."
That's wonderful. We are blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing.
"He chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him."
What makes us special? He chose us. What made Saul special? He was chosen.
In the New Testament, he chooses those whom he blesses. We're blessed because he chose us.
"He chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him." If you belong to Jesus, you are holy and blameless because of Jesus, not you. You're blessed because of his choosing, not you.
He did this before the foundation of the world. If you're a Christian and wonder why you're special, why did I get to believe this, why me? Because he chose. He did this.
When we look at Saul and say, "Why did he choose Saul?" It doesn't tell us why. It tells us some things, but not the reason.
Why did he choose me? It says, "In love." It's not in us; it's in his love.
We were loved in him, so we love him because he first loved us.
"He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will."
He loves us and brings us to himself, which is wonderful. If you belong to Jesus, you don't get in on a technicality like, "Try not to cause problems; you got in because you trusted in Jesus." No.
"In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons." He wants you and me, the church, to belong to him, to be enjoyed, to be delighted in.
Why does he love me? "According to the purpose of his will."
Then it says to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he blessed us in the beloved. Grace is unearned favor—unearned, unmerited, undeserved.
What gets praised? Not anything you've done or accomplished; it's grace, glorious grace.
You say, "I don't feel good enough." It's not about that. He saved you by glorious grace, and he's wonderful.
According to the purpose of his will.
This is beautiful—that it's by his divine choosing.
Imagine being gathered with the people of Israel and the lot falling to you and saying, "What?"
But what we've been chosen for is so much more glorious, wonderful, eternal. It's staggering what he, in his divine purpose and glorious grace, has chosen in the blood.
It keeps going. Ephesians 1:7, "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time—to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth."
Highlight this: in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.
If you're keeping score at home, trespasses are what you brought.
"According to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom," making known the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ, not in you.
He purposed and accomplished it in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him—heaven and earth.
This is about Jesus and God's glorious will.
If you belong to him, it's because he has made you belong to him.
You've been chosen because he's chosen.
You brought sin that made the sacrifice necessary, but you didn't earn, achieve, or keep it. It's not about you.
If they had gathered the people and said, "Hold on. Let's see if he's good at this. Let's watch him a while."
They would all be wrong because God already chose.
If you've trusted Jesus, it's in response to his divine choosing.
You are kept, held, worked on because of him and what he has done.
He has qualified you.
It's about him, not you.
And if you've met yourself, that's great news.
I've had times when I go into a tough conversation prepared, using pep talks, and still fall apart.
It's not about your ability to hold it together or keep it.
It's not about your ability to earn it.
It's about him.
Ok, hold on, sorry.
Verse 11 repeats, but in him we have attained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.
If chosen, it's because he did this.
So we who first hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
So he's glorified, praised, exalted.
It's not about you.
You're involved as the object, the recipient.
When you consider your walk with Jesus, you're not the subject or the verb.
God is doing the work, Christ is doing the work.
You're down here being acted on by a glorious God who divinely chooses, rescues, saves, redeems, and keeps according to the purpose of his will, because of his love, because of his glorious grace, and to the praise of his glory.
You shouldn’t think, "I must be one of the good ones."
God didn't pick you because of something special.
You wouldn't conclude you earned or achieved this.
You’d conclude you need to praise his glory.
Why are you a Christian? Because Jesus is wonderful, good; he redeems, saves, and loves.
That would all turn back to praising his glory and grace.
But you say, "Saul falls apart. God chooses, Saul loses it."
Good point.
That's why I said we have something better than Saul.
Saul was chosen for a role in an earthly kingdom.
He was chosen temporarily as a king in a temporary kingdom.
He was empowered by the Spirit for some of what God was going to do, but he ultimately lost it.
We in Christ are not chosen by lot.
We’re chosen by grace.
Not chosen by Samuel through lots, but chosen by Jesus through his blood.
Chosen for an eternal kingdom.
Verse 13: "In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation"—that is, Jesus Christ came, died on the cross, rose again so you might have hope and faith.
That's proclaimed in baptism: Jesus was dead and buried, and with him we die and bury our sin.
Without Jesus, we don't rise, but because Jesus rose, we rise.
We are washed clean, made new, given new life; our sin is dead and buried with Christ, and we rise with him with justification—we're made new and whole.
That's what we celebrate.
The gospel says when you heard it and believed it, believed in him, you said, "It's not about me; it's about him. I don't believe in me; I believe in him."
That's your process, your response.
You were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.
Sealed.
Saul was empowered; we are too.
The New Testament tells us he's empowered us for mission.
But we're not just empowered; we're sealed.
The promised Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it.
The Spirit will keep you going until you get the full inheritance of all the blessings of Christ.
It's guaranteed; a guarantee is as good as the person who makes it.
And it's the God of the universe.
You're not just empowered; you're sealed, kept, and guaranteed.
Jesus says you're put in his Father's hand, and no one takes anything from the Father's hand.
If that's true for me and my sons, 10 and 7, it's true for God.
If He’s holding something, He’s not letting go.
It's guaranteed.
Sealed by the Spirit, and it’s working.
He says in chapter 4, "Don't grieve the Spirit by whom you were sealed for the Day of Redemption."
You say, "But I'm doing bad stuff, grieving the Spirit, causing problems."
He says, "Yes, don't do that, but you're sealed for the day of redemption."
That's the Spirit you’re grieving—who will be with you the entire time until he brings you to the conclusion of the inheritance, till he gets you where he plans to take you by his purpose.
He ends, "To the praise of his glory."
Oh, that he might be praised, exalted, lifted up.
Do you realize you've been chosen in a lottery far better than being the king of Israel?
If you belong to Jesus, you’ve been chosen by his divine choosing and good pleasure, according to the purpose of his will.
He lavished grace upon you, made you his forever, sealed you with the Spirit, and will bring you to the end.
May we praise him, honor him, follow him, and not grieve the Spirit.
At all points, may we know it is by his glorious grace, accomplished in him, brought about by him, and about him.
At no point say, "But I haven’t done this," or "I haven’t done that."
Have you trusted in him? Then stop talking about you.
Do you believe in him? Or do you believe in yourself?
We say, "No, I believe in him."
Therefore, we are made free; we are brought to the end.
Praise his name.
Let's pray
1 Samuel 9-10
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
My name is Spencer. I'm one of the pastors here. So, we are back in 1 Samuel after taking a break for Holy Week. And I'll be honest with you, it's a lot of text today. So, if you want to grab a Bible, you can follow along with us. The text will also be on the screen, but we got all of chapter nine and half of chapter 10 that we're going to work through.
So, we're picking back up where we left off in chapter 8 when the people of God demanded to have a king. They wanted a king like the nations. And Samuel, who is the judge and the prophet at the time, listens and then listens to the Lord, and the Lord says give them what they want. So that's how chapter 8 ends.
We begin chapter 9 with really the question: who is this king going to be? Who's the first human king of Israel? We're picking up in verse one: "There is a man of Benjamin."
Let me pause there. Benjamin is a tribe. It's one of the 12 tribes of Israel in the promised land. Benjamin was one of the sons of Jacob of Israel, and it's the smallest of the tribes. Think of it like counties in a state. Benjamin is a smaller region with a small population. When they come into the promised land in the book of Numbers — and right now, as a church, we're going through a reading plan that has Old and New Testament readings — so when you read Numbers, you see that Benjamin has smaller numbers, but that gets worse in the book of Judges when they wage war with the other 11 tribes. You can read that story, and what they are defending is indefensible evil. They almost get wiped out because of it.
This is the tribe of Benjamin. When Benjamin was receiving the blessing for his heritage back in Genesis 49, he is called a ravenous wolf. That's language for they're a bit war hungry, scrappy, and small. They have a checkered past — a really checkered past when you read the book of Judges.
So, there was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish, son of Abel, son of Zeror, son of Beckarath, son of Aphia, a Benjaminite, a man of wealth. He had a son whose name was Saul, a handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he. From his shoulders upward, he was taller than any of the people.
If you're familiar with the Old Testament, you may have heard of Saul. Saul is, as we will see in chapters 9 and 10, the first king of Israel. So, we take note that he's a Benjaminite, interestingly, from a wealthy family — the family of Kish. But most importantly, he stands out because he's handsome, tall — taller than anyone else.
He's kind of like Gaston from Beauty and the Beast of Benjamin. No one as slick or fast or strong as Gaston. This is Saul, and he looks the part.
What follows starting in verse three is the story of how he is chosen. Now, the donkeys of Kish, Saul's father, were lost. Kish said to Saul, "Take one of the young men with you and arise and go and look for the donkeys."
They passed through the hill country of Ephraim and the land of Shallashim but did not find them; they passed through the land of Shaleim but were not there; and they passed through the land of Benjamin but did not find them. So, the donkeys were missing, and this family livelihood was at stake.
Saul and his servant came to the land of Zuf, and Saul said to his servant, "Come, let us go back, lest my father cease to care about the donkeys and become anxious about us." He recognizes that their lives may be more important than donkeys.
But his servant had an idea and said, "Behold, there is a man of God in the city, held in honor; all that he says comes true. Let us go there, perhaps he can tell us the way we should go."
Saul replied, "But if we go, what can we bring the man? For our bread and sacks are gone, and there is no present to bring to the man of God. What do we have?"
The servant answered, "Here have with me a quarter of a shekel of silver, and I will give it to the man of God to tell us our way."
In Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he said, "Come, let us go to the seer," for what today we call a prophet used to be called a seer.
Saul said to his servant, "Well said, come, let us go." So they went to the city where the man of God was.
On the way up to the city, they met young women coming to draw water and asked them, "Is the seer here?" They answered, "He is. Behold, he is just ahead of you."
The women told them to hurry because the seer had just come to the city for a sacrifice on the high place. Before he eats, he must bless the sacrifice, then those invited will eat. They should go on and meet him immediately.
They went up to the city and saw Samuel coming out toward them on his way up to the high place — not just any seer, not just any prophet, but Samuel. The book is named after him, so this is a big moment.
Before Saul came, the Lord had revealed to Samuel, "Tomorrow about this time, I will send to you a man from Benjamin. You shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel. He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines, for I have seen their cry and heard it."
This is not a random coincidence; God is at work, orchestrating ordinary events for extraordinary purposes. So Samuel waits and watches for this man.
When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord told him, "Here is the man of whom I spoke. He shall restrain my people."
Samuel saw Saul arrive, tall and handsome, and God confirmed it was he who would lead the people.
Then Saul approached Samuel at the gate and asked, "Tell me, where is the house of the seer?" Samuel said, "I am the seer."
Samuel invited Saul to eat with him that day, promising to tell him all he had on his mind in the morning. Samuel also reassured Saul about his donkeys—that they had been found, so Saul should not worry.
Samuel then asked, "For whom is all that is desirable in Israel? Is it not for you and your father's house?"
Saul was taken aback by this and said, "Am I not a Benjaminite, from the least of the tribes? And is my clan not the humblest of the clans in Benjamin? Why then have you spoken to me like this?"
Samuel did not answer this question but brought Saul in and gave him a place of honor among about 30 guests.
Samuel instructed the cook to bring the portion he had set aside, the choice leg of the animal, and presented it to Saul. This confirmed Saul's special status.
That night, Saul lay down on the roof to sleep, likely overwhelmed by all that had happened.
At dawn, Samuel called Saul to get up so that he might send him on his way.
As they left the city, Samuel told Saul to tell his servant to pass on ahead and then to stop so Samuel could make known to him the word of God.
Samuel took a flask of oil, poured it on Saul's head, and kissed him saying, "The Lord has anointed you to be prince over his people Israel. You shall reign over the people of the Lord and save them from their surrounding enemies."
There was no doubt now that Saul was chosen and anointed as king. Samuel then gave Saul very specific instructions about events to confirm his kingship.
When Saul left Samuel, he would meet two men by Rachel's tomb in Benjamin who would tell him the donkeys were found and that his father was anxious about him.
From there, Saul would meet three men going to God at Bethel carrying goats, bread, and wine. They would greet him and give him two loaves of bread.
Then, at Gibeah, near a Philistine garrison, Saul would meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place, prophesying and playing instruments.
The Spirit of the Lord would rush upon Saul, and he would prophesy with them and be changed into another man.
Samuel instructed Saul to do whatever his hand found to do because God would be with him.
Samuel told Saul to go down before him to Gilgal and wait seven days for Samuel’s arrival to offer sacrifices and give further instructions.
When Samuel turned to leave, God gave Saul another heart. God was actively changing him to be the leader Israel needed.
All the signs came to pass that day. When Saul came to Gibeah, a group of prophets met him; the Spirit of God came upon him; he prophesied.
Those who had known him previously were astounded and asked, "What has come over the son of Kish? Is Saul among the prophets?" It became a proverb.
When Saul returned home, his uncle asked where he had been, and Saul said he was seeking the donkeys but went to Samuel when they were not found.
Saul’s uncle asked what Samuel said, and Saul told him the donkeys had been found but kept silent about the matter of the kingdom.
And that is where we stop today, picking up next week with Saul's coronation as the first king of Israel and his initial acts as king.
If you read this story for the first time, there is a lot of optimism: God chooses Benjamin, a tribe with a dark past, and Saul looks the part—tall, handsome, a warrior from the wolf tribe.
But when you read the context, it is not an optimistic story. The people of Israel at the end of chapter 8 refused to obey Samuel and demanded a king to be like the nations, rejecting God as their king and leader.
They didn't want God to fight their battles but to have a human king who would. Saul fits this desire perfectly. He looks like the mighty pagan kings surrounding them.
Yet, the story of Saul is a tragedy. He makes many mistakes; his flaws overtake him, leading to a tragic end. He becomes a footnote in the story of David, a cautionary tale of cowardice and vanity.
Though he looks the part, he does not have the heart to be king. Soon, God will reject him and choose David, a man after His own heart.
David, it turns out, was not impressive by worldly standards — not tall or handsome. In fact, when Jesus comes, Isaiah 53 prophesies he will have no form or majesty, no beauty to desire him.
Jesus does not look like the king people want.
Even now, many want a king who will give them prosperity, power, ease, or control, rather than the King who calls us into relationship and obedience.
We want a king who meets our desires on our schedule rather than giving us what we need in His timing.
Some even want no king at all, preferring to be their own kings.
This folly of wanting a king after our own heart instead of God's remains today.
The good news is that God will bring a king after His own heart through David and ultimately through Jesus, the true King who establishes an eternal kingdom.
As we witness the rise and fall of Saul, let's not be arrogant but reflective, seeing ourselves in this story.
Let's recognize how we also want a king we create rather than the King who has already chosen us.
Tomorrow, we'll take the Lord's Supper, remembering the King who gave His body and blood for us.
Christians come humbly to proclaim our need for King Jesus.
If you are not a Christian, come with humility to this King and place your trust in Him.
The table is open for those who know they need Him.
Let me pray.
Heavenly Father, I pray the gospel of the kingdom comes upon our hearts so we see all the ways we reject You as King.
Help us come humbly and joyfully to Your table, worshiping and delighting in You, trusting Your ways, not our own.
If anyone here is not fully trusting in You as King, may You compel their hearts to see You as better.
We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
1 Samuel 8
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We are in the book of 1 Samuel, chapter 8. We are working our way through the book of 1 Samuel. So if you'll grab a Bible and go to chapter 8, that's where we'll be today.
Much of the book of 1 Samuel deals with the kingship in Israel. They have not had a king. The book is about the questions of will we have a king, how will we have a king, and who will be the king. A large portion of Samuel deals with that. We get into that today as this is where the process of inaugurating kingship in Israel begins.
We're going to read through all of chapter 8, and hopefully, as we see this, we'll learn a little bit about what's going on, a little bit about the hearts of the people, and be able to evaluate ourselves as well. So this is chapter 8, verse 1: "When Samuel became old"—so they had had a big victory and peace with the Philistines and the Amorites—"and Samuel had been judging over Israel, governing and leading, it says when Samuel became old he made his sons judges over Israel." The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah. They were judges in Beersheba.
Yet his sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice. So his sons were not governing correctly. This is wickedness. It's wickedness anywhere. It's wickedness in Israel, where explicitly it's taught you're not allowed to do this—you can't take a bribe, can't pervert justice, can't turn your eyes away from what is right. But that's what they're doing. They're using their position for power. Now it's nice that Samuel hadn't. It says they're not doing what their dad had done, but their dad had been good, had done what he was supposed to, had been honest, and had integrity. But his sons aren't.
We also see Samuel repeating what Eli had done. Where Eli's sons were wicked, Samuel's sons are wicked. Eli had helped raise Samuel, and Samuel has repeated some of this same stuff. But the situation is not good.
Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, "Behold, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways." Which, I just think, "behold" makes it sound fancier, but if you translated it into South Carolina, it would be "look." So they go, "Look, you're old." Just like the start of this—they've all gathered together—they say, "Look, you're old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us, like all the nations."
But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to judge us." Samuel hears this and goes, "No, this isn't good. I don’t like this." And it's interesting to me because they do have a problem—the problem they have is that Samuel's old. His sons are judging them, and his sons aren't good. So that's going to be a problem; that's fair.
But there's more to that problem. The problem is that Samuel appointed those sons. So maybe one of the problems is that Samuel is bad at making appointments. The other problem is that Samuel, who's a judge, is just going to pass it along to his son. So maybe passing things down hereditarily isn't the best idea.
Do you see how their solution is dumb? Because they come to Samuel and they say, "You're not good at appointing people, and passing things along hereditarily doesn't seem great, so we'd like you to appoint a king so that can pass along his hereditary line." It's like y'all came up with a solution that fixes nothing. This is a bad plan. You just changed the name, but this isn't a good system.
But the response from Samuel is negative. The Hebrew literally says it was evil in his eyes—this is bad. The thing displeased Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to judge us." And Samuel prayed to the Lord, and the Lord said to Samuel, "Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them."
So it seems as if Samuel took it some as a rejection of him. He's bothered by it, hurt by it. And God says, "There's more going on here. It's not just that they're rejecting you—they're rejecting me. I was their king. They're rejecting me as king over them." So it's not just that they're getting rid of you—they're getting rid of me.
And then he says, verse 8: "According to all the deeds that they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day—forsaking me and serving other gods—so they are also doing to you." God just says, "Look, I've been dealing with these people for a long time. This is what they do. Now you're sharing in it, but they've done this the whole time." And he ties this idea of wanting a king to idolatry. They're getting rid of God to serve other gods; they're getting rid of you—they want a king. This is what they do. They're rejecting me as king over them.
If we just had 1 Samuel, I think we'd say, "Yeah, asking for a king was wrong. They weren't supposed to do that." But there's a problem, because in Deuteronomy, in the law they already had, there's a provision for getting a king. There's permission for getting a king. So there's got to be more going on here. It can't just be that they asked for a king and that's bad because they're allowed to ask for a king.
We're going to read that passage in just a second. So it has to be something underneath that which we understand can happen. Jesus says this about the Pharisees: they pray long prayers for show. You might say, "Well, prayer is good, so praying longer must be good." And Jesus goes, "Yeah, it's not the prayer; it's what's going on underneath that."
So when we see that they were allowed to ask for a king but this one is immediately both God and Samuel are like, "This is bad," is that there's something else going on underneath it.
Let's look at what Deuteronomy says and try to understand how the kingship should work and what it says about it. Then we'll come back to Samuel.
This is Deuteronomy 17, starting at verse 14: "When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you"—which happened in Joshua and Judges, they're in the land, it's happening in Samuel—they possess it and dwell in it, and then say, "I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me."
Okay, so when you find out, Deuteronomy says you can have a king. The next thing I would want to say from Samuel is, "Ah, but they said 'like all the nations,' and that's their problem." They might have been quoting Deuteronomy. So they slapped a Bible verse on this, or it was really prophetic—what was written in Deuteronomy is exactly what you're going to do.
But they're coming and saying, "We want a king like all the nations." So it can't just be that phrase. But we're going to see that Deuteronomy subverts that. It basically says, "You're going to ask for a king like all the nations, and I'll tell you what kind of king you can have." And then it's very different from the kings of all the nations.
Here's the type of king they're allowed to have: "You may indeed set a king over you whom the Lord your God will choose." So they're allowed to ask; God will pick somebody. So far, that seems like what they're doing. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you who is not your brother.
Okay, that's pretty straightforward. I don't think that's any different from how the other nations work; he's just saying he's got to be an Israelite. Okay, so far, tracking.
Verse 16: "Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, 'You shall never return that way again.'" So there are two things happening here. One, you're not allowed to go back to Egypt. The primary reason you'd want to go back to Egypt is to get horses. And you're not allowed to go get a bunch of horses—period.
What are horses good for? War. That's why a king wants many horses. You'll read in the Bible that the Israelites had a hard time because their enemies had many chariots—the war technology of the day. To have chariots, you needed horses and cavalry. So he says, "No, you can have a king, but he can't be trying to be powerful."
Next, "And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away." You can have a king, but he can't be trying to be powerful, and he can't want a bunch of women.
"Nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold." You all are familiar with what kings do—that's like their thing. "I want to be powerful; I want to be rich; bring out the women." That's kings forever, everywhere. So they say, "You want a king like the nations?" He goes, "You're allowed to have a king, and he can't be anything like the nations. He's not allowed to do all the basic king stuff."
Then he tells them what kind of king they're allowed to have: he can't be into warriors, women, or wealth.
Here's the type of king they can have: when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law approved by the Levitical priests. Here's what your king's going to do: he's not going to be rich or powerful; he can't have a lot of wives. But he does get to have the Levitical priests stand over him while he makes a hand copy of the Bible. If they don't like it, he starts over. This automatically puts the Levites above the king.
He's got to write his own copy of the Bible. Then it says, "And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes and doing them."
You know who your king is—he's the one guy in the kingdom who owns his own version of the Bible, and he reads it every day. Everybody else, the Levites have them, but y'all have to go to him. This guy's got his own copy, and he's going to read it every day. That's your kind of king.
It then says, "That his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers." He's going to read the Bible every day so he doesn't think he's better than y'all. Like a poor king without an army and without a bunch of wives who reads his Bible every day and doesn't think he's better than anybody—that's the kind of king they're allowed to have.
"He may not turn aside from the commandment either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children in Israel." You can have a servant king who leads you in worshiping God. You can have a servant king who loves his Bible. That is the kind of king you can have.
This is not what they were getting at.
But it just dawned on me—ladies, this is excellent dating advice. He needs to be a brother. Find a Christian. Most women, for some reason, are attracted to the same things that you are attracted to in kings.
"I want him to be really powerful. I want him to be a womanizer. Or I want him to be rich." No. That's cute at first, but it gets bad later.
What you need is the dude who's got his own copy of the Bible, carries it everywhere, reads it, and does it.
So, when y'all are out in the world trying to find a man and you see a dude with his Bible who follows it, who's not super caring about all the women, he's not trying to be the most powerful aggressive dude, and not rich—isn't that the thing that's drawing you? Then you get to say, "That's a king right there."
Just letting y'all know. You're welcome.
Back to 1 Samuel. It says, "Now then obey their voice, only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them." So God is telling Samuel, "All right, they can have a king, but you have to tell them what they're about to pick because this is what they're about to pick. They're messing this up. You have to explain it to them."
They're allowed to ask for one. Presumably, they could have come and said, "Hey, you're old, and your sons are awful. We've been reading Deuteronomy and we'd like a king like this." But that's not what they do.
They come and say, "We want one like the nations," not the king like the nations we asked for. Then we're going to do the subversive one God laid out for us—not this humble Bible king but one like the nations. That's what they're asking for.
So he says, "Explain to them what that will look like."
Verse 10: So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king from him. He said, "These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you. He will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots."
Uh-oh, this king has a lot of horses. You guys, he's automatically got horses, horsemen, chariots. He broke rule number two. He's caring about power—that's all he's doing.
He says he will take your sons and appoint commanders of thousands and fifties, some to plow his ground, some to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He’s going to take and build up wealth and strength. That's what you're asking for.
He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers. He will take the best of your fields, vineyards, and olive orchards, and give them to his servants. He will take a tenth of your grain and vineyards and give it to his officers and servants. He will take your male servants, female servants, best young men, and donkeys, and put them to his work.
He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves.
He says he's going to take a tenth—you’re going to be his slaves. You all, that's the stuff that belonged to the Lord. They were to give all this to the Lord, to the Levites, and trust the Lord to protect and care for them. But he says, "You're bringing in a king who's going to claim it. He's going to claim your sons and daughters. You will be his slaves."
That's not how it was supposed to work. They were supposed to belong to the Lord, not to this guy. He says, "You're selling yourself to him. And in that day you will cry out because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day."
You’re picking this, and it's going to go poorly. This is what you want. Then you're going to go to the Lord and say, "Help us." And He’s going to say, "No, I gave you what you wanted."
Which is scary. There are times when we're so frustrated with the Lord that He won't just give us what we want. Can't we just believe He’s good and that sometimes the things we want are bad? There are times where the Lord gives you exactly what you want —and that is not a blessing; it's a curse. So we can trust the Lord even when it doesn't seem like things are working the way we want.
He just says, "You're going to head this direction. This is what's going to happen."
I want to show you this: Exodus 19, when He's making the people of Israel. He's bringing them out. He says, "Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, if you'll stick to the book, if you'll follow the law, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples—for all the earth is mine—and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."
So they were a kingdom, but not a kingdom with a king. They were a kingdom of priests. They did belong to somebody. They weren't slaves of a king. They were his treasured possession.
Do you know the system they had if they did it? They had Levites spread out that helped them know what was good and right and true. When they had issues, they would come, and the Levites would look in the law. If there was no clear answer, they could seek the Lord to give an answer to help go through disputes and fix things.
They had judges that would get raised up when there was a big problem—as long as they were repentant and faithful. We read this last week. They were before the Lord, fasting. They weren't ready for an army or war. God defended them, promising over and over that he would care for them and defend them, raise up judges.
Do you know judges only worked with volunteer armies? They said, "Who's with me? Let's go."
They didn't conscript people. When God was with a judge leading by the spirit, they won; God protected them. They didn't have taxes. Kings couldn't claim people, take donkeys, or slaves. The people were servants, and Levites were cared for by the people giving graciously to the Lord and to the system he set up.
They didn't have a king. They were to relate to God through the Levites. As long as they did that, God said, "I'll smash anyone who messes with you." And he did.
So they're coming and saying, "We don't want that system. We just want a dude to do this stuff."
But this is verse 19: "But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel and said, 'No, there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations. And that our king may judge us and go before us and fight our battles.'"
That's key to understanding part of what's going on in their heart. What the problem is here.
So we're going to come back to that. Just want to finish reading this.
When Samuel heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, "Obey their voice and make them a king." Samuel then said to the men of Israel, "Go every man to his city."
So Samuel's told, "No, give them a king. That's all they want to do." Then Samuel says, "All right, everybody go home." And maybe he said more, but that's all we get. That's the gist. Go home. And he's going to do it.
As it moves forward, we’ll see what happens.
But I want you to see what they're really asking for and what's happening here.
I've got—you know these are the problems here: they're going to be his slaves. They want him to judge them, which is govern, rule, tell them what's right and wrong, make decisions for them. They want him to go out and fight their battles. But throughout their history, God is the one who goes out and fights their battles.
Even with Gideon, at one point God tells Gideon, "You have too many people. Later, you’ll think you did this." So Gideon stands in front of his army and says, "Who here is scared?" And most of them go home. God says, "Still too many." He does this weird test to see who drinks like a dog. Those he takes. Then they win with lamps and yelling because God was fighting their battles.
This is what Joshua tells them: "One man puts to flight a thousand, since it is the Lord your God who fights for you, just as he promised."
So they said, "No, we want this guy to fight for us." And Samuel looked at them and said, "Y'all know it's your sons who are fighting, right? You're thinking this guy's going to fight, but he's going to take your kids, and they're going to fight for him. They won't have any choice."
They said, "We want him to judge us." But it was the Levites and God who judged them, choosing right and wrong, going to the scriptures. If the text said it, that's what they did. If something wasn't covered, they could inquire of the Lord.
They said, "No, we won't. We just want a guy to do it." But you're supposed to be the Lord's treasured possession, and they're like, "Nah, we'll just serve someone."
This is a problem.
I want to point out something that should resonate with us and that we should consider: what they wanted was a quick fix.
And y'all, don't you just want a quick fix? Don't you want something that just fixes it real fast? That's what I want. We love our American culture. We love quick fixes.
We're all about it. A tip, a trick, a hack. We love to know a guy: "Is there just a guy who can do that? Do we know a guy?" "I got a guy," but I can't tell you about my guy because then he'd be your guy and I can't do you.
We do this. We want just a technique, a difference. They're like, "Ah, these judges aren't working. Let's call them kings. Just change the technique."
We love data. We're going to find the best way. We're going to figure out what the right answer is. We're going to read the right book, and that'll give us the right system.
How many books have you read that gave you a system, and you found out later you had to do the system? It was a nice technique, but you actually needed diligence and stamina and personal growth. Not doing that.
Let me get on Instagram and see if someone else can tell me something that sounds nice, and I'll pretend to do this for a week.
Do y'all realize that what they need is growth? What they need is development. What they need is a relationship with the Lord. What they need is to be diligent in what he's already given them.
They don't need a new technique. They don't need a quick fix. This isn't going to solve the problem.
They're like, "Let him fight the battles." But those are going to be your kids. You're not even thinking this through.
How much do we just want a trick or a pill or a TED talk, or is there just something that'll fix it?
We actually just need to grow as people, repent, develop.
Yeah, I like books. I read books. I got a stack of books I plan to read this year. I'm in the middle of reading four books because I apparently can't read one at a time. I'm all over the place. But you just need this one, right? If you're going to try to navigate romance and marriage or money, parenting, leading a household, or work—you really just need this one. You can pick up a tip or trick here and there. You can hear what some psychologist says about a good way to talk to kids or whatever. That's fine. Anything helpful is helpful. But you still got to do it, and you still got to do it as a person who looks like they belong to Jesus.
Some things that psychologists say are dumb. Just because a therapist said it... I meet a person, and I'm like, "Okay, do they know the Lord? Do they love the Bible? Or are they stupid?" I mean, you could just be getting stuff Marks made up? Marks good? Maybe. But not Marks—that's not who I was looking for! Who am I looking for? Freud, thank you. That's who I was looking for.
We can take shots at Marks, too, but I wasn't meaning to do that today.
Do you know what I mean? Like, what are we doing? You just need your own copy that you read every day, so you don't turn to the right or to the left.
They wanted a quick fix, but the Bible gives us everything we need for life and godliness—everything we need to navigate all the stuff we've got going on.
So if you're like, "I don't know if I've read the right books," just keep reading this one.
There's another thing going on here I think we need to consider.
When they came and made this request, they were trying to swap God out. And I think we can do the same thing as long as we keep him out of these categories.
We can just have something that fits in those categories for us.
We've got a king that we're serving, and I think there are a lot of things that can fit those categories.
I want to take a second for you to consider. I'm going to give you some examples, and we're going to consider them this morning:
What gets your best? What are you a slave to? What do you serve? What gets your best effort? What gets your energy? What drives you? So you're a slave to it, not the Lord.
It makes your decisions. How do you know what's right and good? Which one saves us money? Which one makes us more money? How do you know which job to take? It's real easy—skim to the bottom. How much are they paying? Should I move? I don't know. Are they going to pay more?
Your whole life pulled around by money. "Should we go here? Should we not? Should I have this? Should I not?"
It's just based on money. So it governs you. It's your judge.
How do you know you're safe?
How do you know you're winning? That's easy: it's a dollar amount in a bank.
"I know I'm winning in life because I made more money this year than last year."
So we can do that with money.
We can do that with romance. You can be a slave to a relationship, and you can say, "Well, marriage is good. Romance is good. This stuff is fine."
Yeah. We can ask for a king.
Where's your heart? How's that working?
Some people follow Jesus until they get a boyfriend or girlfriend, and then they're willing to sin with them.
Who's your master? Who are you a slave to?
What's getting your best?
Does it govern your life? Is that how you make decisions?
"I'll change this. I'll change anything as long as I can stay in a relationship."
As long as I can have my romantic life work out.
It doesn't have anything to do with what the Bible says or what I ought to do or not do.
Where I ought to go or not go, what's right or wrong.
I'm not trusting the word; I'm just trusting this will keep me in or get me out of a relationship.
How do you know you're winning? How do you know you're safe? "I only feel okay when I'm in a relationship."
That's how I know I'm okay as a person. That's how I know I'm safe, as long as someone is here and loves me, and says they love me, and I'll do whatever as long as it's that.
Children—children are a blessing from the Lord.
But there's a way that they get your best.
When they're little, they get everything. You get used to that because that's part of what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to care for your children, right? The Bible says to.
But there's a way where they get your devotion. They get your heart, and the Lord doesn't. You say, "Well, my kids don't govern my life."
Well, is your whole schedule built around what league they want to be in? Did you pick your neighborhood based on your children? Did you move to another part of the city based off your children? Did you pick your church based off your children?
It's possible they're the judge that sets what's right and wrong, good and bad, for you.
You're not following the Lord. You're not studying the word.
Having children who are following the Lord with you is one thing, but if they're setting the pace, how do you know you're okay? How do you know you're safe?
"How do I know I'm winning? As long as my kids turn out okay, I'll know."
Oh my gosh, that's a lot of pressure on your children. "Hey, I need you to save me." That's rough. It's not good for you or for them.
You can put happiness there. You can put anything you want. There could be a whole thing that decides those things for us.
"How do you decide what's right or wrong? Well, this made me unhappy, so I know it's wrong. This makes me happy, so I know it's right."
God wants us to be happy. Yes, ultimately endlessly happy in him—not short-term, unrepentantly, sinfully happy. Not at all.
He hates that so much that he would die for it. Jesus died for it.
But he also loves you so much and desires your happiness so much that he died for it.
He might rescue you and make you part of him.
But that's not a way to judge your life.
That's what four-year-olds do, but that’s not what we're to do.
“How do you know you’re okay? How do you know you’re safe? How do you know you’re winning?”
“As long as I feel good?”
That’s insanity.
What Samuel and God want in this passage is for God to be king.
What Deuteronomy wants is a king who loves the Lord as primary, who humbles himself, and serves his brothers.
And both of those hopes and wishes are fulfilled in Christ.
Jesus is God who came as king to humble himself, to serve his brothers, to be the incarnate Word who carried it around everywhere, did not lift himself above his brothers, but died for them so they might be welcomed.
Do you understand that the hope of Deuteronomy, the hope of Samuel, and our collective hope is found in Christ alone?
That’s the kind of king we want.
That’s who we want to be a treasured possession of.
That’s who we want judging us and leading us.
That’s how we want to know who’s fighting our battles and caring for us—Christ and Christ alone.
So we’re going to take communion and celebrate that.
That’s the king we have, who loved, served, rescued, humbled himself to bring his brothers to life and hope, who cares for us, fights our battles, and whom we can trust when things aren’t going the way we want.
But I want you to take a second.
The band’s going to come up and begin to play.
I want you to take a second and ask yourself those questions:
What’s getting my best?
What am I using to make the big decisions in my life?
Is it prayer? Is it church family? Is it the Word? Or is it something else?
How do I tell myself I’m winning? How do I tell myself I’m safe? How do I know I’m okay?
I want you to repent. Talk to the Lord and say, "I don’t want this king. I want you to be my king."
Then take communion and celebrate that you have a good king.
If you are not a Christian, Christ is for you.
Communion is not something for outsiders. It's a celebration where we remind ourselves that his body was broken, his blood was shed, and we have hope in him and him alone.
If you're not a Christian, you don’t know that yet, you don’t understand that yet.
What I would say is: you get to evaluate your life and say, "Yeah, Jesus isn’t my king, but I want him to be because he’s good, forgiving, and there’s hope."
We would love to baptize you, to celebrate that publicly, and then you can take communion.
Let’s pray.
Lord Jesus, you are a good king.
We ask that by the power of your Spirit, by the truth of your Word, all usurping kings would be removed from thrones today.
That everything else that sits in our hearts to judge, defend, to protect us, that claims it can fight our battles, everything that we are slaves to, that gets our best, and that we submit ourselves to—Lord, may you rule and reign over our hearts.
May we repent, may we come to you in forgiveness and mercy, and may we serve and follow you all the days of our lives.
May your name be praised. Amen.
1 Samuel 7:3-17
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Uh my name is Chad. I'm one of the pastors here. If you will grab a Bible and go to First Samuel, chapter 7. We are working through the book of First Samuel. And we're going to study uh almost all of chapter 7.
We got into chapter 7 a little bit last week. We're going to study almost all of chapter 7 today. And we're going to see in this story something that is absolutely essential to our faith in Christ. absolutely essential to how we live and what we do as Christians as we follow him. Um if you don't have a Bible with you, you can grab one of the blue ones in front of you.
It will be on page 132 this morning. Um but we're going to study through this. We're going to read through the story and then we're going to kind of go back through and begin to point out some aspects uh that we need to consider this morning as we look at ourselves and as we learn from this story. So 1st Samuel 7 verse three uh well before I read verse three. What just happened was the ark was sent back to the people of Israel.
It was taken over to Kir Jerim and it's been there for 20 years. That's what we just read last week. So the remember they hooked it to some cows and they sent it back. Okay.
Uh, it's back, but it's been there for 20 years. And it says that the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. Verse three, and Samuel said, Samuel's back. We hadn't talked about him in a while, and it's been 20 years in the text. You're like, we talked about him a couple weeks ago.
Yeah, but he what has he been doing for 20 years? But Samuel shows back up. He had been established as a prophet. He begins to speak. It says, "And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, if you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the ash to wroth from among you, and direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines." It is possible that Samuel lived in relative obscurity for 20 years and then suddenly started saying this.
I find that very unlikely. I think what is most likely is that they just summed up what Samuel has been saying for 20 years. And some of y'all thought that we went through the book of Exodus slowly. Samuel's on the first commandment for 20 years. He's saying the same thing over and over again for 20 years.
It says they're lamenting after the Lord. It says he goes around and says to all of Israel. Well, if you're really going to turn to him, get rid of your idols. If you're really going to turn to him, get rid of your idols. I think at some point people might say, you say the same thing over and over again.
And he'd say, "You haven't done it yet. I don't have any. We can't do step two if we hadn't done step one." I think maybe that's what his attitude was like. We'll see. Anyway, it says he went around.
He told everybody. Verse four, so the people of Israel put away the baales and the asharoth and they served the Lord only. They listen. They get rid of their idols. So him speaking to all Israel, calling them to repent, calling them to turn from this stuff, they do.
Then Samuel said, "Gather all Israel at Mispa and I will pray to the Lord for you." So he says, "If y'all are really doing this and they're really going to follow the Lord, then everybody come together and we'll pray and we'll see if he'll throw off the hand of the Philistines as we turn to him." So they gathered at Mispa and drew water and poured it out before the Lord and fasted on that day. Okay. So, they gather to fast. They gather to mourn. It says they drew water and they pour it out.
Now, there's nowhere in the Bible in the law or anything that tells them to do that, but it seems to be an act of contrition. It's part of the fasting. Water is hard to come by. Even if they had a close source, a lot of their day would be spent going and getting it, carrying it, hauling it. It's a precious thing and it represents life and fruitfulness.
Without water, crops don't grow. Without water to drink, you die. And they pour it out. Saying, "Lord, you're our life. You're the one we're trusting to bring fruitfulness.
You're the one we're trusting with hope." That they pour it out and they fast. So, they're not seems like they're not drinking. They're not eating. They're humbling themselves before the Lord. says if they fasted on that day and said there we have sinned against the Lord.
So they're acknowledging that they're wrong and they've come to humble themselves and Samuel judged the people of Israel at Mispa. Uh judging does mean at times that he would go in between disputes that judges would do that sort of thing. But most of the time in the text, what it really it's a almost a title for leads. So you'll see the judges in the book of judges are Israel's leaders. And sometimes they just win a decisive victory and then Israel has peace and they'll say they were a judge for that period of time.
It does seem like at times they'll sit and they'll help you work through disputes or help answer questions about what someone should do or not do. But a lot of times it's just kind of like chief. So he was judge over them. He gathered them all. They came.
He's overseeing it. Verse 7. Now when the Philistines heard that the people of Israel had gathered at Mispa, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And the people of Israel heard of it and they were afraid of the Philistines. Okay, couple things happening here.
The people of Israel seem like they've been at Mispa for a while, which makes sense. Uh, this is why people used to always have really good guest areas in their homes. When someone travels, we're we're the only people because of cars that'll go do something for a day or a couple hours and go back. That's not how this works. People went to a place, they were there for a little while because it took a while to get there.
It takes a while to get back. These are things that are happening. So, they're there lamenting, fasting before the Lord, humbling themselves, and the Philistines hear about it. And the Philistines say, "Oh, y'all want to fight?
We'll fight. Yeah. Okay. It's go time. They said, "Do you hear all the Israelites gathered?" Yeah.
All right. Well, we better go kill them before they kill us. That's what they did. And if you're going, "But why?" Cuz they gathered to worship. Have Have you ever been out somewhere and heard people laughing?
or you've been walking and you pass a group of like middle schoolers and you get past them and they laugh and you have this moment where you think they're laughing at me. If you will assign evil motives to happy people in your vicinity, this is the same human impulse just on a national scale with people who were their enemies. They've been at war. All of Israel has gathered. They go, "That can't be good.
we better kill them. So, the Philistines get ready and start marching. Now, the Israelites have not gathered for war. So, they're afraid and rightfully so.
The Philistines have been beating them. The Philistines have been in some ways exerting rule over them. We find out in chapter 13 of 1st Samuel that the Philistines had so much authority over the Israelites, they wouldn't let them have blacksmiths because they said if they have blacksmiths, they might make swords and they might make spears. So if you were an Israelite and you wanted to get your sickle sharpened or your axe sharpened, you had to go to the Philistines to get it done because you didn't have a blacksmith. So if there are weapons in the camp of the Israelites, their farm tools now with a camp, they probably would have brought some axes and some different things.
Maybe not sickles, but they might have had some things so they could have a camp here. But there's not a lot. They didn't show up for war. They show up to fast. These are thirsty, hungry people who have come together to to lament and to humble themselves before the Lord.
They did not gather for war. So they show up and all of a sudden they hear and it's it's women, children, everybody. And they go, "Oh no, this isn't good. The Philistines are marching down on us." So they were afraid of the Philistines. And the people of Israel said to Samuel, "Do not cease to cry out to the Lord our God for us that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines." So they don't flee.
Seems like they found out about the Philistines when the Philistines are getting there. They don't flee. They say, "Pray." So Samuel, verse 9, So Samuel took a nursing lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. And Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel. And the Lord answered him.
And then it's going to go into telling the story. It's going to tell us how the Lord answered him. But it changes focus for a second. Says, "The Lord answered him." Verse 10. As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel.
So, this is a massive gathering gathering of Israelites and there's an army marching down on them. And they are praying and worshiping and saying, "Samuel, pray." He's offering a sacrifice as that is happening. And as they are marching in, but the Lord thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel. And the men of Israel went out from Mispa and pursued the Philistines and struck them as far as below Bethar. What?
The Philistines are drawing up military ranks to attack a bunch of Israelites who are not ready for that. If there are some people who have started to gather to face off against them, if they have weapons, we're talking sticks, staffs, axes, maybe a sickle, cuz you know there's probably that guy who brought that, you know. And somebody was like, "Why do you have that?" And you're like, "You never know." It's like, "But okay." Then the Philistines were coming. You're like, "Man, I should have brought my sickle. Look at this dude." Prepper.
All right. Good for him. It's about to be a massacre. And then it says that God thunders from heaven and throws them into confusion. We are thankfully blessed to be relatively um protected from the elements, but there are times when you're out or when a storm is right over your house.
You ever had that time where lightning strikes the same time thunder goes off and everybody goes, "Okay, that's just a normal storm. God's just raining. He's not even mad at everybody." So, what he does here is terrifying. that he thunders viciously, ferociously, powerfully from heaven at the Philistines. And the Philistines knew about Egypt.
They they already knew about that when the the ark went. Now, these Philistines would have known about the ark. That was an ark. It was a a box that defeated them. They got defeated by a box because God's in charge of the box.
It went to all they did a little circuit of getting their tails whipped by a box earlier in Samuel. And I'm not trying I don't I'm not trying to speak slow u irreverently about the ark of the covenant. So So don't hear that. And I forgive me if that's the way that came across. But I'm saying that it wasn't an army.
It was the power of God. They they would know that thunder comes from heaven. And a whole bunch of them just say, "Nope. No, no, no, no, no, no, no." And their lines break. And it says they're thrown into confusion.
So somebody's yelling, "Charge." Somebody yells yelling, "Retreat." People are dropping weapons. Horses are running into each other. It's a mess. The Israelites go win. They're so confused.
The Israelites are winning. And I think getting more wellarmed as they go. A guy who started off with a stick gets a sword, then a helmet, takes his time, puts on some new shoes. By the time they're getting to Beth's car, they're tearing these guys up. And y'all, it was such a complete victory.
It says that it subdues the Philistines. It's going to tell us that in verse 13. Verse 12. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mispa and Shin and called its name Ebenezer. For he said, "Till now the Lord has helped us." Ebenezer means stone of help.
So he sets up right in the middle of that victory a big stone and says, "The Lord has helped us." The song we sang earlier, we sang, "Here I raise my Ebenezer. Hither by thy help I've come." It's talking about this passage. So if your only interaction with Ebenezer was Ebenezer Scrooge, you have a new one. First Samuel means stone of help. That's what they set up.
It's a monument that says, "The Lord brought me here." That's why we sang that. Verse 13. So the Philistines were subdued and did not again enter the territory of Israel. Somebody was like, "Y'all want to go attack him again?" And somebody else was like, "Shut up.
I'm not going back over there." And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. The cities that the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel from Echron to Gath and Israel delivered their territory from the hand of the Philistines. So they push back, reclaimed land. The Philistines are knocked back. And this is written very much the way the judge stories are written in the book of Judges.
There's one decisive victory and then it just says things went well from there. underneath Samuel's leadership. There was peace also between Israel and the Amorites. The Amorites don't show up in 1 Samuel much. It's not much of a conflict.
It just says, "And this was also going well." So that's nice. Verse 15, Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. And he went on a circuit year by year to Bethl, Gilgal and Mispa. And he judged Israel in all these places. Then he would return to Rama for his home was there, which is where his family was from.
So he does at some point go get reconnected. He is around his family, his parents, for his home was there, and there also he judged Israel. And he built there an altar to the Lord. Those places are not very far from each other. It would be like saying he traveled and would do a yearly circuit from Casey to Lexington to Irmo and to Chapen, but then he would head back to Casey because he lived in Casey.
It's not it's not a big area, but they don't travel as well as we do and as easily as we do. So, he just moves from place to place and seems like he sets up in kind of a different area and works his way back, but he's overseeing Israel from that location, which is pretty centrally located. That's it. The story is going to shift into something else as we move forward. We're going to jump ahead again.
We're just told there's 20 years where Samuel was declaring this message and then there's this section of his life where there's peace. But what we see in this text, which is important for us to take up and to consider this morning, is that in this text, we see a beautiful picture of repentance. we see the essential elements of repentance that in this text we're able to see what belongs to repentance. Now if you're a Christian repentance matters to you. It's how you become a Christian.
Martin Luther calls it the first fruit of faith. So when we genuinely begin to have faith, the first thing that happens is repentance. And if you're not a Christian, repentance is very important for you because in the book of Acts, they begin to proclaim that God has now commanded all people everywhere to repent. So that the Bible comes to you with a message of repentance. But it's important for us to know what does that mean?
It's possible you're here today and your only real interaction with repentance is TV shows making fun of someone holding a sign who looks crazy in a city going repent. And you know it's something that that guy yelled and something that you should do but maybe you don't have a good handle on what does that mean. So what we're going to do is we're going to walk through the key elements of it. If you're a Christian I want you to look at yourself. I want you to consider your approach to repentance.
I want you to consider, do does this show up in the way I'm turning to the Lord? And if you're not a Christian, I want you to hear what is asked of you, what is called of you as you come to the Lord. Now, we're going to go through them in the order they show up in the text. And it's not in any particular order. It's not like this one comes first.
These are all parts of repentance. And in the Bible, sometimes the text will just say repent. It'll just say confess. It'll just say believe and be baptized. And all of this is baked into that.
And that's why it's not really an order doesn't matter as much as that it all is a part of it. Okay. First one, repentance is from the heart. So this is verse three. He says, if you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, he's going to say to direct their heart.
But repentance is from the heart. is something that you feel that you experience et internally. It's not just a thought process. It's not just uh understanding some new facts about a thing but it's something that happens in us that our heart is changing. When the Bible talks about the heart, it's talking about the the seat of our will of our decision making.
So there's something that happens inside of us that we're changed internally that we see his goodness. It's one of the things I was blessed and encouraged by as we're celebrating baptism which is the step after repentance. You you repent, you place faith, and then you're baptized. They're articulating how good the Lord is, how kind he is, how merciful he is, how he's loving. But when we see that, when we see his goodness, we see our sin.
That's why Peter is on the boat with Jesus. Jesus tells him to cast his nets over here. They cast, they begin to pull all these fish up. Peter quits pulling them up, falls down and says, "Please get off my boat. I'm a sinful man." Because he brushed against holiness.
He saw his wickedness. And it happens inside of us. That we're changed internally. That our hearts are broken over. This is what Psalm 51 says.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, oh God, you will not despise. He's saying that God doesn't just want sacrifices from us. Like he wants our labor like we can pay him off like that. You can show up to God and go, "Okay, how big do you want the check to be?" He says, "No, but if your heart's broken over your sin," he won't despise that.
If you come to him and say, "I need mercy," then you'll receive mercy. If you come to him and say, "I need forgiveness," and you'll receive forgiveness. That it's a broken and contr contrite heart that he will not despise. When Peter preaches in Acts chapter 2, it says that they heard it. They were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "What shall we do?" And this is where repentance begins.
that's in our hearts that there is no repentance where our hearts are unaffected. There's two Puritans I want to quote because they thought deeply about these things and I think they uh distilled it nicely. Jonathan Edwards says this, "The sorrow of the soul for sin is the first genuine feeling that accompanies the awakened conscience. God shows up and wakes you up to him. You feel your sin and you have sorrow over it.
Richard Baxter, he says, "He who doth," and doth just means does this context, "He who does not grieve over his sin does not know the weight of it." So if in your life you would say, "I'm a Christian." But you haven't grieved your sin, you haven't seen your sin, you haven't had sorrow over your sin, your heart hasn't been broken over your wickedness, you haven't come to the place where you said, "If he doesn't show me mercy, I'm in trouble." And maybe you just know some stuff about Jesus, but you've never really interacted with him. So I would ask, has your heart changed? Have you felt the work of the spirit in you? Have you come to the moments when you realize, I'm despicable without the grace of God?
That's the first thing. Repentance is from the heart. Not first in order, first in. We're talking about it today. I said these were in no particular order and then I said first a bunch.
So second thing today we turn from our sin. We turn from sin. He says if your heart's coming to the Lord then put away the foreign gods. And in verse four it says so the people put away. You change.
If you're genuinely repenting life changes. That's a part of it. It's not the only part of it. You can't just clean yourself up. You can't just fix yourself.
But it is a part of it. That if someone just says, "Well, I'll just do all the things and then God will owe me." That's incorrect. But if someone says, "Well, I'm saved by grace, so I can do whatever I want." That's also incorrect. Your heart changes. Your appetites change.
Your desires change. And you stop some stuff. You've spent your whole life in rebellion to God, pursuing sin. And if you're genuinely following Jesus, you put it away. And this shows up all over the New Testament.
When John the Baptist is preaching repentance, he tells them to bear fruit in keeping with repentance, which means look like you've repented. And they ask how. And he tells them specific things to do to different people. It shows up differently in different people. When Jesus is with Zakius in that story, Zakius is a tax collector.
Jesus is with him and then he stands up and says,"Lord, I'm going to pay back everybody I've robbed. I'm going to who I've defrauded. I'm going to pay him back four-fold and then I'm going to give half of my goods to the poor." And Jesus says, "Salvation has come to this house today." And he doesn't mean, "Wow, you wrote a big enough check." That's not what he's saying. He's saying that because what Zakius's repentance reached his heart, then it reaches his hands, shows up. If you have repentance and you're genuinely following the Lord, but it hadn't made it to your wallet, it hasn't made it to your time, it hasn't made it to the way you speak to people or about people, it hasn't made it to what you watch and listen to, that it hadn't shown up.
And I don't know if salvation's reached your house because change comes with repentance that we are to put some things away. In the book of Acts, there's a whole bunch of people who are becoming Christians and it says they came forward confessing and divulging their practices. And they started saying, "I've been practicing magic. I've been doing pagan rituals." And they get together and they start burning their books. and then says someone wrote down how expensive it was and it's an insane amount.
They got rid of it. Some of you have some things you need to burn. Somebody in my group sent all the guys in our group a video of them flushing something down the toilet. There's some things you need to get out of your house. Some script some subscriptions you need to change.
Some of you need to get uh not have a smartphone. Someone says, "What kind of phone is that?" You say, "It's a flip phone." And they say, "Why?" You say, "Cuz I love Jesus." and also mind your own business. There's some things that should change. John Calvin, one of the reformers, he says, "Repentance is not merely a change of mind, but a change of the whole life in so far is as it is a turning of the heart to God." Your life changes as your heart changes. Repentance is not just you believing some new facts, but it shows up in your life.
And so I would say I would ask, are you a Christian? If you said yes, I would ask, has your whole life changed? Or do you look the same? Do you still care about the same things?
Still chase the same things? Is there fight in you when you see that? Do you hate it? Do you continue to turn?
Do you continue to put it away? I'm not articulating at all that Christians are perfect. Far from it. But Christians hate sin and fight against it. It shows up.
Is repentance for you? Just when your group does care night, you show up and say the same things you've been saying, but you hadn't changed one bit of a habit. You could almost just go, "Well, you know what I'd say next?" But there's no heart of sorrow and there's no change in life. In repentance, we turn from sin. In repentance, we turn to the Lord.
He says, "And direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only." Put away the false idols. Turn direct your heart towards the Lord. This is something that we do intentionally. I like that he has an action verb in here. Direct your heart.
Aim yourself. That's one of the things that happens in repentance is we turn ourselves towards the Lord. It happens naturally as he changes our appetites. And it happens as we fight. And y'all, your desire to fight from the Lord is fight for the Lord is from the Lord.
I've had people sit in my office before and they go, "I just want to please the Lord. I just want to love him. And I'm so sinful. I just want to follow him. And I keep chasing all this stuff.
I just I just want him. And I I can't." And then so often they'll say, "Do you think I'm a Christian? Am I even a Christian?" And I'll say, "You know, only Christians just want to follow the Lord. I've never once had someone who hated Jesus be like, I just love to follow him." That pain that you're feeling over, I want I want him. I want to follow him and I'm I just feel.
He's like, "Yeah, Paul wrote about that." But that's part of it that we want him. When we say Jesus is better than everything else, we're not blowing smoke. We believe it. That's not a cute slogan. It's a it's an eternal reality.
And he actually is better. He doesn't just show up and say, "Hey, you know all that stuff that used to make you happy? Get rid of it." and then not replace it with something of eternal glorious value, real delight, real pleasure, real joy, real peace, real satisfaction. He shows up and says, "Oh, he's so much better." Have you directed your heart towards the Lord?
Did you become a Christian? Show up on Sundays and be like, I don't want to sing. And then you were like, all right, then we're supposed to. I see. Now, I read Colossians.
He says, too. Okay. So, you start singing like this. And then you start singing a little more. You start singing a little more and you show up and you're like, I want to sing to the Lord.
Some of you said, I don't like reading. Have you grown to where if you don't read your Bible, you miss it? Some of you are like, if I hear y'all say community group one more time, I'm going to try to assault someone. And you were like, I'm awkward. They're awkward.
I'm annoying. They're annoying. I don't want to be there. But you go, you started going. You've been around.
you go out go out of town for two weeks and you miss these people. Has that happened to you? Has your heart begun to change? Because I'll tell you, if you say, "I love Jesus, but you don't need to be a part of a Church. You don't need that.
You don't need to be around Christians. You don't need that. You don't need to sing to Jesus. Not my thing. You don't need to read the Bible.
No, I don't know. I could go. I don't know. I hadn't picked up a Bible. I hadn't opened a Bible in six months." I would just every once in a while I'll talk to my wife in the evening.
Wait till I finish the story. Sometimes I'll talk to my wife in the evening and I'll say, "What did you have for lunch?" Oh, I talk to her a lot. Every once in a while this conversation happens. I hear it. I hear it now.
That makes sense. She talks to me more All right. Every once in a while, I'll talk to her and I'll say, 'What did you have for lunch?' And she'll go, "I don't I didn't have lunch today. I don't think I had lunch today." And I have this thought. Your relationship to food is so different from my relationship to food.
If I haven't had lunch, something happened. Or I'm plotting on supper and I want to be double hungry. But I've thought about food. I hadn't just let food slip by. I'll stop thinking about my children to eat food.
She'll be like, "Is the baby crying?" I'm like, "I'm eating a sandwich. I know where he's located. I can hear him. Can you go a long time without thinking about the Lord, without caring, without noticing?
Just doesn't show up. Oh, I don't know. I guess I hadn't been around. I guess I hadn't showed up on Sunday. I guess I hadn't been around a group.
I guess I hadn't opened my Bible. God, I don't know the last time I prayed. But boy, I love Jesus. Do you?
Cuz that's not how it works. If you asked me, "How's your wife?" And I was like, "Oh gosh, I hadn't seen her in two months." She's probably fine, though. I guess I really love her. You'd be like, "Wife, you're suspect number one, man. Do you notice?
Do you think that Christ, the most glorious, wonderful, delightful, who without whom we cannot exist, for whom the whole world exists, that if you really knew him, you could go without noticing that he was missing from your life? Look in the text. Look in the Bible and say that that's shows up here. That that's what happens to people who come to know it. In repentance, we turn to the Lord.
Our hearts change and they're directed to him. It does take some energy. It does take some fight. But it also is something that we become dependent on and we thirst for. And without it, we feel like nothing.
Fourth one, repentance requires confession. The fourth thing we should note from this text, if you'll look down to verse six, says, "They gathered at Mispa and drew water and poured it out before the Lord and fasted on that day and said there, we have sinned against the Lord." When you turn in repentance, you are acutely aware of your sin. You're acutely aware of what it is, what it is that disqualifies you, what it is that makes you soiled and dirty and unclean. and we confess. We get rid of it.
When John the Baptist was baptizing, it says they came to him to be baptized confessing their sins. When they're burning their books in Acts 19, it says that they divulge their practices. They confess them. James commands us to confess our sins to one another. That's not some sort of we have to have a a priest that has to hear it and then they talk to God.
No, we have one mediator between us and God. We get to talk directly to God and we ought to confess directly to God. But one of the other things that we get to do is unbburden ourselves from hiding sin. Sin is like mold. It grows in the dark.
And we are to be people who confess, bring things into the light, and in our confession find freedom. Y'all, they gathered to publicly confess. This is something we do. and more so than the Israelites because we have a perfect savior who if we confess our sins is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I tell my group sometimes that I always feel like confession is kind of like throwing up.
Every time right before I'm going to throw up, I feel like I might be about to die and it's the worst thing ever. And I feel the exact same way before I'm going to confess things. This is going to be the worst thing ever. After I throw up, I'm like, "That was great. I should do that more often.
I feel wonderful. I'm going back to sleep or whatever." Like, you just feel good after you. And that's the way I feel after confession. I finally share this. And sometimes sometimes the Lord is tightening down on me to where I'm going to confess.
He he's it's coming. That is also similar to throwing up. You can't just be like, "I was going to, but then I stopped." That's not how it works. There are times where the Lord presses something out and then the people around me act like they know Jesus, too. The Christians around me act like they they need Christ, too.
And then I get to realize that my worth and my value doesn't come from my behavior. It doesn't come from my ability to be good. It doesn't come from people's assessment of me. It comes from Christ who forgives my sin. Do you confess?
Do you repent? When you repent, do you repent specifically? My boys sometimes I'll say, "Tell your brother you're sorry." I'm sorry. I'll say, "For what?" I want them to articulate. I want to see if they know.
When you when you confess, when you repent, do you say what it is? Do you just say, "I'm sorry?" Do you say, "I'm sorry that I did this in this way?" I had somebody recently come to me and they said, "Hey, in the conversation we just had, I need to I need to repent to you. I need to confess something." And they articulated what was going on behind the way they were wording things. I never would have known, but they said, "The Lord convicted me I shouldn't be angling the conversation that way for that reason." That's what Christians do. We get to be free from sin.
We get to articulate what's happened. Do you only confess when you're caught? Do you only confess the details you think they already know? Or do you hate your sin and bring it into the light because Jesus is good?
Is there something right now that the spirit is pressing on you and you're thinking, "Well, I can't share that. I can't say that. Everything will change. Everything will fall apart if I just if I share that. I've got to hold on to that." Say, "Trust him.
He's good." Fifth one, final one. Repentance seeks forgiveness. Forgiveness requires sacrifice. The point of repentance is to receive forgiveness, to seek forgiveness. But repentance, forgiveness requires sacrifice.
Verse 9. So Samuel took a nursing lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. And Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel and the Lord answered him. He sacrifices a lamb. They confess their sin.
He kills a nursing lamb. Have y'all seen lambs? They're cute. This woman was still dependent on its mother. This is precious and it has to die.
Hebrews 9 indeed under the law almost everything is purified with blood and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins as we come in repentance do you know that blood has to be shed for us to be forgiven I think sometimes we read these stories and we go oh man that's so feels so backward feel so tribal feels so whatever that they thought that they needed to have a sacrifice y'all we think we need to have a sacrifice we do in Christ who shed his blood for us. But we still believe in blood atonement. It's just Christ, not animals. It's something that can last forever. It's something that has much more significance and value and worth so that he can pay for all of our sins.
But forgiveness requires sacrifice. It requires blood. So that if you say, "Well, I'm repenting, but you're just talking to the Lord and you're not talking to Jesus. If you're repenting but you're not trusting in Christ, then you don't have a sacrifice and there is no forgiveness. This is Luke 24.
Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all the nations. The hope of repentance is forgiveness. Forgiveness is purchased through blood. Jesus suffered and rose. And there is a repentance for the forgiveness of sins proclaimed in the name of Jesus.
He's our hope. And just like in this story, it is effective for salvation. God thunders from the heavens. Well, our God came down. He died.
He rose. He rules from the heavens. And he says that all who will come to him in repentance will be forgiven. Do you see your sin?
Do you know your wickedness? Do you know you are unclean? Do you have sorrow over your brokenness? Do you feel an inability to love the Lord as you ought?
Do you want to be forgiven? Can I tell you that you can be in Christ and you will be washed and you will be free. Nobody stood up here today and said, "I wanted to declare that this is my next step in the road to awesomeness and self-actualization." If they did, they would not be allowed in. This is I was in my sin. I'm buried in my sin.
And I rise because Christ rose. Christ died for my sin. He was buried. I'm buried with him. He rises to new life.
I rise to new life. and I'm washed clean and it's effective for salvation. When we come to the Lord and say, "I need you to give me mercy." He gives mercy. "I need you to rescue me," he rescues. "I need you to forgive me," he forgives.
And we're forgiven. The reason we walk in continued repentance is not because we've suddenly lost our salvation and need it again. It's because we have the joy and the delight of salvation and sin gets in the middle of it. And so, we say, "Lord, continue to wash me.
Continue to keep me. Continue to help me." And he does. Have you repented? Will you repent?
If you do, nobody who calls on the name of the Lord will be put to shame. He will forgive. He's paid the debt. Turn from your sin. Trust in Jesus and be free.
Let's pray. God, we thank you that there's victory and peace and rescue and hope and joy and salvation and life in Christ and Christ alone. Lord, may we turn from our sin. May we turn to you. May you pierce our hearts so that we might trust in Jesus.
And Lord, may you save to the full extent all those who cry out to you in Jesus name. Amen. Band's going to come back up. We're going to sing. If the Lord's dealing with you, don't fight him.
Don't press against that. But repent. If he's calling you to repentance, come accept the sacrifice. Accept the hope. Trust in Jesus.
Be made new. There's forgiveness and no other name under heaven. There's no other name given by one we might be saved. Would you trust in Jesus?