1 Samuel 10-12

[0:00] Okay, so we're in our seventh session in the book of 1 Samuel today, resuming from chapter 10.

[0:15] ! And the aim is to get through three chapters today, 10, 11, and 12. So, I think it's important that we pray for this endeavour. And may the Lord bless. Thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to open your word together today.

[0:32] Lord, what a joy and what a blessing it is to know you and to know the God who wrote this book for us. And Lord, we know that you have promised your Holy Spirit will guide us and lead us into all truth, so we pray that he would move and minister here now and today.

[0:48] He would come upon me to speak truth, to speak faithfully. Lord, I look to you, God. I bring nothing of myself and all of your word today.

[0:59] That's my desire. And I pray, Lord, that you would have all of us have open ears today to hear what the Spirit says to the church. In Jesus' name I ask. Amen.

[1:09] Amen. Well, it's been a little while. Well, in our last session, we've got as far as Israel calling out for a king.

[1:23] And the problem is, is that God is the intended king of Israel. And as such, their desire is actually a rejection of God's leadership.

[1:34] What we're going to see today is that the motivation behind it is partly, at least, because of a particularly nasty enemy to the east called Nahash.

[1:46] Nahash the Ammonite. And they want the king to rally them. Basically, they want a king to fight their battles for them. And they would prefer to have a man than God.

[2:01] We've been introduced to a gentleman by the name of Saul, whom we have seen is very appealing, very attractive. He's tall. He's powerful.

[2:15] He's the son of a powerful and prominent man. And what we've also read is that God arranged these circumstances. You remember that the donkeys of Saul's father, Kish, ran off.

[2:30] And off Saul went to find them. And in his searching, he tranced upon the land of Zuth. And his servants said, hey, let's go to Ramah and talk to the seer, who is, of course, Samuel.

[2:44] I should say, we don't know that it's Ramah. It's not explicit. That is, Ramah is Samuel's hometown. And that's where he's expected to be. It doesn't say that it's Ramah. But anyway. And then when we closed off last time, Samuel spoke prophetically, but also kind of cryptically to him.

[3:03] For whom is everything that is desirable in Israel? I don't know. Me, I guess? It's an odd phrase. At least it's odd to my ears.

[3:13] Yes. Now Saul stayed overnight, probably wondering what on earth is going on, because he only left home again to find some donkeys. And the last few verses there in chapter 9 said this.

[3:28] It said that they got up early. And at daybreak, Samuel called to Saul on the roof, saying, get up, so that I may send you on your way. And so Saul got up. Both he and Samuel went out into the street.

[3:39] And as they were going down to the edge of the city, Samuel said to Saul, speak to the servant, and have him go on ahead of us and pass by. But you stand here now, so that I may proclaim the word of God to you.

[3:52] And that's where we left off last time, and that's where we pick it up this morning. Now, I thought I'd give you... I wanted to give you, I guess, the point up front, because we're going to cover quite a lot.

[4:06] And I have... I think the Lord has given me a clear point for the whole of the proceeding. What we're going to see as we get to the end of chapter 12 is the beginning of Saul's kingship.

[4:20] We're going to see him start well. We're going to see him start as a spirit-empowered, humble and merciful man who works a great deliverance for Israel.

[4:34] And in many ways, he is an early picture of the anointed king, Jesus Christ. And we're also going to see the close of Samuel's ministry as a judge.

[4:46] Which is not to say that he's done serving Israel. Actually, he's got many years of ministry left. What he's doing is kind of diminishing. If you like, Saul must increase, Samuel must decrease.

[4:58] And I think the main point that I saw for this, and the main point that I'm hoping we'll see today, is that there is an example in Saul and Samuel.

[5:11] What we see is Samuel willingly stepping down from the role of leader over Israel. God commanded him to anoint a new leader, Saul.

[5:21] And he does it. No argument, no vying for power, no bargaining, no trying to, okay, I'll do it, but I'll be his second in command kind of thing. There's none of that. Saul was like, Samuel was like, yes, I will do it.

[5:35] I'm happy to take the new role that you appointed for me, God. And then on Saul's part, we're going to see him accept the role. He will be empowered by the Holy Spirit.

[5:45] We're going to see him, as I said, humble. He won't fight his enemies. He won't come against the naysayers. He won't put himself forward. Hey, I've been anointed, guys, check me out.

[5:57] You know, he could have, and he won't lean on the fact that he's tall, he's strong. He's an obvious candidate for king, and he's been anointed, but he allows this whole process of drawing lots to go through, and he just waits, he entrusts it to God.

[6:14] He doesn't push himself forward to be leader. And I thought those were two commendable role models, and I think that they, in many ways, there's a prefiguring of Jesus Christ, because, of course, Christ is God in the flesh.

[6:28] He is the second person of the Trinity, but he willingly took a lower position, made himself a little lower than the angels, so that he could do the works that God the Father had appointed.

[6:40] But also, I'm going to suggest to you that there's a foreshadowing of the way God desires for us to serve in the body today, the church today, particularly leaders.

[6:51] But actually, God is looking for all of us to be willing, humble, spirit-empowered people, ready to do God's work, whatever it may be, whether it's in the foreground or whether it's in the background.

[7:04] So, anyway, that's the main point I'm hoping to pull out for us today, just in case we run out of time. So, let us resume our reading, then, from 1 Samuel 10 and verse 1.

[7:19] Then Samuel took the flask of oil, poured it on Saul's head, kissed him and said, Has the Lord not anointed you as ruler over his inheritance? When you leave me today, then you will find two men close to Rachel's tomb in the territory of Benjamin at Zelza, and they will say to you, The donkeys which you went to look for have been found.

[7:42] Now, behold, your father has stopped talking about the donkeys and is anxious about you, saying, What am I to do about my son? Then you will go on farther from there and you will come as far as the oak of Tabor.

[7:55] And there, three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you, one carrying three young goats, somehow, I don't know how you do that, another carrying three loaves of bread and another carrying a jug of wine.

[8:09] And they will greet you and give you two loaves of bread which you will accept from their hand. Afterward, you will come to the hill of God where the Philistine garrison is, and it shall be, as soon as you have come there to the city, that you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with harp, tambourine, flute and a lyre in front of them, and they will be prophesying.

[8:32] Then the Spirit of the Lord will rush upon you and you will prophesy with them and be changed into a different man. And it shall be, when these signs come to you, do for yourself what the occasion requires, because God is with you, and you shall go down ahead of me to Gilgal.

[8:50] And behold, I will be coming down to you to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice peace offerings. You shall wait seven days until I come to you and inform you of what you should do.

[9:02] Okay. That's a lot, Samuel. Thank you for that. Let's talk about anointing then. So Samuel anoints Saul. Has not the Lord anointed you as ruler?

[9:16] You may know this, that our word for Messiah comes from the Greek word for anointed. Messiah means anointed one. And similarly, the word Christ comes from the Greek equivalent.

[9:30] Christos. And that's our word here. Mashach. Messiah. So this is the first Messiahed king, if you like.

[9:41] The first anointed king for Israel. So we should take note of that. However, a lot of things prior to now have been anointed. The first thing I could find that was anointed was actually a stone that Jacob used as a pillow in Bethel.

[9:59] I still don't know how he uses stone for a pillow, but nevertheless he did. That was Genesis 28, if you want to check it out. That's the first anointing with oil. But lots of anointing happened through Exodus, Numbers, as the tabernacle was created and the priesthood was ordained.

[10:18] Aaron and his sons were anointed with oil. many things in the tabernacle and indeed the tabernacle itself. And we don't have to speculate what the anointing means.

[10:30] Because Exodus 28, verse 41 is an example of where it is explicitly clear. it says, Then you shall put them, that is some clothing, on Aaron your brother and on his sons with them and you shall anoint them and ordain them and consecrate them so that they may serve me as priests.

[10:55] Anointing is for ordaining and consecrating. It is to make holy, which means to set apart for a purpose, it is to make it distinct from others.

[11:10] Aaron and the priesthood were distinct from the other Levites and the Levites were distinct from the other tribe. There were these degrees of separation because they were set apart for the purpose of God.

[11:22] They were holy to God. Now there are some who would look at a text like ours today and say, Oh, well look, the anointing seems to connote the empowering of God.

[11:34] because what we see and what we will see when we read on is that when Saul is anointed, actually no, it's subsequent, isn't it? But we will see the spirit of God coming on to Saul and if we read ahead to 1 Samuel 16, 13, for example, which is when David is anointed, in his case the spirit comes upon immediately when he's anointed.

[12:00] And so some think that anointing has this connotation of spiritual power. Well, no. That is going beyond what the scripture says.

[12:13] And anyone who talks about concepts like catching the anointed, catching the anointing or any of this nonsense, it is alien to the scriptures and this text and David cannot be used to sustain it.

[12:27] Again, what the scriptures say is anointing is about being holy, being set apart for a purpose and for a work. And if you wanted any further proof of that, then ask yourself who was anointed at Pentecost?

[12:41] And the answer is nobody. The spirit came and he empowered but there was no anointing that accompanied it because anointing has no power per se. I don't know if that needed to be said but I thought it did.

[12:57] Now, I also wanted to be aware of one thing that, and if you read a version other than the NASB you may see this but there appears to be some missing text in the Masoretic Hebrew.

[13:09] What's the Masoretic Hebrew? Well, the Masoretic text is a 10th century or thereabouts Hebrew Bible which is the foundation for most English translations of the Old Testament today.

[13:25] What was distinct about the Masoretic text is that it was the one that finally standardized things like pronunciation and vowels and standardized spelling and so forth.

[13:39] And prior to that there was a little bit more flexibility and you know originally the Bible that Jesus read the Bible that was originally written had no vowel pointings and so forth.

[13:51] So the Masoretic text did standardize a lot of that and did a good job. However, it is not original and it is subject to error. Older manuscripts exist.

[14:05] You may have heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls for example which dates to some 2,000 years ago. And then similarly you have the Septuagint Greek Bible which dates to before Christ.

[14:18] Now, if you have an ESV then ESV has actually preserved the text. So the Septuagint and the Dead Sea Scrolls both include some additional text and it says this after verse 1.

[14:38] It says this where are we now? So we've read in our verse 1 Has the Lord not ignited you as ruler over his inheritance? Here's a longer reading from the ESV. Has the Lord not anointed you to be a prince over his people Israel?

[14:53] And you shall reign over the people of the Lord and you will save them from the hand of their surrounding enemies. And this shall be the sign to you that the Lord has anointed you to be prince over his inheritance and his heritage when you depart from me today etc.

[15:09] etc. etc. So it's kind of it might seem like a minor thing but it does two things for us that is lost in the New American and indeed in the Masoretic text.

[15:20] And those two things are this one it shows clearly that the purpose of the anointed ruler is to save Israel from the surrounding enemies. That wasn't explicit without this text.

[15:34] And actually that is quite key because again that is the reason Israel is demanding a king because of this nasty enemy they have over in the east. And the other thing it does is show very definitely that these signs are about confirming for Saul that Samuel isn't just making it up.

[15:52] This is true. This is God. So anyway it's not a big deal but I wanted to bring it to your attention. So then Saul I'm sorry Samuel takes us through this journey on which Saul is going to go.

[16:08] Two men at Rachel's tomb three men at Bethel and then this group of prophets at the hill of God or possibly possibly Gibeah Elohim that is a normally when we see a Hebrew name it's transliterated which means it's written into English and it comes across kind of meaningless.

[16:29] Here it's been translated for us to the hill of God. It could be a place named called Gibeah Elohim. Now where are all these locations?

[16:39] Can I have a map please Joe? No you cannot. Why? Because I checked two maps and they were all different because we don't know where most of these places is. Okay we do think we know where Rachel's tomb is but even today there are several candidate places.

[16:58] Bethel we do know where that is but where's Zelza and where's the oak of Tabor? Nobody knows. so I thought I could show you a map but really it's speculation and it's kind of bible trivia so I thought we'd skip that.

[17:16] It doesn't contribute to the main point. If you want to go and look up a map you will find one and may God bless you. I will say that Rachel's tomb or as Josephus puts it Josephus was a historian around a generation or two after Jesus Christ around 90 AD.

[17:34] he calls it a monument. Rachel's tomb actually had a monument. This is significant in that Rachel was the mother of Benjamin wife of Jacob as you may remember and she actually died giving birth to Benjamin and of course Saul is a Benjamite.

[17:54] So there is some significance there. Genesis 35 if you want to look it up. But you know the text doesn't really put any weight on any of these signs.

[18:06] Actually when we read it next in the narrative we just kind of skip over it. So I'm going to skip over it too. Because the climax is these prophets.

[18:19] It's the prophets who are there when the spirit of the Lord rushes upon Saul. Who are they? Well they're musicians aren't they? That's fairly clear. A group of prophets with harp, tambourine, flute and lyre.

[18:33] They're musicians. The musicians are prophets, the prophets are musicians. And Samuel says when you encounter them the spirit of the Lord will rush upon you and you will prophesy with them.

[18:44] What does prophesy mean? Well to prophesy means to be, the easiest way to put it is it means to be God's mouthpiece and speak God's heart.

[18:56] It doesn't mean to predict the future necessarily. It means this is what God says. And sometimes what God says is, don't you remember? Well hang on, how do we connect these two things with music making then?

[19:11] What does it mean for Saul to be prophesying with them? them? And this isn't, I wish there was a text that made this completely clear. But what we can infer is that there was a deep connection between using music in a prophetic sense to speak the will of God.

[19:32] And I think what we're seeing here in this particular example is Saul joining in with the music making. But this is a topic that we're going to come back to as we go through Samuel, which is why I didn't want to exhaust it too much today.

[19:48] David, as we know, was a musician. He was a prophet. A lot of the Psalms are prophetic and musical. And we're going to see the appointment of prophet musicians.

[19:58] So we can leave this topic and explore it more later. The key point is, this is what Saul does when the spirit comes on him. Let's read on.

[20:14] So we got to verse 9. Verse 9. Then it happened, when he turned his back to leave Samuel, that God changed his heart, and all those signs came about on that day.

[20:28] When they came there to the hill, behold, a group of prophets met him, and the spirit of God rushed upon him, so that he prophesied among them. And it came about, when all who previously knew him saw that he was indeed prophesying with the prophets, that the people said to one another, what is this that has happened to the son of Kish?

[20:50] Is Saul also among the prophets? And the man there responded and said, and who is their father? Therefore it became a saying, is Saul also among the prophets? When he had finished prophesying, he came to the high place.

[21:08] So as I said, the narrator there skips over those first two signs and focuses on the transformation of Saul, this divine transformation, this spirit empowerment.

[21:19] And we should pause and take a moment to talk about that. This is important stuff. the spirit of the Lord will rush upon you, said Samuel.

[21:29] You will prophesy and be changed into a different man. The narrative said, God changed his heart. The spirit of God rushed on him so that he prophesied. So it's twice stated, this transformation.

[21:43] Now, I think if we're going to come somewhere near understanding this, we also should consider how in 1 Samuel 16, the spirit is going to leave Saul.

[21:58] Verse 14 of chapter 16 says, Now the spirit of the Lord left Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord terrified him. That's the same day that David is anointed, and the anointing goes on to him, and at the same time, the spirit leaves Saul and comes upon David.

[22:18] And then, from then on, Saul is terrified and tormented by this evil spirit or unclean spirit, but it's not continuous, it is occasional.

[22:37] It comes upon him, and then when it does, music, actually, music from David would relieve him, and the evil spirit would leave, it says. So, before Christ came, we've read through judges, some of us have read through judges, and what we've seen is that the Holy Spirit would come on to these judges for a time, onto these men and women, and it would give them this supernatural empowering to do it.

[23:12] Samson is sort of the textbook example where he was strengthened. and he will destroy the lion or whatever it is. Now, bearing in mind, though, Samuel's prophecy, I infer from it that I think the intention was that the spirit would come on to the king for the duration of his reign, as opposed to this coming on for a specific purpose.

[23:39] I'm not sure on that point, but that's what it seems to me. What we also know from reading other scriptures is that in Psalm 51 verse 11, David himself, in the context of repenting from egregious sin, he prays in verse 11 of Psalm 51, do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me.

[24:02] So as far as David was concerned, the spirit was on him, and he was fearful that his sin may have disqualified him and the spirit would be taken away.

[24:15] David was aware that it wasn't a permanent empowering or permanent indwelling. Well, that's the Old Testament and then we come to the New Testament because in the church age things are different.

[24:33] Paul, the apostle Paul that is, taught the rather unfaithful Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 3 16. he said, do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in you?

[24:51] If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy that person for the temple of God is holy and that is what you are. So this church, the Corinthian church, with all of its sin and unrepentantness, is still the temple of God as far as Paul is teaching.

[25:17] And then Paul said this to the Ephesians in Ephesians 1 verse 13 and 14. He said, Interesting.

[25:46] So what Paul was teaching us there is that when a person believes the gospel, they receive the Holy Spirit as a first installment, as a down payment and that's a permanent thing.

[26:03] The Holy Spirit is given permanently to Christians today. And similarly to the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit does bring empowerment and we call these spiritual gifts.

[26:17] But he's also given for the purpose of promise. a first installment towards our eternal life.

[26:32] Well, and one thing, what it isn't is, because what some people believe about the Holy Spirit is that he can cause us to lose control and God will take over.

[26:46] Again, I guess it goes back to that catch the anointing nonsense. And again, we do see Saul transformed into a different man and we do see him doing things that he wouldn't naturally do.

[26:59] But I'm afraid this is certainly not true. 1 Corinthians 14, verse 31 to 33 says the following.

[27:12] Again, speaking to the church in the context of spiritual gifts, he says, So the Spirit is given for the purpose of doing these things, exercising of gifts, even prophecy, but God is a God of peace and order and it is subject, that Spirit is subject to the prophets.

[27:50] So it's not biblical to have a view that the Holy Spirit will cause someone to lose control or do something other than what they wish to do.

[28:05] Let's resume chapter 10 verse 14 of 1 Samuel. So he's got home. Now Saul's uncle said to him and his servant, Where did you go?

[28:19] And he said, To look for the donkeys. When we saw that they were nowhere to be found, we went to Samuel. Saul's uncle said, Please tell me what Samuel said to you. So Saul said to his uncle, He told us plainly that the donkeys had been found, but he did not tell him about the matter of the kingdom which Samuel had mentioned.

[28:41] And thus is Samuel's odyssey concluded. Again, he left home to find donkeys. He came home anointed king. It was his father Kish from whom he departed.

[28:57] But here he returns and has a conversation with his uncle. Don't know exactly who that is. Subsequently he will appoint a gentleman by the name of Abner to be commander over his army.

[29:13] And it says there in the text that that is Saul's uncle. However, it is possible to have more than one uncle. So I don't know if this is happening here or not. But why does Saul conceal the anointing?

[29:28] I don't know. So feel free to speculate. It doesn't tell us. But again, for me, what I'm seeing here is Saul is not, do you know what happened? I'm going to be king over you.

[29:40] I'm going to be your boss. He doesn't go to his head. He doesn't put himself forward. He doesn't get all excited about being this great ruler.

[29:54] He waits until he's called into service. Actually, we're going to find Saul working in the field pretty soon. It's really, really commendable I think that even though he knows what the near future holds for him, he's ready to wait and keep doing what he knows until he's called.

[30:13] It's commendable stuff. Verse 17, now Samuel called the people together to the Lord at Mizpah and he said to the sons of Israel, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says, I brought Israel up from Egypt and I rescued you from the hands of the Egyptians and from the power of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you.

[30:32] But today you have rejected your God who saves you from all your catastrophes and your distresses. Yet you have said no, but put a king over us. Now then present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your groups of thousands.

[30:51] So Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel forward and the tribe of Benjamin was selected by Lot. Then he brought the tribe of Benjamin forward by its families and the Matrite family was selected by Lot.

[31:03] And Saul the son of Kish was selected by Lot but when they looked for him he could not be found. Therefore they inquired further of the Lord has the man come here yet? And the Lord said behold he is hiding himself among the baggage.

[31:18] So they ran and took him from there and when he stood among the people he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders upward. Samuel said to all the people do you see him whom the Lord has chosen?

[31:31] Surely there is no one like him among all the people. So all the people shouted and said long live the king. So they draw lots and the lot was a common way historically to deduce the will of God.

[31:48] Proverbs 16.33 says that the lot is cast into the lap but every decision is from the Lord. And that seems to be in Gideon did it in a sense with his fleas.

[32:03] It was a common way. What is the will of the Lord? Now the last time it was seen done in the Bible is when Matthias is replacing Judas as apostle. Lots were drawn to select him.

[32:16] But then we never see it again following the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost which I've always inferred means that the church now that we have the Holy Spirit now that we have the whole Bible the Word of God such devices to determine God's will are no longer required.

[32:33] how is it that elders and leaders should be appointed into the church? It's not by drawing lots. Actually what Paul says is there should be a discernment of gifting and character not lots.

[32:49] But in this case I think what's happening is it's revealing or showing the will of God to the people. God has already made his will clear to Samuel and to Saul. They've seen it they've seen the signs.

[33:01] But the drawing of lots here seems to have the purpose of making it clear to the public. So surprise Saul is chosen.

[33:12] And again he's hiding why evidence of Saul's humility I suggest to you could even be reluctance not sure for Josephus again that historian that ancient historian his perspective on this is this is a show of modesty Saul doesn't want to give the impression that he's eager or excited to do it if I must kind of thing verse 25 then Samuel took the people no he didn't Samuel told the people the ordinances of the kingdom and wrote them in a book and placed it before the Lord and Samuel sent all the people away each one to his house Samuel sorry Saul also went to his house in Gibeah and the valiant men whose heart God has touched went with him certain useless men said how can this one save us and they despised him and they did not bring him a gift but he kept silent about it so there's grumbling how can this one save us useless but again what we see in

[34:23] Saul is I don't need to exercise my authority I don't need to put them down I'll wait and see so reading on to chapter 11 and we will pick up the pace a little bit now I promise now Nahash the Ammonite went up and besieged Jabesh Gilead and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash make a covenant with us and we will serve you now this seems a bit abrupt and if you have an excellent memory and you've read the book of Judges then you may know hang on a minute Jabesh Gilead isn't that the place that got emptied out and the answer is yes it is Judges ends with this horrible story of civil war and the tribe of Benjamin does wrong all of Israel comes out and it's almost destroyed the tribe of Benjamin and because the city of

[35:25] Jabesh Gilead didn't supply any warriors to join this battle they themselves then find themselves destroyed every man every married woman and the unmarried women or the virgins are then all married off to the tribe of Benjamin to preserve them from going extinct and the city is destroyed and left empty and that is the last we hear of Jabesh Gilead until here and so we're thinking hang on who's there that only happened about 90 years ago who has Nahash come up against well surprise it turns out we may be missing some background text here there is one scroll a Dead Sea scroll it's called the Samuel scroll if you want to look it up and it contains some additional text now I would say it's probably not original Bible text for the simple reason that I think if God intended it to be he would have preserved it a bit better than just one scroll that was only found 70 years ago but it does at least provide some interesting historical context and

[36:34] Josephus was aware of this at least and he records this in his antiquities that's the word I'm looking for antiquities so what does it say so and this is the only Bible I found was the new revised standard what it's worth so this is the text that you can imagine as possibly coming between these two chapters it says now Nahash king of the Ammonites had been grievously oppressing the Gadites and the Reubenites and you remember they are the two tribes on the east of the Jordan he would gouge out the right eye of each of them and would not grant Israel a deliverer no one was left of all the Israelites across the Jordan whose right eye Nahash king of the Ammonites had not gouged out wow but there were 7,000 men who had escaped from the Ammonites and had entered Jabesh Gilead about a month later

[37:36] Nahash the Ammonite went up and besieged Jabesh Gilead and so on so so that's the paragraph that is in this old very very old scroll that was in the Dead Sea scrolls but it wasn't in Septuagint or actually any other that I'm aware of so is it inspired probably not is it useful historically probably this was so what we're seeing is this isn't just a this isn't just a king who's coming up to try it on this is a guy who's been oppressing cruelly Gal and Reuben for a long time and that explains why Israel is like we need a king we need someone who can fight our battles Nahash name means serpent by the way and a serpent he is so anyway verse 2 but Nahash the Ammonite said to them I will make it with you on this condition that I will gouge out the right eye of every one of you and thereby

[38:37] I will inflict a disgrace wow so the elders of Jabesh said to him allow us seven days to send messengers throughout the territory of Israel and then if there is no one to save us we will come out to you then the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul and spoke these words in the hearing of the people and all of the people raised their voices and wept now behold Saul was coming from the field behind the oxen and Saul said what is the matter with the people that they weep so they reported to him all the words of the men of Jabesh and then the spirit of God rushed upon Saul when he heard these words and he became very angry and again I really appreciate where we find Saul you know I think a good leader is always ready to get down and do the work that's needed you know he's there he's got valiant men and he's in the field so Saul is moved to act verse 7 then he took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces and sent them throughout the territory of

[39:41] Israel by the hand of messengers saying whoever does not come out after Saul and after Samuel the same shall be done to his oxen then the dread of the Lord fell on the people and they came out as one person he counted them at Bezek and the sons of Israel were three hundred thousand and the men of Judah thirty thousand they said to the messengers sun is hot you will be saved and so the messengers went and told the men of Jabesh and they rejoiced the men of Jabesh said tomorrow we will come out to you and you may do to us whatever seems good to you well the next morning Saul put the people in three companies so three companies morning watch is between 2am and 6am or whenever the sun rises just

[40:47] FYI so early in the morning they're all snoring away in their tents and Saul works this decisive victory and by virtue of this victory his place as king is made certain and so then verse 12 then the people said to Samuel who is he that said shall Saul reign over us bring the men so that we may put them to death but Saul said not a single person shall be put to death this day for today the Lord has brought about a victory in Israel and I want you to note here actually that the people go to Samuel not to Saul to say this thing so there's a sense in which they're still seeing Samuel as the authority but it is Saul who speaks up and answers in a way that is merciful and I appreciate that Samuel said to the people come let's let us go to Gilgal and renew the kingdom there so all the people went to

[41:50] Gilgal and there they made Saul king before the Lord in Gilgal there they also offered sacrifices of peace offerings before the Lord and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly again so we see Saul's example of mercy he doesn't lash out or put anyone down who speaks against him we do see in the church today Christian leaders who are lashing out when people call them out on error or sin actually the teaching of Jesus was that we should turn the other cheek if someone asks for our coat we should give them our shirt as well it doesn't mean that we Christians are to be doormats but it does mean that we don't seek revenge or seek to mistreat enemies so they go up to

[42:53] Gilgal Gilgal is a town in Benjamin it's a very significant place historically! it was the first place where Israel encamped after crossing the Jordan into the promised land and it is where they mustered before going to destroy Jericho and now then the kingdom is established the king must increase and Samuel must decrease and so let's read on I know we've only got a few minutes left but I do want to get through this chapter and we now have Samuel's farewell address as it's known although as I've pointed out before he's only about 57 at this point he's got around about 25 years or so more ahead before he finally goes to be with the Lord but what's happening is that his active judgeship is coming to an end verse one then Samuel said to all Israel behold

[43:53] I have listened to your voice for all that you said to me and I have appointed a king over you now here is the king walking before you but as for me I am old and grey and my sons are here with you and I have walked before you since my youth to this day here I am testify against me before the Lord and have I taken a bribe to close my eyes with it I will return it to you and they said you have not exploited us or oppressed us or taken anything from anyone's hand so he said to them the Lord is witness against you and his anointed is witness this day that you have found nothing in my hand and they said he is witness So we see Samuel first he testify that he has a good testimony and you know according to 1 Timothy 3 verse 7 an elder should have a good witness outside the church

[45:01] I'm sorry no not should Paul says you must they must have a good witness you know nobody is perfect and we can't require a perfect standard he who claims to be without sin is self deceived but pastors who are subject to historic scandal or have a poor reputation they're disqualified according to Paul and reading on from verse 6 then Samuel said to the people it is the Lord who appointed Moses and Aaron and who brought your fathers up from the land of Egypt now then take your stand so that I may enter into judgment with you before the Lord concerning all the righteous acts of the Lord that he did for you and your fathers when Jacob went into Egypt and your fathers cried out to the Lord then the Lord sent Moses and Aaron who brought your fathers out of Egypt and settled them in this place but they forgot the Lord their God so he sold them into the hand of Sisera commander of the army of Hazor and into the hand of the

[46:03] Philistines and into the hand of the king of Moab and they fought against them they cried out to the Lord and said we have sinned because we have abandoned the Lord and have served the Baals and the Ashteroth but now save us from the hand of our enemies and we will serve you then the Lord sent Jerobobel Beden Jephthah and Samuel and saved you from the!

[46:24] of your enemies all around so that you lived in security and so next Samuel repeats the Exodus story and he picks out three specific episodes from the time of the judges as well Israel forgets God goes after idols and so God allows their enemies to rise up against them and when you finally turn your hearts to me I send you a judge to save you and Samuel lists four judges and I don't think that we should I don't think he intends for us to focus on those specific four and actually different manuscripts The Septuagint the Targum which is an ancient Aramaic Bible and the Syriac Bible they all have different judges and you can compare it also to Hebrews where a different set of judges is listed again although it seems to allude to this part the point are not important the point is the pattern and

[47:28] Samuel is teaching preaching reminding Israel God saved you through these judges that he raised up his pattern of salvation through these men verse 12 but when you saw that Nahash the king of the sons of Ammon was coming against you you said to me no but a king shall reign over us yet the Lord your God was your king and this I think helps us to see that sin of Israel clearly yes Nahash the Ammonite was coming yes he was being unspeakably cruel to Israel but rather than cry out to Samuel for a king verse 13 and now behold the king whom you have chosen whom you have asked for and behold the Lord has put a king over you if you will fear the Lord and serve him and listen to his voice and not rebel against the command of the Lord then both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God but if you do not listen to the voice of the

[48:31] Lord but rebel against the command of the Lord then the hand of the Lord will be against you even as it was against your fathers even now take your stand and see this great thing which the Lord is going to do before your eyes is it not the wheat harvest today I will call to the Lord and he will send thunder and rain then and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel a rainstorm it was miraculous you see unlike Britain where we really just have weather arbitrary weather all year round Israel has a dependable and predictable seasonal cycle with thunder and rain being very rare between April and October and the wheat harvest puts us around about late

[49:32] May so very very very unexpected miraculous verse 19 then all the people said to Samuel pray to the Lord your God for your servants so that we do not die for we have added to all our sins this evil by asking for ourselves a king Samuel said to the people do not fear you have committed all this evil yet do not turn aside from following the Lord but serve the Lord with all your heart indeed you must not turn aside for then you would go after useless things which cannot benefit or save because they're useless for the Lord will not abandon his people on account of his great name because the Lord has been pleased to make you a people for himself furthermore as for me far be it from me that I would sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you but I will instruct you in a good and right way only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart consider what great things he has done for you but if you still do evil both you and your king will be swept away wow and that's the close of Samuel's speech and I think that we see an encouragement to the repentant here do it the one who is repentant yes you did wrong you did wrong and yes there are consequences but no the Lord will not abandon his people because of his great name and I love how yes

[51:00] Samuel he's diminishing from his public ministry but he makes this commitment to keep in prayer for them to continue instructing them Samuel was happy to decrease and to live out the rest of his days in quiet prayer a prayer warrior if you like as well as an instructor well what's our application then the passage I think teaches us about leadership and both Samuel and Saul are modelling good aspects of good leadership for us Samuel you see he doesn't fight to stay in power he rather he's happy and content to take a step back and Saul for his part he doesn't push forward to make this claim for rulership that's been granted in Mark 10 42 Jesus taught his disciples and we read calling them to himself Jesus said to them you know that those who are recognised as rulers of the Gentiles domineer over them and their people in high position exercise authority over them but it is not this way among you rather whoever wants to be prominent among you shall be your servant and whoever wants to be first among you shall be slave of all for even the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many this is the way of leadership within God's church now

[52:28] Saul he seems to be he could be read as being reluctant to take the role maybe he is in the church an elder should not be reluctant Peter said in 1st Peter chapter 5 verse 2 he said shepherd the flock of God among you exercising oversight not under compulsion but voluntarily according to the will of God and not with greed but with eagerness so eager to serve we don't do it grudgingly we don't do it oh okay I guess I'll do it no no no we do it eagerly we do it voluntarily but we don't I think commend ourselves or push ourselves forward in the parable of the guests in Luke 14 from verse 7 the message is simple don't try and take the best seat take the last place do the menial tasks until the master says friend move up higher now that is how we should serve one another in the church today looking for the simple basic menial tasks how can

[53:33] I bless the church until the Lord reveals my gifts or whatever they are to the leadership of the church so that I might serve but as we consider our applications in closing let's consider Jesus Christ because it's him who supremely modeled for us leadership he is the one who is being supremely modeled Christ of course means the anointed one and he is a humble leader Philippians 2 5 to 11 of Christ we read have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus who as he already existed in the form of God did not consider equality with God as something to be grasped but emptied himself by taking the form of a bondservant and being born in the likeness of men and being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death death on a cross for this reason also God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth and that every tongue will confess that Jesus

[54:45] Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father you see that's our Lord that is the heart and the attitude and the spirit of Jesus Christ Israel faced this wicked enemy in Nahash the serpent our enemy today is that great serpent and dragon of old Satan Israel cried out for an anointed king rather than to God well we cry out to the anointed king who is God he saves us from our enemies and maybe we cry out like in Psalm 71 1 and then sense that God doesn't reply well if so there is always a he hasn't replied yet because God will have the final word and even if we are humbled now he will exalt us in due time Psalm 71 14 but as for me I will wait continually and will praise you yet more and more

[55:45] Amen