1 Samuel part 5 8- 10
Worldliness has always been a struggle with God’s people. For example notice what Paul says in:
Philippians 3:18 For
many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that
they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: 19 whose end is destruction,
whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their
shame -- who set their mind on earthly things.
Gods people sometimes
lose their faith and all they can see is that they want to be like the rest of
the world and when they do we can see that they become an enemy of God.
James 4:4 Do you not know that friendship with the
world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world
makes himself an enemy of God.
Since Paul understood the evil of this world can separate up fro God he did his best to encourage the Christians to keep their faith in God. One example of this can be found in:
Romans 12:1 I
beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your
reasonable service. 2 And do
not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God.
So as you can see there
is a demand for the Christian today not to conform to the world but to continue
to have faith in God and to live your life based upon his word. Well, as begin
to take a look into the book of Samuel tonight we are going to see that the
children of
1 Samuel 8:1 Now it
came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over
Just like Eli’s 2 sons
Samuels 2 sons end up being corrupt. First the people had been disappointed in
Eli’s 2 sons who made a mockery of the sacrifices made to God and now Samuels 2
sons were nothing more than men driven by greed so the people had enough and
they get the bright idea that the need a king like the rest of the nations. I
am sure we have heard someone ask us, if your friend jumped off a bridge would
you. Well, this exactly what the children of
1 Samuel 8:6 But the
thing displeased Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to judge us."
So Samuel prayed to the LORD. 7
And the LORD said to Samuel, "Heed the voice of the people in all that
they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me,
that I should not reign over them. 8
"According to all the works which they have done since the day that I
brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day -- with which they have forsaken
Me and served other gods -- so they are doing to you also.
God lets Samuel know that
they are really not rejecting you they are rejecting me just like they have
done before. This wasn’t any surprise to God considering how wishy-washy they
had been in the past. What is interesting to me is that God is going to allow
them to have their request.
1 Samuel 8:9
"Now therefore, heed their voice. However, you shall solemnly forewarn
them, and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over
them." 10 So Samuel told
all the words of the LORD to the people who asked him for a king.
They would be allowed to
have this king but God wants them to know exactly what this will entail.
1 Samuel 8:11 And he
said, "This will be the behavior of the king who will reign over you: He
will take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots and to be his
horsemen, and some will run before his chariots. 12 "He will appoint captains
over his thousands and captains over his fifties, will set some to plow
his ground and reap his harvest, and some to make his weapons of war and
equipment for his chariots. 13
"He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and
bakers. 14 "And he will
take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them
to his servants. 15
"He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage, and give it to his
officers and servants. 16
"And he will take your male servants, your female servants, your finest
young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work. 17 "He will take a tenth of
your sheep. And you will be his servants.
18 "And you will cry out in that day because of your
king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the LORD will not hear you in
that day."
Many times the Bible
warns people of what will happen if they turn back to worldly things. However
many times people will think if they make the choice on how they do things at
first they don’t see how there could be any serious consequences to their
decision but when we begin to direct our own steps especially in a worldly way
our decision will almost always end in disaster. Many in the religious world
have made the decision to worship God their way and in doing so they either add
to God’s Word or take away from it which will have dire consequences because
they are choosing to separate themselves from God. Well, as we are about to see
the children of
1 Samuel 8:19
Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said,
"No, but we will have a king over us,
20 that we also may be like all the nations, and that our
king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles." 21 And Samuel heard all the words
of the people, and he repeated them in the hearing of the LORD. 22 So the LORD said to Samuel,
"Heed their voice, and make them a king." And Samuel said to the men
of
They simply didn’t care
about the warning from Samuel. They wanted to take matters into their own
hands. Here we see they want this king to fight there battles even though the
knew that with God on their side they had won countless battles in the past.
How sad this is to see them putting so much faith into a man instead of God.
Let us never be like the children of
Now in Chapter 9 we are
going to see the providence of God at work which brings about his choice of
this new king of
1 Samuel 9:1 There
was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish the son of Abiel, (a-bih-ell)
the son of Zeror, (zee – roar) the
son of Bechorath, (beh –koe-rath) the
son of Aphiah,(a-fie-ah) a
Benjamite, a mighty man of power. 2
And he had a choice and handsome son whose name was Saul. There was not
a more handsome person than he among the children of
So Saul set out to find
this missing donkeys and they make there way close to the city that Samuel
lived and they still hadn’t found the donkeys. Well they decide to go ask the
Samuel if he could tell them where they could find these donkeys. But Saul was
about find out more than he bargained for.
1 Samuel 9:14 So they
went up to the city. As they were coming into the city, there was Samuel,
coming out toward them on his way up to the high place. 15 Now the LORD had told Samuel in
his ear the day before Saul came, saying,
16 "Tomorrow about this time I will send you a man from
the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him commander over My people Israel,
that he may save My people from the hand of the Philistines; for I have looked
upon My people, because their cry has come to me." 17 And when Samuel saw Saul, the
LORD said to him, "There he is, the man of whom I spoke to you. This one
shall reign over My people." 18
Then Saul drew near to Samuel in the gate, and said, "Please tell me,
where is the seer's house?" 19
And Samuel answered Saul and said, "I am the seer. Go up before me
to the high place, for you shall eat with me today; and tomorrow I will let you
go and will tell you all that is in your heart. 20 "But as for your donkeys
that were lost three days ago, do not be anxious about them, for they have been
found. And on whom is all the desire of
Saul doesn’t understand
it yet but through God’s providence Saul was about to become king. Now when
Samuel makes insinuates that all of the desire of
Well after this Saul and
Samuel eat together and then Samuel is going to provide proof that Saul is to
be anointed as King of the children of
1 Samuel 9:27 As they were going down to the outskirts of
the city, Samuel said to Saul, "Tell the servant to go on ahead of
us." And he went on. "But you stand here awhile, that I may announce
to you the word of God." 10:1
Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head, and kissed
him and said: "Is it not because the LORD has anointed you
commander over His inheritance? 2
"When you have departed from me today, you will find two men by Rachel's
tomb in the
So we see that Samuel
tells Saul that he will have these 3 signs happen to him and then he will
receive the spirit of the Lord and prophesy. This will be Saul’s proof that
Samuel is telling him the truth and that this truly was God’s will. Now notice
how the events unfold as we continue through the end of the chapter.
1 Samuel 10:8
"You shall go down before me to Gilgal; and surely I will come down to you
to offer burnt offerings and make sacrifices of peace offerings. Seven
days you shall wait, till I come to you and show you what you should
do." 9 So it was, when
he had turned his back to go from Samuel, that God gave him another heart; and
all those signs came to pass that day. 10
When they came there to the hill, there was a group of prophets to meet him;
then the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them. 11 And it happened, when all who
knew him formerly saw that he indeed prophesied among the prophets, that the
people said to one another, "What is this that has come upon
the son of
Here we learn that
everything that Samuel said came to pass. Now we see that Saul received the
spirit of God and was able to prophecy. This shows us that only way someone
could truly prophecy was when the spirit of God was with them. This is why
Peter tells us will all confidence:
2 Peter 1:20 no
prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, 21 for prophecy never came by the
will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
We
can see from our text that the people of the OT understood this that is why
they started this new proverb Is Saul also among the prophets? The text
also states that he was given a new heart, this simply means that he was given
a new attitude or a new sense of assurance because he know had God with him.
14 Then Saul's uncle said to him and
his servant, "Where did you go?" So he said, "To look for the
donkeys. When we saw that they were nowhere to be found, we went
to Samuel." 15 And
Saul's uncle said, "Tell me, please, what Samuel said to you." 16 So Saul said to his uncle,
"He told us plainly that the donkeys had been found." But about the
matter of the kingdom, he did not tell him what Samuel had said.
Saul speaks with his
uncle but he only tells him part of the story. Now we can only guess why he
didn’t tell him about the news of him being the anointed commander of God
people. Perhaps he was still in shock of the new himself or perhaps it was
because of his humility. However everyone was about to know this truth.
17
Then Samuel called the people together to the LORD at Mizpah, 18 and said to the children of
Israel, "Thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'I brought up Israel out of
Egypt, and delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the
hand of all kingdoms and from those who oppressed you.' 19 "But you have today
rejected your God, who Himself saved you from all your adversities and your
tribulations; and you have said to Him, 'No, set a king over us!' Now
therefore, present yourselves before the LORD by your tribes and by your
clans." 20 And when
Samuel had caused all the tribes of
Although God was allowing
the people to get there way and have king rule over them, Samuel once again
reminds them of how they are rejecting God in doing so. But, he announces who
the king will be and now notice what happens.
But when they sought him, he could not be
found. 22 Therefore they
inquired of the LORD further, "Has the man come here yet?" And the
LORD answered, "There he is, hidden among the equipment." 23 So they ran and brought him
from there; and when he stood among the people, he was taller than any of the
people from his shoulders upward. 24
And Samuel said to all the people, "Do you see him whom the LORD has
chosen, that there is no one like him among all the people?" So all
the people shouted and said, "Long live the king!"
Again I think we see the
humility and the shock that Saul was having at this time because he was hiding.
However, he brought out and the people can see that he was mighty in his
physical stature and so they all shout out long the king.
25
Then Samuel explained to the people the behavior of royalty, and wrote it in
a book and laid it up before the LORD. And Samuel sent all the people
away, every man to his house. 26
And Saul also went home to Gibeah; and valiant men went with him, whose
hearts God had touched. 27
But some rebels said, "How can this man save us?" So they despised
him, and brought him no presents. But he held his peace.
So Samuel wrote the rules
of royalty and now the people had their king. However not everyone agreed with
this as we see some despised him. But for now these people were left alone.
So in conclusion we see a
promising beginning for the children of
1. New beginnings with
the Lord should begin with a humble heart and with the desire to do what is
right.
2. A new beginning is just a beginning we must be willing to finish what we started or else we find our separated from God. I hope that we always strive to have a humble heart from the beginning of our Christianity to the end.