1 Samuel 8

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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7 was the rise of Samuel.

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8 through 15 would be the rise.

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I'm going to put this here because that quickly happens, although he doesn't die, but it quickly happens.

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The rise and fall of Saul.

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And then 16 through 31 would be the rise of David.

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Now, each one of these is a rise, or each one of these men is because of a crisis that takes place.

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There's kind of a little small crisis that takes place right here.

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Hannah doesn't have a baby, so she cries out.

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Her crisis is she wants a baby.

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Okay, but what was the crisis that really led to the rise of Samuel? Not the death.

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It had to do with Eli, but it wasn't his death.

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It was the failure of the priesthood.

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Remember his sons? Dirtbag 1, Dirtbag 2? What were they doing? They were extorting.

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Yeah, they were taking advantage of the stuff that was being brought.

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They were taking it for themselves.

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Now, what's going to lead to the rise of Saul? But it's a failure in leadership still, and it's not a failure in leadership on Samuel's part.

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It was a failure in his sons.

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We briefly talked about that last week, just briefly.

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His two sons, what were they doing? They were sent to Beersheba to be judges, right? And what was the reason why they sent them? Anybody remember? Samuel was old.

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Remember his circuit? Gilgal, Mizpah, all that? He couldn't do it anymore, so he set up his sons to do it.

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We have no indication that Samuel was a failure like Eli, do we? The Bible actually condemns Eli for doing what? For honoring his sons more than honoring God.

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So, each one of these is going to make, each of these individuals comes about by failure in leadership.

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This was a failure in the leadership of the, Samuel comes to a crisis in the failure of the leadership of the priesthood.

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Saul is going to come about because of the failure in the being judged properly.

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So, they say, hey, we know that your sons are perverting justice.

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Notice they didn't say that Samuel was perverting justice.

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They said his sons were.

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So, there was a failure in the judgeship, which leads to Saul, and then ultimately, what leads to David will be the failure and faithfulness on this man here.

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All right? So, that's, this is where we're at.

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Open your Bibles to Samuel.

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I think we pick up in 11, chapter 8, verse 11.

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What was the sin of the people last week? Was it wanting a king? The sin was, yes, but it was the rejection of God as king.

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Because if you go back, it says, when he tells, he tells Samuel, he says, no, no, no, they've not rejected you.

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This is in chapter 8, verse 7, but they have rejected me as being king over them.

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So, yeah, they wanted to be like the other nations, and they wanted a king to judge and rule over them because of the failure, not of Samuel, but because of Samuel's sons.

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So, let's pick up in chapter 8, verse 10, and we'll read to the end of the chapter, and then we'll walk through it.

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It says, so Samuel spoke all the words of the Lord to the people who had asked of him a king.

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And he said, this will be the procedure of the king who will reign over you.

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He will take your sons and place them over himself and his chariots and among his horsemen, and they will run before his chariots.

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He will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and fifties, and some to do his plowing and to reap his harvest and to make his weapons of war and equip for his chariots.

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He will also take for your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers.

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He will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, your olive groves, and give them to his servants.

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He will take a tenth of your seed of your vineyards and give it to the officers of his servants.

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He will also take for you male servants and your female servants, and he will take your best young men and your best donkeys and use them for his own work.

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He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his servants.

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And then you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but God will not answer you in that day." So nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, No, but there shall be a king over us.

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He shall be like all the other nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.

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Now after Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them into the Lord's hearing, and the Lord said to Samuel, Listen to the voice and appoint him a king.

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So Samuel said to the men of Israel, Go every man into a city.

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So here it is.

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He says, All right.

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This is what the guy that you want is going to do to you.

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Start telling me the things that the king's going to do.

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What's he going to do? Take their stuff.

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Yeah.

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Key word.

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Take.

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Take.

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That's right.

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He's going to take.

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Theologian Mike Smith, I'm going to use stuff.

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What does that stuff include? Daughters.

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That's it.

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Yep.

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Keep going.

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Kids, daughters, grain, your animals, vineyards.

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I mean, yeah, he basically he just going to take whatever he wants, do what he wants with your stuff.

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Huh? Donkeys.

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Yeah.

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And they were burdened.

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That's what carried the loads.

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He's going to take their cattle.

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He's going to take their vineyards.

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He's going to do all of these things.

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And he's going to.

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Hey, this is exactly what the kings of the other nations do.

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Now, if God was their king, what did they do with their stuff? I'm a user.

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What did they do with their stuff? They offered it to God as an act of worship.

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Look, this king ain't gonna be worship.

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This king's gonna take whatever he wants, what he wants and how he wants.

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You know what, when he ain't got enough, he's gonna come take your stuff.

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All right.

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So that's the kind of king that they want.

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He tells them what they're going to do.

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Under the Old Testament, you had 10%, 10%.

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This went to the Levites to handle the priesthood.

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This was of the produce.

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And I'm going to use this here, although this is a debatable on how this is done, because this is done every three years.

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And we'll talk about this in just a second.

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10%, a tenth was to go to the Levites as offering to them to take care of the land because remember, they didn't have no land, did they? They didn't have no land until they were supposed to give it, they were given a 10% of part of the land to live in.

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And then a tenth of all the stuff went to them to provide for them.

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That's under the Mosaic legislation, if, ands or buts.

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Then that same year, you would have another tenth of produce that would go.

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So right now, we'll talk about this in just a second.

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The tithe was actually more than 10%.

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Right here, we're at 20% under the Mosaic legislation.

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Then every three years, you would do this was called the poor tithe.

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So basically, if you broke this down, this is actually every year would be 23 and a third percent.

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So not this would get on the biblical thing on tithing.

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But if you want to be a biblical tither, that would be your number.

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If you're going to use Old Testament.

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Now, this one here, every three years, it was supposed to be taken up, given to the poor, the Levites ate it.

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So this is debatable that this could have been every three years instead of done here, it was done here.

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But that's beside the point.

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So on top of this, which was every year, what's the king gonna impose? On top of taking whatever he wants, he's gonna have another 10%.

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So you're going to be had your stuff taken.

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He's gonna take 10%.

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Oh, he's got a third of whatever your income is, is Yeah.

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So that's not so the total amount that you would be giving once you get a cane would be 30% or 33.

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Hey, my finger works on this new pin.

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33% under the new cane.

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Okay, after he takes his job, or stuff, stuff, stuff, stuff.

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Now, he says in verse 18, then you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves.

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And listen to this.

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The Lord will not hear your cry.

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Imagine the covenant keeping God that brought you out of the land of Egypt says check this out.

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That's what you want.

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All right, I'm gonna give you what you want.

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But when you cry out because he's doing all these things.

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I'm not going to hear you.

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Now, if you want to disagree with me, on this point, this would be the time to do it.

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So we can talk about how I come to this conclusion.

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God is not condescending to the people to give them their desire to be gracious.

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God giving them a cane.

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judgment.

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Agree or disagree.

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This would be the time to disagree.

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If you do.

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Okay, we agree.

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Why do we agree? What's happening today? Well, we can't take what don't don't put into what's happening today.

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Why do we disagree? Why do we agree that this is an act of judgment on God's people at this juncture? It's an act of judgment.

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Yes, that's true.

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It's an act of judgment.

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As God says, when you call out to me because of what you want, I've given you over to your desires, and he ain't gonna hear you.

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Well, not here.

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I ain't gonna hear it.

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Yes, they did give it a great warning.

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And people did not hear and we're fixing to talk about that.

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Because it says here in verse 19.

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It says, nevertheless, the people refuse to listen to the voice of Samuel.

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Okay, so Samuel is it was Samuel that was speaking.

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But who was Samuel speaking in the point? Oh, yes, sir.

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Oh, I thought you was laughing at me.

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You laugh at me all the time.

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So anytime you laugh.

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Oh, oh.

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Look here, look at that good pan.

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He says here.

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Nevertheless, the people refuse to hear the listen to the voice of Samuel, who was saying to the representative of God, he spoke for he was a prophet, first prophet that we have the prophethood listed, prophet, priest and judge.

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And he said they would not listen to the voice of Samuel.

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And he says, No, but we will have a king over us.

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And he will be like all the nations that all that this king may judge us.

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And here it is, again, as an act of judgment.

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He says, Okay, who was fighting the battles for the nation of Israel, who would go before them? God would, but what does it say here? They want our king will go before us and fight our battles.

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No, no, no, no.

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God had always went before them and fought their battles when they were in repentance and faith and in covenant faithfulness.

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Matter of fact, when they wanted to be superstitious, and they brought out through through hot fire and Phinehas, they brought out the Ark of the Covenant, what happened? They lost.

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But when they cried out and asked Samuel to intercede for them in chapter seven, what did he do? He interceded for them.

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And what did God do? He confused the people and there was a great slaughter and they ran them back and they started taking back their all their land from a foot to gas or getting back all their land.

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So when they were in covenant faithfulness with God, God was faithful to protect them.

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He says that in chapter eight, verse 21.

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Now after Samuel heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the Lord's hearing, not that the Lord couldn't hear.

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He repeated them in the Lord's hearing.

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And the Lord said to Samuel, all right, listen to them, listen to the people and appoint them a king.

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So Samuel said, Go every man into a city.

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So Samuel is going to send them back home and says, all right, we'll get back together once I find out who this person is.

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Now, before we start chapter nine, there's something we need.

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Samuel is a very difficult person.

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So for those of you that weren't here years ago, when I taught actually, this used to be Jack's class, I taught six weeks on how to study your Bible.

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We want to understand Saul correctly.

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Anything correctly.

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This is the context.

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This is going to analyze the text.

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This is the one we're going to have a lot to do with right here.

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Come moving forward problems within the text.

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This is things this is obligations or commands.

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This is reflection or location.

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We're going to be learning about Saul.

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Context is king.

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Because we're going to have a lot of things that we hear about Saul, you're going to go, well, wait a minute.

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Was he a godly man or an ungodly man? Whether he is empowered by the Spirit, whether he is forced by God to do something, whether he is faithfully carrying out his duties, and I don't want us to confuse this with Saul.

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Don't confuse these.

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All right.

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Don't confuse success with being faithful.

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How many of y'all know this all store this story of Saul? So I've read it.

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I mean, nobody.

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Really? I mean, I'm even reading ahead.

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I mean, I've read the whole book of Samuel twice this week.

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I was good.

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Was Saul successful in doing what God appointed him to do? He was he was very successful in this defeat in the Philistines.

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Very.

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That's what he's gonna appoint him to do.

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We're fixing to get into that.

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He was very successful.

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Was he faithful to obey God's commands? That will be the question.

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We're gonna answer the next six chapters.

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Questions, comments, protests, demonstrations before we go forward.

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Chapter nine.

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More than him, and he was from his shoulders up, taller than any other people.

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Now the donkeys of Kish, Saul's father, was lost.

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So Kish said to his son Saul, take now one of your servants, arise and go search for the donkeys.

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And he passed through the hill country of Ephraim and passed through the land of Shalasha, but they did not find them.

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Then they passed through the land of Shalom, but they were not there.

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And he passed through the land of Benjamin, but they did not find them.

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And when they came to the land of Zuth, Saul said to the servant who was with him, come, let us return or else my father will cease to be concerned about the donkeys and then become anxious for us.

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And he said to him, behold, now there is a man of God in this city and the man is held in honor.

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All that he surely says comes true.

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Now let us go there.

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Perhaps he can tell us about our journey on which we have set out.

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And Saul said to his servant, but behold, if we go, what shall we bring the man? For the bread has gone out of our sack and there is no present to bring the man of God.

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What do we have? And the servant said to Saul again and said, behold, I have in my hand a fourth of a shekel of silver.

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I will give it to the man of God and he will tell us our way.

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Formerly in Israel, when a woman wanted to go inquire of God, he said, let's go talk to the seer, for now it's currently called prophet.

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Then Saul said to the servant, well said, come, let us go.

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So they went into the city and where the man of God was.

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And as they went up the slope of the city, there were young men of young women going out to draw water.

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And they said to them, is this, is the seer here? And they said to them, he is.

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See, he is ahead of you.

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Hurry now for he has come into the city today for the people have a sacrifice up on the high place today.

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As soon as you enter the city, you will find him, go get to him before he goes up to the high place to eat for the people will not eat until he comes because he must bless the sacrifice first.

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Afterwards, those who are invited will eat.

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Now, therefore go up from you, go up from here and you will find him at once.

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So they went up from the city and as they came into the city, behold, Samuel was coming out toward them, headed up to the high place.

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Now, a day before Saul's coming, the Lord had revealed this to Samuel saying about this time tomorrow, I will send a man from the land of Benjamin and you shall appoint him to be prince over my people, Israel.

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And he will deliver my people from the hands of the Philistines for I have regarded my people because of their cry has come up to me.

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When Samuel saw Saul, Saul, Saul, when Samuel saw Saul, the people said to him, behold, the man of whom I have spoken to you, this is the one who will rule over my people.

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Then Saul approached Samuel in the gate there and said, please tell me where the seer's house is.

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And Samuel said to Saul and said, I am the seer.

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Go up before me up to the high place for you shall eat with me today.

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And in the morning I will let you go and will tell you all that is on your mind.

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As for you, the donkeys, which were lost for three days ago, do not set your mind on them where they have been found.

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And the, and whom is all of that is desirable in Israel.

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Is it not for you and your father's household? And Saul replied, am I not a Benjamin of the smallest of the tribes of Israel and my family, the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then do you speak to me in this way? And Samuel said to Saul and his servants and brought them into the hall and gave them a place at the head of those who were invited.

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And there were about 30 men.

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And Samuel said to the cook, bring the portion, which I gave you concerning, which I said to you, set it, set it to the side.

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Then the cook took up the leg, which was set aside for Saul.

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And Samuel said, here is what has been reserved for you.

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So I set it before you and eat because it has been kept for you until the appointed time.

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Since I have, since I have said this and I've invited the people.

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So Saul ate with Samuel that day.

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And when they came down from the high place into the city, Samuel spoke to Saul and he spoke to him on the roof.

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Then early, he rose early the next morning at daybreak.

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And Samuel called to Saul on the roof saying, get up that I may send you away.

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So Saul rose, both he and his, and Samuel went out into the street.

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And as they were going down to the edge of the city, Samuel said to Saul, say to your servant that he might go ahead of us and pass on.

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But you remain standing now and I will proclaim the word of God to you.

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So here it is.

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This is going to be the search for the king.

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We're now being introduced to Saul.

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Who was, who was Saul? He was the son of who? Kish.

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What was Kish? Who? Who? I can't hear.

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I'm deaf in one ear.

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Benjamin.

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I am really deaf in one ear so you have to holler sometimes.

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He was from the tribe of Benjamin.

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Smallest tribe.

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What? At the end of Judges, how many were left of these guys? 600.

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Remember they had the let's go abduct us and wives trick? Smallest tribe.

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And he said, now Saul had, he was a handsome man.

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He was taller than all of those in Israel.

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So let's just say the average person was this big.

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That would be me.

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There's Saul.

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Head and shoulders above everybody.

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So he was a big man.

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Like all the kings of Israel.

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I mean the kings of the surrounding nations, they wanted big men because what did the kings go out and do for their people? They went out and fought.

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That's exactly what they did.

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They were representative of them.

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And in verse 3 it says, and the donkeys of Kish, Saul's father, were lost.

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So look what God's bringing about.

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Kish had some donkeys, okay? They got lost.

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What were donkeys? Not a high commodity? What's that? Yeah, it was like having three paint wagons for me.

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You lose one of those, man, you could be down for, imagine losing three, okay? So he's down three donkeys.

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So he's probably having a little anxiety and he says, alright, Saul, I need you to go out and see if you can find them.

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Now how they go about finding donkeys, I have no idea.

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So they went out through the land.

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I don't know if they follow footprints or what.

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It says, so Kish said, hey, take a servant with you, go and go check out, see if you can find my donkeys.

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They went through the land of Ephraim, passed through the land of Shalisha or Shalasha, and they went through Shalim, and they were not there.

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And then they passed through the land of the Benjamites, and they did not find them.

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But when they came to the land of Zeph, Saul said to his servant who was with him, come, let us now return, or else my father will cease to be concerned about the donkeys and will become anxious for us.

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So the servant of Saul says, look, we can't find these donkeys, so why don't we just head on back so your dad doesn't begin to become upset that you're missing.

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Look, they didn't have cell phones, they didn't have pay phones, they had no way.

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And what did happen in the wilderness with people looking for stuff? They were attacked by wild beasts, marauders.

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I mean, anything could have happened.

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That's why it was not safe to travel at night, and even during the day on the highways and the byways, you had robbers and thieves and murderers that were waiting along the side to hurt you.

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So he would probably have become anxious.

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But look how God in his providence is working out all of these things to bring about the call of the king.

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First of all, what had to happen? Man, they had to have some lost donkeys.

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Some lost donkeys.

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Now, Saul is going to go look for some lost donkeys, and they're going to go to all these places and no lost donkey.

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I mean, they can't find these donkeys.

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Well, then they're going to come to a place where he said, hey, it's time for us to go and listen to this.

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When we get to verse 7, it says, And Saul said to his servant, But behold, we, I'm sorry, let's back up.

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Verse 6, He said, Behold, now there is a man of God in this city.

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Now, we're not sure where this city is, okay? I don't think it's Rama.

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Let me show you on the map.

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I don't think it's Rama where his home place is.

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Reason being is because the way that they say it, he has just come into the city for a sacrifice.

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So maybe this was on his circuit that he was on.

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But it's talking about Samuel.

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It says, But a man of God is held in honor.

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All that he says surely comes true.

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Once again, bring to the validity that not a word from Samuel's mouth fell to the ground.

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Remember, we talked about that.

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Whatever he said, it came to pass.

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He was a faithful man of God.

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And then Saul said to his servant, But behold, if we go, what shall we bring this man? For the bread that we have had in our sack is gone.

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They went on a three-day journey.

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They didn't eat all their food, okay? That's probably why the servant said, Let's go back.

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He's probably hungry.

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He said, Hey, we don't have anything to give.

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Then the servant said to Saul again, Behold, I have in my hand a fourth of a shekel of silver.

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I will give it to the man of God, and he will tell us our way.

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And then it goes on talking about what a seer was.

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A seer was a man of a prophet or a sage.

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I don't know.

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Does anybody's translation say sage? No? It was a man of wisdom or a prophet.

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And it says here at the end of verse 10, Well said, come, let us go.

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So they went into the city where this man of God was.

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And as they went up to the slope of the city, they found young women going out to draw water.

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And they said, Is the seer here? And they answered him, He is.

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He is just ahead of you.

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So here it is.

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Look how God has brought about this.

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They have entered the same city at the same time that Samuel has.

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Is that coinkydink or is that the providence of God? That's the providence of God working out the establishment and the appointment of who Israel wanted as their king.

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They wanted one just like the surrounding nations.

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And this is all going to take place in this city.

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And they said, He is.

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He is ahead of you now.

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If you hurry now, he has come up into the city today where the people have a sacrifice on the high place today.

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So this is, like I said, probably his normal circuit.

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It was his scheduled time to be there to act as a sacrifice.

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Remember, the tabernacle was not established anymore.

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Sacrifices were taking place at great places of altars.

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It was not an established place yet.

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Since the fall of Shiloh.

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And he says in verse 13, As you enter the city, you will find him before he goes up to the high place.

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For people will not eat until he comes, because he must bless the sacrifice and after those who are invited to eat.

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So here it is.

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If he says, Look, once he gets up to where he's going, you're not going to have an opportunity to talk to him.

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So whatever you need to say, you need to say to him now.

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Whatever you need from him or whatever information you need from Samuel, you need to get it now.

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Because once he goes up there, you're not even invited.

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There's only going to be those who are invited to the table and you won't have that opportunity once he blesses the sacrifice.

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Now, therefore, go up and you will find him there.

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So they went up into the city and as they came into the city, behold, Samuel was coming out towards them to go up to the high place.

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And then it gives the previously what happened the day before.

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So God has prepared Samuel, Hey, when you're tomorrow, this dude's gonna come to you and he's gonna be that guy.

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He's going to be the one that they have they want to rule over them.

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The one that they have rejected me and being their king, they're going to want this guy as king and this is going to be the person that I'm going to have established.

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And when Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said to him, Behold, this is the man I've spoken of.

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This one will rule over my people.

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Then Saul approached Samuel in the gate and he said, Please tell me where the seer is.

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Interesting.

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I don't think we should look at Saul as how does he not recognize Samuel? I know when I first reading through this go, Why did he not know who Samuel was? Well, if Samuel was a judge of Israel, and he was going on a circuit and you did not have a civil matter that needed to be disputed, by and large, you would not have known who this guy was.

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You know, I mean, how many of us know who judges are downtown? We don't, you know, unless we've ever stood before them or had a civil case or anything else, you wouldn't know who they were.

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That would be the case with Samuel.

33:54

I mean, with Saul with Samuel.

33:55

Yes, sir.

33:55

I think it's interesting where you read where it says, Here's the man of whom I spoke to you.

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He it is who will rule you.

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Is that what you're about? Yes, he's the one that will rule over my people.

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Yeah, he will constrain them.

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He will constrict them.

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He will.

34:18

Yeah, yeah.

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But he says this in verse 17 and Samuel approached him again.

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He says, Please tell them where the seer is.

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Samuel answered and says, I am the seer.

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Now go up before me at the high place, for you shall eat with me today.

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So, in other words, he was invited to this great sacrifice and feast.

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So now he says, But hey, imagine Saul hearing this.

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He hasn't even got the opportunity to ask about the donkeys.

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Remember, what was the reason they were coming? Hey, man, where are these donkeys at? So we can figure out if we can go home and eat basically because we're out of bread.

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And he says before he can even answer, before he gets a chance to ask, he answers it.

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Hey, check it out.

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Those donkeys you were looking for three days ago, they've been found.

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They're gone.

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And he says, As for the donkeys which you had lost three days ago, do not set your mind on them, for they have been found.

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And here's a this is a kind of a weird statement.

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And for whom is all that is desirable in Israel? Is it not for you and all of your father's household? That sounds kind of odd, doesn't it? Does it not sound odd? Now, there's two ways of understanding that.

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Is he saying to Saul, Hey, you're the one that's most desirable in all of Israel.

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In other words, speaking of his kingship, does Saul understand what he is saying? No, he does not.

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Or you could understand it this way.

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And this is where I tip my hat to is, hey, all that's desirable.

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Remember, context is looking for donkeys.

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Okay, now he says, Hey, it's not all that is desirable of Israel.

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Is it not going to be yours? And then he says what? And what does he say? It'll be for you and your family, you and your family.

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And to bring validity to that interpretation of that, okay, because what does Saul say? Saul answers like, say it, say what? He says, Am I not the smallest of all the tribes of Israel? Am I family the least of the Benjamites? I mean, the least families of the tribe of Benjamin? Why are you talking to me this way? Now, between verse 21 and verse 22, there ain't another verse.

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You understand that Samuel doesn't even answer that question to him.

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He just goes right into this.

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Then Samuel took Saul and his servants and brought him up to the hall and gave him a place to sit down with the men that were invited.

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There were about 30 men there.

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And Samuel said to the cook, Bring the portion which I gave concerning you, which I set aside.

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So if a person was to come, a dignitary or someone of importance were to come, they would save the choices of the meat.

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The choices of the meat in that time was the leg.

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It had the best part.

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I mean, we think about like a deer or something like the back strap.

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No, no, they wanted the leg because that's where the good meat was at.

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So he says they had saved it for him.

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And he said in verse 25, Samuel said to the cook, Bring that portion which I saved to the side, set aside for him.

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And then the cook took up the leg with what was set before Saul.

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And Samuel said, Here it is what has been reserved to you.

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I set it before you and eat, because it has been kept for you until the appointed time.

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Meaning this is the time it was set aside for you.

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Since I said I have invited the people.

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So Saul ate with Samuel that day.

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And we've got four minutes.

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I'm not going to, I don't know, maybe I can.

38:07

Any questions so far? Yes, sir.

38:11

I was just trying to imagine what Saul was thinking at that point.

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What do you mean you set this for me? You didn't even know I was coming here.

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And you set this aside for me.

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You know what I'm saying? It's like all you see in there is the hand of God.

38:27

I just put myself in a position.

38:33

You like say what? Sort of like the Matrix.

38:36

Don't knock that vase over.

38:39

But interesting though, you bring that up.

38:41

He has probably already been a little confused, I would imagine.

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I know we're kind of making conjecture, because he hasn't even asked him about the donkeys, but he knew he was coming to ask about donkeys.

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So if he knew he was coming to ask about donkeys, and he says, Well, wait a minute, I've set this choice piece of meat aside for you.

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He's got to be going, Hey, man, something's going on here.

39:04

This is a little weird.

39:07

Anybody else have any questions or comments? Yes, ma'am.

39:21

In verse seven of which chapter? Okay.

39:29

Okay.

39:47

And if you remember, I think it was last week, I said we after you see the establishment of them running them out, we do see because the people's responsibility is to keep the Philistines out.

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That was their job when they went into the land.

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We don't see them doing that.

40:00

So we see this constant going back.

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Okay, we big act of victory.

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And then what do we do? We go back.

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Hey, man, that's just like us.

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And we're foolish to do the same things.

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We do big acts of faith.

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And then what do we do? We're recalling unbelief.

40:18

Now, what's that? Correct.

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I will say this.

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When you're reading this, you're going to see three assemblies.

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Okay? Meaning three gatherings of the people of God.

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Okay? All three of those are condemnation.

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Every one of them, God condemns them.

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I think it's in, you could go back and look.

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It would be in 8, 10, and maybe 12.

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Yeah, I guess it would be 8, 10, 12.

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Because then you have another three acts of God's mercy.

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So here it is.

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God condemns them.

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And you'll see, if you go back and you read, you'll see God condemns them.

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Matter of fact, all three of these chapters condemns them for rejecting God as king.

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Every one of them.

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But every time he does this condemnation, God still gives in 9, 13, he shows mercy on them.

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He still shows mercy.

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He condemned them here for rejecting God as king, right? Right? And 9, what does he do? He actually gives them a kingdom.

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10, he does the same thing.

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He condemns them.

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I was the one that was going to rule over you.

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I was the one that was going to take care of you before you even fought your battles.

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He condemns them.

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But then what does he do in chapter 11? We're going to see that he goes out and he blasts Nahash.

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Nahash is the one that tries to go to Jabesh-Gilead.

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And he tries to take him over.

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Nobody wants to come out and fight.

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He says, I'm going to poke out your eye, and I'm going to put you in submission to me.

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Well, when it comes to Saul, hey, this guy's trying to take over the land.

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Saul goes as the king of Israel, and he smashes Nahash the Ammonite.

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Was that not an act of God's mercy to his people? Yeah.

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Was that not a successful act of Saul? Yes.

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Then, in the assembly of basically the farewell message of Samuel, as far as, hey, here's your king, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

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I've never taken anything from you.

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We'll get into that in a week or so.

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God condemns them through Samuel for their wanting a king.

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But then when you get to 13, what does he do? Him and Jonathan go out, and they slay the Philistines again.

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So every assembly, it's a condemnation of God of judgment.

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But right after that, God says, you know what? I did condemn them, but I'm still going to show my covenant people mercy.

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What's this Bible saying? God, in your anger, remember what? God, in your anger, please remember mercy.

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Hey, we've got to go.

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You'll pray for us? Father God, we do thank you for your mercy towards us.

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Father God, thank you for grace.

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Father, we pray now that you would bless this time of fellowship, bless the man of God as he stands before us.

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Father, instruct us from your holy word.

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Open our hearts to be receptive.

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We love you, and we thank you, and we ask these things of Jesus.

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Amen.

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Can I erase this? Anybody write that down? I can erase it.