1 Samuel 10 (The Spirit of The Lord Comes Upon Saul)

So once again, let's open to the book of 1st Samuel this week. We're going to be studying chapter 10

This is the story of Saul being anointed King the

Prophet Samuel will anoint him he will pour oil on him and later in the chapter

Saul will be anointed or Empowered by the Holy Spirit of God.

He will prophesy his heart will be changed and it says that Saul Becomes a different man and Once again, we will like in the last chapter.

We will see Saul's humility and Also his reluctance because when they call for him, this is a store.

I remember this story back from Sunday school Where Saul's chosen as king, but they look to find him to coronate him

Or to proclaim him before the people and he's nowhere to be found he's hiding among the baggage or the luggage depending on how your

Translation renders that so Saul is hiding among the luggage. Why remember Saul has been chosen by God to be king

Okay, great. But how is that gonna come about? He's probably wondering about this, you know, are people really is this really gonna happen?

Will people really Accept this is this for real? Everything Samuel says comes to pass.

He may have known that but still How is this gonna go down? So from Saul's perspective

He can't just say to people or go home to his father in the rest of his village and say hey everyone

I know Israel has never had a king before but I was out looking for these donkeys for my father and hey

God just decided to make me king. I mean would anyone believe that so you have to look at this from his perspective

So Saul he has been chosen by God That's what he's been told by Samuel.

But now what? And we will see in this chapter even though Samuel who is or who was

Israel's leader even though Samuel passes the leadership on to Saul in Front of everyone at the end of the chapter.

There's some people who are resisting and that's gonna come up again Next time so you can just imagine what

Saul must be going through What's going on in his mind in his emotions through all of this so let's begin reading 1st

Samuel chapter 10 starting in verse 1 And 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 When you have departed from me today

You will find two men by Rachel's tomb In the territory of Benjamin at Zelda and they will say to you the donkeys which you went to look for have been found and Now your father has ceased caring about the donkeys and is worrying about you saying

What shall I do about my son? Then you shall go on forward from there and come to the terebinth tree of Tabor There are three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you one carrying three young goats another carrying three loaves of bread and another carrying a skin of wine

And they will greet you and give you two loaves of bread Which you shall receive from their hands

After that, you shall come to the hill of God where the Philistine garrison is and it will happen

When you have come there to the city that you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place the stringed instrument tambourine a flute and a harp before them and They will be prophesied then the

Spirit of the Lord will come upon you and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man and Let it be when these signs come to you that you do as the occasion demands

For God is with you 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

So we see that Saul has his marching orders. Here's what's gonna happen. And this is exactly how it's gonna happen

So the first thing we see Samuel pours oil on Saul's head This is symbolic the oil being symbolic for the

Holy Spirit Which Saul will soon be empowered by? Now this is what they would do for servants of God.

They would anoint them with oil right the high priest This was a common practice

Instituted of God and now the king would have to be anointed and What it means anointing it means a pouring pouring on of oil

So oil is poured over their head and it's really just a ceremony Setting them apart unto the service of the

Lord Think of today how a pastor would go through an ordination ceremony where he has set apart for the gospel ministry

This is the way they would set people apart in Bible time So Samuel does this he kisses

Saul and speaks these words over him reminding him that this was God who called him to this work

Ceremonies and rituals like this were important within evangelicalism today However, people tend to think and I've seen this attitude many times that anything that is symbolic is somehow

Unimportant, but that's not the case in the church today We have for example baptism in the

Lord's Supper Both are symbolic acts that represent a spiritual reality and they are not just important God commands this to be done.

Remember Jesus says do this in remembrance of me Baptism itself is so closely associated with salvation that some sects have said that water baptism is a requirement for salvation

I don't believe that but The point being that just because something is symbolic doesn't mean it's unimportant

So the oil again is symbolic of the Holy Ghost This is being done.

So Saul would recognize the weightiness of all of this The words spoken to him remind him of this great

Importance, so Samuel tells him after they finish this private ceremony Okay, here is how it's gonna happen

You're gonna leave and when you come to this area, it's by Rachel's tomb So this is somewhere near Samuel's home and Rama between Bethel and Bethlehem These two men will greet you and here is what they're gonna say

So obviously when this comes to pass it only reaffirms the Word of God spoken through Samuel.

This is one sign So the oil may be symbolic but predicting the future

This is supernatural on top of that verse 3 Samuel says then you shall go on forward from there and come to the

Terebinth tree at Tabor and some people see the term Terebinth tree They think this you know, what what is that other translations render it an oak tree?

So I mean don't get hung up on the term Terebinth It's not that the tree itself is all that special.

It's just a landmark that everyone knows What he's talking about It'd be like if I told a local to meet me at the sycamore tree and Sunderland most people around here would know

What I'm referring to so Samuel says to Saul There when you get there, there are gonna be three men going up to God at Bethel and they will meet you

Going up to God refers to a worship site. That's on a hill Samuel says they will greet you and give you these items so take the bread and After that go to the

Philistine garrison, which is the military post Once you're there a group of prophets will be coming down and here's where it gets really important These prophets are gonna come down they're gonna be prophesying and you will prophesy too

Now as I'm reading this Before we get to the the prophesying which is really the thing that kind of stands out about this story

I can't help but see the sovereignty of God Cast alongside the free will of man in this whole situation

That yes, God was bringing it about Excuse me. I need to drink of water That yes

God was bringing this about it was God's plan But Saul still had to do something, right?

God choosing Saul was an act of grace. It's Undeserved but still Saul still had to obey the commandments given to him by the

Lord through Samuel and I Say that because all too often today people kind of have the attitude that we just need to let go and let

God you know God will do everything. So just sit back and let the Lord handle it, you know, don't act just Talk about it pray about it.

Let God handle it, but let's not do anything ourselves Or people expect to get as a divine zap of sanctification without having to do things themselves, that's not the way it works

For Saul to walk in God's will and to experience God's best.

He had to do what God said through Samuel Saul had to obey

God's Word because at least in theory if he didn't do all of these things God would have chosen someone else to bless and Obviously later in his life when

Samuel does become disobedient to God God does choose someone else And what happens there all of this kind of gets repeated right it's

Samuel anointing David in a private ceremony later on And then

Saul ends up dead sorry, if you didn't know that I'm sure I'm sure most of you do but The the story of Saul obviously doesn't end it begins well, it doesn't end well, but Saul ends up Being remembered as a bad king.

He ends up dead why because he didn't obey God. So this is a lesson for all of us. I think

Saul Was probably we might we might call him saved right in the

Old Testament That's not really a category that we see right now. I know it's debatable. But here's the thing

Saul was a man Starting out. He obeyed the Lord and that's what we need to do

God tells us what needs to be done and we need to do it in order to walk in his will

So Saul He comes among these prophets or upon these prophets

They have the Spirit of God and now he is going to be given the Spirit of God and it Specifically says and here's why

I think Saul was saved because it says that he was given a new heart Samuel tells him

When you encounter these prophets verse 6 Says then the Spirit of the

Lord will come upon you and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man

The word prophesy does not always mean to predict the future in this case when

God's Spirit came upon him Saul began Preaching or proclaiming God's Word, which he had never done before.

This is part of why he became another man This is just something he never would have done before maybe you know someone who is a pastor or a missionary and 20 years ago they were not like that at all and now they're out there preaching the

Word of God and If someone who knew them before saw them now, yeah, that's what they would say.

He is a he's changed He's a different man and that's what happened with Saul So Samuel says to him in verse 7 and let it be when these signs come to you

What are the signs the report of the found donkeys the three men of Bethel this encounter?

When these signs come to you the point being all of this will confirm that God is with you

Because let's face it hearing someone tell you Hey, you're gonna be

King God has chosen you well, that's great, but I need a little more than that That's probably what

Saul is thinking Here in just for us hearing someone tell you this is one thing having a happen is something else, you know seeing things in the

Bible is One thing reading it and then believing it and then actually

Seeing it applied and come to pass and how it plays out in life That that's sometimes what we need to strengthen our faith and then

Saul receiving power from the Spirit of God This is what he needs Because Saul in and of himself just like David as gifted as David was maybe naturally he needed the supernatural power of God So Saul receives this power from the

Holy Ghost this anointing That will make it possible for him to be

Israel's leader Verse 10 it says when they excuse me

Starting to lose my voice today. I don't know why Verse 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 that is Saul prophesied among them

And it happened when all who knew him formerly saw that he had indeed prophesied among the prophets

That the people said one to another What is this that has come upon the son of Kish is

Saul also among the prophets Then a man from there answered and said but who is their father therefore it became a proverb is

Saul also among the prophets and when he had finished prophesying he went to the high place so The people they ask about this group of prophets that now includes all

Shockingly right and this became a proverb because it was so surprising

So word of this spread all around Israel That their new king is he a prophet as well

So people were talking But by them asking who is the father of this group?

They are asking who taught them how to do this How did they learn to prophesy?

You know you just put it in modern terms if you see a preacher and man this guy can preach

People might say who where did he learn to preach like that? right one idea back then is that a man became a prophet because his father was a prophet and If he didn't get this gift from his father or through education and training which

Saul obviously didn't And I think they knew that Then how did this happen right that's what they're asking and the answer is that Saul was empowered by God the

Holy Spirit. That is the only explanation He was empowered without the aid of any man or earthly method now

This is not common. You shouldn't expect this today. It's not something that every you know every well this can happen to anyone

Well, I guess it could But it doesn't This is a unique event that's why it became a proverb and Also this way all the glory goes to the

Lord and Saul should realize that he needs to depend on God 100 % Now I don't want to spend a lot of time on the whole subject because you know we're talking about signs

We're talking about prophesying so I don't want to spend a lot of time on the subject of signs and wonders and prophecy today

Just to comment on this because it's for some people it's what kind of jumps out at you

But generally it's important that we know this Generally, there are two types of Christians today, right?

there are the Pentecostals and charismatics and then there are sort of the the Baptists and the

Reformed and and there's two types of Evangelicals out there in any local church.

There are going to be people who believe that Prophesying and miracles and signs and wonders that this stuff is just happening all the time everywhere

And then there's the other group who sometimes you'll hear the term Cessationism which carries the idea that signs and wonders and prophecy and miracles have all ceased

They ceased with the death of the Apostles now. I'm definitely more in the latter camp.

There is one misunderstanding That no one I know says that miracles have ceased

It's the idea that the office of prophet or Apostle has ceased so what

I would what I believe and I believe the scripture does bear this out and I think reality bears this out that There are miracles happening in the world today

They come mainly through God's providence and answered prayer, but there is no man like Samuel today so special revelation

I Believe has ceased and sometimes prophecy can refer to special direct revelation from God Which I believe has ceased because now we are to rely on the scripture alone, right?

Sola scriptura scripture alone is our authority But there are some people who think there is this ongoing revelation and that there are prophets like Samuel today

And I just think that's that's not where I stand. So just hey throwing that out there for you

Because I think this is important that that a

Pastor has to go by the Word of God There is a danger see with Samuel and Saul none of this is just hey

I got a feeling that you know, God might be telling me something. I think that God is

That's not what's happening here. God is speaking directly to them They have a word from God and we have a word from God.

It's called the Bible So I believe it's very important the pastors and Christians go by the

Bible not by Feelings and emotions and thoughts that God may or may not have put in your head

Just one comment on this that the 66 books of the Bible is what it's the faith once for all delivered to the

Saints The Apostle John ends the book of Revelation with a warning not to add to the words of the prophecy of this book

So Samuel is a legitimate prophet of God and I don't believe there are any prophets today.

Saul is Empowered by God and this is unique like this isn't happening in every local church all around and there's all it's just this

This is unique situation. Okay moving on Let's finish the chapter verses because some people they read the

Bible and if they see something happening in the Bible They think it should be happening to them and that's very common.

And that's just not the way we should read Scripture All Scripture is for us, but it's not directly to us in that if it happened to the

Apostle Paul It's gonna happen to me if if Jesus had this power, then I must have it. I mean, that's

Yeah, another sermon for another day, right? Let's get back on track here moving on finish the chapter verses 14 and 16

Saul runs into his uncle who asked him about his journey So he tells him about the the donkeys being found but Saul When he's talking to his family member, he he tells him what happened, but he leaves out the part about the kingdom

He he leaves out the part about how he's just been anointed king of the nation And again,

I you know, there could be some other things going on, but I think it shows his humility He's not bragging about it.

He's not looking to tell everyone and now starting in verse 17 We read about Saul being publicly proclaimed as Israel's first king it says then

Samuel called the people together to the Lord at Misbah 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 But you today have rejected your

God Who himself saved you from all your adversaries 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 So notice they're being reminded again of how this action of demanding a king we can't forget

Bottom line asking for a king. This is a rejection of God They do not want

God ruling over them. So they ask for a human king Samuel is reminding them again

God tells Samuel to remind them and of course we know when God finally sends his king the

Christ How does Israel respond? See they they want a king

But when God sends his king Jesus Christ, what do they do? They crucify him?

So again and again throughout their history is just one rejection of God after another and it really displays also the the long -suffering of God the grace of God a

Lot of things we could talk about and there's all sorts of symbolism Happening here or being set up because this is this becomes significant later on So all of Israel is assembled at least their representatives have assembled verse 20 and when

Samuel had caused all the tribes of Israel to come near the tribe of Benjamin was chosen and when he had caused the tribe of Benjamin to come near by their families the family of Matri was chosen in Saul then son the son of Kish Saul was chosen and when they sought him they could not find him

Therefore they inquired of the Lord further probably through the Urim and the Thuman which the high priest had in his breastplate

However, they did that they inquired of God. Hey, where it where is Saul? We can't find him and it says the

Lord answered There he is hidden among the equipment So verse 23 they ran and brought him from there

And when Saul stood among the people he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders upward and Samuel said to the people

Do you see him whom the Lord has chosen that there is no one like him among all the people?

I mean Saul stood out. He was good -looking. He's tall. He's strong so all the people

Shouted and said long live the king and this is the man that Israel wanted the desire of Israel was on a

Man like this and now their desire is on the man who looked like a king

So once again, we see the sovereignty of God alongside the free will of man men wanted to follow other men

Israel wanted to follow a man not the God of heaven God was clearly displeased through all of this but God in his providence he did choose

Saul and He will use him to bring about his Sovereign will and notice again another warning verse 25

So then Samuel explained to the people the behavior of royalty like guys, you don't know what you're getting into And he wrote it in a book and laid it up before the

Lord and Samuel sent all the people away every man to his house and Saul also went home to Gibeah and Valiant men went with him whose hearts

God had touched but Some rebels said how can this man save us?

So they despised him and brought him no gifts But Saul held his peace so in conclusion

There's a lot going on here Israel makes clearly a bad decision

But Saul he starts out good. He receives a blessing. He receives empowerment by the

Lord He is humble instead of calling for his critics or his enemies to be punished rather he holds his peace and God is really going to work this out for Israel's good and That's the

God we serve Romans 8 28 that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love

God And to those who are the called according to his purpose Saul was certainly called by God The way it all happened was wrong

The nation rejecting God the way they did But in the next chapter the

Lord will use Saul as a type of Christ using him in battle to bring salvation to Israel and all of this is a picture of our salvation

Which is through Christ Jesus Though man made a terrible decision in rejecting

Jesus God. What did he do? He used the cross he used that Rejection the greatest evil ever

Perpetrated by man God used it to bring about the greatest good for man

So that's what we see here and it's all a foreshadow of what will happen with the person of Jesus Christ So next week