FBC Morning Light (3/30/2024)

Good Saturday morning, people of faith. We're going to be looking at 1st Samuel chapters 7 through 11 this morning and Just to set the background here back earlier in the book of 1st

Samuel the Philistines captured the ark and then had all kinds of troubles because they had the ark and then returned the ark and We pick things up in chapter 7 just after the ark has been returned and what

I'm gonna do this morning is just gonna walk through a little bit from each chapter and Then we're gonna jump back to chapter 8 after I do that So in chapter 7 we see some details of Samuel Samuel as he is judging

Israel they had brought everyone together and the Philistines heard about it and they came and attacked and Defeated the

Philistines and so they had had peace at that time and They talked a little bit about Samuel going to various cities on a circuit to judge the people as he was

Considered is he's often considered to be the last judge of the nation of Israel in chapter 8 the people

Demand to have a king and this is a change from from what?

It has been in the past for the nation of Israel Samuel doesn't want them to have a king the people want to have a king

Samuel inquires of the Lord and Eventually they are to have a king so who is it that's going to be king and in chapter 9

Saul a Benjamin Benjamin 8 is chosen to be the king and in chapter 10 he is anointed as that king and then in chapter 11 we have the first major act of Saul as king and the people of Jabesh Gilead are under threat from the

Ammonites and Saul gathers together the people from every tribe and they go and defeat these

Ammonites and The city or the village or city of Jabesh Gilead has been is saved by God through the hand of Saul and Ironically enough.

This is considered by most to be the last good act of Saul in his entire reign.

So the question comes up Why would the people want a king in the first place?

Well, there's oftentimes There's different ways you could look at that The the

Samuel was fearful that they wanted to be just like the countries around them than the other nations around them

But I think there's something a little different going on. Not just that that that was certainly an issue but Rewind the clock just a little bit and go back to Samuel's predecessor in Eli and Eli was a

Okay high priest and he He had two sons

Hophni and Phinehas and They were not good characters and they did much evil

Threatening people taking advantage of the women Not taking care of the sacrifices correctly and when there's corruption

Like that people tend to get very frustrated Because they know

This is not what the Lord has appointed to have happen so Samuel in chapter 8 verse 1

It says now it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel The name of his firstborn was

Joel and the name of his second Abijah They were judges in Beersheba But his sons did not walk in his ways.

They turned aside after dishonest gain took bribes and perverted justice

When there is a situation in society where there's

Chaos or disorder people are much more prone to choose a

Leader that will lead them out of that chaos You can look at this throughout history the

Roman Empire did this sort of thing and I think that this is kind of the human side of What was going on in?

within the nation of Israel here The leadership of The nation was corrupt.

It was not doing what they were supposed to do They were taking bribes.

They were Going after dishonest gain and they had perverted Justice I would suggest to you that all throughout this world that this is a common thread of Nations throughout this world now, how many times do our politicians?

Get elected to become rich by pervert by perverting justice and going after dishonest gain and taking bribes

The stories of these things are tragic and as a nation

We need to repent of this behavior May it be that this day that that somehow

The Lord works to bring about change within the hearts of our leaders of this country

Let's pray Lord you are Lord and we are not

I Asked that you would move and work to change my heart the heart of our people

The heart of our nation the heart of our leaders That they might bow the knee before you