1 Samuel 12 (Samuel’s Address at Saul’s Coronation)

So, let's turn to the book of 1 Samuel, chapter 12, and we will continue our study of the Old Testament, covering about one chapter per week. That's the rate we've been going at, more or less. I began this study at Morris Corner Church back in 2019.

We started in Genesis 1, upstairs in the library, which is a smaller room. We quickly outgrew the library and we had to go downstairs. I remember being downstairs in a big circle around the table, and I remember someone bringing up this thing called coronavirus.

I just remember the discussion. I think we were somewhere around Genesis chapter 4 or 5, and I just remember that conversation how, you know, the Bible says something about quarantining. That's true, but the Bible says you should quarantine the sick, not those who are healthy.

But anyways, we moved out of the library, outgrew that, went downstairs. We quickly outgrew the downstairs. We had to move upstairs into the sanctuary, and more people continued to come. And I think I started recording these Bible studies somewhere around Genesis chapter 45.

So our whole Exodus series is online if you want to check that out. It was a little different of a format because you had a lot of people there chiming in, which for a group study, that's usually a good thing.

But now that I've moved the study to radio, which now being on radio, the audience is even bigger, but I think we topped out at about 30 people at church on a Wednesday night for our Old Testament series.

And for those listening, 30 people might not sound like a lot, but here in rural New England, where the average church size is about 50, to get 30 people out on a Wednesday night to study the Old Testament, nonetheless, you know, that's pretty good.

So now that we're on radio and putting this online, even more people can listen. And of course, there's no longer any input from you or the congregation. So in some ways, it's a good thing in the sense that I can focus and cover more territory.

But the downside is I don't get to answer any questions, and I don't get insights from you. So if you do listen along, please feel free to leave a comment on YouTube or email me. And if you do have a question, I always respond and try to give an answer.

Because I think that's important to have an interaction. When people are being taught the Bible, they need the opportunity to ask questions. So go ahead and email me or send a message, leave a comment, something.

And if you have a question, I will definitely get back to you. Okay, so with that said, let's look at 1 Samuel 12. This is the prophet Samuel speaking to the nation of Israel at Saul's coronation, where Saul is being made king.

And based on what Samuel is saying, yeah, Samuel is not very happy. And just know that if Samuel isn't happy, that means God isn't very happy. Because Samuel is what? Samuel is the prophet. So Samuel acts as God's mouthpiece.

That's what a prophet is. But despite the situation, no matter how much the people have messed things up, you know, there's always a way out. There's always a way to fix things. And really, I think that's going to be the application or the lesson for God's people this morning of what we're going to learn.

No matter what mistakes you have made, or to be more blunt, whatever sins you have committed, if you turn to God now and start doing the right thing now, moving forward, the Lord will see that and he will bless that.

And that certainly is good news. So let's begin reading 1 Samuel 12, starting in verse one.

The scripture says,.

Before the Lord and before his anointed. So Samuel is challenging the people.

He says,.

Whose ox have I taken? Or whose donkey have I taken? Or whom have I cheated? Whom have I oppressed? Or from whose hand have I received any bribe with which to blind my eyes? If that has happened, Samuel says, I will restore it to you.

And the people answered and said, you have not cheated us or oppressed us, nor have you taken anything from any man's hand. Then he said to them, the Lord is witness against you and his anointed is witness this day that you have not found anything in my hand.

And they answered, he is witness. Okay, so what is Samuel doing? He is establishing the fact that he has been a good ruler. Samuel has been been a good leader. He's been honest. He's been moral. He's been upright.

And he's basically saying to the nation, Hey, if I've done anything wrong, you know, speak up now or forever hold your peace. If there's anything you have against me, say it. And the people respond, no, no.

Yeah.

Saul is witness. And we're saying this in front of everyone. You have not done any of these things. So with the king, Saul standing here as witness, Samuel, you have been a godly leader. You have never steered us in the wrong direction.

And that was true because why Samuel was not following his own agenda. Samuel was following God's program. So whatever the Lord said, Samuel did it. Whatever God said, Samuel made sure that thing was carried out in Israel.

So the point being that under Samuel, Samuel wasn't the king. God was the king. Samuel is just carrying out God's orders. Of course, Samuel is setting all of this up to make a point. So the purpose of going through this is to make the point, if this is true, which you admit it is, the fact that you are demanding a human king, like all the other nations, that proves that you're rejecting godly leadership in order to put a man in charge.

You are rejecting God's leadership, which I carried out, and you want a man in the place.

Of God.

That's what Samuel is doing. He's pointing out in a subtle way, or maybe not so subtle, that what you're asking for, what you're doing right now, this is an act of rebellion against God. Samuel has pointed this out before, and he's doing it again.

Today we put it this way. The Bible says this, or the Bible says that, but you wanted to do the opposite. So Samuel didn't have a Bible per se, but he had the law of Moses, and under the law there was no king.

God is the king. You people are rebelling against God. And just a modern parallel to help Christians understand, because we don't have a king. We're not used to this type of a thing, a system of judges or a king.

Today, actually we do have a king, but again, Christians don't typically think this way, but Christians do have a king. We have King Jesus, right? Jesus is our leader. He is the head of the church. He is king of kings.

Jesus is the good shepherd, and the church, I mean, this is a debated point, but some people will say the church is the kingdom of God, or it's the initial phase of the kingdom.

Of God.

I think there is a literal physical kingdom coming, but Jesus is the king. Jesus is the good shepherd. The pastor, all a pastor is, is an under shepherd, right? I think we talked about this last time.

Jesus is the head of the church. It's the pastor's job to see to it that the Lord's word and that King Jesus' wishes are carried out. So when the church needs to make a decision, just like in ancient Israel, Samuel sought.

The Lord.

He did whatever God said. Today in the church, a pastor is to seek the Lord, seek out his word. What does the Bible say? And then make sure that is done. But today, of course, like back then, the tendency is for people to want to go their own direction.

The tendency is for even leaders who profess faith in God, and they may have faith in God, but, you know, this is the way men are and women too, but this is the way people are that, Hey, I think my way is better, right?

The pastor today, just like in Israel, they, they might look at God's word. So yeah, I know that's what it says, but I think I'll take a different approach. This seems to be happening locally right now.

There's a situation that has come up and I've talked about this before. So some of you know what I'm referring to. We don't need to go through it again, but you know, half the churches are doing it God's way and following what the Bible clearly says in regards to excommunication against a clear false teacher.

And then the other churches are, well, you know, we're coming up with our own way of dealing with things.

You know, let's talk about it.

Let's pray about it. Let's use stall tactics. Let's coddle the false teacher. Let's turn a blind eye, anything and everything except what God's word clearly teaches. What is this?

It's rebellion.

It takes different forms, but the point is just as it happened in old Testament times, you know, the nation asking for a King, they wanted to do things man's way instead of God's.

Way.

It's happening right now in the church and it's even happening locally. My friends, we need to do what the Bible says. If we're not doing it God's way, what is this whole thing all about? So this is rebellion.

King Jesus has already given us his word. That great shepherd of the sheep, the Lord Jesus Christ, he has already told us what.

To do.

And Jehovah the Lord, he has already told Israel what to do. There's no room for a King in Israel. That's not part of the system. And yet what's their approach? Well, we don't care because this is what we want.

We still believe in God. We'll still honor God with our lips, but we're going to do what we want. So 1 Samuel chapter 12, Samuel's speaking to the people and he's letting them know what you're doing is wrong.

Now the way Samuel decides to handle this is interesting. He's like, let's have a look. Basically it's like, let's have a little history lesson. Let's look at, let's look back at the last time this happened.

Let's look back at the last time you guys decided to not listen to God's word. Do you remember how that worked out?

Yeah.

Well, people have a short memory. Look at verse six. Then Samuel said to the people, it is the Lord who raised up Moses and Aaron and who brought your fathers up from the land of Egypt. Now therefore stand still that I may reason with you before the Lord concerning all the righteous acts of the Lord, which he did to your fathers.

When verse eight, Jacob had gone into Egypt and your fathers cried out to the Lord, and then Moses sent, the Lord sent Moses and Aaron who brought your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this place.

So he's going through their history to kind of jog their memory. Verse nine, and when they forgot the Lord, their God, what did God do? He sold them into the hand of Sisera commander of the army of Hazor into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the king of Moab and they fought against them.

Then they cried out to the Lord and said, we have sinned because we have forsaken the Lord and serve the bales and the asterisks, but now deliver us from the hand of our enemies and we will serve you.

And the Lord sent Jerob Baal, B Dan, Jephthah and Samuel and delivered you out of the hand of your enemy on every side and then you dwell in safety. Now Jerob Baal, if you've been following our study or if you've read the old Testament, you know that Jerob Baal is Gideon.

We're not sure who B Dan is. Some think it's a misspelling of Barak. We're not sure. But what Samuel doing? The point is to remind them of the time period of the judges. I mean, even going back to Moses and Aaron, you rebelled in the wilderness.

Remember that?

Remember how that went?

Yeah.

It didn't go well and you know that. Why are you doing it again? Remember the time period of the judges? Remember that cycle that you kept going through? Times were good and when times were good, you forsook the Lord.

You started worshiping false gods. Then the Lord would raise up an enemy to afflict you and then only when the situation was dire would people wake up and repent, cry to God for help, at which point he would send a deliverer, a judge who would fight and restore peace and safety to Israel.

And then you would enjoy that for a while. Times were good and then you took it for granted again and the whole cycle would repeat.

Remember that guys?

Remember the wilderness? Remember the time period of the judges? So Samuel's whole point is to try to find this common ground that they all understood.

This.

They all knew this and guys, it didn't work out. You're doing it again. That's Samuel's point. You're falling into the same cycle of behavior. So, what was it that caused Israel this time around to rebel against God by asking for.

A king?

Look at verse 12. Samuel identifies that it was the situation with Nahash. I think we talked about this last week. Verse 12, and when you saw that Nahash king of the Ammonites came against you, you said to me, no, but a king shall reign over us.

When the Lord, your God was your king. So we looked at this last time, how there seemed to be a battle that only one town faced and then King Saul came and fought the battle and won, right? But clearly it wasn't just a threat towards one town.

Clearly the entire nation viewed the Ammonites as a great threat.

Verse 13.

Now therefore, here is the king. You know, you asked for a king. I gave you a king. I warned you, but you persisted. Here he is. Here is the king whom you have chosen and whom you have desired and take note.

The Lord has set a king over you. Now this is interesting because on the one hand, Samuel is admonishing them saying that you did the wrong thing by asking for a king, but then he's saying, well, the Lord is the one who appointed the king.

So here's Saul. Here he is. This is Saul's coronation. It's being made official. The nation is now behind him. It's a done deal. But I think Samuel's point is to say that your rebellion doesn't have to be a done deal.

God put Saul in this place. God is in this. So therefore, if you will do this, right? If there's a condition, if you will do this, do the right thing from this point forward, things will go well. Look at verse 14.

Samuel says, if you fear the Lord, and I want to highlight that again, if when you see the word, if in a statement like this, this is conditional. If you fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and do not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then both you and the king who reigns over you will continue following the Lord, your God.

So what's the condition? God can still bless you, but the condition is you need to obey God. You need to follow him. And obviously this isn't saying that, okay, if one person in the nation, or even if King Saul sends one time, like you're done, like that's not the point.

But Israel would, what they would fall into idolatry. So God is saying, you need to worship me. And of course, what is Saul eventually do? He goes and he practices divination and yeah. So we know it doesn't turn out well, but this is the condition.

If you serve the Lord, there's still an out, there's still hope for you.

Okay.

So this whole concept of there being a condition, it's always very important when reading the Bible, studying God's word that we always pay attention to detail, right? So notice when God makes a promise, do you find the word if in the statement, because really I know there are covenants that we call unconditional covenants, but really even with Abraham, which we might call the Abrahamic covenant and unconditional covenant.

Well that, yeah, that's true. But even Abraham still had to leave his home and go to the land that God showed him. So if you look at the scripture, really everything in scripture is conditional. Everything in scripture, there is a condition, but that's not what you hear today, right?

From the positive only preachers or the positive only Christian radio stations from the big mega church ministries, you know, the, the authors who write all the bestselling Christian books, the common attitude among many professing evangelicals today is that no, it's unconditional.

You hear a preacher saying things like this, that God's love for people is unconditional says no verse ever. Where does the Bible say that? Oh, it's unconditional. You know, that's simply not true. There's always a condition.

There's always a condition. If nothing else, one must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Then you look at what does it mean to believe and how it's not just a mental ascent that you believe this man, Jesus was once alive and then he died or even that maybe he rose from the dead.

Belief is a, is a trust. We need to love God and trust him by faith. So at least with that, there's that condition. There's, there's nothing in the Bible that says, Hey, uh, there's no conditions at all.

God's love is just flatly unconditional. Bible never says that a single time. Verse 15 notice what Samuel says, pay attention to detail. However, okay, so it's like the word if, okay, however, so here's, if you do this, it'll go well.

However, verse 15, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord, here's the condition. But if you rebel against the commandments of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you as it was against your fathers.

And then Samuel performs a miracle. He tells them that he is going to call upon God to send thunder and rain. Verse 17 he identifies that this is the time of the wheat harvest. So it was extremely rare for there to be a storm during the season.

It would be like if someone predicted a thunderstorm next Thursday, it's like, well, it's August. There's a good chance that might happen. But if somebody predicted a thunderstorm someday in April or may, you know, it's unlikely.

So Samuel calls upon the Lord and God sends thunder and rain. And when they see it, the people are frightened. I mean, this must have been, uh, quite a storm. They are terrified. What was the purpose of this miracle?

Remember, the purpose of miracles, they were to authenticate or they did authenticate the miracle worker. So Samuel tells the people that they have sinned and just to prove it, prove that this is the way God views things.

The Lord sends thunder. Verse 18, so Samuel called to the Lord and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day. And all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel and all the people said to Samuel, okay, now they know this is from God.

If they didn't know before, the people say, pray for your servants to the Lord, your God, that we may not die for we have added to all our sins. The evil of asking a king for ourselves. So it indicates that the people weren't completely sure they were doing the wrong thing.

Samuel has told them in the past, but you know, maybe, maybe it's just Samuel who's.

Upset.

Maybe Samuel is just upset that his son didn't become judge. You know, maybe this is just a personal thing, but the thunderstorm this time of year at Samuel's command proved that God was upset. So their response is one of fear.

And now they ask Samuel to intercede for them. They should have done this a long time ago when Samuel warned them about the king the first time they should have repented then they should have sought intercession then.

But no, you know, sometimes people have, and you know, this is true. Sometimes people have to encounter the hand of God against them before they recognize the errors of their ways. Sometimes people have to kind of see it for themselves.

Being told should be enough. Samuel telling them should be enough. Hearing the word of God preached from a pastor should be enough. Opening the Bible and seeing those words, thus saith the Lord, that should be enough.

But for most people, it's not. They need to learn the hard way. And that's the situation here. Matthew Henry writes this, could their prince command, speaking of Saul, could their prince command such forces as the prophet by his prayers?

In other words, they're trusting in Saul as king. Could Saul do this? Could Saul speak the words and lightning and thunder come from heaven?

No.

So trusting in Saul more than Samuel and the Lord, this was a big mistake. Matthew Henry continues about the thunder. It startled them very much. Some will not be brought to see their sins by any gentler methods than storms and thunders.

They entreat Samuel to pray for them. Now they see their need of him whom shortly before they slighted. Thus, many who will not have Christ reign over them would yet be glad to have him intercede for them to turn away the wrath of God.

So some people, they're not going to see the errors of their ways unless they see the storm, unless they go through the storm, unless they see or hear the thunder. Well, whatever the case, this worked.

So when the storm came at Samuel's command, the people realize what they have done. And now they ask, what can we do? What can we do? It's sort of like in the New Testament. Remember the Philippian jailer?

He wasn't really interested in the grace of God until he was facing the storm, until he was facing death. And then what was his response? He says, what must I do to be saved? So Israel, seeing God's potential wrath on display, demonstrated through the storm, they now cry out for help.

Verse 20, Samuel said to the people, do not fear, for you have done all this wickedness. Yet do not turn aside from following the Lord. But serve the Lord with all your heart. You want to know what you need to do?

That's what you need to do. Serve the Lord with all your heart and do not turn aside for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver for they are nothing. For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great namesake, because it had pleased the Lord to make you his people.

So as the chapter is finishing up, what do we draw from this? If you don't know Christ, or even if you do, but you have not been following him, you are not obeying him. In your heart, you know these other things, vain and empty things.

They have taken God's place in your life. Well, the good news for Israel and for people today. The good news is that if you have neglected the things of God, if you have made a series of bad choices, the word this morning is seek the Lord while he may be found.

If you turn to God now, no matter what you have done up until this moment, if you will start obeying the Lord now, because of his mercy, he will receive you. We see this, of course, in the parable of Christ, the prodigal son.

He wasted years of his life and his father's inheritance, spending it on wine, women, and.

Song.

But when he finally hit rock bottom, he came to himself. So when the Israelites saw the storm from heaven, they came to themselves. The prodigal said, I will arise and go to my father and will say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.

And that's essentially what the people are saying. They finally recognize we have done the wrong thing. Samuel, what can we do? Please intercede. And the good news of the gospel is that today Christ has died on the cross for our sins.

He has been raised from the dead on the third day. He has ascended into heaven and right now Christ is willing to intercede on your behalf. So the message is, start doing the right thing now. Start doing the right thing from this moment forward.

For Israel, if they would do that, God will bless them. And the same for you. If you will do that today, starting now, God will bless you. Samuel says to the people in the chapter closes with these words, moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord and ceasing to pray for you, but I will teach you the good and right way.

Only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart for consider what great things he has done for you. But here's the condition. But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.