The Importance of Godly Leadership / Old Testament Review (Judges - 1 Samuel 15)

Godly Leadership and the Rise of Chaos After Joshua

Everything rises or falls on leadership. So Joshua took over after the death of Moses. And once Joshua died, then what? Well, basically you had chaos. And out of that chaos, which is the time period of the judges, out of the chaos rose a king.

And who is that king? Well, first it was King Saul, which was kind of a disaster. And then the Lord replaced Saul with David, who was, or is that a foreshadow, the clearest Old Testament foreshadow of Jesus Christ.

So tonight we're gonna return to our chapter-by-chapter study of the Old Testament. The last book that we looked at here at the church on a Wednesday night was, who remembers? Joshua, right. We finished the book of Joshua almost a year ago, or maybe 10 months at least.

And then I switched over to doing topical messages. I think it was around Thanksgiving. And then we did our Christmas messages from the Gospel of Matthew in December, and then the cults and church history,.

And on and on it went.

During that time, all of that time, I was doing the Old Testament study on the radio. So on WLPV Wednesday morning, I went through the book of Judges, as well as the book of Ruth, and I got up until 1 Samuel chapter 15.

So that's where we're gonna pick up, but that's next week, because tonight we're gonna do a review to catch us up to speed. And then next week, Lord willing, we'll pick up where I left off on the radio with 1 Samuel 16.

So this is a review of Joshua, or excuse me, Judges, Ruth, and then the first half of 1 Samuel. So let's turn to the book of Judges chapter one. Judges chapter one, this records the death of Joshua. So we went through Joshua here on Wednesday night.

If anyone missed my study in Judges, if you wanted to listen to that, it's on the YouTube channel. But we remember from Joshua, he led the children of Israel into the promised land. But then once they're in the land, they're supposed to do what?

Just wipe out and drive out all the Canaanite tribes. Now, did they do that?

No.

No, it's like whatever the Lord told the children of Israel to do, it's like they did it to a degree, which means they didn't really do it. They're falling short. So let's look at Judges chapter one, verses one through three.

It says, now after the death of Joshua came to pass, that the children of Israel asked the Lord saying, who shall be first to go up for us against the Canaanites to fight against them? And the Lord said, Judah shall go up.

Indeed, I have delivered the land into his hand. So Judah said to Simeon, his brother, and of course this is the tribe speaking to one another because the actual Judah and Simeon are long dead. But Judah said to Simeon, his brother, come up with me to my allotted territory that we might fight against the Canaanites.

And I will likewise go with you to your allotted territory. And Simeon went with him. So you notice that Israel is in the land, but there are still many enemies to fight. So skip down to verse 27. And if you have the New King James Version, you'll see that this section is titled, Incomplete Conquest of the Land.

Verse 27, it says, however, Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shean. And then you skip down to verse 29, nor did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer. And then look at verse 30, nor did Zebulun drive out the inhabitants.

And it just kind of keeps going, that this tribe didn't do it, this tribe didn't do it, and that tribe didn't do it. So we get the idea that they just did not drive out the Canaanite tribes. Not only did they not drive them out, they were actually cutting deals with them.

They were making covenants and agreements with the Canaanites, which is the exact opposite of what God told them to do. So because of that, what's God's reaction? Now he wants to bless his people. You're in the land, promised land, flowing with milk and honey, but you're not doing what I tell you.

So instead of the blessing, they're gonna get a curse if they're not gonna obey the Lord. So while Joshua, the conquest of Canaan, to a degree, it was a success, and Joshua was a good leader, but they just didn't really get the job done.

And because they allow these tribes to remain in the land, what's gonna happen in the future? Yeah, they're gonna regret this. This is gonna come back to bite them, which is always the case when somebody willfully disobeys God, what happens?

It might not happen at that moment or the next day, but in the end, it's gonna come back to get you. So now what? Moses is dead. Joshua is dead. They are no longer an assembly wandering through the wilderness with one leader.

That's what they've been used to up until this point, one strong leader, and they're united. But now that they're in the land, they're all divided up into their territories. So they have a religion.

They have a people.

They do have a government, right? God gave them the 10 commandments, the law of Moses. That's sort of like their constitution, if you will. So they have a government. Now that they're in the land, they have everything that they need.

They're just not really following through. So they're divided up into their territories, and they're just gonna face this constant threat from the pagan tribes. So when they face these battles, who's gonna lead them?

There is no Moses to lead them. There is no Joshua to lead them. So now what? What do you do? Who's gonna rally the troops when you need to go to battle? Well, the answer, flip over to Judges chapter two.

The Angel of the Lord, the Covenant, and the Pattern of the Judges

What's the answer? The Lord will do what? He will raise up judges. Judges chapter two, verse one, then the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bokom and said, I led you from Egypt and brought you to the land of which I swore to your fathers.

And I said, I will never break my covenant with you. So who's this angel of the Lord? You know, you get the idea that this is a man who they saw, you know, walking up, right? Isn't that what it says? Like here's this guy, he's approaching them.

The angel of the Lord or the messenger of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bokom. What's it saying? This man traveled to them. Who is this man? It's almost certainly the pre-incarnate Christ. It's almost certainly the man Joshua encountered in Joshua chapter five.

Remember the commander of the Lord's army? It's almost certainly this same angel of the Lord who we believe is the pre-incarnate Christ. And he tells them, this is what they need to hear. I will never break my covenant with you, but what's the problem?

They did break the covenant with the Lord. Look at verse two, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land. Instead, you shall tear down their altars, but you have not obeyed my voice.

So if you remember from our study in Joshua, they've already made covenants with the people. So they've already disobeyed. The angel says, why have you done this? Verse three, therefore, I also said, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall be thorns in your side and their gods shall be a snare to you.

So it was when the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voices and wept. Then they called the name of that place, Bokom, and they sacrificed there to the Lord.

And when Joshua had dismissed the people, the children of Israel went each to his own inheritance to possess the land. And you're sort of going back and forth with Joshua. You know, he died in the book of Joshua and then he's alive, the start of, so the timeline is obviously not, it's mixed up a little bit, but that's okay.

So the point is Israel from day one, really from Mount Sinai, were they faithful to the covenant? No, even when God was making the covenant with Moses, what were they doing down below? Yeah, they're worshiping the golden calf.

They've already made a covenant with the Hivites. That was back in Joshua chapter nine, the treaty with the Gibeonites, we talked about that. And they're gonna continue to do things like this, breaking the covenant.

And if you remember, this was the whole covenantal agreement. Here's my commandments. And if you obey them, you'll be blessed. But if you disobey them, you'll be cursed. Now, do you agree with this, children of Israel?

That's what God asked them. And what do they say?

Amen.

Yeah, we will do all that you command in the law, right? So those are the terms of the agreement. And yeah, it didn't work out. But Moses was a good leader. And even though a lot of bad things happened during the ministry of Moses, and Joshua was a good leader, a lot of disobedience during his day as well.

But overall, Israel was making progress.

Why?

Because they were worshiping the Lord. Yeah, there were little things that popped up and there were pockets. The nation was never perfect, right? And that's not what God is telling them, that nobody in Israel is allowed to sin.

I mean, well, that was the command, but that's not a realistic expectation, right? This is for the nation as a whole to worship God and uphold the standard. So it's never about the nation being perfect.

So during Moses and during Joshua, they are making progress, right? For Moses, they were slaves in Egypt. He brought them out. And now they're a nation at Mount Sinai. Joshua brought them into the land.

Now they're possessing the land. They are moving forward in faith. They are making progress. But once the godly leader dies, now what do you do? Well, guess what? The progress comes to a halt. And that's really what you see in the book of Judges.

Okay, so now we read about the death of Joshua. Look at verse seven. So the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord, which he had done for Israel.

Now, Joshua, the son of Nun, that's N-U-N, he did have parents, the servant of the Lord, when he died, he was 110 years old, and they buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath Heres in the mountains of Ephraim on the north side of Mount Gaash.

And when all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which he had done for Israel. So what is this saying? They didn't know the Lord.

Now, did they know of the Lord? Of course. Of course they did. And I suspect that the worship of Jehovah was still happening, right? They still have the tabernacle, they knew of him, but they didn't really know him.

So at this point, the nation as a whole, this is like dead religion. And I think you can see this in large churches, it could be in a small church too, but in these cathedrals where there is like a form of Christianity happening, but the people there, they know of the Lord, they know the facts, the details, but they don't really know God, right?

And they're not obeying God. And they're not really concerned about obeying God. They just have this, again, dead religion. They have a form of godliness, as Paul said, but they deny the power. Look at verses 11 through 15.

That's the situation in Israel. It says, then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they served, who?

Bales.

The Bales. And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them. And that's a big reason why God wanted to drive them all out, wipe them all out, because he knew that if they stayed, you're gonna start worshiping these foreign deities.

And it says, they bowed down to these foreign deities, the Bales, and they provoked the Lord to anger. Verse 13, and they forsook the Lord and served Bale and the Ashtoreths. So if you look at it this way, Bale was the male deity, and his consort was Asherah.

So you would have some sort of idol to Bale, and then a pole. Sometimes it was just a tree with all the limbs cut off, and maybe they had decorated, but there was Bale and Asherah and there'd be Asherah poles.

And they had worshiped these objects. Verse 14, because of that, the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. So he delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies all around so that they could no longer stand before their enemies.

Wherever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for calamity as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had sworn to them, and they were greatly distressed. So they cannot win. Why? Because God's hand is against them.

Okay.

Today, sometimes you hear people talking about how, and part of this is like a political foreign policy thing where Christians talk about how we should support the nation of Israel, and look at the nation of Israel and all that.

God, God is blessing them, and God is doing all this with the nation of Israel today. Well, the nation of Israel today, are they serving the Lord?

No. No.

So whatever advancement they make, this is not the result of God's blessing. So I just won't, don't let anyone kind of tie you into, again, that's a whole different issue, but religiously, you can't let anyone tie you into this, that God is fighting for Israel today, because unless they're trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, then it's disconnected.

So I just wanted to make that point. But a theme you see in scripture is that everything rises or falls on leadership. If there was a godly leader in Israel as a whole, generally speaking, times were good.

If they had an ungodly leader in power, what happened? Yeah, yeah, things went bad and went back that quick. So hard times were coming to Israel.

Why?

Because they were worshiping idols. So you really can't disconnect the cursing from their worship of either Jehovah or these foreign deities, okay? So that's the way it was. And that principle, you say, okay, this is great, but what does this have to do with me?

What does this have to do with us today? Well, this principle remains true, okay? Do we have a covenant with Israel? Or excuse me, do we have a covenant with God today? Does our country, does any country today have a covenant with God?

No.

No, but the principle still applies. Okay, Psalm 33, 12, does anyone know what it says? Blessed is the nation, what? Whose God is the Lord. So if you just consider our country, we were never perfect, right?

We're certainly not perfect now. We were never perfect. In Israel, under Moses and under Joshua, they certainly had their flaws, to say the least. But when this nation was established, why did people come here in the first place?

Religious freedom.

Yeah, religious freedom. They wanted to worship God as their conscience dictated or as the word of God dictated. So people came to this continent because they were fleeing persecution from Rome and from the Church of England.

So this country was built on Christian principles, generally speaking. If we were not a Christian nation, we were certainly a nation of Christians. So it's my personal belief, and it's the belief of many, if not most Protestant, evangelical Protestants, is that the United States, the success that we have had, the blessing we have experienced over the past 250 years, it is because we were a nation under God, okay?

So when a nation, it doesn't matter what nation it is, if a nation worships the Lord and upholds a godly standard, I believe this still applies. God will bless that nation. Again, Psalm 30, that's why it's still applicable.

Psalm 33, 12, blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he has chosen for his own inheritance. And someone will say, yeah, isn't that out of context though because it's talking about Israel?

Well, mainly it is talking about Israel. That's true, but if you keep reading that Psalm, it talks about the Lord looking down from heaven upon all the inhabitants of the earth. So I do believe this applies.

Any nation whose God is the Lord, Psalm 33, 22 says, if we would hope in him, his mercy will be upon us. And again, if somebody disagrees with that, that's up to you, but I firmly believe that. So, and I think we're seeing it.

The further we move, this is way of application. The further we move away from the Lord, the more things start to deteriorate. So whether God is for a people or whether he's against a people, it rises or falls on the leadership.

You know, the reality is whoever is in power or the people in power, they set the tone for the nation. That absolutely was true for the nation of Israel. Later on with the kings, if you had a good king in power, these are good times.

And the nation was following the Lord. You get a bad king who wanted to go in another direction, worship Baal, the nation would always follow the leadership, why? Because people are sheep, people are sheep.

Okay, it's true.

So Israel in the book of Judges, they lack at least at this point in the beginning of the book, when Joshua dies, they lack godly leadership. So they're worshiping Baal, they're worshiping Asherah. All of these false religions are not only tolerated.

Now, did Moses, what did God tell Moses? Well, you can allow that, just don't participate, but you can allow it. Was that the command?

No, no, no, no.

You need to eliminate it, get it out of there. So these false religions are not only tolerated, now they're being accepted and affirmed. And by the way, there is a process where once you start tolerating something, then after a while you accept it.

Well, it's the way it is.

And then after you accept it, people are gonna push you further and then you're gonna have to affirm it. And then after you affirm it, then you're gonna wanna celebrate it. And then the final step is persecute everyone who's not celebrating it like you.

So that's kind of the evolution of sin and false religion. So this is now their situation for the book of Judges. For the next 400 years, Israel, you better buckle your seatbelt. All right, look at verse 16.

Judges, Idolatry, and the Cycle of Deliverance

Nevertheless, there's gonna be a silver lining. Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them. So is God still at work?

Yep.

Does God still have a people in Israel? Just like in every nation, God always has a remnant. And for their sake, God continues to work and bless people. Yet for the most part, verse 17, Israel would not listen to their judges, but they played the harlot with other gods and bowed down to them.

They quickly, or turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked in obeying the commandments of the Lord, they did not do so. And when the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge.

For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them. And it came to pass when the judge was dead, that they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers.

So you see that there'd be, things would go well for a while, but then they would slide back and they would slide further down, like things were getting worse. So they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers by following other gods to serve them and bow down to them.

They did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way. And this is a term that you read about in the Old Testament that God would say about his people. They are what? A stiff-necked people.

And really it's not just them. Really there's stiff-necked people in every nation, but this is the time period of the judges. Any questions so far?

Yeah, maybe.

Yeah, what is a judge that he's reading as just a person?

Right.

So a judge was sort of like a military leader slash governor. So they were a regional leader. So Samson was from the tribe of Dan. Technically he wasn't the ruler of the entire nation because he didn't really have authority, but they chose to follow him.

The Lord would raise up a man or a woman in the case of Deborah, but even with Deborah, it was her and Barak. But the Lord would raise up a judge and basically they were like a military general who was leading the nation.

Okay, anyone else? All right. So the time period of the judges, right? It's this cycle again and again and again. Israel would be unfaithful. So God would raise up an enemy, the Philistines, the Philistines or whoever would oppress them.

Things would get so bad. They'd cry out to God, Lord, we're sorry. Please save us, deliver us. The Lord would raise up a judge. He would fight for them. The judge would win the battle, restore peace and prosperity.

And then after 40 years, after 80 years, after a generation goes by and they're just living and good times, what happens? They take it for granted and they forget all about God. And this is another common thing.

Same today, when people have it too good, what do I need God for? You know, I got my house, I got my car, I got my cable TV, I got an air conditioner, I got money in the, what do I need God for? I'm all set.

You know?

What's that?

It's like trend dieting.

Yeah.

You get really, really good.

You lose all that weight. You go, oh, I can eat cake now.

Yeah, but.

Not so much.

But once things start going bad, people all of a sudden they realize, no, actually I need God's help. So this was the cycle that repeated for 400 plus years until the time of Samuel. Okay, so that kind of moves us from the book of Judges to the book of Samuel, but let's turn to Acts 13.

We're going to talk about Samuel. And again, I did a chapter by chapter study through not only Judges, but up until 1 Samuel 15. So you can listen to that on YouTube if you would like. But the story of Judges, who are the Judges that everyone knows?

The stories that people are familiar with, this would be Gideon, right?

Ehood.

Ehood.

He's the one that doesn't get remembered as much. Who's the Judge everyone knows?

Samson.

Samson. Everyone knows Samson.

Othniel, right?

But it's really, it's really. Samson and Gideon are the two main Judges. And then of course, Deborah.

And there was what? How many was there?

12, 10, I should know this. But the last Judge of Israel, this is what we're going to look at now. Who's the last Judge of Israel? Samuel. Okay, Samuel is the final Judge. So look at Acts 13, starting in verse 13.

This is really great because it's a Holy Ghost-inspired record of Israel's history. It says, now when Paul and his party set sail for Paphos, they came to Perga and Pamphylia. And John, departing from there, returned to Jerusalem.

But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down. And after the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them, saying, men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.

So you notice that they're basically asking them to preach and they're calling it exhortation. So do you have anything you'd like to say? Then Paul stood up, verse 16, and motioning with his hand said, men of Israel and you who fear God, listen.

The God of this people, Israel, chose our fathers and exalted the people when they dwell as strangers in the land of Egypt. And with an uplifted arm, he brought them out of it. Now for a time of about 40 years, he put up with their ways in the wilderness.

And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, then he distributed their land to them by allotment. And after that, he gave them what? Judges for about 450 years until Samuel the prophet.

And afterward, they asked for a king. So God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin for 40 years. And then Paul goes on, you know, continues to tell the story. And he uses this as an opportunity to preach Christ to them because after Saul, you get David and there's a direct connection between David and the son of David who is Christ.

So let's turn to 1 Samuel chapter eight. And you know this from our study of Genesis and Exodus. And all throughout the Old Testament study we've done, we've always tried to either make application or find Christ in the story.

Okay, here's a foreshadow, here's a type of Christ. And it's important that we realize that the whole Old Testament is about Jesus and it's preparing the children of Israel to, well, to prepare for his coming.

But Samuel, he was a type of Christ. Saul, not so much. David certainly was a type of Christ. Samuel, here's the thing about Samuel. He was prophet, priest, and?

King.

Well, he wasn't quite king, sort of, not really, but he was prophet, priest, and judge. So really that's the closest thing you get to prophet, priest, and king. And of course that's Jesus holding all three Old Testament offices.

So anyways, Samuel was the final judge of Israel and it was during Samuel's ministry that Israel asked for a king. Now was it God's will that they have a king? Well, it was God's will in the sense that he was supposed to be their king.

I mean, they had a king. God was their king. But Samuel, just to spend a few minutes talking about Samuel, his life was very unique. If you remember, he had something like, it wasn't a virgin birth, but it was, we could say, a miraculous birth.

That's why I say Samuel was a type of Christ in many ways. Remember Samuel's mother? Who was his mother? Hannah. Okay, she was barren, but she wanted a son more than anything. And she prayed to God. And she kind of made this deal with God.

If you give me a son, I will dedicate him wholly to the Lord. And God gave her that child. Samuel was born. And from a very young age, once he was old enough, I don't know if it was four or five years old, whatever it was, she dedicated him to the tabernacle.

Now, who was the high priest at that time?

Eli.

Eli. Eli was the priest and he was the judge. So Samuel, as a young child, is growing up at the tabernacle under the supervision of Eli, the priest. And another thing about Samuel, part of that vow that his mother made, he would be a Nazirite from the womb.

Remember what a Nazirite was? Say, well, this is another connection because Jesus was a Nazirite. No, Jesus was a Nazarene. Close, I can see where that would get, you could get mixed up. But what was a Nazirite?

Basically, it was a religious vow. Some people took it for a short time. There were three lifelong Nazirites in the Bible. You know one of them now, Samuel. Who are the other two? Samson and then John the Baptist, right.

So a Nazirite was not allowed to cut their hair. They couldn't touch a dead body and they couldn't drink wine or partake of any great products. And just kind of help you like a lifelong vow of dedicating themselves totally to the Lord.

Today, people think of like a monk or a nun. It's not the same thing at all. I mean, there really are no monks and nuns in scripture, but that just gives you an idea. Like their whole life is dedicated to serving God and they live at the religious site, right.

That's just what they do their whole life. So that was Samuel. And Samuel, as a very young boy, God started talking to him when he was, you know, we think maybe 10 or 12 years old. So because God was talking to him, it's not like today where people said, you know, God told me this.

The Lord spoke to me and he told me. No, like Samuel actually heard the voice of God, right. Samuel heard the audible voice of the Lord. Remember the story where he's laying in bed and he goes to Eli and you called me because he's actually hearing a voice.

And Eli's like, no, I didn't call you, go back to bed. And Samuel hears the voice again, Samuel. And he runs to Eli, no, you did call me. And then Eli kind of figures it out. God, the Lord is speaking to you.

So Samuel, the point being Samuel is being established as a prophet because the Lord is speaking directly to him. Long story short, Eli is the judge. He has sons, but his sons are corrupt. They're bad.

They're wicked, matter of fact. The things that they did, God determined to kill his sons and Eli dies as well. So once Eli dies, who takes his place? Samuel. Okay, so Samuel is established in Israel as a prophet.

He's now the priest and he is the judge. Look at 1 Samuel 8, starting in verse one. Now it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel. Okay, so this is, you know, Samuel wasn't perfect because we see that he made some of the same mistakes that Eli made.

The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second, Abijah. And they were judges in Beersheba. But his sons did not walk in his ways. And they turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes and perverted justice.

Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, look, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.

So they had a legitimate complaint in that, hey, we don't want these guys taken over because they're, you know, they're corrupt. Well, that's true, but what was their real motivation? They want to be like everybody else.

They want to be like all the other nations and have a king. Verse six, but the thing, when he heard this, it displeased Samuel when they said, give us a king to judge us. So Samuel prayed to the Lord and the Lord said to Samuel, heed the voice of the people and all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.

So they had a king and it was God, but they didn't want God reigning over them. They wanted a man. Verse eight, according to all the works, which they have done since the day that I brought them out of Egypt, even to this day with which they have forsaken me and served other gods.

So they are doing to you also. Now, therefore heed their voice. However, you shall solemnly forewarn them and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them. So Samuel then warns them about all the pitfalls of having a king.

And you say, well, at least in this country, we don't have a king. Well, it's starting to get that way. You know, when you have a person who's supposed to be given a certain amount of power and they kind of over time, they get more and more.

And I'm not just talking about one person. I'm just saying in general, the leader gets more and more and more power and then they sort of live in this. I heard one statistic and it said that to run the White House, it costs something like $4 billion a year or some obscene number.

But this is what happens in nations. You have a man, you have a person in power and people in power want one thing. They want more power. So this is just the way it works. So Samuel warns them, if you have a king, here's how it's gonna go.

It's not gonna go the way you think. And of course, this isn't what God wanted. Israel was supposed to be 12 separate tribes connected by their shared religion. That's what should have connected them, not a king.

And they were all to adhere to their constitution, if you will, the 10 commandments, the law of Moses. But instead of being a holy people set apart unto God, they wanted to be like everyone else in the world and have a king.

Israel’s Demand for a King and Samuel’s Warning

Okay, so Israel wanted a king and Samuel warns them, do you realize what you're getting into? And then he lists all of the things. Basically, the kings are gonna tax you to death. They're gonna take all of your best stuff.

They're gonna take your sons, put them into the military, gonna take your daughters, they're gonna be serving him. You want him because you think he's gonna fight for you and he's gonna serve you, but actually, guess who he's gonna serve?

He's gonna serve himself and you're gonna fund his lifestyle and he's gonna end up oppressing you. And when you finally realize what you did, by then it's gonna be too late. Look at verse 17, and the Lord tells them through Samuel, you will be his servants.

Verse 18, and you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourself and the Lord, what? He is not gonna hear you in that day. You know, the application almost writes itself.

Yeah, so that king would be Saul. And we're almost done. Saul, we do have to say about Saul, he started out well. He started out, he was humble. The Lord gave him a great victory at first. Things were going good, but you know how it is.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Saul was not, in the end, he was not a man after God's own heart. Saul was a man after Saul's own heart. Saul's desire was not to do God's will. He wanted to do things his way.