WWUTT 299 Give Us a King?

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It was always God's intention that Israel would have a king, because a king is supposed to be an earthly representation of our
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God who is in heaven, directing us to worship Christ as king, when we understand the text.
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This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the
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Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our
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Q &A on Friday. Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We are in 1
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Samuel today, chapters 7, 8, and 9. Since starting in 1 Samuel, we've been going kind of three chapters at a time, so those are the chapters we'll be looking at today.
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To recap what we have studied thus far, last week we read the story of Israel going to battle against the
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Philistines and they took the Ark of the Covenant with them as kind of a good luck charm. Well, the Lord would not allow his name to be used in such a way, so he turned the
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Israelites over to be defeated by the Philistines. The Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant, they put it in with their false god,
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Dagon, but so God would show the Philistines that they had no power over him. He was not a god to do their bidding, just as they had created this false god to do their bidding.
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He embarrassed Dagon, having the idol fall down before the Ark of the Covenant and fall apart.
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Then God inflicted the Philistines with tumors, and the
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Philistines knew, hey, it must be this Hebrew god that is causing all of this illness to come upon us.
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So they put the Ark of the Covenant on this cart bound to two oxen, which then carried the
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Ark of the Covenant back to the Israelites. When the Israelites saw the Ark of the Covenant coming back to them, they took the cart and built it into an altar.
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They slaughtered the two cows and sacrificed them on that altar. But because the
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Israelites had laid eyes on the Ark of the Covenant and their hearts were not right before the Lord, God struck them down and killed them.
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So still showing the Israelites, it is not by your power that you succeed in battle, nor is it by your power that the
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Ark of the Covenant even came back into your presence. I am still holy. You are not.
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And so this was the judgment that came upon Israel. So because they were afflicted in such a way, this allowed
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Samuel, whom God was conditioning to be the next judge and prophet of Israel, to be able to speak to the
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Israelites and they would listen to what it was that he had to say as a messenger of God.
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And that's what we're going to read about as we get to chapter seven here. First Samuel chapter seven. And I'm going to start in verse three.
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We actually got as far as verses one and two last week. So here we're going to begin in verse three.
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And Samuel said to all of the house of Israel, if you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the
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Ashtoreth from among you and direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only and he will deliver you out of the hand of the
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Philistines. So the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreth and they served the
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Lord only. Then Samuel said, gather all Israel at Mizpah and I will pray to the
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Lord for you. So they gathered at Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before the Lord and fasted on that day and said there, we have sinned against the
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Lord. And Samuel judged the people of Israel at Mizpah. Now when the Philistines heard that the people of Israel had gathered at Mizpah, the
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Lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the people of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the
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Philistines and the people of Israel said to Samuel, do not cease to cry out to the
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Lord, our God, for us that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines. So Samuel took a nursing lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the
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Lord. And Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel and the Lord answered him.
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As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel, but the
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Lord thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion and they were defeated before Israel.
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And the men of Israel went out from Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and struck them as far as below Beth -kar.
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Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer.
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For he said, till now the Lord has helped us. This is what Ebenezer means.
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It means stone of help. You know the song, come thou fount of every blessing.
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In the second verse it says, here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither by thine help I come.
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A lot of times when I've led worship, singing that particular song, I've had somebody ask me, what does that mean?
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Here I raise mine Ebenezer. You know, usually we hear that word and we think of Ebenezer Scrooge, right?
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Well, the word is described there in that song or it is defined in that next line. Here I raise mine
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Ebenezer, hither by thy help. So it means stone of help and it's stated there in that song.
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So the stone was raised up at Ebenezer as a monument, as a marker to remember that the
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Lord has helped us. And so that's what Samuel had done for the Israelites, that they would remember the
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Lord had helped us. He did not pour out his wrath on us, which is what we deserve because we had fallen far from God because we were worshiping these false gods.
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Rather, it is by the Lord's help that we have repented. The ark was returned to us.
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We've repented of our sins. We have now come up against the Philistines again. And this time we have succeeded because the
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Lord was with us. Verse 13, so the Philistines were subdued and did not again enter the territory of Israel.
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And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. The cities that the
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Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel from Ekron to Gath and Israel delivered their territory from the hand of the
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Philistines. There was peace also between Israel and the Amorites. Samuel judged
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Israel all the days of his life. And he went on a circuit year by year to Bethel, Gilgal and Mizpah.
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And he judged Israel in all those places. Then he would return to Ramah for his home was there and there also he judged
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Israel. And he built there an altar to the Lord. Now chapter 8, when
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Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of the firstborn son was
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Joel and the name of his second was Abijah. They were judges in Beersheba.
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Yet his sons did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after gain.
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They took bribes and perverted justice. Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him,
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Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the other nations.
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But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed to the
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Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, obey the voice of the people in all they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them, according to all the deeds that they have done from the day
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I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods.
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So they are also doing to you now then obey their voice. Only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.
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Now, Eli had a similar problem that Samuel had with his sons.
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Only his sons were guilty of worse sins. They were sleeping with women who ministered there at the front of the tabernacle and they were hoarding up game for themselves.
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They were conning people out of some of their sacrifices and different things like this. Eli, however, faced a harsher punishment.
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Samuel, you'll notice by the Lord, was not being punishment because his sons were living in debauchery because they were cheating and bribing.
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But Eli lost his sons. They were killed. And Eli himself died when he found out that his sons were killed and the
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Ark of the Lord was captured. Well, the reason why Eli was punished so severely was because he did nothing to correct his sons.
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And that was according to what Samuel had said to Eli, according to what God had spoken to Samuel.
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But here in this particular instance, we understand that Samuel did try to correct his sons and yet they remained unrepentant.
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And the people of Israel were used to seeing this because Eli's sons, the same thing happened with them.
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And then his sons were killed and the Ark of the Covenant was captured so that this won't happen again.
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Let's have a king appointed over us because the expectation was if we have a king over us, then his son will be the next ruler and then his son and so on and so forth.
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And so we'll have righteous kings and they'll have righteous sons. And then these kings will be successful over us in Israel.
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That was the way that they perceived that. Well, Samuel took that personally, partly because he remembered what happened to Eli's sons and he didn't want the people of Israel to think of his sons as being the same as Eli's.
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But also because Israel was rejecting his judgment and deciding to have a king appointed over them instead.
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The Lord responded to Samuel and said to him, it's not you that they are forsaking, but me.
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I'm supposed to be their king, but they're not looking to me as king. They want an earthly king.
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Now, this this passage tends to be misused. It tends to be taken largely out of context, and I'll explain it here in just a moment.
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First I'm going to keep going here through Samuel's warning to Israel about what this king will be like for them.
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So in verse 10, so Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king from him.
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He said, these will be the ways of the king who will reign over you. He will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots.
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And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of 50s and some to plow the ground and some to reap his harvest and to make his implements of war and his equipment for his chariots.
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He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants.
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He will take the 10th of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants.
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He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys and put them to his work.
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He will take a 10th of your flocks and you shall be his slaves. And in that day, you will cry out because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the
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Lord will not answer you that day. So here is what Samuel is saying to the people of Israel, the king that you are choosing, you are choosing with wrong hearts.
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So therefore, you're going to have a king that is going to afflict you, not deliver you because your hearts are wrong.
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Notice that the way that Israel had asked for a king here, they said, give us a king like all the other nations have.
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So they're not looking at this earthly king as an extension of God on his heavenly throne because that's what an earthly king is supposed to represent.
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It is an earthly example of our father who is in heaven, who sits on his throne and reigns from on high.
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But that's not the way they were considering their earthly king. They were considering their earthly king as being our own king, just like all these other pagan nations have their kings and they're successful because of their kings.
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So we want a successful king for ourselves. Their hearts were not with the
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Lord. They were thinking with the hearts of man. And so because that was the way that they were thinking of their king,
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God was going to afflict them because of their king, not deliver them by their king.
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Now, the way that this section tends to get misused, the way that God's conversation with Samuel gets taken out of context,
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God says to Samuel, it is not you that they have rejected, but me. And we read that section of 1
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Samuel 8, and we think that Israel was not supposed to have a king, but because their hearts were for a king,
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God allowed them to have a king. But the reality is that God had always intended for them to have a king.
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It's just that the king that their hearts desire is not the king that God would appoint for them, but rather the king that they would choose for themselves.
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God's idea of a king is David, David, who is a man after his own heart. Well, it's
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Christ, of course, Christ, who is the greater David. But this is the king that God has appointed to Israel, a man after his own heart.
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Samuel is not going to be a man after his heart. He is going to be a man that is chosen from the
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Benjamites, who were a very sinful people, if you'll remember the story that happened to the Benjamites in the book of Judges.
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But again, it was always intended for Israel to have a king. This is why Moses laid down rules for the king to follow.
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That's in Deuteronomy 17, verses 14 through 20, laws concerning Israel's kings.
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And we also have it prophesied to Abraham and to Sarah that from them would come kings.
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So there was always going to be an intention there that a king would be appointed over Israel to rule over them.
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In fact, there should have been a king ruling over them from the beginning of the book of Judges. But because no king was appointed, you had this constant pattern of Israel falling away from the
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Lord and worshiping false gods and following after pagan kings. And then the pagan nations would afflict them.
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God would judge Israel through these pagan nations. Israel would cry out to God for deliverance, and then
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God would give them a judge who would deliver them from their trials. There would be a period of peace, but then
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Israel would go back to the same pattern again of worshiping the false gods and chasing after the pagan nations.
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And so here, Israel has a heart that's still not really for the Lord. And so God is allowing
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Israel to be subjected to this king that is going to be chosen for them and that their own hearts are choosing.
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This king is not going to deliver them, but instead is going to afflict them. Of course, as we see the story concerning Saul continue on through this first half of the book of first Samuel.
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So let's keep going from there. Chapter eight, verse 19. But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel and they said, no, but there shall be a king over us that we also may 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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Yep. Sound pretty familiar, right? So they're not looking toward the Lord. They're looking for this king to deliver them.
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And when Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord. And the
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Lord said to Samuel, obey their voice and make them a king. Samuel then said to the men of Israel, go every man to his own city.
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There was a man of Benjamin, whose name was Kish, the son of Abel, son of Zeror, some of Bekarath, son of Aphia, a
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Benjamite, a man of wealth. And he had a son whose name was Saul, a handsome young man.
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There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he from his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people.
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Saul was a tall guy, seven feet tall. In fact, when we get to the story of David and Goliath in chapter 17, when
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Goliath is taunting Israel and he's saying to them, send out your champion, who he wanted
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Israel to send out to him was Saul. Saul was their champion and he was the tallest man in Israel.
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But then along comes this giant over nine feet tall from the Philistines who's challenging
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Israel's tallest guy, Saul. That's part of the story we just don't tend to think about.
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We just focus on the fact there was a great big giant that the Philistines had. But the point of that whole thing was that Goliath was bigger than Saul.
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Send out your tall guy, we'll send out our tall guy and we'll see which tall guy will win. Whichever tall guy wins, that's the guy whose gods are more powerful, according to the
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Philistines anyway. So anyway, we'll talk about that as we get to chapter 16 and 17.
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But just understand Saul was a tall guy, head and shoulders above everybody else, probably over seven feet tall.
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Now the donkeys of Kish, Saul's father, were lost. So Kish said to Saul, his son, take one of the young men with you and arise, go and look for the donkeys.
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And he passed through the hill country of Ephraim and passed through the land of Shelashah, but he did not find them.
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And they passed through the land of Shalim, but they were not there. Then they passed through the land of Benjamin and did not find them.
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When they came to the land of Zoth, Saul said to his servant who was with him, come, let us go back, lest my father cease to care about the donkeys and become anxious about us.
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But he said to him, behold, there is a man of God in this city, and he is a man who is held in honor. All that he says comes true.
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So now let us go there, perhaps he can tell us the way that we should go. Then Saul said to his servant, but if we go, what can we bring the man?
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For the bread in our sacks is gone, and there is no present to bring to the man of God. What do we have?
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The servant answered Saul again, here I have with me a quarter of a shekel of silver, and I will give it to the man of God to tell us our way.
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Formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he said, come, let us go to the seer. For today's prophet was formerly called a seer.
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And Saul said to his servant, well said, come, let us go. So they went to the city where the man of God was.
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As they went up the hill to the city, they met young women coming out to draw water and said to them, is the seer here?
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And they answered, he is, behold, he is just ahead of you, hurry, he has come just now to the city because the people have a sacrifice today on the high place.
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As soon as you enter the city, you will find him before he goes up to the high place to eat, for the people will not eat till he comes, since he must bless the sacrifice.
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Afterward, those who are invited will eat. Now go up, for you will meet him immediately. So they went up to the city.
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As they were entering the city, they saw Samuel coming out toward them on his way up to the high place. Now the day before Saul came, the
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Lord had revealed to Samuel, tomorrow about this time I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people
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Israel. He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines, for I have seen my people because their cry has come to me.
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And notice that God describes him as a prince, not necessarily king. Verse 17, when
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Samuel saw Saul, the Lord told him, here is the man whom
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I spoke to you. He it is who shall restrain my people. Then Saul approached
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Samuel in the gate and said, tell me, where is the house of the seer? And Samuel answered Saul, I am the seer.
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Go up before me to the high place, for today you shall eat with me. 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 your donkeys that were lost three days ago, do not set your mind on them, for they have been found.
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And for whom is all that is desirable in Israel? Is it not for you and for all your father's house?
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Saul answered, am I not a Benjamite from the least of the tribes of Israel, and is not my clan the humblest of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin?
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Why then have you spoken to me in this way? Remember the story from the book of Judges when
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Benjamin was evil and then the Israelites wiped them out almost entirely, save for about 600 people, and they became the smallest tribe in Israel.
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So that is why Saul describes him as the humblest tribe in Israel. Verse 22, then Samuel took
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Saul and his young man and brought them into the hall and gave them a place at the head of those who had been invited, who were about thirty persons.
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And Samuel said to the cook, Bring the portion that I gave you, of which I said to you, put it aside. So the cook took up the leg and what was on it and set them before Saul.
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And Samuel said, See what was kept is set before you, eat, because it was kept for you until the hour appointed that you might eat with the guests.
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So Saul ate with Samuel that day. And when they came down from the high place into the city, a bed was spread for Saul on the roof, and he lay down to sleep.
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Then at the break of dawn, Samuel called to Saul on the roof, Up, that I may send you on your way.
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So Saul arose, both he and Samuel went out into the street. As they were going down to the outskirts of the city,
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Samuel said to Saul, Tell the servant to pass on before us. And when he has passed on, stop here yourself for a while, that I may make known to you the word of God.
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And so then we're going to read about Saul being appointed king in chapter 10, which we will get to next week.
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So the people of Israel have hearts that are far from God, and because their hearts are not with the
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Lord, because they desire an earthly king that will deliver them from their trials and from their enemies, they are going to have a king that will probably do good for them for a little while.
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But then his heart also is not with the Lord, and he is going to fall away from serving God also.
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This is one of the reasons in this story is why I know that whoever is going to be elected president next week is not going to deliver the
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United States from anything. And it is definitely not Donald Trump. Donald Trump is not some kind of American savior.
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He is not going to deliver us from the trials of the Democrats or any of the things that we are struggling with as a nation right now.
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How do I know that? Because he is being elected by a people whose hearts are far from God.
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It is the same kind of situation that Israel was in appointing Saul as a king, and Saul is going to do good for them for a little while, but he's not going to obey the
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Lord. He's going to do things his own way. That's exactly what Donald Trump would do if he's elected president.
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He's going to do things his own way. He's going to cut a deal. That's that's his stick. That's what he does.
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His big selling book, the art of the deal. Trump has no interest in any particular group of people.
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He's only interested in himself, what he can do to benefit himself. I mean, for heaven's sake, when he was asked, hey, who are your international advisors?
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And he said, well, first of all, me, because I have a great mind and I'm very smart and I talk to myself. I mean, that should have been an instant tip off that Trump has no interest in anybody but himself.
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And yet Americans have continued to be fooled by this man's rhetoric and think that he is going to make
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America great. He's not. In fact, our condition a week from now as Americans is going to be worse than it is right now.
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And so we need to pray that the Lord would change the hearts of our leaders. But we also need to pray that the gospel would spread.
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And we as the Church of Jesus Christ are responsible to carry the gospel of Christ to the world that the people will know the king of kings and the
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Lord of lords who left his throne in heaven and took on the form of a servant in human form, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.
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Therefore God has highly exalted him and given him the name that is above all names so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.
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And every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the father.
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They will either worship God or they will cry out his name in fear, knowing it is too late and the judgment of God is upon them.
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So let us take the gospel of Jesus Christ while we have this opportunity to preach the gospel that people may hear it and turn from their sin and worship
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God as king and as Lord and know his eternal life and become fellow heirs of the kingdom of God.
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It is he who is our king. It is he that all other kings should look to and worship.
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And we must pray that our elected leaders would do the same. Let's do that now. Our great
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God, as we come upon this election next week, I pray that that our leaders who are elected to these positions, whether we are electing local positions or representatives or senators or voting for president of the
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United States, I pray that these individuals would surround themselves with counselors that would direct them to the law of God and worship you only as Lord.
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I pray that in our own hearts, we would not be looking for some sort of an earthly savior that is going to deliver us from all the trials that have come about because of our sinfulness.
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But we are looking to Christ only and by his gospel, the good news that Christ has died on the cross for our sins and was resurrected from the grave so that through him, we could have eternal life.
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It is through him only are we saved. It is only the gospel that has the power to save.
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And so let us, as the church of Jesus Christ, carry this gospel to the world so that everybody who hears it will turn from their sins and bow before Christ as king.
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Come quickly, Lord Jesus. We pray this in your name. Amen. This has been
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When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt
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.com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.