Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] All right, hopefully you are have your Bibles open to First Samuel. We have been going through this series, as you can see on the screen, one slide back, going through the Old Testament. And in the midst of doing that, we see that Jesus is showing himself in powerful ways, reminding us readers even today that he was not void in the Old Testament. And so we're going through really, a survey of the Old Testament. We started the first book of the Old Testament, which is Genesis, and we're going to make our way all the way through to the last book of the Old Testament, which is Malachi. And as we're doing that, encouraging you to read through the Old Testament with us. And in the foyer, you can find a reading plan looks like this. If you use a YouVersion Bible app, you can find us and join the reading plan. Reading through the Old Testament with us this year. And every month we have a new memory verse that you can be focusing in on.
[00:00:54] And the memory verse, actually this month is from First Samuel. So I encourage you to be joining us as we walk through this whole series in the Old Testament. I want to give us just a brief recap of where we've been, and then we will pray and we will dive right into our text today.
[00:01:13] Question for you.
[00:01:15] How many of you have ever owned as a pet, like a hamster or a mouse or a rat or something like that? And in your little container, you have like, the little. What do they call that?
[00:01:27] The little wheel, the little hamster wheel or rat wheel or whatever they call it.
[00:01:33] Like, where are we going?
[00:01:35] Okay, so if you've watched, like, a hamster run around on a hamster wheel, they do that. And for a while, they can look really entertained. They can look totally happy getting their exercise in. And then after a while, they kind of get bored, and then they.
[00:01:48] They jump off and they go and do something else. Well, where we've been before, just a couple books ago, before 1 Samuel, we were in a book called Judges. And for approximately 350 years or so in the book of Judges, there was this hamster wheel, if you will, activity that was going on. And here's the cycle that we saw that happened in Judges that really sets the stage for what we're going to talk about today. And here's what happened. The people of Israel have come across the Jordan River. They're in the promised land. They. They've been instructed, follow God, obey God, things will go well for you. If you don't obey God and don't follow God, things are not gonna go so well, for you? Well, God is true to his word and when he warns someone about something, he knows what he's talking about. And so here's what the people did for a while they obeyed God and things were good. And then after a while, maybe you know what this is like personally, they got distracted and they stopped obeying God. Any of you know what that's like personally?
[00:02:44] That happened. And so what would happen, here's the cycle is they would obey God, they live in freedom from the surrounding nations, and then they'd get distracted. They'd start, as we saw Tom talked about a couple weeks ago, they start assimilating with other idol nation, idol worshiping nations and they start disobeying God. And then the byproduct of that was captivity of the nations from the nations around them. So we have like the Philistines, the Ammonites and the Amalekites that come and they take them captive. They'd come into their land and. And then God would raise up a judge. Someone say a judge, A judge. And that's what that whole book was about. God would raise up a judge and the judge would bring freedom to these people. And they'd be like, yay, praise God, everything's good. So they'd experience freedom. And then what would happen after freedom? The cycle would continue. They'd get distracted, they'd start worshiping idols. And then what would happen? Other nations would come in, they would go into captivity again, then they'd call out to God, God would raise up a judge, they get freedom again. You following me here so far? Right, there's the hamster wheel that just keeps going. How many years did that happen?
[00:03:42] About 350 years. That's a long time, right? Imagine watching a hamster on a wheel. For how long?
[00:03:48] That's a long time. So after a while, here's what happened. They're wondering, is this going to ever stop? This cycle that we have been walking through over and over and over again? Is it going to come to an end even for us, the reader, as we watch what over and over and over again, we ask ourselves the same question. Are they ever going to learn? Are they ever going to get it in their mind, through their heads that they should only trust in the Lord with all of their heart and lean not on their own understanding, but in all their ways they should acknowledge who? Him.
[00:04:24] We ask ourselves that question as we read through the book of Judges. And yes, some good things happened in the midst of that. We saw that last week as we read through the Book of Ruth, that God was working in the midst of brokenness, which I'm so grateful that God does that.
[00:04:38] And there's one thing they haven't tried. They haven't tried a king. They see all these other nations around them that have a king, and they're like, maybe we should try that. There's been talk of a king, but they haven't tried it because they've been warned that if you have a king, there's going to be problems like taxation, there's going to be oppression and so on. And so they've said, all right, we'll just let God be. Let God be the king. They didn't really do that well.
[00:05:01] And that was. The cycle continued and continued. So here we are.
[00:05:05] The end of Judges has happened. And the people are wondering now what have any of you asked that question before now? What.
[00:05:13] And in steps, the beginning of this book so far, all of these other Judges, they've given them brief respite for a time, but the cycle continued. The hamster wheel, if you will, continues over and over again. And then we open our Bibles to 1 Samuel, which actually used to be one book. Samuel, in the Hebrew text. In the Hebrew Bible, Samuel is just one book. And because they didn't have Bibles like we do today, like this, they had scrolls. The scroll for Samuel was really long. And so you know what they did? They cut it in half. They're like, let's have two halves to this. And now we have what?
[00:05:49] First Samuel. And guys are theologians. There we go.
[00:05:54] And so actually, Kings is the same way. First and Second Kings used to be how many books? One book, and that was really long. They cut it in half. First and Second Kings Chronicles also used to be one book. And then they cut it in half. First and Second Chronicles for you. So some interesting things there. Today we're going to just look at 1 Samuel. Next week will be 2 Samuel, and then after that, the week after that will be first and second kings together. And. And then actually 1 and 2 Chronicles we're going to look at. At the very end of this whole series. That's where it actually lands in the Hebrew text. So let's pray. And then we were going to dive right into this.
[00:06:30] Well, Father in heaven, thank you so much for this opportunity for us to come together here to worship you in song. Like, we just have to be reminded of your power and of your love, of your sovereign hand. Even in the midst of brokenness, you do not abandon your people.
[00:06:45] As we've seen over the last few weeks.
[00:06:47] Even though even we here today have experienced that same cycle of walking with you, of obedience, of going our own way, because we know our hearts are prone to wander.
[00:06:57] And yet you continue to stick with us and call us back to yourself.
[00:07:01] So as we spend time in your word this morning, we ask that you would open our eyes to your love and your mercy and your desire for us to walk closely with you and experience the blessings that that offers. In Jesus name, amen.
[00:07:16] Here's a snapshot. Here's the big picture. The whole book of Samuel, if you will, in a couple sentences. First Samuel on the screen is. This tells us the story of Israel's transition from an area of Judges. Someone say judges, Judges. To a monarchy or having kings. It follows the rise of the prophet Samuel. He's the first main character we're gonna be looking at today. And then the anointing and the tragic downfall of Israel's first king. What was his name?
[00:07:39] Saul, due to his disobedience. That's the second main character we'll look at. And then we anticipate in the midst of this book the emergence of David. He's the third main character as God's chosen future king. He doesn't become king in this book, but he will in the following book. And we're going to see his faith, his victories and even his hardship while he runs away from the first king Saul, as Saul continues to attempt to take his life.
[00:08:05] So that's the big picture of what happens in One Samuel. Let's look at the basics. If you have your outline there and a pen or a pencil, you can write these items in on your outline. As we dive right in, the author, honestly unknown. Isn't that an encouraging start?
[00:08:19] It could be Samuel. Some people think maybe Samuel wrote some of it. There was a couple other prophets at the time, Nathan, Gad, the same kind of time frame that these first kings are reigning. But we don't know. Most of this book is written like it's looking backwards on something rather than in the moment. When did this occur? You can see on the screen about 1100 BC to about 1000 BC. So before Christ. 1,100 years to 1000 years before Christ. It covers about 94 years, this first book, from the birth of Samuel until Samuel until Saul's death. And that's about 94 years.
[00:08:56] So much shorter than this. 350 years that took place in Judges. And then most of this took place. Actually, all of this takes place in Israel. And on the map you can see the portion of Israel that this takes place.
[00:09:08] It's somewhat small there. There's places like Gath, there's places like Bethlehem, where David is born. Shiloh is the place where the Tabernacle is.
[00:09:17] And so this is happening in that lower portion of the nation of Israel. Let's keep moving on the structure. If you have your outline, you can just begin to write these in.
[00:09:26] It's one cohesive story. It's actually, if you just look at a story from a storytelling perspective, it's told beautifully to help us understand the characters that we are reading about. So the character development does a great job there, but also understanding how it fits in with the story of Israel, a key part of Israel's story. So even though this took place 3,000 years ago, there's many things that are incredibly relevant for us today because even though they were 3,000 years ago, they still bleed red blood like we do. Yes, they don't have the indwelt Holy Spirit, but there's so many lessons that we can get from them. Point one on your outline, you could write this in Samuel. He is the last of the Judges, if you will. That hamster wheel. Here we go. That's going and going and going for lots of years. And we are at the tail end of this cycle of these Judges. Samuel, the last of the Judges. So if you have your Bibles open, I would encourage you just to kind of flip your pages with me. Hopefully you can bring your Bibles to church. Flip the pages with me as we go through this book, because we're just doing an overview of this, and then we're going to see some really powerful lessons as we walk through this. So it starts off in chapter one, similar, actually, to people like Isaac, Moses and Samson. A very unique birthday story.
[00:10:47] Samuel's mom, what was her name?
[00:10:50] Hannah.
[00:10:52] She's married to this guy. He actually has another wife as well. The other wife has kids. Hannah's not having any kids. And she's hurting. She is sad. She wants to have kids. And so she's calling out to God. She's desiring children.
[00:11:11] And what makes matters even worse is the other wife. So here's her husband, and the other wife is kind of being a jerk to her about it. That's just honestly what's happening there. And so she's calling out to God even more. I want to have a son. And at one point in time, they go up to Shiloh, where the tabernacle is, and she's praying to the Lord, asking him, pleading with him for something. Have any of you pleaded with God for something before pleading with God for a son.
[00:11:40] Well, she makes a promise to God. Have any of you made a promise to God before?
[00:11:45] She makes a promise to God. And unlike perhaps some of us, she makes a promise to God that she keeps.
[00:11:50] She says to God, God, if you give me a son, I will give him back to you. What does God do? He gives her a son. His name is Samuel.
[00:11:58] And she keeps her promise. We see in chapter two that she goes back and she drops Samuel off to Eli, the high priest, really, just to be his student, to learn under him. And then in chapter two, you can look in your Bibles, there she has this beautiful song where in the midst of incredible, I would imagine, heartache because she's dropping her son off and leaving.
[00:12:24] She isn't crying out to God saying, I don't want to do this. Never mind.
[00:12:29] Read through this. She starts off in chapter two. She says, my heart exalts the Lord.
[00:12:33] Isn't that a way to start off a prayer when you're hurting?
[00:12:37] And she goes on, and even in chapter two, there is none holy like the Lord.
[00:12:42] She goes on to praise him for who he is. Chapter two and chapter three, go on. And we begin to see something important through this entire book. We see character studies, if you will, of these three main characters. Samuel, David, and. Who's the. I'm sorry, Samuel, Saul and David. Now here, right at the beginning, these first few chapters, we begin to get a picture of Samuel's character. And it's in comparison to Eli's character and even worse, Eli's son's characters.
[00:13:15] Eli, not a great dad, doesn't train his sons well, does not discipline them and his sons. I think the Bible's words for this are worthless. Look at chapter two, verse 12 in your Bibles. Now, the sons of Eli were. What does your Bible say?
[00:13:31] My Bible says worthless men.
[00:13:33] What a way to be remembered.
[00:13:35] So we begin to see this contrast between worthless men, these sons of Eli and Samuel. And here's what we find very quickly is this. God has stopped speaking to Eli and Eli's sons. And who does God start speaking to? Samuel. Samuel.
[00:13:52] And very early on in this, we see this key lesson that we're actually seeing through the entire book. And it's this. If you like to write things down, here's something that you can write down.
[00:14:01] Because Samuel is humbling himself before God. Here's the thing you write down. When you humble yourself under God's word, people will eventually honor you.
[00:14:12] When you exalt yourself above God's, Word, people will eventually see you humbled.
[00:14:19] Another way of saying that, bow your knee before God, and he will often allow you to stand before other men.
[00:14:27] Stand opposed to God and God's Word, and you will be brought low before men. And that's what we're going to find very soon.
[00:14:34] So we see Samuel, the first judge, in chapters one through three. You can write this in Hannah's prayer, which we just talked about, and Samuel the prophet, right after that in chapters four through seven. You could write this in the Philistines and God's power. So because we find that Eli and Eli's sons, their character, is it good or bad?
[00:14:54] Really? Not good. Bad. God has rejected them. And here's what we find. Because God has rejected them, God says this, you're no longer gonna have to be in a position of power anymore. And so in chapter four, there's this battle that happens, right? There's many battles that we know have happened. This battle happens between the Philistines, really, this. Arch enemies, if you will, and close neighbor of the Israelites. This battle happens between the Philistines and the Israelites. And what happens in that battle?
[00:15:21] Eli's sons, what happens to them? They die.
[00:15:26] Even worse.
[00:15:28] The Ark of the Covenant, which, by the way, Israel has been treating as kind of like their good luck charm, bringing it with them wherever they want. They're like, oh, you know what? We might not win that battle. Let's bring the Ark of the Covenant there, because maybe we'll win. Oh, it might not go well for us there. They'll bring the Ark of the Covenant. Here's what God did. He said, you can't use the Ark of the Covenant as a little trinket anymore.
[00:15:48] And so not only in that battle does Eli's sons die. Who are. What did we learn about them earlier? They are worthless men. They die. Then God also says, you don't get to treat my presence, the Ark of the Covenant, like a trinket. He makes sure that the Ark is also taken by the Philistines, which all of Israel is going like, this is bad, bad news. When Eli finds out about it, who's the high priest at the time, literally, what happens is he's sitting in a chair. He gets news of his son's dying, and that's not good, obviously. And then he hears that the Ark of the Covenant is taken. And then what happens? He falls out of his chair, breaks his neck and dies.
[00:16:27] In the. Talk about a bad day.
[00:16:30] I mean, my goodness, your son's. The Ark is gone. And the high priest has died.
[00:16:36] What do we find from this?
[00:16:38] The people of Philistines then take the ark. And they say, you know what? This has worked really well for the Israelites. They've succeeded. When they have the ark, we're going to bring the ark into our own temple, and it's going to be great for us. Here's what happened. God says, no. Just like the Israelites have been using the ark as a trinket for their own benefit, you Philistines can't do the same. So they take the ark and they put it in front of their false God. The next morning, their false God is broken in half, and they move the ark somewhere else. And here's what happens. The Philistines keep realizing, wherever we take the ark, bad things happen. They get really, really bothered by this. And so they have a little meeting, say, what should we do about this? And they say, we're done with our people dying.
[00:17:15] Send the ark back to Israel. And that's exactly what they do. And chapter six in your Bibles, you can flip over a few. Chapter 6, verse 20 tells us something. Israel got the point. Don't use God as a tool for your victory and your pleasure. Look what it says. Then the people of Beth Shema said, and this is these people who, after they've received the ark, who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God, and to whom shall he go up?
[00:17:41] They're realizing, we cannot treat God our own way.
[00:17:46] Chapter seven happens. Look in your Bibles at the beginning of chapter seven, it says this after 20 years. So a big chunk of time goes by. And Samuel, still the primary leader of Israel, calls all of Israel to himself and says, you guys are straying again.
[00:18:01] Idol worship is happening again. Come back over here. We need to have a meeting. And so they do. They have this big old meeting. Everybody knows Israel's having this meeting. And Samuel says this, stop worshiping idols. It's not going well for you. It hasn't gone well for you before. You need to stop, give up your idols. And what do the people do?
[00:18:24] They obey. They say, we're gonna stop. We're gonna repent of our ways. Right? Someone say, praise God.
[00:18:30] They're not back in the same cycle again. They haven't gotten back into captivity yet.
[00:18:35] They say, we're going to listen to you. And they actually repent. And of course, God is saying, thank you.
[00:18:41] Now, remember I said they're having this big meeting and everybody knows about it. The Philistines also know about it. Here they are, the Philistines. And they say, you know what? Israel had this big old meeting. They're praising God, okay, now's a good time to attack them.
[00:18:54] Which doesn't seem like a good time to me to attack them, but that's what they do. They go and attack them. And because Israel has humbled themselves before God, they've bowed their knee. Remember the lesson that we talked about earlier? They bowed their knee before God. God lets them stand before men. And so what happens? The Philistines come running in. They have this attack against the Israelites. And who wins? The Israelites, which by the way, is a great change of pace for them because they have been losing over and over and over again. And when that happens, chapter seven tells us something.
[00:19:27] Samuel then takes this massive stone and he raises it up and he calls the stone their Ebenezer.
[00:19:35] Does that remind you of a song here? I raise my Ebenezer. What does Ebenezer mean?
[00:19:41] My stone of help.
[00:19:43] He raises this and he calls Israel to remember. God will help you if you obey. Bow your knee before God and he will raise you up before men. That point, that lesson is driven home over and over and over again. And so, Samuel, now 20 years plus have gone by. Things are going better for Israel, right? They're bowing their knee before God. Everything seems to be good. Maybe we don't. I mean, the hamster wheel, maybe like the other judges, that hasn't worked out long term for them. Well, but Samuel, he's been leading us for 20 years. It's going well.
[00:20:17] Maybe we don't need a king.
[00:20:20] But there's a problem.
[00:20:22] What's the problem?
[00:20:24] Samuel is just like you and I, he gets older.
[00:20:28] Age happens, doesn't it?
[00:20:30] Some of you know that more than others.
[00:20:33] And as we get older, people notice.
[00:20:36] And Israel noticed. They say, samuel, this is going great for us. Thank you for leading us. All these things are wonderful. But you are getting what?
[00:20:44] Older. And by the way, your sons are not following in your footsteps.
[00:20:50] And we don't think we want to get back on this hamster wheel again because it hasn't worked out for us. For how many years have they been doing this?
[00:20:57] 350 years. Hasn't worked out. We're ready to try something different. What are they ready to try?
[00:21:02] A king. That moves us to chapter 8 through 14. You could write this. Saul's Powerful Rain. Saul's Powerful rain.
[00:21:12] Verses, chapter 8. 10. You can write this in on your outline there. It's this. A king is selected. A king is selected. Look at chapter eight, verse five. Is on the screen. I'll read a little bit surrounding that. Then all of Israel gathered together. This is chapter eight, starting in verse four. Then all of Israel gathered together and they came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, behold, you are old. Someone say, old, old. And your sons do not walk in your ways. So appoint for us a king to judge us like all of the other nations.
[00:21:43] We want to be like everybody else. It seems to be working out for them.
[00:21:46] We want it too. But this thing displeased Samuel when they said, give us a king to judge us, give us a king to lead us. And so Samuel did something. If you have your Bibles open, you can see this in verse six. It's not on the screen. Samuel did something that I think is an important thing for us to remember. Remember character studies. Samuel, lots of good character. Samuel did something when he was very displeased. You know what he did?
[00:22:11] He prayed it literally. The next sentence. This displeased Samuel. And Samuel prayed to the Lord. How often when we are displeased about something, our next sentence is. Or our next action is complaining, Right?
[00:22:27] It's sharing it with somebody else. It's getting down about it. Samuel, he was displeased about something and he went to the Lord.
[00:22:36] And what does God say?
[00:22:38] Samuel, they haven't rejected you, they've rejected me. And so, yes, give them a king, but warn them things aren't going to be wonderful with a king. You're just going to be like all the other nations. Yes, in some way in that regard, but also things are going to be really, really hard. And so in chapter nine, we see that Samuel, he dismisses the people. And then we get introduced to the first king, what's his name?
[00:22:59] Saul.
[00:23:01] And the people are pumped about this.
[00:23:03] So excited. In chapter 10, verse 24, it says this. They shouted, long live the king. Can we try that, by the way? Long live the king. The people are so excited about this. They finally have a king. They have been waiting for this, thinking about this for a very long time. Chapter 11 through 14, we see this. Saul is. They celebrate Saul and they say farewell to. To Samuel. You can write that in on your outline. Chapter 11 starts us off with a solid defeat led by Saul of the Ammonites and many more people. They're like, saul is fantastic. And by the way, anyone who thought we shouldn't have a king and Saul wasn't a good choice, we should find them and we should kill them. Which, by the way, is don't do that, Saul. Says, no, we're not killing more people.
[00:23:49] Let's keep going on.
[00:23:51] Samuel then takes his cue. He and Samuel steps back. Someone say steps back.
[00:23:56] Samuel then realizes he's the king. I'm gonna step back. I'm gonna listen to God. I'm gonna step in when I need to. But Saul is now the king. The people are excited about this and things seem to be going well on the surface.
[00:24:10] But you don't have to look too far to see that Saul actually has quite a bit of character flaws, almost even seen at the beginning of his story.
[00:24:20] Starting in chapter 13, those character flaws begin to take a toll on his leadership. What are these character flaws? I'll list some of them. For fear of man over fear of God.
[00:24:31] Pride, a lack of patience with God, a struggle, admitting fault.
[00:24:37] We deal with some of these, don't we? Any of you?
[00:24:40] Rationalizing disobedience, jealousy, impulsivity, spiritual neglect, blame shifting. And these weren't just one off situations. They seemed to be permeating his leadership.
[00:24:53] So then we are left with another question, aren't we?
[00:24:55] With all these character flaws showing up in this tall, handsome guy, we're left to wonder what's going to happen to Israel now.
[00:25:06] Now what? We tried the whole Judges thing for a while. That didn't work out for us. Samuel was great. We got a king. But now this guy has problems. Chapters 15 through 31. You could write this in. Saul's Suffering Reign.
[00:25:22] Saul's Suffering Reign. He had a short stint where things seemed to be going well and then things turned south pretty quickly.
[00:25:29] We find in chapters 15 through 17, Saul's rejection and David's rise. You could write that in on your outline if you'd like.
[00:25:36] Saul's rejection and David's Rise. The story continues on.
[00:25:41] One of Saul's greatest downfalls, and even ours today, is when the fear of man dictates our actions. Instead of fear of the Lord or obedience to the Lord. And so there was a time, actually a couple times, where Saul was thinking, I have to please all of these people. I know it's not the right thing to do, but I want to please all these people. I don't want to look bad to them. And so who does Saul decide to follow? God or the people?
[00:26:08] The people. And here's what we find.
[00:26:12] Samuel shows up, he confronts, right, he's kind of stepped back, but he's watching all this. Samuel steps back into the storyline and he confronts Saul on his sin. Saul, he pushes back for a while and then he confesses his sin. We see in chapter 15, flipping your Bibles to chapter 15, verse 24, we see this. It's also on the screen. Saul says to Samuel, I have sinned, for I have transgressed or I've done wrong.
[00:26:37] I know that it was wrong.
[00:26:39] I've transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words. Because I feared the people rather than the Lord and obeyed their voice. Now, therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me. In other words, stay with me, show unity with me. Because, Samuel, if you're by my side, it's showing to everybody else that God is also by my side.
[00:26:58] And Samuel said to Saul some of the hardest words for Saul to hear.
[00:27:03] I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of the Lord. And the Lord has what?
[00:27:10] Rejected you from being the king over Israel.
[00:27:15] After this, we find that Samuel was instructed by the Lord to find a new king. And Saul really just starts falling apart. The spirit of God is removed from Saul and his whole mental state begins to crumble around him. And everybody sees it.
[00:27:36] And then Samuel, we kind of move over in. The storyline from Saul's life is crumbling. Saul's reign is crumbling and suffering. To Samuel stepping over and saying, I'm gonna. I've been led by God to find a new king.
[00:27:49] And so we see in chapter 16 and 17, who's the new king? We've had Samuel reigning. We've had Saul. Who's the next guy?
[00:27:57] David. So then God shows us something. God shows us that what goes on on the outside is not more important than what's happening on the inside.
[00:28:08] Samuel, then he goes over and he finds this guy named Jesse, per the Lord's direction. And Jesse has a bunch of sons. And he starts from the oldest, right? Starts from the oldest. And Samuel says, hey, God, is it that guy? God's like, nope, that guy. That guy. That. And goes all the way down the line from all these people that look really good, just like Saul looked really good. But God cares more about the what?
[00:28:32] The heart.
[00:28:33] We see that very clearly there.
[00:28:36] Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. Chapter 17, after David is anointed as king, tells us about David's first big appearance before Israel when he fought who?
[00:28:49] Goliath.
[00:28:50] Just one chapter, but it's him really showing up in this story in a significant way. Really kind of noting for us. Pay attention to this guy. He's important.
[00:29:00] Chapter 18 through 24. Look in your Bibles there. It's this. You can write this. In Saul's rage and Saul's Rage. And David runs Saul. We know now there's kind of two parallel stories going on. Saul, his mental state is getting worse and worse and worse. And David's popularity is getting better and better. And what better people are falling in love with this guy named David very quickly, even after he defeats Goliath. Saul says, hey, you know what? You seem to be good with the people. You seem to do well in battle. Saul says, hey, you should come work for me. And does David do that? Yes, he goes and works for Saul. Things are going well. Then Saul's saying, you know what? Remember, jealousy was a problem of his.
[00:29:42] I don't like this guy around anymore. I want people to like me more than they like any of my followers. And so Saul then tries to find ways to kill David. But God is protecting David over and over and over again.
[00:29:56] Saul has a problem, though I mentioned earlier. He has this troubled spirit, this harmful spirit.
[00:30:02] He also has this problem of jealousy. And so let me just put this into context for you because the text puts some very key things in very close proximity. Listen to this five things.
[00:30:12] David killed the Philistine giant who Saul was afraid of.
[00:30:16] Shortly after that, David marries Saul's daughter.
[00:30:19] Thirdly, David is best friends with one of Saul's sons named Jonathan, who should be the next king. David is doing better in battle than all of Saul's other military commanders. And fifth, David is loved by the people more than Saul. Chapter 18, verses 12 and following it's on the screen tells us how Saul felt about this. Saul was what, afraid of David because the Lord was with him but had departed from Saul. So Saul removed him from his presence. And he really said, go out there. I want you to go to battle. Because Saul's hope was this.
[00:30:54] Maybe he'll die by the hand of the Philistines. And when that didn't happen, even Saul himself tried to kill David. But David had success in all of his undertakings because the Lord was with.
[00:31:07] How does Saul feel about all this? He's incredibly jealous. How does he respond? He's trying to kill him. And so, coupled with his already poor character, his desire to please man over God, God's spirit having departed from him, we see that it's understandable that Saul would say, let's get David out of here. I don't want this guy around anymore. But God protects David through. Through all of this. And what does David do? Understandably, when someone's trying to kill you, you do what?
[00:31:38] You run away. And so that's what David did. David could have fought back but he said, I'm not going to lay a hand against the Lord's anointed. God has anointed him a king. And until God removes him from the throne, I'm not going to take things into my own hand. How many of us often try to take things into our own hands?
[00:31:54] After all, David already was anointed king. He knew he was going to be king, but he still said, I'm not going to take things into my own hands. I'm going to trust God's timing.
[00:32:04] And so David runs and runs. Scholars say somewhere around 10 to 15 years, David and Saul play cat and mouse.
[00:32:12] There's your hamster reference again.
[00:32:16] And does Saul ever catch him? Gets close.
[00:32:19] We see in verses 25 through 31, as we kind of come to the conclusion of your outline in front of you, David's success and Saul's death. This cat and mouse go on over and over and over and over again. And we see in the midst of it all, David's character rising to the surface. David's desire to honor God. David continues to bow his knee before God. And God keeps raising him up. And Saul keeps standing opposed to God. And God is about to put him down.
[00:32:47] And so at the beginning of chapter 25, we see some sad things happen.
[00:32:53] Samuel dies.
[00:32:55] And so now Israel mourns for him. And soon after that, David goes back to this cat and mouse chasing that's going on, even though Saul said, I'll stop trying to kill you. And David's like, okay, cool. I'm still gonna stay awake. Cause you're kind of bipolar. And so then he's like, all right, I'm still gonna be over here. And then Saul changes his mind. And so Saul's going back and forth between fighting the enemies and chasing David and fighting the enemies and chasing David. That keeps going on and on and on.
[00:33:19] And after Samuel dies, there's a massive army. And Saul's like, should I go and fight them? And he asks the Lord, which is a good thing to do. He asks the Lord, and what does God say?
[00:33:30] Nothing.
[00:33:32] Now Saul's stressed out. Have any of you been stressed out before God? Give me an answer. And so Saul, he reaches out to the prophets, any other prophets, anybody, tell me what I should do.
[00:33:44] Nothing from God. And Saul does something. He goes to this sorcerer kind of person called a median in another country, in the land of the Philistines, actually, people who should have been kicked out of Israel. He goes to them. And in this very unique situation, he asks this Median, this sorcerer type person, to call up this witchcraft type person, to call up the spirit of Samuel.
[00:34:10] And he actually has an interaction with Samuel who has already died. And Samuel, on top of saying, what are you doing, dude? Like, you shouldn't be doing this. You know, God is opposed to this. On top of that, Samuel says, look, you're going to die tomorrow.
[00:34:25] What news to get right? You're going to go to war and you're going to die and some of your sons as well. Well, what happens the next day?
[00:34:34] They go to war. Some of Saul's sons die, and who else dies?
[00:34:39] Saul.
[00:34:41] And now we're left to wonder what's next.
[00:34:45] We know David is hiding out in the wilderness somewhere. Saul, the king who's been chasing him for 15 years or so, is now gone.
[00:34:55] Part one of the book comes to an end.
[00:34:58] We're reminded again, main lesson here. When you humble yourself before under God's word, people will eventually honor you. Just like David, his following grew greater and greater and greater. When you exalt yourself above God's word. Who did that in the story?
[00:35:15] Saul.
[00:35:16] People will eventually see you humbled.
[00:35:19] Bow your knee before God, and he will allow you to stand before man. Stand opposed to God, and you will be brought low before men.
[00:35:28] This is a big story, and I think it's really helpful, I know, for me to see things summarized. Do any of you like to see things summarized and simple? Right. Okay. We need to see things summarized and simple. And remember the main point here. I'm gonna say this again. When you humble yourself under God's word, people will eventually. I don't know when people will eventually honor you. They will see you and lift you up. God says he will lift you up when you exalt yourself above God's word. In other words, my way over God's way. People will eventually see you humbled. You will experience a humbling before God. Let's just briefly go through the story really quickly, and then we'll look at the Savior on your outline. Let's review this. Some of you might like some of these images here. Go to the next one we see. The first character is Samuel.
[00:36:11] There he is older guy, starts off young. Then people start shouting as he gets older. We want a what king? And God says, hey, they haven't rejected you. They've rejected me. Samuel was the last judge. And so he's like, all right, let's find a new king that the people will love. Tall, dark and handsome. The next guy is who?
[00:36:31] Saul.
[00:36:32] Hey, look, here I am. And God says this because Saul's heart. Saul's character was, I want it my way, not God's way. And what does God say?
[00:36:44] I regret making Saul what king because he's like, I know they wanted it, but now my heart is broken because he is turning away from me. So what do we do now? We have to find a new king, right? So what do they do? Samuel needs to learn this lesson as well. God looks at the heart, not the outward appearance. Go to the next slide. That's why he tries all these good looking sons. First of Jesse. But in the end, God does not see as man sees. God sees the heart. Go to the next slide. And now we have these three main characters.
[00:37:16] Samuel, who humbled himself before the Lord and God raised him up. Saul, who raised himself above the Lord. And God said, I'm going to bring you low. And then we see David, who says, I'm going to humble myself before God. And God, as we're going to see next week in the second book of Samuel, we're going to see that God raises him up and protects him. Let's go to the next slide. On your outline. You could write this in two really brief connections, remembering that in the midst of all of this, the Savior is seen, Jesus shows up. And I just want to point out one brief place you can write this in for Hannah's song. You could write that in at the beginning of the book. Hannah's whole song that she sings really is a beautiful reflection of everything else that happens in the book. She talks about how God is high and lifted up, how he is holy. And if people oppose God, he will bring them low. And if people stand and worship God rightly, he will raise them up. Hannah's song points that out. At the very end of her song, she talks about a coming king.
[00:38:17] At the time Hannah was singing, was there a king in the land?
[00:38:20] No. But she speaks of this coming king. Put it on the screen. She talks about the adversaries of the Lord. They will be broken into pieces.
[00:38:28] Against them he thunder. He thunders against them. He will thunder in heaven. In other words, he will bring power against those who stand against him. Then says this, the Lord will judge the ends of the earth and he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed. A brief word study here. This is written in Hebrew, the Hebrew word for anointed, this horn of salvation. Who is anointed? You know what the Hebrew word for anointed is?
[00:38:56] Messiah.
[00:38:58] Jesus. What's the word?
[00:39:00] Messiah. Right. Or we would say Jesus Christ. Christ is the Greek word for anointed. So we say Jesus Christ or. Or Jesus Messiah. Jesus, Anointed One. Jesus Messiah. Jesus Anointed One. Messiah and Christ are the same words both in Hebrew and in Greek. And here we see Hannah looking ahead saying there will be a day when he will give strength to his king. Who is the king of kings?
[00:39:25] Jesus, the Anointed one. Jesus Messiah. We also see that Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, references Hannah's song when he sees speaks in Luke chapter one. We also see Mary, the mother of Jesus. Reference this horn of salvation, the Anointed one. In Luke chapter one as well, we see this pointing forward to someone greater is coming, the hamster wheel, if you will. There's a stop to that. There is a king who will offer complete freedom to everyone.
[00:39:56] Second thing, you could write this in not just Hannah's song, but David's story is a reflection again that Jesus is coming and Jesus is better.
[00:40:06] Comparing both David and Jesus, both are called shepherds, right?
[00:40:11] David and Jesus were born in where Bethlehem.
[00:40:16] David's victory over Goliath is often seen as a picture of Christ defeating sin and death and the enemy on behalf of the people.
[00:40:25] The New Testament explicitly calls Jesus the son of who?
[00:40:30] David.
[00:40:32] As we go on a little bit further, we see this in both of these places where Hannah's song and David's story, it's this.
[00:40:39] God wants to have a relationship with his people.
[00:40:41] God wants that. And he over and over and over shows that when you humble yourself before the king, he will lift you up. Friends, this is the gospel message, humble yourself before God. And the good news is you now have a way to experience a relationship with him.
[00:40:59] You now have a way, if you will, to get off this hamster wheel of I'm trying to do better. I'm trying to do better. I'm trying to do better and I just can't seem to do better. Jesus steps in and says, I've done better, I've done better. You don't have to keep striving any longer.
[00:41:15] I've got this trust in me. As we see in the lesson over and over again, bow your knee before God and he will lift you up and call you into his own family.
[00:41:27] Look at three applications on your outline. You could write this in very simple sentence here is we wanna understand what does this teach me about God? What does it teach me about humanity? And what does it teach me about me? And then we'll close.
[00:41:40] What does this teach me about God?
[00:41:43] God values whole life Humility rooted in relational health over ritual or outward adherence. What does that mean?
[00:41:52] It means that even though, for example, the high priest Eli was doing the right thing in many ways, and even his sons might have been doing the right ritual things, their hearts were far from God.
[00:42:03] Saul, he might have done a lot of the right things as the king, but his heart was far from God, and it manifested in his life over and over again. For us today, we can say, all right, I'm going to church. I'm reading my Bible. I have these Christian friends, and I go to small group. But. But there's these parts of my life over here that I'd like to keep for myself. You know what I'm talking about. I'll give God the living room, the family room, the dining room, but I'm gonna keep some closets to myself.
[00:42:28] God says, I want whole life humility, whole life obedience. What does this teach us about humanity?
[00:42:36] We see this over and over through this zeal for God, that his passion for God, pursuit of God, fosters moral strength. We see this in the nation of Israel. As they bow to their knee before God, they experience strength.
[00:42:50] Spiritual indifference, though, breeds moral collapse. Why are the things inside of me? Why do I not care about what God cares about? Because I'm not pursuing him any longer. So you want to love the things that God loves? Ask him, pursue him, spend time letting him search you out, and spend time submitting to him.
[00:43:11] Lastly, my public and I usually put this in the first person. For me, my public success is rooted in my personal surrender or obedience to God. This is true for all of us here today. Friends, my public, your public success, whatever that might look like, right? Success in your finances, marriage, parenting, friendship, relationship with God, the workplace, whatever that might look like, your public success, what people are seeing is if you want that to go well, it's rooted in a personal surrender before God. It's rooted in I'm getting on my knees to start off whatever I'm doing, rather than I'm going to do all the things. And when it doesn't go well, I'm going to turn around and go, oh, that's right, God's around.
[00:43:55] All of us here today care about a successful marriage, successfully raising our kids, friendships that honor God, workplace environments that honor God. How do we do that? It's by bowing our knee first to him. And when we, as we've seen over and over in this book, as we bow our knee before God, he says, I'll lift you up. People will see good character in you. Let's pray together.
[00:44:19] Lord God, thank you so much for your pursuit of us, that you are faithful even when we are unfaithful.
[00:44:26] Thank you so much for your promise to us that you will never leave us or forsake us.
[00:44:34] Thank you for your incredible love demonstrated in so many ways, including putting your spirit inside of us.
[00:44:45] We know, all of us here today, that when we bow our knee before you, that's the best thing for us.
[00:44:53] You are worthy of our attention.
[00:44:55] As we've learned from these three characters here today.
[00:45:00] Character matters to you.
[00:45:02] Our character matters to you.
[00:45:04] And you want to change the world through us.
[00:45:07] Help us to be a church that submits to you above all else. In Jesus name, amen.
