1 Samuel 10
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last week we discussed Saul getting essentially “called” in a way by God working through Samuel
We saw how God worked through many of the circumstances in Saul’s life
We also saw how God worked through the people around him
Additionally, we saw talked about how God uses many different types of people for His purposes, people that we often wouldn’t even have dreamed of
The chapter ended by Samuel telling Saul to stay a while, while he shows him the Word of God
1 Then Samuel took a vial of oil, and poured it upon his head, and kissed him, and said, Is it not because the Lord hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance?
Now we have to remember that they are living in a very different culture and had different customs than we do
for instance this kissing was a greeting
additionally Israel put a lot of significance on family lines, inheritances, and things like this
and they had this annointing, which we see in many places throughout the Bible in important moments and for important people
used for particular purposes: α) rubbed into the skin, or alternatively on to the hair
So we can see what Samuel says here, the Lord has appointed Saul to be over Israel
so this is all part of God’s plan that He’s bringing to fruition
and you could pretty much say that this is the definitive moment that Saul’s kingship starts
2 When thou art departed from me to day, then thou shalt find two men by Rachel’s sepulchre in the border of Benjamin at Zelzah; and they will say unto thee, The asses which thou wentest to seek are found: and, lo, thy father hath left the care of the asses, and sorroweth for you, saying, What shall I do for my son?
So this would be the tomb of Rachel he would be passing by
3 Then shalt thou go on forward from thence, and thou shalt come to the plain of Tabor, and there shall meet thee three men going up to God to Beth-el, one carrying three kids, and another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a bottle of wine:
4 And they will salute thee, and give thee two loaves of bread; which thou shalt receive of their hands.
It’s truly amazing, the power of God, to know everything that would happen in the future and to be able ot tell them about it
what a power to behold, love and fear
and again, just like last week, we see Him working behind the scenes in such an intricate way as this
think about it, just how powerful God is, that He’s doing this in so many lives across the world all at once, and all through time in the past as well
5 After that thou shalt come to the hill of God, where is the garrison of the Philistines: and it shall come to pass, when thou art come thither to the city, that thou shalt meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place with a psaltery, and a tabret, and a pipe, and a harp, before them; and they shall prophesy:
So remember, Israel has not yet conquered Jerusalem at this time, so we’re talking about the high places of the older days
so we see these instruments here: a psaltery is kind of like a lyre or a small harp
a tabret is similar to a tambourine
pipe-pretty self evident
then we have a regular harp
so it’s interesting, we often don’t think about it but these prophets themselves were playing music and prophesying
So Saul is to pass through here, just as he’d passed through multiple other places in these verses
however this will not just be any ordinary stop
6 And the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man.
7 And let it be, when these signs are come unto thee, that thou do as occasion serve thee; for God is with thee.
So we see that God is with Saul as he is currently a big part of the plan for Israel and is now a changed man
and we know that God is with us as well - what a blessing this actually is
this is the kind of thing that we should never under appreciate or underestimate
Under appreciating would be like us throwing away or not acknowledging perhaps the greatest gift that God has given us
The same God that created everything, created space and all the planets, the animals, etc. is inside of each and every person who is saved
now should that not be something that should be affecting us and our decision making all throughout the day?
Look at what God has done for us, we have Christ’s sacrifice, all the love that He’s given us, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit inside of us
it’s absolutely incredible what we have, and we should never under-value it or under estimate it
God being with us is a light unto our path
God being with us is a comfort
God being with us helps us to grow and change into a better person
God being with us can protect us from evil forces out there
God being with us has many, many helps and benefits for us, He is God after all!
8 And thou shalt go down before me to Gilgal; and, behold, I will come down unto thee, to offer burnt offerings, and to sacrifice sacrifices of peace offerings: seven days shalt thou tarry, till I come to thee, and shew thee what thou shalt do.
So essentially Samuel tells Saul to go to gilgal and Samuel will meet up with him after a week
Now remember Saul had not left yet, this is just what Samuel told him was going to happen
9 And it was so, that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart: and all those signs came to pass that day.
So Saul ends up having a life changing experience on this small journey that he’s on
so he’s turned into another man, he became new
It’s similar to what happens to us in that we become new creatures
each and everyone of us who has been saved should be a totally changed person
firstly, we should be changed on the inside
we shouldn’t have the same desires, our desires should be totally changed
additionally, we should have a proactive desire to want to please God
we should want to love one another as Christ has loved us, etc.
Not only should we have changed desires on the inside, but we also should have changed outward actions that line up with our inner desires
the Bible tells us that we will be known by our fruits
now, nobody is perfect, and we never will be
but what we need to be is living a lifestyle of doing good
for instance, if you are known as a person who is just down at the bar drinking all the time
or just any other sinful lifestyle
it’s like is your life defined by sin or is it defined by doing God’s will
this is what the difference is between a sinful life and a Godly life
are you living this Godly lifestyle or are you living this worldly lifestyle
Also at the end of the verse, we see that God fulfilled all of the signs that He told Samuel that He would
God is dependable, God is faithful, God is our rock that we can absolutely depend on
He is the same yesterday, today, and forever
10 And when they came thither to the hill, behold, a company of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them.
Again, we see the fulfillment of the prophecy here just like we saw earlier
11 And it came to pass, when all that knew him beforetime saw that, behold, he prophesied among the prophets, then the people said one to another, What is this that is come unto the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?
12 And one of the same place answered and said, But who is their father? Therefore it became a proverb, Is Saul also among the prophets?
We can see here that many people were surprised at this turn of events, almost as if they couldn’t believe it
but again, God uses so many of the people that we wouldn’t think that He would use
God’s wisdom is so much higher than ours and He works in mysterious ways
So for a couple of verses Saul talks to his uncle for a bit but he doesn’t yet tell him about his kingship
Skipping down a couple of verses to verse 17
17 And Samuel called the people together unto the Lord to Mizpeh;
18 And said unto the children of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all kingdoms, and of them that oppressed you:
19 And ye have this day rejected your God, who himself saved you out of all your adversities and your tribulations; and ye have said unto him, Nay, but set a king over us. Now therefore present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes, and by your thousands.
So as we come toward the end of the chapter we move into a section where Samuel tells the people who their king
So God has given them plenty of mercy for them to change their mind on going with a king
and He has told them a similar thing a couple of times already
He’s reminding them, “Hey, remember how much I love you and how much I’ve helped you out of these awful situations multiple times?”
and let’s not forget He is their Creator
Then we see in v19 that God talks about the children of Israel rejecting Him after doing all these great things for them
and you know we have God with us, inside of us, He’s with us always
and when we go do things He is with us
when we think things, He is with us
when we say things, He is with us
and we have what God wants us to do, and what He doesn’t want us to do of course
and when we start building sinful habits, becoming a habitual sinner, we are rejecting God
we are not just “not doing right”, because you are either doing right or you are doing wrong, there is no in between whatsoever
so keep what God says in this moment in mind during the next few verses
20 And when Samuel had caused all the tribes of Israel to come near, the tribe of Benjamin was taken.
21 When he had caused the tribe of Benjamin to come near by their families, the family of Matri was taken, and Saul the son of Kish was taken: and when they sought him, he could not be found.
22 Therefore they inquired of the Lord further, if the man should yet come thither. And the Lord answered, Behold, he hath hid himself among the stuff.
23 And they ran and fetched him thence: and when he stood among the people, he was higher than any of the people from his shoulders and upward.
So God had told the Israelites to gather themselves by the thousands, so that they could be shown their new king
interestingly we see that Saul had hidden during this moment, but the people found him...
24 And Samuel said to all the people, See ye him whom the Lord hath chosen, that there is none like him among all the people? And all the people shouted, and said, God save the king.
So they finally have their king that they’ve wanted for so long, even while knowing the consequences
So Israel, the chosen people, know God and yet they still sin
but, we as Christians also know God, what He commands for us, and the consequences of sin, and yet we still sin
we cannot let ourselves get to comfortable in thinking, “well I do good enough, I’m good”
we should always be striving to be doing better
because with God’s help we always CAN be better, so if we aren’t striving for that, why not?
have we given up?
have we lost interest?
do we feel like we have to do it all ourselves and it’s too hard?
but God is WITH US, He’s promised that in His Word, we can take that to the bank, we can count on that
and if He is with us, He will help us should we want His help
there is no good excuse for us not always striving to do better
because if we don’t, we end up in a situation where even as believers who know the consequences of sin and KNOW that we’re rejecting God, go on to sin anyway
it sounds crazy, it almost sounds unbelievable, but it happened to Israel and it can happen to us
25 Then Samuel told the people the manner of the kingdom, and wrote it in a book, and laid it up before the Lord. And Samuel sent all the people away, every man to his house.
At the last part of the meeting, it says he wrote in a book the “manner” of the kingdom
so if you think about someone’s manner of being or manner of speaking, it’s kind of how they talk or how they act
so if you have the manner of the kingdom it’s kind of like how the kingdom should operate or act
So this is an interesting tidbit that Samuel actually kind of outlined the general way that the kingdom went about things
26 And Saul also went home to Gibeah; and there went with him a band of men, whose hearts God had touched.
27 But the children of Belial said, How shall this man save us? And they despised him, and brought him no presents. But he held his peace.
belial in the Bible is basically used as another word for the devil or devilish, it’s describing the powers of evil
and so we see a pretty clear split between the followers of God and teh followers of the devil here
