King Saul

Intro

Alright, it’s good to be back with all of you this evening again. If any of you are new tonight, welcome and we’re glad to have you. My name is Cody and I serve as the worship and college pastor here at Coram Deo and if you need anything at all tonight, feel free to find any of us with a nametag and we would be happy to help you.

If you are a regular attender but you missed last week, let me fill you in a little bit. Last week we started our spring teaching series on King David. We kicked it off, and we did it a bit differently. We had a live recording of our discipleship podcast “Centered, Committed, Confident.” And we spent time focusing on how to practically go about understanding a reading the Old Testament. If you’re looking for that podcast and noticed that it’s not up yet…then good eye. That podcast will actually be released next Thursday morning. That’s our release schedule for the most part…Thursday mornings at 6am it gets released to Apple and Spotify. So if you want to catch it that way, it’ll be up in a week.

Or…if you guys didn’t know…a video of each message is actually uploaded to YouTube every single week…and the podcast recording has already been uploaded. So you can always go to YouTube and search “Coram Deo College” and find it there as well.

Anyway…that’s what we did last week. We started the King David series, not actually reading about King David yet....and…this week we are also going to not be talking about David yet…but here’s why...

Tonight we are going to be spending time learning about King Saul

King Saul Title Slide

And the reason for this…is King Saul and King David overlap and interact a lot…and you can’t ever fully understand King David, without knowing a bit about Saul. So were are going to spend tonight, looking at just a few snippets of Saul’s life…to set up our time focusing on David....AND to learn a few things about God as new testament Christians going back and reading the OT.

So, let’s get our bibles out…and I want you to turn to the book of 1 Samuel. We are going to be spending a majority of our time in this series in 1 and 2 Samuel. Yes, there are other books that contain things about David....but I wanted to choose one place to root ourselves and I felt 1 and 2 Samuel was a great place to do that.

So turn to 1 Samuel and let me give you just a brief history of Israel leading up to where we are in the history of the world in 1 Sam.

Creation - Beginning of History

Abraham - probably around 2050 B.C. - Start of God’s people and promise

Jacob - around 1900 BC - Named Israel

~1800-1400 BC - Israel in Egypt and eventually enslaved

~1400’s - Moses leads the israelites out of Egypt, they travel in the desert for 40 years…and then finally…reach the promised land in 1406 BC.

~1100 - Judges

Finally…1040 BC…Samuel, the last Judge is on the scene…and this book is named after him. It’s Samuel that ushered the transition from Judges to Kings

And if you’re looking at 1 Samuel with me, we are just going to skim the pages so you can see where we are landing the plan in Israels history. You’ll see the first 7 chapters or so…it sets up Samuel...

And then we get to chapter 8. And in Chapter 8…we see Israel demand a King.

1 Samuel 8:19–22 ESV

19 But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, 20 that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” 21 And when Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord. 22 And the 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 city.”

So things…not going well. They people of God refuse to listen to their God-Given ruler....and they don’t want to be a nation under God…they want to be a nation like other nations…a nation under a king. And God…in his graciousness and mercy to his people…doesn’t discipline them for rejecting God, but rather grants their request. Keep that in mind, I want to show you a few other passages before we get to our first point tonight.

So the people of Israel demand a King…and that leads us to King Saul…the first king of Israel…Let’s keep looking through 1 Samuel.

Things to note: Saul shows up on the scene in 1 Samuel 9 and what we are told is that he was the most handsome and the tallest of the Israelites…so yeah…he stood out. Another thing..the Lord chooses Saul through Samuel in 9:15

1 Samuel 9:15–16 ESV

15 Now the day before Saul came, the Lord had revealed to Samuel: 16 “Tomorrow about this time I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people 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.”

There again, a concept about God and his people…and him listening to them....more on that in a second..So God is the one who chooses Saul…and here, just like in Chapter 8…we see God say that he is doing it because of his people…We also see this exact same concept in 1 Samuel 10.

1 Samuel 10:17–19 ESV

17 Now Samuel called the people together to the Lord at Mizpah. 18 And he said to the people of Israel, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you.’ 19 But today you have rejected your God, who saves you from all your calamities and your distresses, and you have said to him, ‘Set a king over us.’ Now therefore present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your thousands.”

I told you that we are going to learn some things through the story of King Saul…and here’s the first one. I just showed you several times scripture lists that God’s people were rejecting God by wanting a King instead of him…but cried out to God anyways. And God…acknowledging that they were rejecting him…still grants them their request.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God.

Perhaps you’re familiar with the passage in the New Testament, in the book of Romans, where Paul talks about the love of God. I’m going to read it to you…I just want you to listen to it.

Romans 8:31–39 ESV

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Guys…what this is saying, is that for those who are elect…that is those who are chosen and belong to God…those who have sincerely and authentically declared Christ as both Savior and Lord....for those people…God’s. Love. Never. Leaves.

And right here, in the story of King Saul…we already get to see that amazing truth pointed out. The entirety of King Saul’s reign, begins with this simple fact…that for those who belong to God…nothing…separates them from his love. Including…the times they reject him, desiring the things of this world…desiring to be like other people, instead of like people of God.

That’s what the people of Israel were doing…they were God’s chosen people, defined by knowing him and being in covenant with him…and yet they were wanting something of this world rather than him. And yet…instead of rejecting them back…God continued to work through their sin…for their good and his glory. He continued to work through their sin, because nothing, absolutely nothing, separates God from those whom he loves. Even…their own desire to reject him.

That’s the first point we can clearly see about God in the story of King Saul. But from this exact same spot of the story…we see another point…and it’s another point also found in the book of Romans…and that is.

God works all things for good.

Romans 8:28 ESV

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Maybe you’re familiar with this passage in Romans and you’re thinking “Cody, how exactly does this relate to King Saul? What does all things for good have to do with God appointing a king to Israel?”

Well let me explain this to you.

Israel rejected God and wanted a king. God allowed Samuel to appoint a King. You would think that Israel rejecting God’s rule would have some major consequences for them…and it does as we will see a lot in this series. BUT, you know what also comes from this decision?

King David.

And who descends from King David?

Jesus.

And what does Jesus do? Save God’s elect once and for all.

So do you see what I’m saying here? What we see about God in the appointment of King Saul, is that God is a God who is so sovereign, so transcendent, so mighty, and so holy…that he can take all things that happen through us and to us…he can take all those things…and work it for our good and his glory.

Just like he took his own people rejecting him and demanding a king, and turned it into the way he was going to redeem those very people, through a king who’s throne would last forever.

Without Israel demanding an Israelite King, there would be no desire for a messianic king.

So, for those in Christ these points are great news, sin is not the end. The wage is no longer our death but Christ’s. Now to be clear, there are still disciplines and consequences. Just like how Israel’s demand for a King would ultimately lead to their life rather than death, it still had some immediate consequences of going through many of the things we are about to study.

So that’s two encouragements we learn about God and relationship with him in the story of King Saul. But there’s one more point I want to hit tonight that I think covers King Saul well...

I want you to think of this as two encouragements and a caution. I gave you the two encouragements, now here’s the caution.

Good intentions are not Godly actions.

Let’s move forward a little bit in the story so I can show you what I mean.

So, then Saul defeats some enemies of God…which causes the people of Israel to all the more confirm his kingship.

Samuel retires. He steps down as the role of Judge…but continues to play the role of priest and prophet for a while yet.

Then we get to chapter 13, look there starting in verse 8.

1 Samuel 13:8–15 ESV

8 He waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from him. 9 So Saul said, “Bring the burnt offering here to me, and the peace offerings.” And he offered the burnt offering. 10 As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came. And Saul went out to meet him and greet him. 11 Samuel said, “What have you done?” And Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines had mustered at Michmash, 12 I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the favor of the Lord.’ So I forced myself, and offered the burnt offering.” 13 And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. 14 But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.” 15 And Samuel arose and went up from Gilgal. The rest of the people went up after Saul to meet the army; they went up from Gilgal to Gibeah of Benjamin. And Saul numbered the people who were present with him, about six hundred men.

What do we see here? Saul was waiting for Samuel to make the sacrifices for the peace offering after battle…and Samuel isn’t showing up. So Saul, fearing losing the following of his people…sacrifices to the Lord.

What’s the good intention here? That Israel would have a united people and that offerings would be given to God.

Guys…that’s a good intention. Like if you were to go up to someone in church and say hey…what do you think of God’s people being unified and God receiving the offering he was due...

9 times out of 10 they would say yes. Definitely good and please more of that.

BUT....what we need to take into consideration…and what Saul needed to take into consideration was this. “Is this action, although motivated by potential good, actually a God ordained way of doing it?”

“Is this actually a Godly action? Or is it a selfish action painted with good intention?”

What we see in King Saul is that his kingship was stained with this type of situation. It cost him his family’s legacy in this passage and in the last one we look at tonight, it caused him to be completely rejected by God.

So Saul goes off to war, conquers, is told to take everything…literally all enemies and everything they own…and set them aside for destruction because they are true enemies of God.

Samuel notices Saul didn’t do as he was told and says this.

1 Samuel 15:19–26 ESV

19 Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord?” 20 And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. 21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.” 22 And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.” 24 Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. 25 Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may bow before the Lord.” 26 And Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you. For you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.”

So what happened here? Saul listened to the voice of the people, and spared some of the livestock so they could be offered up as worship to God.

What we see here is another good intention…or at least something that sounds good, right? A caring king listening to the voice of the people he leads…and getting a chance to worship God? All the better.

But no…not actually. Because God had commanded something entirely. Saul chose the fear of man, over the fear of God. He treated God’s word flippantly and disrespectively…and he paid the price.

At the moment, with the loss of God’s anointing as King…and eventually with his life.

I want to encourage you to take this third point and evaluate your own life with it?

What things do you lean into, that maybe you are passionate about, that seem to have the greatest of intentions. Evaluate them and think of them…and then pray to God to show you if they are actually just sin and disobedience in disguise.

Like the idea of self-actualization. Discovering who you are.