The King Anointed

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a joy to be back with the saints of Durbin Memorial Baptist Church with the opportunity to share in the Word of God.

This past Wednesday we started a six week course on How to Study the Bible. I highly encourage you to join us for the rest of the sessions. But one of the things we learned about was the importance of breaking everything down to see great details in a biblical text and how they help us better understand what is happening in the text. For example, you don’t have to turn there now, but we looked at Nehemiah 1:1-3. On the surface, that is a very plain text. The first verse says,

Nehemiah 1:1 ESV

The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah. Now it happened in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Susa the citadel,

Looking at that verse doesn’t really spark a lot of excitement. We may just say okay something is going down with Nehemiah in that time and place and we move on. But as we really study the text, we start asking questionings and looking up answers, we see that all of what follows in Nehemiah makes more sense when we understand that this is the 20th year of the Persian King Artexerxes. That Israel is in captivity. That Nehemiah, though a jew by birth, has been put in a position of influence because he is the king’s cupbearer. Nehemiah is in the fortified citadel, the dwelling place of the Persian King in Susa.

Now that was just a quick glance through a seemingly ordinary verse of Scripture that actually has a lot of meaning in it. I bring this up for a couple of important reasons before we get into our text from 1 Samuel this morning.

First, I bring this up because we should know that every verse of Scripture from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21 is God’s very Word for us and so we shouldn’t seek to gloss over parts that we may not like or may not seem interesting. I assure you, All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. Even the verses that at first seem very ordinary.

The second reason I bring this us up, is to illustrate a point that we will see more of as we walk through our primary text this morning. That is, God is always working. Sometimes we may see things that are extraordinary, but very often life is ordinary, but even still God is working His extraordinary plan of redemption through ordinary means.

Allow me to give you an example. A boy is called to join the ministry. He decides to go to Seminary to gain a better understanding of God’s Word and how to share it with others. The boy graduates from seminary and starts sending out his resume. A church receives the resume, seems to like the candidate, eventually calls the boy to be the next pastor of the church.

All of that seems so ordinary. Decided to do a job. Got a degree. Sent a Resume. Accepted a call. Started work.

But when we dive beneath the surface details we see some incredible things! You see, That boy had a youth minister who had left to become the pastor of this same church where the boy would now pastor. The new pastor had been at the church years prior when he was a student, singing in a choir. The church would be supporting a missionary who coached on a softball team the boy’s mother used to play on. The church’s previous pastor’s mother was the nurse who delivered the new pastor’s wife when she was born 20 some years prior!

If you haven’t picked up on it yet, I’m describing all of the Sovereign connections the Lord used to facilitate what has been one of the highest honors of my lifetime, becoming the pastor of the flock at Durbin Memorial Baptist Church. These Sovereign connections helped my transition in coming here and fostering relationships to cultivate a healthy church community.

I don’t bring any of this up because I think I am particularly special. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. I bring this up because I wholeheartedly believe that God works all things together for good for those called according to His purpose. I believe if you know the Lord and you looked deeply at your circumstances, you would see how God has been been working through them and walking with you through it all! I truly believe that God has brought you to this place in this time for a particular reason. For some of you that may be to hear the call of repentance. For others it may be fore encouragement in your service to the Lord. I’m not a prophet, I can’t tell you exactly why you are here, but I can say with utter certainty, it may have seemed like a very ordinary thing to get in your car and drive to church this morning, but God is working through the Ordinary to accomplish His extraordinary will and you are here for a reason!

With that in mind, would you open your Bibles to 1 Samuel 10. We started in chapter 8 a couple of weeks ago with Israel asking Samuel to give them a king so they would look like the rest of the nations. Then in chapter 9 we were introduced to Saul. Thank you again to Brother Roger who spoke last week about all the warning sign we should have seen in Saul even early on, before he became King of Israel. We’ll see some more concerns with Saul as we walk through this series, but for this moment, I want to highlight just how ordinary everything was in the beginning of chapter 9 heading into where we are going to pick up today.

Saul’s introduction in Scripture begins by a farmer losing some donkeys. Now, I’ve worked on a cattle farm before. I can tell you this is a pretty normal thing. Some of the cattle get out and you have to go out, find them, and then bring them back to your pasture. The few times I’ve hopped in the truck to go gather some cattle, I’ve never thought, “Oh man this is going to be a HISTORIC moment!” And its likely that Saul wasn’t thinking that when he went out to find the donkeys either. It was just another ordinary task for the tall, handsome farmer from the tribe of Benjamin.

But again, God is doing extraordinary work even in the ordinary.

As Saul went out to find the donkeys he would be introduced to Samuel. Samuel was told by God that he would find the man who would be the ruler over God’s people. Samuel sees Saul and knows this is the one so he invites him to have a meal together in the banquet hall. Saul at this point must have been bewildered. He had just been looking for his donkeys and now he has been pulled aside by the judge, the seer, the prophet Samuel.

Where we pick up this morning, Samuel has asked Saul to have a private moment with him. As we walk through this text this morning, I want to highlight the sovereignty of God to work through ordinary and extraordinary ways, all for His plan and purpose.

1 Samuel 10:1 ESV

Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him and said, “Has not the Lord anointed you to be prince over his people Israel? And you shall reign over the people of the Lord and you will save them from the hand of their surrounding enemies. And this shall be the sign to you that the Lord has anointed you to be prince over his heritage.

Now, before we get into the particulars of the text, I do think it is important to note something about the structure of this verse. If you are reading along in just about any other English translation 1 Samuel 10:1 is much shorter. Most translations end with Samuel simply saying, “Has not the Lord anointed you to be prince over His inheritance?” The rest of the verse is excluded. I don’t want to spend much time here this morning, but you should know that this is because the team that translated the ESV used the Septuagint, the early Greek translation of the Old Testament. However, the earliest Hebrew texts do not contain this additional wording in verse 1. Per usual when we find these kinds of differences and difficult text critical questions, this does not change the meaning of the verse. I only mention it so you will not be caught off guard if you look at two translations side by side.

So let’s get into the meat of what is happening here.

In verse 1 we are seeing Saul be anointed King of Israel. Now, this was not a public declaration, the rest of the country was yet to know that this was their king, but nonetheless, Samuel is following the Lord in declaring Saul to be the ruler of the people of Israel. As a side note, I’ve mentioned this before, but anointing is a physical act that symbolizes a greater dedication. James 5 tells us the sick to call for the elders, the pastors, in the church and have them anoint the sick person with oil in the name of the Lord. It doesn’t mean that there is power in the olive oil as it is dashed across the head, rather it is a symbol, reminding us and pointing us to consecrate the situation the Lord.

In 1 Samuel 10 when Samuel anoints and kisses Saul, there was no magic in the oil, rather it was symbolic that Samuel recognizes this is the man God has called to be the first king of Israel. Remember, we are seeing all throughout this story the sovereignty of God to accomplish His will. If you were to refer back 1 Samuel 9:16, you’d pick up that what what were are seeing in 1 Samuel 10:1 is the accomplishment of what God told Samuel was coming!

Samuel is not acting rogue here! He is an emissary of the Lord! Look even at the words he says in the anointing: Has not THE LORD anointed you.

Sure Samuel was the vessel through which this job was accomplished, but it happened in the providence of the Lord! Saul may have been surprised when he lost his donkeys. Samuel may have been surprised to see the tall Benjamite walk into town. But God was not surprised by any of it! This is His will unfolding before us!

And while God was in charge of the choosing of Saul to be king, we are also reminded that God’s people are still HIS people. Roger and I have pointed out for the last two weeks that the Israelite people were rejecting God. Roger I believe rightly said that they were proclaiming they would rather have a man as king than God. They will come to regret their declaration there, but look at what the prophet Samuel says as he is proclaiming Saul to be king: He says, “the LORD has anointed you to be prince (or ruler) over HIS HERITAGE, in other translations HIS INHERITANCE.”

The amazing idea here is that though God is assigning Saul to be the king of this people, He is not transferring ownership. “A heritage is an indisputable possession that cannot be transferred to another.” Israel is called God’s heritage time and time again throughout the Old Testament. So in giving the people the king they asked for, God is not surrendering the claim He has on His people.

So here in just the first verse of 1 Samuel 10, we see the absolute Sovereignty of God. But this is just the beginning of His sovereignty shown in this story. Over the next paragraph we are shown 3 more signs of Sovereignty.

For the sake of time we’ll paraphrase the signs and show their significance as we walk through them.

The First sign is this:

1. Rachel’s Tomb

After anointing Saul, Samuel tells Saul that he will meet two men and they will tell him the donkeys that he had been looking for are found and now Saul’s dad has been looking for him. All of this would take place by Rachel’s tomb.

This is another one of those times where a quick reading will cause us to gloss over the amazing sovereignty of God. First we should note that 1 Samuel 10:9 shows us all of these signs happen. So it is would’ve been amazing for Saul to walk up to the tomb after this meeting with Samuel and see everything unfold just as it was said to unfold. He was probably as bewildered as the disciples that picked up the colt for Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. So the fact that this happened as it was said it was going to happen is amazing in and of itself. But if we are not careful, we may gloss over the finer detail of the location. When we read “Rachel’s tomb” we may think this is just regular place or geographic marker. But this location is a reminder of the sovereignty of God. You see immediately following Saul’s anointing as king we are reminded of Israel’s origins! Rachel was the wife of Jacob. The mother of the tribe of Benjamin. This Rachel was married to the man who wrested with God and had his named changed to Israel. The same Israel to whom God promised, “A nation and a company shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body.”

Saul, the new king of Israel, had the sovereignty of God confirmed for him at the tomb of his Tribe’s matriarch! This connection is intentional! As we read this story, we should be seeing how God is working to accomplish His will all throughout history! All through seemingly normal means like a simple tomb.

But Saul would be given more signs of God’s sovereignty.

2. The Oak of Tabor

After being told that his donkey’s were found and his father was now looking for him, Saul would continue to the oak of Tabor, near Bethel. Veres 2 and 4 show us that While Saul is there a group of men would come by and give him bread. In and of its self, not a very extraordinary encounter, but once again we must look beyond the surface.

We’ve already established that Samuel is telling Saul that these things will happen and then they do. That’s pretty astounding. But back in 1 Samuel 9:7, Saul mentions that he and his servants are out of bread. When they come across this group at the oak of tabor they are presented with what they need! An ordinary encounter of meeting men on the road was the way in which God provided for Saul’s needs in this moment.

I think we sometimes miss the profound truth encapsulated in the simple song, “He’s got the whole world in His hands.” Whenever we are blessed, when our needs are met, our response should not be, well that was neat! Or, Man I am so lucky! Our response should be, praise be to God from whom ALL blessing flow! It is amazing that our God would provide for us and He deserves all the credit even when the means seem mundane.

Once again, in this instance the location is important and draws us back to God’s promises to His people. The Oak of Tabor is not mentioned elsewhere in Scripture, but it is highly likely that this oak near Bethel is the same oak mentioned in Genesis 35:8. Bethel is the place in which Jacob rested and in his dream he heard God say, “I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. … Behold I am with you and will keep you wherever you go.”

God is providentially taking Saul on a history lesson through God’s covenantal promises!

Let’s look now at the third sign explained in verse 5-6:

3. Gibeath-Elohim

After getting the bread from the travelers, Saul will continue to Gibeath-Elohim. In that city he will find a garrison of Philistines.

Now Gibeath-Elohim does not have the same historical, covenantal connections that the other two locations had, but there is still a lot to see here nonetheless. Instead of looking backward, we are to look forward from this sign. The presence of the Philistine garrison reminds us of what Saul’s job is! These Philistines were clearly within the borders of Israel. They weren’t respecting the nation. Further, Gibeath-Elohim means the “hill of God”. It would have been a major insult for these heathens to be setting up camp in such a place. The Israelites wanted an earthly king so that they would be like and be respected by the other nations, like the Philistines.

But what would this farmer, Saul, who was unexpectedly thrust in to this position do? He had never run out enemy armies! Keep that in mind. We’ll come back to that.

As you progress through verse 5 and 6 you see that God was going to something incredible for Saul. There would be a group of prophets coming down the road. When that happens the Spirit of the Lord will then rush upon Saul and he will prophesy with them.

When you look at verses 9 and 10, you see that all of this played out as Samuel said it would. What an incredible day it had to be for the farmer from the little tribe of Benjamin! He started out looking for his lost donkey and ended up being given another heart, preparing him to be king, and prophesying with a band of prophets!

The sovereignty of God to weave everything together for His purposes is on full display throughout these three signs. We should all at this point have jaws dropped at the mastery of our God.

What is even more incredible to me in this story is God’s use of broken people, broken people like Saul, to accomplish His will. You see if we stopped right here we might think all is well in Israel. Saul is now king. He’s out prophesying with the prophets. He’s been given a new heart. Some take this to mean Saul was saved by the grace of God. However, when we look at the greater context and full life of Saul, I’m not sure that’s what we should be taking away from this story. God doesn’t need us to determine King Saul’s salvation. We’re called to work out our OWN salvation with fear and trembling. We’ll leave that to the Lord.

What we know for sure is that through His power, God is equipping the inexperienced, unlettered Saul to be able to assume kingly responsibility.

Saul was given three signs and all three come to pass. But he was also given two instructions. These do not turn out as well.

1 Samuel 10:7 ESV

Now when these signs meet you, do what your hand finds to do, for God is with you.

Saul was instructed to “do what your hand finds to do” after all these things come to pass. It appears likely that this is an turn of phrase that has direct connections to taking military action. That is how is used elsewhere in Scripture including Judges 9:33. It seems that Saul’s first instruction was to deal with the Philistine garrison that was there at Gibeath-Elohim. This would have been scary for the former farmer, but remember that he had been equipped to do this kind of work.

Then there was a second instruction:

1 Samuel 10:8 ESV

Then go down before me to Gilgal. And behold, I am coming down to you to offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice peace offerings. Seven days you shall wait, until I come to you and show you what you shall do.”

This bolsters the theory that Saul was supposed to take care of the Philistines. A peace offering would have been likely to follow a military victory like it did when the Ark was returned from the Philistines some years before this moment. It would also be the moment for Saul to be publically declared king before the people of Israel.

But while the three signs that Samuel said would happen did occur, the obedience of Saul to follow these instructions did not.

If the instructions had been followed verses 11 and following would have shown a battle, a wait, and a victory party. But instead of celebrating a national victory we see confusion in the land. Jump in with me on verses 11 and following:

1 Samuel 10:11–13 ESV

And when all who knew him previously saw how he prophesied with the prophets, the people said to one another, “What has come over the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?” And a man of the place answered, “And who is their father?” Therefore it became a proverb, “Is Saul also among the prophets?” When he had finished prophesying, he came to the high place.

After Saul prophesied with the prophets, he was instructed to turn his attention to the Philistines. It is clear that he didn’t and the people don’t know how to take Saul’s behavior with the prophets. Questions abound about this Saul! What is he doing with the band of music playing prophets? Who is their leader? But no one finds any answers at this moment to their questions. In fact asking if Saul is among the prophets becomes a pastime in the area!

This could have been a moment in which the people recognized that the new behavior in Saul was because he was going to be leading them and taking care of their enemies. Instead everyone is just left to ask, “what’s this guy doing?”

It’s a pretty anti-climatic reaction to what could’ve been a major moment.

Instead of moving on the Philistines, verse 13 concludes by telling us Saul goes off to the high place.

When Saul gets to the high place he is met by his uncle. His uncle wants to know where he’s been. We once again begin to see the insufficiency of Saul. He doesn’t lie, but he doesn’t tell the whole truth either.

1 Samuel 10:14 ESV

Saul’s uncle said to him and to his servant, “Where did you go?” And he said, “To seek the donkeys. And when we saw they were not to be found, we went to Samuel.”

Saul mentions nothing of the amazing things he had witnessed that day. He goes back to the donkeys! But the mention of the judge and prophet Samuel doesn’t go unnoticed by Saul’s uncle

1 Samuel 10:15–16 ESV

And Saul’s uncle said, “Please tell me what Samuel said to you.” And Saul said to his uncle, “He told us plainly that the donkeys had been found.” But about the matter of the kingdom, of which Samuel had spoken, he did not tell him anything.

Why did Saul tell his uncle everything? Why did he mention the donkeys were found without mentioning anything else?

Those are questions we’re left to wander without a concrete answer. It’s possible he knew he failed to follow the prophets instruction and so in his shame he didn’t want to bring it up. I think we can all relate to that.

But whatever the reasoning, Saul didn’t discuss the matter of the Kingdom, which Samuel had spoken.

As we come to a close this morning I want to focus in on that word “Kingdom”. You see Israel wanted to be a powerful kingdom. They wanted a King to lead them against and with the other nations.

But we all need to recognize just whose kingdom is being referred to there in verse 16. Saul may have been anointed king, but one he wasn’t a particularly good one, and two it still wasn’t his kingdom. Throughout the entirety of this story we have seen how God was in control of it all. God made the promises to Jacob to bring the kingdom. God anointed Saul to be king. God orchestrated the people to be there to provide for Saul’s needs. God is the one who empowered the farmer to be a king in the first place.

In this series entitled Heroes and Villains, it is not the tall and toned King Saul that is the hero. He was just as dependent upon God as anyone else. The only real hero in the grand narrative of redemptive history is God! Even in the time that we are looking at in this series, God is the one redeeming a people even through the actions of broken sinful people like Saul. We can clearly see His Sovereign hand at every turn of the page!

And that same sovereign God has sovereignly ordained for you to be here this morning to hear this message. We must ask ourselves at this point, why? What is God’s purpose in this? Well we know from Scripture that our purpose is for our good and His glory. If you know the One True God of the Bible, then this morning is a reminder that all of your life is operating in His Hands. It is a reminder to give Him thanks for all of the blessings He has given to you.

But if you have never acknowledged true faith in the One True God of the Bible, then it is my hope that God has orchestrated your being here this morning to hear the message of repentance and restoration. To hear that you are a sinner separated from the Holy God by your sin. But in His great love, God the Father sent God the Son, to live die and rise again so that all who believe in the might name of Jesus would not perish but be reconciled to the Holy God, given eternal life, and sealed by God the Holy Spirit.

If that concept causes you to wonder, causes you to ask questions, I’m going to ask you to respond today. You need to know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him and called according to His purpose. You need to know that you are not the Hero of your story but that Christ is the Hero of the world. I would love to explain more of that you this morning. You can come forward during this next song or find me afterwards, but do not delay. I believe God has you here for a reason. May we glorify Him today.

Let’s pray.