Interlocked 21

Kings of Israel Part 1

“COME SATISFY”

Opening Illustration:

Have you ever had buyers remorse?

You bought something and then regret that you bought it?

Believe it or not, growing up I used buy cd albums and I had no idea what was on them.

I knew the band, but I didn’t know the songs.

We didn’t have spotify or apple music or any kind of streaming platform.

So I would buy an album and sometimes the album sucked to be honest with you.

Have you ever bought something and regretted it?

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Well this morning we are going to talk about something that Israel asked for.

the prophet Samuel gave plenty of strong warnings against it, but Israel asked anyway.

What they asked for was a king…

And the reason was “like all the other nations have...”

We talked last week about how Israel struggled in the time of the judges.

I want us to quickly look at a broad overview of the book of judges and then help us see why Israel asked for a king.

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Judges 2:11–13 “11 Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. 12 They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord’s anger 13 because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.”

Judges 2:14–16 “14 In his anger against Israel the Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. 15 Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress. 16 Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders.”

Judges 2:17–19 “17 Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. They quickly turned from the ways of their ancestors, who had been obedient to the Lord’s commands. 18 Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the Lord relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them. 19 But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.”

The time of the Judges is marked by a cycle.

Israel follows God.

Israel then sins and rebels against God.

Then Israel typically is conquered or becomes enslaved.

In their slavery, they cry out to God to save them.

God sends a judge.

Then Israel is saved.

Then the whole cycle is repeated.

It is a sad time in the history of Israel.

It was through His people that God desired to reach other nations.

It was his desire that God used people who love Him to reach people who don’t.

But now, it seems as though Israel was continually forgetting about Him.

The end of the book of Judges concludes in a very sad tone.

Judges 21:25 “25 In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.”

Sadly, the end of Judges marks a time when it seems the 12 tribes of Israel are worshipping themselves.

They have moved away from worshipping God and are instead trusting in themselves.

“every did what was right in their own eyes.”

This is the mark of a dying culture.

After this time of chaos in the promised land as told in the book of Judges.

Israel asks for a King.

1 Samuel 8:1–5 “1 When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as Israel’s leaders. 2 The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second was Abijah, and they served at Beersheba. 3 But his sons did not follow his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice. 4 So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. 5 They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.””

Some people argue that it was not God’s plan for Israel to have a human king.

However, I think it was God’s plan, but this was not the timing He would have had for them.

The reason is God laid out the qualifications for a king through Moses in Deuteronomy 17.

In Deuteronomy 17:14-20, God lays out these qualifications.

Deuteronomy 17:18–20 “18 When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. 19 It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees 20 and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.”

I think this means 2 things.

The mark of a good King in Israel would be that He is devoted to God’s Word and that he is humble (did not consider himself better than His fellow Israelite.)

There are also 4 things a King was not to do.

Deuteronomy 17:16–17 “16 The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the Lord has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.” 17 He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.”

The king must not:

have many horses

return to Egpyt

have many wives

have great wealth.

Here’s what this means and why that matters.

horses in this time were largely used for war.

This was really a call to trust God and not to built up a large army that would be a mark of a successful king to other nations.

They were to trust fully in Yahweh.

Egypt, the primary country that enslaved Israel, was not a place they were to return too.

Even in Joshua, we read how Israel was tempted to go back to Egypt

The last two are pretty obvious..

Some kings would marry many wives of prominence from other nations so they could build up their power and wealth.

Israel was not to do this.

In their desire for a king, Samuel would issue a warning:

1 Samuel 8:10–13 “10 Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. 11 He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. 12 Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers.”

1 Samuel 8:14–18 “14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. 15 He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. 16 Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. 17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. 18 When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.””

1 Samuel 8:19–22 “19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. 20 Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.” 21 When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the Lord. 22 The Lord answered, “Listen to them and give them a king.” Then Samuel said to the Israelites, “Everyone go back to your own town.””

Samuel lays down some serious warnings…

Hey guys… having a king is going to be difficult.

He will use your sons for war.

He will take your best fields…

He will take your best animals…

We have to remember though that Israel is tired of the period of the judges.

They want a tangible, human king to rule over them and provide stability.

Sadly, they have missed out on God’s provision over them by continually rescuing them out of the trouble they find themselves in.

So, Samuel agrees and God gives them a king.

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APPLICATION

Narnia

These books are great.

Talk about Prince Caspian

The leads of Narnia had forgotten who their King was.

They forgot the old kings of Peter, Susan, Lucy, and Edmond.

They forgot Aslan, the lion.

They trusted in another king and he was ruthless.

He enslaved many people and removed all of the “old ways” from Narnia.

He destroyed everything about their culture to build up himself.

This is what sin does.

It promises us freedom, but ultimately it rewards us with bondage and slavery to sin.

We need King Jesus to come rescue us.

Do we trust God to lead us in our lives?

I think a lot of times we struggle to trust God.

We think we know what is best, so we act on those assumptions.

We ask God for things and we expect Him to answer it on our terms.

Israel asked God for a king (like all the other nations had) yet they failed to recognize God as their king.

In the same way, I think we often ask God for things that we think will make us happy without realizing that God will satisfy the desires of our hearts.

Like the illustration at the start of this morning, I think we far too often desire things, outcomes, or otherwise and we get mad when God doesn’t give us those things.

Right now Allison are watching this documentary that I don’t recommend, but it’s about alot of the child actors that we watched growing up.

It’s so sad to hear about the abuse and trauma that many of them went through acting on shows.

All the success they had too has led most of them to have adult lives that are full of addiction and unresolved psychological issues.

All of that should remind us.

Money is not the answer.

You can find story after story of people who have made it in Hollywood, they have fame, notoriety, money, and yet they are so unsatisfied and struggling in life.

The truth is, all of those people are asking for kings like everyone else has.

Yet they’ve never realized the only King any of us need is King Jesus.

He’s the one who rode in on that donkey this day, 2000 years ago, palm Sunday.

5 days before that same cheering crowd would put Him on the cross.

7 days before the King would rise from the grave…

People forgot who He is.

May that not be us.

Remember who King Jesus is today.

Live for Him.

Living for Jesus is a rebellious life that rebels against what the culture says is good.

Honestly, that’s kind of fun guys.

In either way, it’s far more satisfying.

Jesus. He is the way.