The Popular Vote

Around this time a year ago my graduating class held a reunion. I didn’t go, because thanksgiving weekend is a little hard to get away when your spouse works at a major retailer. But that’s beside the point. The passing of a milestone had me reflect on those times years ago, and while I was brainstorming this sermon series I was thinking about some of the things that are generally accepted practice, or at least were, in the school sponsored social politics realm.

Like class president, homecoming king/queen, prom king/queen. Did y’all’s schools all have these things? All elected by the class body? Was it ever like the same person elected to president, homecoming king or queen and prom king or queen? When you look back on it are you like that seemed like such a big deal but you forgot that was even a thing until now?

I don’t know, these are just the things that I think about at times, but here’s the reality that the sociopolitical high school scene highlights most clearly: That our world generally relies on popularity contests when deciding who will run it, represent the people of it, and hold power in it.

And while we have really leaned into this reality over the past few centuries with the advent of Western Democracies — this isn’t an new human construction. Humans have rallied behind political leaders, revolutionaries, military leaders, academics, and religious leaders for about as long as we have been here on this earth. It’s just human nature to find someone to place our hopes on. Someone who proposes a vision of the future and steals our hearts and affections in a way that inspires us to place them in a position of political or social power. Even if that vision is simply the vision of a quarterback who might bring us high school glory.

Today begins the season of Advent in the church. And today we recognize the hope that we place in the coming of Christ while reflecting on the hope that Israel clung to, and our own need for something better than what we’ve got to place our own hopes in. Our series for this advent season is called “The Crown” and we are going to be looking at 4 different kings of Israel and how their rise to power symbolized a particular theme in human nature that finds its ultimate fulfillment in the eternal crown of Jesus Christ.

Today we begin with the very first king of Israel — a man named Saul. Now I’ve mentioned Saul quiet a bit in our previous series, so some of this might be repeat material. But here’s the quick version. Israel has no king. They are a tribal confederacy that is occasionally ruled over by people called Judges. The reason there was no king was because YHWH, the God of Israel, was King. The people were supposed to listen to God’s voice through priests, prophets, and the law. They didn’t do well with that.

The final Judge appointed by God is a man named Samuel, and when he gets old he appoints his sons to be judges. But they are not good. So this is what happens:

1 Samuel 8:4–7 NRSV

Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, “You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways; appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to govern us.” Samuel prayed to the Lord, and the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.

So the people want a King, God’s not good enough for them, and God gives them what they want. Samuel goes back to the people and says “The Lord will give you what you want, but here are the stipulations: he better listen to God and follow the Law or its gonna be bad.”

What the people want is a king like the rest of the nations have. Those kings were not determined because of their integrity, but mostly because of their bloodline or wealth or looks or strength. And this is a really important thing, because God is going to give them exactly what they ask for. Check this out:

1 Samuel 9:1–2 NRSV

There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish son of Abiel son of Zeror son of Becorath son of Aphiah, a Benjaminite, a man of wealth. He had a son whose name was Saul, a handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he; he stood head and shoulders above everyone else.

A man of Benjamin: each of the tribes was named after a descendant — mostly the sons — of Jacob. Benjamin was the son who was closest to Jacob’s heart aside from Joseph who doesn’t have a tribe named after him. So Saul is from the tribe with like the highest family status. Good bloodline — Check

So we’ve got a descendant of Benjamin, who is ding ding ding wealthy — Check

Saul is Handsome — check

Saul is Tall aka perceived to be strong — check

So we’ve got this young guy who checks all of the Israelite’s boxes. Now he doesn’t really check any of God or Samuel’s boxes, but God gives the people what they want. And he says go find Saul and anoint him. So he does.

And actually, Saul is quite humble about the whole thing. He doesn’t really want the job, but it’s too late. Some time passes, and Samuel gathers the tribes of Israel to announce their new king:

1 Samuel 10:20–24 NRSV

Then Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near, and the tribe of Benjamin was taken by lot. He brought the tribe of Benjamin near by its families, and the family of the Matrites was taken by lot. Finally he brought the family of the Matrites near man by man, and Saul the son of Kish was taken by lot. But when they sought him, he could not be found. So they inquired again of the Lord, “Did the man come here?” and the Lord said, “See, he has hidden himself among the baggage.” Then they ran and brought him from there. When he took his stand among the people, he was head and shoulders taller than any of them. Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see the one whom the Lord has chosen? There is no one like him among all the people.” And all the people shouted, “Long live the king!”

I love this scene because you can just already tell this isn’t going to go as planned. Saul is hiding. And the people can see that he has been hiding. But when they see Saul, and how tall he is and that he’s desirable like the kings of the surrounding nations their response is “Long live the king!”

And so this is really the deal here. Saul is the first person that is presented to the people as an answer to the very longing of their hearts. They are a people who are already tired. They are not even a fully established nation. They have come so far and faced such adversity. They were slaves in Egypt, nomads in the wilderness, and now are this fledgling society in the hills of Canaan basically fighting for their lives in the land that God had Called “The Promised Land.” Some promise they must be thinking.

So they are like we need a new hope. We need a king. And God sends them exactly what they want. Someone who passes the popular vote. Not necessarily someone who is qualified, but someone that God knows the people will accept and rally behind.

And honestly Saul is good for a while. The Israelites start racking up wins against the Philistines. Order is restored. Saul defeats this other thorn in their side the Ammonites and it seems as though maybe this thing is working out.

One of the main things that Saul was supposed to do was to stay in his lane. He was the king, but he was not a priest. He was supposed to be subject to the religious structure of Israel, not over it. And that meant that the required rituals and sacrifices that were performed before going into battle had to be done by a priest. Namely — Samuel.

Before one battle, Saul noticed that the philistines were gaining the advantage. He was waiting for Samuel but Sam was late.

1 Samuel 13:9–14 NRSV

So Saul said, “Bring the burnt offering here to me, and the offerings of well-being.” And he offered the burnt offering. As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, Samuel arrived; and Saul went out to meet him and salute him. Samuel said, “What have you done?” Saul replied, “When I saw that the people were slipping away from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines were mustering at Michmash, I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down upon me at Gilgal, and I have not entreated the favor of the Lord’; so I forced myself, and offered the burnt offering.” Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which he commanded you. The Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever, but now your kingdom will not continue; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart; and the Lord has appointed him to be ruler over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”

And this really begins the fall of Saul. It takes a long time for it to fully unravel, but Saul’s unwillingness to follow God’s leading — God’s vision for Israel led to his ultimate failure as king.

The people had placed all of their hope in Saul — in Saul’s vision for Israel — but they would inevitably find out that this hope was not founded in the vision that God had for Israel. In fact that hope would be continually lit and extinguished for the next thousand years until the birth of a new king born in a manger would signal the coming of something to truly place our human hopes in.

The lesson that Saul carries for us today is the same message it carried thousands of years ago. Even though the source of our eternal hope has come and given us a vision to hold fast to, we are still led by our own human desire to place our hope in other visions for our lives and for our world. We are so quickly led by the winners of whatever popular vote is in vogue — whether it be a political vote, a ratings vote, or a social media likes vote.

We are drawn to place our hope in human systems and governments and policies and agendas. And while these are inevitable realities for navigating and governing our world, when we lose sight of where our eternal hope lies — when we lose sight of the manger, life, the cross, and the vision of the Kingdom of God that Jesus came to offer us — then we will find ourselves drawing from a well that eventually runs dry. Just as Saul’s well ran dry and just as the small town high school fame of the homecoming king eventually ran dry and fizzled off into yearbook history — so will the passing systems that we fold our identities into in this world.

If our hope is in Christ and in Christ alone for the restoration of our world and for giving us lives of deep purpose then there shouldn’t be much room for all the other messes that we are often drawn to. I challenge you this advent season to evaluate where your true hope lies. We are at a crossroads in our world in a lot of different ways. 2025 will present a lot of change — whether you are embracing that reality with anticipation or fear — this is the perfect opportunity for you to remember that our hope is in Christ and his kingdom first. If that is our ultimate source of hope, then we will be better equipped to walk into the future together as God’s people.