Israels First Kings
Notes
Transcript
After the judges come the kings
The kings like the judges were to turn the nation back towards God
They were to seek the Lord in leading His people because as David puts it they were the Lords Anointed
Like the Judges there were good and bad Kings
And their were famous kings and no so famous kings
However before we get to the very first king of Israel we need to know how we got there
10 So Samuel spoke all the words of the Lord to the people who had asked of him a king. 11 He said, “This will be the procedure of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and place them for himself in his chariots and among his horsemen and they will run before his chariots. 12 “He will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and of fifties, and some to do his plowing and to reap his harvest and to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 “He will also take your daughters for perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 “He will take the best of your fields and your vineyards and your olive groves and give them to his servants. 15 “He will take a tenth of your seed and of your vineyards and give to his officers and to his servants. 16 “He will also take your male servants and your female servants and your best young men and your donkeys and use them for his work. 17 “He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his servants. 18 “Then you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.” 19 Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to 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, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” 21 Now after Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the Lord’s hearing.
The Lord had explained to Samuel that they didn’t need or would they want a king for themselves
That in fact God would be their King
And yet church in the verses ahead of Samuel's words to the nation from God
God tells Samuel that they haven’t rejected you Samuel but they have rejected me from being their King
Church they were Gods chosen people
They were going to be different not just in what their God could give them
Because I think they thought like that
My God can give me this so I will follow Him
When church if we take a long look at ourselves we do the same thing
We follow after God sometimes based on the stuff or what He has done for me
And church that only leads to a fleeting heart which is exactly what the nation of Israel has
They have rejected God as their king and desire a king as they put like the other nations around them
They were Gods chosen people and yet they still desired to be like the other nations that God had kicked out of the land
They were to be different and set apart
They were to be holy because of God and yet they are now desiring to be like the world
Church we are to be different because of what Christ has done in our hearts
We are to not be like the world
You hear this from Samuel and you sort of hang you head and shake it
They just don’t get it
This is one of those times that God says ok you think you know better
I will give you the desires of your heart
22 The Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to their voice and appoint them a king.” So Samuel said to the men of Israel, “Go every man to his city.”
So the Lord had Samuel appoint a king for them
Sort of giving them over to the desires of their heart
Understand the heart of man does not lead them towards Jesus
So Samuel goes in search of a king for Israel
15 Now a day before Saul’s coming, the Lord had revealed this to Samuel saying, 16 “About this time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over My people Israel; and he will deliver My people from the hand of the Philistines. For I have regarded My people, because their cry has come to Me.”
Samuel is told by God that he has chosen Samuel to rule over His people
Saul was a large man a tall man
What you would think a King would look like
Remember they are wanting a king like the other nations around them
This will be the man whom God has chosen to be king over His own people
17 Thereafter Samuel called the people together to the Lord at Mizpah; 18 and he said to the sons of Israel, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I brought Israel up from Egypt, and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the power of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you.’ 19 “But you have today rejected your God, who delivers you from all your calamities and your distresses; yet you have said, ‘No, but set a king over us!’ Now therefore, present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your clans.”
Now Saul is a head taller than anyone else
Saul is going to be anointed the very first king of the Nation of Israel
This is something no one else had ever done
And things go great
The Lord was with Saul and Saul was following after God
Saul would go out and war with the other countries and win
Again church because the Lord was with Saul
22 Therefore they inquired further of the Lord, “Has the man come here yet?” So the Lord said, “Behold, he is hiding himself by the baggage.” 23 So they ran and took him from there, and when he stood among the people, he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders upward.
Saul was the Lords anointed to be king
Because the people wanted a king like the other nations
God had warned them before and would warn them again
It doesn’t matter if you have a king or not but rather what matters is if you are being obedient to the Lord Himself
13 “Now therefore, here is the king whom you have chosen, whom you have asked for, and behold, the Lord has set a king over you. 14 “If you will fear the Lord and serve Him, and listen to His voice and not rebel against the command of the Lord, then both you and also the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God. 15 “If you will not listen to the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the command of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you, as it was against your fathers.
God says here is your King
God explains to them if you will fear the Lord and serve Him Then it would make sense you will follow after Him
There is only good that comes from after following God
And then God reminds them that if you don’t listen or don’t do what you are told then the hand of God will be against you
That is not a place to be
We have long said it
But you cannot expect to live how you want and walk with God
Those don’t go together
To be obedient to the Lord mens you lay down you our desires
Church Jesus talked about in the New Testament
Jesus spoke of if you want to follow after Him then you must die to your own desires
23 And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.
If we want to be obedient to the Lord then we have to lay down our own desires and wishes
If Saul wanted to be a Godly King he would have to lay down his own desires of his family being kings forever
But
But Saul would be the first in a long line of kings who were not willing to lay down their own wants and desires to seek the Lord with their entire being
So what did Saul do
9 So Saul said, “Bring to me the burnt offering and the peace offerings.” And he offered the burnt offering. 10 As soon as he finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him and to greet him. 11 But Samuel said, “What have you done?” And Saul said, “Because I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the appointed days, and that the Philistines were assembling at Michmash, 12 therefore I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not asked the favor of the Lord.’ So I forced myself and offered the burnt offering.” 13 Samuel said to Saul, “You have acted foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you, for now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. 14 “But now your kingdom shall not endure. The Lord has sought out for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has appointed him as ruler over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”
Saul offered to God instead of waiting on Samuel
Who was the person who could offer to God
Now I know what you want to say
But Samuel was late in getting there so maybe God could have had grace on Saul on the Nation
This is the same nation who time and time again would turn from following God
This is the same nation who just earlier had rejected God as their king to have a king just like the world
You cannot follow God and look like the world
The World doesn’t know God
Church Saul seemed to be more concerned with pleasing the people he was leading than please the God of the universe
Saul seemed to be more concerned with how close they resembled the world than how close they resembled God
Church is any of that sticking
Are we more concerned like Saul with pleasing the people around us than pleasing God
Are we more concerned with looking so much like the world than Jesus
Church we sometimes get so concerned with pleasing people
I do this
I think if they are happy then their relationship with God is good and church that is wrong
The nations happiness had nothing to do with the favor of God on the nation
Then church are we more concerned with looking like the world in hopes of doing some sort of secret covert evangelism mission once we get close to them we will share Jesus with them
Except the closer you get to the lost people or looking like them the father away you have walked from God and you don’t even know it
You think looking like the world will change it from being the world the thing that will actually kill it
The nation os Isreal thought they needed to look like the other nations to survive when in truth they needed God to lead and them follow to survive
We are no different we don’t need to look or act like the world to survive or to make it in fact we need to look more like Christ and have God lead and us follow if you ever expect to survive this lost world
But rather we are to look like Jesus
So church as we come to a close this morning
You are challenged to not look like the world
But to be set apart and different because of Christ
However if you do not know Christ you cannot be different
Maybe this morning you would like to know Christ
I would invite you to the front to speak with someone
Or maybe you already have a personal relationship with Jesus
And maybe you have been looking more like the world and less like Jesus
Maybe you need to spend time in the altar repenting or maybe you just need to spend sometime in prayer
The altar is open
