Sermon Tone Analysis

The Sinful Origin of the Son of David

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By John Piper September 23, 2007

 

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This is the sixth message in a seven-part series called /Spectacular Sins and their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ/.

This message is called “The Sinful Origin of the Son of David.”

The point is this: The kingship of Israel—the fact that Israel had kings—was owing to sin.

It was a spectacular sin for the people of God to say to their Maker and Redeemer, “We want to be like the nations.

We do not want you to be our king.

We want a human king.”

That is a spectacular sin.

Samuel calls it, in verse 17, a great wickedness.

Nevertheless, if Israel had had no kingship, Jesus Christ would not have come as the king of Israel and the Son of David and King of kings.

But Christ’s kingship over Israel and over the world is not an afterthought in the mind of God.

It was not an unplanned response to the sin of Israel.

It was part of his plan.

Why Do It This Way?

So our question is: If God saw this spectacular sin coming and he knew that he would permit it and thus made the kingship of Israel part of his plan to glorify Christ as the King of kings, why not just make kingship part of Israel’s governance from the beginning?

Why not make Moses the first king?

Then Joshua and so on?

Why plan for a more direct kingship at the beginning and only bring human kingship into Israel’s history later through a spectacular sin?

Abraham and the Coming Kingship

Let’s begin with the story itself.

God chose Abram as the father of the people of Israel in Genesis 12 and promises him that through his offspring all the families of the world will be blessed (Genesis 12:1-3).

The Messiah, Jesus Christ, will come through this line.

One of the first things that happens to Abram is that he meets a strange figure named Melchizedek in Genesis 14:18.

He is called “priest of God Most High” and “king of Salem.”

His name means “king of righteousness.”

The writer of the book of Hebrews, in the New Testament, sees Melchizedek as a type or a prefiguring or foreshadowing of Christ, because Psalm 110:4 says that the coming messianic king is also “a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”

So Hebrews says, “Melchizedek . . . is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace . . .

resembling the Son of God . .

.” (Hebrews 7:1-3).

Hannah and the Coming Kingship

So already in the purposes of God, the coming Messiah will be a priest-king.

The decision for him to be a king did not come later.

We see this again in the story of Samuel’s birth and dedication.

You recall that his mother Hannah was barren.

Then Eli prophesied that she would have a child.

Samuel was born and Hannah brings him to the temple and dedicates him to the Lord.

Among the amazing things that Hannah says is this in 1 Samuel 2:10—and remember, this is decades before there was any king in Israel (only when Samuel is an old man do the people press him to give them a king).

She says, “The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; against them he will thunder in heaven.

The LORD will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength /to his king and exalt the power of his anointed/.”

Moses and the Coming Kingship

Back in Deuteronomy 17:14-20 Moses had given instructions about the kingship if the people ever went in that direction.

And Deuteronomy 28:36 foretold the exile of the people and their king if they were to rebel against the Lord.

So I conclude that what happened in 1 Samuel 12 was not a surprise to God.

He knew that this spectacular sin would happen, and he knew that he would permit it.

And when God intends to permit a thing, he does so wisely, not foolishly.

Therefore, this spectacular sin is part of God’s overarching plan for the glory of his Son.

How the Kingship Came

Let’s see how it came about before we ponder why he would do it this way.

The demand for a king started back in chapter 8 of 1 Samuel, but we will pick it up here in chapter 12. Verse 8b: The Lord “brought your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this place.”

Verse 9: “But they forgot the LORD their God.

And he sold them into the hand of Sisera, commander of the army of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab.

And they fought against them.”

Verse 10: “And they [the people of Israel] cried out to the LORD and said, ‘We have sinned, because we have forsaken the LORD and have served the Baals and the Ashtaroth.

But now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, that we may serve you.’”

Verse 11: “And the LORD sent Jerubbaal and Barak and Jephthah and Samuel and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and you lived in safety.”

The People Rejected God’s Kingship

The point of those verses is to show that God was faithful as their divine king.

When they cried to him, he saved them.

He gave them safety.

That’s what a king is for—to provide peace for the people.

And what was their response?

Verse 12: “And when you saw that Nahash the king of the Ammonites came against you, you said to me [Samuel], ‘No, but a king shall reign over us,’ when the LORD your God was your king.”

You can hear the disbelief in Samuel’s voice: You asked for a king, when /God /was your king!

What should Samuel do?

The Lord had already told him in 1 Samuel 8:7-9, “Obey 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. . . .

Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”

Spectacular Sin: “Your Wickedness Is Great”

So Samuel says in 1 Samuel 12:13b: “Behold, the LORD has set a king over you.”

Then he calls on the Lord to give them a sign in thunder and rain, and he describes their sin as a great wickedness.

Verse 17: “Is it not wheat harvest today?

I will call upon the LORD, that he may send thunder and rain.

And you shall know and see that /your wickedness is great/, which you have done in the sight of the LORD, in asking for yourselves a king.”

And just to make sure we don’t miss the holy work of God through this unholy wickedness, Paul, in Acts 13:20-22, makes explicit that it was God who gave Israel her first king.

“[God] gave them judges until Samuel the prophet.

Then they asked for a king, and /God gave them Saul /the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years.

And when he had removed him/, he raised up David to be their king/.”

We have seen this repeatedly in the spectacular sins of history.

Man meant it for evil, and God meant it for good.

What Are We to Learn from This?

So the question is this: If God saw this spectacular sin coming and he knew that he would permit it and thus made the kingship of Israel part of his plan to glorify Christ as the King of kings, why not just make kingship part of Israel’s governance from the beginning?

Why not make Moses the first king?

Then Joshua and so on?

Why did God start with himself as the king, and then bring human kingship into Israel’s history later through a spectacular sin?

What are we to learn from this?

At least six things.

*1) We Are Stiff-Necked, Rebellious, and Unthankful.*

We should learn from this how stiff-necked and rebellious and unthankful we are.

That’s why 1 Samuel 12 begins the way it does reminding the people how God saved them from Egypt and then gave them the promised land and then rescued them from evil kings.

And each time they forget God and go after other things.

That is not just the story of Israel.

It’s the story of humanity.

It’s the story of my life and your life.

Even as Christians, we are not steadfast in our affections for God.

We have thankful days and unthankful days.

And even our thankful days are not as thankful as they should be.

Just think of how joyful and thankful you would be if your heart responded to God himself and his ten thousand gifts with the admiration and gratitude that he is worthy of.

So God gives us pictures of ourselves in stories like this.

He allows his people to drift into this kind of ungrateful and idolatrous seasons so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world held accountable before God (Romans 3:19).

*2.

God Is Faithful to His Own Name.*