God Knows the Heart
Notes
Transcript
Handout
The Failure of Saul
The Failure of Saul
English Standard Version Chapter 12 If you will fear the LORD and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the LORD, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the LORD your God, it will be well. 15 But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then the hand of the LORD will be against you and your king.24 Only fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you. 25 But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.”
English Standard Version Chapter 14Cursed be the man who eats food until it is evening and I am avenged on my enemies.”
English Standard Version Chapter 159 mBut Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves2 and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction.
A King after God’s Own Heart
A King after God’s Own Heart
Saul has been rejected by God to be King because of his disobedience.God has promised to replace Saul as king with “a man after His own heart”David Why did God make Saul King? Why not start with David, a man after God’s own heart?I believe God made Saul king first so that we would compare them and better understand David’s heart, and God’s promises to David in contrast to Saul.
God’s Rejection of Saul
God’s Rejection of Saul
A kingship of works
A kingship of works
1 Sam 12:24 Only fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you. 25 But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.”Saul and the people were commanded to obey the lord, but they failed.
Deuteronomy 11:13 ESV“And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,
Deuteronomy 12:28 ESVBe careful to obey all these words that I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.
The Sins of Saul
The Sins of Saul
Disobedience In the sacrifice in not devoting All of the Amalekites to destruction Foolishness His rash vow Cursed be the man who eats food until it is evening and I am avenged on my enemies.”Fearing man more than God He gave into the people to not kill Jonathan even though he had made a vow to God.
English Standard Version Chapter 1439 For as the LORD lives who saves Israel, though it be in Jonathan my son, he shall surely die.”
4. Reliant on human wisdom Chapter 14:18 So Saul said to Ahijah, “Bring the ark of God here.” For the ark of God went at that time with the people 6 of Israel. 19 Now while Saul was talking to the priest, the tumult in the camp of the Philistines increased more and more. So Saul said to the priest, “Withdraw your hand.” 20 Then Saul and all the people who were with him rallied and went into the battle.5. False Piety Saul was a man of compromise in his relationship to God. He claimed to follow God and did many of the outward signs of following God But his heart was not sincere.
Reading through the Story
Reading through the Story
Now we are going to read how God is going to pick his new king, it will be a man who unlike Saul is a man after God’s own heart. Saul was a king that fit the peoples standard for a King but David will have the characteristics that God alone sees. Which is a heart that loves Him.
English Standard Version Chapter 1616 The LORD said to Samuel, r“How long will you grieve over Saul, since sI have rejected him from being king over Israel? tFill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, ufor I have provided for myself a king among his sons.”
Samuel had truly wanted to see Saul succeed. Even though he told the people it was evil of them to want a king he earnestly prayed that the people and their king would remain faithful to God. Samuel is deeply sad over the Saul’s disobedience but God reassures him that God’s purposes and plans will not falter because of Saul’s disobedience. For God says “I have provided for myself a king”. God is always able to provide for himself the people he desires to accomplish his will. People will fail us, as Saul failed Samuel, but God does not fail.
Was God surprised that Saul did not work out as King? NO
10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
English Standard Version Chapter 164 Samuel did what the LORD commanded and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling and said, y“Do you come peaceably?” 5 And he said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Consecrate yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.” And he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
English Standard Version Chapter 166 When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the LORD’s anointed is before him.” 7 But the LORD said to Samuel, b“Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”
Who is able to see the heart of a man? God
20 But, O Lord of hosts, who judges righteously, who tests the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you have I committed my cause.
10 “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? 10 “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
3 For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, 4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.
When Samuel saw Eliab he saw characteristics that he believed would have made a good king. Things such as strength, size, intelligence, popularity, attractiveness are not deciding factors on whether a person is useful to God. A person’s usefulness to serving God rests completely on the type of heart he/she has. There is the heart that Loves God and all he commands and the heart that does not love God and finds his commands to be a burden. I also want to point out that God says here of Eliab “I have rejected him” but with the rest of Jesse’s son’s it says “he has not chosen”. I just want you to remember this because in the next chapter we are going to see why it may be that Eliab is so strongly rejected by God.
English Standard Version Chapter 168 Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, “Neither has the LORD chosen this one.” 9 Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the LORD chosen this one.” 10 And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, “The LORD has not chosen these.” 11 Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?”
At this point Samuel has been left in the dark by God. He knows that none of these sons have been chosen but also sees that there are none left. We must stop and consider why David is not here with the rest of his brothers. Remember that Samuel invited Jessi and his sons to a sacrifice. Shouldn’t all of them been invited? They did not simply fail to invite David because they didn’t think he was going to be anointed. They didn’t even want David to be there to eat with them of the sacrifice. He was excluded by his own family.
English Standard Version Chapter 16:27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being 4 might boast in the presence of God.
English Standard Version Chapter 16c And he said, e“There remains yet the youngest,1 but behold, he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, f“Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.” 12 And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the LORD said, h“Arise, anoint him, for this is he.” 13 Then Samuel took he horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.
Can you imagine the scene? David has been ostracized and excluded by his brothers and now Samuel the prophet demands that he is brought and wont’ even allow anyone to sit down till he arrives. Forced to awkwardly stand there, probably for hours, only to have him arrive and be anointed king of Israel in front of them.