Got Ourselves a King

If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to 1 Samuel. If you are able and willing, please stand with me for the reading of God’s Holy Word:

1 Samuel 10:17–27 NIV

17 Samuel summoned the people of Israel to the Lord at Mizpah 18 and said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I brought Israel up out of Egypt, and I delivered you from the power of Egypt and all the kingdoms that oppressed you.’ 19 But you have now rejected your God, who saves you out of all your disasters and calamities. And you have said, ‘No, appoint a king over us.’ So now present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and clans.” 20 When Samuel had all Israel come forward by tribes, the tribe of Benjamin was taken by lot. 21 Then he brought forward the tribe of Benjamin, clan by clan, and Matri’s clan was taken. Finally Saul son of Kish was taken. But when they looked for him, he was not to be found. 22 So they inquired further of the Lord, “Has the man come here yet?” And the Lord said, “Yes, he has hidden himself among the supplies.” 23 They ran and brought him out, and as he stood among the people he was a head taller than any of the others. 24 Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see the man the Lord has chosen? There is no one like him among all the people.” Then the people shouted, “Long live the king!” 25 Samuel explained to the people the rights and duties of kingship. He wrote them down on a scroll and deposited it before the Lord. Then Samuel dismissed the people to go to their own homes. 26 Saul also went to his home in Gibeah, accompanied by valiant men whose hearts God had touched. 27 But some scoundrels said, “How can this fellow save us?” They despised him and brought him no gifts. But Saul kept silent.

May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of God’s Holy Word! Isaiah 40:8 “The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God endures forever.”

At this point in the story of 1 Samuel, we have the singling-out of Saul among the people of Israel. This is the public choosing of the king the Lord has already chosen (this’ll make sense in a bit).

But before we get to Saul, Samuel has a word from the Lord for the people of the Lord.

This we see:

God’s Word Doesn’t Let-Up (vv. 17-19)

Before Samuel announces the king to the people, he makes sure to rehearse their rejection and remind them of their sinful demand for a king. Nice of him, yeah?

We might ask, “When does it become enough? When are you going to stop bringing that up, Samuel? How long are you going to hold this over their heads?”

Well, the truth of the matter is that God’s Word doesn’t let up; it absolutely refuses to quit.

“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I brought Israel up out of Egypt, and I delivered you from the power of Egypt...’”

Egypt features again and again in the story of God—what the Lord did for the people, how the people responded to what the Lord, how quickly they rejected the Lord and longed to go back into slavery.

Almost immediately after the Lord rescued the Israelites from slavery ( for centuries and millennia on), God’s Word—unrelenting as it is—just keeps reliving that moment, for better and for worse. It features throughout the Bible, mentioned over 700 times in the OT, most of those allusions in reference to the exodus event and all that follows, and is referenced 25 times in the NT.

God’s Word doesn’t let-up, rehearsing their rejection of the Lord:

What Samuel just said in 1 Samuel 8:7-8 “And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you.”

He says here: 1 Samuel 10:18-19 “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I brought Israel up out of Egypt, and I delivered you from the power of Egypt and all the kingdoms that oppressed you.’ But you have now rejected your God, who saves you out of all your disasters and calamities...”

Reminding them of their sinful demand:

What the people asked for 1 Samuel 8:5 “...now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have” Samuel reminds us of here: 1 Samuel 10:19—you said,“‘No, appoint a king over us.’ So now present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and clans.”

I think Samuel, the leader/judge of Israel, realizes the people of Israel are unrepentantly rejecting the Lord. They’ve rejected Him and they are continuing to reject Him.

To meet their continual rejection, God’s Word confronts without relenting.

Samuel won’t give up. He won’t let them forget their rejection or their sinful demand.

God’s Word won’t let up; it won’t let the people reject the Lord without letting them hear about it.

This might sound like bad news—to have God’s Word come after you like this, unrelenting, without letting-up—but it’s really good news if you think about it.

Think about what it means: if God’s Word keeps coming after you that points to something about the character of God.

This means God, like His Word, won’t give up on you either. He’s not going to let-up on His people.

He loves His people with an unrelenting love—that’s the meaning of His hesed, covenant love. It’s is a "Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love."

God loves you with a love that doesn’t let-up. He loves you to the point of giving up His own Son to die for you. And He will dog your tracks all the days of your life. He will keep on pursuing you.

This is what God (and His Word) does.

God’s Word doesn’t let-up. And that’s really good news. For Israel and for us, even when it doesn’t feel like it is.

We see here:

God’s Choice is Clear (vv. 20-21)

What Samuel does after his reminding the people is call them all together. What happens next would look completely coincidental, if we didn’t know anything about the Lord.

What’s more, we’ve been let in on the secret that the Lord has already chosen Saul. Saul is the Lord’s choice.

1 Samuel 9:15-17 “Now the day before Saul came, the Lord had revealed this to Samuel: “About this time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin. Anoint him ruler over my people Israel; he will deliver them from the hand of the Philistines. I have looked on my people, for their cry has reached me.” When Samuel caught sight of Saul, the Lord said to him, “This is the man I spoke to you about; he will govern my people.”

Saul was the Lord’s choice, this we know. But the rest of Israel didn’t know it. They wouldn’t have just accepted Samuel’s word for it.

No way would this obstinate, stubborn, stiff-necked people accept Saul as king if Samuel just told them: “Oh yeah, meant to tell you…God chose Saul, son of Kish to be king. Sound good?”

No, it had to be public. And it had to be a method like casting lots. Matthew Henry comments that only this would prevent disputes and exceptions among the people.

The text says the tribe of Benjamin was taken by lot. This means out of the 12 tribes of Israel, the lot cast fell to Benjamin. And then to one clan within the tribe of Benjamin. And out of that clan, to Kish’s boy, Saul. Out of all the men in Israel, Saul was the one to whom the lot fell.

This couldn’t be faked. The assembly of the Lord’s people are there for it. They watch it work. They realize that this is the Lord’s doing, the Lord’s work, the Lord’s choice.

Saul is the man the Lord wants as king. He has already ordained it, and add to that the lots being cast do His bidding, too.

Prov 16:33 “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.”

The lot lands on Saul, this was the Lord’s decision. This is how He works, even though, as Saul admits, 1 Samuel 9:21 “Am I not a Benjamite, from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin?”

This is how the Lord works. His choice is always right, even though the world and His people don’t understand.

1 Corinthians 1:27 “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”

This is what the Lord always does; this is how He works. Remember, Christian: the Lord chose you before the foundation of the world, and He makes no mistakes.

The Lord—perfect and clear in His choosing—chose Saul. But Saul wasn’t ready for it, and God’s people couldn’t find him.

God’s People are Dependent (vv. 21-24)

It’s a pretty humorous scene. Out of all the men in Israel, the lot is cast to Saul, BUT he can’t be found. When they looked for [Saul], he was not to be found.

Just as Saul and his servant searched for the donkeys throughout chapters 9 & 10, so now the people search for him. He can’t be found. Either Saul is real good at hide-and-seek, or everyone in Israel is just lousy at finding things—donkeys and/or people.

Saul hides himself, which, turns out, is pretty effective against his peers. Homeboy is a full head taller than anyone else; not all that easy to lose someone that tall, but they manage to do it.

My mom was right near 6-foot tall in her heyday. When we were shopping in department stores or Walmart, we could always find mom standing a head or two taller than most other moms in the ladies’ section. It’s pretty hard to hide yourself when you’re taller than everyone. Saul manages to do it.

Trying to hide yourself from the Lord Yahweh is quite another thing and it proves to be pointless. Do you remember Adam and Eve hiding themselves from the Lord?

Genesis 3:8 “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”

How silly! And yet Adam, Eve, and Saul aren’t alone. Jonah ran from the Lord, thinking if he went far enough in the opposite direction, the Lord wouldn’t be able to find him. Barrett Case has done his share of hiding from the Lord. Maybe you have attempted to hide from the Lord.

Apparently, Saul is so well-hidden that the people have to ask the Lord to help—they inquired further of the Lord, “Has the man come here yet?”

In other words, they have to cheat ask the Lord, “Can you tell us where the man is?”

Even in the small stuff, the people are dependent upon the Lord. They can’t so much as find a person who’s literally larger than any other person around; imagine everything else they need help with.

They are utterly dependent upon the Lord. They can’t manage at all apart from the Lord, even in the small stuff.

This is a lesson they should have learned by now. But they’re still learning it.

We, too, have to learn and re-learn this lesson, over and over.

We are utterly dependent upon the Lord, for everything.

We cannot manage apart from the Lord, even in the small stuff.

And here’s the good news: WE DON’T HAVE TO! We don’t have to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps! We don’t have to figure it all out all on our own. We merely need to abide in Him.

Jesus told His disciples this in John 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing. We are utterly dependent upon Him and He is utterly dependable.

With the Lord’s help, the people find Saul, the man the Lord [had] chosen.

Excited, the people shout: “Long live the king!”

And then Samuel has to explain how

God’s Law is Absolutely Crucial (v. 25)

1 Samuel 10:25 “Samuel explained to the people the rights and duties of kingship. He wrote them down on a scroll and deposited it before the Lord. Then Samuel dismissed the people to go to their own homes.”

This is how the Lord would regulate the king’s behavior, how he was to live and conduct himself.

No doubt it contained instructions like the ones in Deuteronomy 17. The rights and the duties of the king are described. The king doesn’t get to rule in any way he likes; there are rules for him to rule him as he rules.

You see, Israel’s king is not actually a king, but a vice-king. The king himself is under the law of the Lord, making the law of the Lord absolutely unmissable. The Lord is Israel’s true King and His word what they need.

So Samuel is explaining to the people what the kingship should look like, the regulations the king must follow. The law is absolutely crucial, for the king and for the people.

We are all of us under God’s law, rightfully and necessarily.

Now, the law can never be in any way or in any degree a standard one can meet to earn salvation. That’s plain crazy; only a fool would say, “Oh yeah, I can do that; no problem.”

The law can show you how you fail to be or do what God requires, but it cannot free you from the guilt of breaking the law. The law can accuse you; the law can’t justify you.

“The law is like an outdoor thermometer. It can show you how hot or cold it is outside, but it doesn’t have the power to raise or lower the temperature.” - DRD

The law is absolutely crucial for the king, for Saul, to know. And it’s absolutely necessary for God’s people.

Saul is under the law of God that governs kingship. The law doesn’t destroy his kingship but allows it to function properly.

God’s people are under the Law and commandments, not to inhibit and sour the Christian life, but to order it and protect it. The law and its teachings are meant to help.

The law isn’t a curse, but rather a joy to live as God has ordered. Also remember: we don’t live and die by the law because Jesus fulfilled the law for us; he did it on our behalf!

This is why my only hope is Jesus, the Law-keeper who suffered the law-breakers’ judgment.

Saul is, like any mere person (king or not), a lousy substitute for the Lord Almighty. The law of the Lord will be a guide for him, if only he’ll pay attention to it.

As you can imagine, there were some who were in favor of Saul and supported him and some who, well, didn’t because

God’s Servant Brings Division (vv. 26-27)

There are “valiant men” and then there are “scoundrels” in Saul’s life. Some people are supportive and protective; others reject their king, even after they’ve asked for one.

Davis elaborates on their question in verse 27. He says in essence, these scoundrels ask about Saul: “How can this fellow save us? What can this country bumpkin, this hick Benjamite farmer, do for us?”

It’s pretty easy to see the parallel. The king causes division, the king suffers rejection, even among his own people.

Now, Saul is no Christ-figure, but Saul and Jesus do share the same office. The people rejected Saul and his office as the one the Lord appointed.

Jesus so much as said that it was His mission to bring division.

Luke 12:51 “Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.”

What was true for Saul was true for Jesus, then and now. People despised and hated Jesus and they still despise the Lord’s Anointed. “What can a Jewish carpenter from 2,000 years ago do for me today? How could He save me?!?”

There’s a real division Jesus makes.

You either accept Him as King and worship Him as such

OR

You reject Him and go on living your life however you please.

God’s servant brings division. You’re on one side or the other.

I wonder if the people of Israel are proud of themselves here: “Got ourselves a king! Yes, sir!”

I wonder if they think the way we think when we get what we want: “This is it. This is going to make all the difference. Things are going to start looking up now.”

If you know the story you know that there will be good kings and bad kings. They will disappoint as much as they please. And this is because God’s people were meant for something better.

We are meant to be His: to hear from Him, to trust Him, to depend on Him, to learn from Him, to serve Him.

Why would we settle for anything less than the One who made us, the One who gave us His Son who laid down His life to save us from our sins and restore us to our heavenly Father?

Hear from Him.

Trust Him.

Depend on Him.

Learn from Him.

Serve Him.

Don’t settle for any lesser thing.