1 Samuel Lesson 11
Saul chosen as first king – 9:1-10:16
Shall we prepare for 1 Samuel by turning to Romans 15:4; Paul gives a
principle that is to be applied every time you turn to the Old Testament. I don’t know if the thought ever occurred to
you but it’s strange that if the Holy Spirit only would have the believer study
the New Testament, why did He provide the Old Testament, which is twice as big
as the New Testament. After all, it took
a lot of preserving energy of the Holy Spirit to keep the text down through
history pure; it’s taken a lot of intervention into history to bring it about
and the Old Testament has been preserved on to this day. The more I am in the ministry the more I am
convinced that the Old Testament is the most critical part of the Bible. The New Testament gives you explanations and
clarifies issues but it’s useless without the Old Testament and recently I’ve
been struck with the fact that in my conversations with several people they
admit that they never bother to study the Old Testament.
The point is that the Old Testament gives us a base for understanding
the New Testament, and in Rom. 15:4 Paul iterates this principle. “For whatsoever things were written aforetime
were written for our learning [instruction]” and that includes the Old
Testament. In fact, that’s all that’s
meant originally in verse 4, was the Old Testament, those things which were
written before were written for whose learning, “our learning.” Who’s “our?” believers in the Church Age, so
that tells us why the Old Testament has been preserved. And this is why you hear very little of the
Old Testament, because preachers, by and large, find it much more difficult to
study the Old Testament than the New.
But actually understanding the New Testament and then going back into
the Old is also an experience because you’ll find case after case of
illustrations in the Old Testament. And
this point that Paul is making is that they were written for our learning,
“that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”
Now when we are in this section of Samuel as we will be, if you turn to
1 Samuel 9, we are in the section that begins the playoff between Saul and
David. And if this is to mean something
that will edify you as a believer, and if this will mean something that will
help you in your Christian life and not just go down as an interesting little
tale, then you should prepare yourselves to see the lives of Saul and David in
categories that you can apply to your Christian life today. There are a lot of things about these men
that are interesting, hundreds of details.
And I find as I go through the text there’s no way on earth that I can
possibly emphasize all the details that are there in the text. All we can do is select some. So in this reconnaissance, so to speak,
through Saul and David and this section of the Old Testament, I have selected
those details that emphasize one theme and the theme is the difference between
the good life and the spiritual life.
Or, the difference between human good and divine good because I think
this is the contrast between these two men that the Holy Spirit would have us
understand and apply in our own lives.
Remember the background, the large section which we are dealing with now
in Samuel is 8:1-15:35. In this section
of Samuel God establishes the office of king and it’s first incumbent, Saul,
fails. So the thought behind that whole
block of Scripture is the establishment of the kingly office and a study of the
failure of the first man to hold that office.
Now the study of the kingly office is important because this defines or
sets up a mold, a pattern or a template.
For example, if you think of some sort of a template or something and
you’re putting a jigsaw puzzle together and you have a hole in the puzzle, and
you look around to see which piece is going to fit into that shaped hole. The same thing is true when you consider the
office of a king. The Old Testament, not
the New Testament, the Old Testament gives you the shape of the kingly
office. And having the shape of the
kingly office allows you to ask the question, who fits into that hole? Who fits into that shape? What man is shaped to fit that office? So by studying this part of Samuel you are
studying the life of Jesus Christ, whether you know it or not. You are studying what He must be like,
because He must be the one, the only one who can fill this office.
Now you’re going to see a sequence of men, they’re going to try to fill
this office, and these men fill it to some degree but never totally, and these
men are going to be measured in their personal lives by how well or how poorly
they fit this office. Saul and David are
two men that are plugged into the hole to see if they fit. And David’s a lot better fitting than Saul
is. And so we want to study why it is
that a man of Saul’s capabilities, of Saul’s leadership, of Saul’s background,
could be so fantastic and miss out on this office. It will be also an eye opener to you because
Saul has the qualities that most people would demand of a leader of state. He is a man who fits most people’s mold, and
yet he’s rejected by God, and in these chapters we will study this
rejection.
Last week we dealt with chapter 8; in chapter 8 we said that God
responded to the people’s demand for a human viewpoint office by replacing it
with a divine viewpoint office. They
wanted a king “like the other nations.”
God gave them a king but not like the other nations. So God gave them a divine viewpoint office
instead of a human viewpoint office.
That was very important to understand; that’s why last week I dealt with
Deuteronomy 17 because you must see that when God sets up the office it has a
certain shape to it, and that’s what the book of Samuel is all about, the shape
of the office. It is incidentally about
the lives of the men who fill the office.
But the big point is that here for the first time in history we have the
shape of the Messianic office set forth, and it doesn’t occur any other place
in the Bible up to this point. Here is
where the Messianic office takes its form.
And it is here where Christ first appears in His Messianic office, so to
speak.
Tonight we are going to study a second section. Chapter 8 is part A; now part B of this large
section will be 9:1-10:16 and this will be God chooses Saul as the first
incumbent. Chapter 8 was God responds by
setting up the office along divine viewpoint basis and now God chooses
Saul. And this is going to be a study in
how God chose a man whom God knew in adavance would not fill the office. And this has created consternation in some
people’s minds as to whether God was mixed up when He did it or what was the
story. If you’ll recall the principle of
Romans 15:4 this should not cause consternation in your mind. You should understand that what God is doing
here is He’s playing ball with history in such a way that the sequence of Saul
to David is going to be for our benefit tonight. In other words, God chose Saul with ulterior
motives in mind. Now it was just for God
to do this because God didn’t tamper with Saul’s volition; Saul could have
chosen to submit to God in all areas of his life and he could have fit the
office. God is not tampering with it but
history has been designed to reveal God’s grace and so what God does is that He
takes the first man that He’s going to plug into that hole and He’s going to
take a man that fits the world’s description of what a king should be and then
He’s going to proceed to show us that that is not the kind of man that He has
in mind for this kind of office.
So this is a polemic; the life of Saul in God’s Word is a polemic
against world politics. It is a polemic
to show clearly and once for all to humanity that when God sets forth the
office of a king He has someone personally in mind, someone who is radically
different from what we have in mind. And
so therefore God, as it were, deliberately sets up a situation where the first
man fails, to show us a tremendous lesson as well as
The text naturally divides into three parts; 9:1-14 where God
providentially brings Saul into position, God is providentially working here to
bring Saul into position. The second
part of the text,
Let’s look at the first section, 9:1-14, God providentially moves Saul
into position. “Now there was a man of
Benjamin, whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of
Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite, a mighty man of power.” Now “a might man of power” refers not to the
last man named here but the first one,
I’ve thought about this as a device for getting people interested in
history; I think it could be made a lot more interesting if history were taught
in the way the Bible says history actually occurred. In other words, if, for example, we took a
group of people who were students of history the tendency always is for the
student to say yes, that’s history out there, I’m totally separated from
history, I have nothing to do with history.
But if on the other hand history were approached from the genealogical
point of view and the student were asked what was your great, great, great,
great grandfather doing in, say Scotland when Mary was running around, then
immediately by family you are plugged into the stream of history. So the
tendency on the part of learning history in the west is to totally cut the
student away from it. But the Hebrew
never viewed it this way and so every time they’re interested in a historical
matter they’ll refer to I am the son of so and so, the son of so and so, the
son of so and so and they did that back there and that involves me. So you see the Hebrew never could disconnect
himself from history, he was always plugged into it.
Now Kish is described in verse 1 as “a mighty man of power.” This word, “mighty man of power” is an idiom
in the Hebrew that can mean one of two things.
It can mean a warrior or it can mean a successful businessman. This particular occurrence means successful
businessman, an outstandingly successful businessman. This means that he is a genius in business,
he has amassed wealth by his own investments, he has amassed wealth and has a
reputation in the business community for being a fantastic businessman. A parallel reference is Ruth 2:1 where this
idiom occurs in a similar context. So
here Kish, the father of Saul has a tremendous family and it’s important you
understand Saul’s background. Saul came
from a prominent family.
And that’s the first thing we’re going to learn about Saul; he had all
of the family qualifications, he came from what we would call upper class
material; he was a man with the proper upbringing. He came from a family that had long established
roots in the land, they were a reputable family, they were known throughout the
land for their wealth and their power and yet they were not known in any
immoral way at all. They were known as
good solid sound citizens. You want to
understand this background. Saul does
not come from a line of clods; he comes from a very reputable family. And therefore he would be welcomed to most
political circles; if any political party can get a man from a prominent family
not only do they have the wealth of the family at their disposal but they also
have the reputation of the family at their disposal; so the first thing to
understand about Saul is Kish.
Verse 2 which tells us about Saul is actually a parenthesis in the
Hebrew; there should be a parenthesis before verse 2 and at the end of verse
2. That is a descriptive parenthesis,
incidentally, bringing Saul into the picture.
So the Hebrew narrative begins by emphasizing not Saul, but his daddy,
Kish, and his father’s reputation. Verse
2, “And he had a son,” and this is an incidental fact of the matter, “he had a
son, whose name was Saul, a choice young man, and goodly [handsome]; and there
was not among the children of Israel a goodlier [more handsome] person that he;
from his shoulders and upward he was taller than any of the people.” Now when we finally fight our way through the
King James English what this is trying to tell us is that this man was
personally fantastic to behold. He had a
tremendous physique, he was tall, he was probably six ten, as far as the height
is concerned, he was a giant, and when he faces Goliath later on, you have to
understand something about this, Saul is the giant of Israel, that’s the point
of that story. And the whole point that
the author is trying to point out is that David’s a runt, and Goliath is the
giant of the Philistines and Saul is the giant of the Israelites. And the giant of the Israelites is cowering
and then this little runt comes trotting out with his slingshot. So this is why you want to understand some of
these things about Saul. It makes the
stories later on a lot more vivid.
Well, he’s about six ten and the point in verse 2, “a choice young man”
means he had a tremendous appearance.
The word “goodlier” doesn’t mean he was a goody-goody; what it means was
that he had a very sensible, very remarkable, very popular type of
personality. So he had a lot of things
going for him; he hat not only the height that commanded attention everywhere
he went, he was handsome, he had a good personality and he had all the personal
qualifications. So the second thing we
learn about Saul is that personally as an individual he had all these
qualifications. He had family
qualifications and he had personal qualifications, so he had two things going
for him.
Verse 3, now we get to the lost asses, “And the asses of Kish, Saul’s
father, were lost. And Kish said to Saul, his son, Take now one of the servants
with thee, arise, go seek the asses.”
Now the role of the asses in this thing, you’ll think they’re all asses
when we get done but… the role of the asses in this commentary is to draw
attention to the business mentality of the Kish family. This is going to come in because the whole story
closes with this so get the point. The
Kish family is a well-to-do family, they have had a tremendous success in
ranching and other business enterprises.
They are a family that are of excellent moral upbringing. You are going to see the man Saul has been
trained well by his parents. He has
tremendous etiquette. But there’s one
thing that he inherits from his father that is going to be his doom, and here
we go with –R learned behavior patterns inherited through a family line. His father became so business centered and so
thrilled with business operations that he drilled and drilled into his sons the
importance of business mentality, which is not bad in itself. This is not a polemic against business, just
a polemic against business getting out of hand and taking first priority in
one’s life. So the –R learned behavior
pattern in the Kish family is an emphasis always on the business. They are good, they are moral, they are
ethical, in every way they would be declared out standing citizens,
easily. When we have the expression
“head and shoulders” above somebody, do you know where it comes from? This text, this is where that expression got
started, so and so is head and shoulders above somebody. It started with Saul, he was literally head
and shoulders above every one, not only in physique but also in his whole
upbringing and everything else.
But he has this mentality and this causes a shutting off of his
perception to spiritual things. His
emphasis is on the good, his emphasis is on the details of life but spiritual
things are out beyond the domain of his major concern. He is obsessed and has been brought up to be
obsessed with the details of life, in particular the business details of life
and we’ll see this occur over and over again.
In fact before we finish this chapter you will see that the people catch
onto this thing and they begin to say a saying, all around Israel, about Saul,
and the emphasis of this saying is right here, that the Kish family cannot have
anything to do with spiritual things and it’s unbelievable that Saul would ever
be interested in this office. The slogan
is a famous one, you’ve probably heard of it, “Is Saul among the prophets,” and
it’s an expression of disbelief on the populous that any family that is good
confined to the details of life could ever have any kind of a spiritual
interest in these things. And so he goes
to look out for his father’s business interest.
Verse 4, “And he passed through Mount Ephraim, and passed through the
land of Shalisha, but they found them not.
Then they passed through the land of Shaalim, and there they were not;
and he passed through the land of the Benjamites, but they found them not. [5] And when they were come to the land of
Zuph, Saul said to his servant who was with him, Come, and let us return; lest
my father leave carring for the asses, and take thought [become anxious] for
us.” Now this is the third great
qualification of this man Saul. Not only
does Saul have family qualifications, not only does he have personal
qualifications, but he has a tremendous upbringing and solid character that his
parents impressed him with. His parents
did a good job in this area because he was concerned with how his father may
have felt and he was sensitive to his parent’s needs. And he was a good child, he was a good son,
and was concerned that his father be concerned for him. So here we see the third great thing, Saul
was a sensitive person and very up on how people felt toward him. This is going to be part of his downfall
later on because he is a very sensitive man and he’s hurt very much by David
and Samuel’s anointing of David. But
Saul is a sensitive man personally. So
not only does he have the qualifications but he has a certain personal sensitivity.
There’s one thing in this very verse as we speak of sensitivity of Saul,
there’s one kind of sensitivity that is completely missing and the author
intends us to see this because part of the next verse 6, “And he said unto
him,” and you’ll miss the point if you don’t understand who the “he” and who
the “him” is. The “he” is the servant,
not Saul; the “him” is Saul, not the servant.
And it’s the servant that suggests the spiritual concern of this plan,
this servant, not Saul says “Behold now, there is in this city a man of God,
and he is an honorable ma; all that he says comes surely to pass: now let us go
there; perhaps he can show us our way that we should go.” And so Saul, who lived in the vicinity, Saul
being a part of the Kish family and the thing you want to understand is that by
background Saul belonged to one of the smallest tribes. His tribe was Benjamin. And the tribe of Benjamin was very, very
small. Now if the Kish family had the
reputation that they are reputed to have in verse 1, if this was truly their
reputation and they are in the smallest family, they must have been present in
1 Samuel 7 and 1 Samuel 8 when Samuel called a meeting of all the elders. The Kish family knows all about Samuel, in
fact we’re going to prove it and you can see this for yourself if you look in
10:15. When this story is finished Saul comes back to his uncle and his uncle
says “Tell me what Samuel said unto you.”
So the family knows all about Samuel, they have experienced his
political leadership, they are acquainted with the fact that Samuel has taught
the Word of God, that in 1 Samuel 7 Samuel has led a great revival that was
responsible for partial deliverance from the Philistines.
So the ministry, the work and the life of Samuel is probably very well
known by the Kish family. The Kish
family also knows about Samuel’s itinerate ministries, and they also know about
Samuel’s obvious relationship with the Lord, that he is a seer and a
prophet. But in spite of the fact that
as the text in verse 4, 5 and 6 is struggling to show us that they’re going all
through the land… now whenever the Hebrew text in the Old Testament stops and
is as slow as this story is developing, the author has a point in mind, and
this is something you want to take to heart in your Bible reading, just your
simple Bible reading. Hebrew stories
generally proceed very fast to the climax; and when you read a text like this
that seems to drag and seems to snag on all these little details, watch it,
it’s not snagging; that’s just the impression you’re getting because you want
to get on to the climax when the author says now look, look at this detail,
look at this detail, look at this detail, look at this detail. The author wants us to see all these details
because it’s those details that make the story.
So here he gives us all this, what looks like just completely non-relevant
material, who cares where Saul went, the point is Saul went through the length
and the breadth of the land and Saul was acquainted with the land, Saul was
acquainted with Samuel but all the time Saul was looking he never thought to go
where the Word of God was taught. He had
a problem; it was a business problem and he was obsessed with his problem and
never once did the thought enter his mind, say, you know, the Word of God might
have an answer to this problem. The Word
of God, oh yeah, the Word. His servant
brings it to his attention.
Now this is a very common thing with Christians, and we all have this
time but to identify with Saul and not be too hard on Saul at the moment, just
think of the fact of how many times you have been similarly obsessed with a
problem and how many times you’ve gone looking through all the land for every
conceivable human viewpoint solution, and then suddenly, and after spending
hours and hours, and perhaps days and even perhaps months and years of your
life looking for a solution, all of a sudden it dawns, you know, maybe the Word
of God might possibly have an answer. So
here the servant brings this up and here we have Saul being reminded, he has to
be reminded of the spiritual solutions.
The man’s character begins to unfold here and in light of what we know
is going to happen to this man it’s important to pay attention to these
details. Certain flaws are becoming
visible.
Verse 6, “And he said unto him, Behold, now,” this is the servant
remember, not Saul, the servant, “there is in this city a man of God,” now
Samuel is called the man of God here because that’s what the prophets were
called in that particular day. He is
honorable; now that means… chabod is
the Hebrew word, it’s the niphal participle and it means he is continually held
in honor and this means that Samuel has a national reputation. And the servant says listen, you know that
man of God, he’s over there, the one that has the national reputation, now
let’s go to him and see if he has a solution.
Furthermore, the servant also notes something else about Samuel, he says
“all that he ever says,” “saith” is imperfect which means that whatever he
habitually says habitually comes to pass.
So Samuel is empirically passing the test of Deuteronomy 13 and 18; he
has obviously publicly demonstrated that he has truly the gift of
prophecy. Not like some people with the
crystal balls trotting around today but Samuel was 100% accurate, not 99.5%
accurate or 70% accurate. There is no
gift of prophecy today, make no mistake about it.
All right, “all that he ever says,” whatever this man says “it will come
to pass,” and so the servant says now, obviously let’s draw the
conclusion. Look, if you’ve got a
prophet over here and he’s a seer and he can do certain things, then Saul, how
about trying the spiritual solution to your problem. [6 b, “…now, let us go there; perhaps he can
show us our way that we should go.”]
Verse 7, “Then Saul says to his servant, But, behold, if we go, what
shall we bring the man? [For the bread
is spent in our vessels, and there is not a present to bring the man of God:
what have we.”] Again you see the
tremendous power of blinders. Saul is
not too enthusiastic about going to see Samuel, his main point is his
upbringing, now how shall I create the proper impression, how shall I maintain
the Kish family image when I come shaking hands with Samuel. In other words, instead of getting excited
about the fact that he can talk to a real prophet face to face, which would
have been exciting to have been able to do, Saul’s major concern is that he has
the right inflections on the fourth syllable.
Again, there’s nothing wrong with all that but when it becomes wrong is
when this is placed above spiritual positive volition. And that’s when it becomes wrong; there’s
nothing wrong with culture, there’s nothing wrong with good character, but you
can see all through, particularly Americans, that come from well-to-do and well
educated families. They have a certain
pride that doesn’t permit them to become too enthusiastic about the Word of God
and Saul fits the mold perfectly. And so
he says there is no present to bring to the man.
Verse 8, And so the servant says well look, I’ll pull out my allowance,
I’ve got the fourth part of a shekel of silver, and I’ll give that so let’s
just forget about that operation. [“And
the servant answered Saul again, and said, Behold, I have here at hand the
fourth part of a shekel of silver; that will I give to the man of God, to tell
us our way.”] Verse 9, “Beforetime
[previously] in Israel,” there’s a
historical notice in verse 9 that “beforetime in Israel, when a man went
to inquire of God, thus he spoke, Come, and let us go to the seer; for that is
now called a prophet was formerly called a seer.” So verse 9 is simply something to explain why
Samuel is being called by this title.
Now there’s another little point at the end of verse 8 that you want to
see to catch the irony. Notice how the
servant says the question, “that will I give to the man of God,” and what is
the man of God going to do, according to the servant? The man of God is going “to tell us our
way.” Now whoever compiled Samuel, one
of the prophets obviously, was a master of recording understatements.
We have seen three such understatements.
First, remember in Hannah’s prayer, Hannah prayed for a baby, nothing
big, just a baby to get back at the other woman. And what did God do? He gave her a baby that would start the
prophetic line. And then in 1 Samuel 7
the people asked for a king, just any old king God, just give us a king, and
what happens? God in His grace gives
them the perfect office of king, that will become the model of Jesus
Christ. And now we come to the third
thing, and the servant innocently says the man of God is going to tell us our
way, and for all intents and purposes the servant thinks that Samuel is just
simply going to tell them the solution to the business problem. But lo and behold, this request is another
understatement. Samuel is not only going
to tell Saul his way in business, he is going to tell Saul his way in his total
life. And he is going to reward Saul by
making him king. So here’s the third
masterful understatement of the text.
And this also is a revelation of God’s grace. God is in the business of extending whatever
we ask or think. This is why in
Ephesians He can do “abundantly above all that we ask or think.” Our prayers are like thee understatements,
here’s our prayer life, little “p” for all the requests, and God comes along
and He blows these up, He says oh you want that, well I’ll give you this. And God is always this way and that’s His
grace operating on behalf of believers; if we only got what we asked for we
wouldn’t go too far, and the only reason why we’re going on in the Christian
life is we’re getting more than we asked for and that’s the solution to the
Christian life is that grace always provides more than we can ever ask or
think. So this is one of these small
understatements that you have to appreciate as you move through the text.
Saul says okay, let’s go, “Then said Saul to his servant, Well said;
come, let us go. So they went unto the city where the man of God was.” In verse 11 they’re coming up to the city and
the story begins to drag here. Now the
reason the story is dragging is because the author of the story wants you to
see something, something that is seen in several cases in the Word, I think for
example in Genesis 37 where the same thing is seen in the Joseph story; the all
important matter of timing. God, when He providentially directs believers will
direct us so that the timing is perfect; the time and the place will be just
right. And so verses 11-14 the stress of
all these verbs is on the motion and the timing involved.
Verse 11, “And as they were going up the hill to the city, they found
young maidens going out to draw water,” that’s the first thing that is timing,
they could have gone up the hill when there were no maidens and if they had
gone up the hill when there were no maidens to come down and draw the water they
would never have found the right address for Samuel’s house, so the maidens are
placed there by God at just the right time as they come. “And they said unto them, Is the seer here?
[12] They answered them, and said, He is; behold, he is before you. Make haste now, for he came today to the
city;” Samuel has an itinerant ministry, “he came today to the city; for there
is a sacrifice of the people today in the high place.” By the way, verse 12 also tells you how well
informed the servant of Saul was; the servant of Saul kept up with the
spiritual news of his day, he knew exactly the location of Samuel. And so the maidens say hurry up, because he
is going to go to the sacrifice of the people today in the high place. This particular city is up on a hill and up
above the hill there’s a high place where there’s an altar, and Saul is going
up to the city and when he gets up there he’s going to meet Samuel at a gate,
and Samuel is going to be coming out of the gate to go up to this high place;
the timing is going to be perfect.
Verse 13, As soon as ye are come into the city, ye shall straightway
[immediately] find, before he goes up to the high place to eat,” now there’s a
little notice in verse 13 that also must be kept in your memory for later reference, “for the
people will not eat until he comes, because he does bless the sacrifice; and
afterwards they eat that are bidden,” so
everything must await the presence of Samuel.
“Now, therefore, get up; for about this time ye shall find him.”
[14] And when they went up into the city; and when they were come into
the city,” and here is a Hebrew participle of motion, the idea is the motion
picture tense, the motion is going on and the picture the author wants you to
see is that Saul and this man, his servant, are walking through the gate, they
are actually through the gate and Samuel is actually walking right at
them. Perfect, out of all the possible
people to meet at the gate, of all the possible people in the city, who should
they meet but Samuel. “Behold, Samuel
came out toward them, to go up to the high place.” So up to this point, verse 14, we have God
providentially setting up the situation.
This points to one thing in the Christian life that you can apply in
divine guidance. When God leads you into a situation, one of the
characteristics that He’s led is that He’s not only led you but after you get
there the circumstances have been led from the other side. This is always characteristic of divine
guidance. If for example you’re in some
relationship with another person in business or marriage or whatever it is,
there will always be leading at the other end; there won’t just be your leading, there’ll be leading on the
other end, the pieces will fit together piece.
So that is a characteristic you want to be mindful of.
Now in verse 15 we start the second section of this text, from
9:15-10:8. Now the emphasis shifts from
Saul over to Samuel and what Samuel does and the preparation that God has given
to Samuel. Verses 15-16 are a
parenthesis again and should be enclosed by a parenthesis. “Now the LORD had told Samuel is his ear a
day before Saul came, saying, [16] Tomorrow about this time I will send thee a
man out of the land of Benjamin, and thou shalt anoint him to be captain over
My people, Israel, that he may save My people out of the hand of the
Philistines; for I have looked upon My people, because their cry is come up to
Me.”
Notice in verse 15, “the LORD had told Samuel in his ear,” do you see
how verbal and how physical the Jew thought of this. This is not to be [can’t understand word] as
some sort of a laughing analog or something, it’s not kind of a fairy story,
the Jew would read this and say “the LORD told Samuel in his ear” he means it,
that Samuel was sitting there and he heard a voice. And it was not inside his head, it was
outside his head and came in through the ear drums. That is verbal communication. And then in verse 16 notice God’s
sovereignty. Some of you have trouble
with God’s sovereignty, actually all of us do but it’s how you solve the
problem that counts, here God’s sovereignty, “I will send thee a man,” up until
this verse doesn’t it all look like an accident. The asses get lost, the man sends his son out
to find them, it all looks, from the human viewpoint just to be a sheer
accident, just sheer coincidence, sheer chance, but when God says no, it’s not
sheer chance, there are no accidents in the Christian life, I arranged the
details and I send Saul, “I will send you a man … and you will anoint him to be
captain… that he may save My people out of the hand of the Philistines….”
Now verse 16 is going to be important later on because God declares
something that Saul will do and here we have the doctrine of God’s sovereign
and the doctrine of eternal decrees. If
people would understand this they wouldn’t have any trouble with eternal
security. Here’s the point, when God
chooses an instrument to do a job, the instrument always does the job. Now Saul is going to blow it, as far as the office
is concerned, but Saul will accomplish what is said in verse 16, that will be
accomplished, whether Saul obeys the Lord in other areas of his life is
immaterial, God has sovereignly said Saul will be the man to deliver My people
from the Philistines and Saul will do it, regardless of Saul’s own personal
spiritual temperature. “Because” God
says at the end of verse 16, “I have looked upon My people, because their cry
has come up to me.” That should be an
encouragement for those of you in prayer, is that this shows you that God does
hear and He changes His mind as it were; we don’t want to undermine one second
the immutability of God but God does change in a personal way from moment to
moment in history and He’s affected, really and truly, by prayers made by
believers. Here’s one of those little
verses that says I’ve changed My mind because I’ve heard the voice of My
people, the implication being that had He not heard the voice of His people He
would not have looked and not have taken this step.
Verse 17, “And when Samuel saw Saul,” we back to verse 14, time wise
verse 14 should be connected with verse 17; verses 15-16 are a
parenthesis. “And when Samuel saw Saul,
the LORD said unto him, “Behold, the man whom I spoke to thee of!” Now there’s another little fine detail in
verse 17 that again has a rich spiritual lesson. Here’s the picture. Saul and his servant walking through the gate
and probably surrounded by some of his friends Samuel walking the other
way. And the Hebrew text says “when
Samuel saw Saul, the LORD” didn’t say, the Hebrew text says “the LORD
answered,” now if you look back up in verse 16 it was the day before that the
Lord had told Samuel about this man Saul.
And what do you suppose that Samuel had been doing for the last 24
hours? Don’t you expect a man as
obedient as Samuel was to the Word that he would constantly be on the lookout
for whom it was that God would send. And
so the word “answer” in verse 17 means that as Samuel was walking out the gate
his eyes fell on this man coming up and this verb means that he first asked
God, “God, is this the man?” And so
therefore, God answered him, He didn’t say unto him, “He answered him, Behold,”
that’s the man Samuel, “the man whom I spoke to thee of!” So here you have Samuel constantly open, on
positive volition to the Word and as he’s walking, he’s asking, he’s just
probably has done this four or five times during that day as he walks out and
sees a new face or a man here, “Lord is that the man?” No. Is
that the man? No. Is that the man? No.
But as he walks through the gate he says Lord, is that the man? Yes, that’s the man, right there, so you can
see the constant openness of Samuel to the leading of the Lord. “Behold, the man of whom I spoke to thee
of! This same shall reign over My
people.
Verse 18, “Then Saul drew near to Samuel in the gate, and said, Tell me,
I pray thee, where the seer’s house is.” And then Samuel sees part of Saul’s
character here and he does two things; he makes an amazing statement. First in verse 19, “And Samuel answered Saul,
and said, I am the seer: go up before me unto the high place, for ye shall eat
with me today, and tomorrow I will let thee go, and will tell you all that is
in your heart.” The last phrase, “tell
you all that is in your heart” is Samuel’s promise that he will verify… [tape
turns] … so please notice, Samuel gives evidences to Saul, so that Saul can
trust on the basis of the evidences. And
he says I’ll do this for you, I’m not going to do it now but I will do it
tomorrow. “…go up before me unto the
high place; for ye will eat with me” and we’re going to see what that means in
a few more verses.
Then in verse 20 he gives a word on which Saul can trust, he says, “And
as for your asses that were lost three days ago, set not thy mind on them; for
they are found.” I don’t know whether
the Lord told Samuel this or whether Samuel was so perceptive that he could see
this in Saul’s character. Samuel had a tremendous
perception, we’ll see more of that in a moment.
But he perceived that this boy, Saul, was obsessed with this business
problem, or these lost asses. And so he
knew that he had to deal with this, and this is a fundamental law of Christian
growth. You cannot grow spiritually if
you can’t relax about a particular problem that’s right smack in front of your
eyes. And so here what does Samuel do
with Saul? Before he does anything with
regard to the office, before he says hey Saul, you’re the guy, before he says
anything like that what does he do first?
He gets rid of the problem that’s bugging Saul at the moment. He is essentially saying now Saul, I have a
lot of things to tell you but I know Saul, right now you are not in any mental
shape to receive anything I tell you because you’re still thinking about the
lost asses, now get the asses off your mind and relax, God is going to take
care of them, and let’s move on to something else. So he begins by meeting the man at the point
of his problem. You’ll find this over
and over in your Christian life, if you are obsessed with a certain problem and
it’s three inches in front of your eyes, that’s all you see is that problem,
nothing else. You’re never going to grow
spiritually until you learn to relax and put that thing, “casting all our cares
upon the Lord for He cares for us.” So
the first thing is that Samuel takes care of Saul’s problem, they’re found,
just relax.
Then he makes a statement, “and on whom is all the desire of
Israel? Is it not on thee, and on all
thy father’s house?” Now there’s a
tremendous content wrapped up in one word in this one verse and the word is
“desire.” This word “desire” has
Messianic overtones. Turn to Haggai
2:7. Haggai 2:7 is a Messianic prophecy
and here we find a word, the same word we have just encountered in 1 Samuel,
and here is applied to Messiah. And this
is why this word is a loaded word, so pick it up. “I will shake all nations, and the desire of
all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory said the LORD of
hosts.” Now what is “the desire of all
nations?” Let’s just think of two ways
we can take that word, and going through the process to get your minds working
on this word. There’s two ways we can
take that; we can say that that is what all nations desire, in other ways we
can take it in a subjective sense, in the sense that the nations desire this,
whatever it is, and whatever it is that the nations desire, that will be what
comes. Or we can take it as Israel’s
desire for what the nations have. But
it’s clear from this context that the word means the first one, that “the
desire of all nations shall come.”
Now what is the desire of all nations?
In the context the desire is for peace.
The desire is for the end of the suffering from the fall, the desire is
for political solution, a total environmental solution. The desire of all nations is for a total
individual, personal and social political salvation. That is the desire of all the Goiim, all the
nations. Now Haggai says this desire
will come and simultaneously as “the desire of all nations shall come, I will
fill this house with glory said the LORD,” in other words, My glory shall be
here. This is a Messianic
prediction. The “desire of all nations”
is what those nations desire.
Now with that background for the word turn back to 1 Samuel and see if
you can understand what it is that Samuel has just said to Saul. “And on whom is all the desire of
Israel?” That’s the question, he says
Israel desires, what is Israel desiring?
Out of the Abrahamic Covenant you know what Israel is desiring, it’s
desiring salvation. True, their concept
of Messiah hasn’t developed in the progress of revelation yet at this point but
still they have an idea that they’re going to be delivered by God in some way,
that’s their desire. So Samuel says you know what all this Israel desires? Do you really want to know Saul what it is
that all Israel desires? You know it,
don’t you Saul, you know what all Israel desires. And you know what Saul, what Israel desires
belongs to you. And in verse 20 it
doesn’t say, and on whom is all the Israel’s desire, in the sense that Saul you
are what Israel desires. Samuel doesn’t
phrase it that way. Be careful here,
there’s a little fine point of grammar.
Samuel is not saying the desire, we’ll put a capital “D” the Desire of
Israel is Saul; that’s NOT what Samuel is saying. What he is saying is the desire of Israel
belongs to Saul. The emphasis is on
Saul’s possessions, and what has Samuel just gotten through doing at the first
part of verse 20? Hasn’t he gotten
through just pointing out Saul, don’t worry about your material possessions;
Saul, put away all the fretting that you do about those asses that belong to
you and the house of Kish, those are your material possessions but they are not
the desire of Israel.
The desire of Israel that the generations have sought for us all, that
belongs to you and that belongs to your house, so Saul, put away your business
concerns for just five minutes so you can understand some of your spiritual
concerns. And so right at the heart, in
verse 20, we have Saul’s character depicted and Samuel apparently under the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit sees right through to the matter. And this is going to be the story of the rise
and fall of Saul. Saul has two sides in
his life; he has the possessions, the possessions which we’ll just call the
material. I hate to use this word in one
way because I don’t want to make it look as though Christianity is against
material things; that’s not it but just for the sake of illustration. This is one side of the ledger and Saul has
an obsession with this, but Samuel says right in the first meeting in the
middle of the gate, people are walking by and here these two parties of people
are stopped and they’re talking together and at that point Samuel goes to the
heart of the matter and says Saul, over here you have and your house has a
tremendous spiritual possession; now Saul focus on here, forget this. The Lord will take care of that, they’ve
already been found, get your attention on the spiritual things, which Saul never
does, as we’ll see shortly.
So Saul answered, verse 21, “And Saul answered and said, Am not I a
Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel, and my family the least of
all the families of the tribe of Benjamin?
Why, then, do you speak to me?”
And this appears that he does have genuine humility. [Verse 22, “And Samuel took Saul and his
servant, and brought them into the parlor, and made them sit in the chief place
among them that were bidden, who were about thirty persons.”
Verse 23, “And Samuel said unto the cook, Bring the portion which I gave
thee, of which I said unto thee, Set it by thee.” Now he took it up, remember they are coming
out of the city now, the city is on a high place and outside the city gate
there is another high place with an altar up there. And so they’re walking up here and when they
get up there they have a little shelter and inside the shelter they’re going to
have a sacrificial meal. And in the
sacrificial mean Samuel leans over to the cook and he says, bring me that
choice piece of meat that I told you to set aside the other day, bring it
here.
Verse 24, “And the cook took up the shoulder, and that which was upon
it, and set it before Saul. And Samuel
said, Behold that which is left? Set it before thee, and eat, for unto this
time has it been kept for thee since I said, I have invited the people. So Saul did eat with Samuel that day.” The culture of verse 24 is this; Samuel is
doing to Saul what Jesus did to Judas Iscariot; he is giving him the honored
part of the feast. This is why the
author was so careful back in verse 13 to prepare you for this moment because
remember back in verse 13, what did the narrator tell us? That nothing could happen at the meal until
who walked in the room? Samuel. Why was that detail necessary? So that when you come to verse 24 you’ll
understand the picture, and you’ll see that the people are sitting there
waiting; if they had gone ahead with their meal they would never have noticed
this man that walked in with Samuel, but the people are sitting there, waiting
and waiting and waiting, probably Samuel is a bit late because he’s been
talking with Saul. And then when they’re
all sitting around, the food’s been served, Samuel walks in and this tall six
foot ten man with him, and they notice because most of these men are men who
have been associated with Samuel’s ministry over the years, they’re all friends
of Samuel, they’re his intimates, but who is this stranger that Samuel has
brought in. And apparently without
introducing Saul he just simply walks in and says you are the guest of honor,
sit down.
This is Samuel’s way of setting up Saul for something. Samuel is going to set Saul up so that he
will not violate the privacy of Saul.
See here’s Saul; Saul is going to have to make a choice in his life; he
can go negative toward spiritual possessions or he can go positive to spiritual
position. Now Samuel does an excellent
thing here which I wish that more people would do when they teach the Word, and
some of you have come out of fundamental church backgrounds and never
understood, and that is that you don’t get a decision by butting into
somebody’s privacy. You teach the Word
of God until they understand it and you let them make the choice because if you
but into their privacy what you’re going to have is a choice all right, but
they will have made the choice because they want to please you, because of
social pressure or something else. You
just leave the Holy Spirit up to this business; your job basically includes
presentation of the clearest way you can the Word of God. That’s what your responsibility it.
Now here what Samuel does is without introducing Saul as the king, he’s
very mum about this, he just simply sets him aside as honored guest. What does that do? It creates controversy, who’s this man, who
is he, what is he doing here, what’s the situation. It gives Saul the opportunity, if he wants
to, to say something later on about it.
But it also allows Saul the privilege of keeping his mouth shut if he
doesn’t want to. So Samuel plays it
very, very cool and we’ll see him do this in a few more verses.
Verse 25, “And when they were come down from the high place into the
city, Samuel talked with Saul upon the top of the house. [26] And they arose
early; and it came to pass about the spring [dawn] of the day, that Samuel
called Saul to the top of the house, saying, Up, that I may send thee
away. And Saul arose, and they went out
both of them, he and Samuel, abroad.”
Verse 26 means that apparently Samuel had an alarm clock that went off
early and he got Saul up before everybody else. The emphasis on “the spring of the day” is
that he’s up, early, to get Saul out of that house before the crowds begin to
congregate because something must have happened at the feast. Word would have gotten all around that this
guest had come. So Samuel gets Saul out
of there before there can be any kind of a precipitating or embarrassing
incident. He wants to let Saul, in
relaxation, choose or reject. “Up, that
I may send thee away. And Saul arose,
and they went out both of them, he and Samuel abroad.
Verse 27, “And as they were going down to the end of the city, Samuel
said to Saul,” tell your servant to get out of here, just get him out of here
for a while, just tell him to go take the horses and trot on for a while. “…Bid the servant pass on before us (and he
passed on) but stand thou still a while, that I may show thee the word of
God.” And so all this is done very
surreptitiously, early morning hour, no crowds watching, the servant isn’t even
knowledgeable of what happens.
1 Samuel 10:1, “Then Samuel took a vial of oil, and poured it upon his
head, and kissed him, and said,” and this is the classic text for anointing,
this is the text in all of God’s Word that defines what it means to be the
Christ. “Then Samuel took a vial of oil,
and poured it upon his head, and kissed him, and said, Is it not because the
LORD has anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance?” Notice some things about verse 1. First, the vial of oil, oil in the Bible
always is a symbol of the Holy Spirit.
And do you remember what happened when Jesus Christ was baptized by John
the baptism. The form of a dove, the
Holy Spirit, came and identified himself with Jesus Christ at that point. Same here, the vial of oil is a symbol of the
Holy Spirit. Now all of this is an
external ceremony, is it not? Can’t you
just see it’s a rather funny way of getting a shampoo but the oil is poured all
over his head and it drips all down, and so on and you wonder what’s going
on. But in the culture of the time this
was an anointing.
And then he further kissed him, now that’s not homosexuals, just relax
and stop reading some of your own thoughts into the text. This means that Samuel deeply appreciates
Saul and this is also going to play a part in the role of these men; Samuel
loves Saul very much. And he likes Saul
very much, and this is going to hurt Samuel later on because Samuel personally
likes and admires Saul very deeply, but you’re going to see the loyalty to his
God over the loyalty to his friendships. And when it comes to saying all right,
Samuel, God will say to him one day, Saul I have rejected, go to David, and
it’s going to hit Samuel like a ton of bricks because Samuel really does like
Saul personally.
And he says, “Is it not because the LORD has anointed you,” now notice,
it isn’t because “I” have anointed you.
What is the subject of the verb “anoint” in verse 1? The subject of the verb is the Lord has
anointed you, Saul; this ceremony of dribbling oil over your head, that wasn’t
the thing that did it, the Lord anointed you.
And because the Lord anointed you, you are going to be captain over
what? His inheritance.
Verse 2, “When you art departed from me today,” now in verse 2 he gives
three signs. Remember the prophet will
always give signs and these signs will be the authentication devices so that
the person will trust the prophet. Here
are the signs; sign #1 is in verse 2; sign #2 is in verses 3-4; sign #3 will be
found in verses 5-6. Notice that each
one of these signs includes a specific prophecy as to time and place.
Note verse 2, “When you have departed from me today,” Saul, “then you
will find two men by Rachel’s sepulcher,” do you see the point in time and
space; time, after you’ve left me, space, right “by Rachel’s sepulcher in the
border of Benjamin at Zelzah,” a specific point, not only that, there will be
two men at a specific grave, “and they will say unto thee, The asses which you
sent to seek are found: and, lo, thy father has left the care of the asses, and
sorroweth for you, saying, What shall I do for my son?” That is what those men are going to say to
him. So there are some specific testing
points, so that Saul will have the evidences that this is valid, this is the
Word of God, the Word of God is real, the Word of God is true, it is
authenticated.
So sign 2, beginning at verse 3, “Then shalt thou go on forward from
there, and thou shalt come to the plain [oak] of Tabor, and there shall meet
three men going up to God to Bethel,” notice the specificness, there will be
three men doing something. They’re going up to a point in space at Bethel, not
only that but each of those men are going to be doing something in particular,
“one carrying three kids, and another carrying three loaves of bread, and
another carrying a bottle [skin] of wine. [4] And they will greet thee, and
give thee two loaves of bread, which you shall receive of their hands.” So
don’t you see the second sign, don’t you see the specificness, Saul, you can’t
go wrong, what is the chances of this guy guessing all this? So he’s given evidence after evidence after
evidence to Saul.
Now verse 5-6, “After that thou shalt come to the hill of God, where is
the garrison of the Philistines; and it shall come to pass, when thou art come
there to the city, that thou shalt meet a company of prophets coming down from
the high place with” various musical instruments, “a psaltery, and a timbrel,
and a flute, and a harp before them,” actually it’s hard to tell what these
musical instruments are, “and they shall prophesy. [6] And the Spirit of the
LORD will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shall be
turned into another man.”
Now verse 6 is in the progress of revelation another very important
verse. Just as verse 1 in the progress
of revelation reveals what it means to be the Christ, verse 6 is the first time
in the Old Testament that we encounter something that looks like New Testament regeneration. Now Saul is not regenerated here, he’s been
regenerated ages before this, but at this point his personality will change by
a work of the Holy Spirit. Now this is a
set up, because here Saul’s coming in from the family of Kish, with a business
mentality, concentrating on material possessions and the details of life. That’s the old Saul. Now Samuel says when the Holy Spirit comes on
you you’re going to be turned into a new Saul.
And when you turn into a new Saul then, instead of concentrating on
material possessions you’re going to be concerned with spiritual things and
you’re going to be concerned with the Holy Spirit, and so forth, the gospel,
the Word of God. So Saul, you’re going
to turn from an old Saul into a new Saul.
Now why do you suppose God does this?
Why do you suppose that God gives this particular test to this
particular man, Saul. Because God wants
to demonstrate to you and to me that there is a difference between the good
life and the spiritual life. There is a
difference between a person who has all the attributes of citizen of the year
and the person who is acceptable to Him.
There’s all the difference between human good and divine good and God is
going to make an issue of it right here.
Here is where the issue comes out loud and clear.
Verse 7, “And let it be, when these signs are come unto thee, that thou
do as occasion serve thee; for God is with thee.” now here is the invitation to
Saul, here is the invitation to spiritual life.
What Samuel is saying is look Saul, the Holy Spirit is going to come
upon you and you are going to get an empirical demonstration of a changed life
in an instant of time; your personality will be temporarily changed. Now Saul, when that happens to you, you’ve
got a choice; you can go on positive volition and continue the new Saul and
continue to carry on as another man, or you can revert back after it’s all over
and go back to the old Saul and go back to your old family learned behavior
patterns that are so miserable, that are full of human good, but Saul, when all
these things have come upon you, then you do what you want to. Do you see the freedom? Samuel doesn’t violate Saul’s privacy, he
says it’s up to you Saul, you’re living your life before the Lord. You’re not living your life before me. And so what Samuel does is he allows Saul a
time in which he can privately adjust his life before the public demonstration
that’s going to be at the end of the chapter.
The point here is that the man has the opportunity to choose for
himself.
This is why you should rejoice that we don’t have raising of the hands,
signing cards, trotting down the aisle, and other forms of harassment and
embarrassment at this church. And yet
time and time again people come in here and say oh, Clough doesn’t give an
invitation. What were you
expecting? An invitation is given any
time the word is preached and you have the choice to accept it or reject it. That’s you.
My job as a pastor-teacher is to teach you as clearly as I can, to study
as much as I can and communicate it as well as I can and I’m trying to do that,
but I can’t believe, and I can’t choose for you; that’s your choice, it’s up to
you. And I’m not going to embarrass you,
we have no systems of embarrassment around here. You can walk out of here and be on such
negative volition it’s not funny. That’s
all right, that’s your privilege, and it’s the same thing here with Samuel,
Saul can do what he wants to.
Verse 8, “And thou shalt go down before me to Gilgal;” verse 8, by the
way, is something later on, it’s not part of the three signs, he says someday
you’re going to go down before me to Gilgal, that’s the sense of the Hebrew,
“and, behold, I will come down unto thee, to offer burnt offerings, and to
sacrifice sacrifices of peace offerings: seven days shalt thou tarry,” seven
days wait; now that phrase won’t come up again until the famous incident but
that’s the location of Saul’s downfall, he doesn’t obey these
instructions. But Samuel says you just
wait “until I come to thee, and show you what you shall do.” Now that is just given there to show you part
of the briefing that Samuel gave Saul before he left.
Now verse 9-16, the last section of this passage. Switch back to Saul; Saul has received all of
this guidance of the first section, he has come to Samuel, he has been
anointed, he’s been briefed, he’s been given the three signs, and now verse 9
we’re back to looking at Saul. Is Saul
going to be transformed into a new man, and if he is, will he remain a new
man. We have our answer. “And it was so that, when he had turned his
back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart; and all those signs came to
pass that day. [10] And when they came there to the hill, behold, a company of
prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among
them.” He began to teach the Word of God
is what that’s talking about, it’s not some gobbledygook where they’re
frothing at the mouth. So don’t look for
the charismatic people in 1 Samuel chapter 10.
So they’re trotting out of the village here and they’re teaching the
Word of God as they’re going. Now they
may be under an abnormal ministry of the Holy Spirit where they are oblivious
to everything that’s going on. I take it
to be that way because I think God is deliberately setting this up to have an
extreme contrast, black and white, between the man who has his blinders on and
doesn’t see anything except the material things of life, the lost asses, and
over here, the extreme other form, the prophet who is coming down the hill who
could care less about the material things of life and is emphasizing totally
the Word of God. Both are extremes but
God is setting up this to show us something.
He is going to make Saul absolutety different, from human good to divine
good. And he’s going to have it drawn
out in black and white.
Verse 11, “And it came to pass, when all that knew him previously saw
that, behold, he prophesied among the prophets, then the people said one to
another, What is this that is come to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets.” And so what’s happening is all these people
know him, and he comes down, because this particular place of these prophets
was looked upon as kind of wacky people, by the Kish family and by the people
in the village of Saul. Remember what I
told you about Saul’s background. What was it? Well-to-do, respectable,
blue-blood types. We don’t have any of
those queers around here, prophets, and the son of Kish, did you hear, the son
of Kish, he went up with those [can’t understand word] prophets. And so now begins the pressure on Saul. So he starts off his spiritual life, you
might say, with the whole culture in which he was previously, against him. The old Saul that loves the business, that
loves the material possessions, has been changed to the new Saul, and the
people noticed the change in Saul, now he’s emphasizing the spiritual things,
he’s teaching the Word, and they say, is that Saul the son of Kish, the Kish
family, having one of their sons in that prophetic movement. What’s happening around this community. So they start the crowd going, “is Saul among
the prophets?
Verse 12, “And then one of the same place answered and said,” and here
apparently in the village which Saul was brought up was one believer who had
divine viewpoint, and in three or four words he administers a smart rebuke to
the crowd. The emphasis and the
implication of the crowd is this: why, anybody with the upbringing of Saul couldn’t possibly be
affiliated with these queers out here teaching the Word of God. And so this one believer steps up in front of
the mob and he shouts out, “But who is their father?” Now what does this mean? What this believer says, when you start
ridiculing the prophets, they don’t come from any clear cut family, remember all
the other offices are heredity in the Old Testament except one, the
prophets. And so this one believer says
who’s their father? Who’s their father,
what’s their genealogy, nothing, it’s by grace.
Those men are prophets because of God the Father’s grace. They’re not prophets because they’ve come
from the Kish family or something else, it is pure grace all the way. And so while this mob is chanting, is Saul
one of the prophets, and laughing and mocking and so on, this one believer is
essentially saying it’s by grace, here is a work of God, and he announces
it. “Therefore, it became a proverb, Is
Saul also among the prophets,” in other words it caught on from that day down
to the time this book was written, Saul is among the prophets? This is out of place. And so the people of the town understood
there was a certain tension between Saul’s old life style and the new one that
would be demanded of the prophets.
Verse 13, “And when he had made [ceased] an end of the prophesying, he
came to the high place.” And now we have the test because what did Samuel
say? Saul, when all these things are
come upon you, do what you want to, it’s up to you, you can stay with your new
life style that the Holy Spirit graciously is offering you, of which He has
given you a foretaste, you can continue that lifestyle Saul or you can go back
to your old cloddy human good materialism lust type operation.
And we have our answer in the last three verses of this section. “And Saul’s uncle said unto him and to his
servant, Where went ye? And he said, To
seek the asses; and when we saw that they were nowhere, we came to Samuel. [15] And Saul’s uncle said, Tell me, I pray
thee, what Samuel said unto you. [16] And Saul said unto his uncle, He told us
plainly that the asses were found. But
of the matter of the kingdom, of which Samuel spoke, he told him not.” Why?
It’s not respectable around here to talk about the Word of God. And so what is our answer? Saul goes back to the old Saul, that’s the
answer.
And next week you’ll see this same trait begin to get stronger and
stronger and stronger and begin to undermine what could have been a fantastic
opportunity that this believer had. As
we conclude I’d like to ask the challenging question whether you find yourself
in this kind of a mold; the Holy Spirit broke Saul loose from his mold, at
least for a matter of hours. Saul had
the opportunity to break loose and to change his life pattern into divine good
from human good. The Holy Spirit can
break you loose too, but He’s not going to do it for you. He provides like He did here and then He
expects you to follow up. With our heads
bowed….