FIRE Conference Session 2

Well, I hope that you are, what's the word I want, fired up, ready, excited about hearing what Christopher has to say to us today and developing what he taught us last night. And again, I hope that this will be very, very helpful and equip you and that we might be more effective in our ministry of the word as a result of his ministry. So Christopher, we're anticipating your lecture.

Good morning. Good morning. Last night we considered the nature of scripture, how it speaks to us, and I use the term robust perspicuity, that our task is to understand what the authors of Scripture have intended for us by the Spirit of God. It is clear to ordinary people using ordinary means, but ordinary means involve study, involve diligent listening to the way an author has constructed his material, what he has chosen to include, what he has chosen to leave out, what he has chosen to emphasize.

And it is through the tools of attending to the author's technique that we hear the voice of God. And so using those techniques this morning and those principles that are what we use in any communication when we try to understand one another, for trying to understand one another properly. We should be attending to how someone structures their communication, what they include, what they emphasize.

We simply do the same thing when it comes to God's word. A little bit more difficult because it is somewhat culturally removed from us and much of it is in the form of narrative, in the form of story. So it's a little bit different technique than if we're in conversation with one another. But we still use the same principles. Watch this morning as we consider now the first part of 1 Samuel here, and you can go ahead and turn in your scriptures to 1 Samuel.

We'll be considering the introduction here in a moment But consider those five principles that I raised last night the principle of structure the principle of juxtaposition the principle of emphasis the principle of selectivity the principle of tension, and how attending to those features of a text are going to clue us in to what's going on in the mind of the author and what God is speaking to us in this word that he has given to us and communicated to us. So we'll begin by looking at 1 Samuel, chapter 1. Note as I read, again, look at the structure, look at the selectivity, look at the emphasis.

There are four speaking characters in this account, persons here, and another one who has, or we might say two more who do not speak in this story. We want to consider each one. So follow along with me as I read from verse 1. Now there was a certain man from Ramatayim Zophim, of the mountains of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, God has acquired, the son of Yeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuth, an Ephraimite.

And he had two wives. The name of one was Hannah, Grace, and the name of the other was Paninah, Pearl. Paninah had children, but Hannah had no children. This man went up from his city yearly to worship and sacrifice to Yahweh Tzavayo, to the Lord of Hosts in Shiloh. Also, the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of Yahweh, were there. And whenever the time came for Elkanah to make an offering, he would give portions to Paninah, his wife, and to all her sons and daughters.

But to Hannah, he would give a double portion, for he loved Hannah, although Yahweh had closed her womb. And her rival also provoked her severely to make her miserable because Yahweh had closed her womb. So it was year by year when she went up to the house of Yahweh that she provoked her. Therefore she wept and did not eat. We've been introduced to our first character and some of those others in her life.

One, Hannah, Grace. In your materials you should have a page for notes. This is called Session 2, Heard by God. and we're looking at a request. We're leading up to a request here in this account. First we meet Hannah and we have to understand her situation. I encourage you to make some notes on this because we want to refer to it come back to it If we were to describe her situation a couple of things come out pretty clearly First of all, she had no child.

This was a childless woman. The second thing we see about her is that nonetheless she is loved. Her husband, Elkanah, loves her. verse 5 is curious once again in terms of emphasis selectivity it says that he loved Hannah and we might well ask well didn't he love Panina you might suppose that he did but it doesn't say it says he loves Hannah and that he would give her a double portion what does this mean culturally when an inheritance was to be divided up upon a man's deceased, you divide the state according to the number of sons that a man had.

So if a man had three sons, you divide his estate into four parts. The eldest son would get two parts, and the other two sons would each get a part. If a man had eight sons, you divide his estate into nine parts. The eldest son would get two shares of that estate. All the others would get one. So the one getting the double portion is the one who's regarded as the heir.

He's the one who's going to inherit from his father and take over. And so already we have a curiosity in this man's family that he is regarding the childless wife as the heir here, as though her children are going to succeed his estate, and yet she has none. But this was the love and the regard that he had for her, even being childless. So she is childless, she is loved, but she is also harassed, she is persecuted, she is troubled.

In verse 6, we see that her rival also provoked her severely. Interesting choice of vocabulary, that our author doesn't even use a proper name in that verse. Simply refers to this woman as Hannah's rival, and she's causing trouble. Why? Because this rival has what she does not have. In fact, she has many.

She has sons and daughters, we're told, and Hannah has not one. This is her situation as we meet it. Childless harassed persecuted but loved by her husband Now the next thing we want to observe is what is her response to that Scripture gives us a little bit of information here regarding her response and the first thing we see in verse 7 is that as this rival provoked her, that she wept and did not eat.

She's greatly troubled by that fact. Clearly she was not a woman who saw herself as being basically a career woman and not a kid kind of person, not interested in having children. No, this was affecting her very soul. She deeply wanted one. Let's read on and we'll see more about her response. Verse 8.

Then Elkanah, her husband, said to her, Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? Why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons? So Hannah arose after they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the tabernacle of Yahweh. and she was in bitterness of soul and prayed to Yahweh and wept in anguish.

Then she made a vow and said, O Yahweh, if you will indeed look upon the affliction of your maidservant and remember me and not forget your maidservant, but will give your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to Yahweh all the days of his life. No razor shall come upon his head. What is her response? She is in grief and she turns to the Lord in prayer.

She pours out her soul before the Lord. What was the nature of her prayer? Verse 12 continues, and it happens as she continued praying before Yahweh that Eli watched her mouth. Now Hannah spoke in her heart. Only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought she was drunk.

So Eli said to her, how long will you be drunk? Put your wine away from you. What kind of prayer is this that would cause somebody observing her praying to think that woman's intoxicated? When's the last time you prayed like that? This is passionate prayer. Pouring her soul out before the Lord.

So that's our background for this account. We have a woman childless, persecuted, and her response is to pour out her soul before the Lord and to ask and even to make a vow. Lord, give me, please, that for which I desire. And I will dedicate him to you. Now, next we see that Scripture also includes a couple of opinions. There's a couple of men looking on and observing her in her affliction.

And each one has a little bit of a commentary, has some advice for Hannah here, or has some perspective on her. We want to listen to the perspective that each two men offer. The first man in her life here is, of course, her husband, Elkanah. And he has something to say to her in her affliction. When we look back at verse 8, Elkanah, her husband, said to her, Hannah, why do you weep?

Why do you not eat? Why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons? All right, now this is a marriage conference here. So tips on husband-wife relations. Being a good husband, what to do here.

Always show your wife the bright side in her stress. Now, interesting, as I've done research here and looking at the commentaries, there's some comment, actually there's one commentary. In one sense it's curious that there's only one commentary that actually comes down on Hannah and says this is a woman with a bad attitude. Okay, fair enough. But interestingly, few people that I've read find anything wrong with Hannah here and wholeheartedly support her as a woman of faith here.

But there's more that come down on Elkanah saying, all right, here's a man who, let's call him well-meaning, but perhaps ill-advised in terms of how to tend to his wife's needs here in a moment of need. Hey, sweetheart, you got me. You don't need sons. How do we respond to that? We think, all right, not perhaps the most charitable of husbands, not the wisest, not the best spoken.

Is that the way we receive this man? Often that's our approach to it. But there it stands. There's the observation. His approach is, you have me, and I am better than ten. You don't need one.

I'm better than ten. You've got me. Well, what about this other man in her life? We get Eli, the priest, who also observes her in her affliction here. And he has two different responses. The priest Eli actually changes in his response.

His first response we've seen as he observes her praying there, pouring out her soul in the temple, in the tabernacle here, the house of God. He observes her and thinks, this is a woman intoxicated. she doesn't belong here and he tells her look quit that stop it get out of here you don belong here in that state Put away your wine How long are you going to be drunk He has a word of condemnation for her initially Initially. But that shifts once he comes to understand what's going on.

Let's look at verse 15. But Hannah answered and said, No, my Lord, I am a woman of sorrowful spirit. I have neither drunk wine nor intoxicating drink, but I have poured out my soul before Yahweh. Do not consider your maidservant a wicked woman, for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief I have spoken until now. Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace.

And the God of Israel... Okay, we might be seeing different things here. We've got a translation question here. I'm looking at the New King James, and this says, And the God of Israel, grant your petition which you have asked of him. and she said, let your maidservant find favor in your sight. So the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.

We've got a difficult grammatical issue in verse 17, because this verb form, the verb form taken in isolation, the Lord, the God of Israel grant, could be taken as an indicative form, that is, a statement of fact. The Lord God will grant your position, but the verb form in isolation could also be taken as a wish. may he grant your position? Now, which is it here?

Now, if this is much disputed on a grammatical basis, there's a lot of ink being spilled on terms of how Hebrew grammar works, and I've recently written a chapter of a reference grammar that addresses partly this issue, but if I understand Hebrew grammar correctly, then the word order suggested here, which is a subject-verb-word order, indicates a statement of fact. This man is not wishing her well. Oh, fine, so A, I'd love it if God grants your request.

But he is, as the high priest here, the one who controls the oracles of God here, and is to know the mind of God, is giving her an assurance. Woman, I understand. The Lord will grant your position, your petition here. She is receiving an assurance here from the high priest. So he's gone from condemning her to assuring her that the Lord will hear what she has asked. and will grant her petition.

That the second man here Eli perspective a changing perspective on Hannah and her request The fourth person we need to focus on is then the result Samuel Let's begin reading in verse 19. Then they rose early in the morning and worshipped before Yahweh, and returned and came to their house at Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and Yahweh remembered her. so it came to pass in the process of time that Hannah conceived and bore a son and called his name Shemuel Samuel saying because I have asked for him from Yahweh Shemuel means heard by God now the man Elkanah and all his house went up to offer to Yahweh the yearly sacrifice and his vow but Hannah did not go up for she said to her husband not until the child is weaned then I will take him that he may appear before Yahweh and remain there forever.

So Elkanah, her husband, said to her, do what seems best to you. Only wait until you have weaned him. Only let Yahweh establish his word. Then the woman stayed and nursed her son until she had weaned him. Now, when she had weaned him, she took him up with her with three bulls, one ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of Yahweh in Shiloh.

And the child was young, and they slaughtered the bull and brought the child to Eli. And she said, Oh, my Lord, as your soul lives, my Lord, I am the woman who stood by you here, praying to Yahweh. For this child I prayed, and Yahweh has granted me my petition, which I asked of him. Therefore, I also have lent him to Yahweh. As long as he lives, he shall be lent to Yahweh.

So they worshipped Yahweh there. The result of Hannah's situation is that she obtains what she asked for. God grants her her request. And so she names the child heard by God. Now there's a couple of curious things though. The principle of tension.

There's some tensions here in the giving of Samuel and these are actually related to the Hebrew here. So let me help you see some things that aren't necessarily obvious in English. The word Samuel means heard by God. And she names this child heard by God. she says explaining it because the Lord heard her petition. Now that in some ways makes sense but in another way it doesn't seem quite to fit because the child was not heard by God.

Why are we calling the child heard by God when it was the mother who was heard by God? We should name him something like granted of God or something like that The request of God or gift of God Something like that But no she names him heard by God Now this is not the first time that we had a name in scripture that seems not quite to match the circumstances of the giving. If we go back to the book of Exodus, and we see the child Moses being born, Pharaoh's daughter bestows a name on him, and she calls him Moshe, because, she says, I drew him up out of the waters.

Now the name Moshe, curiously, I've seen some footnotes say that it means drawn out, but it doesn't mean drawn out. It means, it's an active participle in Hebrew, it means one who draws out. So here is Pharaoh's daughter sending a servant to draw this child in distress out from the waters, and she names the child one who draws out. It doesn't quite seem to fit the circumstance.

Ah, but we know it does fit perfectly because that's what God has raised up this child to do. This is what he's going to do. The name is quasi-prophetic. He is going to be the one who draws Israel out of Egypt, out of their distress. God is going to send him like Pharaoh's daughter sent the maidservant to draw God's people out of distress. So the tension in the name that doesn't seem to quite fit is exactly what God intended.

Well, here we have a similar circumstance. Samuel is called heard by God. We're going to have to think about that. That's going to have significance as our story progresses. There's a tension there. There's another tension here, and that comes up at the end of the chapter here in verse 28.

Hannah speaking to the priest says, as long, or if we, yeah, verse 28, therefore, I also have lent him to Yahweh. As long as he lives, he shall be lent to Yahweh. Now that term in Hebrew, lent, is the term shaul, spelled S-A-U-L, if we put that into English. She calls this child Saul on his birth, in his presentation. She says, this child God has given me, shaul, Saul.

Saul literally means, shaul is a passive participle, literally means asked for. So if you go to borrow something and somebody acquiesces and lends it to you, you have the asked for thing. So literally means asked for, translated here, lent. Most versions do it that way. But we need to bear in mind that at the moment... This child is born, or when he is presented, somewhat later, after being weaned, she calls the child Shaul, Saul.

And this is the introduction to the book of Samuel. What is this for? How does this function as an introduction? It's full of mystery. We're not sure of the significance yet. But we have one more mystery that unfolds as we go into chapter two.

The account of Hannah, she doesn't pass away from our story entirely until she gives us a song. So this is 1 Samuel the musical now. Oftentimes songs show up in scripture as a way of indicating a climax point. Exodus 15 rounds out the whole deliverance of Egypt and moves us in a whole new direction as we move into the wilderness to go to Mount Sinai. And here, Hannah sings this song, and it's a curious song.

I'm not going to, we don't have the time to read the whole thing, but even if you look at the beginning of it, my heart rejoices in Yahweh, my horn is exalted in Yahweh, I smile at my enemies because I rejoice in your salvation. And she goes on in verse 4 to talk about the bows of the mighty being broken, those stumble with strength. It's an odd song for somebody to sing having had a child, right?

Is this what would go through a mother first? Victory over mine enemies! this sounds more like a warrior's song. Victory in battle. And at one point she does bring up in verse 5 the barren one bearing seven. But she's talking about, it doesn't sound like somebody merely scoring one off the rival wife, but a great victory. And then when we get to the end of it, verse 10, she concludes by saying, the adversaries of Yahweh shall be broken in pieces.

From heaven he will thunder against them. Yahweh will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his Messiah. Wait a minute. What king? What Messiah?

What anointed one? What's she talking about? This song is prophetic. She's saying beyond what probably she even understands. Or maybe she does understand a lot. That this child is destined to bring in, to usher in the kingdom.

Now the kingdom had already been spoken of probably in the clearest way back in Numbers chapter 24 when a pagan prophet who has a view into Israel future one Balaam sees a king in the future and speaks of a star rising a scepter in Jacob that going to have dominion He sees a king in Israel's future even though Israel cannot see that king themselves. And now we are prepared. Hannah sings and the kingdom here is at hand.

This is the hope for Israel. At this point, we need to pause and understand what is this term that is used at the end of verse 10. Because this is the pivotal term for the rest of the book. In your notes, you have a suggested title for all of this book, Samuel and Kings Together. We see here in our introduction, it's going to be the story of the Messiah.

Now, what is a Messiah? the word Messiah is a Hebrew term the term used here, there's what it would look like in Hebrew script as it's used today, we pronounce it underneath that, Mashiach would be the way the Hebrew would sound Greek doesn't have an SH letter and likes to put S's on the end to show nominative case, and so you bring that into the Greek language and we translate it into the Greek and it looks like Messias, and then we bring that in English and we get Messiah so we have this word Messiah and Messiah is not an English word Messiah is a Hebrew word with just an English spin on the pronunciation. So Messiah is just not an English word. So we have to ask, what is a Messiah?

What does Messiah mean? It's a common Hebrew word. When it's translated into Greek, it's translated with the Greek word Christos. In nominative ending, os, you take that off because we don't use case endings in English, and you get the word Christ, Christ. Now Christ is not an English word. Christ is a Greek word.

It's being used to translate the Hebrew word Messiah. They're the same word. You can use them interchangeably. You can take Christ out at any point and put Messiah in. So we could read, and in fact, if we did read the ancient Greek translation of 1 Samuel here, if we were reading the Septuagint, what you would see in verse 10 is that he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his Christ.

That's the word that's used in the Greek translation. Ah, this is the story of the Christ we're reading. What do those terms mean? They both mean anointed one. If we were to translate Messiah from Hebrew or Christ from Greek, it would mean anointed one. Now, what is an anointing?

An anointing is a ceremonial pouring of oil on the head as a sign of divine appointment to an office Anointing symbolizes God pouring out his spirit upon his chosen servant. We see that kind of pouring of the spirit, God putting his spirit on people. Back in the time of Moses, for prophets there, we see him putting his spirit upon various judges before they go out for victory.

But the term anointed one comes to be properly used here in reference to the king. So when you read Messiah, when you read Christ, the idea is this is God's anointed king, the one that God has put his spirit upon to rule over his people. That's what a Messiah is. So going back to our initial question from last night, is Jesus the Messiah? Calling him a Messiah is a major claim.

We're saying a lot about him to use that term with him. Is he? We'll come back to that. So Hannah now finishes the introduction by telling us that this book we are reading, 1 Samuel, 1 Kings, is the story of the Messiah. Now, we're going to skip a little bit of material here. We're going to skip the account of Ichabod.

We're going to skip the account of Ebenezer for a bit and go straight to chapter 8. and keep that chart that you filled out regarding the request in mind because in chapter 8 of 1 Samuel we get another request. Please follow along with me as I read from verse 1. Now it came to pass when Samuel was old that he had made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his firstborn was Joel, the name of his second, Avia.

They were judges in Beersheba. But his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes, perverted justice. Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us, like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, Give us a king to judge us.

So Samuel prayed to Yahweh. And Yahweh said to Samuel, heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day which they have forsaken me and served other gods so they are doing to you also Now therefore heed their voice However you shall solemnly forewarn them and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them.

So Samuel told all the words of the Yahweh to the people who asked him for a king. And he said, this will be the behavior of your king who will reign over you. He will take your sons, appoint them for his own chariots and to be his horsemen. Some will run before his chariots. He will appoint captains over his thousands, captains over his fifties. He will set some to plow his ground, reap his harvest, and to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.

He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers. He will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves and give them to his servants. He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage and give it to his officers and his servants. In other words, there will be taxes. And he will take your male servants and your female servants, your finest young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work.

He will take a tenth of your sheep and you will be his servants. and you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves and Yahweh will not hear you in that day. Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel and they said, No, but we will have a king over us that we also may be like all the nations and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles. And Samuel heard all the words of the people and he repeated them in the hearing of Yahweh.

So Yahweh said to Samuel, heed their voice and make them a king. And Samuel said to the men of Israel, every man go to his city. Now, here we have the account of request. What is behind the request? What is Israel's circumstance as they make this request? Now, already I hope in your minds, as you think about the question we asked in chapter 1, now that we asked in chapter 8, you're beginning to see some parallels here.

What is their motive for a request? They want a king because they don't have one. But the other nations have kings, and those kings have been causing us no end of trouble. In fact, the part that we skipped lays out the Philistine problem, showing how they have had constant war with the Philistines. The Philistines have five kings. There's kings for you.

And those chapters recount for us the period of the judges, when Israel would sin and God would deliver them up into the hand of a foreign king to serve that king. Here is Israel, harassed by foreign kings, and she has none. She wants. One. What are the responses to it? Notice Samuel's concern that the Lord echoes.

He is displeased by this. That God says in verse 5, I'm sorry, not in verse 5, verse 7. He, the voice of the people and all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over me. or that I should not reign over them. They do not recognize that they have me. They have something better than ten kings, dare I say.

Now suddenly Elkanah's words are a whole lot different. Is this a lousy husband speaking? No. This is giving us some tone to Israel's request here. They have a king. They do not need this thing that they asked for. we have Samuel's displeasure in verse 6 the thing displeased Samuel think of Eli the priest this thing is wrong stop don't ask this but throughout the chapter again and again we see the verb Shammah that comes from Samuel's very name he is heard by God and God says throughout in verse 7 and Yahweh said to Samuel literally this is the word hear the voice of the people.

Shema he says. Verse 9 Now therefore hear their voice. They are heard by God. Verse 22 So Yahweh said to Samuel hear their voice. This is a refrain. Our author is waving a flag in front of us saying why is Samuel called heard by God?

Because he is the conduit here. Because Israel will be heard by God and he is the one who's going to carry that petition. The request is heard. And what will be the result of this request? Chapter 9, there was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Teror, the son of Bekorat, the son of Afia, a Benjamite, a mighty man of power, and he had a choice and handsome son whose name was Shaul.

Just like chapter 1, the result of this request is Shaul. Right there. Now, that changes the color completely, when we go back and consider Hannah and her situation And Hannah and her situation is going to change the color completely as we view what happened here in chapter 8 Chapter 1 the Hannah story is commentary on Israel request for a king How should we feel about that?

There is a definite tension here. Because God points out that they don't need a king. This request appears to be a mistaken, an erroneous, a false request. And yet we have this refrain throughout the book of Judges, if we read that again and again we're told Israel in those days there was no king in Israel everyone did what was right in his own eyes reinforcing to us they need a king they need a king in the law that Moses had given there are laws and statutes regarding the office of the king there are promises given for the king who will rise God's plan has always been to raise up a king to fulfill his purposes for Israel and yet now it seems like asking for a king is the wrong thing what do we make of that?

Well, the first thing, our author is helping us not to condemn Israel too strongly, not to come down on them for their sin too strongly, but rather giving us a glimpse of Elkanah. We see God is like a husband who sees this may be a wrong request, but he has compassion on it. He understands what motivates it, and he understands that, no, this will be good for them. let me give them the king.

They need to learn something about a king first. But ultimately, let me give them a king. This also affects our view of God's providence here. Many have tried to sort out this tension between is it wrong to ask for a king or is it right to ask for a king? Since God planned for there to be a king, then what was wrong with the request? Maybe asking for a king wasn't bad.

Maybe it's just the timing. They just needed to wait and have a king come later. There might be something to that. God doesn't raise the timing issue here in chapter 8. Or it could be that the issue is their motive. So it wasn't wrong to ask for a king.

It's the reason why they wanted a king. They wanted a king so they didn't have to obey God. They could just turn it all over to the king and he would give them security. I think there's a lot to that. I think that captures it too. But I think there's also something to the truth that we can say that it was, yes, it was out and out wrong for Israel to want a king and to demand a king at all And yet that is the plan that God intended to use to fulfill his purposes If we think of the future of the kingdom and look ahead, we see that David's throne is established as the hope of Israel, and that hope is passed on to, who's the king who will carry that up?

Who is God's chosen? Who is the vessel God has prepared to carry forth that kingdom? It is one Solomon. Now, who was Solomon's mother? Bathsheba, whom David took in sin, so that if David were a righteous man and had done what he should have done, he would never have married Bathsheba, Solomon would never have been born. here is the mystery of the wisdom and the sovereignty of God where he purposed to use David's own sinful actions as his unique instrumentation for bringing forth the king of his choosing, Solomon.

And God does that. And so too here. I don't think we need to sort out the tension. They shouldn't have asked for a king. They had God as their king. And yet it is through the king from the beginning God planned to use that sinful request, that failure to appreciate the king they had in God, that would be the means he chose to use from the beginning of the creation of Israel to bring about his plan of redemption for Israel and for the world.

So we need a king. It is wrong to demand a king, but we ultimately do need a king. now the intervening material that we skipped why is that there? let me briefly give you some background on that we get the account of Ichabod no glory, the glory has departed we read about the Philistine conquest of Israel where they take the ark into captivity, the ark of God and this brings about a great tension regarding God's glory this is echoing a tension that will come during the exile when Israel is carried into exile in the years to come as the kingdom develops. And the tension, of course, is how can God punish his people without that being misunderstood by the world as God's failure to protect his people, as a weakness on God's part.

If Israel faces loss, the Philistines or any other nations are going to say, aha, our God is better, their God is not strong enough But if God doesn punish them then that going to misrepresent God another way by Israel doing sin and worshiping false gods and God name once again being maligned So God seems to be in a lose-lose situation here. That story is how God works his way out of that situation and brings glory to himself uniquely. and then we have the account of Ebenezer where we see that God in the midst of this sin in the midst of this leadership crisis where the priesthood has become corrupt in the midst of this oppression where there are foreign enemies nonetheless God raises up a man Samuel who hears God and is heard by God and is going to be used to bring the next phase of God's plan of redemption into being the kingdom of God So the books of Samuel and Kings, we might title thematically as the story of the Messiah. And book one of that, it's a trilogy, by the way.

This is a trilogy in terms of its thematic content. I don't know if we have any Tolkien fans here, but it's a trilogy with a prequel. Judges is the prequel to this trilogy on the story of the Messiah. And we're looking at book one now. And we might title book one, The Birth of the Kingdom. Why The Birth of the Kingdom?

Because that's the way the author himself chooses to view the kingdom of God. It is like Hannah being given this request of a son. Israel is going to obtain kingdom and it will come through this birth. But there is a period of labor that we have to go through. So part one here, we see the request. Hannah's request preparing us for Israel's request.

We now go on to part two. We're heading toward David. David is going to be God's chosen instrument, God's chosen king. But for Israel to be prepared to receive that king, we need to learn some lessons. They have a misunderstanding of the nature of kingship. And so we are first going to meet Saul.

And if you remember what I told you about the name Saul, it means asked for. And Israel is very much going to receive what they asked for. and it's not going to be good for them. A page of your notes, the next page, is entitled Part 2, Ask for Becoming King. So the next several chapters focus on how and when Saul becomes king. But here's going to be another tension.

When exactly does he become king? king. Pay attention to five different times when we might say, now Saul has become the king. Let's first meet this Saul. We'll form a portrait. At the bottom of that page, you'll see two royal portraits. So we're going to start by filling out the portrait on Saul.

Then we're going to look at how he becomes a king. And then we're going to look over and look at the portrait of David. Chapter 9. We've met this man, Saul. Let's pick up the story in verse 2. So Kish had a choice and handsome son whose name was Saul.

There was not a more handsome person than he among the children of Israel. From his shoulders upward, he was taller than any of the people. Now the donkeys of Kish, Saul's father, were lost. And Kish said to his son Saul, please take one of the servants with you. Arise, go look for the donkeys. So he passed through the mountains of Ephraim, through the land of Shalisha, but they did not find them.

Then they passed through the land of Shaalim, and they were not there. Then he passed through the land of the Benjamites, but they did not find them. When they had come to the land of Zuth, Saul said to his servant who was with him, Come, let us return, lest my father cease caring about the donkeys and become worried about us. And he said to him, Look now, there is in this city a man of God, and he is an honorable man.

All that he says surely comes to pass. So let us go there. Perhaps he can show us the way that we should go. Then Saul said to his servant, But look, if we go, what shall we bring the man? For the bread in our vessels is all gone, and there is no present to bring to the man of God. What do we have?

And the servant answered Saul again and said, Look, I have here at hand a fourth of a shekel of silver. I will give that to the man of God to tell us our way. Saul says, Great, let's go. And they go and find this seer who is Samuel. Now, what do we see about Saul here? What kind of a man is he?

First thing we see is we have a description of his physical characteristics. He is a handsome man. He's outwardly handsome. and he is tall. Head and shoulders above the rest, we read. He's quite tall. You can't miss this man.

So he's outwardly impressive in his physical form. We also see some other features about him. We see him, we first meet him as a man who is seeking his father's lost donkeys. Now, how is he doing at this job? The story unfolds for us to show us that he can't find these lost donkeys. He's looking for them all over and he's despairing.

He unable to succeed at this task of finding the donkeys to such a point that now he has become lost himself Lost in the same sense that the donkeys are lost It's not that he doesn't know where he is. Likewise, it's not that the donkeys don't know where they are. The donkeys were perfectly well aware of where they were and where they wanted to be. But their owner did not know.

Their master did not know where they were. They were lost to Kish. And Saul becomes lost to his father as well. So he becomes as lost as the donkeys are, as he cannot find those donkeys. We see something else about this Saul in our portrait. So he is tall, he's handsome, he's a man seeking his father's lost donkeys.

He's a man who's concerned about what to give the man of God. We can't go to him and ask him for help unless we've got some money here to give him as a gift. We've got to give him some kind of an offering so that he will give us the information we want. Fortunately, the servant has a few bucks and they're good to go. But this is important. Our author includes that there.

This is part of who Saul is. He's concerned about such things. And then they meet Samuel. And Samuel reveals to them not only that he is to be the king to come, but he answers the question about the lost donkeys. Notice the prominence of this theme of lost donkeys. We read in the first part of the story, Saul's concern that, verse 5, that my father will cease caring about the donkeys and become worried about us.

If we look again at verse 19, in his interview with Samuel, Samuel answered Saul and said, I am the seer. Go up before the high place, for you shall eat with me today, and tomorrow I will let you go and will tell you all that is in your heart. But as for your donkeys that were lost three days ago, do not be anxious about them, for they have been found.

So donkey's theme, solved there. Verse 2 of the next chapter, 10-2, Samuel tells them a little bit of his immediate future, and says, when you have departed from me today, you will find two men by Rachel's tomb in the terry of Benjamin at Zalzah, and they will say to you, the donkeys which you went to say to you, the donkeys which you went to look for, have been found. And now your father has ceased caring about the donkeys, and is worrying about you, saying, what shall I do about my son?

What he feared has come to pass, and that's the code word to know that what Samuel has predicted is coming to pass. And then in verse 14 here we go again Then Saul uncle once he gets home said to him and to his servant where did you go So he said to look for the donkeys and we saw that they were nowhere to be found we went to Samuel Saul's uncle said, tell me please, what did Samuel say to you? So Saul said to his uncle, he told us plainly that the donkeys had been found.

But about the matter of the kingdom, he did not tell what Samuel had said. Those donkeys again, they keep showing up. But then we see verse 21 in chapter 10. Now the people have come together, and they're going to cast lots, and they're going to elect a king by that process. The lot is cast, and it comes upon the family of Benjamin, it comes on the family of Kish, and ultimately to Saul.

We read in verse 21, when he had caused the tribe of Benjamin to come near by their families, the tribe of Matri was chosen, and Saul, the son of Kish, was chosen. But when they sought him, he could not be found. Saul is lost he knows where he is he turns out he's hiding behind the baggage we see a few verses later but nobody else knows where he is we found our king and where is he Saul is lost this theme is starting to strike home here so that's our king that's God's choice here now at what point does Saul become king note five points going back to chapter 10 we might say in verse 1 then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him and said is it not because Yahweh has anointed you commander over his inheritance and tells him the signs he pours oil on his head that's it, that's the anointing he is now the Lord's anointed he is now the Messiah, he is now the Christ He's king, right?

As soon as that oil's on his head, the prophet has chosen him. He is the appointed king. Or is he? Then in verse 9, we read, So it was when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, that God gave him another heart, and all the signs came to pass that day. And when they came there to the hill, there was a group of prophets to meet him. Then the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them. and it happened when all who knew him formerly saw that he indeed prophesied among the prophets that the people said to one another, what is this that has come upon the son of Kish Is Saul also among the prophets God changes him changes his heart gives him the spirit of God Now he the king right Before that was just symbolic the oil thing But now God has changed him, now he's the king, he's the king of Israel.

And yet, as we saw at the end of this passage, in chapter 16, Saul doesn't say anything about being anointed the king. In fact, Samuel anoints him in secret. He takes him up on top of the house and anoints him there and gives him these things. Samuel goes on. Everybody's kind of scratching their head. What's that guy doing prophesying there?

Is he one of the prophets? Nobody can quite figure out what this change is that's come over Saul. And Saul doesn't say a thing, even to his own uncle, about being anointed king. So is he the king or is he not the king? And then the latter part of chapter 10. Now he's the king.

We have an election. We cast lots, we choose him, and coincidence of coincidences. Who should be drawn by lot but the very same guy that Samuel had anointed earlier? God orchestrating the casting of the lot so that his chosen vessel should come about. And so we read him. Let's look, for example, at how we find him.

They're wondering in verse 22, therefore they inquired of Yahweh further. Has the man come here yet? Maybe he's held up a little bit. GPS problem. And Jaffa answered, there he is, hidden among the equipment. God knows where he is.

So they ran and they brought him from there. And when he stood among the people, he was taller than any of the people, from his shoulders upward. And Samuel said to all the people, do you see him whom Jaffa has chosen, that there is no one like him among all the people? So all the people shouted and said, long live the king. Then Samuel explained to the people the behavior of royalty and wrote it in a book and laid it up before Jaffa.

And Samuel sent all the people away, every man to his house. And Saul also went home to Gibeah, and valiant men went with him, whose hearts God had touched. But some rebels said, how can this man save us? So they despised him, and they brought him no presents, but he held his peace. All right, well, the people, all the people said, long live the king. Now he's the king, right?

He wasn't the king before, that was secret, that was private. But now the people have elected him, they have chosen him, he's the king of Israel. But there's some that are still not on board, are spurning the choice of king here. But then we look at the next chapter, chapter 11. One of the cities... East of the Jordan is under attack from the Ammonites, or at least threatened with siege.

And messengers come in verse 4. So the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul and told the news in the hearing of the people, and all the people lifted up their voices and wept. Now there was Saul coming behind the herd from the field. He's out there watching the livestock, maybe plowing here with some of the animals. And Saul said, what troubles the people that they weep?

And they told him the words of the men of Jabesh. Then the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard this news, and his anger was greatly aroused. He took a yoke of oxen, cut them in pieces, sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hands of messengers, saying, whoever does not go out with Saul and Samuel to battle, so it shall be done to his oxen.

And the fear of Yahweh fell on the people, and they came out with one consent. And he leads this group of people, and he goes and he obtains victory over the Ammonites. Now he's victorious. Now he's done what a king ought to do. in antiquity there are two main jobs for a king Israel's kingship at any rate one, he was the supreme court he was the chief judge of the land when the people want a king one of the reasons they raise is that Samuel's sons were showing signs of corruption so they wanted a king who could give them justice the second job of the king was to be the commander in chief of the armed forces So he is to lead the people to battle and to give them protection from the enemy.

So to give them peace and protection from within, from their neighbor as judge, to give them protection from their outside neighbors, their enemies. This is the job of the king. We might compare that to our government. Notice, however, that the king was not the legislature. The legislature was Moses. Law had been set.

The king has no right to introduce new laws. He can set policy, set precedent in terms of execution of the law of God, but he was not there to affect the law, the constitution that Israel had. Well, here is Saul, and now he's won a battle. So he's the commander of chief. He's exercising the duty of king. And then after the victory in verse 12, we read, Then the people said to Samuel, Who is he who said, Shall Saul reign over us?

Bring the men that we may put them to death. but Saul said not a man shall be put to death this day for today Yahweh has accomplished salvation in Israel He gives a decision He is now exercising the office of Supreme Court No, by my authority, this shall not be done. So now he's the king. He's been fulfilling the office of the king. And then we read in verse 14, Then Samuel said to the people, let us go to Gilgal, renew the kingdom there.

So all the people went to Gilgal, and there they made Saul king before Yahweh and Gilgal. So when is this fellow the king? Is it when he's anointed by the prophet? The prophet makes him king. Is it when the spirit of God comes upon him? The spirit makes him king.

Is it when the people elect him? The people make him king. Is it when he exercises the office of king? He now has the function of king. or is it when he has this ceremony, this formal crowning where he now obtains the trappings of king and hereafter we see him with a throne and a crown and a palace and a capital city and all the other things that we associate with kingship.

When does he become the king? That's an academic question. It doesn't matter. We move on. Well, it's going to matter eventually. But here's another tension that we've got to put on the shelf.

One more tension that we've got to stick there to not forget as we move forward into this story. So that's why I have a handout for you. Keep these things before you. Five times when Saul becomes king. We conclude then with the career of Saul. Unfortunately, we don't have time to read all of chapters 12 through, or 13 through 15, but I would encourage you to read those and meditate on them on your own time.

There we get the nature of this king. I'm only going to call your attention to a couple of verses here. Chapter 13. Each one of these chapters deal with a failure on the part of Saul. A failure to be an effective king. In chapter 13, he has received some instructions from Samuel that he is to wait for Samuel before engaging in battle against the Philistines.

Samuel is going to come after seven days, offer a sacrifice, and at that point the battle can commence. But seven days go by. Verse 8 we see he waited seven days according to the time set by Samuel but Samuel did not come to him and the people were scattering from him So Saul said bring a burnt offering and peace offerings to me and he offered the burnt offering.

We see disobedience on Saul's part. He's disobedient, and why was he disobedient? Because the people began scattering, and he was afraid. I've got to do something. We've got to do something to keep people engaged so that we can get the victory here in battle. And so he does what had been forbidden to him.

Sounds a little bit like the king who, here's a king who wants to offer a sacrifice. Sounds like the man who wanted to make sure he had some kind of offering for the prophet for him to give us the word we want. We can't go to battle without the sacrifice. We've got to offer it here, even without Samuel. Samuel confronts him, points out his error, and this is where we get in this context the key verses beginning in verse 13.

Samuel said to Saul, you have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of Yahweh your God which he commanded you. For now Yahweh would have established your kingdom over Israel forever, but now your kingdom shall not continue. Yahweh has sought for himself a man according to his heart, a man after his own heart. And Yahweh has commanded him to be commander over his people because you have not kept what Yahweh commanded you.

Chapter 14 is the next failure. This passage begins by introducing us to Jonathan, who in an apparent stalemate between Israelites and Philistines, breaks the battle line here, crosses no man's land over to the Philistine garrison, and single-handedly, with just his armor-bearer there as support, brings about a rout of the Philistines. But in his absence, Saul has uttered an oath.

He has placed a vow upon, a curse upon his people, saying in verse 21, Curse it is the man who eats any food until evening before I have taken vengeance on my enemies. Notice the place of I. These are my enemies. The vengeance is my vengeance. And therefore, nobody touch food until I get vengeance. Well, Jonathan was not there to hear it.

So Jonathan is there passing through a forest, eats a little honey that he finds, and somebody warns him of it and says, we weren't supposed to eat. Your father put a curse upon the people And Jonathan response in verse 29 is my father has troubled the land Look now how my countenance is brightened because I tasted a little of this honey Finally, they have the battle. The battle is won.

The Philistines are defeated. And in verse 31, we read, Now the battle, they had driven back the Philistines that day from Michmash to Ailon, so the people were very faint because of this fast. The people rushed on the spoil, took sheep, oxen, calves, and slaughtered them on the ground, and the people ate them with the blood. Then they told Saul, saying, Look, the people are sinning against Yahweh by eating with the blood.

Moses had strictly commanded, Do not eat blood. Cook the meat. Pour out the blood before you do so. But it is unlawful for Israelites to eat blood. Blood is life. Blood is atonement.

And so he said, You have dealt treacherously. Roll a large stone to me this day. And Saul gives the command to offer the sacrifice here and to cook the meat. The men are transgressing. Why are they transgressing? Not because Saul wanted them to.

He didn't command them to eat blood, but he provoked them to by his folly, by his swagger, by his focus on self, by this vow for his own pride. He had provoked his own people to sin against God. and then it comes out that Jonathan has tasted they cast lots Saul says whoever has done this thing he shall surely die even if it is my own son Jonathan lots are cast it is his son Jonathan he has brought curse upon his own house by his folly and so he tells Jonathan you must die and the people say you can't do that this is the hero that saved us in battle you can't kill Jonathan Saul's response my paraphrase oh, oh, okay sure and that's the end of it this is our king and lastly 15 Saul sent on a mission destroy the Amalekites for what they did to Israel preying upon them attacking them defenseless when they came up out of Egypt. Now, exact the Lord's vengeance.

Destroy them all. Destroy all the livestock, everything. Saul engages in the battle. He wins the battle, but he spares the king and the best of the lives. Why? He's confronted by Samuel.

Verse 14, Saul has claimed to have been faithful in executing the command and destroying everything, but in verse 14, Samuel said, What then is this bleeding of sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? And Saul said, Well, they have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen to sacrifice to Yahweh your God. Well, the rest we've utterly destroyed.

Notice two things. One, God's got to be pleased with this. We're going to do a sacrifice. This has got to please the Lord. And it's their fault anyway. It was the people.

Now, we might say that was an excuse. Saul was behind it, but I'm willing to take him at his word here. It probably was the people who thought, hey, this is some great stuff. Let's offer it to God as a sacrifice. and Saul, whose job it was to lead the people, to follow the ways of the Lord, not to do what was right in their own eyes, as the judge period describes but to lead the people into following after the Lord That your job Saul He follows the people This people lost following their own way that God has sent him to bring them back, to find these lost donkeys, if you will.

Instead of leading them back into the ways of the Lord, he's as lost as the rest of them. In fact, leading them astray. Going their own way. This is our king. All right. well, I've held you long. We need a break.

We need a pause. Let me just close with this thought. Our story continues. But what have we seen now? God has established for them, I will give you what you want, but before I fulfill my purpose in it, let me show you what you have asked for. And he gives them Mr.

Asked For. And it's not good for them. And they come to learn that what they need is not a king. They don't need a king, Just somebody to fill that role. They need a certain kind of king. They need a man after God's own heart.

They need God ruling them. Even as a man, in this case, King David. Now we might be inclined to the same kind of folly Thinking you know what we have this problem If we just had a youth pastor we could solve whatever problem we seeing in our youth A youth pastor will do it, or an assistant pastor, or a minister of this, or a senator. If we just had a man in a certain role, it would solve our problems.

Now, we're seniors, no, not a man. It's not the position. You could get a youth pastor. But unless you've got the right man, unless you've got a certain kind of man, unless you are doing what you need to do to follow that direction, filling positions is of no help. And in fact, will make things worse. They will.

And Israel learns that the hard way. All right. I believe we have time for questions slotted for today. Let me conclude us here in a word of prayer, and we will pick up our walkthrough for Samuel later on this afternoon. Please pray with me. Lord God, your word this morning has led us to appreciate and to rest on you that you are our king and you always have been And yet we are weak We do need someone like us who can go before us whom we can look after and who knows us and our own weaknesses.

Lord, I thank you for your compassion and your pity, the fact that you look upon us in our weakness and our distresses. Thank you, Lord, that you, knowing what we need better than we do, always give us what is good. Sometimes you lead us a hard way to teach us what is good. But you do it to fulfill your own purposes. And you do it in graciousness and kindness to wean us from our fallen and flawed ideas.

Lord, I pray as we are just caught up in the middle of what you are doing here in 1 Samuel, that as we proceed today, that you would continue to bless this word and your message to us, that we might see with clarity what you have and what you are doing and how this should impact our lives today. Bless the time that we have here now together to share and the fellowship one with another that Jesus Christ might receive the glory in all that we do and say. I pray it in his name.

Amen.