Saul’s Leadership is Established

Transcript

GRS 2-65
4/22/2007
Saul’s Leadership is Established
1 Samuel 11-12
Gil Rugh

We are studying first Samuel and we are going to look at chapter 11 together. First Samuel and the 11th chapter, we are at a crucial section in Israel’s history because we are entering into the period of the monarchy. For the first time Israel has an earthly king, they look like the nations. Now they are just at the beginning stage Saul has been anointed king by Samuel, that occurred in chapter 10 verse one. Samuel took the flask of oil, poured it on his head referring to Saul, kissed him and said “Has not the Lord anointed you ruler over his inheritance?”

Then down in verse 17 of chapter 10, you have the public inauguration if you will of Saul as king. What we read in verses one was a private anointing which officially set him apart as God’s appointed king, now the people, the nation is gathered together in Mizpah; in verses 17 and following and you have a public inauguration where Saul is established in the sight of the people. In verse 24, Samuel said to all the people, “do you see him whom the Lord has chosen? Surely there is no one like him among all the people”, so all the people shouted and said long live the king.

Now he has been formally anointed and installed as king. What do you do? The nation hasn’t been organized under the monarchy yet. So what Saul does is go back home. Verse 26 of chapter 10, Saul went to his house at Gibeah the only difference is he has a group of valiant men whom the Lord has moved in their hearts to join with Saul. So there is the beginning if you will of a royal entourage, but other than that things are as they are; Saul went back to his normal family and his household. What he now has to have and it will take is an opportunity for him to step forward and demonstrate that he is indeed the king of Israel, can lead the nation, can give them victory and be the one that will unite the army of Israel under his authority.

Back in chapter eight verse 20 when the people were clamoring to Samuel to give them a king like the nations, they said at the end of verse 19, No, there shall be a king over us, that we may be like all the nations, note this, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles. And there is a particular issue before them as we will see that precipitated this. There is an earthly enemy threatening them. And they want someone other than Samuel to be judging the nation, they want a king who can step to the fore and lead them in their battles. That opportunity comes when we come to chapter 11. What Saul will do here is lead the armies of Israel against an enemy who is attacking and thus he will establish himself as king. The enemy is the Ammonites and the particular city we focus on will be Jabesh–gilead. Look at verse one of chapter 11, now Nahash the Ammonite came up and besieged Jabesh–gilead: and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, “make a covenant with us and we will serve you’.

We are on the east side of the Jordan river, now over in the region where modern Jordan would be and that whole area on the east side of the Jordan river. Jabesh–gilead is about twenty 25 miles south of the sea of Galilee, so if you had some orientation with the sea of Galilee and then the Jordan river runs down to the Dead Sea. We are about 25 miles south of the Dead Sea on the east side of the Jordan river when we are at Jabesh-gilead. Now, the Ammonites are the descendants of Abraham’s nephew Lot. Remember, after Lot fled the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, his two daughters entered into an incestuous relationship with him and the one daughter out of that incestuous relationship produced the son that would become - out of his seed will come the Moabites and the other daughter produced the son from whom would descent the Ammonites. So here the Ammonites who are located in the east side of the Jordan river, that account with lots and the founding of these two people in Genesis 19 verses 30 and 38. They are inhabitants on the east side of the Jordan River, so it’s natural there could be a conflict here.

We have two and half tribes of Israel located on the east side of the Jordan. So now you have lines drawn where the Ammonites begin to encroach and try to subjugate the Israelites. The Ammonites have tried to subjugate the Israelites earlier in their history in the days of the Judges. And in Judges 10 and 11 God raised up the Judge Jephthah, if you remember, he is the man who made the disastrous vow regarding his daughter, but he delivered Israel from the Ammonites back in those days. Now under Nahash they are again making another attempt to subjugate Israel. So they besieged the city of Jabesh-gilead and the men in Jabesh said to Nahash, make a covenant with us and we will serve you. They don’t see themselves as able to resist the Ammonites. So they said, let’s have some kind of covenant. In other words, we will acknowledge your superiority, we will serve you, attribute to you. What will it take? Verse two, but Nahash the Ammonite said to them, I will make it with you on this condition that I will gouge out the right eye of every one of you, thus I will make it a reproach on all Israel.

The inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead don’t think they have a chance against the Ammonites. Nahash the king of the Ammonites doesn’t think the Israelites have a chance against him either. So he set a covenant whereby you will covenant with me to be my servants, pay me tribute, all that won’t be good enough, I have to able to humiliate you and render you ineffective for military activity. So you want an agreement, so I don’t have to come in and besiege the city and ultimately destroy you. We will enter into a covenant, but you will have to have your right eye, all the men will have to have their right eye gouged out. Josephus, the first century Jewish historian said the reason for this was, it would make the men ineffective in battle because they would carry a shield on their left arm and as they go to battle, they hold the shield in such a way for protection that you look out the side of the shield with your right eye, but if you are blind in that, then you have to move the shield totally away and you are vulnerable then to any attacks. So it is humiliating and well as perhaps a militarily debilitating action.

Verse three, the elders of Jabesh-gilead said to him, let us alone for seven days that we may sent messengers throughout the territory of Israel, then if no one is available to deliver us, we will come out to you and you can gouge out our right eye and we will do as you say. Now you know what? When you first read this, you will say well this is strange. Nahash has the army of the Ammonites here, why are you going to give the inhabitance of this city seven days to try to get help? Well Nahash is so sure there is no help for the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead. That Israel won’t be able, nor will they be inclined to try to resist him. So he is willing to agree to it and beside, is only seven days, if he has to lay siege to the city this becomes more of a long term effort. And you have then the potential that you then will have a battle in the conflict here, and even though I am sure I win, I am tied up quite a bit of time and I will have some losses. So seven days, you want to go sign up? Go ahead because he sees himself as vastly superior and there is not going to be any help for Israel. Verses four and five, the messengers come down through the land. The messengers arrive at Gibeah of Saul, Gibeah of Saul because Gibeah is where Saul is living, that’s his home area. They spoke these words in the hearing of the people and all the people lifted up their voices and wept.

So what's happened? These messengers are going from city to city throughout Israel. And they are saying what is happening, is there anybody that could think they could come to their aid, so you see what has happened here, we have a king established in Israel, but they yet haven’t solidified in their thinking that this king is going to come now and be the solution. Saul is coming in from the field, verse five, behind the oxen. What’s the king of Israel doing at this point? Same thing he always did. He is out plowing a field with his father’s oxen here. And he comes in here, hears all this veiling in the city. And he says, what's the matter? And so they tell him what’s going on in Jabesh and so you have the way prepared for what follows in verses six and following. Then the spirit of God came upon Saul mightily when he heard these words and he became very angry. Whenever the spirit of God comes upon God’s servants for special tasks, he gives them special enablement in the Old Testament and here is an example of that. It’s time for Saul to the step forward, but the spirit of the God comes upon him mightily, which is what moves him with aggressiveness. So when he heard these words he became very angry. And this is a good angry.

It’s an anger against sin, it’s an anger against the enemies of God’s people. It’s an anger against those who always humiliate the people of God and crush them and thus attempt to humiliate the God of Israel and treat him with disdain. So when the spirit of God came mightily upon him he became very angry. Back up to judges 14, and here you have the account of Samson, in Judges 14 verse 19 we read “then the spirit of the Lord came upon him, Samson mightily” and he goes down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of the people of Ashkelon, the men of Ashkelon. So the spirit comes upon these leaders and they are stirred with anger and rage. But keep in mind it’s the spirit who has stirred them to do so. One other examples later in Israel’s history, go to the book of Ezekiel.

Book of Ezekiel Chapter three and Ezekiel has been given an awesome vision of God on his throne and is received instructions from God to go and proclaim the word of God, come to verse 14 of Ezekiel three, so the spirit lifted me up and took me away and I went embittered in the rage of my spirit and the hand of the Lord was strong upon me. You see there is a response and a reaction here and it is the spirit of God producing this. As these individuals will now step forward on behalf of God to defend his character and oppose his enemies. I want to read you about one conservative commentary that has on this, an evangelical writer and see if you find anything that he has commented on this that is consistent with the scripture.

Here is his comment. “But how are we to explain Saul’s anger? Saul apparently was impulsive. Impulsiveness stems from immaturity which in Saul’s case was probably a direct result of being so long dominated by his father. He evidently resented Kish’s treatment of him, but suppressed his feelings for he dared to not openly oppose his father. Well, this is from a commentator who claims to believe in inspiration, claims to believe in the service of God. Where in the world does this come from? I didn’t know that we were told anything much about Saul’s father except that he was a man of valor. Now I find out that Saul had been dominated by his father and he resented it. I mean somehow we are reading a lot into here that have nothing to do with the scripture, but we are trying to show ourselves as very astute in psychologizing the Bible. The spirit of God has produced anger, anger against the sin of those who would try to suppress God’s people, anger against those who would attempt to discredit the God of Israel. Alright, look at verse seven, what did Saul do? He takes the yoke of oxen that he had been plowing with and he cut them in pieces and sent them throughout Israel by the hand of messengers saying whoever does not come out after Saul and Samuel, so shall be done to his oxen. Then the dread of the Lord fell on the people, they came out as one man.

Remember in Judges 19 where the man cut up his concubine, who had been killed and divided her and sent the pieces out, that same kind of message here. There will be dire consequences for anyone in Israel who doesn’t come out to follow Saul. Talking about here men of military age, if you will. We will come down and destroy your possessions, obviously the oxen being key to their farming life. And the Lord uses this, the fear of the Lord comes on the men of Israel throughout the land and you have an army of over 300,000 assemble under the leadership of Saul, he numbered them, verse eight in Bezek and there is 300,000 plus 30,000 from Judah, so a total army of 330,000 men.

And then they say to the messengers, you go back and tell the residence of Jabesh-gilead that by the time you get through the afternoon tomorrow and the sun is burning hot you are going to be delivered. So the men of Jabesh-gilead are thrilled, so they Nahash, kind of the Ammonites alright, you were right and guess we don’t have any deliverer, we will come out to you tomorrow, verse ten.

Tomorrow we will come out to you, you can do whatever you want to us, you are going to put out right eye, okay. And so Nahash and the Ammonites are off guard, they think, well it’s going to be like we thought and nobody is going to come out and try to defend the city from Israel. The next morning Saul put the people in three companies, came into the midst of the camp and morning launch and struck down the Ammonites until the heat of the day. Those who survived were scattered so that no two of them were left together. Then the people said to Samuel, who is this that said shall Saul reign over us?

Remember when Saul was publicly inaugurated as king, there were some worthless men, back in chapter ten verse 27, certain worthless men said, how can this one deliver us? They despised him, didn’t bring him any present. Now the fight has won and so the people are ready to deal severely with anyone who had opposed the kingship of Saul, but Saul said no we won’t do anything, we will simply celebrate the great victory the Lord has given us. Chapter 12 is about Samuel’s farewell, he is about to step off the scene.

He has judged Israel, remember he has been a judge and a prophet and a priest. Now his ministry is not over, he is ready to step off the scene as Israel’s judge, but not as a prophet and a priest. Now the leadership of the nation will be in the hands of a king.

Samuel has been replaced in that capacity although his ministry will go on and as you are aware he will ultimately anoint the next king of Israel who will be David. But now the leadership of the nation is in the hands of a king. What he does in chapter 12, I want to highlights some of the things here, he calls an assembly at Gilgal. You have to look on a map for these places, we are getting more down toward the Dead Sea and on the western side of the Jordan River. And he is going to confirm Saul’s reign and he is going to give an address and what he is really doing is again another way turning the leadership of Israel over to Saul. Reminding the people now that they have solidified behind Saul that they must faithfully serve the Lord and the king that the Lord has anointed. First thing he does in the first five verses is ask if anyone believes that he has been unfair in anyway. If they took anything that didn’t belong to him because he was in a position of power, so maybe he used that power and that judgeship to acquire things that were not properly his. So he opened up, Samuel said to all Israel, “behold, I have listened to your voice and all that you said to me, I have appointed a king over you. Now here is the king walking before you, but I am old and gray, my sons are with you. I have walked before you from my youth even to this day.”

They have literally Saul because remember after he was weaned he was brought to the tabernacle and has lived there since. Here I am, bear witness against me before the Lord and his anointed whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Who have I defrauded? Who I have oppressed? Have I taken a bribe? Any of this I shall restore to you. They said you haven’t oppressed us, you haven’t defrauded us, you haven’t taken anything improperly. Then he said the Lord has witness against you and he has anointed his witness. The Lord has witness, he has anointed his witness that would be Saul, Saul is present there, so witness this also, so the Lord is a witness and his anointed. Saul had been anointed king.

He is anointed as witness this day that you have found nothing in my hand and they said he is witness. This establishes Samuel as blameless. Remember his kids were a problem that became part of the excuses for the people of Israel to cry out for a king. But Samuel had never been a problem and so the people are acknowledging it’s not Samuel, Samuel is not to be blamed for them clamoring for a king. They have no charges to bring against Samuel. So they can’t claim, well because of Samuel’s failure we had to cry for a king. Samuel had not in any way been responsible, he had been faithful and so at the beginning of verse six and down through verse 11 Samuel gives a brief overview of Israel’s history.

Samuel said to the people, verse six, it is the Lord who appointed Mosses and Aaron and brought your fathers up from the land of Egypt. So they are going back to the time when Israel came out of Egypt as a nation. Well, they went down into Egypt 400 years earlier as a family. But now they come out as a nation and they come out under the leadership of Mosses and Aaron appointed by God. So now take your stand that I may plead with you before the Lord concerning all the righteous acts of the Lord which he did for you and your fathers. When Jacob went into Egypt, your fathers cried out to the Lord. Then the Lord sent Mosses and Aaron who brought your fathers out of Egypt and settle them in this place.

They forgot the Lord their God, he sold them into the hand of Sisera, captain of the army of Hazor, and into the hands of Philistines, the hand of the king of Moab, they fought against them. They cried out to the Lord, we have sinned, we have forsaken the Lord, we served the Baal, the Ashtaroth; deliver us, we will serve you, the Lord sent zerubbabel and the others, Bedan, Jephthah, Samuel, they delivered you. So this pattern, Israel and their disobedience is punished by God and defeated by their enemies, they cry out to God. God brings deliverance, then verse 12 when you saw that Nahash the king of the sons of Ammon came against you, you said to me, no, but a king shall reign over us, so the Lord your God was your king? Now you note something has happened here. Previously they had cried out to the Lord, look at verse eight, when Jacob went into Egypt, then your fathers cried out to the Lord, so you have got those 400 years compressed. They went into Egypt then we pick Israel up 400 years later, crying out to the Lord for the deliverance from their Egyptian slavery. So verse eight, Jacob went into Egypt, your fathers cried out to the Lord, the Lord said Mosses and Aaron.

So you see what happens, they are in slavery, the Lord sends and respond to their cry, Mosses and Aaron and they are delivered. Down in verse nine they are again subjugated, verse ten, they cried out to the Lord for deliverance, verse 11, then the Lord sent Jerubbaal, Bedan, Jephthah, Samuel, that patterns through the judges, the Lord responded to their cry and sent a deliverer. But now you come to verse 12, Nahash the king of the Ammonites is coming up against Israel. Israel does not cry out to the Lord for deliverance, they cry out for a king. There is a change in the pattern here, you don’t find out Nahash the king of the sons of Ammon came up against you. Now you don’t find the same pattern and you cried out to the Lord, no .You said to me, no, but a king shall reign over us. We are not going to the Lord on this one, but we are going to have a king.

So that change of pattern and so you see back where Israel was crying for a king, it’s in this framework that we have just dealt with and that is Nahash king of the Ammonites who is coming. And Israel concede themselves on the brink of being subjugated to another enemy, and instead of crying out to the Lord for deliverance, they say we will have a king like the nations and he can come and so they reject the Lord. So verse 13, now therefore here is the king whom you have chosen. Whom you asked for and behold the Lord has set a king over you. Now Saul is the king, by divine appointment here, the Lord has set him over you, but it’s the king that you have chosen, it’s the king that you asked for, you were not willing to have God continue to be your king, you didn’t want to have to turn to him again as your deliverer, you wanted to turn to a king, so their rejection of him is foundational, but the Lord still is willing to pick them up where they are, so there is a warning in verse 14, if you will fear the Lord and serve him, Listen to his voice and not rebel against the command of the lord, then both you and also the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord, your God ,if you will not listen to the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the command the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you as it was against your fathers, even now take your stand and see this great thing which the Lord will do. So you have got a choice.

You rebelled, you wanted a king, you have got a king, but god is going to be gracious, if you will now fear the Lord and serve him, not rebel against him, then both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord and you will have his blessing, if you rebel the king won’t make a difference because God will bring his judgment on you anyway, the king can’t deliver you from the enemies that God raises up to punish you. So the options given them, now I want to give you a sign to confirm what I say is true, Samuel says. Verse 16 even now take your stand and see this great thing which the Lord will do before your eyes. Is it not the wheat harvest today? I will call to the Lord that he may send thunder and rain, then you will know and see that your wickedness is great, what you have done in the sight of the Lord by asking for yourselves a king. Interesting, isn’t it the blend that’s going on here? God says he is willing to bless them and the king that they have chosen if they obey, but they have sinned greatly in turning to a king like the nations rather than turning again to their God. And God offers his grace, but he wants them to understand how serious this act has been, you will know and see your wickedness is great which you have done in the sight of the Lord by asking for yourself a king. So Samuel called the Lord, the Lord sent thunder and rain that day and all the people greatly feared the Lord. This is the time we are told of the wheat harvest and that’s in May and June, it’s the dry season in Israel. But in response to the cry of the Lord we have a great thunder storm in the middle of the dry season. On cause as a result of Samuel‘s prayer and it must be an awesome sign because you have the thundering, the rain and that’s a reminder of the awesome God that they have sinned against by not turning to him as their deliverer and all the people said to Samuel, pray for your servants to the Lord your God so that we may not die for we have added to all our sins this evil by asking for ourselves a king. Samuel, pray for us, we have done just like our forefathers that you talked about in this previous summary here, we rebelled against the Lord and we are just like them, we rebelled against God, they acknowledged, it was rebellion. To say no, we won’t look to the Lord for this one. We want a king and we deserve to die. And we realize this God who is thundering and pouring out the rain now could bring destruction on us. Our king could not deliver us from the wrath of our God. Samuel said to the people, do not fear. Samuel, as we noted previously is one of the great intercessors in Israel.

Here he intercedes on behalf of the nation even as Mosses had done in earlier years. Samuel said to the people, do not fear, you have committed all this evil. No minimizing their sin, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. They are guilty of great sin, but they must continue to serve the Lord. They can’t undo what they have done, all they can do is commit themselves to whole hearted faithfulness from this point on. They know here, they know penance that have to be done, but there has to be a change of heart. Serve the Lord with all your heart, you must not turn aside, then you would go after feudal things which cannot profit or deliver, because they are feudal. What are you going to do? Turn around to idols? Don’t turn aside from the Lord because anywhere you go, when you turn aside for the Lord is feudality, emptiness, hopelessness, worthless idols, for the Lord will not abandon his people on account of his great name, because the Lord has been pleased to make you a people for himself. You know you got to have that words underlined and highlighted and starred in your bible.

People who think that churches replaced Israel, re-reading a book that I had read a few years ago, this past week were something totally unrelated to this and the substance of the book is trying to show how the church has become Israel and Israel is the church. I would say have you never read, first Samuel 12:22 the Lord will not abandon his people, why? On account of his great name. For the Lord has been pleased and make you a people for himself, no question at all, Israel is as unfaithful as you can get. What God want to matter is people because of his great name, that’s what it’s stated here. The great name of the Lord. He has called upon himself. So he can’t abandon them. Romans chapter 11 verse one, God has not cast away his people, has he? That will never be. Then further down in the chapter verses 28 and 29, the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. I can’t go back on that call. Just as firm and sure today than it was thousands of years ago, Israel is the nation God has chosen for himself, even though they are under the judgment of God today just as they experienced throughout their history in the Old Testaments for their rebellion.

The judgment has gone on for an extensive period, but God has not cast away his people and he will not abandon his people on account of his great name. Moreover as for me, far be it for me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you, but I will instruct you in the good and right way.

You ask me, in verse 19 pray for your servants, far be it for me that I should sin against the Lord and I fail to pray for you, I will pray for you and I will teach. It reminds you, look the apostle said, would be their ministry, in Acts chapter six verse four when they appointed certain men to meet the needs of the local congregation, as for us, we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word of God. So Samuel said I will pray for you and I will instruct you. Not only, fear the Lord, serve him in truth will all your heart for consider what great things he has done for you. Israel is not to become mired down regarding their sinful past, rather they are to be encouraged with the faithfulness of the Lord and serve him. Fear the Lord, serve him in truth with all your heart for consider what great thing he has done for you. You know sometimes our preoccupation with past sins is an excuse not to proceed with serving the Lord with all our hearts. I want to learn from failures, you know I am not going to mire down in my failures, when I consider the past, I want to consider what great things the Lord has done for me, and have that as a motivation for me to serve the Lord with all my hearts. And so you know the focus on the past and the focus on the present, he is our god, his greatness. Consider what great things he has done for you.

Fear the Lord and serve him in truth, reflect upon the great things the Lord has done for you and reflect on the God for the present, serve him, he is the focus on my past. And on my presents and praise the Lord for that, but if you still do wickedly, both you and your king will be swept away. There is always the word “or” again because the Lord will not abandon his people on account of his great name, don’t try to presume on that. If you are not faithful, if you do wickedly the Lord will sweep you away and your king, don’t think that’s true? Look at Israel, look at Israel’s history for 2500 years. Carried into captivity, the Syrian captivity in 722 B.C the Babylonian captivity in 586, no more kings in Israel. There is going to be a coming king of Israel, God is all done with this people, but the judgment of the God can be terribly, terribly severe.

Both you and your king will be swept away, finally Israel has come back into the land. And so people say, well it’s been so long, God’s done with them. No, he is not done with them because of his great name, but he was serious in the promises, he was serious in the threats. So God is faithful, God is serious in his word. Let’s pray to God.

Thank you Lord for your sovereign work and your people Israel. Lord, what an important reminder it is to us of the necessary response we are to have to you as our God. To serve you faithfully, Lord we thank you for your grace. Thank you Lord that you have called us to yourself, even as you called Israel to yourself. Now Lord we must be committed to serve you with all of our heart, we desire to bless us, to bestow good things in your grace. Lord, sometimes our rebellion, our disobedience necessitates discipline and chastening and suffering. Lord, end it all, we rejoice to know that we belong to you, we would make the focus of our lives as we review our past we consider our present. And we focus on you our God, your greatness, your grace that we might serve you with all our heart. Let that be true of us in the days of the week before us, we pray in Christ’s name, Amen.