Now, in the study last week, we came
to the place where Saul was anointed king
over Israel.
We remember at the time of his anointing
that he was hiding in the stuff.
And so as Samuel got ready to present,
you know, the trumpet fanfare and all, and
now you're king and the curtain's open kind
of a thing.
There's nobody there.
And so Samuel said, Lord, what's going on?
Have we got, you know, the right man?
Is this the right date?
And the Lord said, he's over hiding in
the stuff.
So they went over and got him and
brought Saul before the people and all the
people joined together in a cry, God save
the king.
But there were some men who were objecting
to Saul's reign.
And the children of Belial, now the children
of Belial are usually the evil men.
Belial being a term for Satan, the children
of the devil, they were saying that, you
know, shall Saul rule over us?
And they were creating a little undercurrent against
Saul's reign.
Now Saul returned to his home and just
went back to his work of farming.
When the king of the Ammonites came against
the Israeli settlement of Jabesh Gilead, and so
he demanded that they surrender, or when he
came against them, they volunteered some kind of
a tribute.
You know, what must we do to be
your servants?
And he said, let all of the men
pluck out their right eyes and put them
in a basket to be a reproach against
all Israel, and then, you know, we'll be
your servants.
And they said, well, give us seven days
to think about that.
And so they sent to Saul, and they
told him, you know, the demands that this
fellow was making, the king of the Ammonites
was making against them.
And so Saul took the oxen that he
was plowing with, and he cut them up
into pieces and sent them throughout Israel and
said, and so shall the man's oxen be
cut up and all who doesn't come and
follow me in battle.
And in other words, it was a call
to battle, and if you don't come, you
know, when we get back, we're going to
cut your oxen all up.
So the men of Israel gathered together with
Saul, some 300,000 plus another 30,000
from the tribe of Judah.
And so they came down.
They sent a message back to the men
of Jabesh-Gilead and said, don't worry, help
is on the way.
And so the seventh day, the men of
Jabesh-Gilead sent a message out to the
king of the Ammonites and said, we're going
to fight instead of pluck out our right
eyes.
And so about this time, Saul's first contingent
arrived and began to smite them, and the
second contingent moved in and the third contingent.
And they utterly wiped out all of this
invading force that had come against them.
Were thoroughly defeated until there weren't two men
left together.
Just really decimated the troops.
And God gave unto Saul a great victory,
and it really was the thing that sort
of catapulted him into the real position of
king.
This is what the people were looking for,
a man who would go out and lead
their armies into battle against their enemies and
all.
And so when this great victory was given
to Saul over their enemies, then the people
said, where are those guys that said, who
is Saul that he should reign?
Bring him out and we're going to wipe
him out.
And Saul said, hey, wait a minute.
No, no, no, let's not have any recriminations.
God has wrought salvation for Israel today and
let's rejoice in the victory of God and
let's not have any recriminations.
Now, this is Saul at the beginning of
his reign and at the beginning of his
reign, he does show many marvelous characteristics and
among those, that of humility.
In reality, when Samuel first met Saul and
said, behold, the man upon whom is all
the desire of Israel, Saul said, hey, you
can't mean me.
I'm from the tribe of Benjamin.
We're the little tribes and my dad's family
is nothing.
You surely can't mean me.
And there was a real humility manifested in
this fellow Saul.
When Samuel laid out the fact that he
was to be the king and all, when
he got home and his uncle said, well,
you know, what took you so long?
He said, oh man, we really got lost
and all.
And he said, finally he ended up with
Samuel.
And he said, oh, what did Samuel tell
you?
And he said, oh, he told us that
the donkeys had come home.
But he didn't say to his uncle when
he told me that I was going to
be king and this kind of stuff.
I mean, there was none of that.
There seemed to be a true humility.
It is tragic that as the story progresses
of the life of Saul, one of the
bad characteristics of his later life is the
lack of humility.
This spiritual pride and this more than just
plain pride that took over in his life.
Starting out a very humble man, but as
time progressed, he became a very proud man.
But in this particular case, here the men
were ready to go out and wipe out
these guys who had spoken against him.
He said, oh no, God has wrought salvation
in Israel and thus there will be no
recrimination.
So, here is still, right at the beginning,
signs of real good qualities of humility.
So, all of the people went to Gilgal
and there they made Saul the king before
the Lord and they sacrificed the sacrifices of
peace offerings and Saul and the men of
Israel rejoiced greatly.
And so there was a reconfirmation, but this
was really, hey, this is the fellow, this
is the man, and now the general acknowledgement
of Saul as king.
Now in the twelfth chapter, Samuel is now
sort of stepping down because they have now
proclaimed the king.
And so, his career as the judge over
Israel has pretty much come to an end
as the reins of government are now turned
over from the theocracy, Samuel the judge speaking
for God to the people, now to a
monarchy where Saul is ruling.
So, Samuel is stepping down and this is
more or less his farewell speech to the
people.
He is going to go into pretty much
political obscurity after this point.
He's going to step into the background.
He will be dealing, not with the people,
he will be dealing with Saul and with
individuals, but no longer the public figure in
leading Israel.
And so this is his last final speech
to Israel in chapter 12.
Samuel said unto all Israel, Behold, I have
hearkened unto your voice, in that you have
asked that I should set a king over
you.
And now behold, the king is walking there
before you.
And I am old, I am gray-haired,
and my sons are with you.
And I have walked with you from my
childhood to this day."
So you do remember that he started out
his career extremely early.
As soon as he was weaned, he was
a public figure.
He was there in the place of worship.
And the people who would gather for worship
saw this little boy year by year as
he grew and as he developed.
And they recognized that God's hand was upon
this young man.
And he just sort of naturally grew into
the position of leadership and judge over Israel.
Now he declares, Here I am, and I
want you to witness against me before the
Lord and before His anointed.
Whose ox have I taken?
Whose donkey have I taken?
Who have I defrauded?
Who have I oppressed?
Or of whose hand have I received any
bribe to blind my eyes?
Tell me, and I will restore it.
In other words, he is declaring his innocency
before the people.
Look, I didn't take from you at all.
I didn't take your oxen, your donkeys.
I didn't accept bribes.
I have not oppressed you.
If anyone feels that I have oppressed you,
anyone feels I have defrauded, one step forward
and I will pay.
And really, Samuel did have a very beautiful
and remarkable career as the judge of Israel.
Extremely outstanding person.
And so, they answered, You haven't defrauded us
nor oppressed us, neither have you taken anything
from us.
And he said unto them, The Lord is
witness against you and His anointed is witness
this day that you have not found anything
in my hand.
And they answered, God is witness.
Did you swear God is witness?
I have not taken anything from you.
That's right.
We swear to that.
So Samuel said unto the people, rehearsing now
their history a little bit, that it is
the Lord that advanced Moses and Aaron.
And they brought your fathers out of the
land of Egypt.
Now, stand still for a minute that I
might reason with you before the Lord of
all of the righteous acts which the Lord
did to you and to your fathers.
Now, he is seeking now to justify God.
He's justified himself.
Look, I've taken nothing.
Right.
I'm clean.
Right.
Now I want to show you that the
Lord is also clean.
That the Lord has treated you right.
That He has never mistreated you or your
fathers.
That which the Lord has done has been
fair and just.
When Jacob was come to Egypt and your
fathers cried to the Lord, then the Lord
sent Moses and Aaron and they brought your
fathers out of Egypt and made them to
dwell in this place.
And when your fathers forgot the Lord, their
God, He sold them into the hands of
Sisera, who was the captain of the host
of Hazor, and then into the hand of
the Philistines, and then into the hand of
the king of Moab, and they fought against
them.
And they cried unto the Lord and said,
We have sinned because we have forsaken the
Lord and we have served Balaam and Ashtoreth,
but now deliver us out of the hand
of our enemies and we will serve you.
And the Lord sent Jeroboam and Bedum and
Jephthah and Samuel and delivered you out of
the hand of your enemies on every side
and you dwelt safely.
And when you saw that Nahash, the king
of the children of Ammon, came against you,
you said unto me, No, but a king
shall reign over us when the Lord your
God was your king.
Now, I want you to acknowledge this.
That God was fair and just.
Your father Jacob went down to Egypt and
there your fathers were oppressed.
They cried unto God.
God sent Moses and Aaron who brought them
out of Egypt and to this place.
But when your fathers began to forsake God,
then they were forsaken of God.
And it was only after they had forsaken
God that their enemies came in and began
to oppress them.
But they cried unto God and God sent
deliverers, these various judges.
And He names some of the judges that
God used as a deliverer finally Himself.
But now you're faced with another crisis.
And rather than crying out unto God for
His deliverance, you are now asking for a
king.
And in thus doing, you are rejecting God
from being king.
So, you are going from the theocracy, a
people governed by God, to a monarchy, people
governed by a earthly king.
Now therefore, behold the king that you have
chosen and you have desired.
Here he is.
Take a look at him.
And behold, the Lord has set a king
over you.
If you will fear the Lord and serve
Him and obey His voice and not rebel
against His commandment, then shall both you and
the king that reigns over you continue following
the Lord your God.
But if you will not obey the voice
of the Lord and you rebel against the
commandment of the Lord, then shall the hand
of the Lord be against you as it
was against your fathers.
Now, I want you to stand and see
this great thing which the Lord is going
to do before your eyes.
Today is the day of the wheat harvest.
I'm going to call unto the Lord and
He's going to send thunder and rain that
you might perceive and know that your wickedness
is great, which you have done in the
sight of the Lord in asking for a
king.
So Samuel called unto the Lord.
The Lord sent thunder and rain that day
and the people greatly feared the Lord and
Samuel.
And the people said unto Samuel, Pray for
thy servants unto the Lord thy God that
we die not.
For we have added unto all our sins
this evil thing to ask us a king.
And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not,
ye have done all this wickedness, yet turn
not aside from following the Lord, but serve
the Lord with all your heart.
And turn ye not aside, for then should
ye go after vain things which cannot profit
nor deliver, for they are vain."
So Samuel says, look, you've done an evil
thing.
And asking for a king.
And you might know how wicked it is.
God's going to show you a wonder.
I'm going to ask God to send thunder
and rain upon your wheat harvest.
And there inside the people God sent thunder
and rain.
So as the thunder began to clap around
them and the rain began to fall, they
said, Oh, we've sinned.
We've done wickedly.
Pray that God not destroy us.
Now it is interesting, they aren't really repenting.
A repentance means a change.
A true repentance, they would have said, Oh,
get rid of Saul.
We'll let God serve us, or rain over
us.
We'll serve God.
That would have been repentance.
But theirs is, Oh, we're sorry.
But we still want our king.
Now, there is a difference between sorrow and
repentance.
And the Lord requires repentance from sin.
Not just a sorrow for sin.
So often we have a sorrow because of
the consequences of our sins.
But we go right on doing it.
God wants a repentance.
That is a turning away from the evil
in our lives.
And God requires repentance.
And so, they said, Pray that we will
not die.
And Samuel said unto them, You're not going
to die, but just make sure that you
don't quit serving the Lord.
For if you do, you're going to start
serving other gods, vain things, which cannot profit
or deliver.
Now, he declared this because he knew the
nature of man.
You've got to serve somebody.
And if you are not serving God, you're
going to be serving some vain thing that
really can't help you or deliver you.
That is really no profit to you.
And we look around the world today and
we see the vain things that men are
worshiping or serving.
But you cannot serve God and mammon.
They are mutually exclusive.
And if you forsake serving the Lord because
you've got to serve somebody, you're going to
start serving vain things which when your time
of trouble and peril arises, they'll not be
able to profit you or to deliver you.
But, if you will serve the Lord, He
will not forsake you for His great name's
sake, because it has pleased the Lord to
make you His people.
Now, for God's reasons, He's pleased to make
you His people.
And if you'll just serve Him, He will
not forsake you.
Moreover, as for me, God forbid that I
should sin against the Lord in ceasing to
pray for you, but I will teach you
the good and right way.
Now, here Samuel brings up something that to
me is quite interesting.
They said, when they realized their wickedness, they
said, pray for us that we not die.
In response to that, Samuel said, as for
me, God forbid that I should sin against
the Lord by ceasing to pray for you.
In other words, not praying is sinful.
Not praying is sinning against the Lord.
God forbid that I should sin against the
Lord by ceasing to pray for you.
Now, if God has commanded us to pray
one for another, then our failure to pray
for one another is disobedience to the command
of God, and disobedience to God's command is
sin.
And the Lord has told us we are
to pray one for another.
Therefore, we are all of us required to
pray for each other.
And God forbid that we should sin against
the Lord by ceasing to pray for one
another.
Oh, that we would realize the awful sin
of prayerlessness in our lives.
That not to pray, not to spend time
in prayer with the Lord, is actually sinning
against the Lord.
It's sinning against His commands to us.
Only fear the Lord and serve Him in
truth with all your heart, for consider how
great things He has done for you.
Just consider the wonderful things God has done
for you.
And then serve Him with all your heart.
But if you continue in wickedness, just know
you're going to be consumed both you and
your King.
Now, Saul reigned for one year over Israel.
And in the second year of his reign,
he chose 3,000 men of Israel, and
he took 2,000 under his command in
Michmash, and 1,000 were given to Jonathan
under his command, the son of Saul, in
Gibeah.
And the rest of the people he sent
to their own tents.
And Jonathan smote the garrison of the Philistines
that was in Gibeah.
And the Philistines heard it, and Saul blew
the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, Let
the Hebrews hear.
And all Israel heard say that Saul had
smitten the garrison of the Philistines, and that
Israel also had an abomination with the Philistines.
And the people were called together after Saul
to Gilgal.
So, Jonathan was out wiping out the Philistines,
and Saul was around blowing the trumpet and
taking the glory and announcing that he had
smitten the Philistines, so that the Israelites heard
that Saul had smitten the Philistines with a
great slaughter.
Now the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight
with Israel, and they really gathered the whole
army, 30,000 chariots, 6,000 horsemen, and
people like the sand of the sea for
multitude.
And they came up and pitched in Micmash
east of Beth-Avon.
And when the men of Israel saw that
they were there sort of trapped, for the
people were distressed, then the people started hiding
in caves and thickets and rocks, in the
mountaintops and in the pits.
And some of the Hebrews went over Jordan
to the land of Gad and Gilead, for
Saul was down there in Gilgal, and all
the people followed him trembling.
I mean, this was a tremendous, formidable force
of the Philistines that had come against them.
People were hiding.
Some were actually deserting, crossing Jordan, going over
to the other side to Gad, to Gilead.
And those that were with Saul were trembling.
And he waited for seven days according to
the set time that Samuel had appointed.
For Samuel said, I'll meet you there in
Gilgal in seven days.
And Saul said, Bring hither a burnt offering
to me and a peace offering.
And he offered the burnt offering.
And it came to pass that as soon
as he had made an end of offering
the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came.
And Saul went out to meet him that
he might greet him.
And Samuel said, What have you done?
And Saul said, Because I saw that the
people were scattered from me and that you
did not come within the days that were
appointed, and that the Philistines gathered themselves together
at Michmash.
Therefore, I said, the Philistines will come now
upon me to Gilgal, and I have not
made supplication to the Lord.
So I forced myself therefore and offered a
burnt offering.
And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done
foolishly.
Thou hast not kept the commandment of the
Lord thy God, which he commanded thee, for
now he would have established thy kingdom upon
Israel forever.
In other words, he would have made it
the dynasty of Saul.
Now, Samuel is straightforward.
What have you done?
Oh, I forced myself.
You know, he gave all of his excuses.
He said, You have done foolishly in that
you have not obeyed the commandment of the
Lord.
Any time you deliberately, willfully disobey the
commandment of God, you are doing foolishly.
God's ways are best.
God's ways are right.
And for me to presume that I can
do or improve on God's ways is sheer
folly.
If I think I can improve my position
by disobeying God, that's sheer folly.
And so the prophet laid it out to
him.
You have done foolishly in that you have
not obeyed the commandment of the Lord, for
the Lord would have established your kingdom forever
upon Israel.
But now, thy kingdom shall not continue, for
the Lord hath sought Him a man after
His own heart.
And the Lord hath commanded Him to be
captain over His people, because thou hast not
kept that which the Lord commanded thee."
So here is Saul's rejection by God as
the continuing king.
And God is now searching out a man
to take His place.
And Samuel arose and went from Gilgal to
Gibeah, there among the tribe of Benjamin.
And Saul numbered the people that were present
with him, about 600 men.
Now you remember, there are 30,000 chariots,
6,000 horsemen, and Philistines like the Sands
of the Sea.
And Saul has 600 that haven't deserted him.
And the spoilers came out of the camp
of the Philistines in three companies.
And one company turned unto the way that
leads to Ophron, the other to the land
of Shul.
And another company turned by way of Beth
-horon.
And another company turned to the way of
the border that looks toward the valley of
Zibbon, toward the wilderness.
Now there was no smith found throughout all
the land of Israel.
I thought that was interesting in searching for
my heritage.
So at this time, interestingly enough, the Jews
had not yet developed any forging kind of
processes or the development of iron implements.
Though the Philistines and all the people of
the land around them had entered into the
Iron Age, the Hebrews had not yet really
developed the capacity for smelting and all, and
they had not yet themselves entered into the
Iron Age.
In fact, when they wanted to sharpen their
picks or their hoes or their farm implements,
they had to go down to the Philistines
to have them sharpened and all, because they
really didn't have any blacksmiths in Israel at
this particular time.
By the time of Solomon, they began to
really develop in these skills.
In fact, they were highly developed by the
time of Solomon.
But at this time, they had not yet
developed these skills, and actually the Philistines had
deliberately kept them from developing these skills because
they didn't want them making swords and all
and really being able to create real fighting
implements.
So all the Israelites had to go down
to the Philistines to sharpen every man his
share or colter or the axe or the
mattock.
And yet they had a file for the
mattocks and the colters for the forks and
for the axes and to sharpen the goads.
So it came to pass in the day
of battle that there was neither sword nor
spear found in the hand of any of
the people that were with Saul and Jonathan.
Only Saul and Jonathan had spears.
Now, that's not a very well-equipped army
against the 30,000 chariots and the horsemen.
Guys, all you've got are sticks.
You fashion a club or something.
But you're going out against guys with shields
and spears and swords and all.
And so you've got a small army and
surely you are mismatched in equipment and all.
Hopelessly mismatched.
There's absolutely no way that you can go
out against this highly developed army with their
superior weapons and superior numbers and hope to
have any kind of victory.
You've got 600 men with clubs and sticks
and you're facing an army that can't even
be counted with spears, swords, shields.
Which introduces chapter 14, which is one of
my favorite chapters in the Bible.
Now, it came to pass.
Upon a day that Jonathan, the son of
Saul, said to the young man that bears
armor, Come and let us go over to
the Philistines' garrison on the other side.
But he did not tell his father.
And Saul tarried in the uttermost parts of
Gibeah under a pomegranate tree, which is at
Migron.
And the people that were with him were
about 600 men.
And Ahaiah, the son of Ebtub, Ichabod's brother
and son of Phinehas and so forth.
He gives these guys in the background you
don't even remember them anyhow.
Let me just tell you the story.
Jonathan, the son of Saul, woke up early
one morning.
And he got to thinking.
No one else was awake yet.
And he got to thinking, you know, the
whole army of the Philistines is over there.
And maybe God wants to give Israel the
victory over that army of the Philistines today.
Now if the Lord wants to give the
victory to Israel over those Philistines, he doesn't
need a whole army.
He can give the victory to one man
as well as 600.
Or to two.
It really doesn't make any difference to God
whether we have a huge army or whether
we just have a few if God wants
to give the victory to Israel.
And he was just lying there thinking about
these kind of wild thoughts, you know.
After all, God is great and the greatness
and the power of God.
He doesn't need a whole army.
He can give the victory to just two
men.
So he woke up his armor bearer.
He said, I've been thinking about something really
weird and wild.
I want to pass it by you.
He said, I've been thinking, if God wants
to give the victory to Israel today over
the Philistines, he doesn't need the whole army.
He can give the victory to just a
couple guys.
Why don't we go over there and see
if God wants to give the victory to
Israel today?
Talk about a venture in faith.
I love them.
And so, he and the armor bearer got
dressed quietly and they slipped out of camp
while everybody else was still sleeping.
And Jonathan on the way towards the Philistines
said, now, we want to make sure God's
in this thing.
So when we get near the garrison of
the Philistines, when the sentries spot us, if
they say, hey you fellas, come up here,
we'll show you a thing or two, then
we'll know that God wants to give the
victory to Israel and we'll go at them.
But if they say, hey you guys, wait
down there, we're going to come down and
show you a thing or two, then we'll
know that God doesn't want to get the
victory to Israel and we'll get out of
here as fast as we can.
So as they got over near the garrison
of the Philistines and the sentries spotted these
two guys coming, they said, look at those
stupid fools coming right up here to the
camp.
Hey you guys, come up here, we'll show
you a thing or two.
Jonathan said, alright man, let's go, you know.
Because they said they started climbing with their
hands and feet, really, just, you know, scrambling
up that hill to get into the camp
of the Philistines.
And man, they jumped right in the middle
of the garrison and Jonathan started knocking the
guys over and his armor bearer was running
them through.
And about a half acre of ground, they
wiped out 20 of the Philistines and the
rest of the guys began to wake up,
were all disconfitted.
They began to swing at each other and
all and they began to run and flee.
And over on the other side of the
valley, old Saul finally woke up and he
rubbed his eyes, he looked across and he
saw the Philistines all running and he saw
the battles going on.
He saw two guys in the middle just
really wiping them out.
And he said, number off quick, who's missing?
And they numbered off and they said, it's
Jonathan and his armor bearer.
Now, Saul at this point makes a foolish
statement.
Saul said, let the man be cursed who
eats anything today before God has avenged Saul
of all of his enemies.
Now, the man who was so humble to
begin with is now beginning to manifest some
real pride.
Saul of all of his enemies.
God curse any man who eats anything today
before Saul is avenged of all of his
enemies.
A foolish curse and vow.
So the men with Saul began to pursue
the Philistines all day long as the Philistines
were in disarray and were retreating.
And as they were running through the woods,
there was a honeycomb and it was dripping
honey down to the ground.
And old Jonathan running through took his spear
and put out the end of it and
began to eat the honey and he was
revived.
He was refreshed.
Actually, he had been chasing Philistines all day
and he was just about shot physically.
And honey is such a quick energy source.
It just zings right into your system.
Oh, he was refreshed and he took off
again chasing the Philistines.
And God gave a great victory to Israel
that day over the Philistines.
But I like the philosophy of Jonathan.
I like the daring.
I like the venture in faith.
Who knows what God wants to do today?
And if God wants to do something, He
doesn't need a whole army.
He can do it with one as well
as a thousand.
Let's see what God wants to do.
Let's venture out and find out what God
might want to do today.
And I love those kind of days when
you just sort of venture out to see
what God might want to do.
Now, as the troops gathered together and sort
of surveying the victory, Saul said, let's chase
them tonight.
We've got them on the run.
Let's go after them tonight and wipe them
out completely.
And so they called the priest there and
they said, inquire of the Lord.
Shall we chase them?
And there was no answer from God.
And so Saul said, alright, who ate today?
He figured that someone had broken his vow
because God wasn't answering by the priest.
And so, none of the men would say
anything.
And he said, if it is even Jonathan
my son, surely he shall be put to
death.
And so he said, you guys all stand
over there.
Jonathan and I will stand here and God
give us a perfect lot.
They cast lots and it fell on Jonathan
and Saul.
So they cast lots again and it fell
on Jonathan.
And Saul said, what did you do?
And he said, well, Dad, I really didn't
know that you had made that curse and
all.
And I was running through the woods and
I saw this honeycomb dripping honey and I
was famished and I was about wiped out.
So I took and ate some of the
honey.
And he said, my soul was revived.
He said, Dad, it wasn't very smart for
you not to let these guys eat.
Had you let them eat of the spoils
today, they would have had enough strength.
We could have continued to pursue and totally
wiped out the Philistines.
It wasn't so smart, Dad, the thing that
you said.
Saul said, put him to death.
And at this point, the men stepped in
and they said, oh, no way.
For he has wrought or fought with God
today.
No man's going to touch him.
No man will lay his hand upon him.
I like this statement.
For he hath wrought with God this day.
So the people rescued Jonathan that he wasn't
killed by his father.
So we see now there's a bit of
madness beginning to enter this man.
Started out such a beautiful way.
Started out with such tremendous potential and possibilities.
But pride entered in.
And we see now the pride developing.
And this man again who had such a
marvelous potential is gradually deteriorating before our very
eyes as he begins to exalt himself and
turn from God.
Now, as we get into chapter 15, Samuel
came to Saul and said, the Lord sent
me to anoint you to be king over
His people, over Israel.
Now, hearken unto the voice of the words
of the Lord.
Now, he has shown a pattern of disobedience
up to this point.
He has become self-willed, doing his own
thing.
So the prophet is coming and warning him.
And this to me is very significant because
God does seek to warn us from our
self-willed path of destruction.
God doesn't just let you trip off into
the path of destruction without coming and giving
you fair warning.
And oftentimes, repeated warnings.
The Bible said, he that being often reproved
hardeneth his neck.
And so God is faithful.
And God comes and He warns you, hey,
the path you're choosing, the way of self
-will, it's destroying you.
Don't go it.
Now listen to God.
Pay attention.
Obey the voice of the Lord.
And so Samuel is coming with a warning
for him and telling him of a mission
that God is sending him on.
Now, hearken to the voice of the words
of the Lord.
For the Lord said, I remember this, the
Amaleks, that when you were trying to come
into the land, they withstood you.
And therefore, God wants you to go down
and utterly wipe out the Amaleks.
Every man, woman, child, animal.
Don't take anything back alive.
Utterly slay everything in order that God might
be avenged against the Amaleks.
Now, you think, oh, that's a horrible command
of God.
You would think so until historically you would
study the practices and all of the Amaleks
and they were so corrupt, they were going
to wipe out themselves and God was just
ordering really the eradication of a cancer within
the society.
They were like mad dogs.
If you don't destroy them, they're going to
hurt innocent people.
So, God ordered the utter destruction of the
Amaleks.
Now, another factor here is that the Amaleks
are always a type of the flesh in
the Scripture.
And the Amaleks being a type of the
flesh, God is ordering the utter destruction of
the flesh.
Wipe it out completely.
Don't give any place for the flesh, the
Bible says, to fulfill the desires thereof.
Crucify the old man, the old nature.
If you by the Spirit do mortify the
deeds of the flesh, put it to death,
God says.
Don't give place for it.
Utterly wipe it out.
Now, Saul went down with the armies and
God gave victory over the Amaleks.
However, they saw some of the cattle and
some of the sheep were really good stock.
And so they set them aside.
And He spared the king alive.
But the sickly sheep, the sickly cows, they
really hacked them to pieces.
Didn't give them a chance.
That which was sickly and that which is
not so good.
They just utterly destroyed that.
But the good, the healthy, the strong, they
preserved them.
Now, whatever this is, it is disobedience to
the command of God.
It is again another opportunity for Saul to
redeem himself in obeying the command of the
Lord.
But it is disobedience, his failure to utterly
wipe out the Amaleks, all of their cattle,
and all of their sheep, and so forth.
Now, as we progress in history, and we're
going to go into the time machine now,
and we're going to go ahead in history
a few hundred years.
And a story that is familiar with many
of you, all of you who have read
the Bible, how that when Esther was chosen
queen in Persia, there was one man
in the kingdom of Persia that was seeking
to destroy all the Jews because he could
not stand this Jew Mordecai who refused to
bow to him.
He had such a hatred for this man,
he perpetrated a scheme whereby all of the
Jews were to be wiped out, and he
had the king sign a decree that on
a given day, all the Jews would be
wiped out in all the kingdom of Persia.
This wicked man's name was Haman.
Now, soon the Jews are going to have,
I think March 2nd, the Feast of Purim.
And the Feast of Purim is in celebration
of God's delivering them from the hand of
this wicked Haman.
Now, in Israel, it is like Halloween almost
in that the little children dress in costumes,
and the boys dress in the costumes of
the villain Haman.
Ugly masks and their costumes.
And the little girls dress up like Esther.
And all the little girls are so beautiful,
and of course they have their masks and
their little wands and everything else.
And it is like a Halloween.
They'll gather together, and they have sort of
a party actually, and they have the cookies
and so forth, the Haman's hat cookies and
all of this.
And it's quite a thing over there.
It's actually a holiday, the Feast of Purim.
But, the thing I want to point out
is the nationality of Haman.
He was a descendant of the king of
the Amaleks, Agag.
He was an Agagite.
A descendant from Agag, so that Saul, failing
to completely obey God, almost cost Israel its
whole national existence later on.
Because he failed to completely obey the command
of God, it almost cost the Jews, in
later history, their very existence.
This Haman the Agagite almost wiped them out
completely.
Which, if you do not bring your flesh
to the cross, if you do not mortify
the deeds of the flesh, if you seek
to make allowances and tolerances and say, well,
that's a pretty good part of me, you
know, that isn't too bad.
Your flesh will come back to destroy you.
We must bring the old man to the
cross.
We must not give place to the flesh
to fulfill its desires.
We must reckon the old man to be
dead.
And failure to do so can create real
problems down the line.
Your flesh will come back to haunt you.
And will come back to destroy your relationship
with God.
God wants you to bring your flesh to
the cross.
And there reckon the flesh of the old
man to be dead.
Saul failed to obey the command of God,
keeping the best cattle and sheep and so
forth.
And so as he came back with the
spoils of war, old Samuel, who is now
an old man, can't see very well.
He comes out to meet Saul.
And Samuel came to Saul and Saul said
to him, blessed be thou of the Lord,
I have performed the commandment of the Lord.
Liar.
But notice the spiritual language.
Blessed be thou of the Lord.
You know, a lot of people can use
spiritual jargon.
But it really doesn't mean anything.
You know, they can go around saying, oh,
praise the Lord.
Oh, bless God.
While they're picking your pocket.
That's right, there's a young boy in Israel.
He meets us always at the...
He's an Arab boy and he meets us
always when we're coming down the path of
Mount of Olives.
Oh, Christians, America.
Oh, praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord.
Hallelujah.
Oh, Christians from California.
Oh, yes, you know.
Brother, brother.
Watch out.
Your wallet or your pen or something will
be gone after his embrace.
Praise God.
Oh, hallelujah.
Fat wallet.
Praise the Lord.
Spiritual jargon.
It doesn't prove anything.
You can be a crook and use spiritual
language.
Often it is used as a disguise.
Blessed be thou of the Lord.
I've done everything.
I've performed all the Lord commanded me.
And though Samuel was not deceived, he said,
if you've done everything the Lord has commanded
you, then what means the bleeding of the
sheep and the lowing of the cows that
I hear?
Don't give me that business.
And Saul said, oh, they've brought them from
the Amalekites.
For the people spared the best of the
sheep and the oxen to sacrifice to the
Lord thy God.
And the rest we have utterly destroyed.
Now again, remember, Saul has developed a pattern
of making excuses when faced with his wrong
rather than repenting.
When he offered the sacrifices in disobedience to
God and Samuel called him for it, he
said, oh, the people, you know, they were
scattered and I forced myself.
It was because of the people and all.
And now again, faced, what do you mean
you've done everything?
If you have, how come I hear the
sheep and the cattle?
Oh, well, the people, you know, they kept
the best.
They brought them back to sacrifice.
Religious excuses are the most damnable of all.
And Samuel said unto Saul, just wait a
minute, pal, I'm going to tell you what
the Lord said to me tonight.
And Saul said, say on.
And Samuel said, when you were little in
your own sight, you were made the head
over the tribes of Israel and the Lord
anointed you to be king over Israel.
And the Lord sent thee on a journey
and said, go and utterly destroy the sinners,
the Amalekites.
Notice the sinners.
The Amalekites.
And fight against them until they be consumed.
Why then did you not obey the voice
of the Lord, but you did fly upon
the spoil and you did evil in the
sight of the Lord?
And Saul said unto Samuel, yes, I have
obeyed the voice of the Lord and I've
gone the way which the Lord sent me
and I've brought Agag, the king of Amalek,
and I've utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
He was lying.
He was not repenting.
But you see, when he was little in
his own sight, there was a difference then.
But now he's become puffed up.
Pride has filled his life and it's about
to destroy him.
Samuel said, hath the Lord as great a
delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in
obedience to the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than to sacrifice
and to hearken to God is better than
the fat of the rams which is burned
in the sacrifices.
Flimsy excuse.
God isn't interested in the sacrifices from a
disobedient heart and life.
God would much rather you obey Him than
offer sacrifices.
Many times, people are giving to God in
order to cover their feelings of guilt.
And giving to God is not a sign
necessarily of great spirituality.
People can feel very guilty.
Oh, I'm going to make a sacrifice unto
God because they feel so guilty for their
disobedience.
God would rather have your obedience than your
sacrifice.
To hearken to the voice of God is
better than to offer the fat of rams
upon the altar.
4.
Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and
stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
In other words, if you're rebelling against God,
that's just as bad as if you were
into witchcraft.
If you have a stubborn spirit, you're no
better off than the person who is worshiping
an idol.
This business of rebellion and stubbornness is something
that God is not pleased with in our
lives.
Rebellion is just as bad as witchcraft.
Stubbornness is just as bad as idolatry.
And because you have rejected the Word of
the Lord, He has also rejected you from
being king.
The official rejection, that's it.
God has rejected your kingship.
And Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned,
for I have transgressed the commandment of the
Lord and Thy words.
But notice, it isn't a full repentance, because
he said, I feared the people and obeyed
their voice.
Oh, he didn't fear the people.
Again, he's just offering a lame excuse for
his disobedience.
God would rather have just a straight, frank
confession.
God, I blew it.
I was wrong.
I sinned.
God, I'm sorry.
I repent.
There's no sign of repentance in this at
all.
Some people think it's cute to say, oh,
I'm a sinner.
That isn't repentance.
It's only a declaration of a blasphemous truth.
Oh, I've sinned.
Doesn't make anything out of you.
Forsaking the sin is what is important.
Turning from the sin.
The repentance is what God is seeking.
Now therefore, he said, I pray Thee, pardon
my sin and turn again with me that
we might worship the Lord.
And Samuel said to Saul, I will not
return with you for you have rejected the
word of the Lord and the Lord has
rejected you from being the king over Israel.
And Samuel turned to go away and he
grabbed hold of him and tore his coat.
And Samuel said unto him, The Lord has
torn the kingdom from you this day and
has given it to a neighbor that is
better than you are.
And also, the strength of Israel will not
lie nor repent for he is not a
man that he should repent.
Now the strength of Israel here being a
reference to God.
And notice, the strength of Israel will not
lie or repent.
Now in Numbers we read, For God is
not a man that he should repent.
Hath he not spoken?
Shall he not make it good?
But in just a few verses, we're going
to read where he says God repented that
he made you king.
How come this kind of a dichotomy?
The strength of Israel will not lie nor
repent for he is not a man that
he should repent.
Then Saul again said, I have sinned, yet
honor me now, I pray thee, before the
elders of my people.
In other words, you know, make me look
good in front of the people.
I've sinned.
And before Israel, turn again with me that
I may worship the Lord thy God.
Notice, not the Lord my God, the Lord
thy God.
So Samuel turned again after Saul and Saul
worshiped the Lord.
Then said Samuel, Bring hither Agag, the king
of the Amalekites.
And Agag came unto him delicately.
And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death
is past.
And Samuel said, As your sword has made
women childless, so shall your mother be childless
among women.
And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the
Lord in Gilgal.
Then Samuel went back to Ramah, and Saul
went up to his house in Gibeah.
And Samuel came no more to see Saul
until the day of his death.
Nevertheless, Samuel mourned for Saul, and the Lord
repented that he had made Saul king over
Israel.
So, God, the strength of Israel will not
lie nor repent.
Then what does it mean?
It repented the Lord that he made Saul
king over Israel.
There is always a difficulty in expressing God
and the characteristics of God and the actions
of God in human language.
But all we have is human language.
Now, God has characteristics, abilities that we have
no human language for, for we have no
way of experiencing these things.
I cannot even think how God thinks because
He knows everything.
How does He even think when He knows
everything to begin with?
Now, how can I even express the way
that God thinks?
How can I express the actions of God?
I can only express them with human terms
as they appear to be from my human
standpoint.
But yet, I am bound with human language.
Now, I am certain that there is a
vocabulary of heaven that is far broader and
incapable of expressing these things in languages that
if we heard it, we wouldn't know it
because we have nothing that will equal it
in human experience.
So, we are seeking to describe now an
action of God, and that is the action
of turning away His favor from Saul.
The change of God's attitude towards Saul.
Now, the word repent meaning change.
God is changing now His attitude towards Saul.
We have only one word to describe that
change.
Repent.
But yet, we have just read in a
true sense, God is not a man that
He lies or repents.
But yet, we have this human language barrier.
And so, we have to express the activities
of God with human language.
And the only word we have to express
this particular action of God's obvious change in
attitude towards Saul, the only word that we
have to express this obvious change is repent.
And yet, because it is God's action, it
isn't a repentance as we think of repent
in our human minds.
But it is the only vocabulary word that
we have to express this change of attitude,
so we use the word, but it isn't
repent in the same way that a man
repents from his decisions or his doings.
I hope I've helped you.
I don't know.
So, the Lord said to Samuel, how long
are you going to mourn for Saul seeing
I've rejected him from being the king or
reigning over Israel?
This change of attitude.
I've rejected him.
Now, how long are you going to mourn?
Fill your horn with oil and go and
I will send you to Jesse, the Bethlehemite,
for I have provided a king from among
his sons.
And Samuel said, Lord, if Saul hears I've
gone down to anoint someone else to be
king, he'll kill me.
Now, that shows you how far Saul has
strayed from the Lord and the things of
the Lord.
He would actually kill the prophet of God.
Samuel realized this.
This guy has really gone off the deep
end.
Lord, if he hears I'm going down to
anoint another king, he's going to kill me.
And the Lord said, well, take with you
a heifer, and if they say where you're
going, just say I'm going to offer a
sacrifice.
And then invite Jesse and his sons to
come to the sacrifice.
So, Samuel came down to the house of
Jesse and he said to Jesse, Jesse said
to him, have you come peaceably?
And he said, yes, I've come peaceably.
I've come to sacrifice to the Lord.
So, sanctify yourselves and come with me to
the sacrifice.
And he sanctified Jesse and his sons, called
them to the sacrifice.
So it came to pass, when the first
son came in, Eliab, he was a good
-looking fellow.
And Samuel thought, oh, surely this good-looking
young fellow is the one the Lord has
chosen.
This is God's choice.
And God spoke to Samuel and said, don't
look on the outward appearance.
Because I don't judge as men judge.
Men judge from the outward appearance, but God
said, I judge the hearts.
So, don't judge from just the outward appearance.
I'm judging the hearts.
Eliab isn't the one.
For the Lord does not see as man
sees.
Man looks on the outward.
God looks on the heart.
So, he called his next son, Abinadab.
The Lord said, nope.
And so, he called Shammah.
The Lord said, nope.
And he made all seven sons to pass
before Samuel.
And the Lord said no to all of
them.
Samuel, uh-oh, what's going on here?
He said, do you have any more sons?
Is that all?
Well, the other one's just a little boy.
He's out watching the sheep.
Samuel said, call him in.
And as David came in, with the smell
of the sheep and the fields upon him,
just a little boy, the Lord spoke to
Samuel.
Now, he was ruddy.
He had a good tan.
But with all, he had a beautiful face.
And he was just good looking.
And the Lord said, arise and anoint him,
for this is the one.
And Samuel took the horn of oil and
anointed him in the midst of his brothers.
And the Spirit of the Lord came upon
David from that day forward.
So, Samuel arose and went back to Ramah.
So, here's the anointing of David.
To be king over Israel.
Now, Saul was still on the throne.
Though David is now God's anointed and God's
choice for king, still Saul is on the
throne.
And we're going to notice in the next
few chapters that Saul is now going to
do his very best by force to hang
on to that which is no longer rightfully
his.
In a true rightful sense, David is king.
He's been anointed king.
The anointing of God and the power of
Spirit and the anointing of God is resting
upon David as king.
However, Saul is still on the throne.
And Saul is going to try to drive
David out of the kingdom by force.
The kingdom which is now rightfully his.
There's a sequel to this.
Jesus, through His death upon the cross, has
redeemed the world back to God and is
now the rightful king.
God's choice and God's anointed.
However, Satan is still upon the throne.
And Satan is doing his best to hold
by force that which is no longer rightfully
his.
And doing his best to hold back the
kingdom of God from the earth.
But, Jesus Christ is the rightful king.
And we can claim His victory.
And we can force the enemy off of
His territory.
But the enemy is stubborn.
He only yields what he must.
Thus, your prayers must be specific.
Instead of God save the world, you've got
to bring individuals before God, specific individuals, and
say, Lord, You died that You might reign
as king in their lives.
And they're being held by the power of
Satan and the power of darkness.
But Jesus has defeated the powers of the
enemy.
Colossians 2.
He triumphed over these principalities and powers through
His cross making an open display of His
victory.
And therefore, I claim the victory of Jesus
Christ in this life.
And I come against the power of Satan
that is holding them captive.
I come against the powers of darkness that
have blinded their eyes to their truth.
In Jesus' name, release them from this blindness,
from the prejudice that Satan has poisoned their
minds against the Lord.
And I can set them free from this
power of Satan that they might have a
freedom of choice.
Why do not men choose Christ?
Because Satan has so controlled their minds and
holds them under his grip so that they
cannot have a free choice.
They are actually being held captive by Satan
who has taken them captive even against their
wills.
The God of this world has blinded their
eyes that they cannot see the truth.
So my prayer has to be directed towards
the enemy.
Claiming the victory of Christ in that life.
And claiming Christ's victory until I see them
set free from the blinding influence of Satan
so that they can make a free choice.
And any man, when he can actually look
at it in a free choice without all
the poison and prejudice that Satan has planted
in their mind, would surely choose Jesus Christ.
Only a fool would reject Him.
And so it is mine to bring them
from the power and the captivity of Satan
and set them free from this binding force
in order that they might make their choice
for the true King.
And I can deliver people out of the
power of darkness through prayer.
This great spiritual weapon that God has made
available to us.
But Satan is stubborn.
He only yields what he must.
Therefore, your prayers have to be specific.
And he will counterattack as soon as you
drive him off of territory.
He'll counterattack and try and take it back.
Therefore, prayers must be persisted in even after
you begin to see the first signs of
victory.
Many times we make a mistake.
We say, oh, look, they went forward.
Oh, praise the Lord.
Now who are we going to work on?
And we're no longer praying and holding that
ground against the enemy.
But Satan is going to counterattack and going
to try and take back the territory from
which he's been driven.
Therefore, we've got to hold it in prayer.
We are in a real warfare.
We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but
against principalities and powers.
These forces of darkness.
But, though there is a tremendous battle that
is going on between the forces of darkness
and the forces of light, yet there is
a decided victory already determined there at the
cross.
And it is ours to bring the victory
of the cross into lives and into situations
through prayer.
But Satan, as Saul, seeks to hold on
to that which is no longer rightful he
is.
But when you come against him in the
authority and the name of Jesus, he has
to yield because he was defeated.
But he is a brassy, stubborn guy.
He'll come in where he has no business
being.
He'll take hold of that which he has
no business having.
Therefore, you have to deal with him very
firmly in prayer.
Not give place to him.
Not give him a place at all.
But claim and lay claim to those victories
of Christ.
And you can.
You can have real victory in your life.
You can bring victory into the lives of
others around you through prayer.
So, David was anointed to be king over
Israel.
Now, at this particular point, we have an
interesting scripture, difficult to understand.
Verse 14, But the Spirit of the Lord
departed from Saul and an evil spirit from
the Lord troubled him.
What does that mean, an evil spirit from
the Lord?
Well, I guess it means an evil spirit
from the Lord.
But that is difficult for us to reconcile
in our minds.
Now, I don't want you all to get
up and leave in a huff because I
say something that may sound very radical.
But I am convinced that in a unique
and unusual kind of a way, Satan is
actually serving God.
He is serving purposes of God.
If it were not for Satan, then we
would have no power of choice.
If we had no power of choice, then
God wouldn't know if you really loved Him
or not.
Satan could not exist unless God allowed him
to exist.
And the very fact that God allows him
to exist means that he must be serving
a purpose for God.
Otherwise, there would be no reason of having
Satan around at all.
If he were not serving a purpose of
God, then God surely wouldn't allow him his
freedom today.
But because he is serving a purpose of
God, in order that you might be tested,
in order that your love for God might
indeed be a love of free choice, God
has allowed Satan the liberty for he serves
a purpose of God.
So in a broad sense, all of creation
is still serving the purposes of God.
Even Satan in his rebellion, for God has
a purpose in that.
You see, to give us the power of
choice, and yet if there is no choice
to make, what value is it to have
a power of choice?
Here, choose what book you want out of
my hand.
Well, there is no choice.
In order to exercise choice, there has to
be the opposing side.
So, God has allowed Satan's rebellion, has allowed
Satan to go on, has allowed Satan the
freedom, has allowed Satan the freedom to come
and to tempt you and to hassle you
and to work on you and to make
it difficult for you to serve God, so
that as you serve God, it is because
of choice of serving God in spite of
the obstacles, in spite of the difficulties.
God, I do love you, and my love
for God is more or less proved by
my choice to love Him in spite of
the difficulties and obstacles that are placed in
my way.
And thus, God is assured that my love
is genuine and my love for Him is
true.
If I would say to my son, stay
in the backyard while I go downtown and
I go out and chain him to the
big tree.
And when I get home, I go in
the backyard and unlock him and say, ha
ha, I'm proud of my boy.
He's obedient to his dad.
Stayed right there in the backyard.
Good boy.
Proud father.
My neighbor would say, you should have heard
him cursing and screaming trying to get free.
You see, he had no choice.
There has to be the open door, the
possibility, the opportunity to disobey in order that
obedience is meaningful.
God wants from you meaningful love.
Therefore, the choice must be given.
And thus, an evil spirit from the Lord,
or God allowed, perhaps, if that fits you
better, an evil spirit to come.
The Spirit of the Lord...
Now, I am convinced that when the Spirit
of God departs from your life, the door
is open for evil spirits to really come.
And so, an evil spirit, allowed by the
Lord at least, came and began to harass
Saul.
The Spirit of God departed from him.
What a sad time in a person's life
when God's Spirit departs from his life.
And an evil spirit began to move in.
And it troubled him.
And Saul's servant said, you need to find
someone who is skillful at playing the harp.
And when you get in these bad moods,
and of course, that's actually what it was.
It was a bad mood.
You get mean.
You get sullen.
And when these sullen, mean streaks come on
you, then let him play on the harp
skillfully and let the beautiful music soothe you.
And Saul said, provide me a skillful harp
player.
And one of the servants said, I've seen
the son of Jesse.
He is a skillful player.
He's a valiant man.
A man of war.
Prudent in matters.
He's a beautiful person.
And the Lord is with him.
These qualifications of David capped off by the
Lord is with him.
I love that.
Wherefore, Saul sent messengers to Jesse.
And he said, send David your son, which
is with the sheep.
And Jesse took a donkey that was laden
with bread, a bottle of wine, a young
goat.
And he sent them by David, his son
to Saul.
And David came to Saul and stood before
him.
And he loved him greatly.
And he became his armor bearer.
Actually, David had a great admiration for Saul.
Of course, just a young boy.
And he was at that hero age.
And Saul, big, tall, handsome fellow, became sort
of a hero in David's eyes.
And David always respected Saul right to his
death and even after his death.
David never lost his respect for this man.
And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, Let David,
I pray thee, stand before me, for he
has found favor in my sight.
And it came to pass when the evil
spirit from God was upon Saul that David
took the harp and he played with his
hands.
So Saul was refreshed and was well.
And the evil spirit departed from him.
Now, how long this went on, we are
not told.
But this beautiful relationship was soon to be
shattered as we get into chapter 17.
And because of the time, we'll wait until
next week and we'll start with chapter 17
next Sunday night.
Shall we stand?
Listen in next week.
Same time, same station.
Continuation.
Again, may God grant to you a special
blessing tonight as you drive home.
May the Lord be with you even as
He was with David.
And may your heart and life be open
to the things of God's Spirit.
And may you have blessed communion with the
Lord through the week.
May God bless you, especially for the sacrifices
that you have made to gather together in
obedience to His command of not forsaking the
assembling of ourselves together in these last days.
And may the strength of the Lord and
the joy of the Lord be your portion
for this week as you walk in beautiful
fellowship with Him.