Now this morning, Lord willing,
in this chapter, we're going to see some pictures of Christ
in Saul's ascent to the throne. And next week, Lord willing,
we're going to kind of look back at the last two chapters together
and see the people's king as opposed to God's king. Primarily
Saul's reign. is given to us as an anti-type
of Christ. And that's what we'll look at
next week. But in his ascent to the throne, when he was anointed
king, there are some pictures of Christ that I want us to see.
Next week, we'll kind of look at a little bit of the high points
of these two chapters together. But beginning in verse 1 of 1
Samuel 10, this Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it upon his
head and kissed him and said, Is it not because the Lord hath
anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance? Now Saul, right
there on that road as he was leaving Samuel, was anointed
king of Israel. He's not a figurehead. He's the
king. I mean, he's got all the authority
and power of the king. But as he's being anointed, he's
given a warning. You're king, captain over God's
inheritance. Now you're king, but Israel doesn't
belong to you. They're given in your care for
a time. But they're God's people. You're not the Lord over them.
God's just allowing you to be captain. He's allowing you to
be king, but it's over his people, over his inheritance. Just because
you're king, don't get too big for your britches and think somehow
these people belong to you, because they don't. They're God's inheritance.
And he goes on in verse 2, he says, now, when thou art departed
from me today, thou shalt find two men by Rachel's sepulcher
in the border of Benjamin at Zillow. And they will say unto
thee, The asses which thou wentest to seek are found, and lo, thy
father hath left care for the asses, and sorrow for you, saying,
What shall I do for my son? Then shalt thou go on forward
from Thence, and thou shalt come to the plain of Tabor, and there
shall meet thee three men going up to God, to Bethel, one carrying
three kids, and another carrying three loaves of bread, and another
carrying a bottle of wine. and they will salute thee, and
give thee two loaves of bread, which thou shalt receive of their
hands. And after that thou shalt come to the hill of God, where
is the garrison of the Philistines, and it shall come to pass, when
thou art come thither to the city, that thou shalt meet a
company of prophets, coming down from the high place, with a psaltery,
and a tabret, and a pipe, and a harp before them, and they
shall prophesy. And the Spirit of the Lord will
come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt
be turned into another man." Now Samuel tells Saul all these
different things that are going to happen to him on his journey
home. He's been told they're going
to happen before they happen so that Samuel's word will be
confirmed in Saul's mind. So Saul will know when he sees
all these things happen that everything else that Samuel has
told him is true. Despite how he may feel, God
has surely chosen him to be king. And Saul sees someone coming
and telling him exactly what Samuel told him, that they would
tell him that those asses of his father's had been found.
And he goes a little further down the road and meets these
strangers who suddenly just feel so generous and give him this
bread, just like Samuel told him would happen. And then he
goes a little further and meets these prophets. They're coming
down from the school of the prophets and he meets them. And Saul suddenly
begins to prophesy for the first time in his life. Saul should
realize that he should trust Samuel in greater matters in
the future, too. Samuel's words should be confirmed
in his mind because he's seen firsthand God has let none of
Samuel's words fall to the ground. So that in the future, when There
are important matters at hand. Saul should know to trust the
word of Samuel and do what he tells him to do. And that's a
picture of Christ to us. Nearly everything that our Lord
Jesus did during his earthly ministry was foretold in the
Old Testament scriptures. I mean, just so many things.
It seemed like just a little thing that he did, but it was
done that the scriptures might be fulfilled. Everything. He
fulfilled every prophecy concerning the Messiah so that it would
be obvious to men that the Lord Jesus Christ is God's King. He
is the Redeemer. He's God's Messiah. And this
all happened just like Samuel said it would. And the scripture
here says that Saul shall be turned into another man. And
down in verse 9, in the middle of the verse, it says that God
gave him another heart. He's turned into another man
and God gave him another heart. Now that sounds a lot like regeneration,
doesn't it? Just when you first read it,
that's what it sounds like. But we know it's not. We know
Saul's history, his story. But you notice scripture says
he's turned into another man, that God gave him another heart.
It didn't say God made him a new man. It didn't say God made him
a new creature. It didn't say God gave him a
new heart. It gave him another heart, made him another man,
another kind of man. You know, you can have another
spirit and not be the Holy Spirit, can't you? So this is not talking
about regeneration. What this is talking about is
Saul is no longer a farmer looking for his father's donkeys. He's
a king. He's been turned into another
kind of man. His mind has been turned from
looking for donkeys to matters of state. He's got a mind just
in an instant. God gave him a mind that understands
people, that understands how people work So that Saul can
get things done politically. He's been given a mind of a ruler. Saul suddenly has a courageous
heart to lead men into battle, to defend his country. And Saul
suddenly has some wisdom and some prudence that he never had
before. And we'll see some examples about
this here in just a little bit. He's been suddenly given new
cares. No longer does he care about looking for his father's
donkeys. He's got the care of Israel on his heart and on his
mind. Saul now has the heart of a general. He doesn't have the heart of
a farmer anymore. And because of that, Saul can't
be satisfied living in the country, working for his father's farm
and looking for his father's donkeys. He can't be satisfied
in the country anymore. The only thing that will satisfy
Saul now is doing the job of a king, dealing with matters
of state. He can't be satisfied doing something
else anymore because he's got another mind. He's another man.
And there's nothing wrong with that. I mean, absolutely nothing
wrong with that at all. You have to have a heart and
a mind that's suited for the job that you do or else you'll
be miserable at it and you won't do a very good job at all. There's
someone who's just a country boy at heart. will never in a
million years be happy living in an apartment in New York City
and vice versa. A true New Yorker could never
be happy living in the country, living in some place like here.
They don't have the heart for it. Well, that's what happened
to Saul. My daughter Holly told me this
week about a lecture that she was at. There was a guest lecturer
and it was a nurse. Her whole job is working with
dying babies. Now, buddy, let me tell you,
I could not do that job. I don't have the heart for it.
I don't have the mind for it. If I can do that job, don't have
to turn me into another man. Now, I'm thankful someone can.
But someone has the heart and the mind and the makeup to do
that job. But it crushed me. I couldn't
be happy doing her job. And I bet you she couldn't be
happy doing mine. You have to have the heart for the job. You
know, you're called on to do the job. Well, that's what happened
to Saul. He's got the heart and mind of
a king because he's going to need him. He's king. He's got
to have that. He's going to do a good job.
And God gave it to him. But what God gave him was in
the natural realm, not the spiritual realm. This is in the natural
realm. But it is true that God will equip his people. for whatever
job he calls you to do. Whatever place God puts you in,
he'll give you the heart for it. He'll equip you to be able
to do it, just like he did Saul, and be able to handle the kingdom.
So let's go on here in verse 7. Samuel says, And let it be,
when these signs are come unto thee, that thou do as occasion
serve thee, for God is with thee. Now that's very good advice for
all of us to remember. Thou do as occasion serve thee. Just do what God has given you
occasion to do this, whatever it is, if something comes to
your heart or your mind to do something. Do it, I've learned
this from experience, just do it. If God puts it in your heart
to do something for someone else, don't think, well, now is that,
you know, they're going to think that's stupid. Should I really
do that? Don't debate it, just do it. Do as occasion serves
thee. If it just comes to your mind
to give a kind word to someone, send them a card, do it! I promise you, just do as occasion
served thee. Isn't that what our Lord did?
During His earthly ministry, did He always do as occasion
served Him? To help people and to glorify
His Father. He always took the opportunity
to do good and help the helpless. He was never too busy for them,
was he? He always did, and that's the way we are. Thou doest occasion
serve thee. Now let's read on here in verse
8. Samuel says, And thou shalt go
down before me to Gilgal, and behold, I will come down unto
thee to offer burnt offerings, and to sacrifice sacrifices of
peace offerings. Seven days shalt thou tarry till
I come to thee, and show thee what thou shalt do. And it was
so that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave
him another heart. And all those signs came to pass
that day. And when they came thither to
the hill, behold, a company of prophets met him. And the Spirit
of God came upon him, came upon Saul, and he prophesied among
them. And it came to pass, and all
that knew him before time saw that, behold, he prophesied among
the prophets. Then the people said one to another,
What is this that is come unto the son of Kish? Is Saul also
among the prophets? And one of the same place answered
and said, But who is their father? Therefore, it became a proverb,
Is Saul also among the prophets? And when he had made an end of
prophesying, he came to the high place. Everything happened to
Saul exactly the way Samuel told him it would. And God gave Saul
the gift of prophecy. He prophesied. I'll tell you
why he did it. I don't understand everything
that went on there, but I do know this. The reason God gave
him that gift at that time was to give Saul honor in the eyes
of the people so that here in a little bit, when he's anointed
king, they'll accept him as king because as he began to prophesy,
he kind of rose in honor in the eyes of the people. But some
doubted. Some said, now I know this fella.
I know him. Who's his father? What he's saying
is, who's his teacher? Who taught him to do this? How
did he suddenly come upon this? And the people that knew Saul,
knew him all his life, they were amazed. It's what he was doing. He's there prophesying. He's
with the prophets because they'd never seen this talent in him
before. He'd never shown any inclination
to do this before. But he didn't even seem to know
who Samuel was just, you know, a few days ago. What is this
going on with him? They wondered. And it was so
amazing that it just became a saying with the with all of Israel when
they would see someone do something great, you know, that they'd
never done before. Or they'd seen someone do something
that they never shown a talent for, they didn't have an education
for. It was just so amazing. They'd say, well, is Saul also
among the prophets? It was just a way to say, this
is something amazing that's happened. This person never could do this
before and suddenly they can. It was just a saying with them.
We know people treated our Lord the exact same way. They despised
him because of his lack of education in their schools. They said,
you know, who taught him? He's not even 50 years old yet.
What are we doing listening to him? He's still way behind the
ears. Who are we listening to him for? Despised him for the
same reason. But, you know, I thought this
is a scary thing. Saul prophesied. Now, he really
did. He prophesied. When we have no
indication from Scripture that Saul ever knew the Lord. Now,
that's a scary thing. And there's a lesson for us here.
Boy, the words of Scripture, they're not just there to take
up space. They mean something. Try the Spirits, whether they
are of God. And not just one or two messages
now. You try the Spirits. You listen.
Take time to listen. Maybe from hearing this one message
or two messages, people might have thought, here's God's preacher.
Here's God's prophet. And it wasn't. Balaam prophesied,
didn't he? Balaam's ass prophesied. Balaam's
ass is not one of God's elect, it's an animal. God can make
anybody a preacher. And Balaam prophesied, yet he's
held up to us in Scripture as the great example of a false
prophet. So try the spirits, whether they're of the Lord.
It might take some time to see what's really going on here.
But Saul prophesied, and he went to the high place. In verse 14,
Saul's uncle said unto him and to his servants, Whither went
she? And he said to seek the asses. And when we saw that they
were nowhere, we came to Samuel. And Saul's uncle said, Tell me,
I pray thee, what Samuel said unto you. And Saul said unto
his uncle, He told us plainly that the asses were found. But
of the matter of the kingdom whereof Samuel spake, he told
him not. Now here's an example of Saul's
humility. Now we know he loses most of
this over time, don't we? But here he shows some genuine
humility. Yet his humility pales in comparison
to the humility of Christ our King. I think really in his heart,
Saul knew he was not cut out to be king. He was not a king. Yet Christ our Lord knew he is
king of kings. Yet you think how he humbled
himself. He humbled himself to become
a baby dependent upon a mother. He humbled himself to be under
the authority of sinful parents of flesh. He humbled himself,
though he owns everything, to walk this earth as a homeless
man who didn't have a place to lay his head. He humbled himself
to be rejected by everyone who is anybody. And then he humbled
himself in a way that we cannot fathom to be made sin for his
people. He humbled himself to give his
body to suffer physical punishment and abuse by his creatures. And
he humbled himself to make his soul an offering to the father,
to give his soul to be punished for the sins of his people by
his father. That humility that Christ suffered
for his people was for his people. To redeem his people. What a
king. What a king. And Saul did give
us an example of humility. He also gave us an example of
some wisdom and some prudence that he didn't have before. God
made him another man. So he had some wisdom he didn't
have before. He didn't tell his uncle that Samuel told him he
was going to be king. He just kept his mouth shut.
Because he knew it's better for people to hear that from Samuel.
It'll be better received if they hear that from Samuel than from
him. My grandmother had a saying. She said all the time, she said
this, toot your own horn even if you never sell a fish. Now,
I never was sure exactly what that meant, but I think this
is what it meant because she used it in this context. Don't
brag on yourself. I think it has a lot of different
meanings. It's multi-purpose. You feel
free to use it where you want. Toot your own horn, even if you
never sell fish. But I think she meant don't brag
on yourself. Let somebody else do it. And
that's what Saul's doing here. He's going to let somebody else,
you know, do that. And there are too many, I started
to look them up, sum them up, and there's too many examples
of the wisdom of our Lord Jesus as he dealt with people, as he
walked this earth. You think about how he talked
to both sinners and self-righteous people and always had the wisdom
to give them exactly what they needed. He dealt with that woman
at the well much differently than he dealt with the rich young
ruler, didn't he? But he gave them both exactly what they needed. That centurion whose servant
was sick, he dealt with him very differently than he dealt with
that Canaanite woman whose daughter was possessed of the devil. You
know, that centurion, he said, you know, would you come? My
servant is sick. And Lord said, I'll go heal him.
And centurion said, no, you don't come to my house. I mean, the
Lord just immediately was just going to go heal his servant.
And that's when that centurion said, I'm a man under authority.
I know how this works. I tell this man go and he goes.
You just speak the word only and my servant will be healed.
You don't have to come to my house. And that Canaanite woman,
he put her off and put her off and put her off. He finally called
her a dog. Yet he gave them both what they
needed, just exactly what they needed. That's his wisdom. That's
the wisdom of our king. Our king is too wise to ever
make a mistake. Now we can take comfort. There's
so much peace to be found in that. I don't have to understand
what he's doing. And most of the time I don't.
But that's all right. Our peace is not that I understand.
It's that what he's doing is right. Our king is not making
a mistake. He's too wise for that. Well,
verse 17, And then Samuel called the people together unto the
Lord to Mizpah. And he said unto the children
of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I brought up Israel
out of Egypt, and delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians.
and out of the hand of all kingdoms, and of them that oppressed you.
And ye have this day rejected your God, who himself saved you
out of all your adversities and your tribulations. And ye have
said unto him, Nay, but said a king over us. Now therefore
present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your
thousands." And when Samuel had caused all the tribes of Israel
to come near, the tribe of Benjamin was taken. And when he had caused
the tribe of Benjamin to come near by their families, the family
of Matre was taken, and Saul the son of Kish was taken. And
when they sought him, he could not be found." Now here Samuel
reminds the people of the reason God's giving them a king. The
reason God's giving them a king is that they rejected the Lord.
They rejected the Lord who delivered them from all of their tribulations.
He delivered them from all of their adversities. You know,
God's the same yesterday, today, and forever. We still have the
same king. Our king, whatever the tribulation,
whatever the adversity, whoever the enemy, our king is able to
deliver us from all those afflictions. Isn't that what Darius cried
to Daniel down there in the lion's den? Is your God able? Oh, he's
able to save. He's able to deliver. He still
has all power. And they've seen this firsthand. Yet they rejected God as their
king. And Samuel said, that's what you've done. You've rejected.
You asked for a king. Now, I ask you, can the mightiest
man that you've ever heard of do for you what God's done for
you? Well, you have to answer no.
Yet they wanted a king anyway. So Samuel, he didn't just, he
knew who the king was. He'd already anointed him. But
he didn't just announce to the people who the king was, he cast
lots for the king, so that the people could never say, you know,
we don't want this guy to be king. Samuel, he must have took
a bribe or something, you know, to make this fella king. They
couldn't say that. Samuel cast lots for the king,
so the people would know this is who God has chosen to be king.
Because you cast a lot, but now God's in control of it. So they
knew that. This was the king that God had
chosen. So Samuel cast lots on all the
tribes. The lot fell on the tribe of
Benjamin. So then he took all the families of Benjamin and
he cast lots. And the lot came on Kish's household. Then he
took those men of Kish's household and he cast the lot and it came
on Saul. And Saul was the king. And they can't find him. They
can't find him anywhere. Saul only knows he's king and
they can't find him. And it's amazing to me. How often
people who claim to be religious, people who have read the Bible,
have Bible stories and things taught to them their whole lives,
how often those people completely ignore the Word of God. People
do it in our day, same as they did then. The Lot, here they
are, now they're going to have their king. They're going to
cast lots and they're going to get their king. Well, the Lot
fell in the tribe of Benjamin. Isn't the tribe of Judah the
kingly tribe? That's what God's Word said. Jacob prophesied that
as he was dying. The king comes from Judah. But the lot fell on Benjamin.
I think this thing's going to turn out to be a disaster, don't
you? It's not according to God's Word. And it's going to turn
out to be a disaster. And they had another clue when
they chose their king, and then they couldn't find him. Look
here at verse 22. Therefore they inquired of the
Lord further, they had asked the Lord, where is this fellow?
If the man should yet come thither, and the Lord answered, behold,
he hath hid himself among the stuff, all their luggage, you
know, that they thereby travel up here to Mizpah. Saul's over
here hiding behind the suitcases. This is your king hiding behind
the suitcases. Now, you know, people say this
is Saul's humility. Maybe it is. I don't know. But
for whatever reason, He was very reluctant to take the throne.
I mean, he could have been over there hiding behind the suitcases,
listening to Samuel remind them what kind of king they're going
to have. And at some point, it had a dawn on old Saul, he's
talking about me. These are the things I'm going
to do. So maybe he shouldn't have taken the throne. And he's
very reluctant to take it. But you know what? After old
Saul gets a taste of that throne, Buddy, he's going to do everything
he can to get that up. He's not hiding among the stuff
here in a little while when David starts to come on the scene,
is he? He's going to do everything he can to keep that throne. This
attitude of Saul's changes over time. But verse 22, they ran
and fastened him fast. And when he stood among the people,
he was higher than any of the people, from his shoulders and
upward. And Samuel said to all the people, See ye him whom the
Lord hath chosen, that there is none like him among the people. And all the people shouted and
said, God saved the king. Samuel said, there he is. Look
at him. He didn't have to stand up on
stairs or something, you know, for everybody to see him. He's
higher than everybody in Israel. And Samuel said, there he is.
This is the best Israel has to offer. That's the best. This is the best flesh has to
offer. They'd be wise to remember that
here in just a little bit. The trouble that they're in,
that they find themselves in, is because this is the best flesh
can offer. Brethren, the best flesh can
offer is going to disappoint us every time. It's flesh. It's
decaying, rotting flesh. Just don't put your trust, Scripture
says, in even the princes and men, the best of them, because
they'll disappoint you every time. When God gave his elect a king,
he didn't give us the best flesh and offer, did he? When God gave
his elect the king, he gave the very best he has, his own son. And I tell children of God, you
take comfort. God Almighty has given his best
to redeem your soul and rule over your life, over your eternity,
over your soul. then all's going to be well in
him. If God gave the best that he has to save your soul, I don't
care what happens, your soul's saved. If he's given the best
he has to be king over you, to rule over you, to bring you to
glory, I can tell you where you're going to end up. I don't know
what's going to happen between here and there, but I know this,
you're going to end up in glory. Because God gave his best to
be king, to see to it that his purpose is accomplished. And
his purpose will be accomplished. It's not going to be that way
with Saul, is it? Well, verse 25 is, Samuel told the people
the manner of the kingdom, and he wrote it in a book and laid
it up before the Lord, and Samuel sent all the people away, every
man to his house. Samuel sent the people away with
this final warning. He went back there to chapter
9, and he rehearsed to them again. One more time, he did it earlier.
He began the meeting rehearsing to them the manner of the king
that they'd have, and he ended the meeting rehearsing to them
the manner of the king that they'd have. And he wrote it in a book. So when he's gone, they can go
look it up and see that it was so. This is happening just like
God said it would happen. And there's not a man who's ever
lived that can say God did not warn us. Certainly no one here. We can never say God didn't warn
us. No one, no one will ever be able
to blame God for being in hell. God warned. He wrote it in a
book and gave it to his people. There it is if you want to read
it. He gave it to us in a book. Verse 26, And Saul also went
home to Gibeah. And there went with him a band
of men whose hearts God had touched. But the children of Belial said,
How shall this man save us? And they despised him and brought
him no presents. But he held his peace. Now there
was a group of men who followed Saul. Suddenly, they just couldn't
help themselves. They had to follow Saul. They
were committed to him. They were going to be his bodyguards
and serve him and do for him whatever needed to be done. They
just suddenly came upon him to do that because God had touched
the hearts of those men. No one had to beg him to go with
Saul. He didn't have to go recruit
people and, you know, kind of beg him and bribe him. No, they
were committed to him. And it's the same today with
men and women who follow Christ. They're committed to the Lord
Jesus Christ because God gave them a new heart. It was His
grace. God touched them. Why are you different than you
used to be? Why is it people look at you and they say it's
also among the prophets? What happened? God touched you. Oh, He touched me and made me
whole, made me new. But some men Rejected Saul, they
despised him. They said, how can this uneducated
farmer save us? He can even bite his father's
asses. How's he going to help us? When that man in the flesh,
all men in the flesh despise the Lord Jesus Christ. He is
despised and rejected of men. He's despised and we esteem him
not. What we said is, how can this
man save us? How can this man do anything
for us? We don't have this man reign
over us. We don't need him. And Saul heard all that. You think the Lord Jesus doesn't
hear all that? He's everywhere. He knows everything.
But like Saul, he held his peace. Saul knew, as this was very wise,
not to begin his reign killing a bunch of people. Not beginning
his reign in a bloodbath. Christ our Lord did the same
thing. He's held his peace. When he was brought before the
bar of justice, he held his peace. He was as a sheep before her
shears as dumb, so he opened not his mouth. In all those accusations
that were brought against our Lord, he never one time opened
his mouth in his own defense. Never. He held his peace. And
it's been 2,000 years. He's held his peace. He's held
his peace a long time. Now, it won't last forever, but
right now, today, He's holding His peace. And you know why?
It's still the day of grace. It is still the day of grace. The Lord, the King, is still
calling out His people, sovereignly calling out His people, bringing
them to faith and repentance. It would be a good idea for us
to bow before the King, begging for mercy, begging for grace,
because it's still the day of grace. Never know. He just might
show it, wouldn't he? Just might. All right. The Lord
bless you.