1 Samuel chapter 10 and reading
from verse 1. Then Samuel took a vial of oil
and poured it upon Saul's head, his head, and kissed him and
said, is it not because the Lord hath anointed thee to be captain
over his inheritance? When thou art departed from me
to-day, then thou shalt find two men by Rachel's sepulchre
in the border of Benjamin at Zella. And they will say unto
thee, The asses which thou wentest to seek are found. And lo, thy
father hath left the care of the asses, and sorroweth 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. 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. And let it be, when
these signs are come unto thee, that thou do as occasion serve
thee, for God is with thee. 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, and he prophesied among them. And it
came to pass, when 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. And Saul's uncle said
unto him, and to his servant, whither went ye? 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 thee, or 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. And Samuel called the
people together unto the Lord to misbehave, and 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 set 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. When he had caused the tribe
of Benjamin to come near by their families, the family of Matriot
was taken, and Saul, the son of Kish, was taken, and when
they sought him, he could not be found. Therefore they inquired
of the Lord further, if the man should yet come thither? And
the Lord answered, Behold, he hath hid himself among the stuff. and they ran and fetched him
thence. 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 him whom the Lord hath chosen, that there
is none like him among all the people. And all the people shouted
and said, God save the king. Then Samuel told the people the
manner of the kingdom, and wrote it in a book, and laid it up
before the Lord. And Samuel sent all the people
away, every man to his house. 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. Amen. May the Lord
bless to us this reading from his word. Sometimes when we read these
passages, they are so clear, the verses, the pictures, the
story, if you like, of the passage is so clear and easy to understand
that we need very little in the way of retelling. And this is
perhaps one of those chapters. It opens with Samuel privately
anointing Saul as king and giving him pre-notice of some events
that would take place as he returned home that day. And indeed, we
saw that those events did take place. signs that would reassure
Saul that all that Samuel said about Saul being king would come
to pass. If Samuel could tell him what
was going to happen that day and the number of people and
what they would be carrying and what they would say and all of
these things came to pass, then it was obvious that Samuel was
a man of God and therefore Saul could rely on what else he said
concerning the kingship and the anointing. And after the anointing
of Saul, Samuel convenes all the tribes of Israel at Mizpah
and he proceeds to the selection of a king. and by that means
that Samuel used, Saul is elected, and most of the people are glad,
though we learn right at the end of the chapter that some
are unhappy. However, Saul wisely remains
quiet rather than to confront these enemies at this time. I just want to mention a couple
of things with respect to some of the points that we find going
through this chapter. One of the things is just about
anointing. In the Old Testament, So we have
the Old Testament and the New Testament. In the Old Testament,
the kings and priests were anointed with oil as a sign of God's spirit
and God's blessing being upon them. And probably that was done
as a pointer to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, who we
learn from scripture was God's appointed one and anointed one. That's what Messiah means. And the Lord was anointed by
God, and so in order to prefigure that, in order to picture that,
the kings and the priests of the Old Testament, they too were
anointed, showing that God's spirit was upon them. The Lord
Jesus Christ, of course, was the chosen one, God's chosen
one, in the work of salvation. And perhaps you'll remember that
we've spoken several times, I think, about Christ's offices or the
roles that he fulfilled in coming and in the covenant of grace
which he fulfilled. So that the Lord Jesus Christ
is our prophet because he tells us about God. We don't call him
the prophet Jesus, but he fulfilled that role because he preached
the gospel and because he told us about God, because he reveals
God's will to us. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
also a priest because he offered the sacrifice of his blood before
God and because he mediates for us with God, which was the role
of the priest in the Old Testament. And he's a king because he rules
in his spiritual kingdom, which is the church of Jesus Christ,
that is, all those for whom he died. And as always in these
passages, we are eager to see the types and the parallels in
these Old Testament accounts of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
it's not hard really to draw similarities between Samuel anointing
Saul and the anointing of the Lord Jesus to his kingly office
by the Holy Spirit. Hebrews says of Christ. God hath anointed thee with the
oil of gladness above thy fellows. So just in the same way as Samuel
anointed Saul, so God, God the Holy Spirit, anointed the Lord
Jesus Christ with the oil of gladness above his fellows. He was special in this world. Amongst men, the Lord Jesus Christ
was anointed with the Holy Spirit. And it also goes on to say in
that same passage in Hebrews that Christ's throne, his kingly
role, would continue forever and ever. But there's something
else about the anointing that I think I should mention. Samuel
explains to Saul, is it not because the Lord hath anointed thee to
be captain over his inheritance? He was anointed because that
was what the Lord was doing in his life. It was the Lord who
anointed Saul, which showed that Saul was not replacing the Lord,
but representing him. These were still the Lord's people.
These were the people by whom Christ would come. And Saul was
accountable to God for the way that he ruled over them. Now,
these were not by any means all spiritual people. And yet this
experience of being anointed by Samuel and hearing Samuel
say, this is the Lord that is anointing you, Saul, this experience,
together with the signs that Saul was given this day about
meeting the people and meeting the prophets, these signs They
left Saul in no doubt that Samuel was the Lord's prophet and that
Samuel was to be respected as such. The signs that were given
were not random signs. I'm pretty sure that Saul was
hungry. We don't hear that he had eaten
this day. I'm pretty sure he was hungry when he met those
men carrying the bread and the kids and the wine. They were
going to worship. And those men taking pity on
Saul and giving him bread was an example of how Saul should
himself as king protect and provide for the poor in the country.
Meeting with the prophets showed him that God would equip him
for the role that laid ahead, that lay ahead. Giving him skills
that he never had And so we learn that he was turned into another
man. He was given wisdom. He was given
impressive skills and qualities to fit him for the task ahead. A wee lesson there for us, I
think. The Lord does not ask us to do things that he does
not prepare and equip us for. A few days ago, Saul had been
looking for asses. He was a farm worker on his father's
farm and now God's Spirit had turned him into another man and
equipped him for the role that lay before him. God was with
him and God gave him another heart. Samuel as well promises
Saul that he, Samuel, would be a spiritual advisor to the new
king in the days ahead, that he would meet him and that he
would minister to him and advise him. And Saul's reputation From
this time on, a reputation of greatness amongst the people
began to grow as a result of these signs and were recognised
as being the hand of God upon him. We also read that Samuel
called the people together in order to elect Saul as king. These were likely representatives
of the people, their elders and their leaders, rather than it
being every single person in the country gathering. representatives
of the people who came and gathered, and Samuel reminded them all
of the Lord's provision and protection over many years. He made it clear
once again that their actions that day were a rejection of
the Lord's rule over them. Nevertheless, as God instructed,
he gave them what they asked for. Neither God nor Samuel had
initiated this change of government in Israel. And therefore it was
made clear to the people that if trouble followed upon it,
they had no one to blame but themselves. So Samuel performed
this selection process. We're not sure exactly how it
took place. Perhaps it was by casting lots
at God's direction. Perhaps it was the Urim and the
Thummim used by a priest in order to direct what was happening. But so that no one would have
any complaint of bias, there was this selection process and
the lot fell on the tribe of Benjamin, which was a surprise
to everyone. Reuben was the firstborn of all
the children of Israel. So perhaps the tribe of Reuben
thought, well, it should be us. Judah had been promised the kingdom
and maybe they thought, well, no, it's got to be us. No one
expected it to be Benjamin, the youngest of all the brothers,
and the least. And in fact, a people who had
been strongly opposed for their wickedness not long hence. But then the Lord tells us, does
he not, in Isaiah 55, my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither
are your ways my ways. And that's something that we
should all remember. The family of Matre was chosen
and Saul's name was drawn. But he couldn't be found. Where
was this man, this son of Kish? And what we learn is that Saul
had become anxious. He was anxious at what was about
to happen. The greatness, the gravity of
the situation had become clear to him and Saul had hidden himself
away. He was overwhelmed concerning
what was about to happen. And I think that's quite understandable.
He really knew little about government. He probably had very little education. He was from a poor family, a
farming family, a rural family. And no doubt, some people there,
I don't know, in Reuben and in Judah and the captains of the
thousands, they probably thought that their sons should be chosen
as king and they would hold this against him. Not only that, there
was a war looming with the Ammonites and Saul would be expected to
lead the people into battle. But maybe there was something
else too. Samuel's speech to the people about their rejecting
the Lord must have weighed heavily on Saul's mind. We may imagine
that though initially he was excited about the thought of
being the king of his country, Now that role seemed very big
and probably seemed nigh impossible to fulfil. Nevertheless, the
people brought Saul from where they found him amongst the stuff.
That word stuff means kitchen utensils and probably means that
it was all the stuff that they'd gathered to have a feast at where
they were. But that's where Saul had hidden
in amongst the kitchen stuff. The people brought him out. They
stood him in their midst and they acknowledged him as king. They all shouted out, God save
the king. And most of them were happy about
it. Although, as we learned, not all. There are always some
who are envious and there are always some who are contrary. Samuel wrote all these things
in a book where he also set out the plan for government and the
duties of the people and the duties of their king. And then
Saul returned home with a guard, probably a bodyguard of some
kind, that were sent to serve and protect him. And the people
returned to their homes. So it was that Israel had their
king. Let me just mention a couple
of things and then I'm done. It seems that on this occasion,
the people's will or the will of the people to reject God and
have a king for themselves. One out over God's will. But I just want to remind you
that what this teaches us is the difference between God's
revealed will and his secret will. God tells us in scripture
how we should live and follow him. That is his revealed will
for our lives. So the scriptures are the revealed
will of God. But God also has a secret will
and these are the things that actually happen and unfold in
the history of the world. But because we are sinners, because
we are rebellious by nature, we choose our own way and not
God's way. We reject God's revealed will,
but that doesn't mean to say that God has lost control of
his world. God let these people have their
way. and they would reap the consequences. Just as people who have their
own way today and sin against the Lord will reap the consequences
of their sin in judgment. Saul was actually God's choice
of the king that would reign over Israel at this time. And
even in the choice of Saul, all things were working together
for the good of the Lord's true people amongst these otherwise
disobedient people. Second thing I want to mention
is this. Saul is a picture to us of Christ. God gave Saul many
blessings and many privileges, but he was only ever a sinful
man. And that becomes clear in the
years that follow. However, the true king over God's
people is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And Christ's kingdom
isn't Israel, or the Jewish people, or any physical nation at all. But it is comprised of a spiritual
people, drawn from every age and from all over the world. Now I accept that sometimes it
can be a little bit confusing because we speak about Israel
and we're sometimes speaking about the Old Testament people
of Israel or even Israel in the New Testament or we speak about
spiritual Israel and that's the same for Jerusalem and the Jews
and Judah and in different ways these words have to be read and
understood. It's not always easy to do that.
But Saul's kingdom, the kingdom over which Saul was king, Old
Testament Israel, it failed. And his reign came to an end. Christ's kingdom is eternal. Christ's kingdom is a spiritual
kingdom. And men and women and boys and
girls are brought into Christ's spiritual kingdom when they trust
in Christ as their saviour. when they believe that Christ's
death on the cross and the offering of his blood has made peace for
them with God. And that is when we are brought
then to experience what it is to be part of Christ's spiritual
kingdom. We call that conversion. Verse 27. just in closing says,
the children of Belial, that is wicked people, the wicked
people amongst this group, rebels amongst this group, they said,
how shall this man save us? And they despised him. And many
in this world have set themselves against Christ and they despise
him and they despise his kingdom. There are children of Belial
still today and there always will be in this world who will
oppose Christ and oppose his spiritual kingdom. And speaking
about this in Revelation chapter 17, John says, these sons of
Belial, these wicked rebellious people, these shall make war
with the Lamb that is Christ. And the Lamb shall overcome them,
for he is Lord of lords and King of kings. And they that are with
him are called and chosen and faithful. If we are part of Christ's
spiritual kingdom, if we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, then
we are those who are called and chosen and faithful. May the Lord call us and bring
us into the spiritual kingdom of Christ by his grace and mercy,
making us faithful to Christ and making us servants in his
kingdom. Amen. May the Lord bless these
thoughts to us today.