Morning. Would you turn to 1st Samuel
chapter 9? Let's pray together. Lord, we come into your presence
in the name. Of the sun. And Lord, we come as a needy,
needy people. We have so many needs. Lord,
we come as a sinful people and we need forgiveness and we need
grace for covering. Lord, we come as a tried people
and we ask that you would be pleased to bless our trials to your glory and to our good.
And Lord, we come as a thankful people. We're so thankful. That salvation is all of your
grace and that our personal righteousness is the righteousness of thy dear
son. Lord, we pray for your blessing upon this day. We pray that you
would be pleased to speak in power to our hearts. Reveal your
son unto us. May he be exalted and glorified
and may we be enabled to worship him and sit at his feet. Lord,
we pray for our nation. We pray that you would give our
leaders wisdom that we might lead a quiet and peaceable life
in all godliness and honesty. Lord, we pray for our children,
that you would be pleased to reveal yourself to them. We ask
that you would enable us to be faithful witnesses of thy son.
We pray for open doors to speak, to preach your gospel. Lord,
give us grace to love you more and to love one another more
for the Lord's sake. Be with all your people, wherever
they meet together in Christ's name. We pray. Amen. Now is when we're actually introduced
to King Saul. Uh, Saul was, um, the man that
God gave the children of Israel in his anger. The scripture says.
They asked for a king, and in asking for a king, they were
actually rejecting God as their king. He says that. But now,
we're introduced to this man by the name of Saul. And Saul
is a very, I guess for lack of a better word, he's a very conflicted
character. You read of him, and sometimes
he appears to be a believer, but we know he wasn't. He was
not a believer. He was not a follower of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes he can be so penitent
acting and sorrowful acting, and sometimes he can appear to
be so hard-hearted. And he is a true example of what
any man can be apart from the grace of God. Now let's begin
this introduction to him in 1 Samuel 9. And there was a man of Benjamin,
whose name was Kish, the son of Abil, the son of Zeor, the
son of Bekoroth, the son of Uthiah, a Benjamite, a man, a mighty
man of power, a very wealthy man, a very influential man,
a very strong man in the tribe of Benjamin. And he had a son
whose name was Saul. A choice, young man, and goodly. And there was not among the children
of Israel a goodlier person than he. From his shoulders and upward,
he was higher than any of the people." Now, here is Saul, a
good-looking man. He was taller than anybody else. Everybody came to his shoulders.
He was a very impressive man to all these people. You know,
people are really impressed with looks, aren't they? I mean, that's
people. That's humanity. But nothing
is said about the man's commitment to Christ. Nothing is said about
the man's zeal for God's glory. Nothing is said about him on
a spiritual level. It's all he was just a real good-looking
guy. Somebody would be impressed with
if you saw him. You'd say, man, this fellow's
impressive. If you read a little bit more
about him, verse 3, I think this is interesting. Through this
providential event, everything is a providential event, but
through this providential event where his father would lose their
asses and they'd go looking for him, he would come into contact
with Samuel. He'd never met Samuel. He didn't
know who Samuel was even. When his servant told him about
the prophet, he didn't even know who he was. He wasn't interested
in things like this. He was just a good looking guy. And that's
about all you could say about him at this time. But through
him losing or his father losing their asses, he's given this
opportunity to come into contact with Samuel. And that's exactly
what he did. And as a matter of fact, the
Lord spoke to Samuel the day before and told him that you're
going to meet Saul and he's the one that I'm going to anoint
king. Now let's go on reading. And the asses of Saul's father
were lost. And Kish said to Saul's son,
take now one of the servants with thee, arise and go seek
the asses. And he passed through Mount Ephraim,
and he passed through the land of Shiashem, but they found them
not. Then they passed through the land of Shalem, and they
were not. And he passed through the land of Benjamites, but they
found them not. They were just looking for these
asses, and they couldn't find them. And when they were come
to the land of Zoth, Saul said to his servant that was with
him, Come, let us return, lest my father leave caring for the
asses, and take thought for us and start worrying about us.
Now, he's showing some thoughtfulness toward his father here. We don't
want my dad worrying about us. So maybe we just better forget
what we're doing and go back home. Verse 6, And he said unto
him, the servant said unto Saul, Behold, now there is in this
city a man of God. And he's an honorable man, and
all that he saith cometh surely to pass. Now, let us go thither,
for adventure he can show us our way that we should go. Maybe
he can tell us where the asses are." And he was talking about
Samuel, the prophet. Then said Saul to his servant,
But behold, if we go, what shall we bring the man? For the bread
is spent in our vessels, and there is not a present to bring
up the man of God. What have we? And the servant answered
Saul again and said, Behold, I have here a hand at the fourth
part of a shekel of silver. That will I give to the man of
God to tell us our way. Now, as a man is, so he thinks
others to be. Do you think Samuel required
money in order to tell the truth? Why, of course not. But all Saul
understood was this is the way we'll get to him, we'll give
him something and then he'll tell us what we need to know and we
can go on our way. That gives you some idea of the character
of Saul here. He thought you had to pay for
something. And he was very much like Simon Magus, thou thoughtest
the gift of God could be bought. That's where he was at. He thought,
you know, paying, I'll get the, you scratch my back, I'll scratch
yours. Now that gives us some idea of what kind of character
this man had. Let's go on reading. Verse 9,
before time in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, thus
he spake, come and let us go to the seer. They called them
seers before they called them prophets, someone who could foresee
something. For he that is now called a prophet was before called
a seer. Then said Saul to his servants, well said, come, let
us go. So they went into the city where the man of God was.
They were coming to find Samuel. And as they went up the hill
to the city, they found young maidens going out to draw water,
and said unto them, Is the seer here? And they answered him,
and said, He is, behold, he is before you. Make haste now, for
he came today to the city, for there is a sacrifice of the people
today in the high place. And as soon as you be coming
to the city, you shall straightway find him, before you go up to
the high place to eat. For the people will not eat until
he come, because he doth bless the sacrifice. And afterwards
they eat that are bitten. Now therefore get ye up, for
about this time you shall find him." You know, I think it's
interesting that Saul didn't know anything about any of this.
He didn't know who the prophet was. He didn't know anything
about the necessity of a sacrifice. As a matter of fact, he exposed
his character later on in, I think, chapter 13, where he took it
upon himself to offer up a sacrifice. He wasn't a priest, but he thought
he could offer to God a sacrifice which showed the irreverence
of this man, no true fear of God. If you fear God, you wouldn't
dare approach God apart from Christ, apart from his priesthood,
apart from the sacrifice. And you wouldn't think you could
offer up to God your own sacrifice, but he did. This shows how ignorant
this man really was of God and the character of God. He didn't
know anything of who the prophet was, wasn't interested, thought
he could be bought. He was just your regular worldly
man, a good-looking guy, obviously. I mean, he had a lot that was
appealing to the flesh, but no spiritual value. He shows such
ignorance in all this. Verse 14, And they went up into
the city, and when they were come into the city, behold, Samuel
came out against them, for to go up to the high place. Now
the Lord had told Samuel in his ear a day before, Saul came,
saying, Tomorrow, about this time, I'll send thee a man out
of the land of Benjamin, and thou shalt anoint him to be captain
over my people Israel. And he shall save my people out
of the hand of the Philistines, for I've looked upon my people,
because their cry is coming to me." This is one of the glorious
things about the Lord. There are so many glorious things
about the Lord, but Saul was a judgment to the people, and
yet Saul was used to help them. The Lord's so good, He's just
so good. I mean he's good to them even
in sending them this man Saul as their king. He's going to
use him for deliverance and you're going to see that in a couple
battles in the next few chapters. But he was a mighty man of valor. He was a good warrior. He was
that. Verse 6 Verse 17, and when Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said
unto him, Behold the man whom I spake to thee, this same shall
reign over my people. Then Saul drew near to Samuel
in the gate and said, Tell me, I pray thee, where's the seer's
house is? Now, I think this is interesting. Samuel didn't look
like a prophet. Whatever a prophet's supposed
to look like, you know, he just comes up straight to Samuel and said,
Where's the prophet? He said, I'm him. Oh, really? Really? I couldn't help but think about
the Lord where it says there's no form nor comeliness in Him
and when we shall see Him, there's no beauty in Him, but we should
desire Him. Physically, you wouldn't have, even, this is the Son of
God? Really? Really, really. But when He comes up to God's
prophet, He didn't look like a prophet, He just looked like,
where's the prophet? I'm Him. Let's go on reading.
And Samuel answered Saul and said, I am the seer, Go up before
me into the high place, for you shall eat with me today, and
tomorrow I'll let thee go and will tell thee all that's in
thine heart. And as for thine assets that were lost three days
ago, set not thy mind on them, for they're found. And on whom
is all the desire of Israel? Is it not on thee and all thy
father's house?" Now, I'm sure Saul was surprised by this statement. the desire of Israel's on me,
he had no clue as to what God was getting ready to do with
him. And he was incredulous about this. Verse 21, And Saul answered
and said, Am not I Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes
of Israel, and my family the least of all the families of
the tribe of Benjamin? Wherefore then speakest thou
to me like this? Now, why is he talking this way? This is either genuine modesty,
or it's mock humility. Knowing Saul, I consider it mock
humility because, remember, he came from a family of substance,
the richest man in Benjamin, a mighty man, a man of great
substance, and he says, oh, my family's the least family. Now,
that was either modesty or humility or mock humility. I believe it
was mock humility as you go on reading about Saul. There doesn't seem to be a sincere
bone in his body as you go on looking at all the things that
this man did. Now, verse 22, And Samuel took Saul and his
servant, and brought them into the parlor, and made them sit
in the chiefest place among them that were bidden. There were
about thirty persons. And Samuel said to the cook, Bring me the
portion which I shall give thee, of which I said unto thee, Set
it by thee. And the cook took up the shoulder, and that was
upon it, and set it upon Saul. And Samuel said, Behold, that
which is left, set it before thee, and eat. For unto this
time hath it been kept for thee since. I said, I've invited the
people, so Saul did eat with Samuel that day. And when they
were coming down from the high place into the city, Samuel communed
with Saul upon the top of the house. At this time, he began
to let him know what the Lord intended for him. And they arose
early, and it came to pass about the spring of the day that Samuel
called Saul to the top of the house, saying, up, that I may
send thee away. And Saul arose, and they went both out of them,
and he and Samuel abroad. And as they were going down to
the end of the city, Samuel said to Saul, Did the servant pass
on before us? And he passed on. But stand thou still a while,
that I may show thee the word of God." Now at this time, he's
going to tell him everything that God intended for him. Now
let's go on into chapter 10. I know I'm reading a lot of scripture,
but we have to for this story. Verse 10. Then Samuel took a
vial of oil, and poured it upon his head, and kissed him, and
said, Is not this because the Lord hath anointed thee to be
captain over its inheritance?" Now, whenever someone was anointed
in the Old Testament, whether king, prophet, or priest, they
were always anointed with oil. And he's anointed at this time
by God's prophet as the king of Israel, signified by this
oil. I think it's very interesting
that in the Old Testament, no one had all three offices. There were kings, there were
prophets, there were priests, there were some that held two
offices. Samuel did. Samuel was both a prophet and
a priest. But nobody held all three offices.
You know why that is. There's only one who holds all
three offices. God's Christ, the Lord Jesus
Christ, God's prophet, God's priest, and God's king. But at
any rate, he's anointed king at this time, and Samuel tells
him what's going to happen. When thou art departed from me
today, then thou shalt find two men by Rachel's sepulchre in
the border of Benjamin and Zelzah, and they will say unto thee,
the asses which thou wentest to seek after are found, and
lo, thy father hath left the care of the asses in charge 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 Tabar,
and thou shalt meet thee three men going up to God to Bethel,
one carrying three kids, 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 they shall receive with
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 places, with
a psaltery, and a tablet, and a pipe, and a harp, and 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 unto another man." That's an interesting
statement, isn't it? He said, God's Spirit is going
to come upon you. And you're going to be turned
not into a new man, but to another man. Big difference. He's going to be changed from
a worldling to a religious person. Another man. And as you go on
reading in this passage of scripture, when he starts prophesying, people
say, Saul, a prophet? I mean, they knew him to be somewhat
altogether different than that. They knew his character. And
they said, what's he doing doing this? Since when is he a prophet?
He was changed into another man, a different man. He went from
being a worldly, good-looking, guy to a religious guy, prophesying
and even saying the truth. The Scripture says the Spirit
of the Lord came upon him. I don't have any doubt that Judas
Iscariot preached the gospel. I have no doubt about it. That's
a scary thought, isn't it? As we look at this man Saul.
Now, verse 7, And let it be, when these signs are come unto
thee, that thou dost as occasion serve thee, for God is with thee.
And thou shalt go down before me to Gilgal, and behold, I'll
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. Now notice
he didn't say you can offer sacrifice. He wasn't allowed to do that,
only a priest could do that. Verse nine, and it was so that when
he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him Not
a new heart, another heart. You see, Saul, if you go reading
through his history, he could adapt to anything. I
read where one fellow said he had a rubber heart. Put your
thumb in a rubber ball, it'll go down, but it'll come back
out. Whatever environment he was in, he could adapt himself
toward. He was given another heart, and now all of a sudden
he could play the part of a prophet. He could do that, and that's
what he was doing with this other heart that God gave him. And
all those signs came to pass that day. Everything Samuel said
would take place would take place. 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's coming to the son of Kish? It's also among
the prophets? They said, This is completely
out of character. We can't even believe he's doing this. Now
that's the type of person that was the king of Israel. And as a matter of fact, If you'll
remember, when Samuel told them what kind of king they were going
to have, he said, he's going to take. He's going to take.
He's going to take everything you've got. He was a narcissistic,
egocentric, self-centered man interested in his own self-advancement. But here he is that people say,
can you believe this? The ones that knew him before
thought he was Saul among the prophets. They knew him. This
is totally out of character with this man. Verse 13, and when
he made an end of prophesying, he came to the high place. Well,
no, verse 12, and one of the same place answered and said,
but who is their father? Therefore, it became a proverb.
It's all among the prophets. It was a joke. It became a proverb.
It's all among the prophets. Verse 14, and Saul's uncle said
unto him and to his servant, with a weeny, this is when he'd
return back to Gibeon. And Saul's uncle said unto him
and to his servant, Whither went ye? And he said, Behold, to seek
the asses. And when we saw that they were nowhere, we came to
Samuel. And Saul's uncle said, He knew who Samuel was. He says,
Tell me, I pray thee, what did Samuel say to thee? 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, is this not his
character? He told half the truth. But the
most important part, he left out. Now Samuel does this over
and over and over again in his history. You go into 1 Samuel
chapter 15 where God says kill all the Amalekites, which represents
the flesh. Kill all the Amalekites, kill
the women, the children, the livestock, kill everybody there.
Well Samuel didn't do it. I mean Saul didn't do it. You
can read about that in that history. He didn't do it. He saved the
best for himself. But when he comes up to Samuel,
he said, Behold, I've done what you told me to do. No, he didn't.
No, he didn't. And this is what a false prophet
does. He always gives half the truth. It might be everything
he says is true. Everything Saul said was right
on the money as far as true. But he didn't tell the whole
truth. And that is indicative of a false
prophet. They never tell all the truth.
Verse 17. And Samuel called the people
together unto the Lord to Mizpah, 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 the kingdoms, and of them that oppressed
you. And you have this day rejected your God, who himself saved you
out of all your adversities and your tribulations. And you 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 like I said last week, watch out what you ask for. I mean,
they had the Lord fighting their battles. And now they're going
to have this man fighting their battles? And the Lord gave them
what they wanted. And he said, here he is. And verse 20, And when Samuel
had caused all the tribes of Israel to come near, to the tribe
of Benjamin was taken. And when he caused the tribe
of Benjamin to come near, by their families, the family of
Matri was taken. And Saul the son of Kish was
taken. And when they sought him, he couldn't be found. Now, remember,
The Lord told Samuel, this is my king. Samuel told Saul in
no uncertain words, you are going to be the king. He knew that. And now when it's the time for
his coronation, for him to be brought out, they can't find
him. He's in hiding. And look what it says in verse
22. What's going on here? Is this humility and self-deprecation?
I'm not going to present myself like this. I'm
far too humble of a man to do that. Or was his thing his stuff? He wanted to be around his stuff.
This is my stuff. This is what's really important
to me. Was he unwilling in the service of the Lord? No. This is my personal take on it. Drama. He already knew he was
going to be king, but he wanted to appear to be a certain way,
and he's going to hide among the stuff, kind of show off his
humility and all this, and he wanted to be brought out in such
a way. He wanted drama. He was a drama king, and he wanted
the drama to just be exponential in this. I want everybody to
see this. So 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 ye him whom the Lord hath chosen, that there's
none like him among all the people. And all the people shouted and
said, God save the king. They were excited about this
man. I mean, this man, what was he? He must've been six foot
eight, seven foot tall. I don't know, like a good looking
man. And whoa, this man will lead us in our battles. They
were very excited about this. Then, verse 25, Samuel told the
people the manner of the kingdom, and wrote it in a book, and laid
it before the Lord. And Samuel sent all the people
away, every man to his house. Now let's go back to chapter
8. Now remember the people wanted
him to be king. They said, we want to be like
everybody else. We want to be like all the other nations. We
want a king to go out and fight our battles for us." And in saying
that, they were rejecting God fighting their battles for them.
Well, don't you want the Lord to fight your battles for you?
My, I do. I want Him to be for me. But
they said, we want this king. And Samuel told them exactly
what kind of king they would have. Verse 10 of 1 Samuel 8.
And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that
asked of him a king. And he said, this will be the
manner of the king that shall reign over you. He'll take your sons
and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his
horsemen. And sons shall run before his chariots, and he will
appoint him captain over thousands, and captain over fifties, and
will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and
to make his instruments of war and instruments of his chariots.
And he'll take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to
be cooks, and to be bakers. And he will take your fields,
and your vineyards, and your olive yards, even the best of
them, and give them to his servants. And he'll take the tenth of your
seed, and of your vineyards, and give to the officers, and
to his servants. And he will take your menservants, and your
maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and
put them to his work. He'll take the tenth of your sheep, and
you shall be his servants. and you shall cry out in that
day because of your king which you have chosen you and the Lord
will not hear you that day." Now, he reminds them once again
of what type of king they had. Now, Saul is a very contradictory
man. And we're going to go on saying
this. And you know, he's a very dark figure in many ways. But this
is the result of man's choice, Saul. He could seem to believe,
but he never really did. He can seem penitent. You look
at some of the times after, remember when David cut off part of his
skirt and showed him and said, you know, I haven't done anything
to you. I could have killed you. And he's wept and said, oh, my son,
David, he could seem so penitent and sorrowful. And yet he could
seem so hard hearted and cruel, throw javelin at David, try to
kill him. He was insanely jealous of David, particularly when they
said Saul's killed his thousands, but David's killed his ten thousands.
He was just a very contradictory man. And he was given a different
heart, not a new heart, but a different heart. He prophesied and told
the truth, I'm sure. He was saying the same thing
the other fellows were, but it was not from a new heart. It
was from his other heart, a rubber heart. And he didn't tell the
whole truth. He only told half the truth.
And that is a recipe for disaster. And he would be a recipe for
disaster. But this is the king of man's
choosing. And I think it's so interesting.
Everything is about appearance. Best looking man they could find.
So there we have our introduction to Saul. And we'll pick up in
chapter 11 next time.