again to First Samuel and let's
look this evening at chapter 9. First Samuel chapter 9. Now there was a man of Benjamin,
whose name was Kish, the son of Abel, the son of Zeror, the
son of Bechoroth, the son of Ephra, a Benjamite, a mighty
man of power. And he had a son, whose name
was Saul, a choice young man and a 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.
And the asses of Kish, Saul's father, were lost. And Kish said
to Saul, his son, take now one of the servants with thee, and
arise, go seek the asses. And he passed through Mount Ephraim,
and passed through the land of Shalisha, and they found them
not. Then they passed through the
land of Shalim, And there they were not, and he passed through
the land of the Benjamites, but they found them not. And when
they were come to the land of Zuf, Saul said to his servant
that was with him, Come, let us return, lest my father leave
Cairn for the Asses and take thought for us. And he said unto
him, Behold now, there is in this city a man of God, and he
is an honorable man. 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. 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's not a present to bring to the man of God. What
have we? And the servant answered Saul
again and said, behold, I have here at hand the fourth part
of a shekel of silver. That will I give to the man of
God to tell us our way. Before time in Israel, when a
man went to inquire of God, thus he spake, come and let us go
to the seer, for he that is now called a prophet was before time
called a seer. Then said Saul to his servant,
well, said, come, let us go. So they went unto the city where
the man of God was. 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 them
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. As soon as you be come into the
city, you shall straightway find him, before he go up to the high
place to eat. For the people will not eat until
he come, because he doth bless the sacrifice. Afterwards they
eat that be bidden. Now therefore, get you up, for
about this time you shall find him. 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, The more about
this time, I will send thee a man out of the land of Benjamin,
and thou shalt anoint him to be captain over my people Israel,
that he may save my people out of the hand of the Philistines,
for I have looked upon my people, because their cry is come unto
me. And when Samuel saw Saul, the
Lord said unto him, behold the man whom I spake of thee of,
this same shall reign over my people. Then Saul drew near to
Samuel in the gate and said, tell me, I pray thee, where the
seer's house is. And Samuel answered Saul and
said, I am the seer. Go up before me unto the high
place, for you shall eat with me today, and tomorrow I will
let thee go, and will tell thee all that is in thine heart. And
as for thine assets that were lost three days ago, set not
thy mind on them, for they are found. And on whom is all the
desire of Israel? Is it not on thee and all thy
father's house? And Saul answered and said, Am
not I a 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 so to me? And Samuel took Saul
and his servant and brought them into the parlor, made them sit
in the chiefest place among them that were bidden, which were
about 30 persons. And Samuel said unto the cook,
bring the portion which I gave thee, of which I said unto thee,
set it by thee. And the cook took up the shoulder
and that which was upon it and set it before 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 have invited the people. So Saul did eat with Samuel that
day. And when they were come down
from the high place into the city, Samuel communed with Saul
upon the top of the house. 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, that I may send thee
away. And Saul arose, and they went
out, both of them, he and Samuel, abroad. And as they were going
down to the end of the city, Samuel said to Saul, May 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. In this chapter, we see once
again God's sovereign power over all of his creation. In Revelation
chapter four, the apostle John, when he was given that revelation,
he heard in heaven that God was praised for his wonderful works
of creation. The sound there was, Thou worthy,
O Lord, to receive glory, honor, and power. For thou hast created
all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. God Almighty rules over all creation. It is His creation, and we need
to consider His works of creation. He rules over what men call lifeless
creatures. the sun, the moon, the stars,
the wind, the rain, the snow. God rules over all of these lifeless
creatures. He rules over all things that
have life, the trees, the grass, the flowers, the lilies that
grow. He rules over those creatures
which have life but not reason, such as the beast, the birds,
and the fishes, And in God's Word, we have example of God's
power over all of these, of God's creatures. Men speak of the laws
of nature. We hear that quite often, don't
we? The laws of nature. Which there are certain laws
of nature, but what men fail to realize and fail to understand
is that God is the God of creation. And the laws of nature are his
laws. And when he so desires and when
it so serves his purpose, he overrules those laws. We see that in this passage of
scripture tonight, I believe. And I think of a verse in Psalm
29, which speaks especially of God's creation. And one of the
verses there close to the end of that Psalm says, in his temple,
in His temple. And I think of creation as God's
temple. In His temple, everyone speaks
of His glory. And all of God's creation speaks
of His glory, tells of His glory. The sun, the moon, the stars,
all the animals, all the things in this world. And we're guilty
if we fail to realize that. You know, the scripture very
seldom says it rained. Scripture says God sent the rain. We talk about the sun rising
and setting. God causes the sun to rise on
the just and on the unjust. I'm amazed, aren't you, when
we consider, if we just take the time to meditate and think
about how great God is, and how his greatness is manifested in
his creation, and how little we are, and yet God is mindful
of us, is mindful of us. I heard the story many times
of a pastor in Boston, this was back in the 1800s, very well-known
pastor there. And he was on the street one
day walking and he saw this young lad that had a cage that he had
made, a homemade cage, and he had two birds in that cage. And
the preacher asked him, said, How much do you want for those
birds? He said, well, preacher, these are not very good birds.
They can't sing very good. He said, now we could find you
some canaries or some birds that can really sing well. But these
birds are birds of the field which I've captured. I've trapped
them. And they're not worth much. But
no, the preacher said, but son, how much do you want for them?
He said, Well, I'll sell them for $2, you take the cage. And
so he pulled $2 out of his pocket and paid the young boy. And just as soon as he paid him,
he opened up the door of the cage and let the birds go free.
And the boy couldn't understand that, you know, why would you
pay and then let them go free? He said, Well, they're mine.
I bought them. And that's what I wanted to do.
And you know, I think about us, you and I. We were in a cage,
we were captives, captives of sin, under the control and power
of Satan. We couldn't sing. We couldn't
carry a tune as far as praising God. And the Lord Jesus Christ
came to where we were. And I like that, don't you? He
came to where we were. Every time I read the story of
the Good Samaritan, that always stands out to me. The Good Samaritan
came to where the man was. And God the Eternal Son, he came
to where we were, came into this world, became a man, and bought
us. And he has freed us from our
sins, freed us from the fear of death, freed us from the penalty
of sin. Now this past couple of weeks,
it's been two weeks since we had a Wednesday evening service
since I preached from First Samuel. And I've read through this chapter,
I don't know how many times. We just read through it again.
And what I'm going to do tonight, I'm going to give us four things. This is all I can do, really.
I want to point out four things that are suggested to me from
this chapter. First of all, Momentous things
sometimes turn on what we call small things. Great things, momentous
things sometimes turn on what we call small things. In this chapter, God chose Saul
to be the first king of the nation of Israel, and he must be introduced
to the prophet of God. It's true. The Lord willing,
next week, in the next chapter, we will see where Samuel anoints
Saul to be the king, but in this chapter, he's introduced to the
prophet. In other words, here this man
that God has chosen to be king over the nation of Israel, the
first king over the nation of Israel. It's a big thing. There never had been a king,
a man as a king before. This is a big thing. Think about
the coronation we've seen over in England recently of the King
of England. They make a big issue out of
it, didn't they? Big pomp and circumstance and
all of that. This was something great. This
was something big. But it turned, my point is, it
turned on a very small, insignificant thing. And what was that? Well, the asses of Kish, those
farm animals of Kish, they just decided to wander off. They just decided to leave home. And they began to go. And that's
part of God's creation. That's one thing I mentioned
a while ago. They have life, but they have no reason. And
in the Word of God, we see this many times. We have Balaam's
donkey speaking to Balaam. And you say, that's impossible.
Well, it's impossible for a donkey to speak, but it's not impossible
for the God who created the donkey to make him speak. We see in
Jonah, the fish that God prepared to swallow his prophet. We saw
just a few weeks ago those two milk cows who left their calves
and just on their own initiative, so to speak, they just carry
the cart upon which the Ark of the Covenant was brought back
into the land of Israel. And here we see tonight these
three asses that just leave and so Kish sends them, sends his
son and a servant to find them. And I think of other examples
of this truth, of great things that turn on very small matters. Look with me in 2 Kings, if you
will. This is a prime example of what
I'm trying to speak to tonight, 2 Kings chapter five, and verse two. 2nd Kings 5 in verse 2, we read,
and the Syrians had gone out by companies and had brought
away captive out of the land of Israel. Now notice this, a
little maid, a little maid, a young lady, a little maid, robbed her,
stole her from her parents and from her country and brought
her into the land of Syria and Providentially, she became the
maid to this great general, Naaman. But Naaman was a leper, the scripture
says. And her mentioning to her mistress,
verse three, would God, my Lord, were with the prophet that is
in Samaria, for he, would recover him of his leprosy. Now, had
anyone ever been recovered of leprosy? Had anyone, yes, I know
people have been pronounced clean, but this little maid, a very
insignificant person, and she speaks a word that's going to
result in one of the greatest miracles in the Old Testament.
And our Lord is going to use this as an example when he preached
his first sermon after being baptized, entering into his earthly
ministry here in this world, his first sermon at Nazareth,
where he had been brought up, and he uses this as an example
of the sovereignty of grace. There were many lepers in Israel.
in the days of Naaman and this little maid. And to none of them
was the message sent, but to this man, a Gentile, a Gentile
man, a Syrian. Some great thing, this man being
cleansed of leprosy, and yet it turned on a very simple, minor
thing. And I thought of another example,
if you look with me in John chapter 6. John chapter 6, we know here
we have 5,000 hungry men, plus their wives and their children.
And the Lord is going to feed them. But how is he going to
feed them? What is he going to use to feed
them? Well, in verse nine, one of his disciples, Andrew Simon
Peter's brother, saith unto him, there's a lad here, there's a
lad here, and he's got five barley loaves and two small fishes. But what are they? What are they
among so many? Nothing, right? Nothing. Something big is going to result
from something insignificant and small. This young man, this
lad brings his lunch, I suppose, five barley loaves and two fish,
two very small fish, kind of like sardines, if you know what
those are. And the Lord Jesus Christ takes
the bread and takes the fish, and what does he do? He blesses
it. And he multiplies it, he creates,
showing his divinity, his power, his Godhead, and feeds 5,000
men plus women and children. Something great turns on something
small. And I mention this because a
small act of kindness, a small act of kindness, a word of encouragement
has many times been the means that God has used in accomplishing
His will, in accomplishing His purpose. I read this past week
of a man who, he couldn't sleep one night. He was having trouble,
he just couldn't go to sleep and something kept telling him
to go to the manor house, the house of the wealthy person in
that area. And He couldn't get that out
of his mind. So he, he finally gave in. He went and knocked, rang the
bell rather, the, the manor house and, and lo, the owner answered
the door. That was surprising in itself.
He answered the door and the man said, I don't know why I'm
here. I don't know why I'm here, but I felt compelled to come.
And the man said, you don't know why you're here. And he pulled
out from behind his back a halter with which he had planned to
hang himself, to commit suicide. A small thing, and yet it prevented
something large. And you know the scripture says,
cast your bread upon the waters, and after many days it shall
return unto thee. A trike. handing someone a track,
speaking to someone about Christ. When God opens the door, you
have that opportunity. And we all say, well, I just
don't know what to say. And I'm afraid I said the wrong
thing. We always think like that, don't we? But the thing is, God,
God is able to use something very small and in our minds seemingly
very insignificant. and use it for His glory to accomplish
His purpose and His will and something great, something good
come out of it. The second thing that I thought
as I read through this chapter, a thought that came to me is
the great of this world and the weak of this world. The great
of this world, I'm talking about men, the great of this world
and the weak of this world. And I don't want to read too
much into this, but I want you to consider something that stood
out to me. If you look back to 1 Samuel
chapter 2, chapter 3, I'm sorry, 1 Samuel
chapter 3, and this is when Samuel was called. We studied from this
chapter several weeks ago. Verse 19 says, and Samuel grew
and the Lord was with him and did let none of his words fall
to the ground. Now notice this, and all Israel
from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to
be a prophet of the Lord. Now this is years later. This
is many, maybe 40 years later. when what we're reading about
here in chapter nine took place. But that scripture there tells
us that all Israel knew that Samuel was a prophet, that God
had put his hand upon Samuel and called him to be a prophet.
But notice in this chapter that we're looking at tonight, verse
six, it seems like when they came to the city where Samuel
lived, that Saul didn't know he lived here. He didn't know
that Samuel lived in this city. And he, that is his servant,
his servant said unto him, behold, now there is in this city a man
of God. And he is an honorable man. All
that he saith cometh surely to pass. Now let us go thither. Peradventure he can show us our
way that we should go. Then said Saul to his servant. So it appears to me that Saul
didn't know anything about Samuel, didn't know this is where Samuel
lived, but his servant did. His servant knew that this was
a place where Samuel resided. This was his home and he was
an honorable man. Now, if you look back in chapter,
in verse one, we see this about Saul's father, Kish. It says
that he was a mighty man of power, a mighty man of power. He was a great man, a man of
great substance. And it well may be like many
great men, I'm talking about great according to the estimation
of the world, wealthy, whatever reason they're considered to
be great men, but they have no time for religion. They have no time for their souls. I knew a man once, and I believe
he was worth several million dollars, from what I'd been told
at least. And every time I saw him, I'd
say, how you doing? He'd say, oh, just trying to
make a living. Just trying to make a living. You'd thought
by what he said and the way he acted, he didn't have anything.
But the one thing he did have was no interest in the things
of God. No interest in his soul. Now
he was concerned about his body, about his house, about his car
and his wealth and all of those things, but no interest, no concern
for eternity. And I see the great of this world
and the weak or the small of this world. It was his servant,
it was Saul's servant who told him, there's a man of God in
this city. We need to consult him. I think about what the apostle
Paul wrote later in the New Testament and it was true when Kish was
alive and Saul was alive and it's true today and it's true
when Paul wrote it, they that will be rich. They set their
heart on riches and yet riches will not satisfy. The scriptures
are very clear about that. They that will be rich fall into
temptation and a snare. Just count on it. The word of
God is true. They that will be rich fall into
temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts. which drown men in destruction
and perdition. Here's a mighty man and his son,
and it just appears to me that his servant knew more about God
and about seeking the face of God than they did, for whatever
reason. I think of the scripture in the
New Testament where Paul said, for you see your calling, brethren, Now there are not many wise men
after the flesh, not many noble are called, but God has chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God
has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things
that are mighty. means here, of course, is the
foolish things of the world, the weak things of the world.
That's what the world thinks about these people, about you
and me. Foolish. Foolish. You believe
that, Bible? You still believe that after
all the scientific discoveries Living now in the 21st century,
you still believe that this is the word of God, this is the
truth? You still believe that you have
a soul? That when you die, you're going
to spend eternity somewhere? You still believe that? Well,
that religion, what did Lenin say? Religion is the opium of
the people. Not just to keep the people,
the mobs. Satisfied, that's all it is.
No, there is a God in heaven, isn't there? And we have a creator,
and we have a God that we're going to meet one day, and we
need to be ready, be prepared. The third thing that stood out
to me as I read through this chapter, verse 11, young maidens
going out to draw water. As they went up to this city,
they saw these young maidens going out to draw water. And
I was reminded of many examples, but especially of Jacob. First
time that he saw Rachel, that's what she was doing, wasn't she?
She'd come out to draw water for her father's animals. And when Jacob saw her, he immediately
loved her, and he was willing and did serve seven years, served
her father, that Rachel might be his wife. And I think about
the Lord Jesus Christ, the church, his people, we are his bride,
and he has loved us from eternity. There never has been a time when
he did not love you. Never has been a time and there
never will be a time that he has not loved you. And even after
we fell in our father Adam, he loved his church, he loved his
bride, that he came into this world as a servant, as a servant. And he served his father to purchase
his bride. One other thing, if you look
down in verse 24, The shoulder. When they went
to eat, Samuel had got the cook to prepare the shoulder
from the animal that was sacrificed, prepare it, and it was set down
before Saul. Now, that made me think of the
scripture. If you look with me in Isaiah,
the prophecy in Isaiah chapter nine, In verse six. For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his
shoulder. His shoulder. The government
shall be upon his shoulder. It was common for kings, for
those in authority, those who rule, to have a key or some insignia
placed upon their shoulder. The government, of course, it
speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. The government shall be upon
his shoulder. And we know that the Lord Jesus
Christ, he reigns over all creation, but he especially reigns and
rules in the hearts of his people. And the fact that It was upon
his shoulder, reminds us of his strength, his strength. He's not going to lose one of
his chosen people, not one. When he takes it upon him, he
took it upon himself to purchase, to redeem, to save his people,
and he's going to save each and every one. And I think about
the parable he gave of the shepherd who had one sheep that was lost. And he searched till he found
it, and where did he put that sheep? On his shoulders. And
carried it all the way home. We have a great Savior. And in the book of Revelation,
John saw the Lord Jesus Christ having the keys of hell and of
death. The keys of hell and of death.
And the key was usually placed upon the shoulder of the reign,
the ruler. And here we have Saul, he's going
to be the ruler. And the shoulder was prepared
especially for him. The shoulder was a part of the
animal that was given to the priest as well, for his, his,
his food. Samuel gives this, of course,
to the to Saul. Well, I pray the Lord will bless
these thoughts to all of us here tonight.