Well, once a month, we've been going through the book of 1 Samuel, and our scripture today is 1 Samuel 9, verses 15 through 17. 1 Samuel 9, 15 through 17. Let's now give careful heed to the word of God as here recorded for our spiritual benefit. Now the Lord had told Samuel in his ear the day before Saul came, saying, Tomorrow about this time I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him commander over my people Israel, that he may save my people from the hand of the Philistines. For I have looked upon my people, because their cry has come to me. And when Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said to him, there he is, the man of whom I spoke to you. This one shall reign over my people. May God bless to us the reading of his word, to his name be the glory and the praise. Let us pray. Oh, Lord, we know that the ox knows its owner. We know that the donkey knows its master's crib. Oh, Lord, enable us, your people, to know you, our creator and our redeemer. Enable us, oh Lord, to hear your word and to understand it so that we may serve you with the service that you truly deserve as our creator, as our redeemer, as our master. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Well, I read you just a few verses, but really our text for today is a long narrative that covers two chapters, 1 Samuel chapters 9 and 10. And each of these two chapters has 27 verses for a total of 54 verses. And my sermon will cover both of these chapters, but I decided not to read all 54 verses in our worship service because of our time restraints. I would, however, encourage you to read the two chapters for yourself, 1 Samuel 9 and 10. Read them when you have the time to do so. Now, these two chapters tell the story of the anointing of Saul as the first king in Israel. Now this story can seem confusing at first. The elders of Israel had approached Samuel and asked for a king as a new form of government in Israel. And God was offended by this request. God recognized this request as a rejection of God's rule over Israel. And yet the law of Moses provided for Israel's having a king at the people's request. That's found in Deuteronomy chapter 17. What was wrong with making this request if the law of Moses provided for it? And also God granted the elders request for a king. God chose Saul as the first king in Israel. God empowered Saul for this role. He sent the Holy Spirit upon him. If the request was wrong, why did God grant the request? If the request was wrong, why did God choose Saul as Israel's first king? If the request was wrong, why did God empower Saul for his role as the first king in Israel? We begin reading, and at first we get the impression that Israel's having a king was a bad thing. And we read further, and then we get the impression that Israel's having a king was a good thing. The story seems contradictory when one compares one part of the story with another part of the story. Yet the story does make sense. The story does fit together when one begins to understand the larger context. Now the larger context goes all the way back to God's call to Abraham to leave his home country and to dwell in the land of Canaan. God promised the land of Canaan to Abraham and Abraham's descendants, but the actual possession did not take place until the Canaanites, the native inhabitants of the land, until the Canaanites were ripe for God's judgment. The time for possession came in the generations of Moses and Joshua. The seed of Abraham were then known as the Nation of Israel, and God gave the Nation of Israel special promises about possessing the land that God had promised to Abraham. The Lord would drive out the Canaanite nations before the Nation of Israel because of the wickedness of the Canaanite nations. God would then give the land to the nation of Israel as an inheritance in fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham. Even when Canaanite armies had superior numbers and even when Canaanite armies had superior weapons such as horses and chariots, God would go with the armies of Israel and God would grant them the victory. Leviticus chapter 26 verses 7 and 8, God said, You will chase your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you. Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight. Your enemies shall fall by the sword before you. Now the only caveat was that God would not be with Israel in battle. when God was chastening a rebellious and unrepentant Israel for sinful behavior. These are what I call the Holy War principles. The Holy War principles continued in effect until the enthronement of the resurrected and ascended Jesus as the Messiah. Under the New Covenant, there were significant changes. The people of God were purged of any who rejected Jesus as the Messiah. The people of God were expanded to include people from every nation, tribe, and tongue who do accept Jesus as the Messiah. And the boundaries of the land promised to God's people were expanded to the ends of the earth. And the focus shifted from conquest by military means to conquest by spiritual means. These are the principles of holy war as they were transformed under the new covenant. But in our text for today, the holy war principles were still in their old covenant form with the focus on the land of Canaan and a focus on military victory. Throughout the book of Judges and into 1 Samuel, there are examples of the people of God's being defeated by their enemies because of their sins. And there are also examples of the people of God defeating their enemies with God's help after repenting of their sins. And with this in mind, we can better understand why God recognized Israel's request for a king as a rejection of God. Israel wanted a king because they thought that they could defeat their enemies with the help of a king without having to repent of their sins. They wanted victory without having to submit to divine authority. They wanted victory without having to obey the law of God. They wanted a king to go before them and fight their battles without their having to fulfill all their obligations under the Holy War principles. What was wrong was not the request for a king itself. What was wrong was the sinful motive behind the request. Yet in spite of the sin in the motive for their request for a king, God granted their request. And why was that? Well, God chose to have pity on his people in spite of their sinful spirit, the sinful spirit in which they had requested a king. Even though the elders in Israel wanted a king in order to avoid depending so completely on God for help, God was going to help them anyway by empowering a king to deliver them from their enemies. So God raised up a king, God anointed him with power, and God used him to deliver the people of God. God acted as mercy because his people's cry for help had come to him. 1 Samuel 9 16, one of the verses we read. This is the same language he heard their cry for help. This is the same language that God used at the burning bush when he called Moses to deliver the children of Israel from their slavery in Egypt. God sent Moses to deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt because their cry for help had come to God and God had seen their oppression. In our text, God had pity on his people. God heard their cry for help in spite of their sins. God raised up Saul, the very sort of man that the people requesting a king wanted. You see, Saul had an imposing physical presence. There was not a more handsome person than Saul among the children of Israel. From his shoulders upward, he was taller than any of the people. Saul's physical presence would please those who were interested more in outward appearance than in moral character. And we can only contrast Saul with David, the king whom God raised up after Saul. God empowered Saul. God used him to deliver Israel. But God also used Saul to teach Israel the importance of moral character. After teaching Israel that lesson through Saul's moral failings, God raised up David to be king. And when God sent Samuel to anoint David as king, God warned Samuel, and I quote, Do not look at his appearance, or at the height of his stature. For the Lord does not see as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. Saul was an impressive tall man. David was not. Now David may not have been big enough even to wear Saul's armor comfortably, but David was a man after God's own heart. David was a man who loved God's law. We learn later that Saul's natural inclination was to be retiring to avoid attention. Near the end of chapter 10, when the lot fell on Saul as God's choice for Israel's first king, Saul hid himself among the people's equipment. That's probably a reference to their baggage. God had to reveal to the people where to find Saul in order to proclaim him king. Yet Saul was different when the Spirit of God rushed down upon him. On his way home after meeting Samuel, Saul encountered a group of prophets. Some musicians went before the prophets and played their instruments. The prophets followed, proclaiming their prophecies. You know, this is not the sort of thing that people who want to avoid drawing attention to themselves would want to do. Yet the Spirit of God rushed down upon Saul, and Saul joined the prophets in their prophesying. This may have happened near Saul's hometown, because all who knew Saul heard about it. And this was so unusual that it became the talk of the town. This was so out of character for the Saul whom people knew that a saying arose in Israel, Is Saul also among the prophets? Whenever someone doubts the possibility of a report today, a common response today is, stranger things have happened. In Israel, instead of saying stranger things have happened, they would say, is Saul also among the prophets? In other words, be careful about saying that something couldn't have happened when something as unlikely as Saul's joining a public procession of prophets had indeed happened. The next time we hear about the Spirit of God's rushing upon Saul is in 1 Samuel 11. And that is when Saul heard about a serious military threat to a city in Israel. The Spirit of God rushed upon Saul, and Saul's anger was aroused. And Saul then had the Spirit-empowered boldness that he needed to rally Israel to deliver that endangered city. Now the text does talk about Saul's being turned into another man, and about God's giving Saul another heart. But this specific language is nowhere else used to speak of spiritual conversion. This language is used here to speak about the effect of God's giving Saul the empowering abilities that Saul needed in his new role as the military commander of Israel. The text literally says that the Spirit of God rushed upon Saul. That's the exact same language used when the Holy Spirit earlier empowered Samson as a judge. It's the exact same language that's used later when the Holy Spirit empowered David as a king. Well, you see, one can have the gifts without having the graces. And that was the case with Saul. God sometimes gives gifts that empower for service without giving the graces that accompany salvation. For example, Balaam was a pagan prophet, and yet the Spirit of God once came upon him and enabled him to prophesy some true prophecies. Numbers chapter 24. Remember what the Apostle Paul said regarding certain spectacular gifts as they relate to love, which is one of the graces that accompanies salvation. 1 Corinthians 13, Paul said, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, spectacular gifts, but have not love, a grace that accompanies salvation. I have become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I can remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow on my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. You see, one can have the empowering gifts without having the graces that accompany salvation. And again, that was the case with Saul. Through the empowering gifts, God did use King Saul as a deliverer in Israel. King Saul led Israel to victory over the Ammonites in a crisis that came to a head shortly after Saul became king. I've already mentioned this crisis, and we read about this crisis in 1 Samuel 11. And King Saul had victories over many of the enemies of the people of God during his reign, which lasted about 40 years. 1 Samuel 14, verses 47 and 48. So Saul established his sovereignty over Israel. and fought against all his enemies on every side, against Moab, against the people of Ammon, against Edom, against the kings of Zobah, and against the Philistines. Wherever he turned, he harassed them. And he gathered an army and attacked the Amalekites and delivered Israel from the hands of those who plundered them." Now, we're not told the details of these many successes. We are told the details of how God raised up Saul to become king, and the details of Saul's moral failings as king that led to his eventual downfall. Now what is especially amazing in 1 Samuel chapters 9 and 10 is the demonstration of the sovereign power of God's providential control over events. God is in sovereign control over every detail of every event that ever occurs. Yet at the same time, God gives people a natural liberty such that they and not God are justly responsible for their sins. Now how God is able to control events without destroying human responsibility is beyond our understanding. We just simply need to remember that are being able to understand how God is able to do something is not the measure of what God is able to do. For example, we can't understand how God created this world out of nothing, but that doesn't mean that God couldn't do it. That's what God did. When raising up Saul as Israel's first king, God's plan was to bring Saul to Samuel. And consider the string of events that God used in order to do this. Saul's father Kish had three stray donkeys. He decided to send Saul and his servant to find them. They looked and looked, but couldn't find them. Saul finally said that they needed to return home before their father began worrying about them. And then the servant happened to know, happened to know, that the prophet Samuel was then in a nearby city. and suggested that they asked him for help in finding the donkeys. But Saul thought, probably wrongly, that they would need to pay the prophet a fee for his services, and he thought they had nothing to give him. But then the servant happened to have a coin that they thought would be enough. So Saul and his servant went to the city and sought out Samuel. God used this detailed chain of events to bring Saul to Samuel. Now the previous day God had spoken to Samuel saying, 1 Samuel 9, verse 16, Tomorrow about this time I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin and you shall anoint him commander over my people Israel, that he may save my people from the hand of the Philistines. For I have looked upon my people because their cry has come to me." Well, then the next day when Samuel saw Saul, God said to him, there is the man of whom I spoke to you, the one who shall reign over my people. Then before Saul could tell Samuel his story, Samuel told Saul that his father Kish had found the lost donkeys. Samuel then invited Saul and his servant to a sacrificial feast. This is when one offers a sacrifice to God as a peace offering and then keeps certain portions for a communal meal. Samuel had Saul sit at a special place of honor at the meal, and the cook brought Saul a special portion of the meat, and Samuel told Saul that he had set it aside for Saul back when Samuel had first invited people to the meal. And this let Saul know that Samuel had miraculously known about his coming ahead of time. Well, the next day Samuel had a private session with Saul, during which he anointed Saul as king. And then to conform the validity of what he had done, Samuel gave Saul three very detailed prophecies about what would occur on Saul's trip home. The third of these prophesied events was Saul's encounter with that band of prophets that we've already discussed. Now, we don't need to go further into the details of these three events. We simply need to note that these three events occurred exactly as Samuel had prophesied down to the least detail. And these fulfillments were signs that God was indeed with Saul in his first calling, in his new calling as the first king in Israel. And these signs were also another demonstration of God's sovereign control over events. Now after this, Samuel called a meeting of the people of Israel at Mitzpah. We've heard of Mitzvah before. Mitzvah is where Samuel had previously called Israel to meet years before. And at that earlier meeting, Israel had their Mitzvah, repented of their sins, and they had there a great victory over the Philistines. You'll read about that in 1 Samuel 7. Samuel now called the people there again to choose their first king by lot. a king whom God was calling to continue their fight with the Philistines. Now we don't know exactly how they cast lots, but it would have been something like our drawing straws or casting a pair of dice. And through the use of lots, Saul, the one whom Samuel had already anointed a king, was chosen as king. before all Israel. And we again see God's providential control. Out of all the multitudes gathered there, the Lot chose Saul. Proverbs chapter 16, verse 33. The Lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord. Well, after Saul was chosen by Lot and proclaimed king, Samuel wrote down the rules of the kingdom in a book. These rules were probably similar to the rules for the king that are found in Deuteronomy 17. Saul then had both the empowerment of the Holy Spirit and written guidance from God. As we will see later on, Saul's weakness proved to be an inability to submit to God's revealed will, even when he clearly understood what it was. I will leave you with two thoughts. The first thought is about God's sovereign control of every event in our lives. God's sovereign control doesn't excuse our sins. We mustn't dismiss our sins as irrelevant because God is in control. We must accept the mystery that even though God is in control of all that happens, God is able to do this without taking away that natural liberty that is the basis for our being held justly responsible for our own sins. We need to deal with our sins, not by dismissing them as if they were an imposed fate. We need to deal with our sins by accepting our responsibility for them. And then looking to Jesus in faith, both for forgiveness for our sins and deliverance from our sins. At the same time, remembering God's sovereign control should comfort us. as we think about circumstances beyond our control that we have had to face in this life, rather than wonder what life would have been like if we hadn't had to face certain difficulties, we should take comfort that all these details were part of God's sovereign plan. In our text for today, God used in a wonderful way something as mundane as the straying of three donkeys. We will not know in what wonderful ways God has used many of the little details of our own lives until we are in heaven. Now my second thought is about Saul's being empowered by the Holy Spirit and guided by Samuel's prophetic word written in a book. Well, we are much more blessed today. The Holy Spirit was empowering Saul for service, but the Holy Spirit is doing much more for us. Jesus has poured out his Holy Spirit upon us in a spiritual washing of regeneration and renewal. The Holy Spirit has worked faith in our hearts and has united us to Jesus and his saving word. And in addition, the Holy Spirit is today poured out on God's people in new covenant fullness. And also God has completed his full revelation through Jesus. And God has recorded that full revelation for us in the completed Bible. We have no need for today. We have no need for roving bands of prophets. So let us learn from Saul's mistakes and let us strive to take full advantage of all that God has given us. Let us daily seek to obey God's Word through the power of the Holy Spirit who indwells us in new covenant fullness. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we acknowledge our sins. We acknowledge, O Lord, that we are accountable for the wrong that we do, for disobeying your word. And Lord, we seek forgiveness based on the saving work of Jesus. And also, Lord, at the same time, we take comfort in your sovereign control. We thank you, Lord, that you are indeed in control of all that we experience in this life. And we pray, Lord, that you'll use our experiences to build up our faith, to draw us closer to Jesus, to learn to obey you, and to mature as Christians. And we pray this prayer in Jesus' name. Amen.