Samuel, 1 Samuel. Samuel means what? God hears. Alright. Samuel and Saul are almost the same root words. The 13th chapter of 1 Samuel. Saul was 40 years old when he began to reign. Just think about the number 40 in the Bible all the time. 40 years in the Bible is very important. Saul was 40 years old when it began to rain, and he rained 32 years over Israel. Now Saul chose for himself 3,000 men of Israel, of which 2,000 were with Saul in Mishmash and the hill country of Bethel, and 1,000 were with Jonathan at Gebeah of Benjamin. But he sent away the rest of the people each to his own tent or his house. Basically. They lived in temps, you know, back then. Basically in temps. And Jonathan smoked the garrison of the Philistines that was in Geba, and the Philistines heard of it. Then Saul blew the trumpet throughout the land, saying, Let the Hebrews hear. Hebrews means what? The people from the people from on the other side of the river. And all Israel heard the news that Saul had smitten the garrison of the Philistines. And also that Israel had become odious to the Philistines. Remember what Philistines mean? Uncouth, uncivilized, rude people. And the people were then summoned to Saul and Gilgal. Now, we talk about the Palestinians today, don't we? Let's apply a little bit to this. The land of Palestine is not the land of Palestine. It's the land of Canaan. Possession. And the land of Canaan or Canaan was always supposed to be the possession of Israel. God gave them the deed. He gave the deed to Abraham. He gave the deed to Isaac. He gave the deed to Jacob. He gave the deed to the 12 sons of Israel. And he gave that deed and told Moses to pass it on to all the tribes. That they went into the land. They went in to possess the land. They went in to possess the possession. To possess the possession. Now some of those people in the land believed. But many did not. They were a land that was horrible. Let's go back in the book of Genesis. And I've gone back there, but you people need to understand this. This is something that is very outstanding in the Word of God. It is a promise. It will settle all the disputes today over whose is the land. The land is not Palestine, it is Canaan, and the land is Israel's possession. When Noah awoke from the lion, he knew what his youngest son had done to him. His youngest son was what? Ham. Okay. And now, let me take you back into history just a little bit. You study the Bible, but you go back and you study some of the writings about the Bible, what really happened here. You study the words of the rabbi saying, what happened? What's going on here? And so he said, curse be Canaan. Why did God curse Canaan? Basically, Canaan cursed itself. Now, Noah was in his tent, and he drank and he got drunk. Now, Noah never had any more children with his wife, did he? Did he? No. Why? This is one of the things that the rabbis talk about in the Mishnah in the Talmud. Why did he not have any more children? It says that Ham had no respect for his father. In verse number 20, Noah began farming and planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine and became drunk. Now, after the flood, the thing changed. The whole world changed. Maybe before, when he drank grape juice, Guineamotus tastes on blue the fruit of the vine. And you know, there's a grape juice bible. That people don't believe in drinking any wine or anything. That they say that every time it talks about wine, it talks about grape juice. Well, grape juice begins as wine, but it becomes wine. Guineamotus tastes on blue becomes oinos. Oinos. Then Nobian farmed and planted a vineyard and he drank the wine and became drunk and uncovered himself inside of his tent. Now, uncovered himself meant that he probably was going to have a relationship with his wife. He got drunk and was going to have a relationship with his wife. Well, she's uncovered and he's uncovered. And then something happens. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the mechanism of his father and told his two brothers outside. He keeps saying that Ham, the son of Canaan. Where did Canaan come from? But Shem and Japheth took garment and laid upon their shoulders and back forwards and covered the neck of their father and their faces were turned away so that they did not see their father's neck. Now if they saw their mother, they saw their father's neck. Now some of the rabbis, and many times since then, they say, well, Ham went in. castrated his father, and he raped his mother. And the product of that was Canaan. Why would things be so drastic if that didn't really happen? That may not have happened. It doesn't really tell us that, but it tells us the results of that. Let's go back and read the rest of the story. And when Noah woke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan. If this child, now he's inspired, remember we talked about dreams, visions, hypnosis in the Bible? He's inspired and he says, Cursed be Canaan. Canaan. A servant of servants. Now this boy would go in and all of his tribe, his family would go into the land of Canaan, his possession. And they would go there But they're going to go there and God's going to make a servant out of them. And then your Southern Baptists and people through even the United Kingdom and some of the great preachers of old, when they talked about slavery, they said, see here, that ham, the descendants of ham are to be slaves. They're supposed to be slaves. So why not? If God says they're going to be slaves, why don't we use them as slaves? But that's not what it's all about. Is he talking about ham or is he talking about canaan? Talking about Canaan, Canaan. Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants. He shall be to his brothers. And he also said, blessed be the Lord to God of Shem. Shem means name or monument. That's Israel. Shem is the father of Israel, the nation of Israel. and let Canaan be his servant. How is he going to be his servant? Because God is going to send them into that land. He said, I'm going to give you a land flowing with milk and honey that you did not possess. And he's going to take these people. And he also says, before they go in there, that he will not send them in there until their sins rise up to his nostrils. The incense of false religion rises up to his nostrils. They were horrible. They were diseased people. They had all types of sexually transmitted diseases there. And that's why he said that some places go in and kill all the animals too. Everything's infected. And even the houses were infected with staph infection. He said, go in there and how do you check the house out? Take ashes and mix it with water? Marilyn, your grandmother and grandfather and my grandmother and grandfather that raised me, they made their own soap, didn't they? They made it from ashes, didn't they? They took real hardwood ashes, and they run water down, and they took the ashes, and they took lard from the pigs, the hogs, and they mixed it together, and they made lye soap. Because there's lye in those ashes. They took and washed the house down with lye soap, so to speak. And if the disease, if the staph infection comes back, the mold keeps coming back, then burn the house down and burn all the rocks that it's made out of. Let's go on, I lost my voice there just a little bit. Bless be the Lord, the God of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. And then we have Japheth. Japheth is the father of what we might call the Anglo-Saxons, the Greeks, all of those in Europe. And Lord Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem. In the last days, when Israel rejected her king, then we have a Gentile church, which we have today. The tents. Japheth dwell in the tents of Shem. Let him take over the administration of God's kingdom. Let Canaan be his servant. Noah lived 350 years after that blood. All the days of Noah were 950 years and a million oaths. A million oaths. And he died and stayed dead. The promise and the curse is still there with us. The promise and the curse is still there. Let's go on a little bit further. Now the Philistines, they're going to go into this land, the Philistines came in there, and these are the uncivilized, uncouth, heathens, these Philistines are. And that's how you got the modern name, Palestine, is from the Philistines. Do the Philistines, the Palestinians, own the land? According to God's Word? No. Who owns the land? Israel. The land of Canaan, the land of possession. That was their possession. And all Israel heard the news that Saul had smitten the garrison of the Philistines and also that Israel had become odious to the Philistines and the people were then summoned to Saul and Gilgal. Now the Philistines assembled to fight with Israel. There were 30,000 chariots. And that's like tanks today. Chariots then were like tanks today. And there were 6,000 horsemen. And horses were an animal of battle. A mule doesn't want to go into battle. A donkey doesn't want to go into battle. But a horse will go into battle. You have to spur him along the way and use harsh bits in his mouth, but you can control him. And people like the sand of the sea, which is on the seashore in abundance, they came up and camped against Mishmash and east of Beth Avin. the house of Ava. And when the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait, for the people were hard pressed, have you ever been between a rock and a hard place? That's what they were, they were between a rock and a hard place. And the people hid themselves in caves, and in thickets, and in cliffs, and in cellars, and in pits. The pits there, they really are outhouses. That's a hole dug in the ground where you put all the refuse in it. And some of the Hebrew crossed over Jordan into the land of Gad and Galilee. But as far as Saul, he was still in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling. They were all afraid. They weren't trusting God, were they? And now he waited seven days according to the appointed time set by Samuel. He was listening to Samuel, wasn't he? But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from him. And now we have a mistake. We have a tremendous sin about to take place from their king. Was the king the spiritual leader of Israel? Was the king the spiritual leader of Israel? Who was the spiritual leader of Israel? Samuel. Now Saul is going to take it upon himself to become the spiritual leader of Israel. It's not his place. You either do things God's way or you are in trouble. You either do things God's way or you're in trouble. So Saul said, bring to me the burnt offering and the peace offerings and he offered the burnt offering. Sin, corruption, violence, doing violence to the scriptures, doing violence to the commandments of God. And it came about as soon as he finished the offering, the burnt offering, that behold Samuel came And Saul went out to meet him and to greet him. He's in trouble. He came out to... Saul went out to meet him and then he's going to bless him. The word for greet there is barak, bless. It means to bless him. He was going to... I'm the spiritual leader now, let me bless you. He went from being very, very humble now He's changing. Remember I said sometimes people can't handle authority. You ever seen anybody in your life, Larry, when they're given authority over men, that they become tyrants? Yeah. Marilyn, I know you do. What's that? That when sometimes when men can't handle authority and they're put over men, they become tyrants. Yes. We've got one friend that we both knew that was that way. Yes. Yeah. That people wanted to kill him. He was a good worker. But when he became the boss, he was a jerk. He was a tyrant. And Samuel said, what have you done? And Saul said, I haven't done anything. What do I do? What do I do? Because I saw the people were scattering from me and that you did not come within the appointed days and that the Philistines were assembling to Mishmash. Therefore, I said, now the Philistines have come down. Sometimes you just have to wait on the Lord, don't you? Was Samuel coming to Saul? Did he show up? Right after he did the sin, right after he had committed a tremendous violation of God's Word, Samuel shows up. And he goes out, I'm going to bless you. Now in Hebrew it says, I'm going to bless you. It said Greek him, but it meant bless him. I have become the blesser of the nation. I have become the priest now. They came against me at Gilgal and I have not asked the favor of the Lord, so I forced myself and I offered the burnt offerings. I forced myself to do this. Forced himself. I don't think so. I think he was proud now. He had become a man of great authority. Now he is going to take it all, all authority in his hands. He is going to bless Samuel. Samuel came to bless him. But he's not a blessed angel because he's now the spiritual leader. He's going to offer the sacrifices that were supposed to be given to the priest. You don't offer sacrifices. The Old Testament, Paul said, was given us to for parables that we might not follow in the way that is. You don't go to church because you don't like the church. You ought to go to church because the church preaches the word of God. It's a lot of difference now. You don't go to church to hear a concert. You go to church to hear the word of God. So many churches are what we call entertainment centers now. They're not preaching the gospel. And Samuel said to Saul, you've acted foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, for now the Lord will have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not endure. The Lord has sought out for himself a man after his heart, the real king of Israel. The real king of Israel was coming from the tribe of Judah, not Benjamin. And the Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has appointed Him as ruler over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you to do. He gave you a command, do it! Do not turn aside. Do what I tell you. Do what I tell you. Do not turn aside. And Samuel arose and went from Gilgal to Gibeah, of Benjamin, and Saul numbered the people, who were present with him and he had 600 men. Now Saul and his son Jonathan and the people who were present with him were staying at Geba and Benjamin while the Philistines camped at Mishmash. Now sometimes when this guy makes these mistakes, he affects the lives of a lot of people, doesn't he? And the raiders came from the Kingdom of the Philistines in three companies. One company turned toward Uthra and the other toward the land of Shual, and another company turned toward Beth Haran, and another company toward the border which overlooks the valley of Zevihan, toward the wilderness. And now no blacksmith could be found in the land of Israel. Isn't that something? Israel were farmers. A blacksmith is a man that makes something. What does a blacksmith make? All types of tools. Tools of, at this time, they made tools of war, and tools to farm. They made plows, the blades that go on a plow. The plow basically was a wooden device, but they made the blade that goes on the plow because wood tears up and wears out real fast, but steel does not, or actually was iron at that time. And sometimes bronze. They made all their swords, they made all their spear points, they made their arrow points. And there's no blacksmith that could be found on the land of Israel to the Philistines, Seth, lest the Hebrews make swords or spears. They didn't want any of their blacksmiths there because they could make swords or spears or arrows. So all Israel went down to the Philistines, each to sharpen his plowshare and his mattock and his axe and his goad. His plowshare, that's the blade, and his mattock, That's his hatchet and his axe, same thing, axes and hatchets, and his gold. What is a gold? A gold is something, is a point you put on a rod that they poke their animals with to make them gold. Or poke them a little bit, and they use the iron point because it wouldn't wear out like a wooden point would. And whenever they had to sharpen the edge of the goads, or one of the mattocks, or the forks, or the axes, or fix the goad points. So it came about that day that Val didn't need her sword and her spear was found in the hands of any of the people who were with Saul and Jonathan. But they were found with Saul and his son Jonathan. And the garrison of the Philistines went out to pass over Mishmash. Now it became that day that Jonathan, the son of Saul, said to his young men who were carrying his armor, come and let us cross over to the Philistines' garrison that is over yonder side. But he did not tell his father. And Saul was staying in Al-Skirzi-Gabiya under the pomegranate tree, which is in Megidon. And the people who were with him were about 600 men. And Ahasuerus, the son of Ahithob, Ichabod's brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the priest of the Lord in Shiloh, was wearing an ephod. And that is a spiritual vestment. And in that ephod is where they sought information and instruction of the Lord. And the people did not know that Jonathan had gone. And between the passage, which Jonathan sought to cross over to the Philistines' garrison, There was a sharp crag in one side and a sharp crag in the other side, and the name of the one was Bozez, and the name of the other was Sine, and one crag rose to the north opposite Mishmash and the other to the south opposite Geba. And Jonathan said to his young men who was carrying his armor, come and let us cross over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. Perhaps the Lord will work for us. Now, Jonathan, if you'll find out, was Saul's son, but he is a man after God's heart like David was. And so the Lord is not restrained to save by many or by few. We don't need a lot of people. We can whip them, because God's with us. And his armor bearer said, to all that is in your heart, turn yourself and here I am with you according to your desire or your wishes. Then Jonathan said, Behold, we will cross over to the men and reveal ourselves to them. They're going to sneak over there, a surprise attack. If they say to us, Wait until we come to you, then we will stand in our place and not go up to them. But if they say, Come over with us, we will go up, for the Lord has given them into our hands. And thus shall be the sign to us. God spoke to Jonathan's heart. And that's why he says this. Dreams, visions, and hypnosis. And when both of them revealed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines, the Philistines said, Behold, the Hebrews are coming out of their holes, and where are they hidden? Where have they hidden themselves? And the men of the garrison hailed Jonathan and his armor-bearer and said, Come up to us, and we will tell you something. And Jonathan said to his armor-bearer, Come up after me, and the Lord has given them into the hands of Israel. God has answered our prayers. Then Jonathan climbed up on his hands and on his feet with his armor bearer behind him, and he fell before Jonathan. And his armor bearer put some to death after them, after him. And the first slaughter which Jonathan and his armor bearer made were about 20 men within about a half of a furrow of an acre of land. And there was trembling in the camp, in the field, among all the people, even the garrison, even the raiders trembled. And the earthquake so that it became a great trembling. Now Saul's watchmen in Gebeah and Bingham looked on, and behold, the multitude melted away, and they went here and there. And Saul said to his people who were with him, Number now and see who has gone from us. And when they had numbered, behold, Jonathan and his armor bearer were not there. And Saul said to Ahijah, Bring the ark, God, here. Now he says bring the Ark of God. Is he in command of the Ark of God? Again he wants to do violation to God's revealed will. For the Ark of God was at that time with the sons of Israel. And it happened while Saul talked to the priest and the commotion in the camp of the Philistines continued and increased. And so Saul said to his priest, withdraw your hand. Then Saul and all the people who were with him rallied. and came to the battle and behold every man's sword was against his fellow. And there was a very great confusion. So the Hebrews who were with the Philistines previously who went up with them and all around in the camp even they also turned to be with the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan. And while all the men of Israel who had hidden themselves in the hill country of Ephraim heard that the Philistines had fled Even they pursued them closely in the battle. So the Lord delivered Israel that day, and the battle spread beyond Beth-Avin. Now the men of Israel were hard-pressed on that day, for Saul had put the people under an oath, saying, Cursed be the man who eats food and before evening until I have avenged myself of my enemies. So none of the people tasted food. That's kind of stupid. If you're going to go out to battle, do you want to eat beforehand so you'll have energy? That's a normal thing to do. I remember Brother Madden. Brother Madden, I think, was in nine major campaigns between Africa and Italy and France. And he said, before we were going to go to battle, they gave us this great big feast. He said, when we had mashed potatoes and gravy and turkey and all that kind of stuff, we know that we were going to stick our necks out. And this guy tells them they can't eat. heard what his father had put the people under the oath and therefore he put out his hand and the staff was with him and he dipped into the honeycomb and put his hand to his mouth and his eyes brightened. In other words, he was getting very weak but now he becomes alert and brightened. He's got energy. Then one of the people answered and said, your father strictly put the people under oath saying, cursed be the man who eats honey. He eats food this day and the people were weary. John said, my father has troubled the land. My father has troubled the land. See now how my eyes have brightened because I tasted a little of this honey? How much more if only the people had eaten freely today of the spoil of their enemies which they found. And now the slaughter among the Philistines has not been as great because they didn't And they struck the Philistines that day from Mishmash to Hizalong, and the people were very weary. And the people rushed greedily upon the spoil, took sheep and oxen and calves and slew them on the ground, and the people ate them with the blood. Now that's not according to the Word. Then they told Saul, saying, Behold, the people are sinning against the Lord by eating with blood. And he said, You have acted treacherously. Roll a great stone upon me today. And Saul said, disperse yourselves among the people and say to them, each one of you, bring me his ox and his sheep and slaughter it here and eat. Do not sin against the Lord by eating with blood. You had to drain the animal, the blood out of the animal. You had to let it hang first. Because blood is sacred to the Lord. Because life is in the blood. So all the people that night brought his ox with him and slaughtered it there. And Saul built an altar to the Lord, and it was the first altar that he built to the Lord. Again, what did he do? He tried to take on the office of the priest. Then Saul said, let us go down to the Philistines by night and take spoil among them, and by the morning light, and let us not leave a man of them. And they said, whatever seems good to you. And so the priest said, let us draw near to God here. And Saul inquired of God, shall I go down after the Philistines, or will you give them at my hand of Israel? But he did not answer him on that day. Saul has to learn to wait, doesn't he? He wants instant potatoes, whatever he wants, but God is not going to give him instant potatoes, because he knows he needs patience. Saul said, Draw near all and all the chiefs of the people and investigate and see how this has happened this day. As for the Lord lives, who delivers Israel to it is as Jonathan my son shall surely die. But not one of all the people answered him. Then he said to all Israel, You shall be on one side, and I and Jonathan my son will be on the other side. And the people said to Saul, Do what seems good to you. Therefore Saul said to the Lord, the God of Israel, give us a perfect lot. And Jonathan and Saul were taken, but the people escaped. And Saul said, cast loft between me and Jonathan, my son, and Jonathan was taken. Then Saul said to Jonathan, tell me what you have done. So Jonathan told him what he said, and I indeed tasted a little honey with the end of the staff, and that was in my hands, and here I am, I must die because of your work, because you were foolish. And Saul said, May God do this to me and more also for you shall surely die, Jonathan. And the people said to Saul, Must Jonathan die who has brought about this great deliverance in Israel? Because Saul constantly was circumventing the will of God. He wanted to do things his way, not God's way. From all of it the Lord lives. There shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground for he has worked with God this day." So the people rescued Jonathan and he did not die. They rescued Jonathan and he did not die. Now Jonathan had rescued them. Saul did some awful foolish things because he thought that he was now prophet, priest, and king. But he wasn't. He was still just a king. He kept making mistakes. Jonathan, you're going to find, was a great man of God. And he and David were Their souls were knit together. And they stood for God against Saul so many times. Our Father, we thank You for Your Word. Please forgive us for our failure. Please send Your Word out wherever it goes throughout the world. Bless Your sheep with it. Feed Your sheep. Please forgive me for our failure.