If you have your Bibles, I would say turn to 1 Samuel chapter 8. I'd ask y'all to read some of y'all that were here. We're going to be doing a new study, a new class, The Life of David. And it's going to begin and be based out of 1 and 2 Samuel. Before I begin this morning, let's pray and ask God to bless His Word. Father, we love You. We praise You. Bless you word this morning in Sunday school, and God you would just speak to us and help us in Christ's name Amen Before we begin reading our passage or in the scriptures this morning. I kind of want to I Think it would be very beneficial for us to take a quick look at the historical setting in order that we can understand what was happening and why things were happening in the way that they were here in this book. In order to get to David, I think it's beneficial for us to know what was going on in that day. Israel had been led for hundreds of years by judges. Judges were individuals that were called by God to lead his people against their enemies, to settle disputes, and to protect the nation. Now one other thing I do want to say is we're going to try and have this as an open format. I forgot to mention that. If you have a question, or a comment as you've been studying these things and going along. I know this is our first class. Feel free to raise your hand. Now, I would hope and pray that your intent was to edify, to build up the class, not to stump the teacher, not that we would show off what we know, but that we would bring these things together collectively, kind of like what we do on Wednesday night in our Bible study of Colossians, that we will work together so we can better understand. God can speak to us as we study this. through His Word. And I think it would be beneficial for us to be able to do that. So if any time I may get a little nervous, my adrenaline may be going, I may be going a little bit fast, if I'm going too fast for you, say, hold up, raise your hand, say, can we go back and look at this again? It's not going to offend me. We have a limited amount of time. We're not looking for opinions what we're doing is just basing things off the scripture because if not We'll find that we run out of time quickly because we chasing rabbits here there and everywhere else Okay, so if we could keep that in mind, I think it would be beneficial Israel was led by judges These judges were appointed by God, but the Israelites decided that they no longer wanted judges to lead over them. Under the leadership of the judges, Israel operated under what we call a theocracy. Y'all know what a theocracy is? Anybody? I got a simple definition of a theocracy. It's the governing of a state by an immediate divine guidance. Divine meaning what? Godly guidance, right? Or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided. In other words, to sum it up, Israel was being led by who? by God, by the men of God. Ultimately, everything went back to God. When Israel operated under these judges, they were operating with the Word of God being the preeminent factor in every decision they made. The nation as a whole was centered on God and centered on God's Word. Israel, during the time of judges, had to fully rely upon God for their protection. Now, what better leader could they have than God? We'll find as we study 1 Samuel that during this time the nation of Israel was at a spiritual low point. The priesthood was corrupt. Remember we were looking and I know it's a while down that we got to Malachi but we understand that You know, history has a tendency to repeat itself and men have the same common problems. The same things that was going on in Cain and Abel's day is going on in our day and it's nothing new. They were at a spiritual low point. The priesthood was corrupt. The Ark of the Covenant was not at the tabernacle. Idolatry was rampant. And the judges, except for Samuel, were dishonest. The judges had become corrupt. During this time, all the nations in the land of Canaan were governed by what? They were governed by kings. And this coupled, I would say, the people of Israel looking around seeing these other nations and the fact that they were having trouble, these things coupled together. What they did is they led the nation of Israel to desire to be led by who? By a king and not by God or the men of God. Now, instead of relying on God for their protection, the nation of Israel wanted to be like the heathen Nations around them they wanted to do away with the theocracy and they Desired that a monarch or a king would rule over them and protect them now remember. We're given a historical background to set the stage. We're going to get to scriptures in a minute. So that we don't have to read all this. That's why I asked y'all to read these things so we can understand and we would be up to par knowing what was going on. Samuel was Israel's last judge. And he was one of God's great prophets. And he warned the people that exchanging the Lord for a monarchy was a grave mistake. He said a king will burden down the people. with taxes and he will use you for his own gain. But the people would not listen, so the Lord instructed Samuel to anoint a young man named Saul as Israel's first king. So just so you don't think I'm making all these things up, let's turn to 1 Samuel chapter 8 and I'll begin reading. Now one thing we're going to do as we go through this study is we're going to do a lot of reading. because we're going to base everything. Now, I know we had a lot of commentary there, but that was to get us to where we can start reading, so we don't have to do all that extra reading. Here we see in verse 4 of 1 Samuel 8, Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together and came to Samuel unto Ramah and said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways now we understand that you can look at verse three and it says in the sons not walked in the ways but turned aside after lucre and took bribes and preferred it what judgment so we can see that and we don't have time this is a different lesson all together we gotta be careful as leaders Because we can cause the people as leaders, if we're perverted, or if we're corrupt, we can cause the people to desire something that God doesn't want them to have. But we got to be careful. It says here, He said unto them, Thou art old, verse 5, and thy sons walk not in thy ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. So you see what I told you a while ago, how the scriptures explain these things? But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel, what did he do? He prayed unto the Lord. He went to God with it. He didn't like this. He knew this wasn't right. And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people and all that they say unto thee, for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. Boy, that's pretty tough, isn't it? And we'll see as we go through these things and as we read through, the scriptures are pretty plain. I don't really have to break this down. We don't have to do a word study here. It's pretty point blank what the scriptures are saying. He says here in verse 8, According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even unto this day, herewith they have forsaken me. It was a constant battle for Israel to stay true to God. Just as it is a constant battle for us to stay true with God. Why? They had flesh, we have flesh. We have tendencies to trust in our flesh. We have tendencies to trust in the things that we own or possess. Instead of trusting in God they wanted a king that they could trust in something that they could visibly Tangibly touch or visibly see they wanted to trust in that that king instead of trusting in a God whom they could not see With with eyes, but they the only way to see him is through faith, right? Verse 9 says now therefore hearken unto their voice. How be it and yet protest solemnly unto them and show them the manner of the king that shall reign over them." In other words, warn them, give them a warning. 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 will take your sons and appoint them for himself. Now did God do that? He says, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen. And some shall run before his chariots, and he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains 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 will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. And he will take your fields, uh-oh, your land, and your vineyards, and your olive yards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. In other words, he's going to tax you. He's going to tax you. We can see this happening in our nation, right? That in order for our government to operate, Our government doesn't make money. Where does the government's money come from? It comes from us. And in order for them to operate, and in order for them to take care of everybody else, what do they have to do? They have to get from those that have to give to those that don't. Right? And we can see how easily, just making a comparison, an everyday comparison of our nation, we can see how easily this can get out of whack. And people can be misused and abused as people misuse and abuse those things that they don't actually work for He says and he will take your fields and your vineyards verse 14 in the Isle of Yards even the best of them and give them to his servants And he will take the tenth of your seed and of your vineyards and give to his officers and to his servants and he will take your Men's servants and your maid servants and your goodliest young men in your asses and put them to his work He will take the tenth of your sheep and you shall be his servants and he shall cry out and that day because of your king and you shall cry out in that day because of your king which you shall Have chosen you and the Lord will not hear you in that day So we see Samuel what he's doing out of love is warning the people what's gonna happen? Listen what happens in verse 19 Nevertheless the repeat the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel and they said nay I But we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations. You know, I'm going to stop here for a second. You know one thing that set Israel apart is they were not like all the other nations. They were a nation that was set apart, chosen to serve God. Yet they wanted, here we see that their heart's desire was to be like everybody else around them. We got to be careful. We ought not want to be like this world. We're not of this world. We're in this world because we've been left in this world to be a light and to shine as light in darkness. But we're not of this world. Our kingdom is not of this world. Our king is not of this world. We gotta be careful. They said that we also may be like all the nations and that our king may judge verse 20 of us and go out before us and fight our battles and Samuel heard all these words of the people and he rehearsed them in the ears of the Lord not as if God didn't hear it but he just said it again And the Lord said unto Samuel, Harken unto their voice, and make them a king. And Samuel said unto the men of Israel, Go ye every man unto a city. So Samuel, we see here, what he does is he does as the Lord instructs. And he anoints Saul, right, as king. And we're going to find out it doesn't take long before things start to head in the wrong direction. It's not going to be long. We see in 1 Samuel chapter 13, That Saul, what he does is he raises an army of only 3,000 men. Now we're going to skip around because what are we studying? We're studying David. So we got to get to David. We're just building background so we can get to where David comes on to the scene. But I think it's expedient for us to understand what's going on so we can better understand when David comes on where the nation's at instead of just picking up where David shows up. So we see that Saul, what he does, he raises an army of only 3,000 men, and Jonathan, Saul's son, what he does, he goes out and he smites a garrison of the Philistines. And the Philistines didn't like this. They didn't take too kind to it. So what they did is they gathered together 30,000 chariots, 6,000 horsemen. Remember how many that Israel had? They only had 3,000. So they got 30,000 chariots, 6,000 horsemen, and soldiers. The scripture says that numbered as many as the sand of the seashore. So in other words, they kind of outnumbered. When Israel heard of this great host of the Philistines heading to do battle with them, fear began to spread throughout the nation and panic soon ensued. Now, I didn't go through all the deal with Samuel anointing Saul, because that's not what we're studying. I challenged you to read those things so you can see those things and how those things take place. I'm just hitting on some key events leading up to David coming onto the scene. Let's pick up in verse 6 of chapter 13. And we'll read down to verse 14. Chapter 13. And we're going to hit bits and pieces like this until we get to where David comes onto the scene, okay? So if you have a question, if I'm going too fast, what time you said, 10 and 15, 10 and 20? Okay. Verse 6 we're going to pick up. 1 Samuel 13, 6 says this, When the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait, for the people were distressed, then the people did hide themselves in caves and in thickets and in rocks and in high places and in pits. And some of the Hebrews went over Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. As for Saul, he was yet in Gilgal. And all the people followed him, trembling. Why were they trembling? They were scared. They had a great host coming after them. And he tarried seven days according to the set time that Samuel had appointed. But Samuel came not to Gilgal. And the people were scattered from him, and Saul said, Bring hither a burnt offering to me, and a peace offering. And he offered the burnt offering, and it came to pass that as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came, and Saul went out to meet him, that he might salute him. And Samuel said, What hast thou done? And Saul said, because I saw that the people were scattered from me, and thou camest not within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered themselves together at Mikmash, therefore said I, the Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication unto the Lord. He said, I forced myself therefore, and offered a burnt offering. And Samuel said to Saul, thou hast done foolishly. Thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God which commanded thee. For now would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel forever. But now thy kingdom shall not continue. The Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded. So we see here the first account of Saul messing up. One commentator I read behind wrote pertaining to this verse, he said, Saul had not only received an express command to wait seven days, but it had been given him under special circumstances and it was confirmed by the fulfillment of the appointed signs. He knew, moreover, how much depended upon his waiting and that obedience to the prophet's command was an essential condition of his appointment. You know what God's looking for? He's looking for somebody that obeys him. And you know what Saul had a problem with? Obedience. This commentator said, nevertheless in his impatience and distrust of Jehovah, of God, and His commands, He did not bide this at time. Not really because of any wish to propitiate God, but because of the effect produced upon the mind of the people. See, one thing we understand as we look at Saul a little bit, and to get to where we have to go, we're going to see that Saul was more worried about the people than he was God. And that brings forth great problems. and we'll see that if we have enough time probably not all today i don't think we're gonna have enough time to go through all that but we will see that and we will notice that there was no confession of ronald saws part here his mind rather he was more occupied with his duty as a king then he was of having regard regard to a hierarchy into obey those now before we go any further up what i want to clarify Is that it's not my intent in this study to tear apart King Saul. That's not my intent. Saul, as we study these things, we're going to find out that Saul was a character that had many problems. Many problems. But I think it's important for us to see the error of his ways in the things that he did so that we can avoid these things. And we'll see that there's a constant battle going on when David comes on to the scene that we see that Saul makes one foolish decision after another. One foolish decision after another. And we'll see the difference between a man that is following God than a man that's following the dictates of his flesh and his own mind. I also think it's important that we get the background setting And the historical events of this that took place just before David comes on the scene So like I said earlier that we can better understand why things were going the way that they were One one last passage we're going to look at and I really want to read the whole chapter I don't know if we have enough time. We got five minutes. I think we can I'm gonna try not to expound on turn to chapter 15 And we're gonna look at another instance where Saul disobeyed the commandment of God. And in essence, what this does is it sets the stage for David. Remember what Samuel told him? He said, you were in a place where your kingdom would have been established forever. What does that mean? That meant that it could have been passed from Samuel to Jonathan, and then from Jonathan to whoever, and then from him to him, that God would have set this up. But because of his disobedience, we see that that kingdom was rent from him, taken away from him, that God had prepared another man for this kingdom. And we know that man to be who? David. And then ultimately that kingship was passed on to our great high priest and our great king, the Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ. 1 Samuel 15. This is Saul's second sin. Samuel also said unto Saul, The Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel. Now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of who? Of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have and spare them not. But slay both man and woman, infant, and suckling, ox, and sheep, camel, and ass. And Saul gathered the people together and numbered them in Teliam 200,000 footmen and 10,000 men of Judah. And Saul came to the city of Amalek and laid wait in the valley. And Saul said unto the Kenites, Go, depart, get ye down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you. He's giving them a warning. He said, Get out of here. Why did he do this? He says, for he showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havali unto Thou comest to the shore that is over against Egypt. And he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and the oxen, and of the fatlans, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them, but everything that was vile and refused That they destroyed utterly. Then came the word of the Lord unto Samuel saying... Who told Samuel this? God did. Who was paying attention to everything that they were doing? God was. It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king. For he has turned back from following me and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel and he cried unto the Lord all night. You know, Samuel still loved Saul. We see here a true man of God that had true compassion for Saul, because he was willing to what? He just didn't want to cut him off and abandon him, say, get rid of him. He was concerned, prayed for him. And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel. And behold, he set him up a place, and is gone about, and passed on, and gone down to Gilgal. And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the Lord, I have performed the commandments of the Lord. You know what Saul really thought? That what he'd done was pleasing unto the Lord. And Samuel said this, Verse 14, What meaneth then this bleeding of the sheep in my ears, and the allowing of the oxen, which I hear? And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amlekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God, and the rest we have utterly destroyed. Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay and I will tell thee what the Lord has said to me this night and he Said unto him say on and Samuel said when thou was little in thine own sight Was thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel and the Lord anointed thee king over Israel and? and the Lord sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed. Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, which hath gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek. Have utterly destroyed the Amalekites but the people took of the spoil sheep and oxen and the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God and Gilgal and Samuel said have the Lord a great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifice as in obeying the voice of the Lord Listen what he says behold To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he also hath rejected thee from being king. I'm going to have to stop here because we're out of time. But I challenge you to read on down and look, and we'll see that Because of Saul's disobedience, this kingship or this kingdom is going to be rent from him and given to who? Eventually, it's going to be given to David. But before David can get there, there's going to be much tribulation, much trial, much persecution. And as we start, now we have this background setting we see that the stage is set. for a new king to come in, but it's not going to be without trouble. And the thing is, is we'll look at these things, and I do challenge you, if you have any questions or comments, I know I'm kind of rushing because we're on a timetable. Hopefully next week we'll, I'll slow down. And if you have any questions, begin, we're going to see in verse 16, we'll start to see where David comes onto the scene and picks up. and I challenge you to read these things and pray as you read these things and go through and we'll learn together and we'll see that God in his provision you know God's awesome in his infinite wisdom he has the capacity to provide for us those things that we need and he does also have the capacity to withhold those things that we want from us that we truly don't need And I'm thankful that he is our king, our great shepherd that looks out for us. Any questions or comments? Okay. If not, let's pray. Father, we ask you to help us, forgive us where we fail you. We understand that Saul failed to obey these commands that were given to him. And because of this, we see that Samuel comes to meet him with a rebuke. And that's where we pretty much had left off. That was the end of our lesson. So we're going to pick up reading there and go on. In verse 14, it says, Now I want you to pay attention to one thing we're going to find as Saul is confronted and rebuked. He's constantly blaming who? the people, somebody else. We're going to find that. We're going to see that. He says here, he says, The people spared the best of the sheep and of the ox and the sacrifice unto the Lord thy God, and the rest we have utterly destroyed. Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the Lord hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on. And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed thee king over Israel? And the Lord sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they can be consumed? Wherefore, then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil, and did evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord hath sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil." Notice what he says. He blames the who? On the people. took of the spoils of sheep and oxen, and the chief of the things which have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal. And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. But because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king. Now as we look at these things, and I know I've read through these speedily, and I told y'all, I asked y'all if y'all would to be reading this as a background, because there's no way as we go through all this that we're going to be able to deal with all the things that are in here, but as I begin to prepare for this lesson, I begin to ask, questions as to why was God so quick to judge King Saul? In other words, why did God take this kingdom from him? Now, we understand, and as we look, God hates disobedience, right? And we've already looked at two occasions where Saul disobeyed God, but it would seem as if God might have been making an example out of the people's king, because Saul was the people's king, right? Who requested this king? The people did. It also seems like Saul was set up. Now, I said it seems like. Now, we're going to get to some, probably not in this lesson today, because we don't have a lot of time in Sunday school, but it seems as if Saul was set up to fail from the beginning, because one thing is, God in His infinite wisdom, what did He do? We see that He picked for the people the type of king that their hearts truly desire. Now we see that in the actions that take place. If we were to go back and we were to read back where Saul was chosen, we would find that he was totally unaware of what was going on, wasn't he? He wasn't out jockeying for position. He wasn't on the campaign trail trying to gather or rally support for him to become the new king of Israel. Actually, Saul was out doing what? He was out looking for his father's lost donkeys, right? And as we look at these things, and there's so much here, we're going to go back and we will eventually maybe even go back to Ruth and see how God in His providence lines all these things up. And it just amazes, it encourages me that our God is in control. And actually what Saul was doing, he was looking for his father's lost donkeys, not realizing that it was God that caused those donkeys to run away in order that Saul would have an occasion to run into who? Samuel. God had already warned Samuel, I'm going to send a young man, right? So we see all these things taking place. God chose Saul to be king, and he chose him based on the fact that he was what the people wanted. What did the people want? What did they want they wanted someone to rule and reign over them they wanted a warrior right to fight? What did what description does the scriptures give of of Saul that he was what y'all help me out? Head and shoulders now. This is an open forum. So if you have a question or a comment, I encourage you to stop me. Sometimes I get a little nervous or should I say adrenaline gets the going when I'm up here and maybe get a little bit speedy, but if you have something, it's not going to offend me if you stop me. They wanted a warrior. They wanted someone to fight for them. They did not want a king whose heart was fixed on God. So what God gave them, remember they were under a theocracy, right? And they traded in this theocracy for what? for a monarchy. They wanted a man to rule over them. They didn't want God to fight their battles anymore. And the thing is, so what they did is they didn't want a king that pleased God so much to say. They wanted a king that would represent them in battle and be a great warrior. Remember in 1 Samuel 13 and verse 14, Samuel said that the Lord, what did God want? He said that he sought him a man after his own heart. That's the king God wanted. for Israel. Saul was a man that was governed. Brother Nick does a series on Saul called the Saul Syndrome, which is tremendous. May even have some booklets. I don't know if some of y'all want them for further study. You can talk to him. But Saul was a man that was governed not by a heart that was fixed upon God, but by mind. And we see this. We're going to see this as we go through this study. He was governed by a mind that was under the influence of his circumstances. Now, how many of us would testify that we get that way from time to time? We let our circumstances dictate how we react. And we shouldn't. And we're going to see there's grave danger in that. He was also a man that was persuaded constantly. We see him being persuaded by those that surrounded him. And we've got to be careful because we're all prone to this. In both mentions that we looked at of Saul's sin, he gave way to his circumstances. And he also caved in to the pressure of the people that were around him. That's why he was constantly blaming it on them. because he caved in to that pressure. They wanted to do this. They wanted to do that. Instead of taking the responsibility, he was the one that was given specific orders, not them, right? So as the man, the leader of the nation of Israel, he was the one that was ultimately responsible. And one thing that I have to say, and I've already stated this, it's not my intent in this lesson to tear apart King Saul. That's not what this lesson's about. But I do think it's important as we go through the life of David, I think it's vitally important for us to understand why did Saul do some of the things that he did. Why did he make the mistakes that he made? And I think it's important for us to examine these things so we don't make the same mistakes. That's why the Old Testament was given, for our example, that we can study, that we can see, that we can understand. This is where they erred. This is where they failed. And we can prepare our own selves and look and use these things to examine our own selves. Another thing that may cause us to think that Saul may have been destined to fail from the beginning was a prophecy that was given in Genesis 49. In Genesis 49, verse 8, it says, Thy brethren shall praise. Thy hand shall be in the neck of thy enemies. Thy father's children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion's whelp from the prey. My son, thou art gone up. He stooped down. He couched as a lion and as an old lion who shall rouse him up. The scepter, notice this, shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, unto Shiloh come, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Now, there's a lot there, too. And like I said, we could bog down every route that we go, but in order to get through the narrative, I challenge you to write some of these passages down. Go back and study them out. Read them. Understand what's talking about here. This prophecy gives the lineage in which the king of kings would eventually come and we see that the scepter or that kingdom would not depart from who? What tribe? The tribe of Judah. This prophecy causes an issue. Why? Where was Saul from? He was from the tribe of Benjamin. Some argue, as I looked and did some background study on this, some argue and say that this prophecy has nothing to do with an earthly kingship. It's all pertaining to the Messiah, and they say that these Jews or the elders in this day would have known, and what they would have done when Saul was anointed, him being a Benjamite, they would have blew the whistle on that. That may be true as far as the earthly kingdom or what have you, and this being a prophecy fulfilled as far as through the Messiah, but we understand according to the scriptures that the elders at this time, they weren't interested in God's will. They weren't interested in the Word of God. What were they looking for? They were worried about what they wanted and what the other nations had, because that's what they said. All these other nations have a king to rule over. They wanted somebody to fight their battles for them. They weren't worried about what God's Word said. So I don't know if that's a legitimate argument. Another question. that I begin to ponder on as I was studying this lesson is, did God truly want Israel to have an earthly king? Now we see that it was a sinful desire of the people is what we see in the book of 1 Samuel. Was this sinful desire for a king something that would hinder God's ultimate plan? Or would it be used somehow for His honor and His glory? See, we know the full scope. But imagine at that time all these things taking place and the people desiring a king. We understand that our God is in complete control, right? And I'm glad that he is. And the thing is, is one thing we must realize is that God's not sitting in heaven all anxious, worrying about what we are going to do. I mean, we're as a nation, America, We're kind of on an axis right now. I know we are reaping what we have sown, but we have an election coming up. We were talking a little bit about it this morning. And, I mean, there's a lot can go good, bad, I don't know, but one thing I do know for sure is God's in control. God has set the stage for all these things to take place. And the thing is, is God's not sitting up in heaven. He's not anxious. He's not worrying about what we're going to do as a nation. Neither is He concerned whether or not He's accurately anticipated our next move or the next move of the enemy. God is in complete control. And even though they requested a king, and their request was sinful for them, it did not take God by surprise. As a matter of fact, we see that God used their selfish desires to do what? To set the stage for his man to enter onto the scene. God's able to do that, right? You and I can take great delight. We can have great confidence in the fact that our God is in complete control. And I think as we study passages like this and we go back, just like the deal with Saul and how all these things... And we'll see the providence of God, how God... We're going to see David made some grave mistakes. But God is able to take those things and use those things for His honor and for His glory. And that gives me great confidence. Why? Because I make mistakes on a regular basis. I fail on a regular basis. And I'm thankful that our God is able to take our failures and use them for His honor and for His glory. I'm thankful that He's in complete control. I'm thankful that He's Unlimited in his knowledge in that he not only knows all our actions before they take place But he's the one not only that initiates these things, but he's the one that actually orchestrates all these things the scriptures say to accomplish the good pleasure of what of his will Aren't y'all glad of that? As we study the Scriptures, Romans chapter 11 says this. Oh, the depths, verse 33, of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. Now, one thing that I find as I study, there's some things sometimes I have trouble with. You know, there's some dilemmas. We see, and I said a while ago, and we don't really have time to get into it in this lesson, about Saul. Was he set up to fail? But we see where God told him, if you'd have done right, then this would have happened. So we see how all these things work together, and sometimes our mind, we can't factor or rationalize all these things out. And I'm glad that we can't, because if we knew the mind of God, He wouldn't be much better than we are. But I'm thankful for Scriptures that says that His ways are what? So much greater than our way. We can't figure Him out. Why? Because we can't comprehend. Our finite mind can't wrap around the things that our God knows and what He's able to do. He says, For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Verse 34, Romans 11. Or who hath been His counselor? Which one of us has He showed up and said, Hey, I'm kind of in a dilemma. What do I need to do? I'm thankful that we don't have a God that's that weak. Now as men, we often do to each other, and I'm thankful we seek counsel. I call Brother Jimmy, I call Brother Nick, I'll call Brother Dustin, the other brother, and say, hey, man, I got something going on, can you help me out? I need counsel. But I'm thankful my God doesn't ever call me asking me, hey, what do you think I need to do? He knows what He's going to do. It says, or who have first given to Him and it shall be recompense unto him again, for of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. I'm thankful that everything that takes place Our God's able to use it for His honor and it's for His glory. Deuteronomy 17, 14 says, When thou art come into the land which thy Lord thy God giveth thee, and possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all nations that are about me. God knew they were going to ask for a king before they even asked for a king. It didn't take Him by surprise. So we see that even though their request for a king was sinful, God answered their request and what did he do? He gave them the king that they desired, right? No discredit to Saul. God gave them what they desired. We also see the stage being set for David, a man after God's own heart, to set up what? An earthly kingdom who would, through his seed, produce who? The Messiah, the final king of heaven and earth. That's what God was interested in. He's just using us to do what? Accomplish his will. Saul represents the kingdom of man. He was pointed out and selected by God based solely on the fact that he was everything in an outward sense that men value in a king and nothing that God desired in a king. In other words, outwardly, what was he? He was big. He was strong. He was powerful. He was something that men desired. Israel saw and saw what they wanted to see, which was a tall, good-looking warrior, and right off the bat, he seems to do what? Give them what they wanted, and that was success over their enemies. Most of the time, we got to be careful, because a lot of times... How many of y'all face battles throughout the week? Enemies. A lot of times we can find ourselves wanting to avoid certain things just so we can have success over our enemies. We've got to be careful. If Saul is a pitcher of men getting what they want, which was the case here, you know what they wanted to be? They wanted to be autonomous. Meaning they wanted to rule themselves. They didn't want God. They didn't want the judges ruling over. How did the judges rule? They ruled by God's Word. They would take God's Word, divinely instructed in God's Word and give them divine orders. This is what you wanted to know. They wanted a king that would rule them. They wanted to rule themselves under this king and they didn't want... a man of God ruling them. If Saul was to represent this, what we see in David is that David represents God's grace in bringing men back under the rule of God. Now, how many of us can testify in the day before we were saved, we didn't want anybody to rule over us. We wanted to rule ourselves. We wanted to do what was best for us. But in grace, we see God bringing us under the subjection of the Word, and that's what we see here in David, that David was actually the grace of God bringing men back into rule under God. The man after God's own heart. Ultimately, this can only be fulfilled in who? In Christ. David's greater son, one who would truly bring the kingdom of God, and we see that takes place. When the big picture is in focus, we clearly see that David coming to power is the fix to the grief that happens when man sits on the throne. What is our fix? What is the remedy that we have? None other than Christ. When we've been on the throne and we've tried to rule in our way... Because that's what Saul did ultimately when you look at him. He did things the way... He reacted in a natural sense instead of turning to God, instead of turning to God in true repentance. Me and Brother Nick was talking about that earlier and that will work into our lesson later as we go on and we'll see that thanks be unto God that God was full of grace and mercy. You know, one thing that we must recognize is that after David became king, you know what he did? He also disobeyed the Lord. Numerous times. Yet his kingdom was not taken away. And I'm running out of time. What time we got to quit? Twenty after? His kingdom was not taken away and we see the further we get into this study that it wasn't because of David. David made mistakes. We're going to find that. I mean, you look at Saul, and Brother Nick was telling me this. What David did was far more detrimental to the nation of Israel, cost him more than what Saul did. But we see that God never took that kingdom from him. As we progress through this study, we'll find out that God made a covenant with David that no one could break, not even David himself. I know we haven't even made it to where David's come on to the scene, but as I was studying this, the question arose, why was God so quick? And that's what led me back to go back to the... We look back at Saul. Why was he so quick to rend the kingdom from Saul and not from David, even though both of these men failed and both of them were completely disobedient? And the difference between Saul and David was that God made a covenant with David. In Isaiah 55, verse 3, it says, Incline your ear and come unto me. Hear, and your soul shall live, and I will make a everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. What was this covenant that God made with David? In 2 Samuel chapter 7, later in David's life, we see in verse 12, it says, And when the days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee which shall proceed out of thy bowels and I will establish his kingdom He shall build a house for my name and we'll get to this as we go through this study, but we're looking at Ahead and I will establish the throne of his kingdom how long forever And I will be his father and he shall be my son if he commit iniquity Listen what God says I'll do I will chase in him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children of men but my mercy shall not depart away from him and as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee, thy throne shall be established forever according to all these words, and according to all the vision, so did Nathan speak unto David. So we see who holds this covenant? God does. Because He's saying, after you're dead and gone, you know who's going to keep this covenant? God said He would. Right. Yeah. And the thing is, we can rest assured that we've entered into a covenant with Christ and that God will perform. Jeremiah 33 says this, and this is one of my favorite passages. I always say that, but it is. Jeremiah 33 verse 19 says, And the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord. Listen, if you can break my covenant of the day and my covenant of the night. Now think about that for a minute. Can we stop daylight from coming? Can we stop it from turning dark? that there should be not be day and night in their season listen what God says then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant that he should not have a son to Reign upon his throne and with the Levites the priests my ministers in other words God said there's no way you're gonna be able to break that covenant Just like you can't keep the Sun from coming up You cannot keep me from keeping my covenant with David. And we see that what was that covenant? What was that promise? That promise was that one, that seed to come. Our great Redeemer, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, Christ Jesus. And aren't y'all glad that God's in control and that He works these things for His honor and for His glory? Any questions or comments before we close? If not, let's pray. Father, we do love you. We do praise you. We do take great delight in the fact that you are our God. And God, we ask that, God, even though we may fail, that, God, you still use us for your honor, for your glory. That, God, we could be a witness, that we could shed light, that we could bear the great news that, God, you have sent us a king, a deliverer, a great deliverer. And, God, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.