1 SAMUEL 5-13 SAUL BEGINS TO REIGN2012 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 1 Samuel 5-13 Saul Begins To Reign

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2012. All right, well this evening we're in 1 Samuel chapter 5 and we'll be going through chapter 13 as we continue on our journey in the Bible in three years together. The

The book of 1 Samuel is written by an unknown author. It probably had some contributions from Samuel, but ultimately we don't exactly know who penned it, especially since 1 and 2 Samuel were all together, and of course much of the events happened long after Samuel was dead. So we don't know exactly who wrote it, but it covers the time period of 1075 to about 1010 BC. It

the establishing of the monarchy. And that's what we see happening in our chapters this evening, the transition from the different tribes and kind of just being connected to one another to now uniting together as a kingdom and as a nation with a king.

So that's what we'll be seeing established this evening in our chapters. As we look at the timeline, we're looking at this section here. Again, it's the transition from the period of the judges into the period of the kingdom or the nation of Israel.

And that's going to be established under Saul. And as we hit to the end of 1 Samuel, we'll see David begin being prepared for his reign. And we'll head into that in 2 Samuel. So we're covering that period of time. As we look at the geography for 1 Samuel, again, what we're seeing here on the left is you have the different tribes. And as Joshua led the children of Israel into the promised land and then divided up the tribes,

this is what it looked like. These were the lands that were allotted to the different tribes. And then as we saw through Judges, they took portions of land. They failed to take portions of land. And so now as we head into the kingdom of Saul, on the right side there, you have a general map or a rough map of the territory under Saul's reign. And you can see it's

Well, that brings us now to 1 Samuel chapter 5. We pick it up in verse 7. We have the key verse. It says...

Here in 1 Samuel chapter 5, we're continuing the account of what happened from 1 Samuel chapter 4.

In 1 Samuel chapter 4, the people of Israel have gathered together against the Philistines. And there's this battle that's taking place between Israel and the Philistines. Well, the Philistines win the battle.

And so because they win the battle, Israel decides, well, we need some type of advantage. So as we go into battle again, that we can be victorious. And so they come up with the idea, let's bring the Ark, the Ark of the Covenant into battle with us. Then we'll be prosperous. Then we'll be able to succeed in defeating the Philistines.

What happens though is the Philistines win the battle, even though the nation of Israel brings in the Ark. And so the Philistines win. They capture the Ark of the Covenant.

And now chapter 5 is the account of what happens with the Ark of the Covenant now that the Philistines have captured it. So the first thing that they do is they take the Ark of God to Ashdod. And that's found in verses 1 through 6. Ashdod was one of the cities of the Philistines. And they set the Ark there in the Temple of Dagon.

This was a temple that was dedicated to one of the gods that they worshipped. Dagon was a fertility god. He was part man, part fish. They celebrated, you know, or they worshipped him for the harvest and for, you know, productive crops and things like that. So that was the god that they worshipped. And they figured, hey, our god beat Israel's god. And so they set up the ark in the temple as kind of like a trophy.

It was like saying, you know, hey, look, look at what we've done. Look at what we've accomplished. We won. And here's the trophy from the battle where Dagon proved that he is superior to the God of Israel. That was the mindset of the Philistines.

But what ends up happening is God shows that he is real. God shows that he's alive by knocking down the idol Dagon, knocking it flat on its face, and then later breaking off its head and its hands and just leaving the torso behind, demonstrating to the Philistines that he really is God, that there is a reality to his presence there that was symbolized by the Ark of the Covenant.

You know, it's interesting to consider here in verses 1 through 6, as you see this idol knocked down and on its face, this is the fate of all idols. All idols will be knocked down. They will be cut off. Their heads will be cut off. They will bow before God.

the King of kings and Lord of lords. And we talk about idols a lot because you and I have a tendency to worship things that are not God. There's only one true and living God. Salvation is found in that relationship with Him. And worshiping anything else, giving the devotion and passion to anything else

that belongs to God, well, that's idolatry. And what we need to remember as we invest ourselves in these false gods is that those gods will not last. Those gods will be knocked down. Their heads will be chopped off. They will not be able to save.

And so this is the fate of all idols. Well, the Philistines are a little bit freaked out by this, as you can imagine. And so they now transport the Ark of the Covenant to Gath. And you see that in verses 7 through 9. And now Gath is another city of the Philistines. And so they transport it to Gath because they figured this would alleviate the problem. You see, the mindset of the people of that day was that gods were local deities, right?

That, you know, if you could think about it, maybe like police departments. You know, the Corona police has certain jurisdiction and then the Riverside police has certain jurisdiction. And, you know, there's limits and boundaries and they cover certain areas. That was the way that they viewed these false gods that they worshipped. And so they figured, well, if we take...

This ark out of Ashdod and move it to Gath. You know, maybe we'll get out of, you know, this battle, this jurisdiction. And that way there won't be issues or problems.

They viewed it that certain gods had jurisdiction over certain areas. So sending the Ark to Gath was an attempt to, you know, put these two gods far enough apart from each other that they could get along and coexist. But they continued to have problems in Gath. And that's detailed there in verses 7 through 9. And then they decide, well, we got to do something now. So let's send the Ark to Ekron. And that's in verses 10 through 12. We see that happening there.

And the people of Ekron have heard the stories of what's been happening and they kind of get freaked out now. In verse 10, it says that the Ekronites cried out saying, they've brought the ark of the God of Israel to us to kill us and our people. So they recognize there's something going on here. There's a real God that we're dealing with here. And now...

They've brought this God to us and the end result is we're going to be killed. The Philistines here are starting to learn that the God of Israel is not limited to a specific location, that he is real, that he is alive as they move the ark from place to place within the land of the Philistines.

Well, the Ark of the Covenant, you might remember, this is a slide from back in Exodus when we talked about the details of the Ark as God gave the instruction. It was made of acacia wood and covered in gold, 3.75 feet long, 2.25 feet wide, 2.25 feet high, with the mercy seat, the lid, the top on top of it. And it belonged in the holiest of all. And you might remember that had the

the cherubim on top of the mercy seat and it was between the wings of the cherubim that the presence of God dwelt and so it was there that God said I will dwell it's there that I will meet with my people and so the ark of the covenant was a significant part of God's relationship with his people

And so the losing of the Ark of the Covenant to the Philistines was a big deal. It was something that, you know, really meant a lot. And it was demonstrating really the reality of the condition of the nation of Israel as we saw throughout the book of Judges that they had turned away from the Lord and now the Ark has been removed from Israel. Now it's going to make its way back and so we'll see that in the coming chapters.

Well, here's the map of what we've just been talking about. So the Philistines were there on the coast of the Mediterranean. Ashdod there, right on the coast, is where it started. That's where they took the Ark of the Covenant first. Then they moved it to Gath after there was too many problems. Then they had still problems in Gath, and they moved it to Ekron. And now in chapter 6, we'll see them begin to send it back to the nation of Israel. Chapter 6, verse 11 is the key verse. It says...

So here in chapter 6, they're sending the ark back to Israel. And you see that in verses 1 through 12. As the ark comes back to Israel, it arrives in a city called Beth Shemesh. There in verses 13 through 19. And they're sending the ark back to Israel.

It doesn't stay there very long though. They actually ask another city, Kirjath-Jerim, to come and take the ark to their own city. And that's there in verses 20 through 21. So the Philistines send the ark back. Now, it's interesting as they send it back, they send it back with some extra features. They send it back with these golden rats and golden tumors. Now, what's happening here is the Philistines...

They don't know God. They don't have a relationship with God. And so they're coming up with their best plan. How can we alleviate the great agony that we're in and the great difficulties that we're going through? And so they called together the Philistine diviners or diviners, however you want to pronounce it. And they said, this is our best guess. This is what we think we need to do.

We're sending the Ark of the Covenant back and along with it, we want to make this statement to testify we know there really is a God in Israel. And

to do that, we will represent the effects that we've had with these rats and these tumors, uh, and, and send that with the Ark of the Covenant. It was a testimony from the Philistines that they're saying, look, we know this is not just, uh, a coincidence that suddenly there just happens to be rats and tumors all throughout our land. We recognize that this is a result of, uh,

the God of Israel. And so as we're sending it back, we're saying, we're sorry. Please forgive us. We recognize it was you. We understand this was your judgment. And so it was their way of offering up this testimony and asking for forgiveness for taking the ark.

They did it with a clever test. They took two cows that had never been yotes, so they weren't used to, you know, pulling anything. They'd also just given birth recently to their calves, and so the temptation or the natural thing would be for these cows to be with their calves, but what they did was they hooked up these cows to the cart with the ark on it, and they said, look, if

the cows go to Israel, then you know, you know, God's at work, that this is not something natural because naturally the cows would not take the ark over to Israel. But that's what they do. They take it to Beth Shemesh, which is about 10 miles away.

And they rejoice. They're excited. Beth Shemesh was one of the Levitical cities. So there was priests and Levites there. They knew what to do. Except for they kind of stepped out of line and looked into the ark. You see that in verse 19. And so he actually says that the Lord struck 50,070 of the men of Israel as a result of this because they did not handle the ark appropriately.

And so you could understand having, you know, such a devastation hit. They said, look, we don't want the Ark here. And so they call out to Kirjath-Jerim, another nearby city, and they call them to come and take the Ark of the Covenant. So here's what that looks like on the map. Ekron is the last place where the Ark of the Covenant was.

The Philistines call together and say, we got to, you know, do something and get, you know, get this ark out of here. So they send it out. It ends up in Beth Shemesh and then goes on from there to Kirjath-Jerim, just a little bit farther right there on the border of Benjamin and Judah. Well, that brings us to 1 Samuel chapter 7.

Verse 13 is the key verse. It says, Here in verses 1 and 2 we have

The ark remaining at Kirjath-Jerim. So it gets to Kirjath-Jerim and then it stays there for the next 20 years. It's a good long time that the ark is there. Then in verses 3 through 6, you have Samuel the prophet calling Israel back to the Lord at Mizpah.

And then Israel subdues the Philistines in verses 7 through 14. And then finally Samuel judges Israel his whole life there in verses 15 through 17. What we see here happening in chapter 7 is the winding down of the season of the judges. And the heading into now the kingdom era with King Saul.

Well, as we're winding down the era of the judges, we see here in chapter 7 the continuation of the cycle that we saw in judges. We called it the sin cycle or the spin cycle. And that cycle was that the people of Israel would turn away from God. They would experience oppression from one of the surrounding nations as a result of their rebellion against God.

As a result of this oppression, they would become uncomfortable after a certain amount of time. They would say, we can't put up with this anymore. They would cry out to God. They would repent. And then God would send a deliverer and set them free from that oppression. And they would walk with God for a season until that deliverer or that judge died. And then they would turn away from the Lord once again.

Well, this is what we see happening here in chapter 7. In verses 3 through 6, Samuel calls Israel back to the Lord. They've been worshiping all these false gods. And Samuel says, you got to put those gods away. You got to repent and cry out to the Lord as they've been experiencing this oppression from the Philistines.

And so they do. They call out to the Lord. They put away their false gods. In verse 4 it says, the children of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreths. These are two different types of gods that they were worshiping. And they served the Lord only. The only is the key part there. Because it's not that they stopped offering sacrifices to the Lord. It's just that in addition to worshiping God, they worshiped these other gods as well. And so now they're putting those things away.

And it's the continuation of the cycle that we saw in Judges. As they repent and turn to the Lord, then, verses 7 through 14, the Philistines are subdued. God gives them deliverance. He grants them deliverance from the oppression as they repent and turn to God. And so, just as I did throughout the book of Judges, I want to encourage you. I think it's important for us to remember, repent quickly.

Don't wait so long. You don't have to be oppressed for 20 years before you cry out to the Lord and repent and turn and get right. Repent quickly. Turn to the Lord quickly. Turn from sin. Don't continue on in it so that, well, you can be delivered. You can experience the redemption of God.

Well, it concludes there with Samuel judging Israel his whole life. Now, this isn't the end of Samuel's life. We'll see him later on. But it's kind of summarizing that, you know, we're ending this era of the judges. And now we're heading into the kingdom era. It also describes here the annual route that Samuel would follow. Here's his annual circuit.

That's described there in verses 15 through 17. His home was in Ramah, there in Benjamin, there on the bottom. And he would go around in this circuit, this loop. He'd go to Mizpah, he'd go up to Bethel, he'd go over to Gilgal, and then he would go back to Ramah. And so that's the route he would take every year. And he would judge Israel, he would minister to them, he would announce the word of the Lord.

Notice he didn't go very far. I mean, the nation of Israel was a lot bigger than that, but that's the route that he went on. He really stayed in that location, in that region for the majority of his life. Well, 1 Samuel chapter 8 verse 19 is the key verse. It says, "...nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel, and they said, No, but we will have a king over us."

In verses 1 through 6, we have Israel asking for a king. Samuel attempts to pass on the authority that he has, pass on, you know, that role of being a judge of Israel to his sons.

But there's a problem with that because his sons, somewhat like Eli's sons, his predecessor, you remember Samuel was used by the Lord to announce to Eli, hey Eli, because your sons are wicked, I'm taking the authority away from you and your family. Well, Samuel's sons are similar in that they're wicked. They're taking bribes. They're not righteous. They're not walking uprightly with the Lord. And so the people are concerned. They say, look,

I know you're trying to pass it on to your sons, but they're wicked. And so here's what we want you to do. Give us a king. We want to be like the nations around us and have a king to lead us into battle, to bring, you know, judgment for us and to lead us. So verses 7 through 18, Samuel warns Israel how a king will behave. He takes it to the Lord. God says, let them know, warn them,

What it's going to be like. You know it's amazing how we always think right. If I just do this. Or if this would just happen. Then everything would be wonderful. And we often don't count the cost. God tells Samuel. Hey make sure they count the cost. Make sure they understand. What it's going to take. God also encourages Samuel. Hey Samuel. They're not rejecting you. They're rejecting me. And this is the real issue with Israel. Asking for a king. The issue is that.

It's not that they're rejecting Samuel or Samuel's sons, but they're saying, we want a king instead of God. That we want to have a person that we can see, a person that we can hear. We want a person to rule over us. And in doing so, they are rejecting God as he says that in verse 7 here of chapter 8.

Now the warning goes like this. Here's the behavior of the king. He's going to take, take, take, take, take. This is what you need to know, God says. He's going to take your sons. He's going to take your daughters. He's going to take your produce. He's going to take 10% tax. He's going to take your servants. He's going to take your animals.

That's all there in verses 7 through 18. God says, look, this is going to be costly. It's going to cost you your sons, your daughters, your produce, you know, 10% tax. It's going to cost you to have a king. This is how he will behave.

Now, God had foretold already that Israel would ask for a king. You can see that in Deuteronomy chapter 17, verses 14 through 20. God says, look, when you get tired of me leading you and you want to rely on a king, you're going to ask for a king. And so God gives some guidelines for how a king should behave there in Deuteronomy 17.

So this is not a surprise to God. He knew it was coming. He already said it was going to happen. He warns them, this is how a king is going to behave, but he's going to grant the request and he's going to give them a king anyways. And so Israel insists there in verses 19 through 22, we don't care how much it's going to cost us. We don't care how much he's going to take. We want a king.

And we're given insight into the motive in the heart of Israel in verse 20. They say that we also may be like all the nations and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles. The real motivation here in their rejecting of God is that they wanted to be like the other nations.

They looked around at the other nations, they saw the kings there, and they thought, wow, that would be so wonderful to have a person on a throne. Now God had designed it to where that he would lead Israel, but they weren't experiencing very much of that because they were not fearing the Lord and serving the Lord as we saw throughout Judges and even saw here, you know, that they've been serving these other gods as well.

So they haven't been experiencing the leadership of God because they've not been submitting to God, but they figure, well, if we have a king, we'll submit to the king and then everything will be fine. We'll be like the other nations. But we'll see that also brings some problems, but also brings some great victories as God will bring in a king after his own heart. I think there's an interesting lesson for us to consider here because the prompting of this happened when Samuel's sons were corrupt.

And Israel did not trust God to lead them. Israel did not trust God to correct Samuel's sons or to raise up another leader, to take care of the leadership problem. They did not trust God. And so instead of trusting God, they came up with their own plan. They decided, well, this doesn't look good. We'll figure something out. We'll take care of our leadership gap, our leadership void.

on our own. Give us a king. I think it's an important lesson for us to trust God, even in the midst of wicked leadership. You know, there is that temptation for us to come up with our own plan. Because, well, hey, it sounds great. It seems like this is going to be a good deal. And everybody else is doing that as well. But we need to be careful to trust God.

It would be a different thing if God said to the people, I'm going to give you a king. Because ultimately, he was going to give them a king. But instead of waiting for his timing, instead of waiting for his direction, they come up with their own plan. They come up with their own time. And they say, no, we don't care what it's going to cost. We want a king. The source of this plan is crucial because it's not God directing them at this time.

It's easy for us to look around at the things around us and maybe, hey, now, you know, the old boss is gone and now there's a wicked guy in his place or someone doesn't like you very much and well, that must mean, you know, it's time for me to leave. But trust God. Trust God. Whatever your situation is, don't just come up with your own plan. Let God give you a plan. Let Him direct you. Don't just try to resolve it on your own.

And we'll see that Israel really will have some serious troubles as a result of this insisting on a king here in chapter 8. Well, in chapter 9 now, as we continue on, verse 17 is the key verse. It says, So 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.

So here God now indicates who is going to be king. He's granting their request, even though it wasn't his direction, even though he warned them about the behavior. He said, okay, I'll go ahead and give you a king as you ask. And so we're introduced to Saul in verses 1 through 5 as he goes out to search for his father's lost donkeys.

They can't find the donkeys after a few days. And so the servant in verses 6 through 10 suggests that they ask Samuel, hey, there's a man of God here. Let's go ask him. Maybe he can help us find the donkeys. And so Saul meets Samuel in verses 11 through 27. And we see there that God had prepared Samuel and said, hey, I'm going to bring to you the man that I want to be king.

And so this is not a chance encounter. It's not just by chance that the servant suggested that they go talk to Samuel. This was orchestrated by God. And so Saul there eats with Samuel. He participates in the feast that's going on. And then we'll see in the next chapter that he's going to be anointed as king. As we begin this look, though, at King Saul, as he will become, we can see that Saul started out really well.

He had great potential. And we can see that here and we'll see that as we continue on in the next couple of chapters. First of all, you can see that he started well. He had great potential because he was called by God. In verse 17, it says that when Samuel saw Saul, that the Lord said to him, there he is, the man of whom I spoke to you. This one shall reign over my people. Saul was handpicked by God.

He was called by God. He was ordained by God to be king, to lead God's people. Now, Saul would not make good choices later on, and we'll see the beginning of that at the end of tonight's chapters. But he started out well. He had great potential. He had some good advantages because God called him out. God ordained him to lead. We also see some...

strengthens Saul in his humility. He sounds a lot like Gideon in verse 21. He says, Samuel, why are you talking to me like this? I'm a Benjamite. Now, you remember the tribe of Benjamin at the end of the book of Judges? You remember all the nastiness that was there? You remember how the tribe was like just about wiped out? There was only 600 men left?

And they had to orchestrate, you know, some crazy shenanigans for those 600 men to get wives to be able to not have the tribe be obliterated from the nation of Israel. So Benjamin, first of all, does not have a really great reputation. They're not a large tribe. They were nearly wiped out not too long ago. Saul says, I'm of the tribe of Benjamin. It's the smallest of the tribes of Israel. And my family is the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin.

So he says, I'm nothing. I'm nobody. Why are you talking to me like this? Why are you speaking so favorably towards me? And so you see, at this point, there's some humility there. Saul's recognizing he has an accurate picture of who he is. And this is the man that God chose. So he started out well. He had great potential. And we'll continue to see that develop in the next couple of chapters.

Here we have Saul's hometown, though. He was from Gibeah. He was there in Benjamin. And we'll be seeing that throughout the next couple of chapters as he continues to stay there in Gibeah for some time. Chapter 10 now, verse 1 is the key verse. It says,

So now in verses 1 through 8, Samuel anoints Saul as king. This was, you know, the custom of the day. We'll see it happen with David later on as well. To indicate that God has ordained you and called you to be king, they would anoint the man with oil. And so that's what Samuel does. He anoints Saul with oil to indicate God's chosen you. You are called to be king. Verses 9 through 12, we see Saul prophesying among the prophets.

Samuel gives him some instruction. He's heading back home. He's going to find the donkeys here. He's going to meet these guys here. And then he's going to meet this group of prophets. And Samuel's telling him, hey, the Holy Spirit's going to come upon you. You're going to prophesy. God's going to do a brand new work within you. Again, some great advantages and potential here in Saul. In verse 13 through 16, Saul returns home.

He doesn't talk about what happened or, you know, this meeting and encounter with Samuel. He really doesn't reveal anything that's going to happen later on. And then in verse 17 through 27, Samuel proclaims that Saul is to be king. So Samuel gathers together the nation. He says, okay, you've wanted a king. You've insisted on a king. God's chosen a king. And they start with the tribe of Benjamin. They narrow down to the family. They come down to, all right, it's Saul.

Hey, where'd he go? Where's he at? Where's Saul? As they're narrowing it down, Saul is nowhere to be found. He's hiding amongst the stuff or amongst the equipment.

Now, there's a couple ways that you can look at Saul hiding here. Some see it as, you know, a continuation of his strength, of his humility. That, you know, there he's humble. He's like, oh, you know, not me. Don't pick me. I can't be king. And so they see it, you know, as a strength in his humility there. I would suggest to you, though, that it's probably not a matter of humility, but really it's a weakness of he's already been called. He's already been anointed. And

And now he's trying to hide from his responsibilities. He's trying to hide from his call. Trying to hide from what God has commanded him to do. And running from your calling is not humility.

We like to think so and we like to tell ourselves and Saul probably thought that he was humble but running from your calling is not humility. Doing, you know, the opposite of what you're commanded to do is not humility. Disobedience is not humility but humility

Instead, it's disobedience. And so Saul's hiding here. It's probably an indication of a weakness that is there, a little bit of crack in the armor that we can see already and we'll see more develop as we continue on. But again, he started well. He had great potential. Because here in chapter 10, you see what I would describe as he is spirit-filled and born-again.

Look at verse 6. It says, then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you and you will prophesy with him and be turned into another man. He's born again, in a sense. That God does a brand new work and he pours out the Holy Spirit upon Saul. So again, Saul has great potential. He starts out well here in chapter 10.

Well, here's what this looks like on the map. Gibeah, again, is his hometown. He goes to Gilgal, which is where Samuel tells him to go. He waits there. Samuel calls everybody to Mizpah, so then he goes to Mizpah, and that's where he's proclaimed to be king. And again, you'll notice this all, you know, is centered around this area where Samuel was ministering and his annual circuit every year.

Then after he's proclaimed to be king, he goes to Gibeah. He goes back home. So it's interesting, you know, it's not maybe like we would think that he doesn't immediately build a castle, you know, and make a moat with a drawbridge. And, you know, he doesn't, he just goes home. He just goes back to normal life, even though he's been proclaimed to be the king. And he really does not take on that responsibility until now as we head into chapter 11.

So 1 Samuel chapter 11, verse 6 is the key verse. It says, Then the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard this news, and his anger was greatly aroused. In verses 1 through 5, we have Jabesh Gilead, which is a city on the other side of the Jordan River, and they are asking for help. Here's what happens. Ammon, which was a nation that was nearby, came against Jabesh Gilead,

and gave them a choice it wasn't a really good choice it was either we can attack you and destroy you or you can be our servants and you know the price for that is we're going to gouge out all of your right eyes so either go to war against us or surrender and let us poke out all your eyes or your right eyes

That's kind of some crazy terms. And Jabesh Gilead says, well, we need to think about this. I think it's interesting that Ammon lets them send for help. They actually say, hey, we want to send for help. See if anybody will come to our aid and fight against you. So just give us seven days, please.

I don't know, like it's kind of crazy. It's like on the one hand they're really polite in allowing them to go ask for help and then on the other hand they're really cruel saying either we're going to kill you or you'll surrender and we'll gouge out your right eye. So I don't know quite what to make of that but that's what happened. So they let them send for help and they go out and Saul hears about it now and the Holy Spirit comes upon him and he summons all of Israel and

And then in verses 6 through 11, he leads them to victory against Ammon and he delivers Jabesh Gilead. And so with this great victory, Israel is really excited and they say, all right, Saul is king. He is able to lead us. He can bring us to victory. And so they go in verses 12 through 15 and refresh the kingdom or reannounce Saul as king there at Gilgal.

We continue to see Saul's great potential. He starts well as he leads Israel to victory. Here's what it looks like on the map. He's there in Gibeah. Jabesh Gilead is there in the region of Gad that was given to Gad. It's the region known as Gilead. And Jabesh was a particular city there. Ammon was there to the east. And so they come against Jabesh Gilead and Jabesh Gilead sends for help.

And so Saul gathers together at Bezek, there in the region of Manasseh. He gathers together all of Israel. They join together. It's about 330,000 soldiers there. So nice, nice big group of soldiers. And then they go from there. They attack Ammon at Jabesh Gilead. They're victorious. They conquer them. And so then they all go down to Gilgal and reproclaim

Saul as the king of Israel there in Gilgal. So now it's more official. And so now he's actually beginning to reign and people are looking to him as king. And it's now much more of a position of authority than it was before. Well, that brings us to chapter 12 of 1 Samuel. The key verse there is verse 20. It says,

You have done all this wickedness, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. So Samuel now at this coronation ceremony, at this, you know, reproclaiming Saul as king, he addresses the nation once again. And so there in Gilgal, Samuel says to the people, hey, have I cheated you? Have I wronged you? Have I taken from you?

And the people say, no, you've not done anything wrong, Samuel. It's not you. We're not rejecting you, just as God told them that they weren't rejecting Samuel. Well, then Samuel recounts Israel's history and reminds them, hey, remember how God brought you out of Egypt? Remember how God, and he reminds them of the sin cycle that we saw throughout the book of Judges.

He outlines it for them. Remember, you turned away from the Lord, then this nation oppressed you, then you cried out to God and he delivered you. And he goes through that a couple times. He's saying, look guys, the key is there in verses 13 through 25, he calls Israel to serve God. He's declaring to the people, look, you did something wrong in asking for a king. It wasn't God's plan for you at this time, but he granted it to you.

But the key is not the king. The key is serving God. Whether you have a king or not, you need to be serving God. And if you're serving God, in verse 14, it's really interesting. It says, if you fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and do not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then both you and the king who reigns over you will continue following the Lord your God.

So he really places the authority or places the responsibility on the people. And he says, look, you as a population, if you will fear the Lord and serve him, then your king also will serve the Lord and fear the Lord. It's interesting to consider it this way, isn't it? A lot of times we look at leadership, we look at authority, and we say,

Well, the people are that way because the leader is that way. And there's some truth to that. There's a reason why we say that. But Samuel tells the people, listen, if you will serve the Lord, if you will love the Lord, if you will fear God, then your leaders will fear God. And so the responsibility is never taken away from the people. All of us have the responsibility for our leaders.

And if we will fear God and serve him, then our leaders will as well. Well, Samuel gives them a sign and says, there's going to be thunder and rain and that's going to prove that you did something wrong in asking for a king, that this was not God's plan for you. And then, of course, the thunder and rain comes. The people are freaked out. They're scared. Oh, my goodness. We've, you know, offended God. We've asked for a king. And I really like verse 20, what Samuel says to the people. He says, do not fear God.

You have done all this wickedness, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. It's amazing how we can see over and over again throughout Judges and now here in Samuel, the grace and the mercy of God. Samuel says, you've done all this wickedness, so don't be surprised when God beats you with a big heavy stick. No, that's not what he says. He says, you've done all this wickedness, don't turn aside from following the Lord.

This happens so many times to Christians. They've given in to temptation. They've fallen into sin. They've blown it. They've messed up. They've done all this wickedness. And so now, in a defeated, discouraged state, they decide, I can't turn back to the Lord. I can't walk with Him now after I've done all of this. And so they turn away from the Lord. That was the same temptation that Israel would have.

And so Samuel says, look, don't fear. Yes, you've done wickedness, but God's gracious and merciful. Don't turn away from him. Turn back to him. Now that doesn't mean just continue on in sin. He's saying, repent, fear the Lord, obey him, serve the Lord with all your heart. And so he encourages the people here to serve God.

Well, we come to the last chapter for this evening. Now, chapter 13, verse 9 is the key verse. It says, And verses 1 through 7, Israel and the Philistines gather for battle. Here we see,

Saul is leading a group of men. His son Jonathan is leading a group of men. And Jonathan, as we'll see tomorrow in chapter 14, he's a bold one, man. He likes to fight those Philistines. He likes to trust in God and take on, you know, those big numbers. He's a great man of faith. And so he attacks the Philistines. These are the people who rule over them. And we'll see at the end of this chapter, they don't even have weapons, the nation of Israel. They don't have weapons.

But he's bold. He attacks the Philistines. And so Saul calls the people together and now the Philistines gather together. They've provoked the Philistines now. And everybody's freaked out. A lot of them, they cross over the Jordan. They go to the other side of the Jordan to try to kind of hide and protect themselves. They're fleeing from the Philistines now. There's no battle yet actually taking place. They're just kind of gathering and they're seeing the size and it looks bad. So there's only a few left there with Saul.

Now Samuel had told Saul, hey, let's offer a burnt offering. Let's call out to the Lord and ask him to be with us as we deal with the Philistines in this situation. So Saul's there. He's waiting. Samuel hasn't shown up. In verses 8 through 15, we see Saul kind of give up on waiting for Samuel. And he just offers the burnt offering himself. Now, if you've been with us, you read through the book of Exodus, you read through the book of Leviticus, you read through the book of Acts,

you know that God ordained that there was a particular tribe, the tribe of Levi, a particular group from that tribe, the priests, who were ordained and called by God to offer burnt offerings and sacrifices to the Lord. Saul doesn't wait for Samuel the prophet. He doesn't wait to follow the instruction that God gave him. He instead just takes matters in his own hands and

And he offers the sacrifice himself. In verse 13, Samuel says to Saul, you have done foolishly. Because of course, right after he offers the sacrifice, that's when Samuel comes. And he says, you've done foolishly. You've not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which he commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. And so here we see the beginning of the breakdown of King Saul. Now,

This happens about two years into his reign. We've learned from verse 1 and 2. So Saul continues to reign for another like 38 years. This is the beginning of his reign and already right in the beginning he's making these foolish mistakes in disobeying God and disregarding the command of God now by offering the burnt offering on his own.

And Samuel says, look Saul, God would have established your kingdom, your house, your line forever, but no more. Because you've disobeyed. There was a serious consequence to his disobedience. A serious consequence to his disregard of the commands of God. And God's going to bring a new house, the house of David, to establish his throne. And of course we know that's fulfilled through Jesus.

Well, then at verses 16 through 23, we have the description of no weapons in Israel. The Philistines oppressed them. So the Philistines said, there's no weapons allowed, no blacksmiths allowed. If you need tools sharpened, you got to come to us. You know, they were regulating the equipment and the weapons that Israel could have. And so they didn't have much chance of defeating the Philistines, but we'll see later.

Jonathan lead some, you know, with some great bold steps of faith as we head now into chapter 14 in our reading tomorrow. But as we look back over the chapters that we've read this week and covered tonight, again I come back to this idea of Saul. How he started well. It's very easy for us

To start well. As believers, to begin something well. To begin our Christian walk well or begin a new commitment that we make to the Lord. It's very easy to begin well. And like Saul, we all have great potential. We really do. We have great potential because we are called by God. We're ordained by God. We're gifted by God. We are called by God just like Saul was.

Saul had humility. You may or may not have that. He also had some weaknesses, some difficulties, some things that God was going to need to work in and overcome. Just like you and I. Saul was filled with the Spirit and born again. Just like you and I. And so it's easy for us to start well and you and I have great potential. But the problem for Saul ended up being that he was not really mastered by God. That God was not really...

And we see that demonstrated there in chapter 13. Where Saul is experiencing some pressure. And I can really understand and picture, you know, put myself in his shoes and understand this is a lot of pressure for him to be under. Because here he's the king. He's the first king.

I mean, nobody's ever done this before. He hasn't, he wasn't shown how to do it. So, he's trying to figure out what to do, how to deal with and negotiate now, you know, with these surrounding nations and deal with his son who's kind of gung-ho and attacks the Philistines when they're not really prepared to. And I,

I could see him, you know, trying to figure things out. At the same time, now he calls all the people together, but then they take off because they're freaked out. And so people are leaving and he walks through the camp, you know, and the next morning it's like, where'd everybody go? And then the next morning there's some more people gone and all in that tent, you know, they're breaking down and they're taking off too. And he's starting to get freaked out, man. Everybody's leaving. All this stuff is happening. What am I going to do? This pressure is just coming upon him.

As the Philistines have gathered together, he sees the battle lines being drawn, but his forces are diminishing. Samuel's not coming. Where's Samuel? We've got to call out to the Lord. Hurry up, get here. I mean, I can understand. I can relate. The pressures were very real to him. But verse 12 tells us something very important here in chapter 13. It says, Saul says, the Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal and have not made supplication to the Lord.

Therefore, I felt compelled and offered a burnt offering. What Saul did was he felt compelled and he let his feeling override the command of God. He let how he felt overrule what God had said. And this will be the final issue that we'll see throughout Saul's reign. That he does not

Whatever he thinks is best, whatever he wants to do, instead of obeying God. He follows his own feelings. He follows his own thoughts. He follows the pressures of the people. We'll see that over the next couple of days and the next couple of chapters. And so Samuel says, you've done foolishly. And so as we finish up our time together this evening, I want to call you back to the message two Sundays ago.

Where the Lord challenged us to love Him with all of our heart and soul and strength and mind. You and I, we have great potential just like Saul. But if we are mastered by our emotions, we do things because we feel compelled, and our feelings and our emotions cause us to disregard the commands of God, we will shipwreck ourselves. Even though we have great potential, even though we're called by God, I mean, we see all these great things happening.

Filled with the Spirit and turned into another man. Born again. Yeah, great things. It's very easy to start well. But we must, we must be mastered by God. He must be Lord. In 1 Samuel 12, 20, Samuel tells the people, you've done all this wickedness, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. That's the key.

Serve the Lord with all your heart. You have great potential. And maybe you've done a lot of wickedness. But it's not over. You still have opportunity. You still have opportunity to achieve the potential that God has given to you. If you fear the Lord and don't turn aside from following Him, finish well by being faithful to God and letting Him be Lord of your heart, your soul, your strength, and your mind. Let's pray.

God, I pray that you would help us to learn from the example of Saul. Lord, great potential, it doesn't mean that we're guaranteed to finish well. Lord, we have choices to make. And I pray, Lord, that you would help us to choose to make you Lord. To choose to obey you. Even when we feel compelled to do other things. Even when those pressures are mounting and it just seems that we have to take matters in our own hands. We have to figure out our own solution. Help us.

To really look to you. To rely upon you. To wait for you. To let you be Lord. Help us to obey you. Before our own thoughts. Before our own plans. First and foremost. Help us to really make you the Lord of our lives. That we would serve you with all of our heart. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

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