"We’ve made a terrible mistake.” I can imagine the people of Israel coming to that realization when they heard Samuel’s rebuke and then saw him call down a thunderstorm from heaven during the wheat harvest, which was in May or June, during Israel’s dry season. I can picture the landowners among them watching with horror as the wheat fields were soaked with an unseasonable downpour, and as the crops were blown violently by the wind. In that moment they saw clearly that the God whom they had rejected by asking for a king could obliterate their livelihood in the blink of an eye. I can also imagine that moment calling back to their minds (at least the older ones among them) that occasion in 1 Samuel 7 when a much younger Samuel had gathered the people at Mizpah to repent before the Lord. The Philistines surprised them with an attack, and Samuel, who was never a military leader, prayed to the Lord, bringing down a thunderstorm from heaven that threw the Philistine army into confusion and gave Israel the victory. “Why did we ever think that a warrior king would be able to give us better security than this prophet whose prayers move the powers of heaven?” And in that moment of realization, a deep sense of horror, perhaps even despair, began to settle over the people. In conviction they cried out (v. 19), “Pray for your servants to the LORD your God, that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for ourselves a king.” Israel looks down a dark tunnel toward a very plausible scenario in which they are about to fall under the wrath of God. And Samuel’s response may have taken them by surprise (v. 20): “Don’t be afraid.”
Don’t be afraid. Don’t succumb to despair. Don’t turn away from God in a vain attempt to shield yourselves from his wrath. Hear this good news, O Israel: God is still for you. His love continues to pursue you. His favor rests upon you. And his purpose for your good has not been thrown off course by your sin. Verse 22 gives us the central teaching of what these four chapters are about: “For the LORD will not forsake his people, for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the LORD to make you a people for himself.” Notice here that God’s election of Israel for himself is the ground of his ongoing commitment to bless them even after their catastrophic failure. When God chose Israel for himself, his own glory became wrapped up in Israel’s future. And since God will never waver in his commitment to his own name, he will therefore not waver in his commitment to do good to Israel. You can restate that doctrine and personalize it in this way: Despite your failures, the God who chose you will never be deterred from displaying his glory by blessing you. These are the ways of our God, and they are wonderful.
God knows we need to hear this, because we all have a track record of failures, and we have a tendency to carry them with us. Perhaps you still carry around with you the guilt over a failure from years ago as you experience ongoing consequences of it: entering into a hasty marriage with an unbeliever, damaging a relationship by speaking out in anger, giving yourself up during one night of passion and changing your life forever, seeking refuge from the pain of this world in a bottle. Or maybe you committed a sin yesterday that has left you questioning where you stand with God now. Whatever the case may be, I have the joyful opportunity to declare to you today that, if you are taking hold of Christ, God has not written you off. His love for you, his commitment to your good, his purpose to be glorified in you, has not changed. If you are in Christ, I want you to see in this story of Saul’s rise to the throne an example of the undeterred love of God for his people. If you are not in Christ, I want you to know that nothing in your past would stop you from coming to him in faith, even today.
God knows we need to hear this, because we all have a track record of failures, and we have a tendency to carry them with us. Perhaps you still carry around with you the guilt over a failure from years ago as you experience ongoing consequences of it: entering into a hasty marriage with an unbeliever, damaging a relationship by speaking out in anger, giving yourself up during one night of passion and changing your life forever, seeking refuge from the pain of this world in a bottle. Or maybe you committed a sin yesterday that has left you questioning where you stand with God now. Whatever the case may be, I have the joyful opportunity to declare to you today that, if you are taking hold of Christ, God has not written you off. His love for you, his commitment to your good, his purpose to be glorified in you, has not changed. If you are in Christ, I want you to see in this story of Saul’s rise to the throne an example of the undeterred love of God for his people. If you are not in Christ, I want you to know that nothing in your past would stop you from coming to him in faith, even today.
First,
In a recent book John Piper defines “providence” as God’s purposeful sovereignty.1 It is a helpful theological term that communicates not merely that God is in control, but that he controls all things toward his wise and loving purposes. So what is God’s purpose in raising up Saul as king over Israel? The key verses on this question are 9:15-17, where God expresses two purposes. The first one is in vv. 15-16: “Now on the day before Saul came, the LORD had revealed to Samuel: ‘Tomorrow about this time I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel. He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines. For I have seen my people, because their cry has come to me.’” The first purpose God expresses to Samuel regarding Saul is that Saul will deliver Israel from the Philistines. Although Israel had experienced relative peace under Samuel’s leadership, apparently the Philistines remained an economic threat to them, and it appeared it was only a matter of time before war would break out with them again. But God says he has “seen” his people, and he has heard their cry. Even when his children are foolishly pursing a sinful pathway, God still sees them, and God still hears their cries. And he remains committed to their blessing. The second purpose for which Saul is being raised up is stated in v. 17: “When Samuel saw Saul, the LORD told him, ‘Here is the man of whom I spoke to you! He it is who shall restrain my people.’” Here you should be reminded of the repeated statement at the end of the book of Judges: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” The sinful impulses of the people were in need of restraint, and one thing the new king would accomplish is enforcing restraint and bringing order to the nation. So God has a plan to bless Israel in spite of their sin of asking for a king, giving them external security and internal order through the king he would raise up.
But it’s very interesting that God had said to Samuel in verse 16, “Tomorrow about this time I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin.” How did Saul actually end up coming to Ramah to meet Samuel? His father’s donkeys had escaped, and he had been sent on a mission to find them along with a servant. They wandered and they wandered and they wandered in search of them, until they were just about to give up, but they realized they were near the city of Ramah where a man of God dwelled, so they went up to the city to find him. Saul was hesitant at first because they didn’t have anything to present to the seer; they had even run out of bread on their journey. But it just so happened that the servant found in his possession a fourth of a shekel of silver. And as they were going up to the city, it just so happened that they saw some young women coming out to draw water, and they asked them if the seer was there that day, and they replied, “Yes, he just arrived back in town today. If you hurry you can catch him before he heads up to a sacrifice at the high place.” Through a carefully orchestrated series of seemingly random events, Saul ends up approaching Samuel in the city of Ramah to ask him, “Is the seer here?” And this event fulfills God’s prior word to Samuel: “Tomorrow about this time I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin.” It sounds like random events brought Saul to Samuel. But no, God did it. God sent him, because God in his providence orders all things for his wise purposes.
After Saul meets Samuel, Samuel invites him to the feast at the high place and tells him not to worry about the donkeys, for they have been found. Then Samuel takes him to the feast, where he gives him the honored place and the honored portion, and then sends him and his servant off the next morning. But before he does he wants a private word with Saul, which we read about in 10:1: “Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him and said, ‘Has not the LORD anointed you to be prince over his people Israel? And you shall reign over the people of the LORD and you will save them from the hand of their surrounding enemies.” In order to confirm that message to Saul, Samuel tells him that after he leaves he will have three distinct encounters with three groups of people, where certain events will happen. And those three events happen exactly as foretold, because God is directing the course of events. Saul finally makes it back home, and that wraps up the story of his private anointing (9:1-10:16).
When we move into the next section (10:17-27), which is about Saul’s public proclamation as king, we see that sometime later Samuel summoned the people to Mizpah, where he chose their king publicly by casting lots. We don’t know exactly what casting lots involved, but it was a random process, the results of which were left to the will of God. In 10:20-21 we read, “Then Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near, and the tribe of Benjamin was taken by lot. He brought the tribe of Benjamin near by its clans, and the clan of the Matrites was taken by lot; and Saul the son of Kish was taken by lot.” Three times lots were cast, each time narrowing the field until it landed on one man from the whole assembly, Saul the son of Kish. What God had done privately first, he now makes public by the providential ordering of events that seem random to us.
The author of this story has shown us time and again that God’s providential rule directs the course of events for his good purposes. God is sovereign over the details of our lives, and he rules over each one, directing it to its appointed end of pursing the good of his people and the glory of his name. It is remarkable to reflect on the intricate detail of this story, every detail showing us another touch of God’s loving care for Israel, especially in light of their rejection of him in chapter 8 when they asked for a king.
For us who are in Christ, we must internalize the promise of Romans 8:28: God works all things together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. That doesn’t mean that God might manage to salvage something tolerable after you have messed things up. It means that the love of God in Christ never leaves you with the option of despair, because on the way to glory, God wastes nothing. Learn to see your every circumstance, especially those circumstances you find frustrating, annoying, or even miserable, as ordered by God for his glory and your good. Every moment of your life, indeed every moment of history, is charged with significance in light of the teaching on God’s providence.
But God’s love for Israel doesn’t only extend to making Saul king. As the story shows, Saul on his own would not be a very good king. So that brings us to a second way God shows his love:
When we first meet Saul, the text emphasizes how outwardly impressive he is. Look at 9:1-2: “There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, son of Zeror, son of Becorath, son of Aphiah, a Benjaminite, a man of wealth. And he had a son whose name was Saul, a handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people.” But as the story progresses, a picture emerges of a man who is not as impressive in reality as he looks. He obviously doesn’t have lot of ability when it comes to tracking down lost donkeys. But more significantly, Saul’s repeated reactions to the news of his kingship show a lot of hesitancy and a real lack of faith.
Look down at 9:20. Samuel says to Saul when they first meet, “As for your donkeys that were lost three days ago, do not set your mind on them, for they have been found. And for whom is all that is desirable in Israel? Is it not for you and for all your father’s house?” Saul knows Samuel is a man of God. He further knows that Samuel would have had no way of knowing about the donkeys at all if God had not revealed the matter to him. So Samuel has already confirmed his credentials as a prophet of God, and now he tells Saul that he is the answer to the people’s desire for a king. The proper response would be to say, “It is my joy to serve the Lord in this way.” But instead, notice how Saul responds in verse 21: “Saul answered, ‘Am I not a Benjaminite, from the least of the tribes of Israel? And is not my clan the humblest of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then have you spoken to me in this way?” It’s as though Saul is saying, “Samuel, I know you have heard from God on this, but….really?” He downplays his own family heritage, but in fact, his father was a prominent, wealthy man. Saul simply lacks confidence to step into the role of king. We see that further demonstrated when he returns home, and his uncle inquires about where he has been, and he tells his uncle about the encounter with Samuel but mentions nothing about being anointed king (10:16). And we see this same lack of confidence at the public gathering when Saul’s lot is chosen, and in 10:21b-22 we read, “But when they sought him, he could not be found. So they inquired again of the LORD, ‘Is there a man still to come?’ and the LORD said, ‘Behold, he has hidden himself among the baggage.’” In a very anticlimactic moment, Israel’s king has been chosen by lot, but then they have to get special revelation from the Lord about where to find him, because he is hiding! It’s no wonder that he didn’t win over the confidence of everyone gathered there at the time (10:27).
But something changes in chapter 11, where Saul’s leadership is tested in a crisis. The Ammonite king Nahash laid siege to the city of Jabesh-gilead, and the people of the city asked to negotiate terms of surrender, in which they would become a vassal to King Nahash. But Nahash’s terms were brutal: “I’ll make a treaty with you. Let me gouge out the right eyes of all your men.” That would have rendered the men of the city worthless in battle, since a warrior normally held a shield over his left eye. Moreover, it would have been an act of utter disgrace. That was not the kind of treaty they wanted, so the men of Jabesh-gilead asked for seven days to try to rally support, after which time they would give themselves up. King Nahash agreed, apparently thinking there was no way they could muster support that quickly. So they sent out the word, and the news came to the allied city of Gibeah in Benjamin, Saul’s hometown. Saul happened to be out plowing his field when he heard all the commotion, and in response to it he took a yoke of oxen, cut it up in pieces, and sent the pieces throughout the territory of Israel as a threatening message to anyone who did not rally to this battle. Interestingly, this account echoes a story from the book of Judges, where a Levite man and his concubine spent the night in Gibeah, and the men of Gibeah ended up sexually abusing the woman all night and killing her. In response, her husband mutilated her body and sent her body parts to different places to call out support for war against the tribe of Benjamin. The echo seems to be deliberate, because in this case, the leader of Gibeah is rallying for a noble battle, whereas in the prior story it was the sin of Gibeah that led to bodily mutilation and rallying for battle. Saul is being presented as a leader who redeems the city of Gibeah from its wicked past.
The men of Israel respond to Saul’s leadership, and he skillfully leads a large army against the Ammonites. It was a complete route of the enemy. Notice 11:11: “And the next day Saul put the people in three companies. And they came into the midst of the camp in the morning watch and struck down the Ammonites until the heat of the day. And those who survived were scattered, so that no two of them were left together.” The timid, hesitant Saul has become a real leader, and a deliverer of his people. What changed? The answer is in verse 6: “And the Spirit of God rushed upon Saul when he heard these words, and his anger was greatly kindled.” The rushing of the Spirit upon him happens twice in these chapters. The first time was when he returned to Gibeah after being privately anointed king. Saul met a group of prophets, and when the Spirit rushed upon him, he joined them in their prophesying, which was apparently some form of musical praise of God (10:9-13). That event confirmed to Saul that the Lord had chosen him to be king. And here in chapter 11, the Spirit rushed upon him to equip him for the task at hand. The language of the Spirit “rushing” upon him is reminiscent of the story of Samson, whose mighty deeds and superhuman strength delivered Israel from the Philistines on several occasions. God has raised up a deliverer, and God has equipped him to deliver by his Spirit, not by his own abilities.
The same Spirit who rushed upon Saul is the Spirit who descended on Jesus at his baptism, anointing and empowering him to fulfill his mission as God’s Messiah. And he is the same Spirit whom the glorified Christ has poured out on his church. When the Spirit rushed upon Saul, he prophesied. When the Spirit came upon the church on the Day of Pentecost, they spontaneously spoke in different languages, which Peter interpreted as a form of prophecy predicted in Joel 2. But there is a key difference: Saul’s reception of the Spirit under the old covenant is but a shadow of the new covenant blessing of the Spirit. Saul was empowered by the Spirit of God, but there is no indication that he was indwelled by the Spirit. Why not? Because during that era the dwelling place of the Spirit, the holy place, was the tabernacle, and then later the temple. God did not dwell in his people at that time. He still held them at a distance because the problem of their sin had not yet been addressed in full. But with the coming of Christ as the true temple of God, and with his atoning work that removes our sin, we who are new covenant believers now know the precious gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit. And if the measured gift of the Spirit to Saul was a testimony of God’s love to Israel, how much more is the indwelling Spirit a testimony of God’s love to us? Are you a believer who is carrying around guilt or distress over your past failures? Reflect on the stunning reality that God has taken up residence within you. He has made you his holy temple. The indwelling of God’s Spirit in his new covenant people is what tells us that our sins do not define who we are. In Christ, we are holy temples, dwelling places of God himself.
So God has given Israel a king, and he has equipped their king to lead. But God doesn’t stop there. He gives them more, and that brings us to a third and final observation:
There are times when God, in response to human sin, simply stops speaking to them. In fact, Israel had been through a period like this under the leadership of Eli. First Samuel 3:1 says of that time period, “And the word of the LORD was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.” When God stops talking to Israel, it is his way of handing them over to their folly. We could imagine him doing that here in response to their request for a king, but he doesn’t. He speaks to them very clearly and gives them the light of his Word to guide them into the new era of the monarchy.
We see God speaking to Saul and to the people together in two places in these chapters. One is in 10:25, which comes right after Saul is publicly proclaimed king: “Then Samuel told the people the rights and duties of the kingship, and he wrote them in a book and laid it up before the LORD.” In his office as prophet, Samuel wrote down authoritative words of God outlining the rights duties of the king, probably echoing loudly the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 17:14-20. And he laid this book up before the LORD, setting it alongside the other sacred scriptures that the people had received from Moses and Joshua, to be a legal witness to the Lord’s holy standards between him, the king, and the people. God is not leaving the new king without guidance, but is calling him to be faithful to the covenant God had made with Israel through Moses.
And then we come to Samuel’s farewell address, and to that moment when Samuel prays down a terrifying storm during the dry season in Israel, and the people come to the realization that asking for a king was a big mistake. In 12:20-25 we read, “And Samuel said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart. And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty. For the LORD will not forsake his people, for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the LORD to make you a people for himself. Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you, and I will instruct you in the good and the right way. Only fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you. But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.” In this gathering at Gilgal, Samuel is God’s mouthpiece, calling on the king and the people to obey him and follow the pathway of blessing. It’s as though God is saying, “Yes, you have failed in a terrible way. But the good life is still here waiting for you, and I still want you to pursue it by obeying my Law.”
One of the greatest hindrances to obedience in our lives is when we have unresolved feelings of guilt. “God doesn’t want to have anything to do with me after what I have done. So anything I try to do out of love for him is futile. He’s not going to accept me.” People who think like that are people who run away from God and pursue the empty things of this world to try to fill the void in their lives. So what’s the answer to that cloud of guilt that hangs over you? Many people try to downplay their guilt when they can’t face it, and modern psychology is there to cheer them on in that endeavor. But that is not the way. Downplaying your guilt will only sear your conscience and lead you farther away from God in time. If anything, the Bible leads us to conclude that our sins are even far worse than we think they are. We escape the trap of unresolved guilt not by downplaying our sin, but by looking squarely at it in all its horror, and then looking squarely at the cross of Christ, which is sufficient to pay for it all. Because of Christ, we can know with certainty that the idea that God wants nothing more to do with us is a lie from the pit of hell, and we can pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and proceed with confident joy that we are forgiven, and God is eager for us to pursue obedience once again. Indeed, he wants us to pursue him once again, because he has gone to great lengths to pursue us.
God’s love for his children is demonstrated through his providence, his Spirit, and his Word. And of course, most of all, it is demonstrated through the gift of his Son. While the events of 1 Samuel 9-12 happened long before Christ came, this story points us to him with a type, or a figure who foreshadows him. King Saul’s first victory was over the Ammonite king named Nahash. Do you know what “Nahash” means in Hebrew? It means “serpent.” Is that just a coincidence? I don’t think so. The books of 1-2 Samuel include other examples of names that seem to carry a deeper meaning. For example, in 1 Samuel 25 we meet a character named Nabal, whose name means “fool,” and he certainly lives up to it. Is there something God is telling us by his providential ordering of Saul’s first victory over a king named “Serpent”? I think there is. God is giving us a picture of a Spirit-empowered man who crushes a serpent and then rules over a kingdom in 1 Samuel 11-12 as a foreshadowing of the man from Nazareth, who at his baptism would receive the anointing and empowering Spirit of God, who would be driven out to the desert, where he would resist the lies of the ultimate serpent, and who by his atoning death and resurrection would crush the head of the serpent, freeing humanity from his accusing tongue, before taking his seat at God’s right hand to inherit his kingdom. First Samuel 9-12 points us back to the promise of the serpent-crushing seed of the woman from Genesis 3:15 and forward to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Look beyond Saul, and see in this story a testimony to our Savior. And if you are in him, rejoice that nothing—not even your own failures—will deter God from pursuing your good and his glory in you. These are the ways of our God, and they are wonderful. Amen.