“We need to understand that God’s commands are not to be obeyed simply if someone lives in a utopian society.” Those words were first spoken to me by my roommate in college when we were talking about the necessity of obedience in difficult times. We had been discussing the difficult nature of our lives. At the time of the conversation, we were both single, lonely men thinking marriage would never come. We were tired of reading and writing papers and taking tests, and we felt like that was all we were doing. It was one of those great conversations where each encourages the other to pity himself. Then, as I pointed out the commands of Scripture to labor with diligence in all we do and to devote our lives to honoring God, I expected my roommate to say, ‘Yeah, I know, man our lives are hard, aren’t they?” But instead, he said what has stuck with me to today. He pointed out that God does not give his commands to be obeyed simply when everything is going well but also in circumstances where obedience appears as a great difficulty. Instead of heaping to our pile of self-pity my roommate issued a word of rebuke and exhortation to each of us.

And this is a lesson that’s good for us never to forget and one which we need to remind ourselves of constantly. It’s easy to celebrate God’s glory and excitedly obey him when everything seems to be falling into place and everyone is cheering you. It’s quite another thing to obey when it is difficult, when you don’t understand what’s happening around you, when you can’t even imagine how things could work out well with you, and when no one around is offering solutions to your situation. And yet, we’re commanded to believe and obey God in both situations – “for better or for worse,” if you will.

Yet it’s tempting, when life seems to be pressing on you, God seems to be silent, and you feel as if you’re being crushed, to continue to walk in obedient faith. That is a situation that is not foreign to us, I’m sure. It is a situation that is no doubt an accurate description of some period of our lives, if not right now. And it is the situation we find as we move into the next section of 1 Samuel as we turn to chapters 8-12.

By 1 Samuel 8, the Israelites are feeling pressure from Nahash, king of the Ammonites. He has been abusing them, threatening their lives, gauging out the right eyes of those whom he opposed, and putting fright within the hearts of the Israelites. Therefore, with pressure mounting, their fear that God might not act growing, and seeing that Samuel’s sons are not walking in his ways, Israel feels as if they are in a desperate situation and cannot see how God might work in a mighty way. This is the setting of 1 Samuel 8-12, and it is no doubt descriptive in a general sense of our lives during times of doubt and struggle. Therefore, my hope this morning is that as we look at the text, we might understand more of how we are to live within such seasons. Let us start by looking at the events in chapter 8, 10:17-27, and 12:1-13. For in these text we learn that …

Never place your faith in anything as a substitute for God (8; 10:17-27; 12:1-13)

As aforementioned, when we come to chapter 8 of first Samuel, we find out that Samuel’s sons are not walking in righteousness. This is a great problem because God’s people feel the threat of the enemy, see Samuel is growing old, and begin to doubt and look away from the Lord. And it is within this setting that they address Samuel saying in verse 5, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.”

The very next line we read is that “the thing displeased Samuel” (8:6), and then in the next verse we read the Lord declaring that the people have rejected him (8:7). God declares to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them” (8:7-9).

The rest of the chapter, then, records Samuel speaking of how the king will take their sons and daughters and use them for his servants and that his reign would be characterize as constantly taking from the Lord’s people. Nonetheless, we read the people’s response in 8:19-20, “But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, \"No! But there shall be a king over us, 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.” Then, God tells Samuel to obey their voice, and the stage is set for the appointing of a king.

What’s clear in this chapter is that Israel had sinned in asking for a king. You cannot miss it. Samuel is displeased. The Lord declares that they have rejected him. What’s not so clear is why their request is a sinful thing. After all, God had declared in Deuteronomy 17:14-15, “When you come to the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’ you may indeed set a king over you whom the LORD your God will choose. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you.”

And the text goes on to describe what the king must be like, but Israel had not violated those qualifications in any way, for they had said nothing about who they wanted as their king. They had declared just what Deuteronomy 17 said they were allowed, namely, a king to rule over them like all the surrounding nations.

So why was this a sinful thing Israel did? I think that answer becomes more clear as we continue through the entire section we have taken up this morning. I think we need to look at the following chapters in order to make sense of chapter 8, for there things become a bit clearer. The first place that is helpful for us is 10:17-27.

At this point in the narrative, Saul has already been told by Samuel that he is to be king and has been anointed for such a task. We will look at the details of what transpired there more closely in a second. So, in 10:17-27, Samuel has gathered the people at Mizpah to proclaim Saul as king before those who have gathered there. It’s actually a humorous scene in some ways. Samuel casts lots according to all the tribes of Israel in order to show that God himself was choosing who would be king. And, as Samuel knew, the lot fell to Saul. The problem was, Saul was nowhere to be found. He apparently was shy of the occasion and, being scared, had hidden himself in the baggage. Yet the Lord points out where he is, he comes out, the people see how great a man of stature he is, they declare, “Long live the king!” (10:24), and Samuel records standards by which the king must live in a book.

It seems typical from that description of such a ceremony, you might think. God made clear that Saul was not a man campaigning for office but had been chosen by him, the people celebrate, and Samuel points him to the law. What’s odd, however, is the way Samuel begins this ceremony. He declares in 10:18-19, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 'I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you.' But today you have rejected your God, who saves you from all your calamities and your distresses, and you have said to him, 'set a king over us.' Now therefore present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your thousands.”

In this speech, Samuel points out God’s faithfulness in delivering the people out of Egypt, but then points out that today they have cried out for a king, rejecting the God “who saves you from all your calamities and your distresses.” Clearly the note of their sin is in missing God’s deliverance. But, if we cannot fully see the picture of why their request for a king was a sinful act, it becomes quite clear in 12:1-13.

Samuel again addresses the people in chapter 12, beginning by pointing out that he has never cheated them, never taken anything from them. Then, however, he begins to point out how it is that Israel has sinned. He declares, “The Lord is witness, who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. Now therefore stand still that I may plead with you before the Lord concerning all the righteous deeds of the Lord that he performed for you and for your fathers. When Jacob went into Egypt, and the Egyptians oppressed them, then your fathers cried out to the Lord and the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this place. But they forgot the Lord their God. And he sold them into the hand of Sisera, commander of the army of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab. And they fought against them. And they cried out to the Lord and said, 'We have sinned, because we have forsaken the Lord and have served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. But now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, that we may serve you.' And the Lord sent Jerubbaal and Barak and Jephthah and Samuel and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and you lived in safety. And when you saw that Nahash the king of the Ammonites came against you, you said to me, 'No, but a king shall reign over us,' when the Lord your God was your king” (12:6-12).

And there it is. In Egypt, God’s people had been oppressed, had cried out to God for mercy, and he had raised up Moses to deliver them. And throughout the time which is recorded in the book of Judges, they had again and again been oppressed by their enemies, and they had cried out to the Lord for his mercy. And God had raised up Jerubbaal, Barak, Jephthah, and now Samuel. But when Nahash began to threaten them, their response changed. No longer did they cry out for the Lord to pour out his mercy on them and deliver them, they declare, “Give us a king.”

It was as if they had decided that instead of leaning on the Lord who had been so faithful in the past, they wanted to place their trust in a king. It’s almost as if they are declaring, we do not trust God to deliver us; we need a king. They had placed their faith in a king as a substitute for God. Instead of relying in one who had proved himself so faithful, they were grasping at a solution that they could see and touch and handle.

Isn’t this a warning for us as well? We must never place our faith in anything as a substitute for God. It will be tempting for us throughout the coming days as a local church to do this. It will be tempting to think we’ve figured out how to make sure everything runs smooth around here and people are attracted to what’s going on here and that we’ve got oversight down to an art. It will be tempting when we go through times of struggle to say, “Oh, we just need a better administrator or a sleeker building or one of a hundred things that we believe is standing before where we are and really being used by God.” But the answer then and now is that we are simply in need of God, his wisdom, and grace to obey his commands. Therefore, no matter what comes around here whether good or bad or what this church looks like in ten years, I pray that we might be a people who do not cry out in our times of struggle, “Oh, we just need this or that” but that we would cry out for God to pour out his mercy on us. Let us not fall into the trap of placing our faith in anything at all as a substitute for hoping in God and crying out to him for his mercy. That must be our approach as a church, and it must be our approach as individuals. This is indeed our first act in times of struggle, where the weight of the world seems pressing in on us, even as the Israelites felt was happening with the threat of Nahash.

Second …

Trust in God’s gracious providence, even when you cannot discern his work (9:1-10:16)

In 9:1-10:16, we read the unfolding of a narrative in which God’s hand is clearly guiding everything in the story. Chapter 9 tells of a man named Kish losing his donkeys and sending his servants and his son, Saul, to go find them. However, Saul and the servant search all day so that Saul gets to the point of thinking his father is no longer going to be worried about the donkeys but will be worried about them. Thus, he tells his servant that they should go back. But his servant responds, “Behold, there is a man of God in this city, and he is a man who is held in honor; all that he says comes true. So now let us go there. Perhaps he can tell us the way we should go” (9:6).

And, sure enough, Saul finds Samuel, Samuel tells him the donkeys are found, Samuel sees that Saul is the one who is to be king, they have dinner together, and Samuel declares to Saul the next morning, “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” (10:1), after anointing him with oil.

Can you imagine how fortunate this must have seemed to anyone who heard how Saul and Samuel came to meet? Saul happened to be looking for his donkey had happened to be doing a really bad job of it so that he was about to turn back when his servant pointed out that they happened to be near a prophet who happened to be walking toward them as they came into the city looking for a king. But we all know that none of this just “happened” to take place. Rather, we read in 9:15-16, “Now 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.\" God had been guiding every move.

Then, in 10:1-10, we read that Saul is assured that he is king because Samuel tells him exactly what will happen to him as a sign that he is king. We read Samuel’s words in 10:2-6, “When you depart from me today, you will meet two men by Rachel's tomb in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah, and they will say to you, 'The donkeys that you went to seek are found, and now your father has ceased to care about the donkeys and is anxious about you, saying, \"What shall I do about my son?\" 'Then you shall go on from there further and come to the oak of Tabor. Three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you there, one carrying three young goats, another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a skin of wine. And they will greet you and give you two loaves of bread, which you shall accept from their hand. After that you shall come to Gibeath-elohim, where there is a garrison of the Philistines. And there, as soon as you come to the city, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with harp, tambourine, flute, and lyre before them, prophesying. Then the Spirit of the Lord will rush upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man.” And that is exactly what happened. And though it may seem odd, Saul knew that all of these events occurred because God’s hand of providence was guiding things.

Then, in 10:11-13, we read that the people who saw Saul prophesying were so amazed that he was doing this that it became a proverb, “Is Saul also among the prophets?” It seems that the idea was that if someone claimed to have seen something that seemed farfetched they would remark, “Well, even Saul is among the prophets.” Again, unlikely events are God’s providential workings.

And to top it all off, God is doing all of this, setting up the first king of Israel, with very few people even knowing what is going on. Samuel and Saul know, but even when Saul gets home, he doesn’t tell his uncle what Samuel had said to him (10:14-16).

In short, 9:1-10:16 is a section filled with some of the oddest most obscure details that would not make sense if we did not know that all the details were happening by the guidance of God’s providential hand. Though it made sense to very few and even fewer knew what was going on, God was providentially working to bring Israel her first king. This, is a good lesson for us, namely, that we must trust in God’s providence, even when we cannot discern how he is working.

There have been several moments in my life and several moments in the life of this church where I have thought, “Why is this happening?” And I have misjudged and misinterpreted what was going on around me so that I was gripped by anxiety and discouraged. Yet now I can look back at these times in my life and feel ashamed that I did not trust in God’s gracious providence. God has worked so many things together for good in my life and he has promised to do so. So why should I be overcome by anxiety in difficult times. Rather, may I, and may we, find ourselves trusting in the Lord’s gracious providence, trusting that he is working in a way greater than we can imagine as we walk in obedient faith.

That, I think is something which the author of 1 Samuel would have us see in 9:1-10:16. And yet there is more. We also are reminded in chapter 11 that …

Remember God’s steadfast love (11)

The events of chapter 11 can kind of catch us by surprise. It is clear that Israel has sinned in asking for a king and relying on him to be their deliverer instead of just crying out to the Lord. However, in chapter 11 we read of God using Saul, their king, to deliver them from the hand of the Ammonites.

Some Israelites are being threatened by Nahash, and they ask him to make a treaty with them. He agrees to do so if they will agree to having their right eyes gauged out. They then ask him to give them seven days to ask for help, and then they will agree to this. Nahash, in his arrogance, no doubt, agrees. Therefore, the men of Jabesh-gilead send word back to the other tribes, and when word reaches Saul the Spirit rushes upon him and his anger is greatly kindled.

Saul then took oxen, cut them in pieces, sent them to all the territory of Israel, and told men to come out and fight or their oxen will meet the same fate. Israel responds, Saul takes three hundred thousand men from Israel and thirty thousand from Judah, divide them into three camps, and attack the Ammonites. And they strike down the Ammonites, crushing them and freeing their brethren who had been threatened by Nahash. It is such a powerful display of deliverance that Israel again declared Saul as king and sacrifice offerings before the Lord at Gilgal.

So, if Israel has sinned in asking for a king, what does this chapter show us? Why would God do this? Well, first, I think we are to see the clear connections with the book of Judges. The Spirit rushing upon Saul should remind us of Solomon, the cutting of the oxen into pieces and sending them throughout Israel should remind us of the man doing that with his concubine at the end of the book of Judges, and the dividing of the army into three camps should remind us of Gideon. And I think all these things are intentional because the author wants us to see that God was able and intended to deliver the Israelites from the threat of Nahash even as he had done throughout the book of Judges. It again highlights Israel’s sin in no simply crying out to the Lord for deliverance but for demanding a king.

However, I think chapter 11 also teaches us that we can rest in God’s gracious care for us, even when we have been faithless. Earlier I mentioned the shame I’ve felt at times in doubting God’s gracious work of providence when it’s become clear to me after time how he’s been working. And though I don’t want to encourage faithlessness on my part, it should not be surprising to me that God has done so much even when I have lacked faith and faithfulness. For God does not pour out his grace on us because we deserve it; he pours out grace on us though we never deserve it. Therefore, if you are in a situation right now, thinking, “Man, I have been so faithless in this time of my life,” do not grow discouraged, but cry out to God for his grace despite the lack of faith you’ve shown, for God is committed to his people, and we should rest in his grace toward us.

And this leads us to one more lesson in the text, namely …

If you’ve sinned, you need to confess it and pursue faithfulness (12:14-25)

In 12:14-25 Samuel makes clear Israel’s sin. He has declared that they have sinned, but then to make sure that it cuts into their hearts he calls upon the Lord to send thunder and rain during wheat harvest – a time when it was typically dry and indeed needed to be so. And as the people see this, they cry out and confess their sin. What’s encouraging then, is Samuel’s response. Samuel declares, “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” (12:20-22). Then, Samuel ends this section telling them not to disobey, for God will sweep away both them and their king.

Thus, in short, he says, “Yes, you’ve sinned, but don’t wallow in your guilt. Rather, begin walking in faithfulness right now.” So I say to us today, maybe we’ve trusted in things as a substitute for God and maybe we’ve doubted he is working because we couldn’t understand how his hand of providence was working, and this morning we have convicted. Then, let us first realize his grace toward those who confess their sins and his care for his people, even as we saw in chapter 11, and then let us begin to walk in faithfulness right now, from this point forward, crying out for God’s mercy, trusting in him as our great hope.

And let us demonstrate such a response by taking of this bread and this cup, indeed, a declaration that we have heard and received the Word of God. Amen.

LOOKING TO A KING AND IGNORING THE DELIVERER