"A King after God's own heart"

This has been automatically generated, and therefore may contain some unintended inaccuracies.

Today's reading is in 1 samuel 13. You'll find it in the church bible on 2 8 2. Seoul was 30 years old when he became king. And he reigned over Israel for 42 years. So chose 3000 men from Israel, 2000 were with him at Mishmash, and in the Cart Hill Country of Bethel.

And 1000 in the world with Jonathan at Gibbia in Benjamin. The rest of the men he sent back to their homes. Jonathan attacked the Philistines outpost at Gipa. And Philsteyn's heard about it. Then Seoul had the trumpet blown throughout the land and said.

Let the Hebrews hear. So all Israel heard the news. Seoul has attacked a Philistine outpost, and now Israel has become obnoxious to the Philistines. And the people were summoned to join Seoul at Gilgel. The Philistines assembled to fight Israel with 3000 chariots, 6000 charities, and soldiers as numerous as the sand on the seashore.

They went up and camped at Mikmash. East of Bethel Haven. When the Israelites saw that their situation was critical and that their army was hard pressed, they hid in caves and thickets among the rocks and in pits and cisterns. Some Hebrews even crossed the Jordan to the land of God and Juliet. Seoul remained at Gilgel and all the troops with him were quaking with fear.

He waited 7 days. The time set by Samu, but Samu did not come to Gilgill. And Seoul's man began to scatter. So he said, bring me the burnt offering and the fellowship offerings, and so offered up the burnt offerings. Charles as he finished making the offering, Samu arrived and Saul went out to greet him.

What have you done? Asked Samu. Saul replied, when I saw that the man was scattering and that you did not come at the sad time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Mishmash. I thought now the Philistines will come down against me at Gil Galgell, and I have not sought the lord's favor. So I felt compelled to offer the band offering.

You have done the foolish thing, Sammy, you said. You have not kept the commandment the lord your God gave you. If you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. But now your kingdom will not end you. The lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people because you have not kept the lord's command.

In Samuel left Gil Gal and went up to Gibia in Benjamin. And Seoul counted the man who were with him. They numbered about 600. Seoul and his men Jonathan and a man with them was staying in Gibia of Benjamin, while the Philistine camped at Mishmash. Raid parties went out from the Philistine camp in 3 detachments.

1 turned towards Ophra in the vicinity or Schuhl, another towards Beth Huron, and a third towards the border land overlooking the value of Zoboam facing the wilderness. Not a Blacksmith could be found in a whole land of Israel because the Philistines had said. Otherwise, The Hebrews will make swords and spares. So all Israel went down to the Philistines to have their plowshares, Metox, access, and shackles. Sharpened the price of 2 thirds of a shackle for sharpening plowshares and Mactox and a third of shackle for a sharpening fox and axis and for reappointing gold.

So the day of the battle, not the soldier with soul and soul, and and Jonathan had a sword or spear in his hand. Only soul and his son, Jonathan had them. Great. Please keep the passage open in front of you. Once Samuel 13, and, let me pray for us.

Father, we thank you for your word. Thank you that you give it to us. Not merely for information, though it is good to know about you, but you give it to us to shape us and change us, to lift our eyes to Jesus, and that we might follow him love him and be faithful to him. And so, shape us and change us now as we read your words. Do work in our hearts.

We pray. For the glory of Jesus, amen. So we're back to the book of 1 Samuel. We started this series, in the autumn term, and we are returning now to chapter 13. And maybe you went with us back then when we did the series or maybe you were and you don't remember it.

So I thought we would just do a little, the story so far. And if it's all completely sort of fresh in your memory, well, you don't have the option of clicking on skip recap, you just gotta go with it. Alright? But I think it'll do you good anyway. It's only a brief recap.

I just wanna say, I sent out a, a message on the WhatsApp to watch a little video. The Bible project had done videos for every book of the Bible, which gives you a summary of the book, or the kind of big plot line of the book. And I'd encourage you to watch that video. It's really helpful. For getting in our heads the big storyline of 1 Samuel.

But, brief summary, oh, and you can always listen to the sermons from last from the autumn term. If you want to, if you've not, gone through them, you could always, listen to them as well to catch up. Now you could summarize the whole book of 1 Samuel as being about kingship. The book begins with the people of Israel in a terrible state, and they have no king. But it is disastrous.

They've been led by people who have been called judges, and they are in, a moral mess. I mean, it it just is a disaster that they are in. And not just morally, but religiously, it's a disaster as well. So you see at the book beginning of the book, if you go to the House of the Lord, the priests there are morally terrible. They are immoral.

They are corrupt. And the whole thing just looks like a bit of a mess. Now 1 of the first things that happens in the book of 1, Samuel, is the birth of 1 of the main characters, Samuel. And Samuel is born. He is he becomes a a profit and he's a priest.

And this is good news at the beginning of 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel chapter 3, there's a point where it says the word of the lord was rare in the people in Israel. That's not good. God's word is not coming to his people. But by the end of chapter 3, you see god's word now through Samuel, he's coming to the people, and that is good.

So things are starting to get better. Now, once Samuel chapter 8, the people demand a king They say we want a king to lead us just like all the other nations have. And actually, this is bad because their motives are not good. They want a king, but God says to Samuel the prophet, look, they want a king But by doing this, they are rejecting me as their king. It's not good, but give them a king anyway.

And so Samuel appoints someone to be king. The person that God says for him to appoint an idiot's saul. King saul is put in place. But right from the start, we see saul and we're questioning, is he really a good king? Is he gonna be a good king for Israel?

You remember when there was the public announcement that Seoul was gonna be came. It was a bit odd what was happening. There was the public announcement. There was the sort of, yes, this is who's gonna be king. It's gonna be Saul.

And everyone's looking around going, well, where is it? Where is this guy who's gonna be king? And they have to do a search for him, and they find him hiding amongst the baggage? She said, okay. This is gonna be your king.

And that just felt a bit odd really, didn't they? Is this guy gonna be king? Is he gonna do a good job? Well, he's put in place as king. And Samuel, the prophet, was told by God that Saul would be the 1 who would deliver the people of Israel.

From the Philistines. Now you need to know about the Philistines. They are the nation who are opposing god's people, attacking god's people, and coming into the land, and we'll see them in 1 Samuel 13 that they are there, but they are opposing and attacking god's people. And God has said through Samuel that Saul will be the 1 who will deliver his people. So that's where we're up to.

In the book of 1 Samuel. You may say, well, how did you take a term to get through all night? You just did it in a few moments. Well, there's a bit more to it. And you could read the chapters and see what happened.

And now we come to 1 Samuel 13. And we see in this chapter, our suspicions about Saul were justified. He is not the great king that the people need. And we're gonna think about this chapter in terms of 2 parts, Saul's sin and god's solution. Sol sin and god's solution.

First, souls sin. We see that Saul, just to give the game away, didn't trust obey and wait for God. And we're gonna see that in the chapter. Now as we do so, we're not just observing soul sin. We're not just seeing just looking at him and going, well, he made a mess of that.

I want us to see ourselves a bit in soul and to see that the way he reacts, the way he responds, the things he does are not far from our own hearts. Let's see that as we go through. You see, we need to see why he disobeys God. The context, because the disobedience happens in verse 9, but let's see what led up to it. So we start the chapter with Saul and his army.

I'm not gonna get into the details of verse 1. It is a little bit complicated the the years. I mean, it looks simple there, but there's disagreement about exactly what the years are that are there. And I I don't think it's a main point the chapter. If you wanna go and do some research on that on verse 1, feel free to do so, and I'm happy to chat with you afterwards if you like.

But we start with Saul and his army. And we see in verse 2, there are 3000 of them. 3000 men. 2000 are with saul 1000 with his son, Jonathan, and they are stationed in different places. And Jonathan, we're told verse 3 takes the initiative and attacks the Philistines, and you might think at this point, well surely that should have been saul who did that, shouldn't it?

But nevertheless, that is what happened. There's no comment there. But Jonathan takes the initiative and goes and attacks a Philistine outpost, which is in the land of Israel. He attacks. And then word goes out throughout the land.

Saul has the trumpets blown, and the message goes out that Saul has attacked the Philistine outpost. And again, you might think Is that is that fair? Is that true? Well, it's unlikely that you're gonna send a message out to say the king's son has done this. I I'm not sure how much you can read into that, that maybe Saul is taking Jonathan's the credit for what Jonathan did.

I I think that's likely to be the message that would go out anyway. Saw has attacked this outpost, but more than that, the Israelites we're told in verse 4 are now obnoxious to the Philistines. That's the announcement that goes out. And people are summoned and we don't know how many people actually turn up. But this creates a huge reaction from the Philistines.

It's like if you watch Lord of the Rings, I mean, that's 1 of those great moments where, where, just a vast army gathers. And that's the picture that you've got here. They they've attacked the Philistines, and the Philistines turn up in huge numbers. So you get 3000 chariots. Don't forget, the whole of Saul's army is 3003 thousand chariots turn up.

6000 chariot hears, verse 5, and soldiers are numerous as the sand on the seashore. This is a vast army that turns up. And the reaction of the people is verse 6. When the Israelites saw that their situation was critical, that their army was hard pressed, they hid in caves and thickets among the rocks and in pits and systems. Some Hebrews even crossed the Jordan to the land of gad and Gilead.

What do the people do? They run away. Run away. This vast army. They're frightened.

And they run. They've poked the bear. The bear is turned on them, and they flee. But saw we're told, verse 7, second half of verse 7, Saul remained at Gilgau, and all the troops with him were qu quaking with fear. Now that's significant that he's remained at Gilgau.

It's good that he's remained at Gilgau because Back in 1 Samuel chapter 10, saul Samuel Samuel and saul, because their names are so similar. You can get them mixed up, comey. Samuel, the prophet had said to saul the king, go to Gilgau, and wait there for me. Wait for 7 days. And I will come.

He says, and I will make the sacrifices, and I will tell you, saul, what you should do. Wait 7 day. And that is what Saul is doing. He's waiting in Gilgau, and he waits. And the troops are frightened, quaking with fear.

You can imagine not much sleep was happening. And you can imagine saul saying to the people on watch, can you see Samuel? Is Samuel coming? No. No, Samuel?

Maybe next hour. Samuel coming, no, no, samuel. The next day is Samuel coming, no, samuel. Day after day. He waits.

And Samuel doesn't show up. And it seems that it was getting late on day 7. And so verse 8. He waited for 7 days. The time set by Samuel, but Samuel did not come to Gilgau.

And Saul's men began to scatter. You can imagine that. Some of the troops starting to get so frightened they're going up, but we're we're leaving. We're off. And you know that If that starts to happen, that's gonna spread.

More and more people are gonna leave, and he didn't have that many to begin with. And so saw verse 9 says, he says bring me the burnt offering and the fellowship offering, and Saul offered up the burnt offering. He makes the sacrifice, which was not what he was to do. He was not a priest. He was not to make the sacrifices.

And Samuel told him to wait. And then after he makes the sacrifices, who turns up? Samuel. And he says, what have you done? What have you done?

And that expression, that phrase is used elsewhere in the abundance used of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden when they've disobeyed. God says to them, what have you done? And it comes elsewhere when people have sinned, and someone says, what have you done? And and I think that's an invitation to confess to say this is what I've done. I got it wrong.

But what follows very often is not that. Very often, it's what we see here. Verse 11. What have you done are Samuel, Saul replied, When I saw the men were scattering and that you did not come at the set time and the Philistines were assembling at Mitch Mash, I thought now the Philistines will come down against me at Kilgalle, and I have not sought the lord's favor. So I felt compelled to offer the burned offering.

What comes there is soul blaming the circumstances and blaming other people. The circumstances. The army were leaving. People were deserting me. And he blames other people, Samuel, where were you?

You were supposed to come. And don't we do that when we disobey god? We blame our circumstances, and we blame other people. We said, well, I I I got angry, but I was tired, and the children were doing everything in their power to wind me up. And you weren't there to help, and so I lost patience.

Everything was against me. Or we say, well, I I was lonely. It wasn't my fault. I was lonely. Or that things at work have been stressful or I'm ill or I'm feeling down or there's a whole load of things, and you weren't there You didn't help.

No 1 helped. And so, of course, I, I, I, I, I disobeyed. I indulged myself, or I disobeyed. In other ways, I got angry. I got upset and angry, and I I disobeyed.

It was the bad situation. It was your fault. I've noticed he says end of verse 12, so I felt compelled to offer the burned offering. I felt compelled. I felt compelled to sin.

You're saying I had no choice. I what else could I do? And we do that as well, don't we? We tell ourselves there was really no other option. I I I had no choice, but to be deceitful, to lie, to sleep with him or her, or or get angry.

And Samuel says verse 13. You've done a foolish thing. You've not kept the command of the lord your God gave you. And if you had, he would have established your kingdom. He says, Saul, let's be honest here.

You did a foolish thing. You've not kept god's command. There was another option. There is always another option. You make out, though, there was nothing else you could do, but there's always something else you can do.

The lord never puts people in a position where all they can do is sin. So you should have trusted God. Obeyed him and waited. And the thing is, as we read 1 Samuel 13, I think we look we can look at that and go, come on, saul. It was obvious.

Oh, Samuel was on his way. And the the the instruction was so clear, and all you had to do was wait. All you had to do was nothing. That easy? And I think the answer in this chapter is no, it's not.

It really isn't easy to trust and obey and wait. Sometimes it is incredibly hard. And we shouldn't downplay how hard it can be. Woodhouse in this commentary on on this, says this, for saul to trust God here would have required him to trust God against every instinct against every evidence. And for some here, for some of you, for some of us, at this moment, trusting god, obeying him and just waiting for him.

Can be very hard is very hard at the moment. I we tend to think, and we're that there are times in our lives where where there's maybe a particular time where we've gotta learn to trust, go, we wait. And we obey him. But the reality is these these times come up over and over again. We're in the waiting room, god's waiting room very frequently in life.

Maybe you remember back, I mean, I I was gonna say if there were young people in the room, they've got out of their group. But, you know, when they were waiting for for exam results or maybe to change school or to move on to university, you kind of think, oh, well, that's the big time, the big time of waiting, and you're unsure, you're uncertain. You'd look at people older than you, and you think, Well, they they don't need to do that because they've got their careers. They've got their family. They've got their, you know, everything is stable at that point.

And as you get older, you look back and you go, well, that's just naive, isn't it? Because we are very frequently in the waiting room. Waiting for god, and it isn't easy. And it's particularly difficult when as you're waiting, it feels like things just get harder, and things get worse. As it did for saul.

He was waiting. And as he's waiting, the army are starting to disperse. They are starting to leave, and it feels like things are getting harder and harder, and maybe that's how it feels for you too. Maybe you're waiting for something in particular. But it's hard, isn't it?

If the job hunt is fruitless, or if you're longing for a spouse or children and feels like that is going nowhere. Are you waiting for health results and you actually get results which are worse? The times of trusting, a bang, and waiting can be so hard. It reminds me, a verse in proverbs 3. Maybe it's a verse you know well.

Maybe it's a verse you've put on cards before, you know, it's a good 1 to put on cards to. You know, you write to someone there in go through difficult time. You ride it on the car. This proverbs 3 verse 5. Maybe you know that 1 trust in the lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

It's a wonderful verse, and it's reassuring and it's comforting, and it is a huge challenge. Isn't it? Because it's saying it's actually saying there are 2 things that can be going on that can pull you in different directions, trust in the lord, with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In other words, that's saying there are going to be times where your understanding will lead you away from trusting in God. It would take you in the opposite direction.

Whereas you look around, us all looked around, and we saw the army deserting, in his mind, he would be going, I cannot trust in God. How can I trust in god? How can I wait? How can I do that? My understanding says, go this other way.

And we could all find that as we're waiting as things get harder, we think, if there's no way, How can I trust god? My understanding says, go in a different direction, and yet the Bible says trust in the lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understand. It's a huge challenge, isn't it? Sol sin, we have to say, is not far from our own hearts. I wonder how long you would have lasted, as king of Israel.

How long would you have would it have been before you'd said bring a sacrifice? I think he did pretty well to get to day 7. I I don't think I would have lasted that long. Because I know my heart, and I know I wouldn't I would have struggled. And actually, that's true in all our hearts.

Here's saul's sin, He didn't trust and obey and wait. Now before we come to god's solution, I just wanted us to ask the question. What's the big point of this chapter. I mean, I and sort of what's the big point of 1 Samuel? What's the big moral lesson from from it?

What's the take home message? And in some way, we go back to a bit of what we talked about at the beginning of our series back at the beginning of Autumn. What's the big point of 1 samuel? And therefore, of this chapter? I sent out that video on the WhatsApp group.

And I said, I didn't quite agree with the last 30 seconds. Because in that last 30 seconds, he says, look, what's the big point of 1 Samuel with these big characters, particularly of Saul and of King David who we'll come on to? And the video said that the big point is that you are to see yourself in Saul and David. And, in some ways, that's what we've done so far, isn't it? We've said, well, look, there's Saul, and we can be like Saul.

But I wanna ask, is that really the point of 1 salmon? Is that what we're to do with it? Is the big message of chapter 13? Here's king saul just don't be like him. Is the big message there was saul, he failed.

You do better. Try harder. Do better than him. He was faithless. You be faithful.

How'd you go? Off into the week. Into the things where you're struggling to wait for the lord. Is the big point you do better than so, alright, after you go? Because that's often the Sunday school story, isn't it?

The Sunday school moral is, throughout 1 Samuel, don't be like Saul, be like David. Saul is faithless, David is faithful, be like David, apart from throwing stones. Apart from that, be like him. Well, as you can tell, I I don't think that's the big big message. In fact, I think we can, We can come into trouble if we go down that route.

After all, what's at stake for king saul? Well, we see verse 13. If he'd been faithful, God would have established his kingdom. For all time. So if we're gonna put ourselves in Saul's shoes and say, well, we've gotta be like salt.

No. No. Don't be like salt. We've gotta be better than salt. What if we fail?

What's at stake for you and me? Are we gonna be rejected by god? If this week, we make a mess of it? Is that what it's what's at stake? Now I think if we put ourselves in Saul's shoes in this chapter, we end up with a problem.

And I think we get this problem throughout 1 Samuel, and, you know, actually throughout the virus, throughout the old testament, if we just view it as a series of role models who were either to be like or not like, And I think it doesn't take into account that the big characters in the book of 1 Samuel are kings. They're not ordinary people. They're not just Israelites. They are kings. And the king was not just to be a role model for the people.

He wasn't just to live in such a way and everyone go, well, we should all be like him. Do you remember I said, Samuel said to said, sorry, God said to Samuel, that saul would deliver the people from the Philistines. In other words, the king is to be the savior. He's to be the champion, the hero. So now Put yourself in a sense in the shoes of the Israelites.

Imagine being an Israelite who has fled, and you're living in a pit somewhere. And you are terrified. And you look over the edge of your pit, and you look out. I imagine from your pit, you can see king saul, your king, and he is faithless, He is not trusting god, and he is disobeying God. You as an Israelite are gonna think we are in big trouble, and you would be right to be frightened.

And what's god's solution? Samuel doesn't get up in front of everyone and say, come on everyone, be better than saul. You can do it. First 14. But now your kingdom will not endure.

The lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people. Because you have not kept the lord's command. God's solution is another king, a king after his own heart. And who is that king? Well, to begin with, as we keep going through 1 Samuel, we'll see it looks a little bit like it might be Jonathan, Saul's son.

But what we'll actually find is it's not him. But King David. And I'm not particularly gonna comment about him being a man after god's own heart. We'll come back to that when David is chosen. But in chapter 17, we will find when we get there another instance where David is in some ways in a similar position to saul in this chapter.

David is in front of the Philistine army. And the people of Israel, the soldiers in the Israelite army are terrified. And what does David do? He goes out into the battle, and he fights on behalf of god's people against their enemy, trusting in god, and he defeats the enemy. You see, the message of 1 Samuel is not just, don't be like saul, b like David.

The big message is god's people need a king. You need a king. I need a king. We need someone who is gonna fight our battle for us because it is far too great for us to fight. The message is not just try harder, be better.

Because the endpoint of that message is to say you be your own savior. But once Samuel says you need a king to be your savior, but you need the right king. Not just any king. You need the right king, 1 who will trust god, who will fight for us. And as we go through 1, Samuel, we'll see David is kind of that king, but even he fails, in the end, but he points to our need of the ultimate king of Jesus.

And while we're gonna be challenged as we go through 1 Samuel, about our own lives and our own hearts, we need to read it correctly by looking at it and seeing where is the ultimate king? And that is Jesus. Our great king. And can you see how this chapter points us to Jesus? This chapter, chapter 13, what did Saul fail to do?

Trust, obey, and wait. And why? Because everything was against him. Everyone was deserting him. He feared he would be defeated, and he stood there in the moment of crisis and failed.

What about Jesus? At the end of the gospels, even though everyone was against him, though the religious leaders plotted against him. And even the Roman soldiers came to arrest him, even though his followers deserted him, though he was tortured and crucified He trusted, he obeyed, he waited, and it was agony for him, but he remained faithful. And he was raised to life on the first Easter Sunday, victorious over sin and death, our great enemies. And he is our king, our hero, our champion.

Now you might think what difference does that make to this week and the big things that I am having to wait for? Because if all we do with 1 Samuel 13 is to say, well, just don't be like Saul, then the application is kind of obvious. It's kind of easy to see, but it's impossible to do. But we need to apply the fact that Saul is not arcing. But Jesus is.

Imagine, again, take yourself back to that pit that you're living in, in fear. And imagine just go with me on this. Imagine you go to the edge of the pit and you look out over the edge of it, and you don't see king soar. But you actually look up and see on the hillside across where your king was crucified. And across the valley, you see the empty tomb where your king Jesus rose to life and defeated sin and death your great enemies.

What difference does that make to you that he is your king? It makes all the difference in the world, doesn't it? I mean, actually, you don't need to live in a pit. You don't need to live in fear. Day by day.

When very often we do, we live as if we don't have that king, that great king. We live as if we've kind of got a sword like king, but we don't. You have a king who has defeated your greatest enemy. And therefore, you go into this week with him as your hero, with the great battle already won. And being a Christian is to apply that to our everyday situations, and we're gonna need to think more about that as we go through 1 Samuel to see how having Jesus as our great king makes a difference to us day by day.

Because with him as your king, You are in his kingdom. The battle has been won, and you have life under him every day this week, and for eternity. We don't need to live in fear. We may still have to wait and trust and obey, and it may still be difficult, but as we lift our eyes to our king, that fuels us, gives us strength. To go into it trusting him.

You see, the big take home message from 1 Samuel is not that you've gotta be better than saul, but that Jesus, you're king. Is better than the sword. Well, we're gonna draw to a close. Let me just summarize the end of the chapter. The chapter ends on a bit of a cliffhanger.

The Philstein army have gathered verse 15, Samuel Leives. And that is a sad moment, and I'll let you in your gospel communities talk about why that might that's a sad moment. The Saul has a depleted army. He is now down to 600. The Philistines are raiding it's in raiding parties throughout the land, left, right, and center, and we see Saul and Jonathan and the remains the Israelite army, and we're told they didn't have weapons.

They've just got farming equipment apart from Saul and Jonathan. And so there's the army of Israel led by a faithless king gathered for battle with their farming equipment. And next week, we'll find out what happens. That's correct. Heavenly father, we praise you that, saul is not our king.

Thank you father that we don't have a king who is faithless, who didn't trust you, didn't wait, but that our king, Jesus, is infinitely better than saul. Infinitely better than David, that Jesus goes and fights our battle for us. Her father, please fill our eyes and our minds with Jesus and his kingship his great kinship, his love for us, his victory. And father, please, with that, so fill our hearts that as we go into this week, we can trust you. And obey you, and wait for you.

Amen.