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1 Samuel 10:17-24, 15:1-31
17 Now Samuel called the people together to the LORD at Mizpah. 18 And he said to the people of Israel, “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.’ 19 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.”
20 Then Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near, and the tribe of Benjamin was taken by lot. 21 He brought the tribe of Benjamin near by its clans, and the clan of the Matrites was taken by lot;1 and Saul the son of Kish was taken by lot. But when they sought him, he could not be found. 22 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.” 23 Then they ran and took him from there. And when he stood among the people, he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders upward. 24 And Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see him whom the LORD has chosen? There is none like him among all the people.” And all the people shouted, “Long live the king!”
(ESV)
15:1 And Samuel said to Saul, “The LORD sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel; now therefore listen to the words of the LORD. 2 Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. 3 Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction1 all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’”
4 So Saul summoned the people and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand men on foot, and ten thousand men of Judah. 5 And Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley. 6 Then Saul said to the Kenites, “Go, depart; go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. 7 And Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt. 8 And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword. 9 But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves2 and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction.
10 The word of the LORD came to Samuel: 11 “I regret3 that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.” And Samuel was angry, and he cried to the LORD all night. 12 And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. And it was told Samuel, “Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on and went down to Gilgal.” 13 And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed be you to the LORD. I have performed the commandment of the LORD.” 14 And Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?” 15 Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the LORD your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction.” 16 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stop! I will tell you what the LORD said to me this night.” And he said to him, “Speak.”
17 And Samuel said, “Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel. 18 And the LORD sent you on a mission and said, ‘Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ 19 Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the LORD?” 20 And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the LORD. I have gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. 21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal.” 22 And Samuel said,
“Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the LORD?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to listen than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination,
and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,
he has also rejected you from being king.”
24 Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. 25 Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may bow before the LORD.” 26 And Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you. For you have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you from being king over Israel.” 27 As Samuel turned to go away, Saul seized the skirt of his robe, and it tore. 28 And Samuel said to him, “The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you. 29 And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret.” 30 Then he said, “I have sinned; yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, that I may bow before the LORD your God.” 31 So Samuel turned back after Saul, and Saul bowed before the LORD.
[1] 15:3
[2] 15:9
[3] 15:11
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
If you have a bible, I invite you to turn to 1st Samuel chapter 15. You can also put a a thumb there on 1st Samuel chapter 10. We'll be looking at, both of those as we continue our study on the gospel through the life of David. Last week, just to remind you, we looked at how Israel decided how, worshiping an invisible king, God, was not good enough for them. After all, they had real physical problems.
Joel Brooks:They had physical bills to pay, physical food that needed to be put on the table. They had physical enemies just over the hill that wanted them physically dead, and so they wanted a real physical king who could lead them, who could fight their battles for them. They didn't outright reject God. They they still trusted him for forgiveness, for eternal salvation, things like that. But they just wanted him plus something, plus a physical king.
Joel Brooks:And God saw this as a rejection of him and his kingship over them. And in an act of judgment, if you remember, he told Samuel, give them what they want. Give them a king. And that is what we're gonna look at this morning. Is them receiving this king and the rise and the fall of Saul.
Joel Brooks:We'll get to look at the disastrous consequences of having a king. Now we've got a lot of text in front of us. This is gonna probably be the most we'll have to read as we go through first Samuel. But whenever you're dealing with Old Testament narratives, you do have to read a whole lot. So just picture yourself by the campfire, listening to a wonderful story because it is a fascinating story.
Joel Brooks:And I'm actually gonna begin in chapter 10, reading in verse 20. 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. The clan of the Matrites was taken by Lot, And Saul the son of Kish was taken by Lot.
Joel Brooks:But when they sought him, he cannot 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. Then they ran and took him from there. And when he stood among the people, he was taller than any of the people, from his shoulders upward.
Joel Brooks:And Samuel said to all the people, do you see him whom the Lord has chosen? There is none like him among all the people. And all the people shouted, long live the king. Chapter 15. And Samuel said to Saul, the Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel.
Joel Brooks:Now therefore, listen to the words of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts. I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek, and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.
Joel Brooks:So Saul summoned the people and numbered them in Tulum. 200,000 men on foot and 10,000 men of Judah. And Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley. Then Saul said to the Kenites, go, depart. Go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them.
Joel Brooks:For you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. And Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt. And he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fatted calves and the lambs and all that was good.
Joel Brooks:It would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless, they devoted to destruction. The word of the Lord came to Samuel. I regret that I have made Saul king. For he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.
Joel Brooks:And Samuel was angry. And he cried to the Lord all night. And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning and it was told Samuel. Samuel came to Carmel and behold, he has set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on and went down to Gilgal. And Samuel came to Saul.
Joel Brooks:And Saul said to him, blessed be to your to you you to the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord. Samuel said, what then is this bleeding of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear? Saul said, they they have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the lord your god, and the rest we have devoted to destruction. Then Samuel said to Saul, stop.
Joel Brooks:I will tell you what the Lord said to me this night. And he said to him, speak. And Samuel said, though you were little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel and the Lord sent you on a mission and said, go devote to the destruction the sinners, the Amalekites and fight against them until they are consumed. Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord?
Joel Brooks:Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said to Samuel, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag, the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord, your God, in Gilgal.
Joel Brooks:And Samuel said, has the Lord his great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as a sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you from being king. So Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned.
Joel Brooks:For I have transgressed against the commandment of the Lord in your words because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Now, therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may bow before the Lord. And Samuel said to Saul, I will not return with you for you have rejected the word of the Lord and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel. And as Samuel turned to go away, Saul seized the skirt of his robe and it tore. And Samuel said to him, the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you.
Joel Brooks:And also, the glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man that he should have regret. Then he said, I have sinned, yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me that I may bow before the Lord, your God. So Samuel turned back after Saul, and Saul bowed before the Lord. This is the word of the Lord.
Connor Coskery:Hear our
Joel Brooks:prayer. Pray with me. Father, as always, we thank you for this word we have before us, your word that you have preserved for us for over 3000 years now that we might listen to your voice, that we might hear from you and be changed to become more like you. So father, in this moment, may my words fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, may your words remain and may they change us.
Joel Brooks:We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. This story, like last week, begins with a search for a king. But this time it begins with a literal search for a king. It's kinda like hide and seek here.
Joel Brooks:Saul has gone and literally hidden himself underneath the luggage because he didn't want the job. Now you can read into this that Saul's just being a really humble man who who doesn't want the spotlight, doesn't want the power. Or you can see this as solving nothing more than an ill equipped buffoon who has no right to lead the people of Israel. It's kind of reader's choice at this point. When you see Samuel's response, it's not really much help because we don't know what he's thinking.
Joel Brooks:When Samuel's Saul's finally found and and brought before Samuel, Samuel says, look. There is no one like him. But we don't know if he's being sarcastic or not. If he's just or if he's trying to, you know, suppress a laugh as he sees, you wanted a king? Here he is hiding underneath the luggage.
Joel Brooks:Or was he impressed with his stature? Because the Israelites were when they looked at him, they saw this is the king we want. He's he's tall. He's big. He has a imposing presence.
Joel Brooks:That's the guy who can lead us into battle. We know how they feel because they're long live the king. This is the one who will finally rescue us. And we don't really know what to think at this point. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but we can say at least this, Saul does seem to be humble.
Joel Brooks:He doesn't seem to be grabbing on to power, not at this point. And actually, his reign gets off fairly well. He wins a battle. He pushes back those, nasty Ammonites. And and I'm sure that the Israelites were beginning to wonder why Samuel had given them all those warnings about a king.
Joel Brooks:If this was the fruit of their sin, well, up to this point, it was delicious. It's exactly what they wanted. But then things rapidly begin to fall apart. King Saul gets a taste of power and he likes it. He really likes it.
Joel Brooks:He starts making some questionable leadership decisions. And finally, in chapter 15, he has his Garden of Eden moment and he directly disobeys a commandment from the Lord. The Lord had told Saul to kill all of the Amalekites. The men, the women, the children, the infants, even all of the animals. But Saul did not obey.
Joel Brooks:And now at this point in the sermon, if I don't address this issue, it's likely gonna be a huge distraction for you. It'll kinda be like when we used to meet outside during the pandemic. Remember when we were meeting in the parking lot or the parking deck, and occasionally there would be a hawk that flew behind me? And I could see all of y'all just looking at the hawk. And I was like, why am I even here?
Joel Brooks:Why am I even speaking? None of you are listening to me in this point. And this is the hawk that's gonna be kinda flying around unless I shoot that dang thing down. So here it is. Why?
Joel Brooks:Why would God command something like this? How could God command something like this? How could He command that even innocent women and children and infants be killed? If we don't address that, he won't listen to any of the rest of the sermon. I'd love to just jump over this and get to the main points, but let me just quickly address this.
Joel Brooks:The reason that Saul is to spare absolutely no one, even the men, the women, the children, and the infants, and even the animals, is because this war was to be an act of judgment, not a war for profit. The Amalekites were a violent, wicked people, and they had been so for over 400 years now. They first make an appearance in Exodus 17 where they come and they attacked it. The weary Israelites who were just trying to walk through the desert. Later in Deuteronomy, we read that their actions were especially heinous because they prayed on the elderly, the the weak and the vulnerable that were in the back of the procession.
Joel Brooks:Kinda like a a lion goes after, you know, the the last week gazelle. They were subhuman, if you will. More animal than human. And God had been patient with them for 4 100 years. He had given them every opportunity to repent, but they hadn't.
Joel Brooks:And finally, even God's patience comes to an end and He says, enough. And just like he did with the flood, he does here. He says, it's time to wipe this wicked people off from the face of the earth. And so he asked Saul. Says Saul, as my anointed one, as my representative here on earth, you are to be the instrument of this judgment.
Joel Brooks:And just so everyone is crystal clear on this, everyone knows you're not going to battle in any way to profit from it, you can get no bounty, no spoil from this war. A matter of fact, this war will cost you, not profit you. Just so you know, this is not normative in the Bible for God to do this. He does this makes this command only one other time in in the book of Joshua, and it also was to be an act of judgment to a wicked people. And if you read through the rest of the Old Testament, you're gonna see that because Saul disobeys here, that evil lives on.
Joel Brooks:The the Amalek the Amalekites are kind of like the the monster in a horror movie that you think's dead. And then they keep reappearing and keep reappearing. The Amalekites are gonna keep reappearing all through the Old Testament, wreaking havoc and violence. Violence is gonna culminate in the book of Esther in the end, of the Old Testament there. In which Haman, who was a Amalekite, wants to commit mass genocide and kill all of the Israelites.
Joel Brooks:God's saying, I don't want that wickedness to endure. And so we command Saul to eliminate them. I know you might have more questions than that. I'm happy to go and we'll just sit down and have a drink and talk through with it because I've got some questions of my own and we could walk through it. But I do want us to get on to the main points of this text.
Joel Brooks:If you do have some reservations about what the Lord commanded, we can at least agree on this. He was crystal clear, wasn't he? Saul absolutely knows what the Lord has asked him to do. No question. Yet he disobeys.
Joel Brooks:Interestingly, he has no problem killing the women and children. He just has a problem killing the animals. And then not only does he disobey God, he actually has the audacity to set up a monument to himself after the battle. Who does that? I mean, let other people erect a statue in your honor, but he erects it himself due to his his own greatness.
Joel Brooks:He's come a long way from the man who was hiding under the luggage and didn't want power. Now he's setting up statues in honor of himself. He's being filled with pride with every success. So the Lord sends Samuel to confront him. And here we get to our second theological issue that might get you tangled up.
Joel Brooks:We have another hawk flying behind me that we need to address. In verse 10, we read that the Lord said, he regretted making Saul king. And when Samuel hears that, he gets ticked off at God. He cries out to the Lord all night. The theological issue is this, How can God have regret?
Joel Brooks:The Lord knows everything. This certainly seems here that, like, God is he's acknowledging he made a mistake picking Saul as king. And so do we worship a God who makes mistakes? If so, then I need to talk to my old youth pastor pastor because he told me that God made me, and God didn't make mistakes. And so I've got a lot riding on this.
Joel Brooks:Does God make mistakes or not? Well, in order to clarify this statement, the the author writing this almost immediately writes in verse 29, it says, just so you know, God is not like man that he should lie or have regret. In other words, the author is saying, I used the word regret earlier because I have to use some language. But God doesn't have regret like you have regret. It's not a human type of regret.
Joel Brooks:But I've gotta use some kind of human language to describe what he's doing as the best I could come with. But just so you know, he's not like man and how he has regret. So the author tries to clarify that later and just say he's not like us, But it certainly looks like from our point of view that God's changing his mind. Now Samuel, he went to seminary, he went to bible college and so he knows God actually doesn't change his mind. But that doesn't mean he didn't have a problem with what God was doing.
Joel Brooks:Actually for him, it created a bigger problem. Because he didn't want a king. Remember it wasn't Samuel's idea to get a king. Samuel told the people, you shouldn't ask for a king. It's evil.
Joel Brooks:He goes to the lord. He goes, it's evil what they're asking for in having a king. And it was the lord who told Samuel, go and make them a king. Get Saul. And so Samuel does.
Joel Brooks:And now Samuel's gotta go before the people and say, I made the wrong decision guys. Everybody's gonna look at Samuel as being the one who made the mistake, not God who made the mistake. Samuel's gonna lose face among all these people and he is ticked off at God for making him do that. I don't know about you, but I actually find comfort in this. I don't you know, whenever you read through stories in the Bible, do you ever, sometimes they're just characters on a page.
Joel Brooks:You don't really think of them as real people. Samuel was a prophet. You're like, oh, he's just Samuel. He's a prophet. He's a real person.
Joel Brooks:He's got a problem with what God is doing. He's like, you're gonna make me look like a fool. And he gets ticked off, but he at least goes to the Lord. He cries out to him all night long. And can can I just tell you that if if you have a problem with the Lord, if you're angry at something in His word or something that's happening in your life, go to the Lord with that anger.
Joel Brooks:Work it out. He's big enough to take it. He can handle it. He can handle Samuel's anger. And by the way, this story should actually make you walk away with a whole lot of confidence in the truthfulness of your Bible because no one creating a religion writes stories this problematic as a way of presenting to you.
Joel Brooks:Here's our ideal leadership. This is what God looks like. You don't write these things unless they actually happened. Are you guys okay? You're right.
Joel Brooks:We've already hit 2 theological issues. We're 20 minutes in, I haven't even gotten to the main points yet. Alright. Let's get there. Let's look at Samuel and Saul's confrontation.
Joel Brooks:Samuel approaches Saul to confront him and and the scene, it'd probably be best described as a comedy. I mean, Saul is literally surrounded by the spoils of war and yet when Samuel comes, he goes, blessings to you. I have obeyed all that the Lord has commanded. I mean, come on. When when I was a little boy, my mom made a chocolate cake one time.
Joel Brooks:I can't remember what it for. I think it was for my sister's birthday. I do remember the crystal clear command. I was not to eat of the chocolate cake. She didn't trust me.
Joel Brooks:And, and so she said, whatever you do, do not eat of this cake. And then she left. That was my Garden of the Eden moment. And like Adam and everyone else after him, I failed in that moment. I knew the command.
Joel Brooks:I understood the command, and I disobeyed it. And and I ate some of that cake. And then as only, like, some pathetic child could do, I tried smooshing the cake back together. And and in my mind, I had done an amazing job. Like, she'll never know that some of it's missing.
Joel Brooks:And then I washed my hands, and I thought everything was good. And my my mom walks in, and she looks at me. And she just says, is there something you like to tell me? It's like, no. She goes, are are you sure?
Joel Brooks:Like, is there anything you like to get off your chest? Not that I can think of. So then she just point blank asked me, Joel, did you eat some of the cake? No. Last time I'm gonna ask you this, did you eat the cake?
Joel Brooks:No. No. I had chocolate all over my face. It was all over there. This is Saul.
Joel Brooks:He's got chocolate literally all over his face as Samuel is confronting him. He's saying, I've obeyed the voice of the Lord and literally there's the sheep he was supposed to kill all around him. I mean, picture the scene. Samuel, I've obeyed him. Like, it's like kicking the sheep away, saying he's obeyed.
Joel Brooks:He has been completely busted in his sin. He knows it. Samuel knows it. You, the reader, know it. Why did Saul disobey God?
Joel Brooks:We know it wasn't for some ethical reason. He disobeyed God for the same reasons we disobey God. Look at verse 19. Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Let me just stop right there real quick.
Joel Brooks:That word obey is the same word for listen. So as why did you not obey us, why did you not listen? When Samuel came up and and Saul saying, I listen to the Lord. Saul saying, I listen to the Lord. Samuel goes, then why am I listening to sheep?
Joel Brooks:Why then did you not listen or obey the voice of the Lord? Then it's why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord? Love that word pounce. Any of you have cats? We used to have a cat, cat named Calvin.
Joel Brooks:We tried to name our cats after the reformers. I wanted Zwingli. We went with Calvin, and, actually, he was really hyper. He was our hyper Calvinist. A little theological humor for you.
Joel Brooks:But if you if you've ever seen a cat by the window when a bird comes right outside? It's creepy looking at the cat. That cat begins to have a spasm. Its mouth just starts going this involuntary just spasm of his mouth. Wants that bird so bad and you look it's like a creepy puppet.
Joel Brooks:It's kinda like a dog. If you put a raw meat in front, it begins salivating. This is Saul When he sees the spoils before him, he wants it. Like a lion seeing, a sheep, He pounces on it in order to fill his belly. Saul didn't listen to the word of the Lord because he was listening to his appetites.
Joel Brooks:That was the master of him. So why did Saul sin here? I could give you actually a lot of reasons. I could tell you that he cared more about wealth than he cared about justice. I could tell you that he feared the people more than he feared the Lord.
Joel Brooks:I could tell you how he just thought he knew better than the Lord, and all those things would be right, and they're found here in this text. But I think I could boil all of his motivations into one thing. He disobeyed the Lord because he simply wanted to. He just really, really wanted to. He knew it was wrong.
Joel Brooks:He knew it was sin, and Saul didn't care. He wanted the spoils of that battle, and so he listened to his appetite instead of listening to the Lord. You actually, see this also in in chapter 14. There's a little story there in which Saul is wondering if he should go to battle or not. And so he goes to the high priest and says, can we seek the Lord together and and get a word on this?
Joel Brooks:And so the high priest is like, sure. And so they're praying to the Lord as to whether or not they should go to battle. And in the midst of this prayer, a messenger comes in and tells Saul, hey, something has changed, out there on the field. And Saul literally gets up and says, y'all hold that thought, I've gotta go. That is unprecedented in the rest of scripture.
Joel Brooks:That literally you have a person, the high priest saw, they're in a conversation with God, and Saul gets up and says, hold that thought. I've got something important to deal with. And he goes and he sees a certain and he goes and he makes his decision after he sees the conditions are right. It's from that point on that god says, you're not gonna listen to my word, well, I'm gonna start shutting it out of your life. Why would I ever speak to you if you're not gonna listen?
Joel Brooks:We do the same thing, don't we? We pray, but then we don't wait for an answer. We open up our bibles in order to to see and, you know, to hear from the Lord. Lord, what do you have to say about the way we should be using our money? What do you have to say about what marriage looks like or what sex should look like?
Joel Brooks:Lord, what do you have to say about the role of politics in our lives? Or or what do you want to speak into about whatever hot button ethical issue of our day is? And we go to the Lord, we open up His word and like, speak to me. And then we get a message from the New York Times op ed or Washington Post op ed or from the latest podcast that was sent to us and we're immediately, we're over here and we make our decision. And we wonder why is God not talking to me.
Joel Brooks:It's because you refuse to listen. He has His word. He's given it there. And literally, you're in mid conversation, you say, God could you just hold that thought? Some more important information is coming my way.
Joel Brooks:And yet we wonder where has your voice gone? God's saying, I haven't gone anywhere. You have just refused to listen to me. The question is, are you listening? We talk about all the time, I'm having such a hard time hearing from the Lord.
Joel Brooks:Well are you listening? We know that Saul's not listening. We could tell he doesn't really care about the word of the Lord based on his response after he's called out for his sin because there's no repentance. I know it's gonna look like he kinda repents. He doesn't.
Joel Brooks:This is all for show. He does what so many of us do when we are caught in our sin. First, he just denies it. I mean, verse 20, he he actually has the audacity to say, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. Once again, as he's kicking sheep away, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord.
Joel Brooks:And possibly because he's hearing the sheep all around him, he decides, I probably should change tactics. And so he goes, blame shifting. It's the people. It was the people's idea to do this. They're the ones who disobeyed God.
Joel Brooks:Then he realized, well, that makes him look really bad because isn't he supposed to be the ruler of the people? And so, now he shifts tactics again and he's thinking, yeah. I got it. We, the the peep well, we all we kept the sheep to sacrifice to the lord. That's it.
Joel Brooks:And that's I'm sticking to that one. I mean, he's just thinking on the fly coming up with excuses. Samuel just goes, stop. Would you just stop? God doesn't care if you kept all those for sacrifices.
Joel Brooks:He just wants you to listen to him. He wants you to obey him. Listening to God is better than any sacrificial service you think you're doing. Are you listening to him? Do not listen to the people.
Joel Brooks:Do not listen to your stomach. Listen to the Lord. And because Saul refuses to do this, Samuel says because you won't listen to the Lord, the Lord is gonna remove you as king. And then the tears begin. Once again, these are not genuine tears of repentance.
Joel Brooks:Even later he says, will you honor me by going with me to worship? It's still all about Saul. He's just trying to save face here and Samuel sees right through it, and Samuel walks away. And and what is an amazing scene here. I mean, it's it's a made for TV moment or it should be on the, you know, the big screen.
Joel Brooks:Samuel is walking away, and I could kinda picture in slow motion, you know, Saul going, no. You know, he reaches out and it says he grabs the skirt of his robe, the corner there, and it rips off. And Samuel turns around and says, just as that was ripped off, so your kingdom is ripped off from you. It's an amazing moment there. And I I think that it is hugely significant that Saul tore off the corner of that skirt of the robe.
Joel Brooks:And notice it doesn't he didn't just tear off part of the robe. That would've been really hard to do, just ripping a fabric. Says he he tore off the corner of the skirt of the robe there, which would have been easier. And I cannot say this definitively, but I'll just say I'm 99.8% sure of this. That the part he ripped off is the part of the robe that's described in Numbers chapter 15.
Joel Brooks:In Numbers 15, we read this. The Lord said to Moses, speak to the people of Israel and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner. And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and to remember all the commandments of the Lord. To do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after. The Lord had instructed the Israelites to put in the corner of every robe something that would remind them that God's word was to be central in their lives and not the appetites of their heart.
Joel Brooks:And I think that is what Saul reaches out and he grabs and it rips right off. And Samuel's like, how appropriate. You've removed the Lord of God, the word of God from your heart. You have gone after the lust of your heart instead. And just as you tore that away, the kingdom is being torn from you and given to someone else.
Joel Brooks:So what are we supposed to take away from this story? There's so much there. How how does Saul's failure point us to Jesus? I've always heard it's not a sermon until you get to Jesus and it's not. Well, the thing is this.
Joel Brooks:The failure of this king simply reminds us of how much we need a true king. The failure of this king points us the need for a king who will obey God with all of his heart, soul, and strength. Remind us that we need a king who's committed to justice no matter the cost. A king who will, once and for all finally get rid of evil and not allow it to keep lingering on and on. And it's Jesus.
Joel Brooks:In Jesus, we find such a king. Unlike Saul, Jesus listened to his father and lived a perfect life of obedience. And while Saul didn't wanna lose even a few sheep, Jesus was willing to lay down His own life for the sake of justice, for the sake of having us. And Saul let evil survive. But Jesus went to the grave itself to fight the greatest evils of all, sin and death.
Joel Brooks:Our sin and death. Your sin and death. He fought and defeated it forever. Jesus is a king we've all longed for. The question is this, are you listening to him?
Joel Brooks:Are you trusting in him alone? The Lord gave us this table that we're gonna go to now as a way of remembering him. You could kinda think of this table like the blue tassels that were on the corners of the robes. God has always known that we need physical reminders of the truths that he has taught us, of who he is. And Jesus knew we needed a physical reminder, and so He used bread and wine.
Joel Brooks:On the night that Jesus was betrayed, he took bread and he broke it. And he said, this is my body given for you. In the same way, he took the cup and he said, this wine is my blood poured out for the forgiveness of sin. The apostle Paul would later say, as often as we eat of this bread and we drink of this cup, we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes, and our king will come again. Amen?
Joel Brooks:And use this time to do what Saul did not do, repent. I just wanna encourage you. God does not excuse he does not forgive excuses. He forgives sins. God does not forgive the person you pretend to be.
Joel Brooks:He forgives the person you are. So would you just come before him and confess? You have a gracious and good God who forgives you. At great cost to himself, he has forgiven you. Let me pray for us, church.
Joel Brooks:Father, we ask now as we gather together to celebrate communion that we would indeed commune with you. Through your spirit, Jesus, we would commune with you in this moment. Thank you. Thank you for your blood and for your body that you have freely given for our on our behalf. Amen.