Through the Bible - 1 Samuel

God, we do thank You again for the opportunity to even look into Your Word. We pray that You would speak to us, Lord. Jesus, You said that You would give us the Holy Spirit, who would guide us in all truth and teach us all things. So, Lord, we pray that You would do that work tonight, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

The book of 1 Samuel is a great book in the Bible. It's interesting; I think every week I tell you that the book we're in is my favorite book. I find a new favorite book each week. I hope you have as well as you've been going through this. It is just an awesome thing to be able to see God's Word in this way, to look at a snapshot of each book and understand what is behind it and why God gave us His Word.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 10, a verse that we've referenced every single week, verse 11, it says that everything the children of Israel went through in the Old Testament was written down. God called His people, the children of Israel, to keep it written and copied for our instruction, that we would learn from it. These things are not just stories to read right before you go to bed and think, "Oh, that's interesting and neat." God gave this for an opportunity to admonish us, to teach us, to instruct us, and to guide us in the way that we should go.

Hopefully, we can learn from the victories and mistakes of others. We are often doomed to repeat history by going through it over and over again, and we don't tend to learn from the mistakes of others. We want to try and figure it out on our own. In fact, many times, we enter into circumstances in our lives thinking, "I can handle this." People may come and caution us along the way, saying, "You know, I started to do that once, and it ended in disaster." We might say, "Oh, thanks for coming and talking to me," but in our minds, we think, "Oh, I'm stronger than you. I can handle this." But would to God that we would learn.

From the mistakes of others, we can also learn from their victories. We've seen some great victories as we've gone through this. The victory of the children of Israel as they trusted in God and He brought them out of the land of Egypt in Exodus is a significant example. The victory of the children of Israel as they crossed into the promised land in the book of Joshua is another.

However, we have also witnessed some defeats. A couple of weeks ago, in the book of Judges, the children of Israel continued in sin, and God allowed them to be sold into the hands of their enemies. When they were sore from all that, they would cry out to the Lord, and He would bring them a judge, a deliverer. But as soon as that judge died, they would do evil in the sight of the Lord once again and return to their sin. Isn't that the way we often operate as well? We find ourselves under the blessing of God, living in the promised land, yet we tend to drift and backslide. If you're not moving forward, you're going to be backsliding, as Scripture plainly declares.

If we are not moving forward and following hard after the Lord, as David wrote in Psalm 63:8, then we will go backward. It's almost as if you're climbing up a muddy hill in the rain. If you aren't continually climbing up, then you will drift back. Many of us live close to the ocean, and you've probably experienced the current pulling you along. You start out in front of Lifeguard Tower 6, and about an hour later, you find yourself in front of Lifeguard Tower 11. Everything has changed because you were pulled in a certain direction.

This world has a current, and it is pulling us in a certain direction. If we aren't following the Lord, then we will go towards the course of the world and follow the course of the wicked one. The book before us tonight is interesting because it clearly shows the life of faith and the life of the flesh. In this book, we have two central characters. Even though it is called the book of Samuel, the two characters are not Samuel. The first character is the man of the flesh, King Saul, and the other is the man of faith, King David. This story surrounds their lives, their ministry, and their reign as king. In one, we see a man who followed God faithfully, a man who loved the Lord and wrote hundreds of psalms, songs to the Lord.

Tonight, we sang some of those psalms that David wrote. "Thy lovingkindness is better than life." "Bless the Lord, O my soul." These are things that David penned three thousand years ago, a thousand years before Christ. He was a man after God's own heart. That's what you find in this book, the book of 1 Samuel.

However, there's another man, a man that I think, unfortunately, we oftentimes identify with, and that would be King Saul, the man of the flesh, the king that the people sought. But the book doesn't begin with those two characters; it begins with the man for whom the book is titled, Samuel. It begins in a very beautiful way.

How many of you took the time this week to read through 1 Samuel? Just a few of you. Well, how many of you have read through 1 Samuel before, the entirety of the book? Most of you have. The first chapter is so beautiful as you read about this certain man named Elkanah. He was an Ephraimite from the northern portion of Israel.

Now, the interesting thing about this is that Elkanah would come to Shiloh, to the house of the Lord, which was down in the southern portion of the nation. Why is that interesting? It's interesting because, as soon as the children of Israel came into the promised land, the northern tribes started to drift away from the Lord. Because it was a long journey to go down to the tabernacle, they began to drift back. We saw that in the book of Judges, chapter 17. There was a man named Micah in Judges chapter 17 who built his own tabernacle because he lived in the northern part of the nation. He figured he didn't want to go all the way down to Bethlehem, Judah, or to Shiloh to worship the Lord. He would rather stay at his own house.

Boy, have I heard that from some people before. They say, "I'd rather not drive five minutes to Calvary Chapel. I'm just going to read the Bible at my own house." However, the scripture says, "Do not neglect the fellowship of the brethren, the gathering together of the body of Christ." This man, Elkanah, did not neglect that. He knew that God had called him to go and offer his sacrifices and offerings there at Shiloh. Even though it took time, effort, and money from his own life to go down there, he did it anyway because God had commanded it.

Now, this man, Elkanah, had two wives. One of his wives was named Hannah, and we find in the first chapter that she was well-loved by her husband, yet she was barren. This is an interesting thing; he loved her even though she was barren. To be barren in this culture...

It was a shame upon a woman to be barren in that culture. Now, her rival, as the Scripture calls it, the other wife of Elkanah, had a whole bunch of kids. There was a rivalry between them. We probably never see this; women don't have rivals with one another ever. But these two did for some reason.

Hannah cried out to the Lord, asking God to give her a child. She made a vow, promising the Lord that if He gave her a child, then as soon as he was born and after he was weaned, she would give him back to God for the service of the tabernacle. God granted her petition. Eli the priest saw her there praying; her mouth was moving, but no words were coming out. He thought she was drunk and said to her, "Don't be drunk any longer. What are you doing coming to the house of God drunk?"

Hannah replied, "I'm not drunk like you think." This is interesting because those are very much the same words that Peter would say in the New Testament when the Spirit came upon the people on the day of Pentecost. They were speaking the praises of God in other tongues, and people said, "Oh, they're drunk." Peter responded, "These men are not drunk as you suppose." The Spirit had come upon them.

In verse 13 of chapter 1, Hannah spoke in her heart; her lips moved, but no voice came forth. Eli perceived that she was drunk, but she insisted, "I'm not drunk. I'm sorrowful of spirit." She was grieved to her soul because she had no children and was crying out to the Lord for this blessing. Eli told her, "Go your way in peace, and the God of Israel grant to you your petition."

Sure enough, she went back home, conceived a child, and brought forth a son whom she named Samuel. After the child was weaned, she brought him to the temple, to the tabernacle, and told Eli, "This was what I was praying for, this child. The Lord has given this child to me, and I made a vow to the Lord that he would be given to the Lord for service."

When she brought Samuel to the tabernacle, he was very likely quite young; in fact, he could have been seven or younger at the time. He was completely given to the service and work of God there in the tabernacle. No other work could be any greater for anybody, especially in bringing young kids to the Lord. That's why we're blessed to have a great children's ministry.

Here at the church, we want to be able to bring children to the Lord at a young age, so that God can use them for their entire lives. We desire that He would pour out His blessings upon them. The Lord did pour out upon this young man, this little kid. Throughout the first three chapters of 1 Samuel, you read that the child ministered unto the Lord. He grew and continued to minister unto the Lord.

This is interesting because, as you read those first three or four chapters of 1 Samuel, you find there is a lot of drama going on among the children of Israel. There are all kinds of crazy things happening, even in the tabernacle and the temple. Eli, the priest at the time, had two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. These men were not serving the Lord in an honorable way. They were stealing from the Lord and were involved in taking prostitutes unto themselves. They engaged in all kinds of horrible things that should not be associated with the worship of God.

Amidst all this drama, as they were stealing from the people and the Philistines were coming against the children of Israel, leading to their defeat, the word says that this child continued to grow and minister unto the Lord. It’s as if he was completely oblivious to everything else going on around him. While he was serving the Lord, nothing else seemed to matter. This is one of the greatest things about children; they can focus on something, and all the other distractions around them go unnoticed.

In one sense, this can be dangerous, but in this context, it reflects how God wants us to serve Him—by focusing on Him and forgetting about the rest of the world. It is so hard to do, isn’t it? This world is orchestrated by the enemy to distract us, to lay hold of our flesh, and to draw us away from the service and worship of God. This is one of the key issues you see with King Saul later on in the story.

The book of 1 Samuel is divided into three sections. The first section, from chapter 1 to chapter 8, deals with Samuel, who is the key figure in everything happening in this passage. As he continues to grow before the Lord, there comes a point in time, while he is still young, that God begins to speak to him in a powerful, verbal way. Every time I read the book of 1 Samuel, it causes me to cry out to the Lord, "Oh, that I could hear the voice of the Lord like Samuel did." There he was, as a child, in the household of Eli, and he goes down to sleep one night.

As he lay down in chapter 3, he hears a voice call out to him, simply saying, "Samuel." He gets up and runs into Eli's room, saying, "Here I am." Eli responds, "What do you want?" Samuel replies, "Well, you called me." Eli says, "I didn't call you. Go back to bed." So, Samuel goes back to bed. A few minutes later, he hears the call of God again, "Samuel." He gets up and runs into the next room, where Eli is, and says, "What are you doing here?" Samuel explains, "Well, you called me." Eli again insists, "No, I didn't call you. Go back to bed."

On the third time, Samuel runs in again, and Eli perceives that the Lord is speaking to him. He tells Samuel, "The next time you hear this voice, say, 'Speak, Lord, your servant listens.'" Samuel goes in and lies back down. God calls to him once more, "Samuel, Samuel." Samuel responds, "Speak, Lord, your servant listens." God begins to speak to this child, delivering a word of prophecy. He tells Samuel that He is going to do a work that the children of Israel will not believe. It is a powerful work that is going to take place.

As you read through this book and follow the life of Samuel, you see that he was not only a judge in Israel, although he was. This book marks the beginning of the time of the prophets in Israel. There was a period in Israel's history, after they came into the Promised Land and after Joshua died, when God led His people through judges. He would pour out His Spirit upon these judges, raising them up to lead the children of Israel and deliver them from their enemies. Samuel is the last judge and the first prophet. The prophetic ministry of God begins with him, and God begins to do great and marvelous things through him, including answers to prayer, such as calling storms to come, and they come.

God uses Samuel to speak forth the word of God, which is the primary work of a prophet. In the Old Testament, God's prophets deliver two different kinds of prophecies. One is the prophetic work of predictive prophecy, where they tell the future. However, even greater than predictive prophecy is the other form, in which God speaks through a man about His character, His nature, and who He is. God brings revelation of His character through these prophets.

As we continue through the rest of the Old Testament, which is filled with prophecy, we will see how these prophets relay God's heart and character.

God's nature is complex. He can be grieved, blessed, and experience great joy in His people. However, He can also come to a point of delivering them into the hands of their enemies, not because He wants to hurt them, but because He desires to see a change brought about in their lives.

In 1 Samuel 3:8, Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child. This is a significant verse, as it highlights the importance of recognizing God's call. Oh, that we would perceive that God is calling every single one of the children to Himself! God is not willing that any should perish but that all would come to repentance. He desires that every single one of them would come to the Lord. God is calling His people to Himself, and if they will hear His voice and follow Him, He will do marvelous and miraculous works through them.

In chapter 4, we see a very interesting story in Israel's history. The Philistines, the great enemy of the children of Israel, come against them in battle. On the first day of battle, they suffer a significant defeat, losing 4,000 of their people to the Philistines. That is a lot of casualties in a hand-to-hand combat situation.

The elders of the children of Israel gather together to discuss the defeat. Remember, Samuel is still a little kid, completely oblivious to the drama unfolding around him as he serves the Lord. The elders ask, "Why did we get smitten by the Philistines today?" Someone in the group has the bright idea that they forgot God. They decide to fetch the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. In verse 3 of chapter 4, they say, "Let us fetch the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us, that when it comes among us, it may save us."

It is important to note the use of "it" in this passage. If you ever come to a point where you see God merely as your good luck charm, like a rabbit's foot to help you through difficult times and win battles, there is a problem. They viewed God as an "it" to come and save them, reducing Him to just another idol. They thought, "Let's go to the tabernacle and get the Ark of the Covenant," which was the visible representation of God's presence among them.

The representation of God's presence was the two-foot by three-foot box that was in the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle, upon which was the mercy seat. This covering was where the actual visible presence of God, the Shekinah glory of God, would dwell in between the two cherubim, the outstretched wings of the angels over the top of it. The people said, "Let's go get the ark. When it comes among us, we're going to win this battle."

So, the children of Israel brought it to themselves. When the ark came in the midst of the people, they shouted so loud that the entire earth shook. You know what that's like. How many of you have ever been to a Chargers football game when it's a packed house, or a Padres game when there are a ton of people there? When Trevor Hoffman comes out, you hear the bells ring, and that place lights up. Everybody starts screaming, and the whole thing is shaking. That's what happened.

There were over 30,000 people, quite a bit more than that, probably around 100,000 people gathered together. They all shouted this great shout, this battle cry, when the ark came in their midst because they figured they were going to win since they had the ark. Did they win? No, they didn't. In fact, they got spanked the second day worse than they did the first. They lost 4,000 people on the first day and 30,000 people on the second day.

Not only did they lose 30,000 people on that second day, but the ark of the covenant of God was stolen by the Philistines. Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, these wicked priests, were killed in the midst of the battle. One of the people in the battle ran back to Shiloh and brought news of what just took place to Eli, the priest. Eli was a very old man at that point in time.

This young man came to him and said, "Eli, the battle has not gone in our favor. 30,000 people have died. Your sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of the covenant of the Lord has been stolen." When Eli heard that the ark had been stolen, the scripture says that he fell over backwards, broke his neck, and died right there.

One of Eli's sons had a daughter who was pregnant. When she heard the distressing news that her husband had been killed, that her father-in-law was dead, that 30,000 had died in battle, and that the ark of the covenant of the Lord had been taken, it says that her birth pains came upon her. The stress of it caused her to go into labor, and she brought forth this child, but it was too early to be brought forth.

In the midst of birth, she dies. But just before she dies, they tell her, "It's okay, you've borne a son. Your husband's name is going to continue on." However, she says to him, "Don't name the child after my husband." Instead, she names the child Ichabod, which means "the glory is departed," because she recognized that the glory of Israel had departed.

Now, this is the historical setting of this book. It's a pretty lousy and sad setting, if you ask me. But this is exactly where Israel was at this point in their time. They were in a time of great distress and great sin. It was during the same time of the judges, at the end of the judges, when there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. It was a life dominated by the flesh, by appetites and desires, as we see with Hophni and Phinehas. Because of this, it was a life marked by barrenness.

Remember, the book opens with a barren woman. There was no strength in Israel; there was just barrenness among the people. There was no joy in Israel because of this, and God's judgment was upon them. The Ark of the Covenant of the Lord being stolen from the children of Israel was God's judgment, and that was the very word that God had prophesied to Samuel as a young boy. He told him, "This is what's going to happen. Eli and his household are going to be destroyed." The reason was, which is an amazing thing, that God told Samuel Eli had failed to restrain his sons. This indicated that Eli had not raised his children in the fear and admonition of the Lord; he had not trained his children in righteousness.

That's the spiritual condition of the nation of Israel at this point in time. I don't know if you noticed the correlation or the connection, but are we not living in a similar time today? As you look around our nation, there is barrenness and a lack of strength because people have departed from the truth, from the Lord God. Yet, in the midst of it, God still raises up a prophet. He raises up a man of God, this young man, Samuel, through whom He was going to work miracles and do great things.

Well, the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord was stolen from the children of Israel, and in chapter 5, the Philistines brought it into their land. They brought it into one of the households of their gods, which is an interesting passage. It says they brought it into the temple of Dagon. And there, the first night, when they woke up...

The priests of Dagon went in there, and this false god, Dagon, had fallen over. The Philistines propped Dagon back up. If you have to worship a god that you need to prop up, you've got a problem. They propped Dagon back up, and the next morning, they came in to find that Dagon had fallen over again, but now his head was off and his hands were broken. Instead of recognizing that there was a more powerful God in their midst, they simply said, "Get this ark thing out of here," and they propped Dagon back up. Isn't that the way the world so often works? They don't want to recognize the truth of what is right in front of their eyes, so they just keep propping their false gods back up and worshiping those things.

One quick point relates to the wife of Phineas, who died after giving birth to a son named Ichabod. There is a prophecy in the book of Isaiah that talks about the grief that comes upon a nation when a woman in labor comes to full term and yet dies in labor. There is no joy in the midst of it, and that's exactly what was happening during this period of time.

Dagon fell over, and the Philistines kept the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord in the midst of their city of Ashdod for a little while. This ark brought them great pain because the Scripture says it caused them to have, as the King James Version puts it, "emirods." Now, "emirods" is a kind way of saying hemorrhoids. It brought upon them great distress. They took the Ark of the Covenant from Ashdod and said, "We don't want this in our town," so they sent it to the next town, Ekron. They said, "Here, you guys take it."

When it went to Ekron, it caused them to have the same problem. They experienced the same issue with hemorrhoids, and then they sent it to the next Philistine city. They just kept playing hot potato with this thing, not wanting anything to do with it. When it came to Ekron, the people there said, "Hold on a second. We don't want this thing. We've heard the news about it, so we've got to get rid of it."

The elders of the Philistines gathered together and decided they had to get rid of the Ark of the Covenant of God. They sent it back to the children of Israel, as noted in chapter 7, I believe. In chapter 8, the children of Israel came to Samuel. By this time, Samuel was a grown man with children of his own. He had become a judge over the children of Israel, and he had made his sons judges over Israel as well.

Notice it says in verse 2, actually verse 3, that his sons walked not in his ways. It's 1 Samuel 8, verse 3. His sons walked not in his ways but turned aside after greed, or lucre in the King James Version. They took bribes and perverted judgment. Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together and came to Samuel in his home city of Ramah. They said unto him, "Behold, you are old, and your sons walk not in your ways."

Because of this, what do the elders of Israel ask for? They want Samuel to make them a king to judge them. Notice this and underline it in your Bibles: they want a king to judge them like all the other nations. But what was the cause of this? It is important to note that even Samuel, this great man of God, did not raise his sons in the right way. They did not walk in his ways; they departed from the way of God. They perverted justice, took bribes, and committed wicked acts. As a result, the effect of his sons not walking with the Lord was that the people said, "We don't want God to rule over us any longer. We need a king like all the other nations to come and judge us."

Now they begin to depart from the Lord, and Samuel is grieved by this. He cries out to the Lord because of his grief. God speaks to him in verse 7 of chapter 8, saying, "Hearken unto the voice of the people and all that they say unto thee. For they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should reign over them." God says they haven't rejected you, Samuel; they've rejected me. He is to be their king, but they do not want Him to rule over them. Instead, they say, "We want to be like all the other nations."

Right there, the flesh rears its head again. We all struggle with this same thing: we want to be just like the rest of the world. It is just easier to blend in. If you are going to stand for the Lord and stand up for the Gospel of Christ, people may look at you like you're a nut. They may not want to hang around with you, and they may not want to be your friend. I have even had some Christians, especially younger kids coming up through the youth group, say, "It's just easier for me to not say anything about God, to just blend in, to be just like everybody else." The church has suffered because of that in our nation and in our day, because the church looks just like the world.

The rest of the world looked on as Israel, although they were to be God's chosen people and governed by Him, said, "We want a king to rule over us like all the other nations." God responded, "Listen, hearken unto their voice, because they're not rejecting you; they're rejecting Me." God knew beforehand that this would happen, which is why He gave them the law of the king in the book of Deuteronomy. He had told them how a king was to govern them and how he was to take care of them when they had a king. He also warned them about what would come upon them if they took a king.

In 1 Samuel chapter 9, we read about this king. He was a man from the tribe of Benjamin. His father was a man named Kish, who was a mighty man of power, meaning he was some sort of ruler in his tribe. Kish had a son named Saul. Notice this: in verse 2, it says he was a choice young man and goodly, which means he was good-looking. There was not among the children of Israel a better-looking person than he. From his shoulders upward, he was higher than all the people, meaning he was a head taller than everyone else in the land. He was tall and good-looking; he was the young, tall, dark, and handsome Saul. He was the people's choice when it came to a king.

As they looked around at all the people, it was as if they gathered everyone together and noticed that everybody kind of looked the same. But then they saw that guy in the back who was really tall and good-looking. They thought, "That's our king. We want a king that the rest of the nations are going to look at and say, 'Wow, that Saul guy is pretty awesome.'"

This is what the flesh does; it looks completely on the outside and cares nothing for the internal condition. The Pharisees during the time of Christ were the same way. We read about these men who were like whitewashed tombs. They looked great on the outside, but they were full of dead men's bones. This is what you find with Saul. He would have taken the People's Choice Award of Israel that year. He would have been the guy you'd want on the red carpet with you as you walked in. This was the man everyone would have looked to and said, "That's our king. That's the one."

However, at this point in time, he was just a man focused on his business. He and his father had some sort of donkey business in their land, and we read that his donkeys got away. God has an interesting way of doing things. It is truly amazing to see how God works.

As you read through His Word, consider how God judged the children of Israel just a few minutes ago. He caused the Philistines to come against them, and they brought the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord out there. They were defeated, and God judged His people through a very circumstantial sort of thing.

Now, God wants to get Saul's attention, so what does He do? God becomes a donkey salesman. He causes Saul's donkeys to run away, prompting Saul to go with one of his servants to look for them. They can't find the donkeys, and as they are getting ready to go home, his servant suggests that they pass by the city where a prophet, or seer, lives. The servant thinks maybe they could talk to the seer, who can tell them where the donkeys are.

Saul responds, "Well, we don't have any food. What are we going to give to him?" The servant replies, "We have a little bit of money, half a shekel of silver. If we go, maybe the seer will give us the word on the donkeys." So, Saul and his servant go up into the city. As they enter, they meet a group of ladies coming out to draw water. They ask, "Is the seer in? Is he here?" The ladies respond, "Oh yes, you can't miss him. He's walking out of his house right now."

They go into the city, and right as they arrive, they meet Samuel, who was waiting for Saul. God had told Samuel the day before that around this time tomorrow, a man from the tribe of Benjamin would be coming into the city. Samuel would know him when he saw him because he was good-looking.

When Saul approaches Samuel and asks if he is the seer, Samuel replies, "I am the seer. We have a meal going on. I want you to come up with us. We've been waiting for you." Samuel had gathered a group of thirty people together for a feast. During this meal, Samuel anoints Saul as king by pouring oil upon him, which symbolizes the Holy Spirit. He tells Saul that the next day he will receive three signs to prove that the word he is speaking is true.

In chapter 10, Samuel says, "The Spirit will come upon you, and He will make you a new man. You will see these three signs." Just as Samuel had told him, Saul sees these things come to pass, but it seems he does not really want to be king. He does not want to lead the people. Imagine, if you will, that the nation is in complete chaos and failure, everything is falling apart, and they come to you saying, "We want you to lead us and get us out of this trouble." How many of you would be signing up for that? That is exactly what was going on; the nation was in decay and falling apart.

They came to Saul and said, "We want you to be king." Saul replied, "Hey, I have a thriving donkey business. I don't need this. I don't want to do this." He told Samuel, "I'm the least among my father's house. We're the least of the tribes in Israel. We're nothing. Why are you choosing me?" At first, it appeared that he had the right mindset. However, as you follow the life of Saul, you find that it must have been some sort of false humility because it didn't measure up with the rest of his life.

Sure enough, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and there was some sort of change that took place. But just a few days later, when they were ready to show the nation who the king was, it says that Saul was hiding among the stuff. He was hiding out and didn't want anybody to find him. There was a group of people that said, "We don't want him to rule over us. We don't want this guy as our king." Yet, God anointed him to be king, but God anointed Saul for a purpose. The reason was to show the children of Israel that ultimately, that was not what they really wanted.

How many times have you done that in your life, where you prayed so earnestly for something, and then when you got it, you found out, "I don't know that I want this"? One of the amazing things I found as I studied through the Scriptures is that sometimes God gives us those things that we pray for, even though He knows that's not the best thing we need. Sometimes He gives us that thing that we pray for constantly: "God, oh please give me this. I want this. I need this. This is what I truly need."

After we've gone around and around with Him, and He's tried to tell us, "No, this isn't what I want to give to you," a lot of times the Lord relents and says, "Alright, I'm going to give this to you." Then comes the recognition, after you have it, "Oh man, this is a burden. This isn't what we wanted." That's exactly what God was going to use King Saul for. He could not give them the king that He wanted for them until they had the king that they wanted for themselves.

Notice that He could not give them the king that was after His own heart until they had the king that was after their own heart—a king that was completely focused on his own agenda. Samuel had told the children of Israel back in chapter 8 exactly what this king would do when he came. In 1 Samuel chapter 8, verse 11, he says, "This will be the manner of your king that shall reign over you. He will take your sons and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, to be his horsemen, and some shall run before his chariots. He will appoint captains over thousands and captains over fifties."

To plow his ground, to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war and instruments of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be confectionaries, cooks, and bakers. He will take your fields, your vineyards, and your olive yards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. He will take a tenth of your seed and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and his servants. He will take your men's servants, your maid's servants, your goodliest young men, your camels, and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take a tenth of your sheep, and you shall be his servants.

And yet, after all that, they cried out and said, "We want a king." Samuel warns them, saying this is what is going to happen. Notice how many times it says, "He will take." It's a huge price to pay for what very little they were going to get back. That's always the way with the flesh: a huge price to pay and so very little to get back.

Consider how the flesh desires the pleasures of this world. In Hebrews chapter 11, it talks about Moses, who chose rather to suffer with his own people than to receive the passing pleasures of sin. The pleasures of this world are indeed pleasurable. Let's be honest; there are many things in this world that can make you happy, but it's for a very short time, isn't it? The price is so huge to pay. It takes and takes, and maybe just gives a little bit. Yet so many times, our flesh says, "Ooh, I want that. I've got to have it."

That's what these people said. Samuel warned them, saying, "Listen, your king is going to take all this stuff from you." God told Samuel to tell them what their king was going to do, and all the people said, "Ooh, that sounds so great; we want a king." So, He gave them the king to rule over them.

When this king finally came to lead them and took them out to battle, you see, as you follow this whole thing in chapters 12 and 13, God had given him very clear instructions about how he was to go out to battle. God told him through Samuel, "Saul, when you get ready to go out to battle, first you've got to go down to Gilgal, this southern area in the nation, and you've got to consecrate yourself and the people to the Lord. Go down to Gilgal and wait for me for seven days, and I will come and will offer a sacrifice to the Lord."

Came against the children of Israel, and Saul took his armies down to Gilgal just as the Lord had said. However, he waits and he waits. Oh, it's the sixth day, and there's no Samuel. Then, halfway through the seventh day, there's still no Samuel. So what does Saul do? He says, "This Samuel guy ain't coming. Hey, bring me one of those bullocks over there. I'll sacrifice it for myself."

Uh-oh, because now the king was stepping into what role? The role of the priest. God had commanded that the king would never step into the role of the priest or the prophet. There was to be a separation between the prophet, the priest, and the king. Why? Because there's only one who can fulfill the role of the prophet, priest, and king—that's Jesus Christ. Saul was stepping on holy ground; he wasn't supposed to go there. Samuel hadn't shown up in his allotted time, and because he was an impatient man, a man of the flesh, he said, "Bring me one of those bulls. I'll sacrifice it for myself." So he sacrifices it, and right as he's done, who shows up? Samuel does.

Samuel asks, "What have you done?" Saul replies, "Oh, well, you were taking a long time. The Philistines are coming; we gotta do something. So I just figured, you know, I sacrificed. I did what the Lord wanted." Samuel responds, "No, you've done wrong." He tells Saul right there that his kingdom will not be established because of this.

What's interesting is that at that point, almost all the people's hearts left King Saul. When he gathers an army to himself, instead of having hundreds of thousands of people come to him, how many people did he have with him to go battle against the Philistines? Only 600 people would stay with him. The children of Israel were distressed because of the Philistines, and all the people ran and hid in the hills because they couldn't fight back. They had no power; they had no strength because their king was not a follower and worshiper of God.

In the midst of that story, it's a powerful thing that God does. God uses Saul's son, Jonathan, in a great story that many of the kids in the children's ministry have heard before, and you've probably heard it as well. One day, Jonathan wakes up and thinks, "I can't stand this waiting around anymore." He turns to his armor bearer and says, "Let's go out against the Philistine garrison." They were encamped on a hill on the other side of a valley, where the children of Israel were on another hill. Jonathan says, "Let's go down into the valley, and if the Philistines say, 'Hey, we'll come down to you,' then we know..."

God hasn't delivered them into our hands; we have to split. But if they say to us, "Hey, come up here; we'll show you something," then God has delivered them into our hands. So, Jonathan and his armor bearer go down there. His armor bearer says, "All that's in your heart, do." They get down in the valley and show themselves to the Philistines. They jump out from behind a rock, and the Philistines look down in the valley and say, "Hey guys, look! It's a bunch of those Hebrew guys." They then say, "Why don't you guys come up here? We'll show you something we have for you."

Jonathan turns to his armor bearer and says, "Hey, the Lord's delivered them into our hands." They go and begin to defeat the Philistines—just two guys with one sword. They beat back the Philistines and kill twenty guys within a half-acre. It says just these two guys went and started the battle. The children of Israel see this commotion going on, and all of a sudden, they're excited about the battle because they can see that the battle belongs to the Lord. God causes a victory to come about there, and it would almost seem that the Lord is going to start to establish King Saul.

God gives him one more chance and comes to him in chapter 15. God had told the children of Israel through Moses, "When you come into the promised land and you have rest in the promised land, you are to completely destroy, utterly destroy, the Amalekites because of what they did to you when you were in the wilderness." What did the Amalekites do to the children of Israel? You can find the story; look at it later in Exodus chapter 17. It says that they came out to fight against the children of Israel.

Moses gives us another bit of information that's important. I believe it's somewhere around Deuteronomy 25. He tells us the real story about Amalek. You know the rest of the story because when the children of Israel were going through the wilderness, Amalek was real sneaky. He would come into the back, behind the camp, and take out the stragglers—the weak ones in the back—just like the flesh often does. It feeds upon and brings battles upon those that are weak and weary, and it started to destroy the children of Israel quietly.

So, God told His people through Moses, "Remember what they did to you, and when you come into the promised land, you're to completely destroy them." Now the children of Israel are in the promised land; they have a king over them. Samuel goes to Saul in chapter 15 and says, "You're to go and utterly destroy the Amalekites. Completely wipe them out. You're not to leave women, children, ox, camel, donkey—nothing. You're not to leave anything. It's completely to be destroyed because the flesh cannot be allowed to hang around."

It's got to be completely annihilated. So, Saul says, "Alright, I'll go do it." He gathers his armies together, and they lie in wait. They spy out the city of the Amalekites, and there they went in and took the city. However, it says that they kept all the good stuff. They destroyed everything that was sick and dying, but they kept all the lambs and the goats and everything that was good-looking. They also kept Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive.

Then Samuel comes down to see what's going on after the battle. Saul goes to Gilgal and starts to offer sacrifices to the Lord. Samuel meets up with him, and as soon as Samuel gets there, Saul comes running out to him and says, "Samuel, it's great to see you! Everything the Lord has commanded me, I've done." Probably one of the most comical verses in the whole passage is when Saul says, "Everything the Lord commanded me, I have done." Samuel responds, "Really? What's that bleeding of sheep I hear and the lowing of oxen?"

Saul says something very interesting. He claims, "All the people kept the best to sacrifice to the Lord your God." He adds, "I have kept Agag, the king of the Amalekites, here so you can do with him as you choose." Three times in chapter 15, Saul says to sacrifice to the Lord your God. There was no recognition in his own life that God was his God. He could only point out to Samuel and say, "Oh, the Lord your God, the people kept back the best of the land." He tells Samuel, "I was afraid of the people; they wanted to keep it."

Obviously, he was no ruler, no king at all. He had no authority to tell them, "No, don't touch that; that's to be consecrated to the Lord God. It's not for us to take." So, he kept the good things of the land and did not slay Agag. It's a very interesting thing because he obviously didn't do a very good job of slaying everything from the Amalekites. God told him to utterly destroy the Amalekites.

In 2 Samuel chapter 1, do you know who ultimately took Saul's life? An Amalekite. We're going to be in the book of Esther in a few weeks, a couple of months actually. Who was the antagonist in the book of Esther? Haman. Do you remember?

What Haman's lineage was? It says Haman, an Agagite; he was a descendant of King Agag. This is interesting because when you get into the New Testament and start to study the line of Herod, King Herod, the king of the Jews during that time, you find that he was actually a descendant of Amalek. When you follow his genealogy back, you see this man named Herod, who killed all the children in the city of Bethlehem under two years old and ultimately gave the decree to have Jesus the Christ killed.

Saul did not take care of the flesh, and the application for you and me is that if we do not utterly destroy the flesh, then the flesh will destroy us. If you don't take care of the flesh, it will destroy you, just as it did with Saul. Samuel tells Saul in that passage, which contains beautiful verses. In 1 Samuel 15:22, Samuel says, "Has the Lord so great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices over obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen or hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as the iniquity of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king."

Saul cries out to Samuel as he turns and walks away, saying, "No, no, but I've done what the Lord commanded." He was completely deceived, completely deluded by his own sin and by his own flesh. He insists, "I've done what the Lord commanded." But no, he hasn't. He cries out to Samuel, "Turn back here and worship with me. I've done wrong; I sinned; I messed up." Samuel keeps walking away, and as he does, King Saul grabs his garment and pulls it, causing it to rip. Samuel turns around and says to Saul, "The Lord has torn the kingdom from your hands today."

From that point on in chapter 16, we are introduced to the third character of the book. God speaks to Samuel in 1 Samuel 16:1, saying, "How long will you mourn for King Saul, seeing that I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king from his own sons." Notice that in verse 1, He says, "I have provided for me a king." God had provided for Himself.

A king not for his people, he had provided himself a king after his own heart. I also want to point out something very interesting. In verse 35 of chapter 15, it says that Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death. Samuel no longer came to see King Saul until the day of his death. This is a very interesting passage because Samuel died before King Saul.

At the end of the book, right before Saul goes out to fight against the Philistines one last time, it says the Spirit of God no longer spoke to him. He didn't know what to do and was worried because he didn't know if he would be able to win the battle. In his desperation, he goes to a witch, which was completely forbidden in the law. He dresses up in different clothes so he doesn't look like King Saul and approaches the witch of Endor. He says, "Hey, I need your help. I need you to call somebody up from the dead for me."

She responds, "Well, the king of the region has said that we're not allowed to do that stuff anymore." Saul reassures her, "Oh, don't worry about him." So she agrees to do what he asks. She conducts some sort of séance and asks, "Who do you want me to call up?" Saul replies, "Call up Samuel for me."

Somehow, she brings up Samuel from the dead; God allowed it to be so. In fact, it appears from that passage at the end of 1 Samuel that even the witch was surprised by it. She is kind of blown away and exclaims, "Whoa, what's going on?" She had never seen this before. Samuel comes up and asks Saul, "What are you doing at this point in time?" Saul responds, "Samuel, I need your help. I don't know what to do. I have to go into battle against the Philistines, and I don't know what to do."

Samuel tells him, "You're going to die." Thus, Samuel no longer went to see him until the day of his death. Sure enough, that very day, King Saul would go and die, ultimately being killed by an Amalekite.

The first division of the book of 1 Samuel, chapters 1 through 8, surrounds Samuel. The second division, chapters 8 through 15, focuses on the life of the man of the flesh, King Saul. The final division, chapters 16 through 31, centers around King David.

A man after God's own heart, who we are not obviously going to spend a whole lot of time talking about tonight, is David. I greatly encourage you to study his life in 1 Samuel and read the corresponding Psalms that go with his life, because there are some very powerful things that you see in this man's life.

The first thing to consider is that he was the youngest in his family and had quite a few brothers above him. God tells Samuel, "I want you to go anoint a king from the family of Jesse." When he goes to Jesse's house, it says that Jesse passed by his first son, Abinadab. In verse 8 of chapter 16, when Samuel sees this son, he thinks, "Oh man, this has got to be the one."

Actually, in verse 6, when the first son, Eliab, walked by, Samuel said, "Surely this is the Lord's anointed." He looked at him and thought, "Oh yeah, I can see the crown on his head right now. He looks great; this is the king." However, the great words of God in verse 7 say, "But the Lord said unto Samuel, 'Look not on his outward appearance or the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord sees not as man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks upon the heart.'"

Then Jesse called his second son, Abinadab, and he passed before Samuel. Samuel said, "Neither has the Lord chosen him." Jesse made Shammah pass by, and Samuel said, "Neither has the Lord chosen this." Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, "The Lord has not chosen any of these."

Samuel then asked Jesse, "Are all your children here?" Jesse replied, "There remains yet the youngest." In fact, if you look at that in the original Hebrew language, it's almost as if Jesse says, "Well, there remains one, the least—not just the youngest, but the least. Behold, he keeps the sheep."

Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and fetch him, for we will not sit down until he comes here." Jesse sent and brought him. Now, he was ruddy and had a beautiful countenance, which means he wasn't really great looking; he wasn't all that good to look upon. The Lord said, "Arise and anoint him, for this is he."

This reminds me of that great passage in Isaiah 53, speaking about the Son of David: "There was no form nor comeliness that we should be drawn to him." There was nothing really about David that, when you see him, makes you think, "Boy, that guy is a great-looking king." He was kind of small and skinny, probably only about 14 years old.

At 15 years old, a kind of awkward age, the Lord said to anoint David. In verse 13, it states that Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brethren. From that day forward, the Spirit of the Lord came upon David. Samuel then rose up and went back to his home in Ramah.

However, note verse 14: the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. An evil spirit sent from the Lord began to trouble King Saul because he was no longer king. Even though Saul had the anointing of God taken away from him due to his sin and rebellion, he still remained in the position of king for 25 years. During this time, he continued to try to hold on to his position, all the while God had anointed David.

Over the next several chapters, starting from chapter 17, we see how God raised up David. After being anointed and exalted into the king's household, David found himself exiled and on the run for nearly 20 years as King Saul pursued him. The stories of this period are compelling. From about chapter 23 onward, we read about David fleeing from King Saul and the numerous opportunities he had to take Saul's life and claim the position that was rightfully his.

Yet, because of God's grace in David's life, he chose not to act on those opportunities. One notable story describes how David and his mighty men were hiding out in a cave when King Saul entered to relieve himself. While Saul was napping in the very same cave where David was hiding, David had the chance to kill him. Instead, he cut a piece of Saul's garment off. However, his heart condemned him for this act, as he felt he had laid a hand on the anointed of God.

David then went out and showed the piece of garment to Saul when he left the cave. Saul recognized David's mercy and said, "Surely you will be king." Yet, in the following verses, we find that Saul decided to come after David again, attempting to kill him.

David was once again on the run, being rejected and exiled for twenty years of his life, even though he was the rightful heir to the throne in Israel. He was God's chosen king, the man after God's own heart. Alan Redpath, a great Bible teacher, wrote a book years ago called "The Making of a Man of God," which follows the life of David. One of the things he says in that book is that before God can greatly use a man, He must greatly bruise that man. God takes him through a time of breaking, and this was that time of bruising and crushing for David as God prepared him for the work He was ultimately going to use him for.

David was tested through all these adversities, trials, and difficult experiences as King Saul sought to take his life. One of the greatest illustrations of David's grace and heart is seen in 2 Samuel chapter 1 when he receives the news of King Saul's death. He doesn't jump up and down, yell, scream, or have a party when he hears that Saul and Saul's son Jonathan were killed. Instead, he cries out to the Lord and proclaims a fast in the nation of Israel because King Saul had died. This reflects the heart of a man who truly was a man after God's own heart.

David definitely had his failures, which we will see next week in 2 Samuel. He had shortcomings and was not a perfect man. However, one of the most beautiful things about this is that none of us are perfect either. Yet, God can still use us in marvelous ways, just as He used David. If David had been perfect in all his conduct, and if we read the Psalms and 1 Samuel without seeing him mess up or sin, how many of us would really think we could do great and mighty things like David? We might think we have to be perfect before we can achieve that.

David was a man of faith, not because of his own works that made him righteous, but because God saw a heart that desired the Lord. That heart is seen so beautifully as we read through the Psalms. There were times when David was angry, expressing feelings like "break my enemies' teeth in their mouths." Yet, in the very same passage, he would turn to worshiping the Lord and confessing his own sin.

The story of David that we are going to focus on is the account of Goliath, the great enemy of the children of Israel who caused them much trouble. At this point in time, King Saul is still on the throne, and David is probably only 15 or 16 years old. His brothers have gone off to battle, and his father tells him that he must keep the sheep, as he is the least in his estimation and cannot go to battle.

In 1 Samuel chapter 17, the children of Israel are encamped on one hillside, with a valley in between them and another hillside where the Philistines are located. Every single day, Goliath would come down and mock the children of Israel. This giant of a man, possibly 9 to 12 feet tall, would cry out to the children of Israel, beating his chest and challenging them to send someone to fight him. He proclaimed that if anyone could defeat him, then the battle would be won.

In ancient cultures, particularly in Israel and the Middle East, there was a practice known as federal headship. In this practice, each side would choose a champion to represent them in battle. Goliath was the champion of the Philistines, and they challenged Israel to choose their own champion. The outcome of the battle would be determined by the fight between these two champions. If Goliath was killed, the Philistines would become the slaves of Israel; however, if Goliath won, then Israel would become their slaves. It was an interesting way to decide a battle, akin to saying that George Bush and Osama Bin Laden would duke it out, and whoever won would determine the outcome of the conflict.

For about 40 days, Goliath walked up and down the battle line, mocking the children of Israel. No one dared to fight him; they were all terrified. David, having brought provisions to his brothers, witnessed this mockery and was appalled by Goliath's defiance against the Lord and His army. He boldly declared that he would go out and fight Goliath, despite being just a 16-year-old kid.

They brought David to King Saul, who initially agreed to let him fight. Saul offered to dress David in his armor, but since Saul was a head taller than everyone else, David found the armor ill-fitting and impractical. He looked at the armor and thought to himself that it would not work for him.

I don't need this stuff. He takes the sling that he had in his hand and goes down to the creek bed that was there in the valley. He picks up five stones. It's interesting to note that in 2 Samuel, Goliath had four brothers. Perhaps David thought, "I might have to take out Goliath and his four brothers, so I'll just get five stones for good measure."

Then he speaks to the one who mocked him, saying, "What have you sent a dog out to me? What is this? Just a little kid coming out against me?" He takes that sling and declares that the Lord is going to deliver Goliath into his hands. He winds that sling up and releases it.

It's not recorded in our Bibles, but have you ever considered what the last words of Goliath were? It never entered my mind before. As he fell back, the rock struck him right between the eyes, killing him and knocking him down. David then goes and takes the sword of Goliath and cuts off his head. I can't imagine how big Goliath's head was, but 1 Samuel chapter 17 tells us that David walked around with it as a trophy for about three weeks, just like a 15-year-old. The Lord delivered Goliath into his hands, and thus began David's great battle ministry.

As David starts to lead the armies of Israel, it ultimately causes him some trouble. The ladies of Israel began to sing a song: "Saul has killed his thousands, and David his tens of thousands." Of course, the king didn't like to hear that, which caused some problems for David.

However, the power and strength of the Lord are upon one whose heart is given to Him. The eyes of the Lord look to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself mighty and strong on behalf of one whose heart is devoted to the Lord. David was that one; his heart was given to the Lord wholeheartedly. When God saw this, He said, "Although he's a 16-year-old kid, not very big or strong, I'm going to use him greatly for My work because he is a man after My own heart."

God is seeking those very same qualities in people whose hearts are devoted to the one true God. With those people, God brings about great defeats and great victories. In this book, you have the man of the flesh, King Saul, very clearly seen as a man who is fully focused on his own desires—what he wanted, how he could be strengthened, how he could be made rich, and how he could enjoy life.

Pleasure. Then you have another one: David, small, ruddy, nothing. His own father looked at him and said he was the least in his estimation, the eighth son of Jesse. Yet God would raise him to be the great king of Israel. You can still visit his tomb in Jerusalem today. It's a very interesting thing to go and see. Normally, those sorts of things are just like, "Oh great, you can go to Lenin's tomb or something like that in Russia." To me, it's just not that great.

But when we went to see the tomb of King David in Jerusalem, there was just something about it. It was like, "Wow, that's an interesting thing to consider." It's not some big, huge monument or cathedral; it's just a simple casket in a room. I think it serves as a testimony to this simple life.

The greatest thing about King David was not the victories he brought about in the land of Israel. The greatest thing about him would be his descendant, whom he would never meet here on earth: the Son of David, the Messiah, Jesus Christ the Righteous, the one who will sit upon the throne for eternity. Amen.

Let's stand and pray. God, I thank You for the story of this book. Even though it is filled with some tragic things, especially the life and death of Saul, it also shows us what You desire to do in our lives and what You can do in a life that is devoted to You.

Lord, if we will willingly offer ourselves, You can utterly destroy the Amalek that is in us—the flesh that every single one of us carries with us daily. If we offer ourselves as living sacrifices, You have given us a new heart. You've called us to be men and women after Your heart. We are children of the King, and Lord, we can have lives of victory as we see in the life of David here in this passage. Even though he wasn't perfect, and even though it would mean, at the onset, a life of great difficulty and trial, we will be filled with dreams and hope for You. Thank You.