Calvary Church is
dedicated to doctrine, and we want you to experience
the life change that comes from knowing God's word
and applying it to your life. So we explain the
Bible verse by verse, every chapter, every book. This is "Expound." Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the opportunity
we have to gather. And thank you, Lord, that
the way we are discipled, the way we grow is by giving
heed according to your word. Thank you, Lord, for this group,
those who come, who gather, who think it's important to
come in the middle of their week and devote themselves
to the public reading and study of scripture. We pray, Lord, as you
are a rewarder of those who diligently
seek you, would you reward those who have gathered
by speaking to every heart? You know the
conditions we are in. You know the situations
that we face. You know the decisions
we are up against. We commit them all to you. I commit every
person here to you and pray that you
strengthen each one. In Jesus' name, amen. The book of 1
Samuel is primarily about four people, a priest,
a prophet, a politician, and a poet. And we get them revealed
to us in that sequence. Begins with the office of a
priest by the name of Eli, who is ministering
at the Tabernacle when a woman named
Hannah who went there to the Tabernacle for the annual
feast cries out to the Lord that the Lord might
give her a son. The Lord answers that prayer. The son is the prophet Samuel. So we go from
beginning with a priest to a young boy named Samuel,
who turns into a prophet. She, Hannah, brings that
young boy to the Tabernacle after he's weaned to be
dedicated to the Lord to serve in the Tabernacle. Samuel becomes the prophetic
voice to the nation. He raises a couple
of his own kids. His kids aren't great. And because of their
failure, the people clamor for a king,
which introduces us to the third personality of
the book, the politician, politician by the name of Saul. Saul is a failure as a king. He's not the one that God chose,
a man after his own heart, which brings us
to the fourth who will succeed the politician. And that is a poet by the name
of David, David a shepherd boy, who is also called the
sweet psalmist of Israel. And so he is a musician, a poet. He's also a warrior. We'll be introduced to him
if we get that far tonight if I don't drone on and on. We'll get to that section. So we have those
four personalities, and we've already
passed the ministry of the first, the priest. But the prophet, the
politician, and the poet are all present in the chapters
we are dealing with tonight, Lord willing, if we get to it. But King Saul is somebody
who starts out with a bang, but he ends with a whimper. He had such promise. He had natural characteristics
and capabilities. He had supernatural enablings. Everything was given
to him for success, and he did start
off with a bang. I mean, he fought against the
people of the Eastern regions that had attacked
Jabesh-Gilead, the Ammonites. He soundly defeated them. So he started well. He started humbly, but
he started powerfully. But already, in
chapter 14, we start seeing him take it from a bang
to a whimper pretty quickly. And as they're fighting a
battle that Jonathan has largely won, his son Jonathan,
he starts seeing the stupidity and
the infantile pride of this politician named Saul. Saul gives an order,
which wasn't a wise order for any king to make. His troops are
fighting a battle, but he gives a command
that no one in his army can eat anything at all
even through and before-- and through the battle
until Saul has been avenged and his enemies are defeated. Well, that's just
a dumb decision because the troops need energy. The troops need fuel. And they were tired. Jonathan was not present
when that order was given. Jonathan was feeling his
reserves being emptied, and he sees honey in the
forest and being in a state, I presume, of being
hypoglycemic at the time, low on blood sugar, he takes
the honey and grabs a bunch and scarfs it. And his eyes brighten. You know, it's like
eating a Snickers. He gets a sugar high. And it gives them the needed
energy to finish the task. The troops see the honey. They don't take it. So something happens, takes
us to verse 31 of chapter 14. "Now they had driven back
the Philistines that day from Mikmash to Aijalon. And so the people
were very faint. And the people
rushed on the spoil and took sheep, oxen, and
calves and slaughtered them on the ground and the people
ate them with the blood." Now this is problematic. It's problematic not only
from a health standpoint and from a gross standpoint,
eating bloody raw meat, but from a religious standpoint,
from a levitical standpoint. For you remember in our study
of the book of Leviticus, in chapter 17, God said, "You
shall not eat the blood." It's forbidden. When you eat meat, you make
sure it's totally drained. But you don't eat the blood. "Anyone who eats the blood, I
will cut off from my people." For, God says--
here's his rationale-- "the life of the flesh
is in the blood." There's a sermon right
there in that verse. The life of the flesh
is in the blood. And God said, "It
is the blood that I will use to make atonement
on the altar for your sins." So as just a matter
of sacred ritual, you don't eat the blood. But the people
are just famished. So they take the spoil,
they take the animal. Once it's killed, they just
start eating the raw meat. So watch this. "Then they told Saul, saying,
'Look, the people are sinning against the Lord by
eating with the blood.' So he said--" this
is now the king, King Saul said, "You have
dealt treacherously." Now he's yelling at the
people for eating the blood because somebody snitched and
said-- rightfully so-- snitched and said, these people
are sinning against God. They're breaking
Leviticus 17, man. God said you can't
eat the blood. They're doing it. So Saul, instead
of going, man, that was a dumb thing to
tell them not to eat. He takes it out on the people. Says, "You have
dealt treacherously. Roll a large stone
to me this day." Then Samuel said, "'Disperse
yourselves among the people and say to them, bring me here
every man's ox and every man sheep. Slaughter them here and eat. Do not sin against the Lord
by eating with the blood.' So every one of the people
brought his ox with him that night and
slaughtered it there, and Saul built an
altar to the Lord. This was the first altar
that he built to the Lord." So evidently, it would seem to
counteract this sin against God in eating the blood,
he commands the people to bring their animals,
slaughter it, and have just one gigantic barbecue
on this rock that has been rolled to
him for that purpose, and he made an
altar to the Lord. Now, the fault
wasn't the people. The fault really lay with Saul
for giving such a dumb order. So the stupid rule eventuated
in this stupid sin. But Saul is not one to take
any blame for it at all and say, well, these
people are sinning. Actually, you've sinned
against them, Saul, in the way you have taken
them out to battle and said that they need to
avenge you of your enemies. Now, this whole
idea with the blood is an Old Testament
kind of a thing. But it is a Jewish sensitivity,
even in the New Testament. I'll refresh your memory. In the book of Acts,
in chapter 15 when there's a council in Jerusalem,
and the Jerusalem believers, the Jewish believers have
heard that the Gentiles have come to faith in Christ. And Peter even attests at that
council say, look, I was there, and Cornelius saw this
vision, and I saw a vision. So I preached the
Gospel to them, and they believe,
and they're saved. And so there's this
growing Gentile problem in the early church. The early church
up to this point has all been Jewish believers. But now you have Gentiles
with their unique practices, their different backgrounds,
their different ways of eating things. Gentiles don't keep
kosher like Jewish people. So the Jerusalem council
had to know what to do. And Peter said,
look, my council-- and James took it,
James, the leader of the church-- my
council is that you don't lay a burden on these
Gentile believers that neither we nor our
fathers were ever able to bear. And James, the leader,
said fair enough. Let's write a letter, and let's
tell all the Gentiles this, that it's your faith
in Jesus Christ alone that saves, not by works. But tell them to not
eat any animal that's been sacrificed to an idol. Don't eat blood. No sexual immorality
and nothing strangled. Now, sexual immorality
is something that would be understood. No Christian should
get involved in that. But the idea of no blood and
don't have anything strangled, these are Jewish sensitivities. You don't want to do
something that's going to offend Jewish brothers. So if you just watch
yourself in these four areas, you'll do well. God bless you. And that's how they
resolved the issue. So that little letter was read
to the Gentile congregations in the early part of the church. So it became and remains
to this day an issue among Jewish believers. But here's the point. Here's the point of King
Saul, back to our text. Saul was the kind of leader
that intimidated people. He could have been a
different kind of leader. He could have been a leader
that inspired people. Nehemiah was a leader
that inspired people. He came back, gave
his heart to the work, and because he did that
and set the example and encouraged and enabled
people and gave them the tools that they needed, instead of
giving out these dumb dictates, like Saul, the
people were inspired. And it says in Nehemiah, "The
people had a mind to work." And the reason they
had a mind to work is because they had a leader
who inspired them to the work. But not Saul. Saul was a leader
who intimidated them. And so the work was difficult. So nonetheless,
Saul built an altar. It was the first altar
that he built to the Lord. Don't think he's
getting all spiritual. It's all a show. "Now Saul said, 'Let's go down
after the Philistines by night and plunder them until
the morning light. And let us not leave
a man of them.' And they said, 'Do whatever
seems good to you.' Then the priest said, 'Let
us draw near to God here.'" I know you're going to war,
but as your chaplain, Saul, I recommend that
we pray about this. Let's draw near to God. Let's seek the Lord. "So Saul asked council
of God, 'Shall I go down after the Philistines? Will you deliver them
into the hand of Israel?" Notice this. "But He, the Lord, did
not answer him that day." Presumably, the priest took out
the Urim and Thummim, those two stones, one white,
one black, kept in the breastplate
of a high priest, worn on the ephod
of the high priest to discern the will of God
and special situations. It was brought out to
determine the will of God. God was not answering God had
nothing to say to this man. "And Saul said, 'Come over here,
all you chiefs of the people, and know and see what
this sin was today.'" God isn't answering because
somebody sinned. There's sin in the camp. "For as the Lord
lives who saves Israel though it be in Jonathan
my son he shall surely die, but not a man among the
people answered him." So Saul is interpreting
God's silence to be because somebody
else, besides him, sinned. The reason God
isn't answering is because he is the one that
brought this stumbling block that caused the people to sin. In Psalm 66 it says, "If I
regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear." If I am living a life
of unrepentant sin, God has nothing to say to me. He's already said
what he needs to say. I need to deal with
what God has said and respond in obedience
before God is going to give me any more information. So God is done talking to
him because he is regarding iniquity in his heart. James says something very
similar to that Psalm. In James 4, He says, "You
have not because you ask not, and you ask and you
receive not because you ask amiss that you might spend
it on your own pleasure." So God is not speaking to Saul. Saul wants to find who sinned. And then he said
to Israel, you be on one side and my
son Jonathan and I will be on the other side. He has an inkling that his son
Jonathan has done something. "And the people said to
Saul, 'Do what seems good to you.'" So far,
they keep saying this. Saul does things are
kind of questionable, but the people go, you
know, you're the king, whatever you want,
whatever you say. They're just acquiescing
rightfully so. He's the king. He's the one in charge. He's the government. Now, that won't continue. So just hold on. But they say, "'Do what
seems good to you.' Therefore Saul said to
the Lord God of Israel, 'Give a perfect lot,'" again,
a lot referring to the Urim and the Thummim, those
stones, the lots. "So Saul and Jonathan were
taken but the people escaped. And Saul said, 'Cast lots
between my son Jonathan and me.' So Jonathan was taken. And Saul said to Jonathan,
'Tell me what you have done.' And Jonathan told him and said,
'I only tasted a little honey with the end of the rod
that was in my hands, so now I must die?' Saul answered, 'God
do so and more also, for you shall surely
die, Jonathan.'" He is willing to kill
his son, who wasn't there when he gave the
dumb order, so he isn't culpable of any
wrongdoing since he was unaware. But Saul says, "'You shall
surely die, Jonathan.' But the people said to
Saul, 'Shall Jonathan die, who has accomplished this
great deliverance in Israel? Certainly not.'" Up to this point, there's
a do whatever seems good, do whatever seems good. Now, they go, uh-uh, King. We've been acquiescent. We've been following you. We've been obeying your orders. But this, we won't stand for. This, you've crossed the line. Thank God they had
enough sense to stand against the overreach of
their government at that time. To obey the laws of the land,
to give honor to Caesar, like Paul said in Romans 13,
but there comes a point when the government
oversteps and starts dictating things like
this, and people go, that is blatantly against
the command of God. That's not going to happen. And they fought it. Now, what's interesting
is that Saul is angry. He's angry that somebody didn't
obey his voice, his command. He should be angry
that somebody didn't obey God's voice, God's
command, which wasn't Jonathan. It was himself. But his anger is that they
haven't done what I said. Yeah, but what you said
isn't what God said. And because what
you said happens to contradict what God said, we
must obey God, rather than man. And that's where that law
comes clearly into play. And I love what the people
say, "Certainly not." Watch this. "As the Lord lives not
one hair of his head shall fall to the ground for he
has worked with God this day." Look, the only reason
we have the victory is because your
son, Jonathan, took a venture of faith
with his arm bare and defeated the Philistines. Had enough guts while you're
sitting under your pomegranate tree to go over into
the enemy camp and trust that the Lord could deliver the
Philistines into their hands. And he did. He's not going to die. "For he has worked
with God this day. So the people rescue
Jonathan, and he did not die. Then Saul returned from
pursuing the Philistines, and the Philistines
went to their place." I love how they phrase that. "For he has worked
with God this day." IT'S a great thing
to work with God. It's a great partnership. Find out where God is
working and be His partner. Find out where God is fighting
the battle and join the troops. Fight with God. Work with God. Don't ask God to work with you
or fight with you, your cause. Lord, this is a worthy cause. You should get involved. No, you should get
involved in His cause. Fight with God. Find out where
God wants to work. Find out where God wants
to fight and join that. One of my favorite stories
in all the Scriptures in Joshua chapter 5-- I'll remind you. You know the story. Joshua is about to fight
the Battle of Jericho, actually march around Jericho. He really didn't
do much fighting. But he's the general. So right before what he thinks
is the Battle of Jericho, he is alone, and he sees
a man with a drawn sword. Joshua looks at
him, and naturally the military impulse within
him thinks, you know, friend or foe? You know, is this
fight or flight? What am I going to do here? So he sees a man with a sword,
and he didn't recognize him. So he said, "Are you for us, or
are you for our adversaries?" And the man with
a drawn sword said no, which is an odd answer. Now the question
is are you for us or are you for our enemies, no. But he says, "No. But as the commander of the
Lord's armies, I have come." So what that means is are you
for us, are you on our side or you're on their side, no. Wrong question. Are you on God's side? I'm the commander
of the Lord's hosts. I'm the commander
of the Lord's army. You want to make sure you
get on my side, our side. So Joshua says,
what should I do. Joshua first bowed
down and worshipped. And then he said,
what must I do, and the man with a
drawn sword, whom I believe is a pre-incarnate
apparition of Jesus in the Old Testament,
said, "Take your shoes off. You're on holy ground." So I love this wording. I love the wording of saying,
"For he, Jonathan, worked with God. He's on God's side working as
the Lord wanted him to do." Because remember, Jonathan
said, to his armor bare, "What restrains
the Lord from saving by many are by few?" Let's just go over and
see if you and I can just take the whole army
down, which they did, because they were
fighting with God. So we're going to
end this chapter, and we're getting a good
profile of this man, Saul. It ends sort of summing up
by saying "Saul established his sovereignty over Israel and
fought against all his enemies on every side, against Moab,
against the people of Ammon, against Edom," sort of summing
up his military exploits so far, "against the kings of
Zobah, against the Philistines. Wherever he turned,
he harassed them. And he gathered
an army and attack the Amalekites and delivered
Israel from the hands of those who plundered them." The Amalekite battle will be
featured in the next chapter. "The sons of Saul were
Jonathan, Jehushi," which is a nickname for Abinidab. We'll meet him again later. "And Maliki-Shua." The names of his
two daughters were these, the name
of the first born, Merab, the name of
the youngest, Michal, which will become David's wife. "The name of Saul's wife
was Ahinoam, the daughter of Ahimaaz, and the name of
the commander of his army was Abner, the son of Ner,"
not the son of a nerd, but the son of
Ner, Saul's uncle. "Kish was the father of Saul,
and Ner, the father of Abner, was the son of Abiel. Now there was fierce war with
the Philistines all the days of Saul, and when Saul any
strong man or any valiant man, he took him for himself." So we have gotten a
pretty good profile, and it's going to continue
into the next chapter. Here's the profile. Saul, who started out right,
started out with a bang, started out in humility and
strength, fell into arrogance. He became an arrogant
person, prideful person. It was all about him. The arrogance led
to indifference. He didn't care about his troops. They're fighting a battle
all day, but I make a decree, you can eat anything
until you win the battle. That's just indifference, being
indifferent to your troops needs. So his arrogance
led to indifference. Now we will see that
his indifference leads to his disobedience. He's just blatantly going
to disobey what God said and that his disobedience
will lead to violence. He'll try to kill David
for about a decade. And then finally his violence
will lead to irreverence. Didn't care about God anymore. If God's not going
to listen to me. I'm going to get
a witch from Endor and call up anything
that can give me direction for the future. So we just see a man going
downhill rather quickly. Now chapter 15 verse 1,
"Samuel also said to Saul, 'The Lord sent me to anoint
you king over his people, over Israel. Now therefore heed the voice
of the words of the Lord.'" God sent me to anoint you. Now obey him. Now he's going to
give them an order, and I'll explain the order. But that's the
preamble to the order. I've done what God
called me to do. I've selected you as the king. You're the people's choice. But you need to
remember that you have to obey, listen to
and obey the voice of God. And he won't. He will say that he
will, but he won't. Now, let me just
set it up this way. You remember in
the New Testament, Jesus gave a story, a parable? He said there was a certain
man who had two sons. This is found in Matthew 21,
a certain man with two sons. And he told one of his sons, "Go
out and work in my vineyard." And he said, "I will not." but later, he regretted
it, and he went out and he obeyed his father. He said to his second son,
"Go work in my vineyard," and he said, "I go, sir." But he didn't go. Jesus asked the audience
which of the two sons did his father's will. They all said the first one. The first one said he won't
go, but he eventually did go. The second one said,
sure, I'll go, Dad. I'll do it. You can count on me. But he disobeyed. He didn't do it. It's a story of two sons. Do you know the Bible also
gives us a story of two Sauls? There's the Saul in
the Old Testament. There's a Saul in
the New Testament. The Saul in the Old
Testament is like the son who says, sure, Dad, I'll
go, but he doesn't go. The Saul in the New Testament
resists Jesus's call in his life at first but
eventually is conformed and obeys Jesus. That's Saul of Tarsus,
Paul the apostle. So just like there's
a parable of two sons, the Bible portrays with
the Old and New Testament the story of two Sauls. And this is the one who said
he would obey, but he did not. Now look at verse 2. "Thus says the Lord
of hosts, 'I will punish Amalek for
what he did to Israel and how he ambushed him on the
way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and attack Amalek and
utterly destroy all they have. Do not spare them, but kill
both man and woman, infant, nursing child, ox, and
sheep, camel, and donkey.'" Oftentimes, this text
has been pointed out as being incompatible with
any kind of a God of love. And people who want to dispute
the Bible, if they know the Bible, will point
this out and say what about this commandment? Why would God ever
give a command to a king, one of his own
people, one of his own leaders to go and utterly wipe out
an entire race of people, an entire group of
people, everyone, even including their animals. Well, let me give you a little
bit of background first of all on the Amalekites. The Amalekites were a
descendant of Amalek, and Amalek was the grandson or
one of the grandsons of Esau. Amalek settled in the
Negev, the southern desert, the southern region
of Israel, the desert regions between Canaan, the
promised land, and Egypt. They were nomadic. They were like Bedouin
tribes today, living in tents and going from place to place,
depending on the seasonal rains so that their flocks
could have pasture land. But they were known
in the ancient world as brutal, ruthless, marauders,
attackers, plunderers. Their name shows up in
several places in antiquity. In fact, there was a discovery
in Egypt called the Amarna tablets, and the Amarna
tablets give them the name that is translated, plunderers. They were known for
their vile worship. They sacrificed their
children and babies in their worship of their
gods, their false gods. So they killed their babies,
and they were brutal. When Israel left Egypt on
their way to the promised land, the Amalekites staged
an unprovoked attack against those in the rear part
of the children of Israel's ranks, the rear ranks,
where the older people were, where the slower
and infirmed people were, so attacked all the sick
people, all the old people and just killed
them, willy nilly for no reason at a place
called Rephidim as soon as they were entering into the land. So in Deuteronomy
chapter 25, God said there's going
to come a day where I am going to require
that you exterminate them from the face of the Earth. Now this was a judgment
of God, and people said, why would God do that? First of all, I
never feel like I have to give explanations
for anything God does. I'm not God's apologist. I don't have to,
oh, I better come up with a good answer
for that because look, that's not my task. I don't know honestly why
God gives a lot of things. But I do know that the
Amalekites were like a cancer and that if you don't remove
the cancer, it's going to grow. And here's what God said. Deuteronomy 25, "You will
execute vengeance or judgment upon the Amalekites, for
war with the Amalekites is going to continue from
generation to generation." if you don't deal
with it, they're going to plague you and
attack you and kill you from generation to generation. So that's the order. God is making good on the order. I told you that years ago. Now, wipe out the Amalekites. Saul won't do it. Saul will disobey God. And because Saul disobeyed God,
fast forward into their future. David will be living in an
area of a town called Ziklag. You'll read about that later. He has property and holdings
and family there in Ziklag. He goes out to fight a battle. While he's gone, the Amalekites
come in, torch the city, burn the city, take every
child, every person captive as plunder. Fast forward again to
the book of Esther, when a man by the name of
Haman-- remember Haman-- comes up with an idea that
every Jew in the entire Empire be exterminated, totally killed
just because they're Jewish. Kill them. And you know the
story of Esther. His name was Haman, and it
says Haman was an Agagite. An Agagite was a member of the
royal family of the Amalekites. Almost all of the Jews were
exterminated generations later because of Saul's disobedience. So verse four, "Saul
gathered the people together and numbered them in 200,000
foot soldiers, sizable army and 10,000 men of Judah. Saul came to a city of Amalek
and lay in wait in the valley. Then Saul said to the
Kenites, 'Go, depart. Get down from among
the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with
them, for you, the Kenites, showed kindness to all the
children of Israel when they came out of Egypt.' So the Kenites departed
from among the Amalekites." Now, do you remember
the Kenites? Some of you might remember
that the father-in-law of Moses by the name
of Jethro was a Kenite. They lived in that same
region, that desert region. These tribes often
mingled together. But notice that this attack
is a judgment of God, and it's a very
precise judgment. It's not going to be for
anybody who gets in the way. But not the Kenites,
only the Amalekites, only those who are
sacrificing their children in false worship, who will
continually plunder and kill until they're taken
out of the way. So the Kenites are separated. It becomes a very
surgical strike. "And Saul attacked
the Amalekites from Havilah all the way to
Shur, which is East of Egypt. He also took Agag." And remember Haman, later
on in the book of Esther is an Agagite. Comes from this. It's just a hard
name to say, Agag. But his name is not Agag. Agag is a title. Just like Pharaoh is the title
of the leader of Egypt or was, Agag is a title of the
leader of the Amalekite clan. That's what most
scholars believe, so from the royal class. "He took the king
of the Amalekites alive and utterly
destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the
people spared Agag the best of the sheep and
oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good and were
unwilling to destroy them. But everything despised
and worthless, they utterly destroyed. So he disobeyed God. Now the word of the Lord
came to Samuel saying, 'I greatly regret that I have
set up Saul as for he is turned back from following me and has
not performed my commandments.' And it grieved Samuel, and
he cried out to the Lord all night." I really like Samuel. I really can't wait to hang
out with Samuel because I see in Samuel a man
who even though he told the people, look, don't ask for
a king, the Lord will be king, he gave in to the will of the
people and brought in Saul. I believe, even though Samuel
knew that God's heart was to have a theocratic kingdom,
where God would rule over them, I believe he really
truly in his heart wanted Saul to be a good king. He wanted him to succeed. And so when he saw him being a
bonehead, failing at all this and disobeying God, it
really grieved his heart. And it wasn't like,
oh, what a shame. I mean, he really poured out
his heart and cried over him. He cried out to God all night. "When Samuel rose early in
the morning to meet Saul, it was told Samuel saying,
Saul went to Carmel. And indeed he set up a
monument for himself." I mentioned this last week. Now, Carmel, if
you've been to Israel, you are thinking of Mount
Carmel up in the North. This is not that Carmel. This is another place
called Carmel way down South in the desert, down in the
Negev, down by Beersheba, down by Arod, and
those desert enclaves. It was that Carmel
because that's where the battle was taking place. So he's coming back up
from that battle, stops at that place called Carmel. Says this is a nice place
to make a statue of me, so that people will admire
me because I am so awesome. So he does. And Samuel went to Saul verse
13, "Samuel went to Saul, and Saul said to him,
'Blessed are you of the Lord. I have performed the
commandment of the Lord.'" Did he obey the commandment? No, he disobeyed
the commandment. But notice how spiritually
he couches his words, his response to the prophet. Praise God, brother. God bless you. When you travel
with us to Israel, and you go to certain places
like the Mount of Olives, and there's people selling
postcards and beads and a number of
trinkets, they will know that you're an American. They will know that
you're a Christian tour, and they're going to come
to you, "God bless you. Jesus is Lord. Hallelujah. Isn't God good?" You know, they
know your language. They're ready for
you, and you'll go, oh, they're believers. I got to buy those dumb
postcards or that jewelry that will fall apart before
it gets to the hotel. I got to do it. Saul's got it down pat. "Praise God. Blessed are you, Lord. I've done all that God said." So Samuel said, OK, if that's
so, "'What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears
and lowing of the oxen which I hear?' Saul said, "They--'" again,
he's pointing to others. It's not, well, I figured-- it's they, those
people, those guys. "'They have brought them from
the Amalekites for the people spared the best of the sheep and
oxen to sacrifice to the Lord, your God.'" Very telling. "'And the rest we have
utterly destroyed.'" "Then Samuel said to Saul,
'Be quiet.'" I like Samuel. You know, he's a man
of God, and he does not have the fear of man. He fears only God. He respects the king, but
he is representing God, and so it's only right in
representing a disobedient king to tell him be quiet,
button it, zip it. Don't want to hear from you. Quit talking. "'Be quiet. And I will tell you what the
Lord said to me last night.' And he said to him,
'OK, speak on.' So Samuel said, 'When you
were little in your eyes, were you not the head of the
tribes of Israel?'" One time you had humility. One time you saw
yourself as not worthy. "'And did not the Lord
anoint you king over Israel? Now the Lord sent
you on a mission and said, go and utterly destroy
the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them
until they are consumed. Why then did you not obey
the voice of the Lord?'' That's what he told him
before he gave them the order. The Lord sent me
to anoint you king. Now listen to his
voice and obey it. Why didn't you do that? "'Why did you swoop down on the
spoil and do evil in the sight of the Lord?' And Saul said to Samuel,
'But I have obeyed the voice of the Lord.'" Liar. "'And gone on the mission
which the Lord sent me.'" Liar. "'And brought back
Agag, king of Amalek. And I have utterly destroyed the
Amalekites.'" Again, all lies. "'But the people took
of the plunders, sheep, and ox and the best
of the things.'" Well, you're their king, dummy. If you're obeying God,
why don't you say, hey, I'm the king, stop doing that? "'But the people took of the
plunder of the sheep, the ox, and the best of the things
which should have been utterly destroyed to sacrifice to the
Lord your God in Gilgal.'" So Samuel said, one of the
classic passages in all of scripture, one that
should be memorized, "'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 heed then
the fat of rams, for rebellion is as
the sin of witchcraft. And stubbornness is as
iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected
the word of the Lord, He also has rejected
you from being king.'" Let this be a
Warning to all of us. Saul heard the word of the Lord. Saul knew exactly
what God commanded. We know the word of the Lord. We know what is
required of us from God. He heard, but he didn't
mix it with true faith, and he didn't act in obedience. He couches it in spiritual talk. A lot of people do. Praise God,
hallelujah, bless God. They know all the Christian
talk, I love the Lord. God and I, man, we're like this. We're friends. And I've had people
who want to talk about people they
know are relatives who are living in disobedience. And they'll say, oh,
but they love the Lord. They do? They love the Lord
but they're walking in blatant open disobedience
sleeping with that person, doing whatever they're doing. But you're going to tell
me, oh, they love the Lord, or they pray to receive Christ. Oh, they love the Lord. Oh, God and I,
we're like friends. Jesus said, if you love
me, you'll do what I say. You'll obey my commands. That is Saul. Saul had all the right speech
but not the right lifestyle. You know God is not
impressed with pageantry. To obey is better
than sacrifice. You know, God
didn't go, oh, man, that worship service, that
song in that A minor key, that moved me. I dig that. I love that. Those people, man, they
put on a good production. You remember in Isaiah chapter 1
God said to his people who were worshipping in the temple
and sacrificing, He said, "'To what purpose is the
multitude of your sacrifices to me?' says the Lord. 'I've
had enough of burnt offerings of Rams and the
fat of fed cattle. Bring no more ablations. Incense is an abomination
to me.'" Whoa. When Cain killed Abel,
it says before he did that, he was angry
because God didn't receive his offering of worship. But he did respect
Abel's, not Cain's. But he did respect Abel's. And it says that Cain
got angry with God, and his countenance
fell, meaning he was mad and mopey, pouting. God said, "'Cain,
why are you angry, and why is your
countenance falling? If you do right, will
you not be accepted? But if you don't do right,
then sin is lying at the door. But you must master it.'" Cain, it's not about
your sacrifice. You're all bummed out that I
didn't like your sacrifice. I don't like your
sacrifice because I don't separate the
sacrifice from the one who offers the sacrifice. You're not living right. You're bringing a sacrifice. You're bringing an offering. You're saying
hallelujah, praise God. But look at your life. If you do right, will
you not be accepted? I'm not accepting your sacrifice
because I'm not accepting you. God never separates worship
from the worshipper. He's not asking for perfection. He's asking for
reality, authenticity. "'To obey is better
than sacrifice. To heed than the fat
of rams, rebellion is as the sin of
witchcraft, stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected
the word of the Lord, he's rejected you from
being king.'" And Saul said to Samuel, "'I have
sinned.'" You think? I mean, I admire his confession. And we all hear
that, and we go, see. He's trying. I'm not convinced. I don't buy it. "'For I have transgressed
the commandment of the Lord and your words because I
feared--'" here's the problem-- "'I feared the people. I feared the people and
obeyed their voice.'" The fear of man brings a snare. The Bible tells us that. The fear of man brings a snare. Pontius Pilate knew Jesus was
innocent, wanted to let him go. But it says the voices
of the people prevailed. Crucify him, crucify him. And that is often our problem. We have so many voices
of people telling us we have to think this
way and think that way and say this and say that. And it's just so hard
to fight against that. So the people's
voice often prevails. You just give into it. You don't want to
fight it any longer. "'Because I feared the people
and obeyed their voice. Now therefore please pardon my
sin and return with me that I may worship the Lord.'" OK,
I hear what you're saying, but at least let's go back
to where the people are. This is evidently
a private meeting. Let's go back to
where my troops are, and let's have a little
worship ceremony there. They can see you and I there
together, and it's good PR. That's the idea of this,
"'That I may worship the Lord.' But 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
around to go away, Saul seized the edge of
his robe, and it tore. So Samuel said to him, 'The Lord
has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it
to a neighbor of yours who is better than you.'" And that is David, and he's
introduced the next chapter, which I wanted to get through,
but I obviously can't. And also notice this
name for God, also the strength of Israel. That's the name of God. The Lord is our strength. "'The strength of Israel will
not lie nor relent or he is not a man that he should relent.' Then he said, 'I have sinned. Yet honor me now--'" you
see the problem here? OK, I sinned. I blew it. But honor me. You know, still go back. Don't leave. I want people to see
you and me together. Honor me, me. "'Honor me now please before the
elders of my people and before Israel and return with me
that I may worship the Lord, your God.' So Samuel turned
back after Saul, and Saul worshipped the Lord. Then Samuel said, 'Bring Agag,
the king of the Amalekites here to me.' So Agag came to him cautiously. And Agag said, 'Surely the
bitterness of death is past.'" Usually kings were slaughtered
immediately after a battle. There was really no
lag time, but there has been this conversation
between the prophet and the politician. And so it's been a while. Agag thinks he's in the clear. He's going to be fine. He's not going to be executed. So he says to Samuel, "'Surely
the bitterness of death is past.' And Samuel said, 'As
your sword has made women childless.'" Again,
they were Amalekites. They were marauders. They went willy nilly and
killed people all the time, slaughtering them. "'As your sword made
women childless, so shall your mother be
childless among women.' And Samuel hacked Agag in pieces
before the Lord in Gilgal." Yeah, that's a right reaction. It's a brutal scene. The prophet takes out the sword,
executes him, hacks him up. But that is what happened. Now, I'm going to
do this briefly, but I just want to
weigh in on something. If you were to read this in
like the New International Version and a lot of other
versions, it doesn't say this. It just says Samuel
put him to death. The text doesn't say that. The Hebrew doesn't demand that. The Hebrew is very clear. He hacked him in pieces and
the New King James is accurate. So there's been a
longstanding in-house debate among Christian scholars as to
which Bible version is best. I get asked that. Which is the best version
of the Bible to read? And I tell people, get
a literal translation. Get something that translates
the sense of the text. But in Bible translation,
there are two philosophies. There's the word for
word literal approach. We call that formal equivalence. And then there's a sort of what
is called dynamic equivalent, where it's not word for word,
but a sort of idea for idea or thought for thought
to make it more understandable to
the modern reader, so that when you pick it up,
you go, gosh, this reads so much easier than reading that other
version, which seems really exact, but a little bit
wordy and cumbersome and hard to understand. So I prefer that. Not only is there that
translation debate-- and again, I'm not going to
get too much in the weeds. I just want to touch on
this, and we're closing. But there's two
sets of manuscripts, in New Testament manuscripts at
least that have divided people. The King James, New King
James, and a couple of others take one set of manuscripts. The other take another
set of manuscript. But I'm going to push
that aside and just say if your version says
he put him to death, it's not telling you
how he put him to death, and it's not giving you
the exact sense that should cause that reaction
that somebody just had when they went, wow, heavy. The actual Hebrew says
he hacked him to pieces. Now, as gross and
brutal as that is, that's the reality of the text. And I think it is
meant to make that kind of an impression on us. So I prefer a Bible
translation that doesn't hide that nugget of translation. OK, enough said on that. Let's finish the chapter. So again, that's just sort
of a little hobbyhorse of mine, translations
and philosophies of that. But most people
aren't interested-- I won't delve into it. OK, let's close it off. "Then Samuel went to Rama." That's his headquarters. "And Saul went up to his
house at Gibeah of Saul, and Samuel went no
more to see Saul until the day of his death. Nevertheless, Samuel
mourned for Saul, and the Lord regretted that he
made Saul king over Israel." It says he saw him no more
until the day of his death. Actually, he'll see him
another time after that. I'll let you figure
out when that is. Some of you already
know the answer, right? Witch of Endor. OK, let's pray, and
then we'll close out. Father, we want to thank
you for the opportunity to just dig deep and soak
these things in your word, into our souls, into our hearts. Learning from history, learning
from the good example of Samuel and the bad example
of King Saul, as they are both honestly
displayed before us. Thank you that we
have a book that gives biographies
of men and women that doesn't hide the truth,
doesn't hide the facts, doesn't embellish, but tells
it like it is, tells us exactly who they were,
what decisions they made, and what happened. And Paul, we know, Lord,
referred to that in the New Testament, saying, all these
things that were written before were written for our
admonition, for our learning, for our encouragement. So we learn from good and bad. We pray that we would
take it to heart. Lord, that we will be
authentic and honest in who we are before you. Thank you for the mercy in
the New Testament, Lord, the grace in the New
Testament, that when there is true repentance, there is an
absolute and total forgiveness eradication of our
sins before you. You hold nothing against us. May we be more like the
Saul of the New Testament than the Saul of
the Old Testament, that even if up till
now we have disobeyed, we would go into your
vineyard, we would go work. We would work with you. We would obey you, rather than
just going through the motions and hiding behind platitudes
and hallelujahs and praise Gods. But in honesty, we would
be in sync with you. In Jesus's name we pray. Amen. For more resources from Calvary
Church and Skip Heitzig, visit calvarynm.church. Thank you for joining
us from this teaching in our series "Expound."
