Our Old Testament reading this evening is 1 Samuel chapter 10. This is also our sermon text this evening, 1 Samuel chapter 10. The Olivers got the prequel to this a few weeks ago in Corona. And we’ll be reading the entirety of the chapter 1 Samuel 10, beginning in verse 1. Hear now God’s word.
Then Samuel took a flask of oil, and poured it on the head, and kissed him, and said, Has not the Lord anointed you to be prince over his people Israel? And you shall reign over the people of the Lord, and you will save them from the hand of their surrounding enemies. And this shall be the sign to you that the Lord has anointed you to be prince over his heritage.
When you depart from me this day, you will meet two men by Rachel’s tomb in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah. And they will say to you, the donkeys that you went to seek are found. And now your father has ceased to care about the donkeys and is anxious about you saying, what shall I do about my son?
Then you shall go on from there farther and come to the oak of Tabor. Three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you there, one carrying three young goats, another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a skin of wine. And they will greet you and give you two loaves of bread, which you shall accept from their hands. After that, you shall come to Gibeath Elohim, where there is a garrison of the Philistines. And there, as soon as you come to the city, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with harp, tambourine, flute, and lyre before them, prophesying. Then the Spirit of the Lord will rush upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man.
Now, when these signs meet you, do what your hand finds to do, for God is with you. then go down before me to Gilgal. And behold, I am coming down to you to offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice peace offerings. Seven days you shall wait until I come to you and show you what you shall do.” When he turned his back to leave Samuel, God gave him another heart. And all these signs came to pass that day.
When they came to Gibeah, behold, a group of prophets met him, and the Spirit of God rushed upon him, and he prophesied among them. And when all who knew him previously saw how he prophesied with the prophets, the people said to one another, what has come over the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets? And a man of the place answered, and who is their father? Therefore it became a proverb, is Saul also among the prophets? When he had finished prophesying, he came to the high place.
Saul’s uncle said to him and to his servant, where did you go? And he said, to seek the donkeys. And when we saw that they were not to be found, we went to Samuel. And Saul’s uncle said, please tell me what Samuel said to you. And Saul said to his uncle, he told us plainly that the donkeys had been found. But about the matter of the kingdom of which Samuel had spoken, he did not tell him anything.
Now Samuel called the people together to the Lord at Mizpah. And he said to the people of Israel, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you. But today you have rejected your God, who saves you from all your calamities and your distresses. And you have said to him, set a king over us, Now, therefore, present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your thousands.’ Then Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near, and the tribe of Benjamin was taken by Lot. He brought the tribe of Benjamin near by its clans, and the clan of the Matrites was taken by Lot. And Saul, the son of Kish, was taken by Lot.
But when they sought him, he could not be found. So they inquired again of the Lord, is there a man still to come? And the Lord said, behold, he has hidden himself among the baggage. Then they ran and took him from there. And when he stood among the people, he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders upward. And Samuel said to all the people, do you see him whom the Lord has chosen? There is none like him among all the people. And all the people shouted, long live the king. Then Samuel told the people the rights and duties of the kingship, and he wrote them in a book and laid it up before the Lord.
Then Samuel sent all the people away, each one to his home. Saul also went to his home at Gibeah, and with him went men of valor whose hearts God had touched. But some worthless fellows said, how can this man save us? And they despised him and brought him no present, but he held his peace.
Thus far the reading of God’s word. And now for our New Testament reading, we turn to the letter to the Hebrews chapter one. And we’ll be reading verses one through nine. Once again, hear now God’s word. Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.
But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God, and the exact imprint of his nature. And he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. For to which of the angels did God ever say, you are my son, today I have begotten you. Or again, I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, let all God’s angels worship him. Of the angels, he says, he makes his angels’ winds and his ministers a flame of fire.
But of the sun, he says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.
Thus far the reading of God’s word. Would you join me in prayer? Father, as we come to your word this evening, Lord, have mercy upon us. Christ, have mercy upon us. I do pray that you would be both with the speaker and the hearers this evening, and that you would truly illuminate your word to us. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, I think you would agree with me if I were to summarize our lives, summarize the various experiences. Though different that they are, I would guess that most of us, or probably all of us would agree with the sentiment that we live in a world of broken promises.
That we live in a world where day after day, week after week, year after year, we have hopes that are shattered, we have people who make promises to us that then go on to lie to our faces. I mean, there’s really not an area of our lives that is not touched by that reality, that there are broken promises all around us.
I mean, every ad on my television right now is for politicians, for ad campaigns that are making promises. And more than likely, they will not keep those promises that they make during this election cycle. or if it’s not politicians, look at any advertisement, look at any commercial or ad that you see online or in a magazine, and again, there’s a promise held out. If you buy this product, your life will be better. If you buy this thing, you will be satisfied, and yet, they still keep making new iPhones, they still keep making new cars, and somehow it hasn’t satisfied us yet.
But even closer to home, when we think about our closest relationships, so often those deepest, dearest relationships that we have are marked by broken promises. whether it’s someone we love who has showed themselves to be not who they seem to be at face value or at first glance, or on the other end, how many times have we made a promise? We were gonna be faithful this time, and we have failed. We have not lived up to what we told someone we would do. And that’s why our songs, our books, our movies are filled with stories of this, of broken hearts.
And the options that I was going to go with were either Dostoevsky or Billy Joel. I went with Billy Joel for illuminating this fact. But Billy Joel has that great line in one of his songs where he says, but I don’t want some pretty face to tell me pretty lies.
All I want is someone to believe. And then the chorus, you know, honesty is such a lonely word. Everyone is so untrue. Honesty is hardly ever heard and mostly what I need from you. And that’s really what we just want people to be honest. We want people to tell it like it is, to be faithful to the promises that they make.
And it makes sense, because of the world that we live in, that we might transfer some of this mistrust to God. That we’re maybe gun-shy, because God has made promises to us, but we’ve been burned before, and so we might be a little hesitant to truly, at times, put our faith all the way, to really trust God with everything. Right, again, we’re primed, you know, sometimes against those who we trust the most, who betray us the most profoundly. Oftentimes it’s because we are trusting God, we’re waiting on Him to fulfill a certain promise that He has made, and it feels like we’re waiting and waiting and asking God, when is this going to come to fruition? Or again, and we can consider ourselves, you know, I have been unfaithful to God so many times, will God continue to be faithful to me? And yet while it’s understandable on one level that we can be shaky in our trust of God, on another level it is completely unfounded when we consider how faithful God has been.
When we just consider the record of scripture and see how faithful time after time God is to his people, as we consider our own lives and how faithful God has been time and time again to us. And yet we do need that reminder. We need to be reaffirmed. We need God to, once again, tell us, declare to us, I will be faithful to you. And in a text perhaps as strange as the one we just read in 1 Samuel, that is what we see.
We see God affirming to us, affirming to his people that, in all situations, that he will be a God who is reliable, that he will be a God true to his word. So that’s what I want us to see, that God will be true to his word. And I wanna see that under three headings this evening. The first is this, as we see God’s sure word to his king. We see God’s sure word to his king.
And then we’re jumping right into this narrative. But just a couple chapters before, the people in 1 Samuel and chapter eight, they’ve asked God for a king. And we see they’re asking for all the wrong reasons. They’re hard-hearted, they have poor motives, they want a king like the nations. And yet, surprisingly, at the end of chapter eight, God grants that request.
God gives them, or he says, I’m going to give you a king. He tells Samuel to appoint a king for them. And in chapter nine, he reveals who this man is. He reveals it’s gonna be Saul, the son of Kish. And then in chapter 10, we see this great act of God designating Saul, you are going to be the king of my people.
He appoints Saul, and we see that there’s this anointing ceremony that Samuel conducts on Saul. He anoints him with oil. Literally, to be anointed means to have oil poured on you, and it was this symbolic picture of you being designated, you being called out by God for a specific role. And not only does God anoint him, not only does he declare through his spokesperson, Samuel, that Saul, you are my king, but if Saul has any doubts as to whether or not God is true to his word, he gives them this series of signs that will confirm this calling.
If you have any doubt, just on your way home, you’ll see some things happen, and you will know that I am the one who has done this. Similar to, you’ll recall, God does this often in scripture. Think of Gideon and his fleece. God, if you really want me to go and attack, then make this fleece wet, and then again, make it dry. And God affirms, this is a sign that I am telling you what to do, that you can trust me.
And here now, we see as Saul returns, a pretty short route, but he’s coming from Ramah back to his hometown of Gibeah, as he comes back from looking for these lost donkeys. And we see three signs that God gives him first, as he’s coming through Rachel’s tomb, or the area where Rachel’s tomb is, Bethlehem. We are told that someone’s gonna say, hey, your donkeys are found, you don’t have to worry about them.
And then later on, you’re gonna go to this terebinth tree, and people are gonna be going up to worship, and they’re gonna give you this ceremonial bread, this sacrificial bread, which even that’s an indication. Just like later on, David will be given the altar bread, as he is anointed king. And then finally, as you come to Gibeah, as you are approaching your hometown, the spirit of the Lord is gonna rush upon you and you’re gonna prophesy. You’re gonna have this ecstatic experience of speaking God’s words to his people.
So if these were to just happen, they would have been seemingly random events, but God declares them beforehand so that Saul knows. No, this is confirmed. God is showing these things will take place. But not only does God give his sure word to Saul, he puts his sure word in Saul’s mouth. He makes him, he anoints him with this oil, but he also anoints him through pouring out his Holy Spirit on him and making him, at least temporarily, a spokesperson for God, speaking the words of God. And of course, he’s not just doing this randomly.
Again, this is to confirm that you have a very specific job to do. That is the point of God giving these signs. We see in verses 1 through 6, it’s Samuel saying, this is what’s going to happen. And then in verses 9 through 18, we see the narrative playing out. 1, 2, 3, all these things fall into place. But again, it’s because Saul has a very specific job to do. That’s the point of these confirming signs. So what is the purpose?
Very clearly we see it in chapter 9 as God declares this to Samuel in chapter 9 verse 16. He says, tomorrow about this time I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel and he shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines. And then that’s affirmed to Saul in chapter 10 verse 1, right? And you shall reign over the people of God and you shall save them from the hand of all their all your surrounding enemies. So God gives him these signs. He pours out his spirit upon him. He confirms him by anointing him.
And then we have immediately two failures on Saul’s part. Immediately after God confirms his signs to Saul. The first, it’s a little bit subtle, but we see in verse five there’s this implication that Saul, as he’s going home, he’s going to encounter a garrison of the Philistines. And it’s not as though Saul doesn’t know that there’s a garrison of the Philistines down the road from his house, right?
Again, the Philistines, the Israelites want them out. And it seems the implication is that when the Spirit of God rushes upon you, you’re going to attack the Philistines. You’re going to start the war against the enemies of Israel. I’m anointing you to fight against the enemies of God, and you’re going to start that war.
And yet we hear nothing about Saul interacting with the garrison of the Philistines in this chapter. And in fact, we have to wait all the way to chapter 13 for the war against the Philistines to start. And at that point, it’s still, it’s not Saul who starts the war. It’s his son, Jonathan, who has to go attack the garrison of the Philistines. There’s this pattern in the book of 1 Samuel that Saul is very reluctant to start God’s war. He’s very reluctant to fight against the Philistines.
And then after that, Samuel very clearly says, OK, when all that’s done, you’re going to go, you’re going to meet me at Gilgal, and we’re going to have this sacrifice. You’re going to wait a week, and you’re going to meet me, and we’re going to sacrifice to the Lord. And again, we hear nothing about Saul going to Gilgal until a few chapters later.
So what do we have? We have God confirming his word to Saul, telling him what he’s to do, and then he drops the ball. He fails immediately in his task. Note the irony in the text. God, not only does he tell him, but he again, sign after sign, he’s confirming to Saul what you have to do as my king. And then what happens? Saul ignores it. Saul doesn’t do what God says for him to do. And what we can say very clearly is that it’s not for a lack of information on Saul’s part. That, I would argue, is very rarely the issue.
And when we are struggling with God’s word and we’re struggling with what to do or what God’s doing, at one level we don’t know everything, we don’t know what God might be up to. But truly, we, at every time, we have the opportunity to walk by faith, to trust that God is doing something, that he has given us clear enough instructions to take the next step. It’s not a lack of Initiative or rather it’s not a lack of information It’s it’s a lack of courage on Saul’s part why he is not stepping into the role that God has called him to My brothers and sisters, right we so often again, we struggle in trusting with God But but how clearly you know that this the as one pastor put it, you know the the main things there are the plain things in scriptures and the plain things are the main things and We maybe struggle to know, okay, God, what specific step do you want me to take next in my life? What is on the horizon for me? But the clear things in scripture are clear. The clear things that God wants us to do, to walk by faith, to trust him, to obey him. I mean, that is as manifestly evident as can be in God’s words. We so often don’t do it because, like in Saul’s case, the cost is too high. It’s going to be messy if I start this war against the Philistines. I don’t know if I have enough military might. I don’t know if God’s going to come through for me.
And because of this, because Saul failed to step out in faith, to trust God, to trust in the word that he has so clearly confirmed for him, I mean, we have this anticlimax at the ending of this first section, right? I mean, his uncle, Saul’s uncle, comes to him and is so excited and so eager, right? What did Samuel say to you, right? What is the good news from Samuel? And instead of saying, God’s going to have us destroy the Philistines, what does Saul say?
Well, he told me that the donkeys are fine. He said everything’s good, and he just keeps his peace. He fails to announce this, to revel in what God is doing, and he keeps his mouth silent. And yet, thankfully, God is, again, very good at communicating. He’s very good at making sure his word gets through. And so not only does he give a word to the king, but secondly, he confirms that word by giving a sure word to the nation. He gives a sure word to the nation as well.
And spoiler alert, this whole chapter is really anticlimactic, not just the first portion. But nonetheless, Saul, in the first half, there’s this anticlimaxis. Saul fails to rule. He fails to step into the role that God has called him. And so Samuel then, or God has Samuel call this assembly.
The very same place that just 20 years earlier, or rather after 20 years of silence, 20 years of the ark not being where it ought to be, God had previously called the nation to repentance. That’s a few chapters earlier, that great Ebenezer story where God defeats the Philistines. They set up that monument, Ebenezer. They meet once again at that same place to hear about what God is doing in Israel. And God speaks to them once again. They gather and God speaks to them.
Surprise, surprise. And yet we might say that it is somewhat of a bittersweet beginning to this meeting. It’s exciting that they’re hearing from God, but there’s a bit of rebuke, a tone of rebuke in the words that Samuel gives to them. He’s very clearly reminding them, yes, I said I was going to give you a king, but remember that you wanted him for the wrong reasons, that you wanted a king instead of God as your king. And you know, he is rebuking them but there is even in this implied There’s a call to repentance you you still can turn back you still I’m gonna give you this king But but the call is to come back to me as your king And then he immediately as he so often does in verses 18 and 19 after rebuking them notice what he says He says Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I brought you up out of Egypt. I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you. But then he goes on, but today you have rejected your God.
So again, bittersweet, you know, you have rejected me, but remember who I am. Remember that time and time again, I was the one who kept saving you, right? I was the one who brought you out of Egypt. I was the one who saved you throughout the whole course of the story of the judges. I saved you time and time again. Or in other words, I will continue to be faithful to my word, I will continue to save you as you cry out to me, but turn to me, return to me once again. And yet the people are about to be, the king is about to be revealed to them, it should be this exciting moment, and once again, It’s a downer.
Imagine you’re watching a presidential inauguration ceremony. Everyone’s gathered at the Capitol. There’s all the military band. There’s all the pomp and circumstance. And then imagine that you see the Secret Service having to drag the president-elect out to the podium to take the oath of office. Imagine how disheartening that would be.
And that’s what we have here. The king has been chosen. He’s been confirmed by lots. We see the casting of lots. And then people are saying, God, is there someone else? Because we can’t find the guy that was supposed to be here. And God has, you can, if you anthropomorphize God, you can imagine him slapping his palm to his forehead. He’s hiding in the luggage. Go and find him.
And yet, I mean, nonetheless, God is very clear. This is my king. This is the one whom I have chosen. I mean, God’s word, we see in this chapter, God’s word is sure. And God is making it clear that I’ve picked a king, I am accomplishing my purposes, I’m going to defeat the Philistines, and the people and their waywardness, you can’t thwart that. Saul and his lack of courage, Saul can’t thwart that. We can truly say God’s word is sure in the sense that you cannot run from God’s word.
When God says he’s going to do something, he will accomplish it. And yet, this text does present to us a dilemma. We have to ask the question, right? God is going to raise up a king. God’s going to destroy all the enemies of his people. But he’s going to use this guy to do it. Is this guy going to be successful? I mean, this man who’s already failed twice in that calling and, say, three times even as he hides in the luggage.
And even in the two responses of the people, it’s somewhat disheartening, even in the way that they respond to this announcement of the king. We have those who, I mean, basically they just brush all that aside, all of Saul’s foibles, and they see how handsome and tall he is, and immediately they say, long live the king. He looks kingly, he looks great, he’s good, he’s our guy. And then, understandably, there’s this small group that looks at that same man and says, can this man save us? Of course, both of those sides, the ones who just latch onto Saul and his outward appearance, those who question Saul, I mean, they’re both missing the point.
God starts by saying, remember, I was the one who saved you. I was the one who brought you out of the land of Egypt. I was the one who anointed Saul. So really, the question is not, can he save us? It’s not, is Saul going to come through? The question that the people of God are asking is, can God save us? Or to flip it around, the question that God is presenting to the people is not, will you trust in Saul, but will you trust in me?
Which is that same question that we are faced with day after day as Christians. Will you continue to trust in me? Will you continue to trust that my word is enough for you? So as we conclude this evening, I want to consider how sure God’s word is. And so our third point this morning is this, that God gives a sure word to us as well, that we see God’s sure word to us. Brothers and sisters, again, that really is, I mean, you know, the question of life, but it really is one of the most fundamental questions that we can ask as Christians, right? Will I trust God? Every time we doubt God, we are asking the question, can he really save us? Can God really come through on his promises? Is he going to come through again?
And just like the people of God in this passage, time and time again, as we ask that question, we start to look at other things. Oh, maybe that thing will save us, that king, maybe that power structure, maybe that way of living, that will save us. That seems satisfying. or as God’s word is hard to us, as it’s challenging us. Well, this other path seems a little bit easier. Maybe I’ll listen to that.
And yet God, again, he’s calling us day after day to look to him, to not be fooled anymore, to not be fooled time and time again by the deceptions of this world. Those things, again, those things that will, as we started with, those things that will time and time again break our hearts.
They will break their promises to us. But God will not break his promises to us. So God is calling us in this passage to remember, to think about how often has he been faithful to us? How often has God failed you? As we doubt God, how often has he broken a promise to us?
I mean, the fact that God can use even a crooked stick like Saul for a while to accomplish his great and straight purposes. How much more can he use crooked sticks like us and direct our paths and continue to be faithful for us? And even more so, if the people of God in this passage, in this strange passage where Saul is very clearly not the one, Saul is very clearly not fulfilling his role, if they even then had reason to trust in God, I mean, how much more so do we today have reason to trust that God will come through?
I mean, first because the hope that we have, the promises that we have are even deeper. They’re rooted in even better things. I mean, very simply put, the promise God makes is Saul will deliver you from the Philistines. That Saul will defeat this earthly enemy. And certainly the kingship is more than that. There’s a deeper layer to that. But at least in this story, that is the thing that Saul will do. He will at least start that war against the Philistines.
I mean, but remember, I mean, what is God actually up to in the Old Testament? What is God actually up to in history? Not just saving us from our earthly enemies. I mean, why did God bring the people out of Egypt? Why did God bring them into the promised land? I mean, what is the act he’s doing? He is, I mean, bringing them to himself, saving them from not their earthly enemies, saving them from their sins, saving them from their self, drawing them back into relationship with him.
And not just, that we have better promises, but we have a much better king than King Saul, don’t we? Again, if God could use a crooked stick like Saul for a time, how much more confidence when he gives us his own son, when we have Christ himself as our king, the righteous one, the one who was given a task to do and he fulfilled it.
Everything that God the Father told him to do, he did. He walked in faith, he walked in obedience, Time and time again, he was confirmed by God. He would do miracle after miracle, proving he was the one whom God had sent. His word was true. His word was reliable. Who, unlike Saul, trusted and obeyed. To the bitter end, Christ trusted in God.
And in doing so, as he goes to the cross, as he goes to that end, he truly, even more so than Saul, even more so than King David, he truly conquered all of the enemies of God’s people, as he destroys sin and death and the devil, as he doesn’t hide amongst the luggage, as he doesn’t hide and keep the promises of God to himself, but he dies in the place of sinners. He gives all that he has. He gives of his very self to save a people.
So let us this evening, once again, look to Christ. If you want to be certain that God’s word is sure, then look to Christ. Look to the fulfilled word, the fulfilled promises that we see at the cross. We can be assured that God will not break his promises. God does not break his promises. Brothers and sisters, despite our weakness, and well, I mean, often because of our weakness, we can say God not only gives us that great and ultimate promise, but time after time, day after day, He affirms that promise. He continues to be faithful. His mercies are new every morning to us.
I began with a lyric, a Billy Joel lyric. I’ll conclude with another lyric. This is a little more edifying. It’s from a great hymn that you probably are all familiar with, but it sums up so well. The call that we have to trust in God and his word as we sing, as we hear these words, “‘Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take him at his word, just to rest upon his promise, just to know, thus saith the Lord.”
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, how I’ve proved Him over and over. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, oh, for grace to trust Him more. So brothers and sisters, let us walk confidently in that trust, confidently in the sure word of our Savior this week as we go out in faith and serve Him. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, let us pray. Heavenly Father, we once again thank you for this time, for this opportunity to hear from you, to worship you, to sing your sure promises even back to you, God, knowing that they are trustworthy, knowing that you are true, that You are reliable. Oh God, we pray that You would increase our faith, that we would walk by faith this week, that we would serve You, that we would see the clear and the plain things in Scripture and walk according to them, trusting that in the things that we don’t know, the things we can understand, that You are even in control of those. We pray that You would bless us as we go from this place, in Jesus’ name, amen.