"Gods Looking For Fighters Not Fakers”

(32) And David said to Saul, Let no man’s heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine. (33) And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth (37) David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the LORD be with thee. (38) And Saul armed David with his armour, and he put an helmet of brass upon his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail. (39) And David girded his sword upon his armour, and he assayed to go; for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him. (40) And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine.

I. Saul

A. Saul’s story is one that is often portrayed as the “pauper to the prince”. He is glamorized as the first King of Israel. He was no body, he had no “royal blood line” no one to fall back on to validate his worthiness as a King. He now has his name written in the history books as the first King of Israel, a title that should be looked upon as an honor, but in reality it was not.

1. As much as we would like to romanticize his story it is one of tragedy, yes he was the first physical King the nation of Israel had, but they already had a King, and His name was Jehovah. Ps 47:7 For God [is] the King of all the earth… Being appointed King over God does not sound that appealing to me. What could possible qualify you to be a better King over the one that created everything.

2. Up to this point God would use Judges to execute His executive orders. God always had someone that He would use to help govern the people to Himself. There was Moses and Joshua that were instrumental in training the children of Israel to be the children of God.

a. When these men died the people would fall apart and rebel. They would give in to sin and when all hell was breaking out they would turn to God to be rescued. Jud 2:18 And when the LORD raised them up judges, then the LORD was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge…

3. There were 12 judges over the course 325 years, but that was not enough. Samuel would become Israel’s last judge. In 1 Samuel 8, Samuel is now old and his son’s and not fit to judge because they are corrupt, so the people decide that they want to have a king to judge them.

B. As soon as Samuel heard this his feelings were hurt, but God said, “Give them what they want, they did not reject you; they rejected me.”

a. They wanted to be like everyone else, fit in with all the other nations. They were tired of the theocracy. They wanted a monarchy. They wanted to mimic the nations that were enemies of God, nations like the Philistines, Moabites, Jebusites. "They all have kings and we want one too." They rejected God in order to be popular with men.

b. If we are going to have a move of God in our churches we can’t look like everyone else, we can’t act like everyone else, we got to have a standard in our churches. We are to be a separate people; we are not to emulate the world but to transform it.

1. God would go on to say that the people have forgotten about where they came from and how He took care of them, and how they would rather sin than serve Him. But God being a loving father told Samuel the consequences of having a King in hopes that it would change their minds.

2. Samuel would go back to the people and tell them what God said, how if they choose a man to be their King that he would take the people and their children to be his servants, he would tax them, and take their land; he would become an oppressor to the people so much so that they would beg for God, but he would not hear them.