Trinity Baptist Church June 22, 2008
Series: Portrait of a Politician
Title: The Substitute King
1 Samuel 8:1-22
I don’t know much about Samuel Clements -- Mark Twain -- when it comes to his faith. But he said something once which was dead on. He said, “Some people worry about the passages in the Bible they don’t understand. What worries me most are the Bible passages I do understand.”
You’d probably agree with him. After all, most of us who are Christians have favorite verses or passages -- they’re the ones we open when we need encouragement or comfort or want some assurance. And it’s a good thing to have passages for times like those. But then, there are other verses or chapters that are hard to read, hard to hear – because, like Twain said, they’re not just straightforward, they can be downright troubling!
I’ve got some of those – most of them are ones I heard or read one time -- then they were lodged in my mind and never came loose. Let me give you a couple of illustrations: one comes from the OT book of Ecclesiastes. I was in college and listening to a taped talk by a speaker when I first heard this verse. The man speaking had been working with a young guy -- that guy had made a decision to quit doing things God’s way and live life like he wanted. The speaker said, “I jotted down Ecclesiastes 11:9 on a slip of paper and left it with him.”
When his friend opened and read it, he read this hard Truth about accountability to God. It says, Rejoice, young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant during the days of young manhood. And follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes. Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things. (Ecclesiastes 11:9)
That’s a verse that sank into me and never came out. The other is from Psalm 106. You’ve probably read it or heard it. It says, And He (God) gave them the desires of their heart, but sent leanness into their souls. (Psalm 106:15)
That Psalm paints the picture of how God had so patiently dealt with His people -- He brought them out of Egypt, He carried them along, provided for their needs, kept them safe. But still, they moaned and complained -- and demanded more and different things! They demanded meat -- they were tired of manna. They wanted water on the spot. And the Psalmist wrote, God gave them what they wanted… but…
People today say, “be careful what you ask for…” or, “be careful what you wish for…” And why? Because, they say, you might get it. Do you know that sometimes God gives you what you want, even though, it’s by far not what you need. Over the next few weeks, I want to spend some time looking at an illustration of precisely that. King Saul, in the OT, is the direct result of that principle -- he’s God’s response to the people’s demand. The results can only be described as tragic. Today, I want to look at the
The demand of the nation
and its results. We’ll work around the whole account of Saul just a bit, so turn to 1 Samuel 8. The first verses report that Samuel is aging. The people have recognized that his sons will never be the caliber of spiritual leader that Samuel has been. So, verse 4 -- they gather and approach Samuel with their plan for their future:
“you have grown old; you sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations.” But the thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, “give us a king to judge us.” (1 Samuel 8:5, 6)
Their request is totally out of bounds, from everything Samuel knows to be God‘s plan for governing His people. It upset him that they come asking for a king at the close of his ministry. But Samuel doesn’t react like a man who didn’t walk with God. He didn’t turn on them -- didn’t try to set them straight -- he went to God in prayer.
By this point, the nation has for generations, been governed by -- and rescued from military crises by -- local leaders called “judges.” There were some great ones you’ll remember -- like Deborah and Gideon. But that judge system has lost support, and now here’s the last one -- Samuel -- judge and prophet. And the people demand that he change things -- that he anoint a king as his successor -- in spite of God’s warnings that this will bring disaster on Israel.
The realities behind the demand
Look at verse 6. Samuel prayed to the Lord. The Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all they have say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.
It probably astounded Samuel, but God allows the people’s plan to move forward. We could call this an illustration of “God’s plan B” -- or we could simply say, the Lord is about to allow His people to learn first-hand that getting what they want will not provide what they seek.
We learn that two realities stand behind their demand. The first one is the spiritual reality -- it’s in verse 7. Here’s the Lord’s analysis:
* They’re rejecting God as their king.
If you know Israel’s history, you know how ironic this is. Here’s the only nation that could ever say -- “God, by His own covenant took us to Himself and made us His own people.” God then led them -- and spoke to them -- and judged them, through His chosen leaders. Now their request is to throw off their unique leadership relationship with God -- literally throw off some of their uniqueness as God’s people. No other nation on earth could have claimed the True God as their King.
The Psalm says, Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, The people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance. (Psalm 33:12)
But God says, Samuel, they have not rejected you, they have rejected Me as King over them.
The second reality is the motivational reality -- it’s both in verse 5 and again down in verse 20. Two times the people repeat it:
* They want to be like other people.
Again, they’re not content to be distinct, to be different from all the other peoples and nations. They’re not content that the God of Glory function as their national leader and their Defender and Protector. It seems they’ve forgotten that they received their land as a gift from God and occupied it by His power, because He wanted them to be different from all others.
This request has ramifications for us. What kinds of things do we ask God for? What’s on our hearts, when it comes to provision, or leaders? James warns us that God often does not answer our prayer because as he puts it we ask amiss. We get off target in our desires, so we get off-target in what God ought to do. It’s always been God’s plan that His people stand out, not as weird, but as different, as uniquely His. How much of the way we do life leans toward wanting to be like our culture, and how much of life relates to wanting to be uniquely Christ’s?
Let’s look at what happens -- at The result of their demand: a king like Saul
The people got what they asked for -- they got a monarch. We’ll look in the coming weeks at what kind of king Saul quickly became. I want to overview some facets of his reign today.
But first, when they came to Samuel asking for a new leader, notice how short their job description was. Look down in verse 20. Here’s what they offer as reasons for their demand. Verse 20 says, that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.
So, what are the character qualities the new king must have? Where are the signs that they’re wanting a spiritually charged leader like Samuel -- a person of prayer, someone who’s regularly heard from God and therefore will lead His people in line with God‘s leadership?
Those things are nowhere to be found. What fills out the job description is, this king has to be able to sit and render justice, and -- he must be able to lead us out to war and also to fight our battles. Here’s what we need to think about -- the motive behind our request will shape the content of our request.
Here’s one reason I’d call Saul just a politician. What they‘re saying is, “Just give us a king who can judge and lead us to military victory.” Isn’t that a lot like, “just give us a president who can protect our borders or -- someone who can fix Social Security and health care -- or give us someone who will bring down the price of oil.”
Do you see how quickly issues like character and commitment to righteousness gets sacrificed on the altar of our “wants“? Maybe that’s why, very often, when we get what we demand, it’s not really what we wanted after all. Maybe that’s why Scripture warns us that the character of a nation and the character of its leaders are critically important to its future.
Let’s wrap up with an overview of what we’ll see in Saul‘s reign. Because Saul would be a character-deficient leader,
1. He would live for his reputation. (1 Samuel 13:8f; 15:24)
We’ll watch Saul place a very high value on what people think -- much more than on what God thinks. Over in chapter 13 we‘ll see that Saul musters a force to do battle with the Philistine army. It says there, the Philistines boasted of 30,000 chariots and 6,000 horsemen. Israel will be hard-pressed as the battle looms. Samuel was supposed to come and offer a sacrifice -- the sign that God would bless and give a victory.
He told Saul he’d be there in seven days. On the seventh day, Saul didn’t want to wait any longer -- without God’s prophet present, he offered the sacrifices himself. Samuel immediately then arrived -- he questioned Saul about what he’d done and his only answer in 13:11 is the people were scattering from me. Never mind God’s ways, let the people’s actions dictate what the leader does.
There’s a similar event in 1 Samuel 15; it’s that well-known battle with the Amalekites. This people group was one of Israel’s oldest enemies. Samuel tells Saul, The Lord sent me to anoint you as king over His people…Thus says the Lord of hosts. I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel….he said, go strike Amalek and utterly destroy all he has, and do not spare him… The evil is to be wiped out by annihilating the whole people and everything they own. This was to be God’s judgment on the evil embodied in the Amalekites.
It didn’t happen. We’ll look at it -- but the short version is, the troops came, conquered, killed most, destroyed some, and took the best of the spoils, and let the king of the Amalekites live. Then Samuel arrives and demands an accounting. Saul’s first response was to lie. When he was pressed, his lie became blame. 15:24, I feared the people and listened to their voice. People who live for their image will never be people of character.
A second characteristic:
2. He would consistently make decisions without consulting God. (13:8-11; 14:24-30)
King Saul was impetuous. I talked about how he offered the sacrifice when he thought Samuel wasn’t come. In chapter 14, Saul’s son Jonathan was out with his armor-bearer finding a way into the Philistine fortress. The course of the battle was determined by Jonathan’s creativity and bravery.
In a moment of some sort of insane inspiration, Saul decided, no one should eat anything that day, even while the battle was raging and despite the fact that God has giving huge victory to Israel.
He went so far as to lay down a curse on anyone who did eat -- that meant they’d be put to death for eating even a morsel. Jonathan was out fighting -- he knew nothing about the order or the curse -- he was out doing his job. And along the way, he ate some honey, and of course, felt stronger and was able to continue in the battle.
Later, his own father is ready to put him to death because of his foolish decision. His impulsive behaviors grew worse when he tried to kill David for no reason and even threw his spear at Jonathan because he suspected him of helping David.
3. His preoccupation with himself would make him a slave to jealousy. (1 Samuel 18:7, 12, 15)
We talked last time about David’s God-given victory over Goliath. Not long after that, David became one of Saul’s great military leaders. Chapter 18, verse 5 says, David would go out wherever Saul would sent him; and he prospered. Obviously, God’s hand was on David. Saul elevated him again, finally to the equivalent of general. David’s leadership was welcomed by the military, the people and the palace servants.
Then one day, as the troops returned from another victorious battle, the women of the cities came out to welcome the troops -- and they sang a song. They sang -- “Saul has killed his thousands, but David has killed his ten thousands!”
What they said was true. Saul stayed in the palace, from all appearances, David went out and did battle. But, we read, immediately Saul got furious. His only thought after he heard that song was, “the only thing more David could get was the kingdom“. It’s likely he knew what would transpire. But 1 Samuel 18:9 reports, he looked at David with suspicion from that day on. God’s hand was on David, and it was no longer on Saul -- so his jealousy kept multiplying until David finally would have to flea and Saul would begin hunt him like a criminal.
Leaders who are primarily “into” their image naturally become slaves to jealousy.
Another facet of Saul:
4. He would disobey God’s clear commands. (1 Samuel 15:1-23)
In the account of the battle with the Amalekites, Saul very simply set aside God’s clear word to do what was popular and politically acceptable and expedient at the moment.
That was the day that Samuel indicated to him the throne was ripped from his hands. And Samuel told Saul, Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord. He also said rebellion and insubordination can only be compared to witchcraft, sin and idolatry.
The issue was: as a leader, Saul made choices without considering the consequences. He chose the immediate -- he chose for himself -- he chose popularity -- he chose for raw political power. He chose what was easy and simple -- and what would curry the people’s favor -- instead of choosing what God had declared to be the right and only path for him. He ignored righteousness.
The common issue leaders ignore is that their people often don’t want to do what‘s right -- they just want what they want. That‘s how the nation got itself into the predicament in asking for a king. And the king they got continued to take them down that path. Instead of leading them firmly and steadily in God’s direction, instead of being God’s man and God’s leader, Saul took the easy road of disobedience.
Finally, related to that -- and related to Saul‘s great motivation:
5. He would abandon righteousness to maintain power. (1 Samuel 23-31)
Chapters 23-31 are the tragic story of Saul’s decline. Much of what’s there records Saul’s ungodly pursuit of David. David, had been a faithful servant, a successful general under Saul, he’d done what Saul asked of him; he had done what was right. But Saul’s soul had turned dark. God’s hand was gone -- God’s Spirit was no longer in his life -- so in Saul, evil becomes good and good becomes evil.
The end justified the means. Much earlier, he’d heard the words from Samuel‘s mouth -- that God had taken the kingdom from him and given it to another. But Saul pressed on to maintain power -- he even would go to the medium in Endor, and ask her to call up Samuel’s spirit -- so he could beg him for help. Whoever and whatever that so-called spirit was told him what he already knew. He heard, the Lord has departed from you and has become your adversary. He has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, to David.
Again, at no time in the accounts do you see Saul ready to turn from evil, or turn from his own stubborn will and repent. He relents a couple of times, after David could have killed him and did not. But relenting for evil is not repenting from evil. But all the while, he grasps at what was already gone. His kingdom, his legacy and his potential dynasty.
What can learn from the substitute king, from one angle, the man who should never have been king? Someone said, “Saul was finished in chapter 15, because God doesn’t mess around when it comes to the King of Israel.” It maybe seems harsh to us, but there are a couple of principles that always guided the relationship God had with His people Israel.
These two are still operating today in leadership. One was according to your level of knowledge is your level of responsibility. In other words, the mistakes of people in positions of power have huge consequences.
The second principle is, according to your level of responsibility is your level of accountability. The greater and bigger you are; the greater the impact of your decisions, therefore you must be and will be held to an extremely high standard.
Steps I will take
I hesitated to spend a few weeks talking about a negative example. But then I thought, there are huge numbers of OT leaders who were godless and self-driven people.
And we need to learn lessons from them as well as from godly people. We need to avoid their attitudes and crass behaviors.
We also need to learn -- when you ask God to work, or to provide -- then you need to be certain you’re asking in alignment with God’s character and God’s principles and God’s will. How easy it is to ask or want or demand -- and how tragic it is, after we get what we want, to find God was not involved at all.
Finally, let’s think as we look at Saul, about leaders -- church, community, national -- and let’s agree together to ask God for women and men who have a heart for righteousness and justice. Let’s ask God for principled people, who are first about doing what’s right, not about what’s expedient or builds up their image. Let’s ask God together to provide leaders at every level who will be people of character and walk in line with Him.
