THE STORY Standing Tall, Falling Hard I Samuel Introduction

Transcription

1 1 THE STORY Standing Tall, Falling Hard I Samuel 1-15 Introduction 1. Last month, the New York Times ran an article proclaiming Nacho Cheese Doritos to be pretty much the best snack food ever invented. Everything about the chip is designed to make you want more of them! a. A couple of reasons the Dorito is so successful as a snack: i. Doritos have a fat content around 50%. This ensures that it directly hits the pleasure centers of your brain. More importantly, it gives the Dorito a melt in your mouth kind of feel. The more a snack melts in your mouth (like popcorn or cotton candy) the more of it you can eat before you feel full. This explains why *some people* can eat an entire bag in one sitting. ii. Doritos also have a high salt content. In fact, they use three different kinds of salt to stimulate your taste buds. Interestingly, this also give the Dorito a slightly ambiguous flavor. Think about it: Doritos don t really taste like anything! That, too, means you can eat more before you get tired of them. iii. Finally, Doritos also have their color working in their favor. Research shows that humans are drawn to bright colors. Doritos, as it so happens, have three different colorings added two yellows and a red. This makes them visually more appealing. It also explains why Cool Ranch Doritos are nasty b. You might not know it when you open a bag, but Doritos are engineered to catch your eye. They are built to be a great snack. c. As we ve traveled through The Story so far, we ve seen that the nation of Israel was built for success. They had several things going for them as a nation. i. First of all, they were chosen by God. From the time God called Abraham to follow Him, He had promised great blessings. The whole Israelite nation could claim those blessings as their own. ii. Secondly, they had great military might. When God went with Israel, they were unstoppable. iii. Finally, the Israelites had a great land. Repeatedly through the OT, we see their nation described as a land flowing with milk and honey. d. While Israel had all of these things in their favor, they squandered it all. Their early life as a nation was incredibly rocky. i. A couple of weeks ago, Ian talked about the time of the Judges, a very dark time in Israel s history. The people continually found themselves oppressed and enslaved by the pagan nations that surrounded them. ii. More than that, the Israelites showed blatant disregard for God and His commands. They refused to follow Him and do what was right. 2. As the book of I Samuel opens, things are about the same. Israel has no king, so people are doing what they want, and things are beginning to fall apart. a. First Samuel opens with the story of a woman named Hannah, who is unable to have children. She s struggled with infertility for years. It gets to a point where she won t eat. She can t do anything but cry about her situation. i. She s left with no other option but to cry out to God. With her family visiting the Tabernacle for one of the yearly festivals, Hannah fervently prays to God, pouring out her heart before the Lord. ii. I Samuel 1:9-15: Once after a sacrificial meal at Shiloh, Hannah got up and went to pray. Eli the priest was sitting at his customary place beside the entrance of the Tabernacle. Hannah was in deep anguish, crying bitterly as she prayed to the Lord. And she made this vow: O Lord of Heaven s

2 2 Armies, if you will look upon my sorrow and answer my prayer and give me a son, then I will give him back to you. He will be yours for his entire lifetime, and as a sign that he has been dedicated to the Lord, his hair will never be cut. As she was praying to the Lord, Eli watched her. Seeing her lips moving but hearing no sound, he thought she had been drinking. Must you come here drunk? he demanded. Throw away your wine! Oh no, sir! she replied. I haven t been drinking wine or anything stronger. But I am very discouraged, and I was pouring out my heart to the Lord. b. Two things I love about that passage: i. Number one, the priest doesn t recognize prayer when he sees it. Hannah prays with such fervency and passion that the priest thinks she s drunk. Things in Israel are so bad that God s servants don t even recognize true prayer! ii. Number two, I love how Hannah basically bargains with God. She says, You give me a son and I ll give him back to you. He will serve you all the days of his life. She promises to dedicate her child to the Lord. c. Incredibly, Hannah s prayer works! God answers her pleading, and we re told she gives birth to a son. She names him Samuel, which means Heard by God. i. True to her word, Hannah does devote him to the Lord. Once Samuel is old enough to be weaned, she takes him back to the Tabernacle, and gives him to the priest Eli. ii. Samuel grows up in the Tabernacle, learning what it means to serve God. d. As Samuel grows up, he becomes the spiritual leader of Israel. The people of Israel turn to him for guidance and wisdom. He ends up serving not just as a priest, but as the last true Judge in Israel s history. 3. Everything changes for Samuel in I Samuel 8. Approaching old age, Samuel appoints his two sons as judges over Israel. They turn out to be quite different from their father, accepting bribes and denying justice to those in need. a. The Israelites have grown tired of this cycle of judges and rulers. They want something more permanent. Someone tangible. So, they come to Samuel and request a king. i. I Samuel 8:4-5: Finally, all the elders of Israel met at Ramah to discuss the matter with Samuel. Look, they told him, you are now old, and your sons are not like you. Give us a king to judge us like all the other nations have. ii. The Israelites want someone with authority to rule over them. They want to have a king just like the other nations. b. They forgot a very important truth: They weren t like the other nations. They already had a King! God was supposed to the their King! He was their ultimate ruler! To ask for a human king, then, was a slap in God s face. i. I Samuel 8:6-8: Samuel was displeased with their request and went to the Lord for guidance. Do everything they say to you, the Lord replied, for it is me they are rejecting, not you. They don t want me to be their king any longer. Ever since I brought them from Egypt they have continually abandoned me and followed other gods. And now they are giving you the same treatment. ii. Samuel warns the people about kings. Kings collect taxes and take things that don t belong to them. Kings rule over their people with a stern hand. Kings conscribe people to go to war. c. The Israelites won t listen to reason. Again, they cry out for Samuel to give them a king: i. I Samuel 8:19-22: But the people refused to listen to Samuel s warning. Even so, we still want a king, they said. We want to be like the nations around us. Our king will judge us and lead us into battle. So Samuel repeated to the Lord what the people had said, and the Lord replied, Do as they say, and give them a king. Then Samuel agreed and sent the people home.

3 3 d. So, God gives them exactly what they want. The nation gathers together and they proceed to choose a king for themselves. i. I Samuel 10:21b-24: Finally Saul son of Kish was chosen from among them. But when they looked for him, he had disappeared! So they asked the Lord, Where is he? And the Lord replied, He is hiding among the baggage. So they found him and brought him out, and he stood head and shoulders above anyone else. Then Samuel said to all the people, This is the man the Lord has chosen as your king. No one in all Israel is like him! And all the people shouted, Long live the king! e. Saul, a man from the tribe of Benjamin, is anointed as the first king of Israel. i. But, notice his defining characteristic. He s not described as godly. He s not described as qualified. No, the text says he was taller and stronger than everyone else! They rejoice that Saul is king because of his height and strength! ii. What s more, I Samuel 9:2 tells us that Saul is the most handsome man in Israel. Israel wants a physical king, so God gives them exactly what they want. He looks like a king. We would say he looks Presidential. 4. Despite his lack of qualifications for the job, things actually start out fairly well for the new king. At the end of his first month in office, the Ammonites seize the Israelite city of Jabesh-Gilead, threatening to gouge out the right eye of everyone in the city. a. The people of Jabesh-Gilead sound a cry for help across Israel. Saul, like a good king should, rallies the troops together and sends an army of 300,000 to defend the city. i. When they arrive there, they annihilate the Ammonites! Saul comes to the defense of his people and emerges victorious! ii. Out of gratitude, the people of Israel confirm Saul as their king. They pledge allegiance to him. Even better, at Samuel s retirement party (I Samuel 12), the whole nation rededicates themselves to God. iii. Everything seems to be going great for the new king. He could hardly ask for a better start to his reign. b. Unfortunately, it all begins to fall apart in Saul s second military campaign. i. In I Samuel 13, the Philistines attack Israel. So, Saul calls the army together at Gilgal, where they plan to offer sacrifices to God before heading out for war. They run into trouble, however, when they find that there is no priest available to perform the sacrifice. ii. So, after waiting seven days for Samuel to show up, Saul finally gets so antsy that he decides to offer the sacrifices himself. This turns out to be a bad move. iii. I Samuel 13:10-14: Just as Saul was finishing with the burnt offering, Samuel arrived. Saul went out to meet and welcome him, but Samuel said, What is this you have done? Saul replied, I saw my men scattering from me, and you didn t arrive when you said you would So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering myself before you came. How foolish! Samuel exclaimed. You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you. Had you kept it, the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom must end, for the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart. The Lord has already appointed him to be the leader of his people, because you have not kept the Lord s command. c. A little while later, after Saul has defeated the Philistines, he finds himself in battle once again. This time, God has called him into war against the Amalekites. i. Before they go into battle, God gives Saul one command: destroy everything and everyone. The Israelites are supposed to wipe the nation of Amalek completely off the map! ii. But, Saul doesn t follow through on this request. For some reason, he feels compelled to spare the Amalekite king, King Agag. Moreover, he chooses to allow his soldiers to keep some of the Amalekite treasure.

4 4 d. Once again, Samuel shows up as an audience to Saul s disobedience. He is not happy with the king. Why didn t Saul destroy the Amalekites treasures? Why didn t he destroy King Agag? i. Saul tries to cover his tracks. Claims that they were going to offer all of the animals and all of the treasure to God as a sacrifice. But, Samuel reminds him, God didn t ask for an offering; He asked for obedience. ii. As a result of his continued pattern of disobedience, Samuel delivers a tough message to Saul. His kingdom and his kingship are now forfeit. iii. I Samuel 15:24-26: Then Saul admitted to Samuel, Yes, I have sinned. I have disobeyed your instructions and the Lord s command, for I was afraid of the people and did what they demanded. But now, please forgive my sin and come back with me so that I may worship the Lord. But Samuel replied, I will not go back with you! Since you have rejected the Lord s command, he has rejected you as king of Israel. e. God rejected Saul because of his failure to obey. He didn t do what God wanted, so God would find a king who would. i. From this point on, King Saul s rule is heading downhill. He will fall into suspicion, paranoia, and doubt. His reign will ultimately be characterized by his failings. TS So, what should we take away from a story like this? What does the rise and fall of King Saul teach us? Why is this story part of The Story? 5. Well I want to go back to something at the beginning of the story. When I Samuel opens, you ll remember that Hannah is crying out to God because she cannot have children. It s out of that prayer that God blesses her and Israel with Samuel. a. After God answers her prayer, Hannah cried out in praise to Him. I Samuel 2 records what is known as Hannah s Song, one of the most beautiful pieces of Hebrew poetry in the Old Testament. I want to read the first stanza of that song to you: i. I Samuel 2:1-2: Then Hannah prayed: My heart rejoices in the Lord! The Lord has made me strong. Now I have an answer for my enemies; I rejoice because you rescued me. No one is holy like the Lord! There is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God. b. Can we just take a moment together to admit the truth of those words? There is no Rock like our God! There is no foundation like Him! He is the only One worth depending on! i. While these words come early in the book, I think the story of I Samuel is the story of how Israel forgets this truth. They forget to depend on God. They forget to build their lives their nation on Him! ii. This is clear from their request for a king! They claim that they don t have a king! But, that s not true at all, is it? God was supposed to be their King! He was their ruler! iii. The nation of Israel was supposed to depend on God. They were supposed to trust in Him as their Rock. They lost sight of that. c. The story of Saul and the Israelites here is a cautionary one for us. It tells us about what can happen if we try to build our lives on a rock other than God. It speaks of the dangers of depending on someone or something other than God. i. Looking back at Saul s story, I think we can identify two big obstacles to dependence: 6. The first obstacle to dependence is CONFORMITY. a. A couple of times in I Samuel, we re told of the real reason the Israelites wanted a king. They wanted a king so that they could be like everyone else. They wanted a physical ruler over them so they could compete with the other nations. i. I Samuel 8:20: We want to be like the nations around us. Our king will judge us and lead us into battle.

5 5 ii. Their desire to be like everyone else is so great that they reject God s leadership. They say they don t want Him as their King. b. When you want to be like everyone else, you are depending on everyone else. You re not looking to God for direction; you re looking to the people around you for guidance. i. Conformity is the enemy of dependence. It keeps us from knowing what God wants for us and from us. ii. Romans 12:2: Don t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. iii. Stop conforming to what the world thinks and allow God to transform how you think. Then and only then can we understand what He wants from us. c. This is hard to do, isn t it? I mean, conformity is easy. It s even fun! When culture has so clearly set itself against God, the easy path is to conform. The easy road is just to be like everybody else. i. A study released a couple of weeks ago illustrates this point perfectly. It ll come as no surprise to you that our culture is rapidly growing more and more accepting of homosexual marriage. In fact, we re at a point where nearly 70% of those between the ages of think it s okay. ii. But, did you know acceptance within the church is growing, as well? This same poll showed that nearly 45% of Christians between the ages of believe that same-sex marriage is permissible. Of young Christians, almost half hold a position that is inconsistent with the clear teaching of Scripture. iii. But why? Why has this shift happened so quickly? Why has even the church begun to accept what was unacceptable generations before? iv. It s because some Christians have chosen to embrace the turning of culture. They see what everyone else believes and they want to be just like them. It s hard to stand up for truth. It s a whole lot easier to be like everyone else than it is to depend on God. d. The Israelites desire to be like everyone else led them down a dangerous path. They sacrificed what made them unique so that they could conform to the world around them. They chose conformity over consecration. i. Likewise, that same struggle is before us today. The New Testament reminds us that we are aliens and strangers here on this planet. We don t belong here. We live for the priorities of another King another Kingdom. ii. Dave Stone: The desire to be normal is often a departure from the will of God. iii. Every time we choose to be like everyone else every time we choose our culture over our King we lose a bit of what makes us unique. iv. Even worse, we insult our God with that choice. Did you happen to catch what God said about the Israelites back in I Sam 8:7? They don t want me to be their king any longer. What a depressing statement! v. Yet, every time we conform, God could say the same thing about us, couldn t He? They don t want me to be their king any longer. 7. Conformity keeps us from depending on God. The second obstacle to dependence is STRENGTH. a. When Saul was chosen as king, Israel was happy about it because he was tall. Because he was strong. Because he was handsome and attractive. i. That s what they wanted their nation to look like. They wanted to stand tall. They wanted to stand strong. They hoped to be able to rely on their own strength as a nation. b. Relying on our own strength is the opposite of dependence on God. It s dependence on self. It s trust that I am good enough to do it on my own. i. As Saul shows us, this path ultimately leads us to a place of disobedience. If I think I can do it my way, I don t need God s ways. I deceive myself into thinking I

6 6 Conclusion: don t need God to tell me what to do. ii. Again, Saul perfectly personified this: 1. He thought he could offer the sacrifice his way. 2. He thought he could fight the Amalekites his way. 3. He didn t need to do what Samuel told him to do. He didn t need to do what God commanded him to do. iii. Saul was confident in his own strength. He was so consumed by his own power that he thought he could do it himself. c. Something I ve discovered about myself is that I m more like Saul than I d care to admit. I think we all are We see what God says about things, and yet we decide to go another way. We trust in ourselves rather than trusting in Him. i. Think about how many areas of life we do this in: 1. We see what God says about gossip. But, we trust that knowing the dirt on another person is going to help us out in the long run. So, we disregard what God says and go our own way. 2. We see what God says about bringing up our kids in the faith and teaching them about the Bible. But, when we get home, we re just so worn out from the day s work that we d rather sit on the couch and veg out for a few hours 3. We see what God says about sharing our faith. But, we have trouble telling other people about Jesus because we get too distracted by what we should say or what we need to know. We get so dependent on our own efforts that we lose sight of what God wants us to do. ii. At the end of the day, failure to obey is really a failure to depend. If I don t do what God says, I m failing to trust Him. I m saying that I know better than He does. d. So, what are you trusting in? WHO are you trusting in? i. In your worship folder, you ll see some Next Step questions we designed to help you identify the things or people you are trusting in. You ll see those questions there in your notes: 1. What do you think about the most? What causes worry/anxiety within you? 2. Who/What do you turn to for approval? Why? 3. What areas of life are you most tempted to conform to the world around you? What keeps you from obeying God in this area? 4. What areas of life are you most likely to rely on your own strength? What keeps you from trusting God in this area? e. Spend some time this week going through those questions. Be honest with yourself. Share your answers with your spouse or some other accountability partner. As you work through those question, keep that first stanza of Hannah s song in your mind: i. I Samuel 2:1-2: My heart rejoices in the Lord! The Lord has made me strong. Now I have an answer for my enemies; I rejoice because you rescued me. No one is holy like the Lord! There is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God. 8. We re going to close up this morning by remembering a time that hammers this point home. There is no Rock like our God. There s no one else we can trust in. We can t look to others because they ll let us down. We can t look to ourselves because we re not strong enough. God is the only One worth trusting. a. This is particularly true when we think of the salvation we have in Jesus Christ. We could do nothing to save ourselves. We were powerless against sin. Not even our best acts could bring us back to God. b. And yet, our King saved us. He made a way for us to have forgiveness not because of what we ve done, but because of who He is.

7 i. Titus 3:4-5: When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. c. As we celebrate the Lord s Supper together, may the elements of communion remind us of our total dependence on God. i. As you hold that bread in your hands, remember that you could not make it on your own. Jesus body was broken for you. ii. As you hold the cup, remember that you were powerless to save yourself. Jesus knew that. That s why He spilled His blood on the cross. d. Some of you are sitting here today and you ve been depending on yourself. You ve been trusting that you can make it on your own. If the story of Saul teaches us anything, it s that we cannot depend on ourselves. We can only trust in God. 7