Saul Made King

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SAUL MADE KING

1 Samuel 10:1-11:15

Key Verse: 10:24

“Samuel said to all the people, ‘Do you see the man the LORD has chosen? There is no one like him among all the people.’ Then the people shouted, ‘Long live the king!’”

In the last week’s passage, the Israelites rejected the God-king and demanded for a human king. But in his long-suffering patience, God didn’t punish them but rather prepared a king for them. Today, we are going to learn how God raised Saul as Israel’s first king. Saul was a Benjamite. He was from a well-to-do family that ownedlivestock (donkeys and oxen) and servants. He was young, tall and handsome. He was well-mannered and well-grounded. He was a responsible son to his father and a man of perseverancewho searched the lost donkeys for 3 days. However, he had deep inferiority complex due to his family background that he was from the low standing of the tribe ofBenjamin in Israel (Judg 20). He was not confident. He was a farmer working in his father’s farm with his oxen and donkeys. Spiritually, he was reallyundeveloped. He didn’t know Samuel Israel’s spiritual leader and judge (9:18). In his low self-esteem, he was more comfortable with donkeys than with people. He was just an introvertedand awkward young farmer. But God chose him as the first king of Israel.God commanded Samuel to raise Saul as king.

Look at 10:1. “Then Samuel took a flask of olive oil and poured it on Saul’s head and kissed him, saying, ‘Has not the Lord anointed you ruler over his inheritance?’”Here Samuel anointed Saul privately. Actually Samuel didn’t know who Saul really was. He had never met Saul before. But he knew that God chose Saul as king. So in wholehearted obedience to God, he instructed Saul how to be Israel’s king and anointed him as ruler over Israel. Moreover, by kissing him, Samuel showed his loyalty and allegiance to Saul.

Then in verses 2-7,Samuel told Saul about three specific signs that Saul would encounter. These signs would confirm that God has chosen Saul to be the king. Most important of which comes in verses 6-7. AtGibeah, Saul would meet a procession of prophets. Then the Spirit of the Lord would come to Saul and Saul would prophesy with them and be changed into a different person.

Most probably, Saul was greatly baffled and astonished by all these unexpected occurrences. He just came to look for the lost donkeys. He never imagined before that he would be chosen as king. (Imagine you are told to be a prime minister of Canada immediately.)But when he left Samuel God changed his heart (9).And on his way back home, Saul experienced the fulfillment of all the signs that Samuel had said. Particularly, at Gibeah he joined in the band of prophets and prophesied with them just as Samuel had predicted. Look at verse 10. “When he and his servant arrived at Gibeah, a procession of prophets met him; the Spirit of God came powerfully upon him, and he joined in their prophesying.”The Spirit of God came powerfully upon Saul and suddenly he began to prophesy. In our term, he suddenly became a Bible teacher and a messenger of God’s words, boldly delivering God’s message. Before this, he was just a shy farmer. But when he received the spirit of God, all of a sudden, he was changed into a different person and prophesied with other prophets. Look at verse 11. “When all those who had formerly known him saw him prophesying with the prophets, they asked each other, ‘What is this that has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?’”These acquaintances of Saul must have been surprised by the sudden change of Saul. In their incomprehension, they say, “Is Saul also among the prophets?” So this phrase became Israelite’s saying. In this way, God helped Saul to know that God chose him as a king for the Israel and that he was with him.

After then, Samuel summoned the people of Israel to the Lord at Mizpah to raise Saul as king. There God chose Saul as king by lot. But he disappeared and people could not find him because he had hidden himself among the supplies (among the baggage in ESV).Probably he was so overwhelmed by kingship. He felt so burdensome and fearful to be king. It was because at this point, Israel’s king should make a unity among the tribes and fight against many strong enemies. And he had zero experience. As we know well, becoming a leader is a blessing, but it requirestaking a heavy cross. A leader without cross is not a leader; he may be a puppet or someone else. In view of the Bible, God’s blessing is cross and cross is God’s blessing.

Eventually Saul was brought out from among the baggage to the public. When the people saw a tall and handsome young man and heard that he was God’s chosen one, they shouted, “Long live the king!” In this way, Saul was raised as king. Afterwards, Samuel explained to the people the rights and duties of kingship and documented them on a scroll. Most probably these rights of duties of kingship refer to Deuteronomy 17:14-20 in which there are several requirements of the kings. Let me brief them. First of all, a king must be chosen by God from among the Israelites. He should not havetoo many horses, too many wives and too much silver and gold. Above all, he should read the words of God all the days of his life and revere the Lord and follow the words of God and should be humble, not regarding himself better than others. These requirements tell us that Israel’s king or God chosen leader is different from worldly kings in the gentile world. Israel’s king should be God’s humble servant who had to answer to a higher authority God himself. Israel’s king should also be a shepherd king who had to serve God’s people humbly. In reality, however, all kings in Israel’s history didn’t follow these requirements. All of them failed to do so. But as we study Jesus’ life on earth, we can find that Jesus fulfilled all these requirements. He came to the world as King of kings and Lord of lords. He was chosen by God. He lived a poor life on earth. He loved God and obeyed God’s will absolutely. He also shepherded people by serving them and giving his life for them. Jesus says in Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”This is spiritual leadership. Let us grow as spiritual leaders who love and obey God and who serve others humbly.

Now look at verses 26-27. Everyone went home after Saul was raised as Israel’s king. But not everyone accepted Saul as king. Some trouble makers didn’t accept God’s choice and openly rejected and despised Saul. But Saul kept silent though he was officially raised as king. He didn’t get into a shouting match with them, or fought them with his new found supporters, or quit to be king because of their rejection. He turned a deaf ear and closed a blind eye to their refrain. As we know well, argument breeds more disputes and defensiveness breeds more attacks. We must entrust people’s criticism to God who vindicates his servants. We must bear with them patiently and silently.

Chapter 11 is about Saul’s courageous and victorious warfare and the confirmation of Saul’s kingship. The story begins with Nahash the Ammonites who besieged Jabesh Gilead threatening to gouge out the right eye of everyone in Jabesh Gilead as the condition of their peace treaty. This horrible news was reported to the people of Gibeah where Saul lived and everyone in Gibeahwept loudly in their helplessness. As Saul was returning from the fields, behind his oxen, he saw people weeping and heard the horrible news. What happened then? Did he become fearful and went home as a powerless farmer or a nominal king?

Look at verses 6-7. “When Saul heard their words, the Spirit of God came powerfully upon him, and he burned with anger. He took a pair of oxen, cut them into pieces, and sent the pieces by messengers throughout Israel, proclaiming, ‘This is what will be done to the oxen of anyone who does not follow Saul and Samuel.’Then the terror of the Lord fell on the people, and they came out together as one.”Here the Spirit of God came upon Saul powerfully once again. When the Spirit of God came upon him, he was no longer a shy and fearful farmer, but a courageous worrier king. He was no longer ashamed of his character and human background. He was no longer fearful of theruthless enemies. He cut the oxen into pieces and sent them out as both a call to arms and a warning to any who might otherwise hesitate to support him. Thirty three thousand Israelites came out together as one. Underthe leadership of King Saul, they fought and defeated the Ammonites and rescued the people of Jabesh. After the war, all the people of Israel recognized Saul as their king whom God raised for them. So Samuel took the Israelites to Gilgal and reaffirmed Saul’s kingship again there. In this way, Saul had been made king three times, and this time it was with the full acceptance of the people.

In this passage, God raised and reaffirmed Saul as king. Humanly Saul was not a person fittingto be a king. He was just a timidman with lowself-esteem. He did notknow anything about leadership. He didn’t have any public speech before and let alone lead the whole army for the battle. But when the Spirit of God came upon him, he became a different person. Actually nothing around him was changed. The Spirit of God just changed his heart. Then he could become a powerful leader and all Israelites recognized him as their king.

In today’s passage, the Spirit of God came upon him twice. The first time, the Spirit of God enabled him to speak God’s words, and the second time, the Spirit of God gave him courage to lead his people and to become a worrier king who had no fear of being killed in the war andwho led the whole army to the war and won the victory.God didn’t change Saul’s circumstances. The Spirit of God changed his heart inside out, outside it, upside down and downside upand Saul became a different person.

Jesus called the Spirit of God the Holy Spirit or the Counsellor. The Spirit of God is God himself. The Holy Spirit changes people’s hearts. Numerous people in the Bible and in human history and even many of us have experienced the changing power of the Holy Spirit. When the Spirit of God came to a fearful young man Gideon who hid himself in a cave in fear of the Midianites, he became a courageous warrior who led and fought against theMidianiteswith only 300 soldiers and won a great victory. In the same way, when the Holy Spirit came upon the fearful disciples of Jesus they became powerful and prudent men of God who courageously witnessed to Jesus’ death and resurrection even before the religious leaders who had murdered Jesus. Nicky Cruz was the leader of a New York city gang, The Mau-Maus in the fiftieswhom most people even police officers were afraid. But a skinny preacher David Wilkerson who was filled with God’s Spirit had kept visiting him walking in the gang infested neighbourhood where even Frankenstein and Dracula were afraid to walk. Cruz slapped Wilkerson two times and threatened to kill him who in return said that even if he could cut Wilkerson into a thousand pieces, but every piece would still say Jesus loves him because no one can kill love and God is love. The Spirit of God came to Cruz powerfully and changed his heart. Cruz repented and went to police and turned in all their handguns and knives. Then he became an evangelist who has served numerous young drug and alcohol addicts and preached to over 45 million people. Likewise, the Holy Spirit changes the hearts of people as he had changed Saul. Therefore, the evident sign of the work of the Spirit of God in a person is the change of his or her heart.

So many peopledo not believe the Spirit of God simply because they cannot see him. When we don’t live by the Spirit of God, we live just a physical life in the physical world. They see, hear and think only about physical things. They talk about physical things and work for physical things. But according to Galatians 5:25, Christians are those who live by the Spirit of God. Apostle Paul says in Romans 8:14, “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.”Paul also urged Christians to be filled with the Spirit of God in Ephesians 5:18, because if we don’t live by the Spirit of God, we live by our sinful nature or by the evil spirit. In order to live a powerful, courageous and victorious life, our hearts must first be changed by the Spirit of God. After then, we must be filled with the Spirit of God and must live by the Spirit of God daily. But Saul didn’t live by the Spirit of God in his later years. He tried to live by his own ideas and desires. He then became proud, boastful, jealous, fearful and murderous. He was possessed by the evil spirit that tormented him. He was defeated by the Philistines in a battlefield and killed himself.

We are called to serve God and his work. But we cannot serve God and God’s work by our own wisdom, power or skill. In order to serve God’s work powerfully, we must be changed by the help of the Spirit of God and we must be a new creation. Samson in the Bible was a man of great strength like Terminator when he was living by the Spirit of God. But when he fell into immorality, the Spirit of God left him. Then Samson became powerless. His enemies captured him, gouged out his eyes and set him to grinding grain in the prison. But when he repented and was filled with the spirit of God again, he could slaughtered the enemies and rescued his people and country from the enemies.

How then can we receive the Spirit of God and live continually by the Spirit of God? That is a very important question. Let’s get the answer from the Bible. The book of Acts is about the work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of the early Christians including 12 apostles and Paul. In particular, Acts 2 records about the coming of the Holy Spirit to the early Christians. At that time, the early Christians were waiting for the Holy Spirit because the Risen Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to them. Their waiting was their preparation to receive the Holy Spirit. They waited by joining together constantly in prayer to God. They also mended their broken vessel by choosing Matthias to replace Judas Iscariot who had betrayed Jesus and committed suicide. In other words, when they prayed in one heart and established the band of love, God poured out the Holy Spirit on them. After then, they lived by the Holy Spirit continually by devoting themselves to Bible study andby having a spiritual, selfless, joyful and loving fellowship (2:42-47). Therefore, to live by the Spirit of God we must devote ourselves to God’s words and apply God’s words into our personal daily life. To live by the Spirit of God, we must also makeone love vessel among us and have a spirit-filled and loving fellowship. May God send each of us the Spirit of God so that we all may be changed and become spiritual, powerful and influential people of God. Amen