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SamuelSurvey of the Old Testament: The ProphetsFall 2005 |
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[Previous: Introduction][Next: The Reign of King David]
Nonetheless, the Lord grants the nation their request. A king was not the ideal that God had desired for Israel, for He wanted to be their king directly. But if the alternative meant returning to the time of the judges, it would be better to have a king. So God told Samuel that he would send to him the man He had chosen for king.
Saul was a tall and handsome man who was searching for his father's lost donkeys. After searching for sometime, he and his companions decide to consult Samuel to see if he could help them find the donkeys. When Samuel sees him, God tells him that Saul, this donkey herder from an insignificant family in the smallest tribe of Israel was the one chosen to be king.
After Saul meets with Samuel and learns that he has been chosen to be king, he heads back home. On the way, however, he meets a group of prophets, and the Holy Spirit comes upon Saul. Saul then begins to prophesy and proclaim the word of the Lord. The king has now been anointed by the Holy Spirit, ready to do the work of the Lord for Israel.
Samuel calls the nation to him to anoint Saul as king. He begins by dividing the congregation into tribes. He then casts lots, and the lot falls to the tribe of Benjamin. He then narrows down the selection to the Matrite family. Then the lot falls to Saul. But no one can find Saul. He is hiding amongst the baggage. But the people nonetheless all shout “long live the king,” and Saul begins his rule.
Saul's first significant act as king was to rebuff an invasion by the Ammonites into Jabesh-Gilead. Saul had been working in the fields when the people came and told him of the invasion. The Spirit returns to Saul and he calls for all Israel to rise up against the Ammonites. Saul's army soundly defeated the Ammonites, and the people become unified under this new king.
At the victory celebration, Samuel addresses the nation, recounting the history of the nation to that point. While he still doesn't like the idea of the monarchy, he is resigned to it, and issues a warning to both the king and the people. As long as the king and the people serve the Lord, then God will bring success to the king and the nation. However, if they rebel against the Lord, then the king can not save them from foreign invaders. King Saul may have brought them victory today, but the victory had more to do with their obedience to God than the fact that they have a king.
“Fear the Lord and serve Him… But if you still do wickedly both you and your king will be swept away.” (1 Sam. 12:25)
Saul's next battle is against the Philistines. He raises an army of 3,000, none of whom have swords or spears. However, the Philistines have 30,000 chariots, 6,000 cavalry, and they had iron swords and spears. Needless to say, Saul is nervous as they get close to the battle, and Samuel is nowhere to be seen. After several days, the army gets restless, for they are supposed to wait for Samuel. Saul, seeing his small army fall apart, decides to rally the troops by giving a burnt offering to the Lord without Samuel.
As soon as the offering was complete, Samuel came and was aghast that Saul, in his arrogance, would make an offering without a priest. In what seems like an innocent act to keep up the morale of his troops, Saul had exceeded his authority, usurping Samuel's role. For this, Samuel tells Saul that his kingdom will not last forever, and that the Lord would now look for a king who was “after His own heart.”
Saul had split his army, and sent some with his son Jonathon. As the battle begins, Saul told his troops that they were to fast until they had defeated the Philistines. Jonathon's troops hadn't heard the order, so they ate some honey they found in the forest.
When Saul later discovers that Jonathon had broken the fast, he condemned him to death, even though he had not heard the order. Saul did not order his sons death because he was angry at Jonathon, but because he had put the people under an oath. It was a matter of Saul breaking this vow to the Lord. Saul has become like Jephthah, who made a vow to the Lord and ended up sacrificing his oldest daughter. Saul has lost his moral compass and is about to commit such an atrocity, when Jonathon is rescued by the people.
Saul's army battles against all their neighbors, including Moab, Ammon, Edom, the Philistines and the Amalekites. In his battle against the Amalekites, the Lord tells Saul through Samuel, that because of the way this nation treated Israel as they passed through on the way to the Promised Land, they were to be utterly destroyed, included all men, women, children and livestock.
Saul and his army defeat the Amalekites and destroy all the people. But Saul kept the best of the livestock. This is the last straw for God. Because of Saul's disobedience in this matter, God would remove the throne from Saul's family.
Saul is upset at this pronouncement and apologizes and offers to give a sacrifice to atone for the sin. But it is too late. Samuel says, in a theme repeated throughout the prophets, “to obey is better than sacrifice.” Disobedience and rebellion against God is as bad as divination and idolatry (1 Sam. 15:23).
Saul's sin is that he saw his throne as an absolute monarchy [1]. He did not see the need to obey God and his prophet Samuel. As was the case of the kings in the neighboring nations, Saul saw his authority as final. His rule would be law.
But Israel already had a law, the Torah, and the king is subject to that it (Deuteronomy 17:18-20). The prophets were the enforcers of God's covenant and are established by God to hold the king in check. Saul had put himself above Samuel, God's prophet, and in so doing had put himself above God and His law. For this, the house of Saul would end.
Samuel is so upset over the failure of Saul, that he delays seeking after another king. But finally the Lord tells Samuel to go to Bethlehem and to the house of Jesse, for there he would find the next king of Israel. Samuel goes to Bethlehem, and there Jesse parades out each of his sons. But none of them is the one the Lord has chosen. Samuel asks if there are any other sons. There is, but the youngest son is out tending the sheep. When this son comes, the Lord tells Samuel that this young man, named David, will be the next king of Israel. Samuel anoints the young man.
David has been anointed by Samuel, and the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him. However, the Spirit of the Lord has departed Saul. Furthermore, the Lord has sent an evil spirit to torment Saul. David, who by now has a reputation as a musician, is sent to Saul to sooth him when the evil spirit comes to him. The evil spirit was used by God as a punishment for Saul's sin and seemed to drive King Saul to a certain madness or mental instability. From here forward, Saul begins acting more and more paranoid and mentally unstable.
The army of Israel is once again ready to fight against the Philistines. This time, however, the Philistines have raised a champion, Goliath to battle for them. Saul should have been the champion of Israel, for he was the tallest warrior. Yet he cowered, leaving the Philistine to taunt the Israelites and their God.
David visits his brothers at the front, and is offended that this heathen should ridicule the name of the Lord. If no one else will confront this blasphemer, then David himself will do it. Saul is certain David will be defeated, but he allows him, nonetheless to battle him. In this famous story, David gathers 5 stones and with a shepherd's sling, defeats the great Goliath.
David becomes a commander in Saul's army as a result and has great success in battle wherever he went. From this, David's fame grew. The women of Israel would sing:
Saul has slain his thousands,
And David his ten thousands.
(1 Samuel 18:7b)
Saul becomes jealous of David's fame and suspect that David will use this fame to mount a rebellion against him. So the next day when David was brought in to sooth Saul from the evil spirit, Saul threw a spear at David to try and kill him. From that point, David was banned from Saul's court.
Saul also tried to kill David by sending him on a suicide mission. He offered David his daughter's hand in marriage if he would bring him 100 Philistine foreskins, expecting that David would die in the attempt. The plan backfired, however, as David was able to defeat the Philistines and Saul had to give his daughter Michal as David's bride.
While Saul is jealous and paranoid about David's fame among the people and favor from the Lord, his daughter, Michal is in love with David and Saul's son Jonathon has developed a close friendship with David. When Saul sends servants to find and kill David, Michal helps him to escape. Likewise, Jonathon warns David of Saul's desire to see him killed. This feeds Saul's paranoia that everyone is conspiring against him.
As Jonathon warns David to flee from Saul, in a very heartwarming seen, these two good friends make a covenant together to take care of each other's family in the future. David later will abide by this covenant when he is king.
David flees from Saul and first stays with Samuel. When Saul sent troops to seize David from Samuel's house, the Spirit of the Lord came upon the troops and they would begin prophesying rather than taking David. This happens twice, before Saul himself goes up to Samuel's house to seize David. But upon approaching the house, Saul too receives the Spirit and begins to prophesy before Samuel all day and night.
David then flees and finds refuge temporarily with the priests in the tabernacle of the Lord. The priests supply David with food, namely the holy show bread placed as an offering before the Lord, and with Goliath's sword and spear which they have kept for him since his defeat of the Philistine. David then flees into the wilderness.
When Saul discovers that the priests have aided David, he commits a terrible atrocity and slaughters the priests of the Lord in the tabernacle.
Saul is continuing down a dark path. He has fallen from being the Lord's anointed king, full of the Holy Spirit to a man willing to kill his own son and willing to slaughter the priests of the Lord. He is suffering from mental instability and has paranoid tendencies as his own daughter and son are aiding and abetting his enemy.
But Saul's paranoia is baseless, for David is a man of God who refuses to kill his pursuer. God has selected Saul as king, and even though David knows he is the chosen successor, he refuses to usurp the throne. On two different occasions, David has an opportunity to kill Saul, and is encouraged to do so by his troops. But David will not commit murder against the man he knows God chose as the ruler of Israel.
David's example is an excellent lesson in biblical leadership. How are we to treat those whom God has placed in power? Do we have a right to rebel against those in authority over us if they are evil, mentally unstable, and seeking to persecute us? What if our leaders are bad leaders?
David's example tells us that we still must respect and honor those God has placed in authority over us. It doesn't matter if we know we could be a better leader. It doesn't matter if you are the “heir apparent.” It doesn't matter if the leader is out to get you. Biblical leadership requires humility and faith in God's timing. Biblical leadership is not arrogantly being proactive about playing politics to get ahead.
This is the very theme of Samuel. It is the Lord who raises up and brings low. He will be the one who gives strength to the king and exalts his anointed. To seek this ourselves is to put ourselves into the role God has reserved for himself alone.
In chapter 25, we see that Samuel, the great judge, prophet and king-maker dies. All Israel mourns for him.
David finally flees from Israel to the Philistines, where he and his followers stay about a year and a half. Under the protection of the Philistine king, Saul stopped searching for David. David and his army continued to defend Israel by battling against their neighbors.
However, when the Philistines went to battle against Saul, they invited David to go with them. However, several were afraid that David's troops would turn against them in battle and side with Israel. So the Philistines asked David not to go to battle with them as they went up against Saul.
As Saul is about to go to battle against the Philistines, he grew afraid. So he sought the Lord, desiring to ask God what he should do. But the Lord did not answer him, by dreams, by Urim, or by the prophets.
This gives us some insight into how the Kings heard the word of the Lord. The Urim are the lots found on the priests' ephod. The lots would be cast by the priest in order to determine the will of the Lord. We see that David consults the will of the Lord by this method in 1 Samuel 23:9 and 30:7.
Saul used to have the Holy Spirit within him. But now the Holy Spirit was gone. There were no dreams, the Urim didn't provide answers, and the prophets weren't talking with Him.
You can see the frustration of Saul. It's as if in desperation he says, “Oh, if only Samuel were here, he would tell me what God says.” So, Saul decides to inquire of the deceased Samuel through a medium. The only problem is that Saul had been obedient to the Law of Moses and had thrown out all the mediums from Israel. Nonetheless, there was one in Endor. So Saul goes and disguising himself, he asks the medium to conjure up the soul of Samuel. Samuel tells Saul that he and his sons would die the next day in battle because of his disobedience.
How could this medium be able to actually conjure up Samuel from the dead? Does this mean that mediums, or at least this medium from Endor, are actually able to communicate from the dead? We must be careful not to set our theology from a single narrative. We know that God can use anyone at anytime for his purposes, and in this case God used this medium to communicate to Saul. But that does not mean that mediums are able to actually conjure the dead. What we can know for certain is that God prohibits the use of mediums and conjuring the dead, real or not, is a violation of God's law (Duet. 18:10-12).
In the midst of this, we should not loose the point of the passage. Saul had been God's anointed and had prophesied in the Spirit, but because of his disobedience, was now cut off from communication with God.
When David and his troops returned home from the Philistine army, they discovered that the Amalekites had attacked their family and carried off their women, children and livestock. David asked the priest of the Lord if they should pursue the Amalekites. Through the priest's ephod, the Lord assures David he will be able to rescue all his family. Just as the Lord says, David and his men are able to rescue their families. God was not talking with Saul, but David could still consult the Lord.
Meanwhile, the Philistines have attacked Israel. Saul, after being mortally wounded, asks his armor bearer to kill him so the Philistines won't abuse him. But the armor bearer refuses, so Saul takes his own life rather than be captured by the Philistines. Jonathon and most of Saul's other sons are also killed in battle.
[Previous: Introduction][Next: The Reign of King David]
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