A New Hope

1 Samuel 16:1-13

Good morning!  Today is our final message in our series titled “Prophet and King.” 

The Biblical foundation of our series has been the first portion of the book of I Samuel.  In the 15 chapters we’ve covered so far, Samuel, the prophet, and Saul, the first king of Israel, have been at the center of the narrative.

But, do you ever stop and think why people study the Bible?  There are many ways to approach the answer to this question.  The Bible has been and continues to be the most-printed, best-selling book year after year.  There are a lot of amazing facts about the Bible:  how many copies have been printed (~6 billion, ~5 billion since 1815), how many languages it has been translated into (1,275 complete-2,100 in part), how many ancient manuscripts still exist (~24,000), how many copies are printed each year (100 million).  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvxVXkCDGNw  Compared to other books, the Bible is unparalleled.  There is no other book like it. 

The Fall of Saul

1 Samuel 15:1-35

Today we come to a very significant low point in Saul’s career as king. The last time I spoke we were in Chapter 13, where Saul failed the test of waiting seven days for Samuel in Gilgal. He became impatient and went ahead and offered the burnt offering on his own. Because he had not kept God’s command, Samuel told him that his kingdom would not endure but that he would be replaced by a man after the Lord’s own heart, someone who put intimacy with God before all else. Still, in our story today we see that God is in a sense giving Saul one last chance, a final test to see if his heart could be fully devoted to what God would tell him to do.

Pseudo-spirituality

1 Samuel 14:24-52

Good morning!  Today’s message is part of our series Prophet and King.  It is also very much like part 2 of a cliffhanger episode or movie.  Carl shared last week about the first half of I Samuel 14.  In this chapter, we saw the faith of Saul’s son Jonathan.

The scene is Saul and his men (now only 600 reduced from at least 3000) are near Gibeah.  At the beginning of chapter 14, it says that Saul was staying under a pomegranate tree at Migron.  Somehow in my mind, I envision a big tree with a tent of war beneath it.  In fact, pomegranates actually grow on a shrub tree.  The trees grow only to 30 feet tall at most.  Saul is not gathered beneath an enormous tree with his counselors.  He’s sitting under a little tree, the kind where you probably have to stoop down to get under it, the kind of place where you would expect to find a little kid, not the king of a nation.

Faithless Father and Faith-Filled Son

1 Samuel 14:1-23

Welcome! Today we continue our series on Samuel and Saul, coming to Chapter 14. I want to back up for a minute to Chapter 10. It was here that Samuel anointed Saul, telling him many detailed things about what would happen to him that day – two men would meet him at Rachel’s tomb, a very specific location, and tell him that the donkeys he had set out to look for were found, and his father is asking about him. Then at the great tree of Tabor, another very specific location, three men would meet him, one with three goats, one with three loaves of bread, and one with wine. They would greet him and offer him two loaves of bread. Then he will go to Gibeah and prophesy along with a procession of prophets that met him. All of these things happened exactly as Samuel explained! This should have given Saul great faith in God, in His care for him, His attention on him, and His power and sovereignty. But when the lots were chosen and Saul was selected as king, he was out hiding among the stuff. Despite these very real and otherwise completely unexplainable examples of God’s power, Saul did not rise to his position that God had given him. Back to that moment of anointing – Samuel gave Saul one additional promise: