But Am I Not Small?

I Samuel 9:1-21

Good morning!  Today we are finally going to read and study some about the man who will be king in our series Prophet and King.  The first King of Israel will be Saul son of Kish from the tribe of Benjamin.  Last week, we heard how the people of Israel had come to Samuel and rejected the leadership of the judges, and asked for a king so that they would be like the other nations around them, and they would have a leader to go before them and fight their battles.

Samuel tried to explain why this wasn’t a good idea.  God told Samuel to warn the people solemnly.  But, the people did not accept Samuel’s reasoning, even though it was the truth.  A king would take their sons and daughters as soldiers, workers, and servants.  He would take the best of their produce and crops and flocks.  At a minimum, the king would take 10%.  “But the people refused to listen to Samuel.” (8:19)

In his discussion with the people, Samuel did skip over the thing which had prompted the people to ask for a king.  That was the failure of his own sons to rule justly.  Their perversion of justice and taking of bribes in part pushed the people to think they would be better off with a king.  It is funny though how we have a hard time reasoning and making decisions.  There is no more likelihood that a judge would be corrupt than a king.  We have all fallen short, there is no one righteous, all have sinned.  It is only by God’s grace that we can live and act rightly.

Rejecting the True King

1 Samuel 8

What you and I believe about God affects everything we do.  It affects our outlook on life.  It affects our parenting.  It affects our financial decisions.  Knowing God is not about accumulating facts that you can intellectually digest.  One of my weaknesses is that I put my nose to the grind to work hard ...to the detriment of relationship with God.  Working hard is a very good and godly thing.  But sometimes I’ll forget to remember Jesus.  I’m busy getting the job done, whatever it is, and my mind is focused on how to do the next thing, and there are some things that I’ve forgotten about God.  Reading 1 Samuel 8 was a good reminder for me. 

If God is sovereign, does that mean that He always gets what He wants?  If He is the Creator, does that mean that there are some things that do not belong to Him?  Let’s read through 1 Samuel 8 and through some other passages to see if you come to the same conclusion I did.

Confession & Deliverance

1 Samuel 7:1-17

Good morning!  Today, we’re on to chapter 7 of the book of I Samuel in our series titled Prophet and King.  Everyone take a deep breath.  Now let it out.  Ahh!  Doesn’t that feel good?

That’s what this chapter feels like to me.  It’s like a breath of fresh air.  Up until now, we’ve seen some pretty difficult circumstances throughout the first six chapters of I Samuel.  Even the items of good news that we’ve seen have been coupled with difficulty and sacrifice.

Who Can Stand?

1 Samuel 6:1-21

Today we continue our series on Prophet and King, a series examining the life and death of the Prophet Samuel, and Saul, Son of Kish, Israel’s first anointed king. Before we start, I want to take a couple of minutes to give a recap of what has transpired since we began this series.

Many of you will recall that we started in I Samuel chapter 1, where we are introduced to Elkanah and his two wives: Hannah and Peninnah.  They lived in Ramah and they would go up annually to worship and sacrifice to the Lord at Shiloh.  Shiloh was where the Ark of the Covenant of God resided for more than 300 years, since Joshua and the Israelites conquered most of the promise land.  Now Hannah was barren and Peninnah had children with Elkanah.  Peninnah would provoke Hannah to tears because of Hannah’s inability to bear children.