Broken Vessels: Saul, Part II

Today we finish a two-part series on the life of King Saul. Actually, last week in a way we finished the life of King Saul, because we saw Saul continue to disobey the Lord to the point that the prophet Samuel, speaking for the Lord, declared that Saul was no longer king, that another would become king in his place. Now we know that this is David. From this point on, the stories of Saul and David intertwine. As we go forward, I will mention David where it is essential to understanding the story of Saul, but I will save an analysis of David’s life for the coming weeks when we focus specifically on David.

Last week I started with an unflattering quote from the New Testament about Saul; this week, I thought I would start with a passage from Deuteronomy that instructs what kings should do.

Broken Vessels: Saul, Part I

Welcome! We are in the middle of a series called “Broken Vessels,” looking at key people in the Old Testament history and examining their faith and their experiences with God, warts and all. We have seen that each person has had their strengths and weaknesses, their victories and failures, and we have also learned a lot about God; His unchanging nature, His holiness, His wisdom, His goodness, His justice, and His mercy. Some of these attributes were always plainly seen from the very beginning; others, such as His mercy, we only saw glimpses of; but all attributes of God are only seen in their complete fullness in Christ. Given that this is true, it is good to be reminded why we are spending so much time in the Old Testament; it is because, as it says in I Timothy 3:16, “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, correcting, rebuking, and training in righteousness.” And we have focused on people of the Old Testament in part because Hebrews 11 gives examples of people with regards what it means to live by faith, and of course this is something we want to do. And so this week, we begin a two-part “mini”-series on Saul.

Broken Vessels: Ruth and Samson

After a couple of weeks off, we come back to the series of Broken Vessels. This series is a study of the lives of men and women in the Old Testament. The purpose of this story is to see how God works, how God uses us, in spite of our weaknesses, our brokenness.

Today, we are going to discuss a well known man and a well known woman: Samson and Ruth. These stories are full of examples that help us understand God and the meaning of His Word in the New Testament. I worked really hard to shorten this message, and I think I’m going to keep it to less than 90 minutes.

The story of Samson starts with the familiar opening from Judges:

Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, so the LORD delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years. Judges 13:1

Jesus: the First and Last

Today we are going to spend time remembering Jesus’ willing sacrifice of Himself on the cross for us. We will remember Him in the way Jesus Himself taught His disciples 2000 years ago, with the bread and the cup, symbols of His body broken for us and His blood shed for us. In preparation for the time, I want us to meditate on one of the titles for Jesus, the First and the Last. This phrase is used repeatedly of Jesus in the Book of Revelation:

When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead. Then He placed His right hand on me and said: "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. – Rev. 1:17

These are the words of Him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. – Rev. 2:8

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. – Rev. 22:13

Broken Vessels: Gideon

We have a lot of ground to cover, so we will get right into the story of Gideon, in Judges chapter 6.

Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count the men and their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help. – Judges 6:1-6

Broken Vessels: Ehud and Deborah

Today we will look at two characters from the book of Judges. In Judges we see a repeated pattern described in Chapter 2:

Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders. Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. Unlike their fathers, they quickly turned from the way in which their fathers had walked, the way of obedience to the Lord's commands. – Judges 2:16-17

Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, He was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the Lord had compassion on them as they groaned under those who oppressed and afflicted them. But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their fathers, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways. – Judges 2:18-19

Jesus: the Bread

Today we have a shortened teaching followed by a time of remembering the Lord with the bread and the cup, as He has asked us in His Word to remember Him. We will follow this with a “sharing time” in which anyone is welcome to share what the Lord has been teaching them in the past month. And then we will spend some time in prayer together.

There are some grand themes in the Bible, and as we have been going through this current series on Broken Vessels, looking at the imperfect lives of the Old Testament that God has used to further His purposes on Earth, one theme I have noticed is that of the provision of food. The actual historical events of the Old Testament not only simply happened and were recorded for us to learn from; they also were shadows of things to come. These things are often veiled, partially hidden, but they are there for those who look, for those who seek, and they point to our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Broken Vessels: Moses Part II

Last week we looked at some events in the early life of Moses. We talked about how Moses, when grown up, killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew, and how Moses, after his secret was found out, fled from Pharaoh into the desert and started a new life as a simple herdsman. After 40 years of living in the desert, God appeared to him in a burning bush that did not burn up, and charged Moses with going back to Egypt and being the vessel God was to use to rescue the Hebrews from Egypt. Moses was reluctant, to say the least, and ultimately, after God explained how He would be with Him through everything, said, “Oh, Lord, please send someone else to do it!” I talked about how we can be like this as well – even though in the gospels we are told that God will be with us even until the end of the age, we are hesitant to do many things that take us out of our comfort zone. Sharing the gospel with friends and neighbors and even strangers is something over which we tell God, “Oh, Lord, please send someone else to do it!”

Broken Vessels: Moses, Part I

Today we are going to look at the first part of the life of Moses. The story really begins before Moses is born, and so we are going to look substantially also at the lives of Moses’ parents. In Exodus Chapter 1, we learn that the descendants of Joseph and his brothers became exceedingly numerous as generation after generation came and went. Eventually a new Pharaoh became concerned about how many they had become and feared that they could side with their enemies, overthrow him, or cause other terrible problems for Egypt. So he made them become slaves and forced them to do difficult, dangerous, and oppressive work, hoping that this work would kill off many of them. But what happened is that the Israelites continued to multiply.

Pharaoh then asked the Hebrew midwives to kill the babies after they were born if they were boys. They did not want to do this, and made up a lie that the Hebrew mothers gave birth before they could arrive. Then Pharaoh told his people to throw every Hebrew boy who was born into the Nile.

Broken Vessels: Joseph

The story of Joseph’s life has to be one of the most well known of the Old Testament. It is a great story that has everything in it. There is intrigue and betrayal, rescue and restoration, redemption and reunion. Not to mention, a happy ending. While God does not speak audibly to Joseph in the same way he did to Jacob, it is clear that God is orchestrating Joseph’s circumstances and blessing him even in and through the difficulties. Acts 7:9 puts it succinctly, “But God was with him.”

There is also a lot of story here. No fewer than 12 chapters of Genesis deal with the account of Joseph’s life. If I read the entire story, it would take longer than we normally spend on a message. So, I’m going to pick and choose a little bit, but I won’t take away too much because it is so important to see Joseph’s full life.

In fact, when both Jacob and Joseph are mentioned in Hebrews 11, it isn’t their faith during their lives, but their faith at the ends of their lives that get mentioned.

By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff. 

 
By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones.--Hebrews 11:21-22