I Samuel 8 -10, Saul (#1016)
Good morning! Today, we’re going to continue the series we started with Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and now first Samuel. In our first time with first Samuel, obviously we started with Hanna, his wonderful mother, and the prayer she made, and her trusting God, which led to Samuel being born, and being dedicated to the Lord, and then how he grew up and began to lead and judge God’s people. He had that for two sessions and now we’re going to get into the topic of Saul, which is a very interesting topic. God did not want his people to have a king, He wanted to be their leader, but they saw the other nations around them having kings, and they wanted one. And they forget all about the fact that they had won many battles against many foes, starting with the Egyptians and all the way up through the Philistines and many others they had defeated and been very victorious without a king, but everybody still wanted to, you know like people often say: ”keeping up with the Jones’” do what the neighbor in doing or what the neighboring country is doing. And I thought about it today, we live in a very different administration today.
We don’t have judges and kings and prophets being the government. But we still need to trust God, and we don’t want to have anything coming in to replace God. And if you think about it, just looking at the news of talking to your neighbors, not everybody, but it seems like an awful lot of people want somebody to replace God in their lives. You know, they want a political leader that going to raise the human cry and go fix everything. And there is nothing wrong with voting for the political leader you want, and the political leader doing a good job leading the government. Nothing wrong with that. But, when you place all the confidence and expectation in the leader instead of God, it gets a little out of whack. Same thing with a religious leader. Some people think we’re going to have a big Pope-type person, that is going to, whether it’s the Pope in the Roman Catholic Church or a Bishop or leader in some other church that is going to be the one to lead the way. Or it could be a business leader, you know, I like so and so, because his business runs well, and I’m going to do whatever he says. And again, there is nothing wrong with learning from a good businessman, you know like one of the people I trust a lot is Warren Buffet, an investor in Omaha, Nebraska. But I don’t expect him to change my life and save the world. He’s just a good investor, so if he’s doing something, I pay attention, and I think about it, and if it makes sense, I do it. And if it doesn’t make sense to me, I don’t do it. But, it is not like I want him to replace God, he’s just a smart guy I listen to.
And there are other people, there are fitness coaches, there are motivational speakers, there are community leaders, and every one of these can contribute in positive ways to our lives and the lives of those around us, but none of them can take the place of God. So, its just very instructive to see how Israel – it wasn’t like they wanted a king to sort of assist God or work with God, and be their leader, they wanted a king to replace God. There is a big difference there. There is a very big difference between having somebody to help, you know like those in the medical field. And I have huge respect for those in the medical field, but obviously they don’t replace God. They didn’t make the human body, there are things they can’t cure and they know it, but God can cure them.
So, I never say a dang thing against the medical profession and I’ve benefited from it so dang much, I have respect for it. But at the same time I know that if I had to it, I would say that they are “assisting God” in our healing. Because healing ultimately comes from God. And good physicians do a wonderful job at assisting God. But, in my mind they don’t take the place of God. And Laura, I’ve probably not said this since you’ve on these calls, but sometimes people ask me: “should I pray and trust God for healing or should I listen to my doctor?” And I say: “Yes.” I always pray and trust God for help and do exactly what the doctor tells me. Plus all the corollary things: try to eat well, try to exercise, and all those other things that are important. And I’m convinced, and this is my life personally, I’m not speaking for the whole world, I am convinced that I’ve been healed because of what my doctor prescribed, and I’m convinced there have been times I’ve been healed by simply trusting God without the help of a doctor.
So, I think God has got to be at the top in our lives in every way, and everybody else can help. Like even businessmen. I do, being retired, spend a little more time on investments than I used to and I listen to people that know about investments. But ultimately, I trust God to prosper what I do. So, both are important. But we’re going to read about a time in the history of Israel where they wanted to replace God with a king. They were basically turning away from God to get a king. And that hurt them, as we’ll see. So let’s go to first Samuel chapter seven…
As taught by Bruce Mahone 20210321. All rights reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
I Samuel 8 – Israel asks for a king
I Samuel 9 – God chooses Saul
I Samuel 10 – Samuel anoints Saul
Teaching