08/12/2020 – Day 080 – Samuel 6 – 10: “So, you want an earthly king, do you?”
Our church home , since the Covid crises, has been the live-stream service at Parkside Church in Cleveland, started around Chapter 20 in Alistair Begg’s 18 month and running sermon series on Samuel. Normally, I would like to go back and listen to the old sermons that lead up to where we started with Samuel. But , this 365 day read, reflect and prayer through the Bible study precludes that possibility for now. I would guess that Alistair spent at least seven or eight sermons on these 5 chapters. But you can check me on that by looking on the truthforlife sermon archive.
So , Chapter six begins with the Philistines having a fear of the Lord reality hit upon them. So, the question becomes, how do we get rid of this ark? Notice with their tribulations to date, no one suggests destroying or burying it. As if they knew that such a foolhardy attempt would lead to widespread death and devastation. Again, the intellectual faith in God’s providence does not bring salvation.
I think I recall that the ark of the Lord had been out of the Hebrews hands for forty years. There doesn’t seem to have been a clamor to return it to its proper place in the Holy of Holies. No doubt that reflects a further decline in the faith and obediance of the people. So it fell on Eliazar, the son of Abinadab to keep the ark in their house in Kirjath Jearim.
Chapter seven then begins noting Samuel calling out the people to put away their foreign gods and to serve the one true God only. Through repentence and Samuel offering sacrifice allowed Israel to subdue their dreaded Philistines. Salvation in His kingdom also comes through both repentence and sacrifice. And verse 13 notes: “So the Philistines were subdued, they did not come anymore into the territory of Israel. And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.”
By that verse, Samuel had God’s favor so we can surmise that he was not as complicit in the evil of his two sons like Eli and his two evil sons before him. But Samuel’s advancing age and the evil of his sons are given as reasons for the people’s acclaim that Israel be granted a king to “judge us like all the nations.” What a loving God we have, as evidenced with his consoling of a distraught Samuel: “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.” Maturity as a Christian would suggest a grief only if it were God being rejected, not us personally. But Samuel follows the Lords instructions in relaying to the people the trouble and tribulation they would suffer from their king.
So in chapters 9 and 10: Saul is chosen to be king, annointed by Samuel and proclaimed to the people. Interesting , we are told in glowing terms of his physical characteristics, towering as he did at least a head taller than the other men. But we don’t hear much about his courage or his heart like his successor. The people get what they wanted. But the Holy Spirit comes to him as well as the priests he is with, so he joins the priests that Samuel told him he would meet, and prophesied with them as they walked together.
But Saul hides in his presentation to the people. Fresh from receiving the Holy Spirit, he still is perhaps overwhelmed with what is in front of him. Indeed, God’s annointed is called to serve. As Saul returns back to his home in Gibeah at the end of chapter 10, he is accompanied by both supporters and detractors. On the later, he “held his peace” which shows a humbleness for a new king, a quality that disappears sadly in the not too distant future.