Well, good morning. It's good to see all of you. We are continuing our series this morning in the life of the prophet Samuel. Our text is first Samuel chapter 9 verses 1-3-27. So you can be turning there. We'll be looking at the emergence of Saul as King of Israel, observing how his kingship begins and connected to the larger story of God and his people, and finally connected to our lives as well. You'll recall from previous weeks that there was a high point in Samuel's ministry as a prophet in judge of Israel. And it began with his leading the people of Israel to conquer the Philistines and the recapturing of the ark, and also with calling the people of Israel to repentance, to turn from their idols, to put their sins away, and to turn to the Lord. But as we observe last week, the story once again turns when Samuel's sons proved to be wicked, and they proved to be incapable of leading the people of Israel. And this provides something of what I think is a pretense for the elders of Israel to get together. And they go to Samuel and they say, okay, look, Samuel, here's the deal. This project of having a prophet and a judge and leading us by the word of God is just not working. What we need is an earthly king. And so in chapter 8 and verse 20, they say they want a king to rule over them to judge them, to go out before them to fight their battles just like other nations. Let's note something here, and that is on the surface, this seems like a benign request. You know, the law does not prohibit Israel from having a king for one. In second, this probably has resonance with us. It makes pragmatic sense from an earthly perspective. Israel was threatened and oppressed by their enemies, and the fact that they existed without a centralized authority, there were loose federation of tribes, of 12 tribes, and they existed without a centralized authority who could command a standing army. That would put them at a military disadvantage. So if you just pull back and think about this, this request to have a king, it seems to make sense. Except for the fact that Israel was to be unique among the nations. They were to live as God's covenant people because he called them to live out of their covenant identity. He called them to live out of their covenant status, entrusting themselves to God. But see, the real issue here is that it seems too risky and too costly. They see threats from other nations, and like us, they want assurance, they want security, they want peace. Listen, they want power to control their future. Moreover, they see the prosperity of other nations around them, they look around them, and they don't want a covenant identity, they want a greater identity. They want the prestige and the status that an earthly king could supposedly secure for them. You see, here's the issue behind Israel's request in chapter 8. Israel thinks that they have a political problem that requires a political solution. When in reality they have a spiritual problem that requires a spiritual solution. It tells us something about the human heart, does it not? We are prone to seek earthly kings to solve spiritual problems. And so Israel's request is a failure to see things rightly, and it's an outright rejection of God. And so in chapter 9 we have this major historical movement of the life of a nation from a theocracy to a monarchy. But behind that movement are all these spiritual realities that are going on, and God knows that they've rejected him in this request. But he rather curiously grants their request with the emergence of Saul. And he brings it about in such a way that tells us this is not to be a typical monarchy. I want us to observe three things from our passage this morning. Number one, the provision of a king. Number two, the purpose of a king. And number three, the profile of a king. The provision of a king seeing God's hand at work in ways that we might not suspect. The purpose of a king noting God's mercy to Israel and to us. And the profile of a king reminding ourselves of God's plan and God's character. So first Samuel chapter 9 verses 1 through 27. Hear the word of the Lord. Well there was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of the Korath, the son of Afia, a Benjamin, a man of wealth. And he had a son whose name was Saul, a handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than him. And from his shoulders upwards, he was taller than any of the people. Now the donkeys of Kish, Saul's father, were lost. So Kish said to Saul his son, take one of the young men with you, rise and go look for the donkeys. And he passed through the hill, hill country of Ephraim, passed through the land of Shalashah, but they did not find them. And they passed through the land of Shaline, but they were not there. And then they passed through the land of Benjamin, but did not find them. And when they came to the land of Zeus, Saul said to his servant, who was with him, come, let us go back. Let's my father cease to care about the donkeys and become anxious about us. But he said to him, behold, there's a man of God in this city. He is a man who is held in honor, and all that he says comes true. So now let us go there, perhaps he can tell us the way that we should go. And then Saul said to his servant, but if we go, what can we bring the man for the bread and our sacks is gone? There is no present to bring the man of God. What do we have? And the servant answered Saul again, here I have with me a quarter shackle of silver. I will give it to the man of God to tell us our way. Formerly in Israel when a man went to inquire of God, he said, come, let us go to the seer. For today's prophet was formally called a seer. And Saul said to his servant, well said, come, let us go. So they went to the city where the man of God was. And as they went up the hill to the city, they met young women coming out to draw water and said to them, is the seer here? And they answered, he is, behold, he is just ahead of you hurry. He has come just now to the city because the people have a sacrifice today on the high place. As soon as you enter the city, you will find him before he goes up to the high place to eat. For the people will not eat until he comes since he must bless the sacrifice. And afterward those who are invited will eat. I will go up for you will meet him immediately. And so they went up to the city as they were entering the city, they saw Samuel coming out toward them on his way up to the high place. Now the day before Saul came, the Lord had revealed to Samuel. Tomorrow, about this time, I will send you a man for the land of Benjamin. You shall anoint him to be prince over my people, Israel. He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines. For I have seen my people because their cry has come to me. When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord told him, here is the man of whom I spoke to you. He is who shall restrain my people. Then Saul approached Samuel in the gate and said, tell me, where is the house of the seer? And Samuel said, and Samuel answered Saul, I am the seer. Go up before me to the high place. For today, you shall eat with me. And in the morning, I will let you go. And we will tell you all that is on your mind. As for your donkeys that were lost three days ago, do not set your mind on them, for they have been found. And for whom is all that is desirable in Israel? Is it not for you and all your father's house and Saul answered? Am I not a Benjamin from the least of the tribes of Israel and is not my clan? The humblest of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then have you spoken to me in this way? Then Samuel took Saul and his young man and brought him into the hall. And gave them place at the head of those who have been invited who were about 30 persons. And Samuel said to the cook, bring the portion I gave to you, which I said to you, put aside. And so the cook took up the leg and what was on it and set them before Saul. And Samuel said, see, what was kept is set before you eat because it was kept for you until the hour appointed that you might eat with the guests. So Saul ate with Samuel that day. And when they came down from the high place into the city, bed was spread for Saul and the roof and he lay down asleep. And then at the break of dawn, Samuel called to Saul and the roof up that I may send you on your way. So Saul arose and both he and Samuel went out into the street. And as they were going down to the outskirts of the city, Samuel said to Saul, tell the servant to pass on before us. And when he passed on, stop here yourself for a while. That I may make known to you the word of God. The Lord bless the preaching of his word. It's one through four. We see the provision of a king. Our passage begins, perhaps strikingly, on an ordinary day with a very ordinary problem and a very ordinary son. Saul was the son of a wealthy man named Kish, who was a Benjaminite. And they have a family problem. So unusual family problem for us today, perhaps, but their family problem is the donkeys have gone missing. I don't know if you've ever lost a pet and joined in the frantic searches you're trying to assure your children you're going to find the pet because the pets of such great value. The donkeys in this culture were more valuable than pets because they had economic value. So they're gone and Kish is wondering where they are. Remember, there's no next door app. No one's posting the picture of the five or six donkeys. Hey, these six donkeys in our backyard, who do they belong to? None of that is going on. He knows that there's going to have to be a search now. You know, what could imagine Kish maybe coming, he's been in the password, comes back into the house and perhaps interrupts breakfast. And he says, all right, who let the donkeys out? Who did it this time? I mean, how many times have I said the last one out latches the gate? Who did latch the gate? And he turns to Saul, his son, to initiate the search. Now, maybe that's because Saul was the culprit. Or maybe Saul is the beautiful one. Seems to me that it's the latter. We learn a few things about Saul from the outset. And the first is just this, the first is that Saul was a good looking guy. I mean, he was a good looking guy. Men, most of us, I would say most of us have plateaued in our looks. You know, so most of us have sort of given up on the good looking guy. As perhaps, most of us are even declining. You can say, well, speak for yourself, Derek, I'm getting a little better with age. And to that, I said, go home and ask your wife or ask your friends. Their first thought, when they think of you, is it that you're a good looking guy? We can be tempted to envy Saul because there's this key descriptor versus two and three. More handsome than all the other men in Israel. Saul was TBH. He was tall, dark, and handsome. He's got the look of a leader. He looks the part. It reminds me of two friends of mine who were having lunch some years ago. And a stranger was observing both of them at their table. And he directed his attention to one of my friends. And he came over and he made a comment about his physical appearance. And you know, yeah, high cheekbones and whatnot. And he said, really a question for you. Have you ever thought about doing any modeling? It's not a question you get every day. And how do you even answer that question? Well, as a matter of fact, yes, I have thought about doing some modeling. My friend was flattered, but he humbly said, no, I've never thought about doing any modeling. And so the agent just plugged his car down the table and said, well, here's my card. If you ever think about it, just give me a call. Well, meanwhile, my other friend is sitting at the table with him. And it's a little awkward, because he didn't even acknowledge him. And so he's feeling about this small. Well, that's Saul. You don't want to go to lunch with Saul because guess what? The modeling agent is going to him, not to you. He's a good looking guy. And so Saul the spray able-bodied son, he begins this search for the donkeys. There's something else here that's perhaps a little more subtle, but I think equally significant that I want you to notice. Notice the innocence with which Saul appears to us. Saul appears in a rather unassuming way. He's simply a son obeying his father, tending to their family needs, seeking that which was lost. There's a quite positive impression of Saul, actually. If you look at verse 5, what does that tell you? He's conscientious. He's worried about his father. Worried about his father worrying about him. And so he says to his servant, let us go home. I don't want my dad to worry. And so Saul comes on to the scene. He doesn't seem to be pursuing power or glory. He doesn't appear to have kingly ambitions. He doesn't really have a royal pedigree. There's no military history. There's no great acts of valor on the battlefield. He has a spotty lineage and we'll get to that in a few minutes. He's not the son of a senator. He's not the son of a congressman. There's no Harvard. There's no Yale. There's no pedigree. There's no proven track record. Isn't it striking that Saul is going to be king? He's got the looks. Yeah. Okay. Dad's got some money. Okay. But on the whole, he appears to us as rather innocent and lowly. If we think about how Saul ends up, these simple beginnings, I think, become even more significant. Now, I'll point this out because perhaps we can see something in these humble beginnings about how God envisions kingship. And we see these humble beginnings in David as well, just a shepherd boy, though he slays Goliath. And so, I think we can see the hand of God here setting the stage. And we also see something else. And that is the Lord is working through ordinary events. God is moving. He's weaving. He's working behind the scenes, behind what seemed like in consequential events in life. He's bringing about his purpose. I think there's a lesson here for us. You know, we can spend much of our lives looking for the invisible hand of God in the spectacular. When most of life is about trusting the invisible hand of God in the mundane, it's simple, faithful obedience that pushes the story forward. Note that. That brings us to our second point, point number two, the purpose of a king. Look at verses five through 17. We see Saul search for a donkey which ultimately leads him to the prophet Samuel, verses five through 10. Saul is ready to return home. He doesn't seem like a leader, much of a leader here because the servant is actually the one convincing no Saul. Let's not give up yet. Let's go see the prophet. Now, it was customary to bring a gift to a prophet during this time, kind of like when someone invites you to dinner and it's customary to bring a dinner party gift. And like many of us, Saul is stressing about this. We have nothing to give the prophet. And the servant says, we have a quarter-shekel silver. You can think about that. You walk into someone's house for dinner and we couldn't think of what to give you. So here's this quarter-shekel of silver. And that'll do. So, verses 11 through 14 also tell us that Samuel is returning from Rema on his traveling circuit, re-judged and he prophesied in the city. He's returning to bless the sacrifice of the people. So they're gathering together for the sacrifice in this feast. And Samuel's coming to bless the sacrifice. The women at the well direct them and they run into Samuel as he's on his way to the high place. Now, all of this might seem like coincidence until we get to verses 15 and 16. Not only do we see explicit divine intervention here, but we see God saying, you shall anoint him. Maybe before Saul came, the Lord had revealed to Samuel tomorrow about this time. I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people. And so here we see God's interjection, divine intervention. You know, he says you shall anoint him. The anointed one was the one set aside for a specific task. It was ultimately God's chosen one. Now this begs a question for us. And that is in chapter 8. God seems to be anti-king, anti-monarchy, but here now we see he seems to be pro-king, pro-monarchy. What do we make of this? I think they were out of Davis offers a helpful angle on this passage. When he says this passage shows us that God is neither pro-monarchy nor is he anti-monarchy. But what this passage shows us is that God is pro-mercy. Look at the latter part of verse 16. Why is he anointing a prince? Here's what it says. He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines. For I have seen my people because their cry has come to me. See God has a bigger picture in mind for his people and that is deliverance. The Lord says to Samuel, their cry has come to me. And so here once again Ralph Davis, he says while Yahweh sees Israel's idolatry, he also hears their cries. And here we see the compassion of Yahweh. Yahweh hears their distress in regard to their oppressors. And he has compassion on them, raising up one to deliver them from the hand of their oppressors, which Saul will do shortly, at least in part. So what's the point? What's the point here? The point is that remarkably Yahweh's hand of deliverance is still on them. And there's an echo in this passage in verse 16 of Exodus chapter 3, verse 7. And here's what it says. The Lord says, I've surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry. And so just as God heard the cry of his people in Egypt and raised up a leader, a prophet, Moses, God now, once again, hears the cry of his people. And this time he raises up a king. He raises up a king to deliver them once again. Now why is that significant? First, it's significant because here, right in front of us, we see the full picture of salvation for God's people beginning to emerge. God delivering his people first to a prophet and now a king, literally unfolding before us in the book of 1 Samuel. And so we see God unfolding his redemptive plan here. But second, we also see God's mercy on display. He says, I've seen the affliction of my people. I know they're suffering. Now if anyone did not deserve to be heard, it was Israel. Where they desired a king under false pretenses, but God sees their real need and sees their need for deliverance. He could be trusted because he sees your needs, my needs, better than we do. And so we see God continuing to work mercifully for the nation of Israel. Seen from an earthly perspective, Israel's simpleness is basically ruined everything, but God is still working redemptively on their behalf. And that tells us something that even when we feel that our sins have ruined everything, there's still room to cry out to the Lord. Because he hears. And he sees. It's not that God excuses Israel's sin. We've seen from previous events. He doesn't excuse Eli, Santa, Hoffney, or Phineas, or Israel's idolatry. No, we see those consequences in this book. And they tell us that God is not to be trifled with so that we don't presume upon his mercy. But we also see God's compassion here so that we do not despair of his mercy either. There's this wonderful balance here in the book of 1 Samuel. So God hears their cry and is raising up a king to deliver them. And that brings us to our third point, and the profile of a king. You know, it's just kind of hanging there at this point now. God's raising up a king. Clearly it's going to be Saul, and the question is just sort of hanging over us. Does Saul do that? Does he do that? And what is building here is not whether Saul fits the profile of a king from an earthly perspective, but from a spiritual perspective. Look at verses 18 through 20, Saul sees Samuel. He walks up to Samuel, says, where's the seer? Samuel says, I'm your guy. No worries. Your donkeys have been found. And by the way, you're going to eat with me. Don't worry about that anymore, Saul. There's bigger things for you. In fact, you're the desire of Israel. See Saul's reaction. What? I don't imagine he brought his dinner clothes with him. Verse 21, Saul says, why are you talking to me this way? Saul objects, but I'm a Benjamin, the least of the tribes. Now why does Saul bring up the fact that he's a Benjamin from the least of the tribes? Most scholars trace this comment back to what happened in judges chapter 19 through chapter 21. It's one of the most disturbing accounts in scripture of a horrendous notorious sinful act that was carried out. In it took place in Givia, in Givia is where Saul is from. You might recall it's a man who travels to this town with his concubine. And while they are the men of the town, they come out. And they brutally rape and murder this woman. And the rest of the tribes of Israel, they hear about this. And they are rightfully outraged and they demand that the tribe of Benjamin produce these men, give them up for justice. And incredibly, the tribe of Benjamin refuses to do so. They harbor these men. And what ensued was a bloody civil war between the tribe of Benjamin and the rest of the tribes of Israel. The nearly wiped out Benjamin, the tribe of Benjamin altogether. The tribe of Benjamin ended up losing all the 600 men as a result of this series of battles. And so God opposed the Benjaminites. And they were defeated. And this, of course, scandalized their tribe. And here is Saul, a Benjaminite chosen to be king. You know, it begs the question, how could a king come from such a lineage of sinners? And I think there's something of a foreshadowing here and a fulfillment as well in choosing Saul of Benjaminite. As one scholar noted, the question of how anything good could come from Givia is very similar to a question many years later, how could anything good come from Galilee? So might we be seeing a king that comes from a scandalized people setting the stage for a king that will come for a scandalized people? That's you and that's me. And so there's something of a foreshadowing here, but we also see a fulfillment. And this goes back to Genesis 35 and a promise that the Lord made to Jacob. He said, King shall come from you. And the first one born to Jacob after this royal pronouncement was Benjamin. And in Genesis 43, 34, we see Benjamin treated with royal honor, receiving the favored portion of the meal when Joseph welcomed his brothers back. And yet in Genesis 49, 8 through 12, Jacob predicted that the scepter would ultimately remain with Judah, not Benjamin. And so what do we see here? We see the kingship of Israel was not only foreshadowed in Genesis to Jacob, King shall come from you. But the transition was foreshadowed as well as it reaches a certain fulfillment with Saul, a Benjaminite king who would ultimately give way to David, the Judah height king. And the final scene takes place at the feast that was commonly joined to the sacrifice of the people in verses 22 through 27. Saul shows up, presumably without his dinner clothes on. I don't know if Samuel fixed him up or what, but here he is. In verse 22, Samuel does two things. Verse 22, he gives Saul the favored seat at the table. Now this seat was a place that was most assuredly reserved for Samuel. So what does it mean for him to give the seat to Saul, signifying that in some sense, Saul is to secede Samuel as Israel's leader. In verse 24, something else is significant. He reserves the leg which was to be the priestly portion of the meal for Saul. And all of these actions is symbolized that the king was to be something of a prophetic and priestly figure leading Israel. And that's really important because we see there's a spiritual dimension in which the king was not just to be a political leader or a political ruler, but the king was to be the caretaker of God's people. And that's what Israel needs. They need a spiritual caretaker. And our passage ends with Samuel emerging as something of a fatherly figure to Saul. And this tells us that the king was not intended to be this independent, self-sufficient figure, but was to be dependent upon the prophet, dependent upon the Word of God. Saul stays overnight and Samuel takes him out and he tells the servant to go ahead and it's going to be you and it's going to be me. And here's what I'm going to do, Saul. I'm going to instruct you in the Word of God because that's what you need and that's what my people need. And Deuteronomy 17 tells us about how the Word of God was to shape the reign of the king. It lists two things. It lists what he is was to avoid on the one hand and then it lists what he's to embody. He's not to take many wives or gather horses or silver. I like what John T. Rhodes says about what the king was to avoid in this passage. He said three three Gs, gold, girls, and guns. The king was to avoid those things. What was he to embody? What was the king to embody? You can read in Deuteronomy 17 verses 18 through 20s to be one that is humble, keeping God's Word, keeping God's law close to him, realizing his dependence upon God because the king was entrusted with divine stewardship over God's people in their land. God's plan was to provide a king to fulfill these things. So as we consider this passage, consider Saul. He goes, he eats the priestly portion, he's at this meal. Samuel takes him out, he's going to instruct him in the Word of God, he's going to bed that night. Do you think he got much sleep? What was he thinking at this point? Kind of begs our consideration. We don't know was he lying in bed in disbelief? Who am I? Who am I? I'm just the son of Kisham. I'm a Benjamin. I'm a commoner. Was he humbled knowing where he came from? There's nothing about me that merits any of this. This is clearly God's grace and God's doing and God's working and why he's bestowed this upon me. I don't know. Was he humbled? Did he have a sense of dependence upon God as he saw these very ordinary events unfolding and clearly God's hand was there? Did he have the sense of all some responsibility that's been bestowed upon him and his great need? His great need of God and his Word of the prophet. Consider Saul. We don't know. But we can see from this passage, and from Deuteronomy 17, that Saul had one task. He had one task that's helpful for us to remember, and that was to remain a son. Not a son to Kish, but a son to Samuel and a son of God, a son of God who would live under the Word as king. But somewhere along the way, somewhere along the way, Saul became a king in his own heart, and he ceased to be a son. So what do we draw out for this by way of application? What's our takeaway? I think there's two temptations that we can note in this passage. And that is number one, the temptation to crown others, and number two, the temptation to crown ourselves. You know, face with life's challenges. For you and for me, face with life's challenges oppressed on all sides. There's some sense in which as we live our lives, there's a sense that we are oppressed on all sides, because there's things squeezing on our peace, squeezing on our security, squeezing out assurance in our lives, exposing the fact that we don't have power over our future, exposing all of these things faced with these things. The question then becomes Christ covenant. Who do we crown? This is a reminder in this entire book, and even the Old Testament, in many ways, it's a reminder that no earthly king can carry the crown. Some of us are not crowning ourselves. Some of us are crowning others. We're looking to political leaders. We're looking to people in relationships to deliver us from all these things. And we're putting all that weight upon them, asking them, carry the crown. But the crown is too heavy for earthly kings. The crown is too costly for earthly kings. And so this passage is an encouragement. And sometimes we just need to remember this, that there is only one who ultimately fits the profile of a king and can wear the crown. And that is God Himself. In the person of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word, the risen Savior, the one who rules and reigns, and the one who delivers His people. And the encouragement to you and me as God's covenant people is to embrace our covenant identity, to embrace our covenant status with God, to live out of that, and to look to our king Jesus, who knows our deepest needs, sees our afflictions. Here's our Christ, to look to Him, to cry to Him, and to crown Him. So Father in heaven, we pray that you would indeed give us eyes to see these things, that we might look to you for all that we need in deliverance in our lives. For salvation and beyond, Lord Jesus, we pray that you would help us, that we may crown no other, but you. We offer this prayer in your name. Amen.