"Israel Opts For A King"

Hi there, this is Lon Solomon and I'd like to welcome you to our program today. You know it's a tremendous honor that God has given us to be on stations all around the nation bringing the truth of God's Word as it is uncompromising and straightforward. And I'm so glad you've tuned in to listen and be part of that.

Thanks again for your support and your generosity that keeps us on the radio and now let's get to the Word of God. Today I want to talk to you about the rise of the monarchy in the nation of Israel which of course eventually led to David becoming the king because there's a great lesson in these events about real security and where you can find it. So I want us to look here in the Old Testament but a little bit of background, okay? Remember the Israelites took over the land of Palestine under the leadership of Joshua and when Joshua died there were two options that God had available to him at that point. Number one, God could have set up a monarchy meaning a king and a court and a centralized government and all that goes with it or God could have set up number two, a theocracy meaning that the living God was the invisible yet genuine king and instead of looking to a human king for provision and protection and security the people instead would look directly to God. Now God chose to do the second, to set up a theocracy and for the next 350 years after the death of Joshua that's how the nation of Israel functions.

You say well how did it go? Right here in Judges chapter 2 is the answer. Judges chapter 2 verse 18, whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, for the Israelites, he was with the judge and he delivered them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived for the Lord had compassion on them. Verse 19, but when the judge died the people would return to ways even more corrupt than those of their fathers following other gods and serving and worshipping them.

In other words Israel's spiritual life during these 350 years looked like a giant yo-yo up down up down up down good judge would come along serve God their spiritual life would go up bad judge would come along no judge their spiritual life would go down. All of this comes to a huge crisis when a new threat to Israel appears on the horizon and the name of this threat were the Philistines. Now what do we know about the Philistines? We've all heard about them.

What do we really know about these people? Well we know from archaeology that the Philistines grew up they were people that came into being around the Aegean Sea area up near the modern nation of Greece. They were seafaring people and in the 12th century BC they invaded Egypt with the intent of taking over Egypt. Well the Egyptians barely repulsed them I mean it was really close but after they were beaten the Philistines migrated north up the Mediterranean coast to what we now know as the Gaza Strip and that's where they settled in the modern-day Gaza Strip in the southern part of Israel and some of the towns that they had back then Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gaza are still the names of towns today and this is where they set up shop. Now the Philistines quickly became a military force to be reckoned with in Israel and the reason for that is number one they were fierce warriors remember Goliath what was he?

He was a Philistine. These guys were big warriors. Number two their army was very effectively organized very effectively led but the real reason they were such a threat is because the Philistines have learned to use a new metal in making weapons that the Israelites didn't know how to use yet. The weapon was iron, the metal was iron and if you went out to face iron weapons with wood weapons well you can just imagine what's going to happen. Remember when you go to war the quality of your weapons are pretty important.

Back in 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland, Poland had a large army but the Nazis invaded with planes and tanks and armored divisions the Poles went out to meet them the Polish army was still using horse-drawn cannons and mounted cavalry. It was a very short war like less than a month and it was over and if you go out with wood with wood implements wood weapons to face iron weapons it's going to be a very short battle. You're going to lose real quickly and so suddenly the very survival of Israel was at stake. Now I want us to pick up the story then over in first Samuel chapter seven it's page 194 if you're using our copy of the Bible flip over a few pages and let's pick up the story 350 years later now and there's a man named Samuel who's been judging Israel for a number of years first Samuel chapter 7 and look at verse 13 it says so the Philistines were subdued first Samuel 7 verse 13 and did not invade Israelite territory again throughout Samuel's lifetime the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines and Samuel verse 15 continued as a judge over Israel all the days of his life. So during the days of Samuel Samuel because he had a godly walk and because he was a man of God and a godly leader God honored that and he held the Philistines at bay but now in first Samuel chapter 8 Samuel's getting old and it's time for a change in leadership and this makes everybody feel real insecure look at this first Samuel chapter 8 and when Samuel grew old he appointed his sons as judges over Israel verse 3 but his sons did not walk in his ways they turned aside after dishonest gain and they accepted bribes and they perverted justice so all the elders of Israel gathered together and they came to Samuel and they said to him verse 5 you are old how'd you like to have somebody start out talking to you like that Samuel you really old man you're old and you're old and you're old and you're