Today, on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Welcome to Summit Life with pastor, author, and apologist, J.D.
Greer. As always, I'm your host, Molly Vitovich. You know, there's a fine line between thy kingdom come and my kingdom come. Saul was a king who at first displayed humility, but as time passed, his main concern became making a name for himself. In today's message, Pastor J.D. continues our new Life of David series, showing us how we, just like Saul and the people of Israel, often search for and pursue the wrong things. Remember, if you've fallen behind in our brand new teaching series, you can always catch up online free of charge. Just visit J.D. Greer.com. Today's teaching begins in 1 Samuel Chapter 9, so let's join Pastor J.D. there now. If you have your Bible, why don't you take it out and let's do what the original vision of this campus has always been to do, and that is to teach the Word of God and to receive the Word of God.
So get out your Bible if you have it and open it to 1 Samuel Chapter 9, 1 Samuel Chapter 9. As you were turning there, in 1961, a counselor at a local youth facility in San Francisco reached out to a already legendary center filter for the San Francisco Giants by the name of Willie Mays. The counselor needed help with a 14-year-old boy that he was working with. The boy showed a lot of promise. He was tall, he was muscular, he was good looking, he was charismatic, but recently, the counselor said this young man had made a number of increasingly disastrous choices.
Most recently, he had robbed a liquor store and his life was starting to spiral out of control. The counselor believed that this young man was suffering from a lack of positive male role models, and he thought if this kid could just get around somebody he admired, somebody like Willie Mays, somebody who was an athlete, somebody he could look up to, maybe, maybe the kid could get his life back on track. He knew it was a long shot, but the counselor reached out to Willie Mays and asked if he could bring this young man by. Surprisingly, Willie Mays, who had the reputation of being exceptionally generous, accepted the invitation and volunteered to spend an entire afternoon with this teenager. Not one time in the entire afternoon did he talk with the young man about staying out of trouble or making wise choices. Instead, he showed him his new car, his new house, his fancy new clothes, because he was thinking that if he could show this young man the kind of life he could have, that maybe that would motivate this 14-year-old boy to change his behavior.
Well, it worked. The kid went on to become a professional football player, so successful that he became a household name, had more fame and name recognition and money than even Willie Mays did. It was just one problem. In 1994, when this famous running back was accused of killing his wife, Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman, they called Willie Mays to be a character witness because they had stayed in touch over the years, but Willie Mays said he could not. The only connection that he'd ever had with O.J. Simpson was over professional successes and their shared love of material things.
O.J. Simpson had learned to imitate Willie Mays' success, but he had never learned to replicate his character. The biography who records this story says you just have to wonder what might have changed had Willie Mays on that San Francisco afternoon chosen instead of showing him all the things he could have if he'd have talked to him about the importance of character, the importance of leveraging your talents not to enrich yourself, but to serve and to protect others. At the end of the day, you know this, the most important quality in a leader's life is character.
In our day, I don't have to tell you, we are painfully aware of leaders in both the church realm, in the political realm, in the sports realm, in the business realm, who look so flashy and so attractive on the outside only for time, trial, and temptation to reveal that what was on the inside was not nearly as beautiful as what we saw on the outside. The reason I share this is because the book of 1 Samuel is about Israel's search for a king and the first half of 1 Samuel is about how God prepared Israel for that king. God was not opposed to giving them a king. I explained this a few weeks ago, a lot of people get this wrong, God was not opposed to giving them a king, he promised to give them a king. The problem was in the motivations that they used to ask for that king, their heart was all off. In chapters 1 and 2 through the story of Hannah, God warns Israel, do not ask for a king, don't search for a king to be your identity, security, or happiness. Those things aren't found in sons, they're not found in kings, they're only found in God. In chapters 3 through 7, God showed Israel that the most important thing in the leader was integrity.
Eli's sons had leveraged their positions of power to enrich themselves. What Israel needed was a leader who was humble enough to hear from God who would just say, speak Lord, your servant hears, and then be committed to do whatever God said and to lead other people to do the same regardless of what it caused. In chapter 8, God told Israel that any king that they gave their hearts to except for him would only enslave them. Only God could satisfy and liberate, only God was what they were searching for. And that brings us to chapter 9 where God shows Israel that inward character, not outward charisma is the most essential element for blessing. We're going to see that today through the life of a man named Saul. Now, you're like, JD, we are literally on week 4 of a series called The Life of David and we have still seen neither hide nor hair of, well, David.
Yeah, I get that, I understand that, but listen, it's going to be like waiting for this campus, it's going to be worth the wait, I promise. There is a lesson for us in here about how much time God takes to set this up. We seek salvation, we seek things like identity, security, and happiness. We seek them in all the wrong places for all the wrong reasons.
We're attracted to all the wrong things. So these prequels are vitally important. These are David's and Jesus' origin stories, if you will.
So they're important. Here we go. First Samuel chapter 9. There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish. He was a man of wealth. He had a son whose name was Saul. I was a handsome young man, it was not a man among the people of Israel, more handsome than he, from his shoulders upward, he was taller than any of the other people. Saul was like Mr. Israel. He was everything that you would want in a king. If I were casting this as a movie, I would put Hugh Jackman in this role, tall, good-looking, commanding voice.
Now, I know, I know you're like, not Nicolas Cage, no. I would cast Nick in a different role, which I will show you in a minute. God said to Samuel, I want you to go anoint Saul as king, because that's who the people, that's who they think they want. So Samuel dies, and Saul, to be honest with you, starts off really well.
His response when Samuel announces to him that he's going to be king is actually quite humble. Look at verse 21. Saul answered, am I not a Benjamite? Am I not from the least of the tribes of Israel? And is not my clan the humblest of all the clans in the tribe of Benjamin?
In other words, he's small in his eyes. He doesn't feel like he's worthy or able to do this thing that God has assigned him to do. And then there's this endearing little story in chapter 10, where when it actually comes time to crown Saul as king, they can't find him. And they nationwide manhunt to find Saul, and they eventually find him hiding in a closet.
He's hiding in a closet behind some baggage, because he just feels so unworthy and unable to accomplish this thing that he has been assigned to do. That humility drives him to depend on God. And chapters 10 through 15 are all about the great things that God accomplished through Saul. And it all goes well until we come to 1 Samuel 15.
So if you've got your Bible open, make sure you're in 1 Samuel 15. 1 Samuel 15, verse 1, and Samuel said to Saul, Thus says the Lord of hosts, I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Little background here, when Israel was on their way out of Egypt en route to the Promised Land, Amalek, the tribe of Amalek, had seen them defenseless and vulnerable, and so they'd sent out their army to attack them.
And then for the next 300 years, they pestered Israel perpetually, pillaging them and plundering them constantly. So finally God says, that's it, I've had enough, and he instructs Saul, the day for the judgment of the Amalekites has come, I want you to go and wipe them out. Verse three, do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, oxen, sheep, camel and donkey.
Now before I go on, I know many of you are going to get hung up right there. You say, well, how on earth would God, why could he order, how could he do something like that? How is that just killing the innocent with the guilty? I mean, if anything, that sounds like genocide. That's a great question.
Let me deal with it very quickly, otherwise you guys are going to blow up my email later. First, you need to note that this was not a war of conquest, it was a war of justice. That's why God told them not to touch anything. It was not about thinking that you were better or superior to somebody else and then seizing the assets of that nation for yourself.
Throughout history, whenever other nations have done this, they always enrich themselves with property or slaves of the people that they had conquered. God said to Israel, you are to gain nothing through this. This is about my justice, not your arrogance or your enrichment. You say, well, what about all the innocent people, I mean the women and the infants?
This is a really tough thing for us to get our minds around, but here are a few things that you need to consider. First, we Westerners, those of us from the United States, we tend to think about justice only individually. Every person we believe stands or falls solely by their own merit. Eastern peoples like these, by contrast, they thought about justice communally. You are not just an individual, you are also part of a group and the group lives and dies together.
Now, the truth is both East and West are partially right. There is a sense in which, as Eastern people say, we are inextricably bound to our communities. We're never just lone individuals. What we do affects others in our community and what they do affects us. And we see this in our own families, right? The child that is born with fetal alcohol syndrome, it wasn't something they did. They didn't do anything worse than the child that's born to two healthy parents in a very healthy family.
That child is suffering from the mistake of her parents. It's going to work the other way, too. Our kids, your kids, are blessed by your obedience to God. In fact, in this passage, in verse 6, God identifies another group, the Kenites, who live near the Amalekites, and God said, don't touch them, preserve them. Because generations before the Kenites, when the Amalekites were attacking them, the Kenites helped them. So the descendants of the Kenites are blessed by the righteous act of their parents. So the Eastern view of justice is partially correct, but it is also true and very biblical, as we say in the West, that ultimate justice is individual. And each of us is going to be judged individually for our own sins and not for the sins of our fathers. You're listening to Summit Life with Pastor J.D.
Greer. Before we get back to today's teaching, I wanted to let you know about a great new featured resource that we've created just for you. It's an eight week Bible study focusing on key passages and events from the life of David, which will make an excellent addition to this new teaching series we're doing here on the program. King David is one of the most beloved and influential people in the entire Bible.
After all, he was a man after God's own heart, right? Many of us already know a lot about this story, but there's so much that we can glean from his ups and downs and things that apply directly to our lives today. We'd love to send you a copy as a thank you for your gift of thirty five dollars or more to this ministry. And you can give now by calling us at eight six six three three five fifty two twenty.
Or you can give online at Jiddy Greer dot com. Right now, let's get back to today's teaching in First Samuel on Summit Life. So when you come to a passage like this one, where you're seeing somebody suffer for the actions of another, you're only seeing one side of the justice equation. What you're not seeing is that right after this is over, all these children, all these people stand before God and God gives the final word of justice, which is going to be where each person is punished or rewarded only for their own sins or actions. When these children stood before God, they answered only for themselves and not for their parents. So Tim Keller says in a tragedy like this, what you see is that God is simply collecting them early. When you look at it this way, there's even an element of mercy in it for these kids. What would have happened had these Amalekite kids grown up?
Well, undoubtedly they would have followed in the ways of their wicked parents. And so God was actually delivering them from that evil. Now that does not mean that you or I could ever justify violence against the innocent in this way.
Why? We're not God. And our justice is only ever supposed to be focused on the individual. God makes clear in places like the book of Ezekiel, when you're setting up a legal system, children are not to be punished for the sins of their parents, or you're not to be punished for the sins of your neighbor. Everybody should be judged only by their own sins. But at this point in the Old Testament, Israel was used specially by God as his instrument of justice. No nation, no individual represents God that way anymore. All right, let's get back to the story, end of our theology lesson.
God's instructions are clear. Saul and the people are not to keep anything. This is not a war of conquest.
It's an execution of justice. So look at verse seven, and Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as shore, which is east of Egypt, and he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive. Even though he devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword, he took the king alive.
Now why would he do that? Well see, in those days, collecting kings was like a hobby for kings. Because once a year, I'm not kidding about this, once a year you would drag these kings out of your dungeon, and you would parade them in the streets, and you would be like, look at all these kings that I've conquered.
I am the king of kings. So what Saul is doing is he's starting his trophy collection, because he's making a name for himself. An Agag is his first entree. Verse nine, but Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fattened calves, and the lambs, and all that was good, and they would not utterly destroy them. Now a little textual note here, and it's not just for grammar nerds, I'll show you why this is important. In Hebrew, the verb spared is singular, even though the subject of the sentence is plural.
In English, that would actually be bad English, because your subject and verb got to agree. But in Hebrew, when you do that, it's because you're trying to say that the verb only applies to the first person in the list. So when it says Saul and the people, plural, spared singular, it's saying Saul spared Agag.
He was the sole decision maker. The narrator is making that point. He is doing it by himself, which was, of course, exactly the opposite of what God had told him not to do. And so in verse 10, God says to Samuel, I regret. Some of your translations say repent. I repent that I've made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me, and has not performed my commandments.
By the way, when it says the word regret or repent there, it doesn't mean God feels like he made a mistake. It just means that he is sad and angry over what Saul has done, all right? Samuel is so upset over what Saul had done that he cries all night. Verse 12, and Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. Samuel was an Enneagram eight who just could not rest until the confrontation had happened.
So he jumps out of bed in the morning and is like, I've got to get this thing done. So he heads down to the army camp where Saul is throwing his victory jam, beer kegs and karaoke machines everywhere. And as Samuel gets close to the camp, he was told Saul came to Carmel last night. And get this, behold, he has set up a monument for himself. Saul made all these soldiers gather these huge rocks and stack them up end on end, and then put a plaque on the top that said, you know, Saul rocks or, or whatever.
You know, when danger calls, better call Saul or something like that. We don't know what it said, but the point is it's a monument to himself. Question what, what's happening to Saul? Is he that little guy in the closet anymore? Now he's somebody that's making a name for himself. He's collecting Kings.
He's making monuments. So when Saul sees Samuel approaching, he knows, he knows what's going on. He said, blessed be you of the Lord, Samuel.
I have performed the commandment of the Lord. And Samuel says, really? What then is this bleeding of the sheep that I hear in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear? Saul? Those are not your sheep.
They have little tags on them that say Amalekite. Those are not your sheep. Saul gets caught red-handed. Now listen, all of us have a moment. All of us have a moment where we get caught in our sin.
What you do next is a matter literally of life or death importance. Because if you follow the path that Saul is about to go down, it's a path you almost never come back from. All of us get caught in sin.
The problem is never the sin, the problem is a response to that sin and the cover up that you do. Watch what happens here. Verse 15, Saul said, they have brought them from the Amalekites for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen.
Now you understand why I gave that little annoying grammar lesson. Who was Saul saying did it? Oh, the people did it.
I just had to do what the people wanted. The people were pressuring me, but the narrator has already made clear that decision was Saul's and Saul's alone. And then Saul continues, the reason they did it was to sacrifice to the Lord your God and the rest we have devoted to destruction. Now he's rationalizing his disobedience. I mean, hey, we plan to sacrifice someone to God. We're going to tie the sheep. I mean, God gets something out of this.
God's going to, you know, he's going to enjoy it. So what's the problem here? Parents, your kids ever do this with you? Right? I mean, you catch them with their hand in the cookie jar and they're like, well, I was getting one for my sister and that never worked on me.
But if they were like, I'm getting one for you, dad, I'd be like, all right, okay, you know, everything's going to be fine. The number, listen, the number one substitute for obedience is religion. The number one substitute for obedience is not atheism.
The number one substitute for actual obedience is religious activity, which is a little sobering when you consider that we're all sitting in here as a group of religious people. Then Samuel said to Saul, stop. I'm going to tell you what the Lord said to me this night, that you were little in your own eyes. Are you not now the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel, Saul, you were nothing. You were so small, you hid among the baggage and God chose you and he anointed you. He was your presence. He was your power.
Is that not enough for you? Now you got to make a name for yourself. And Saul said to Samuel, no, no, no, no, but I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. In other words, I did 98% of what God asked me to do.
I brought Agag, the king of Amalek, but I've devoted the Amalekites to destruction. I just kept a few of the sheep and for sure I was going to tithe them and it was all going to be fine. Look at Samuel's response.
Y'all, this is so important. Samuel said, Saul has the Lord as great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in just obeying the voice of the Lord. Behold, Saul to obey is better than sacrifice and just to listen and do what he says is better than all the fat of all the rams. And then Samuel says something that you are going to think is an exaggeration, but I assure you it is not verse 23 for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and presumption.
That means becoming an authority to yourself, taking upon yourself the prerogative to determine what's right and what's wrong. That's actually like iniquity and idolatry. I doubt very seriously this morning that before you came, any of you has a little seance space set up in your garage where you got in the center of pentagrams and lit some candles and bowed down to an idol and after this is over, you're going to go home and sacrifice some kittens and cut some chickens heads off.
I don't think that probably happened in this room. If so, I doubt that you would actually be sitting here right now and yet, and yet sitting in church with areas of your life that you know are not under God's authority is the same in God's eyes as going home and doing that. I told you, you'd think it was an exaggeration, but it's right, rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.
Some of you, some of us are very active Christians. You're just dating somebody you know you shouldn't be dating and to know what God wants and choose to do the opposite. It's like iniquity and idolatry or maybe, maybe you've got some area you're compromising your integrity and you're cheating on your schoolwork or your taxes, you're lying on a resume.
You're not a bad person. You're just, you're just not ready to trust Jesus there or maybe how about this one? You refuse to tithe everything else in my life you're doing God's way, but you just can't give God the first and the best of your resources because that's, that's too hard. Rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft and compromise and taking on yourself the prerogative to write the rules. That's like, that's like idolatry. The life of King Saul is a great example of how easy it can be to turn to the world instead of turning to the Lord for our identity, our security and happiness.
But nothing can fulfill us like he can. This is Summit Life with JD Greer. We have a great companion resource to go with the Life of David teaching series this month on the program. Pastor JD, can you tell us why this resource works so well with this teaching? Well, it's one thing to listen to preaching on a passage of scripture. That's a great thing. But it's another to dive into the text yourself. One of the big things that caused the reformation to really be the reformation was it was ordinary people that were beginning to read the Bible for themselves.
So I'm grateful. I really am humbled that day by day you would listen to me open the Word and I hope that I proved to be a trustworthy source. But there is just nothing quite as powerful or as important as you getting into the Bible yourself because sometimes you might say, Hey, I'm not sure I, you know, you might look at it differently, but more often than not, you'll find some application that I just wasn't thinking about that the Holy Spirit will say, here's what I want this passage to do in your life.
So anyway, that's the value of a companion resource is it's without having my voice crowding out, you'll just have the Bible and the Holy Spirit and you as you see what the things in these stories say to you specifically. So if you've loved it, if you love the teaching series, as I hope you have, grab it at JDGray.com and go deep. To give, call us now at 866-335-5220.
Once again, that's 866-335-5220 or you can give online at JDGrayer.com. I'm Molly Vidovitch. We hope you have a wonderful weekend gathering with your church family and we'll look forward to seeing you next week as we continue today's teaching called Better Not Call Saul right here on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.
