Look to Jesus, the Perfect King

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we are at 1 Chronicles chapter 10.

We're going to talk about the downfall of Saul. What happens when the king of Israel goes and starts talking to witches, mediums, spiritists, and the like of that.

So, there's going to be a little rabbit trail in the end there. So, let's go ahead and have some coffee. We'll pray and we'll get into God's word.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day and we thank you for your word.

Lord, we pray as we read your word, your Holy Spirit, please help us to understand it.

Give us help, Lord, to have it even applied to our lives. Lord, you are a wonderful God.

So, we pray that we would walk in your ways always with thankfulness and worship for who you are. In Jesus' name, amen.

Here we go, 1 Chronicles chapter 10.

Now, the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa.

Then the Philistines followed hard after Saul and his sons, and the Philistines killed Jonathan, Aminadab, and Malkishua, Saul's sons.

The battle became fierce against Saul. The archers hit him, and he was wounded by the archers.

Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest three uncircumcised men come and abuse me.

But his armor-bearer, sorry, lest these, I got a little mark from my pencil there, lest these uncircumcised men come and abuse me.

But his armor-bearer would not, for he was greatly afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword and fell on it.

And when his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell by his sword and died.

So Saul and his three sons died, and all his house died together.

And when all the men of Israel who were in the valley saw that they had fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead,

they forsook their cities and fled. Then the Philistines came together and dwelt in them.

So it happened the next day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain,

that they found Saul and his sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.

And they stripped him and took his head and his armor and sent word throughout all the land of the Philistines

to proclaim the news in this temple of their idols and among the people.

And they put his armor in the temple of their gods and fashioned his head in the temple of Dagon.

And when all Jabesh Gilead heard all that the Philistines had done to Saul,

all the valiant men arose and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons.

And they brought them to Jabesh and buried their bones under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh and fasted seven days.

So Saul died for his unfaithfulness, which he had committed against Jehovah,

because he did not keep the word of Jehovah and because he consulted a medium for guidance.

But he did not inquire of Jehovah.

Therefore, he killed him and turned the kingdom over to David, the son of Jesse.

Well, we need to ask ourselves our three questions.

A, what is this about?

B, what's the best verse to summarize this?

And C, what are we called to do in response to these words?

So, A, what is this about?

This is about the death of King Saul and the transfer of the kingdom from Saul to David.

It's very important to note that this is the Lord's doing.

It's Saul who goes out with his sons.

They're going to battle against the Philistines.

And as they go out to battle, and we could read more about this, not here in 1 Chronicles,

but over in 1 Samuel, at the very end of the book, chapters, I think, like 29, 30, 31,

and you're going to find that it's Saul going out to battle, and he's worried.

He doesn't know what's going to happen.

And so, he goes and he finds the witch at Endor, and he has her drum up, the spirit of Samuel.

Now, whether this is Samuel, or a demon, or something like that, this is a gross abnormality.

It shouldn't have happened.

Even the witch herself is surprised.

Oh, you tricked me.

You are Saul, right?

Because he tried to hide that he was a king.

Because he was the one that before had listened to the law and expelled all the witches,

all the mediums out of Israel.

And now he's going and doing what he knows to be wrong and illegal.

And he goes out to battle, and he dies.

And it's a horrible death.

He's hit by an archer.

He's mortally wounded, but he knows that he's not going to be able to run away.

And so, he tells his armor bearer to kill him.

But his armor bearer isn't going to be part of that assisted suicide.

He's afraid.

And so, Saul takes his own sword and kills himself.

Falls on his own sword, and he dies.

His sons are dead, and now the king is dead.

There's no princes in the land.

And then the Philistines go, and they take back over the cities.

And they disgrace Saul.

And they do something very particular, right?

This is, our God is better than your God.

Our gods are better than your God.

And so, they cut off his head.

They decapitate him.

They take his armor.

Remember, Saul is a massive guy.

It's big armor.

He's taller than everybody else.

They take his armor.

They take it to their Asherah's idols, right?

That's what 1 Samuel tells us they do.

And they take his head, and they nail it to their merman, fish god, half man, half man, Dagon temple.

And we find out there that that's the same temple where the ark was brought, and Dagon falls on his face.

And Dagon falls on his face.

Dagon falls on his face.

Here's the point, right?

The king, the king is dead, and it was their God who delivered the victory.

That's what they believe.

That's why they did this in the temples.

And then you find the men of Jabesh Gilead, and they're grieved, grieved in their hearts.

And they go, and they find the bodies, Saul and his sons, these princes of Israel, and they give them an honorable burial.

In 1 Samuel chapter 31, it tells us that they actually burned their bodies.

Here it tells us that they buried them.

So it seems there was this, and this is the rabbit trail, right?

Maybe it's almost cremation, and then burial.

But the point being is that they give them an honorable burial.

Now, them burning them, I don't think they're burning their bodies is, you know, like ideas of releasing their spirits and things like this.

That's not what I don't think any of this is getting at.

And this is the peculiarity, not the norm.

But the point is, they give them an honorable burial.

They show them reverence.

But in the very last section, why the Lord did this?

Because Saul had been unfaithful to the Lord.

Because he consulted a medium for guidance.

And then the ultimate why.

And the Lord turned the kingdom over to David, the son of Jesse, right?

This is the Lord who's raising up kings and bringing them down.

And he's raised up Saul, and Saul was unfaithful, did not keep God's covenant, did not follow the Lord.

We saw him filled with more and more pride when we worked through 1 Samuel, brought him down low.

And now the Lord has raised up David.

Also not going to be the perfect king, but we'll get there and seek calling.

What's the best verse to summarize this?

Well, in my Bible, I have verse 13 and 14 underlined as the best verses for this, for the fall of Saul.

You can disagree.

Feel free to write in the comments or send me a text message or an email or something.

Let me know if you would underline something else.

Last seek calling.

What are we called to do?

Don't put your trust in earthly princes.

None of them are ever going to be perfect.

We're never going to have a president who will ultimately save us.

We'll never be a prime minister, a president, no principality.

It's only going to be Jesus, who is the exact image and likeness of God and who is above all rulers and authorities and principalities.

It's Jesus, who is perfect, who never violated God's law, kept it every single bit.

He's our righteous king.

He's the king of heaven.

He has the crown of glory.

And so we look to the son of David.

We look to the one.

Why did God put David on the throne, the son of Jesse?

Because he knew from the seed of Jesse would come somebody who sits on the throne forever.

And our savior has risen up to heaven.

He sat down at the right hand of God, the father almighty.

He is the king.

He will always be the king.

He's a good king.

He's a perfect king.

So we look to him.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for giving us Jesus, our perfect king.

And we pray that you would please encourage us, fill our hearts with joy as we meditate upon the one who is so wonderful to us.

Father, we pray that you would please give us joy.

And let us follow in the footsteps of our king, who is our very life.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

May the Lord bless you.

May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ.

And I'll see you next time.

Bye.