1 Samuel 12

Well, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we are at 1 Samuel chapter 12. 1 Samuel chapter 12. Samuel has just had his first victory. Not Samuel, Saul. King Saul has had his first victory. What type of king is he going to turn out to be? Let's have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll find out more about what God has for Saul. Want some coffee? No? Okay. Let's go ahead and pray.
Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for the blessing it is to get to read your word. We pray that as we read, your Holy Spirit would help us to understand in Jesus's name. Amen.
Here we go, 1 Samuel chapter 12. I'm going to just minimize this window here. All right. You want to read first or do you want me to?
Now Samuel said to all Israel indeed I have heeded your voice in all that you said to me and have made a king over you and now here is the king walking before you and I am old and gray headed and look my sons are with you I have walked before you from my childhood to this day. Here I am. Witness against me before Jehovah and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Or whose donkey have I taken? Or whom have I cheated? Whom have I oppressed? Or from whose hand have I received any bribe with which to blind my eye? I will restore it to you.
And they said, You have not cheated us or oppressed us, nor have you taken anything from any man's hand.
Then he said to them, Jehovah is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand. And they answered, He is witness.
Then Samuel said to the people, It is Jehovah who raised up Moses and Aaron and who brought your fathers up from the land of Egypt. Now therefore stand still that I may reason with you before Jehovah concerning all the righteous acts of Jehovah which he did to you and your fathers.
When Jacob had gone into Egypt, And your fathers cried out to Jehovah? Then Jehovah sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this place. And when they forgot Jehovah their God, he sold them into the hand of Sisera, commander of the army of Hazor, into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against them. Then they cried out to Jehovah and said, We have sinned because we have forsaken Jehovah and served the Baals and Asheraths, but now deliver us from the hand of our enemies and we will serve you.
And Jehovah sent Jerubabal, Bedan, Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and you dwelt in safety.
And when you saw that Nahash king of the Ammonites came against you, you said to me, No, but a king shall reign over us. When Jehovah your God was your king,
Now therefore, here is the king whom you have chosen and whom you have desired. And take note, the Lord has set a king over you. If you fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and do not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then both you and the king who reigns over you will continue following the Lord your God.
However, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and as it was against your fathers.
Now therefore stand and see this great thing which Jehovah will do before your eyes. Is today not the wheat harvest? I will call to Jehovah and he will send thunder and rain that you may perceive and see that your wickedness is great which you have done in the sight of Jehovah in asking a king for yourselves. So Samuel called to the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day. And all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. And all the people said to Samuel, Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins the evil of asking a king for ourselves.
Then Samuel said to the people, Do not fear. You have done all this wickedness, yet do not turn aside from following Jehovah, but serve Jehovah with all your heart, and do not turn aside. For then you would go after empty things, which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing. For Jehovah will not forsake his people. for his great namesake, because it has pleased Jehovah to make you his people. Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against Jehovah in ceasing to pray for you, but I will teach you the good and the right way. Only fear Jehovah and serve him in truth with all your heart, for consider what great things he has done for you. But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.
" All right, so we need to ask ourselves, A, what is this? About. B, what's the? Best first to summarize. And C, what are we? Called to do.
All right, so what's this about? The people are... like Samuel is giving a sign to the people and the people agree that they sinned by asking for a king. Okay, yeah. Notice just before this in chapter 11 verse 14 and 15, this is after they've just won against this king of the Amorites, Nahash, Then Samuel said to the people, Come, let us go to Gilgal and renew the kingdom there. So all the people went to Gilgal, and there they made Saul king before the Lord in Gilgal. There they made sacrifices of peace offerings before the Lord. And there Samuel and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.
So it's in this midst that now Samuel's talking to them as he's old. He talks about he's got gray hair and he asks them, Have I ever taken anything from you or oppressed you or bribed you? And what do the people answer? No. No, no, no, no, no. You've not done any of these things.
And then he goes through this whole history in verses 6 through 12 about how God, even though the people would rebel and sin, he would continue to raise up judges, raise up judges, raise up judges, right? But notice, they would keep on sinning, but did you see the list of judges he mentioned in verse 11? They have Jerubabal, Badan, this Debra I think. Or wait, no. Wait. Yeah, Debra. Yeah. And Jeptha, which is Gideon. Okay. And last one? And Samuel. Hmm. Yeah, so there's different... translations of the Old Testament and some of them try to smooth this out. So, right, the Syriac specifically says that Jerubbabel is Deborah and that Jephthah is Barak, right, and then some of them will even say that Samuel is Samson or Simpson, right. Right, but the point is that's not what the Hebrew Masoretic text says. So, these are the names given, but it's interesting, Samuel is listed as one of the judges, but I thought we were in 1 Samuel. So, why is he calling himself a judge? Because he's the first, he's the last judge, and now they're going to be kings. Great, yeah, so he's the last of these Mishpatim, the last of these judges, good.
All right, so. What's he tell them not to do? Someone's like, if you do this, this, if you don't do this, this, don't do this. So like you asked for a king. Now, don't just ignore him like he's meant to lead you. Okay, so don't just ignore the king, but more importantly than that, don't ignore the Lord, right? Because the Lord himself is still king. He's given you a king so you can be like all the rest of the nations, but don't actually be like the rest of the nations. Don't be like your Israelite forefathers who sinned and would keep going after these battles and Osteros and stuff like this, right?
Again, interesting. Baal, the god of the Thunder and the rain and the storm. They were bowing down to them and then the asterisks are like the fertility goddess of the Canaanites. It's wheat harvest. How does God display his power? He makes a storm. How does Samuel tie that specifically to this? Because it means that the Lord is the one over the storms. Are you going to be tempted to go away from the Lord and do all these things? Don't worship those daggum idols. They're worth nothing. It's God who's the one who brings the harvest. It's God who's the one who brings the rain. It's God who's in charge of the storms and the water. And so, worship Him. Bow before Him. Serve Him alone, only.
What would you do underlying your Bible as the best verse to summarize this section? Probably 20. Verse 20? Yeah, I've got verse 20 double underlined in mine. Yeah, I have verse 14 underlined and part of verse 15 and I got verse 20 double underlined and then I got 22 double underlined. So, right, the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake because it has pleased Jehovah to make you his people. Interestingly, I kept saying Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah. Did you hear me say that? So, in Hebrew, when somebody's name is mentioned again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again, because it could just say he, could use a whole bunch of different names, but it's doing that in Hebrew on purpose so you know God is the main subject here and that's the divine name. So, Jehovah, whether it's Jehovah or some people may go with a different vowel pointing of the tetragrammaton, that four-letter name, and they might call his name Yahweh, whatever. Point being, this is all about the Lord. The Lord giving a king, the Lord being king, the Lord being gracious, the Lord showing mercy, but also the Lord judging.
So, can God both be merciful and just at the same time? Do you see it here in this passage at all? I think he's being merciful, right? Okay, you want a king? I'll give you a king. It's not going to be as great as what you think. And it's a judgment. You have sinned against me. But okay, I'll give you a king. But even though I give you a king, don't forget what? He's the Lord. Don't forget me. I don't forget but I'm the Lord who redeemed you. I'm really your true sovereign
Okay, so let's go to see calling Why you just said what you're taught to do. I did. Yeah, what I say you said just Remember who's your true Lord? Hmm So can we be involved in politics in our day and age? Mm-hmm But can we put our trust in princes or presidents or principalities? Prime ministers? Any other Ps I'm forgetting? Powerful people? Politicians? No, we trust in God. Yeah.
Alright. You ready to pray? Okay. Lord, we thank you. forgiving us, our King of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus Christ himself, who reigns forever and ever, who even the angels bow down and do his will. Lord, we pray that though we are citizens in this world, we know that we are sojourners and pilgrims awaiting a kingdom which is not of this earth, We thank you for the dual citizenship we have, both here in the countries on earth, but also, more importantly, in our citizenship in heaven. We pray that you would teach us to follow after you above all, for you have our supreme loyalty. In Jesus' name, Amen. May God bless you, as he is both just and merciful towards you in Jesus. We'll see you next time. Bye.