Stay in Your Lane - 1 Samuel 8-10

The Big Story - 1 Samuel  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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Introduction

(Read 1 Samuel 10:17-27 while referencing the rest.) My kids and I like to go on walks in the afternoon. We live in a very hilly neighborhood. It’s a climb most of the way going and downhill most of the way returning. Sara is my clumsiest child, but for some reason, she loves to run the downhill section of the walk. Of course, she’s always wearing either Crocs or flip flops to make things even more fun. Every time we would go it would be the same routine. Sara would run. I would tell her not to run. I would explain to her that running downhill was going to lead to wailing and gnashing of teeth. And, this is just set on repeat. So, I decided one day that it was time to just let her run and figure it out on her own. She made it enough times to really get her confidence high. Then, of course, one day she totally yard sale-ed, and there was wailing and gnashing of teeth. But, she learned.
Half of parenting is letting your children fail in a controlled environment. We have trouble learning through simple instructions, don’t we? We have trouble learning from success. Failure and pain are our most effective teachers.

God’s Word

Israel has been trying to go their own way and do their own thing for as long as God has saved them. They’re always trying to assert their independence from God and to show that they know another way, a better way.
So, this morning, God lets them run down the hill in their flip flops. He gives them the opportunity to see if their ways really are the better way. And in Israel, we see A Picture of Ourselves (Headline):

We “think” we know “best”.

1 Samuel 10:19 But today you have rejected your God, who saves you from all your calamities and your distresses, and you have said to him, ‘Set a king over us.’ Now therefore present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your thousands.”
A tumultuous time — Philistines are a constant threat. Nation is divided with no trained military. Their prophet-judges keep having bad, unsuitable kids to succeed them, which means it appears as though there’s no real hope of someone rising up to take the reigns and lead them to safety and prosperity. They feel insecure and vulnerable. So, they begin to beg for a king.
If you’ll look with me to chapter 8 where they do this begging, you’ll notice that what is especially heinous is the reason that they give for wanting a king.
1 Samuel 8:5 and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.”
Israel was supposed to be unique among the nations. Everybody else had to please all the gods. But, they had been chosen by the God of gods and Lord of lords so that they were able to free. Further, they were ruled over by a king. Their God was their king. They had a king who couldn’t be seen and couldn’t be stopped. He would ensure their victory. He would ensure their prosperity. And, because they were so unique, they would stand out from the nations in such a way that all of the other nations would long to know this invisible God-king so that they could be blessed and safe, too. So, it’s the uniqueness of Israel that is intended to set them apart as the most blessed people among all peoples.
And now, how is Israel responding? “No thanks. We’d just like to be normal. We want a king that we can see now.” Actually, this is what they’ve been gunning for for a long time. In other words, this is what they’re saying today, but this isn’t just a ‘today’ problem. You’ll notice that in verse 18 God frames this up with his deliverance of Israel from Egypt. He’s making a point. In 8:8, God reminds Samuel: According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Israel always wanted what everybody else had. Ever since they had melted everyone’s gold into a calf they had wanted a god and king they could see so that they could feel better about themselves. They didn’t want to have to live by faith alone. They wanted, they felt like they needed a god that they could see. A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush, you can imagine them saying. “Of course our God is supposed be greater than all of the other gods, but I don’t see him here, do you? Oh, but I see plenty of Philistines and plenty of problems.”
What they wanted was a better version of what everybody else had. What they wanted was a king like everybody else and military commander like everybody else, but since they had the Lord, they expected it to be a better version — like a super king who couldn’t be overcome. They wanted to have the Rock sitting on a throne so that they could see with their own eyes that nobody would be able to match them in battle. They wanted, even demanded, that God give them a better version. You see, they wanted a king like everybody else and the guarantee of victory since they were unique. They wanted to be normal when it suited them, and they wanted to be unique when it suited them.
My goodness, that’s what I see among many professing Christians today. We want a better, more complete, more holistic, more spiritualized version of what everybody else has. We want our kids to have the same trophies and scholarship as everyone else. We want our house to as big or as nice as everyone else’s house. We want a satisfying career and plenty of time at the lake and the best vacations that money can buy. We want the approval of our friends and business of our dreams. Actually, we expect it since we’re Christians, and we expect all of that squirrelly internal emotional, spiritual, and eternal questions answered, too. We want to be normal most of the time, but unique when it suits us. God becomes a type of additive that ensures peak performance and an ideal experience.
1 Samuel 10:19 But today you have rejected your God, who saves you from all your calamities and your distresses, and you have said to him, ‘Set a king over us.’ Now therefore present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your thousands.”
1 Samuel 8:7 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.
This amounts to the rejection of God. In effect, they were attempting to depose God as their king because they knew a better way. It was as if they were telling God to go back to his room. They were telling their genie to get back in its lamp.
1 Samuel 8:19-20 - God is being deposed as king and replaced as commander. In other words, what they wanted was to relegate God to the religious sphere of Israel while they a true politician and soldier to lead them against the other kings.
They were telling God to stay in his lane. They were demanding that God go to his little tent and give them what they wanted. They wanted a separation of church and state, a separation of the spiritual leader of Israel from the day-to-day leader of Israel.
That’s us. We want a god who will take care of our spiritual questions without infringing upon our every day life. We want a god who will stay in his lane and do what we tell him so that we can have a better version of what everybody else has. We want a god that will promise us eternal life and peace without understanding but who won’t infringe upon our calendars and budgets and dreams. We want a genie, not a Lord. This is what sinners have always wanted, and it amounts to the rejection of God.

Sometimes God “gives” us what we “want”.

1 Samuel 10:22-23 He brought the tribe of Benjamin near by its clans, and the clan of the Matrites was taken by lot; and Saul the son of Kish was taken by lot. But when they sought him, he could not be found. So they inquired again of the Lord, “Is there a man still to come?” and the Lord said, “Behold, he has hidden himself among the baggage.”
1 Samuel 8:9 Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”
ILL: Have you ever wanted something so badly only to figure out once you had it that maybe you didn’t want it after all? When I was in college, I was cutting meat. I wanted to be ‘full-time’. Then, I became ‘full-time’, and I didn’t want it any more. That’s what’s unfolding here.
“Obey their voice” It’s as though God is taking a (sarcastically) subservient position. “They know best? Give them what they want. But, be sure to warn them about what’s going to happen.”
He’s points Samuel to a man named “Saul.” Saul come from root word “sha’ al” which means “to ask”. In other words, here’s the one you asked for.
Chasing freedom they chose oppression.
1 Samuel 8:10-18 So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king from him. He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”
A warning: Do you notice what word comes up over and over? “Take” = 6x’s. He’s going to oppress you.
So, they wanted a king so that they would avoid becoming subservient to other nations and yet in demanding a king they were becoming subservient by their own choice. They had decided that God was not enough to make them happy and keep them safe, and so they were willfully choosing to subject themselves to a king who take advantage of them and then forget them.
And, we’re doing it every day too, aren’t we? We become subservient to whatever we need to be happy and safe. Those are the two great longings of human beings: happiness and safety. Why is it that we rebel against God? Why is it that we reject and neglect God? The pursuit of happiness and safety. We become convinced that He’s not enough to keep us happy and safe. We need more. We need the ideal children, and so we subject ourselves to them and a million different practices and extracurricular activities. And, they just take and take and take. We need the ideal career, and so we overwork ourselves and stay late and get up early, and it just takes and takes and takes. We need the ideal relationship so we date and give up ourselves, and they take and take and take. We need the house and the car and the vacations and the leisure like we’ve always imagined it, but it’s never enough. It just takes and takes and takes. Every thing and person beyond God that we need to be happy and secure is a choice to subject ourselves to a king who will take advantage of us and forget us.
Romans 1:26-27 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
God is giving them what they want so that they can learn that only He can provide the happiness and security they so desperately want. The Bible knows no greater judgement than for God to give you over to what you think is best. There’s no greater condemnation than what is said in Judges when it says that “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” And, there are times, where even as God’s children, He will discipline us by allowing us to have exactly what we want. There are times in which He will allow us to run down the hill as fast as we can in flip flops until we crash and have to pick the gravel out of our knee.

God “sees” us through “anyway”.

1 Samuel 9 tells the strange story of how Samuel meets Saul so that he might anoint him as king. Saul had lost his daddy’s donkeys. These were rich men’s transportation. Think Hyundai Genesis, not Elantra. So, he’s searching and searching for them, but he can’t find them. When he’s giving up, his servant who is with him says that they ought to reach out to the Prophet Samuel to see if he might help, and Saul admits that he’s never even heard of him. This is the most significant spiritual leader in all of Israel, and Saul doesn’t even know his name. The picture is clear enough. Saul is incompetent both as a shepherd and as a spiritual man. It’s a foreshadowing of how he would lead Israel. He would lose his flock, and he would dishonor the Lord as her king. It was judgement and discipline for Israel.
You might expect that to be the end of the story, and it justifiably should be. But, there’s good news embedded within this rejection of God. In fact, it’s against the backdrop of our rejection of God that his grace shine through the brightest.
1 Samuel 10:6 Then the Spirit of the Lord will rush upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man.
1 Samuel 10:26 Saul also went to his home at Gibeah, and with him went men of valor whose hearts God had touched.
Though God should have withdrawn entirely from Israel and left them to totally self-destruct, He was going to work through this king. He was going to grant him victories and success. He was going to use him to deliver Israel from her enemies, at least for a little while. That is, what we see is that God is not going to quit on Israel. He was going to see them through until there was a truer and greater King, a Good Shepherd who would ultimately says, “It is finished.”
That’s good news for us this morning. We want to go our on way and push God into the corner, and as painful as his discipline might be, He still looks to us as his people and says, “I’m not quitting on you just because you quit on me. I’m going to see you through.” This morning, child of God, receive that wonderful promise as a gentle invitation to leave behind all these little kings in your life to return to full fellowship with a loving Father.
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