Samuel’s Heartbreak

1 Samuel 13:5-14, 15:1-23

We cannot look at the life of Samuel without considering the life of Saul. The coronation of Saul marked a transition in the life of Samuel. Samuel was “judge” over Israel until Saul became king. With Saul’s ascension to the throne, Samuel’s role changed from judge to prophet. He no longer ruled the nation, but continued to serve as “prophet to the king,” speaking God’s word so that the king would know the will of the Lord. In this way, Samuel’s life and work became closely connected to Saul’s. 

The “ideal” man for the job soon revealed that he was unfit for the task. Today, we will look at two incidents in Saul’s life that marked the trajectory of his reign as king. The first one is an unlawful sacrifice that he made, and the second one is an occasion of incomplete obedience.

Saul made the unlawful sacrifice early in his reign. When he had been king for two years, he gathered three thousand men and attacked the Philistines. As a result, both the nation of Israel and the Philistines gathered for battle. 1 Samuel 13:5 says that the Philistines mustered thirty thousand chariots, six thousand horsemen, and people as numerous as the sand on the seashore. The sand on the seashore is obvious hyperbole, but it gives the idea that the Philistines came with a vast army. 1 Samuel 13:6-7 tells us that when the men of Israel saw what they were up against, they hid in rocks, holes, thickets, and pits. Some fled across the Jordan River to escape. While many people ran or hid, six hundred remained with Saul (1 Samuel 13:15), where they had gathered at Gilgal. They stayed, but they were trembling with fear. (Imagine - 600 against many THOUSANDS!)

Apparently, Samuel had instructed Saul to wait for seven days, and then Samuel would come to Gilgal and offer a sacrifice to the Lord. These instructions were not a suggestion. They were a command from the Lord. However, when Saul saw: 1) the people were scattering, and 2) it was the seventh day, and Samuel was not there; he went ahead and offered the sacrifice himself.

As soon as Saul finished offering the sacrifice, Samuel showed up. Samuel said, “What have you done?” Listen to what Saul said in reply.

1 Samuel 13:11–12 (NKJV) ¹¹When I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered together at Michmash, ¹²then I said, ‘The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the Lord.’ Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering.

The people were scattering, Samuel did not come within the appointed time, and Saul felt compelled. So, naturally, he offered a burnt offering.

Let’s read Samuel’s response.

1 Samuel 13:13–14 (NKJV) ¹³You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. ¹⁴But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.

For this act, God said Saul’s kingdom would not continue. WHAT? What was so bad about what Saul did? His three reasons make sense. Look at what Samuel repeats. Twice he says, “You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God.” Saul did not think small matters of obedience to be significant. He kept all the big ones, right? After all, he had waited seven days. 

How do we measure obedience? Consider that Jesus said, 

Matthew 5:18 (NKJV) For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

If even the smallest part of the law must be fulfilled, then obedience down to the letter must be important.

Saul failed to obey, but God did not remove him immediately. God gives opportunities for repentance and offers forgiveness.

After some years had passed, and Saul had firmly established himself as king and subdued many of Israel’s foreign enemies, God sent Samuel to Saul with a message. Let’s read 1 Samuel 15:1-3.

1 Samuel 15:1–3 (NKJV) ¹Samuel also said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you king over His people, over Israel. Now therefore, heed the voice of the words of the Lord. ²Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. ³Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’”

We need to understand the significance of the words “utterly destroy” in this passage. When Joshua led the people into the land, he first led them in an attack on Jericho. God’s instructions were to devote everything in the city to God and destroy it completely, even the silver and the gold. Nothing was to be saved. The word “devote” used in Jericho’s case is the same word used in the Amalekites’ case. When Achan kept some clothing and a little silver and gold from Jericho, he and his whole family were stoned. Using the same word, God told Saul to utterly destroy all that they had and not spare them. The instructions were clear.

Let’s read the account Samuel gives of what happened.

1 Samuel 15:7–9 (NKJV) ⁷And Saul attacked the Amalekites, from Havilah all the way to Shur, which is east of Egypt. ⁸He also took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. ⁹But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.

In response, God said to Samuel:

1 Samuel 15:11 (NKJV) I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments.

Here is the same problem that showed itself in the matter of the unlawful sacrifice. Saul did not learn. God says, “He has not performed My commandments.”

This broke Samuel’s heart. It appears that Samuel still loved Saul. The text tells us:

1 Samuel 15:11 (NKJV) And it grieved Samuel, and he cried out to the Lord all night.

Samuel cried out to the Lord. He was pleading for Saul. Samuel mourned for Saul until the day he died. However, as a man of God and a prophet, he was obligated to speak the truth to Saul. 

Early the next day, Samuel got up and went to meet Saul. Now, Saul was proud of himself and had made a monument to himself. How typical of us to raise monuments to ourselves when God gives us a great victory. In the flush of victory, Saul greeted Samuel with a blessing when he saw Samuel approaching. He said:

1 Samuel 15:13 (NKJV) Blessed are you of the Lord! I have performed the commandment of the Lord.

Look at Samuel’s reply:

1 Samuel 15:14 (NKJV) What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?

Saul justified his disobedience by saying they saved the best for sacrifice. Earlier we read that Saul and the people were unwilling to destroy the best of the sheep and cattle. Samuel calls Saul on this issue. In verse nineteen, Samuel asks, “Why did you swoop down on the spoil?” 

The next thing Saul does is what men and women have been doing since the Garden of Eden. He blames someone else. “The people made me do it!” He also puts a very “righteous” sounding spin on what he had done. “We kept these for a sacrifice to the Lord!” Samuel’s response to this needs to be written on all of our hearts.

1 Samuel 15:22–23 (NKJV) ²²So Samuel said:

 “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,

As in obeying the voice of the Lord?

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,

And to heed than the fat of rams.

²³For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,

And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.

Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,

 He also has rejected you from being king.”

God gave Saul a second chance to demonstrate obedience, but he failed a second time. He did not fully obey, and partial obedience is disobedience.

A parallel in our lives to sparing Agag is sparing our favorite sin. Jesus said that we should cut off our hand or pluck out our eye to subdue the sins of our flesh. He used such words to illustrate the seriousness with which we should devote ourselves to God. I want you to read what F. B. Meyer had to say about this passage in his commentary on the book of Samuel.

There is great significance in this for us all. We are prepared to obey the Divine commands up to a certain point, and there we stay. Just as soon as “the best and choicest” begin to be touched, we draw the line and refuse further compliance. We listen to soft voices that bid us stay our hand, when our Isaac is on the altar. We are quite prepared to give up that which costs us nothing--our money, but not our children--to the missionary cause; the things which are clearly and disgracefully wrong, but not the self-indulgences which are peculiarly fascinating to our temperament. To spare the best of Amalek is surely equivalent to sparing some root of evil, some plausible indulgence, some favourite sin. For us, Agag must stand for that evil propensity, which exists in all of us, for self-gratification; and to spare Agag is to be merciful to ourselves, to exonerate and palliate our failures, and to condone our besetting sin. (F.B. Meyer, Samuel the Prophet, Amazon Kindle edition, pg. 916.)

In closing, I want to observe one more thing that springs from this incident. When Saul died in a fight with the Philistines, it was an Amalekite that killed him. The parallel should be obvious. The thing that we spare may be the thing that ends up killing us. 

Only Fear the Lord

1 Samuel 12

1 Samuel 12:24 (NKJV) Only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you.

When Samuel was old, he made his sons judges over Israel. The elders of the nation then gathered together and came to Samuel and said,

1 Samuel 8:5 (NKJV) Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.

 

We know that this was not the real reason. God said,

1 Samuel 8:7 (NKJV) Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.

They did not want God to rule over them. We see more of the reason behind their demand for a king when Samuel said to them,

1 Samuel 12:12 (NKJV) 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.’

Here we have four reasons they desired a king.

1. Samuel was old.
2. Samuel’s sons were not like Samuel.
3. They did not want God to reign over them.
4. They were being threatened on their eastern border.

Today, we come to chapter twelve of 1 Samuel. Saul has been king of Israel for a while, and now, the nation gathered at Gilgal to hold a coronation. Samuel gave the speech at the event. His speech was also his farewell address as he stepped down. In this speech, he addresses the four reasons the people gave for wanting a king.

As Samuel begins his speech, he brings up the first two reasons the elders gave for requesting a king. He said:

1 Samuel 12:1–2 (NKJV) ¹Indeed I have heeded your voice in all that you said to me, and have made a king over you. ²And now here is the king, walking before you; and I am old and grayheaded, and look, my sons are with you. I have walked before you from my childhood to this day.

“I am old and grayheaded, and look, my sons are with you.” 

The elders had said, “Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways.” (1 Samuel 8:5) And this is where Samuel starts. He addresses their concern by reminding them of the years of his service. He states:

1 Samuel 12:2–3 (NKJV) ²I have walked before you from my childhood to this day. ³Here I am. Witness against me before the Lord 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 eyes? I will restore it to you.

Samuel’s first point is the integrity with which he governed for his entire life. As God’s chosen leader, he ruled with impartial fairness and honesty. Even concerning his sons, he was fair. Notice in verse two, he says, “...my sons are with you.” This word “with” is also translated as “among.” Let me quote to you from Gill’s commentary on the Bible. Although I could quote from others, I chose this one as representative. Gill says:

...and, behold, my sons are with you; as private persons in the condition of subjects, making no pretension to government; and if they had committed anything criminal, they were open to the law, and might be charged, and tried, and treated according to their deserts.

My opinion and the opinion of some scholars is that Samuel dealt with his sons’ wicked behavior. He was not like Eli, who let his sons go unchecked. But in offering to make restitution for any wrongs committed, we can assume that Samuel did the same concerning his sons’ crimes. He asks the Israelites twice to bear witness to his integrity, and twice they give witness. Their statement is:

1 Samuel 12:4 (NKJV) You have not cheated us or oppressed us, nor have you taken anything from any man’s hand.

This establishes that Samuel’s government was good.

Having established the nature of his government, Samuel reminds them of how God chose Moses as a deliverer for the nation. His shows that when the people called upon the Lord to deliver them, God provided a deliverer. The greatest example of God’s deliverance was Moses leading the children of Israel out of Egypt. Samuel establishes that God’s reign was good. Reminding them of God’s deliverance, Samuel pointed out their unfaithfulness to God. He said:

1 Samuel 12:9–11 (NKJV) ⁹And when they forgot the Lord 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. ¹⁰Then they cried out to the Lord, and said, ‘We have sinned, because we have forsaken the Lord and served the Baals and Ashtoreths; but now deliver us from the hand of our enemies, and we will serve You.’ ¹¹And the Lord sent Jerubbaal, Bedan, Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side; and you dwelt in safety.

The people forgot the Lord their God. They fell away and did not walk in His ways or obey His commands. Their rebellion was the source of the constant attacks and harassment from their enemies. The oppression and troubles they experienced were of their own making. However, they thought that a king would deliver them from their enemies, but Samuel showed them that a king would not change the fact that the Lord was their God. He tells them:

1 Samuel 12:14–15 (NKJV) ¹⁴If 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. ¹⁵However, 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, as it was against your fathers.

Samuel assures them that their well-being still depended upon their obedience to the Lord. The people did not understand that insisting on a king to reign over them was a rejection of God. So Samuel gave them a demonstration of God’s control over their destiny as a nation. He called upon the Lord, and God sent thunder and rain that destroyed the wheat harvest.

When they saw such a great display of raw power, the people were terrified. Then they said:

1 Samuel 12:19 (NKJV) 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.

Samuel reassured them that it was not the Lord’s intention to destroy them. Samuel gives a critical piece of information in his answer. He says:

1 Samuel 12:22 (NKJV) ...it has pleased the Lord to make you His people.

In all the years of the people of Israel turning away from and rejecting the Lord, He never withdrew His love. He disciplined them as a father disciplines the child he loves, but He never abandoned them. Through Samuel, God warned them not to turn away. He warned them for their good and for their protection. He said,

1 Samuel 12:21–22 (NKJV) ²¹And do not turn aside; for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing. ²²For the Lord will not forsake His people.

Turning away from the Lord is inevitably turning to empty things. These things cannot profit or deliver. Meaning, profit, and value cannot exist apart from the Lord. As the writer of Ecclesiastes said, “Meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless.” (Ecclesiastes 12:8)

Samuel closes his address by repeating his advice from the middle of his speech. His repetition gives emphasis to the point. He says:

1 Samuel 12:24–25 (NKJV) ²⁴Only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you. ²⁵But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.

Samuel’s counsel has two parts: 1) fear the Lord, 2) do not turn away. These are his entire message.

The Proverbs teach us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It is the fool that says in his heart, “There is no God.” Romans 3:18 tells us that this is the problem in the heart of every person. 

Romans 3:18 (NKJV) There is no fear of God before their eyes.

Saying, “There is no God,” is a very foolish position, and Samuel clues us in on why this is foolish when he says, “But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.”

The history of the nation of Israel serves as an example of this truth. The things with which we replace God are empty and cannot profit or deliver. The children of Israel thought a king would bring prosperity (profit) and would deliver them. (1 Samuel 12:21-22) But God warned them that they were looking to the wrong thing to get their needs met. Their provider and protector had always been and always would be God.

Jesus taught in a parable; if one is foolish enough to build his house on sand, then when storms come, the house will be swept away. Storms will come. We can be sure of it. If we are foolish enough to build our house on sand, we will suffer loss.

God set before Israel and before the world a choice between blessing and cursing. If we fear God and obey Him, we will be truly blessed. But if we reject God and go our own way, we will be swept away.

God is not being vindictive in this. Consider the results of man going his own way. Murder, war, disease, and all manner of evil exist in the world today. So much evil exists that people question how God can let it go on. But He will not let it go on forever. God cannot bless us when we go our own way because our way is destructive. Fearing God, acknowledging God, and obeying God are the very beginning and foundation of knowledge and wisdom.

Friend, if you are looking to anything other than God for profit and for deliverance, you are in great danger. Some look to doctors. Some look to work and industry. Some look to family, and others look to the government. Some look to the church. All these things are meaningless and cannot profit or deliver us. We must look to God for profit and deliverance. Look at what happened to Israel. Consider what happened to that nation. God gave us their history as an example. 

Compared to the value of knowing Christ Jesus, our Lord, all the world has to offer is worthless. Consider what God has done in the past. He has given us life and breath and every good thing. He has provided a way of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He stands ready and willing to forgive all our sins and accept us as His children. Has He ever treated any of us unfairly or with contempt? Has He ever wronged any of us? If not, then why do we refuse to humble ourselves before Him?

A Leader for God’s People

1 Samuel 9-10

The nation of Israel was governed by judges for 320 years. The last verse in the book of Judges, describes this period of time this way:

Judges 21:25 (NKJV) In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Under Moses, the people took an oath to seek the Lord and be faithful to Him, but it never worked that way. The pattern of turning away from the Lord and being disciplined by Him continued until the people asked for a king, thus rejecting God as their ruler. 

God listened to their demand for a king and chose a man for them. The man God chose for them was an ideal candidate. He came from an influential family. Also, he was handsome and a choice young man. 1 Samuel 9:1-2 describes him.

1 Samuel 9:1–2 (NKJV) ¹There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite, a mighty man of power. ²And he had a choice and handsome son whose name was Saul. There was not a more handsome person than he among the children of Israel. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people.

His name was Saul, and he was everything the nation wanted in a king. First, his father was a mighty man of power. According to the NKJV Study Bible note for this verse, the phrase “a mighty man of power,” suggests he was like a feudal lord, having wealth and influence. The point seems to be establishing that Saul was from the right family. He was Jewish, not a foreigner, from the tribe of Benjamin, and his father and family were respected and influential.

Second, Saul was a choice and handsome young man. The word “choice” in this context means “of very fine quality.” The text says, “There was not a more handsome person than he among the children of Israel.” Humanly speaking, they could not have found a better candidate. If they had done a nationwide search, they would not have done any better. The text adds the statement, “From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people. These are all characteristics that stand out to us. We want our leaders to be strong, handsome, and vigorous.

The people of Israel asked for a king, stating that they wanted to be like all the nations and have their king judge them, go out before them, and fight their battles. God gave them what they asked for.

After showing us what kind of man the Lord singled out, 1 Samuel 9 tells us of the events leading up to the anointing of Saul.

Saul’s father’s donkeys were lost. So, Kish said to Saul, “Please take one of the servants and go look for the donkeys.” (Just a side note here, the family was well off and had servants.) Saul and the servant did quite a bit of traveling. From Gill’s commentary on the Bible, they probably walked at least 55 miles. However, we cannot know for sure because we do not know with certainty the locations of the towns and regions named, nor do we know how much wandering they would have engaged in. However, 1 Samuel 9:20 tells us that they spent three days on the journey. They covered a lot of miles but did not find the donkeys.

1 Samuel 9:5 and following tells how Saul and his servant came to ask Samuel where the donkeys were.

When they did not find the donkeys, Saul said they should turn back and head home. But his servant suggested they inquire of the man of God. Verse 9 has an interesting note. It says:

1 Samuel 9:9 (NKJV) Formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he spoke thus: “Come, let us go to the seer”; for he who is now called a prophet was formerly called a seer.

This helps us understand the times in which they were living. A seer is a person who sees and tells the future, like a fortune teller. A prophet might foretell the future, but a prophet’s primary function is to speak the word of the Lord. In Deuteronomy 18:15 & 18, God calls Moses a prophet. Therefore, we know that the word and concept of a prophet were taught at the time of Moses. God never called His servants “seers.” People seek fortune tellers because they want to know the future and see the unseen. God forbade inquiring about the future of mediums and spiritists. The fact that prophets were called “seers” shows the lack of scriptural education that had taken over Israel. This reveals a misunderstanding of what the role of the prophet was. There were other indicators of a lack of scriptural knowledge. For example, the place where the Ark of the Covenant was kept showed they did not understand what it was, and they were not keeping the law of Moses.

Saul and his servant inquired after a seer. They were not seeking the Lord, but they were seeking donkeys. However, they did know that this man was a man of God. But God knew that they were coming before they got there, and He told Samuel they were coming.

1 Samuel 9:15–16 (NKJV) ¹⁵Now the Lord had told Samuel in his ear the day before Saul came, saying, ¹⁶“Tomorrow about this time I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him commander over My people Israel, that he may save My people from the hand of the Philistines; for I have looked upon My people, because their cry has come to Me.”

Many translations say the Lord revealed to Samuel that Saul was coming, but the NKJV translation is literal when it translates “The Lord had told Samuel in his ear...” Let me remind you that when Samuel was a boy, the Lord came and stood beside Samuel’s bed and spoke to him so that he heard it with his ears. Samuel knew the voice of the Lord. Jesus said:

John 10:27 (NKJV) My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.

I wonder if the donkeys were lost or if Saul was lost. This was to be a marked difference in the leadership of Israel. Samuel’s qualifications for leader were that he knew the voice of the Lord, and Saul’s qualifications for office were that he looked good and went his own way.

Let’s look again at verse 16. It says, “I will send you a man.” The Lord knew Saul, and He knew the circumstances. In Jeremiah 1:5, God spoke to Jeremiah, saying:

Jeremiah 1:5 (NKJV) Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.

Psalm 139 also says that God knows a person even before they are born. God sees our unformed substance. God prepared the way before Saul and sent him to Samuel. God gave Saul everything He needed for success. Therefore, God said, “...you shall anoint him commander over My people Israel.”

Priests were anointed, prophets were anointed, and now a leader was to be anointed. Anointing represented the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the person and consecration to the office. We are told that once Saul was anointed, he received another heart (1 Samuel 10:9). God said to anoint Saul as “commander” over His people. The one to be anointed was to be commander, but the people still belonged to the Lord. In other places, the Bible uses the word King, but I think it is significant that God chose the word commander, which also means leader. While Saul was to be leader, God was to remain king.

When Samuel met Saul, he knew that this was the one God had spoken to him about. So, Samuel gave Saul the seat of honor at the table and gave him the choice piece of meat. Then, Saul stayed the night. In the morning, on the way out of town, Samuel anointed Saul. Now, I am going to jump way ahead in the story to 1 Samuel 15:35.

1 Samuel 15:35 (NKJV) And Samuel went no more to see Saul until the day of his death. Nevertheless, Samuel mourned for Saul.

I point this out to establish the fact that Samuel loved Saul. When Saul started out as king, everybody loved Saul.

This will come up again when we consider the anointing of David, but it is a vital issue. 

Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.

Saul had all the qualifications. God provided everything he needed, including the Holy Spirit, but Saul was later rejected as king. 

When the time came for him to publicly take his place as king, Saul hid among the luggage. But this revealed the root of the problem. Later, when he was rebuked by Saul for disobeying the Lord, Saul said,

1 Samuel 15:30 (NKJV) I have sinned; yet honor me now, please, before the elders of my people and before Israel.

Saul was concerned with appearances. This is an issue that will keep many out of heaven.

All of Israel had this problem (or should I say “has this problem”). Look at what Paul says in Romans 10:2-3.

Romans 10:1–3 (NKJV) ²For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. ³For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

They sought to establish their own righteousness. They were of the right people and had the blessings and anointing of God, so they thought they could be good enough. As a result, appearances became more important than truth.

This same problem found its way into the Church. In Philippians 3, Paul warns about putting confidence in the flesh.

Philippians 3:2–9 (NKJV) ²Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation! ³For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, ⁴though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: ⁵circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; ⁶concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

⁷But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. ⁸Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;

I want you to absorb all of this passage, but pay special attention to the phrase “and have no confidence in the flesh.” Whenever we put confidence in the flesh, appearances will become overly important to us.

You cannot put any confidence in the family you came from. Saul came from the best of families, but it became a stumbling block to him. You cannot put any confidence in your background. Saul was a man of his time and had everything going for him, but that was not enough. You cannot put any confidence in even your baptism. Saul was anointed, but it did not save him in the end.

God looks at the heart. If we would gain the kingdom of heaven, we must count everything that is gain to us as rubbish, that we may gain Christ. We cannot say, “I have sinned, but honor me before the people.” Instead, we should pray with David, 

Psalm 51:10 (NKJV) Create in me a clean heart, O God.

The Altar and the Crown

1 Samuel 8

1 Peter 1:16 (NKJV) “Be holy, for I am holy.”

Romans 12:2 (NKJV) And do not be conformed to this world.

A soldier escaped the battle and ran into Shiloh with dust on his head and his clothes torn. Everyone knew that this meant tragedy, and the city was immediately in an uproar. Somebody took the man directly to Eli. Eli was old, he had judged Israel for forty years, and now he listened to the news he dreaded. His two sons were dead, and the Ark of the Covenant was in the Philistines’ possession. The boy Samuel had told Eli that this would happen. Eli fell off his stool at the news that the Ark had been captured and broke his neck.

Samuel was still a boy, so he went back home to Ramah, where his father and mother were. For twenty years, the Ark did not return to the tabernacle in Shiloh, nor did the people seek God. When Samuel was about thirty years old, he became judge of Israel, but he did not return to Shiloh. He made Ramah his home base for his entire life. 1 Samuel 7:15-17 sums this up.

1 Samuel 7:15–17 (NKJV) ¹⁵And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. ¹⁶He went from year to year on a circuit to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah, and judged Israel in all those places. ¹⁷But he always returned to Ramah, for his home was there. There he judged Israel, and there he built an altar to the Lord.

Samuel did not keep his governing activities in one place but traveled in a circuit. However, at his home base, he built an altar. Building an altar signaled a serious commitment to seek the Lord. 

Abraham built an altar at Bethel.

Genesis 12:7 (NKJV) Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants, I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

Isaac built an altar.

Genesis 26:25 (NKJV) So he built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord, and he pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.

Jacob built an altar.

Genesis 35:7 (NKJV) And he built an altar there and called the place El Bethel, because there God appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother.

The significance of these altars is that each one made a habit of worshiping the Lord in the place where they lived. They established a place of worship.

Be careful. God allowed this before the establishment of the nation.     However, in Deuteronomy 12, the Lord says they were not to offer their burnt offerings in every place they saw, but only in the location the Lord chose to make His name dwell. In Samuel’s day, the people had strayed so far that the tabernacle and place of worship were not functioning. One of the problems of the days of the judges was that everyone did what was right in their own eyes, deliberately disobeying the command of the Lord. This kind of deliberate disobedience still happens today. After all, I don’t need to go to church to be a Christian. Nonsense! That is just an excuse for doing things your own way. God’s word says, “Do not forsake the gathering of yourselves together.” (Hebrews 10:25) Consider what happened to Israel when every man did what was right in their own eyes. It resulted in disaster, and this is why Samuel started by making Ramah a place of worship. He did it because there was no regular gathering place. Samuel established the school of the prophets in hopes of re-establishing public worship in Israel.

Samuel also traveled in a circuit every year, teaching, judging, and leading Israel, all in an effort to turn the people’s hearts back to God. When Samuel was old, he could no longer travel extensively, so he made his sons judges to carry on their father’s work. However, they made their base of operations in Beersheba. Beersheba was probably fifty or sixty miles from Ramah and their father. This would have been a three or four-day journey on foot.

They did not follow the ways of their father. 1 Samuel 8:3 tells us they turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice. Like the nation, they turned away from the Lord as soon as they were out from under the judge. These boys rejected God. They did not worship the Lord. There was no altar in their lives.

1 Samuel 8:4-6 tells us:

1 Samuel 8:4–5 (NKJV) ⁴Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, ⁵and said to him, “Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.”

On the surface, it looks like they wanted a king because Samuel’s sons were not like Samuel, but this was not the case. Samuel’s sons were at the southern border of the nation. They were too far away from Jerusalem and the north to make much difference to those living in those regions. No, the real reason they wanted to have a king is found in the last sentence of the passage. “Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” Quite simply put, they wanted to be like everyone else. They were not concerned about justice as much as they were concerned with prosperity and power. They saw the nations around them gain wealth and power by their kings’ conquests and wanted a piece of that action. And they wanted secure borders. The Philistines were encroaching upon their borders on one side (1 Samuel 13:3-5), and Nahash, the Ammonite, was threatening on the east (1 Samuel 11:1). The Israelites showed their true desires when they said:

1 Samuel 8:19–20 (NKJV) ¹⁹“No, but we will have a king over us, ²⁰that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.”

Their request does not seem like a bad thing on the surface, but Samuel was upset and prayed about it. Read what the Lord said in response.

1 Samuel 8:7–8 (NKJV) ⁷And the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. ⁸According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day—with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods—so they are doing to you also.

The Lord said, “They have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.”

The Lord was not deceived by their reference to Samuel’s sons. The nation was rejecting the Lord, just as they had done so consistently. They saw what the world had to offer, and they wanted it.

The Bible warns us about doing the same thing. It says:

Romans 12:2 (NKJV) And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

“Do not be conformed” is a warning because this is the temptation we all face. But we are to be different from the world. We are called to be different from the world, as was Israel. Israel was called and set apart to be holy.

Leviticus 11:44 (NKJV) For I am the LORD your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy.

God had called them and set them apart to be a holy nation. They were to be a witness to the rest of the world that there is but one God. I have pointed this out previously, but it bears repeating. Isaiah 43:10 says:

Isaiah 43:10 (NKJV) “You are My witnesses,” says the Lord,

 “And My servant whom I have chosen,

That you may know and believe Me,

And understand that I am He.

Before Me there was no God formed,

Nor shall there be after Me.”

However, Israel rejected God, and so God said:

Ezekiel 36:23 (NKJV) And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the Lord,” says the Lord God, “when I am hallowed in you before their eyes.”

Romans 2:24 quotes this when it says:

Romans 2:24 (NKJV) For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” as it is written.

God called them and promised to bless them if they walked in His ways, but they rejected God and did not fulfill their calling to be witnesses.

We are faced with the same choice they were. Israel chose to be conformed to the world. They wanted to gain what the world had to offer, and many of us want the same thing. I fear lest any of us hear the words, “Depart from me, I never knew you.”

Matthew 7:21–23 (NKJV) ²¹“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. ²²Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ ²³And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

Romans 12:2 does not give its warning for no reason. Conforming to the world is a great temptation. This is why the instructions of Romans 12:1 are so vital.

Romans 12:1 (NKJV) I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

The Lord, through the Apostle, pleads with us, saying, “I beseech you.” Some translations say, “I beg you,” and others say, “I urge you.” God has every right to command obedience, but He chooses to appeal to us. This appeal is based on His mercies. Mercy means not giving one the punishment or penalty he deserves. God is merciful in that we are not destroyed for our unbelief and deliberate acts of disobedience toward Him. Instead of punishing us, God gave His only Son so that we can receive eternal life through faith in Him. This is why Romans 12:1 says that presenting our bodies as living sacrifices is our reasonable service. Another word that can be used in place of “reasonable” here is “logical.” Logically, we should give ourselves to Him since He gave His only Son for us. We were dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1).

Colossians 2:13 (NKJV) And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses.

The Israelites wanted a king to rule over them. And God said:

1 Samuel 8:7 (NKJV) And the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.

The issue is the same in the lives of all people. Who will rule over our lives? Will God be king, or will I be king? God went to great lengths to make a nation of His own. He singled out a common man and made Him into a nation. The Lord delivered that nation from slavery in Egypt. He gave them a land with fields and homes that they had not labored for. And still, they rejected Him as king. Are you any different? He gave His Son so that you can live. Have you rejected Him? Will you have Him to be your king?

God does not ask you to build an altar like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But He does ask you to worship in Spirit and in truth. He does ask you to present your body as a living sacrifice.

Where is the altar that you have built in your life?

Do you worship God every day, seeking to know and obey Him?

Have you chosen the crown, to be the ruler of your own life, or the altar, letting God rule over you?