Let us Pray:
(Psalm 19: 14) 14Let the words
of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be Holy and acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen
Before I read the passage from 1 Samuel, I wanted to share
this quote. Why this statement applies or was the first one I
spiritually heard come from reflecting about the place of those perhaps NOT
seeking an earthly king as well as having a lot to do with our will over the will of God.
“This life therefore is not righteousness, but growth in
righteousness, not health, but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but
exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it, the
process is not yet finished, but it is going on, this is not the end, but it is
the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified.” ― Martin
Luther. Keep this quote in the back of your mind while I read from 1 Samuel. Is it fair to say that when seeking a judge
or ruler to be “just like everyone else;” we will over look the truly righteous
Lord of our lives rejecting him in favor of our worldly desires, sins?
A reading from the 1st book of the Prophet Samuel
from ‘The Voice:’
Narrator:
1 When Samuel was old, he named his sons judges of Israel to rule over
the people and be their deliverers. 2 His first son, Joel, and his
second son, Abijah, were judges in Beersheba, 3 but they were not
like Samuel. They profited from dishonesty, took bribes, and fostered
injustice. 4So the elders of Israel gathered and came to Ramah to
tell Samuel.
The Elders:
5 You have grown old, Samuel, and your sons do not administer
justice the way that you did. Before things worsen, appoint a king to rule us,
as other nations have.
Narrator:
6 This request—“appoint a king to rule us”—bothered Samuel, so he prayed
to the Eternal One 7 and received an answer.
The Eternal One
(to Samuel): Listen to what the people are asking you to do. It is not
a rejection of you—it is a rejection of My rule over them. 8 It
is what they have always done, from the day I brought them out of Egypt until
today, rejecting Me and serving other gods. Now they are just doing it to you. 9
So listen to what they are asking you to do, but make it plain to them what
they are asking. Warn them about what will happen if a king is appointed to
rule them.
Narrator:
10 So Samuel told the people who were asking for a king what the Eternal
One had said.
Samuel:
11 If a king rules over you, things will be different from now on.
He will make your sons drive his chariots, be his horsemen, and go into battle
ahead of his chariots. 12 Your king will select commanders over
1,000 and commanders over 50. He will make some of you to plow his fields and
collect his harvest; some of you will be the blacksmiths forging his shields
and swords for battle and outfitting his chariots. 13 He will force
your daughters to make perfumes, to cook his meals, and to bake his bread. 14
He will seize the choicest of your fields, vineyards, and olive orchards to
give to his courtiers, 15 and a tenth of your grain and your
vineyards to give to his court eunuchs and servants. 16 This king,
you ask for will take your slaves, male and female, as his own and put the
choicest of your donkeys and your young men to do his work. 17 He
will take a tenth of your flocks. You, will essentially become his slaves. 18
One day you will cry for mercy from the Eternal One to save you from this king,
you have chosen for yourselves, but be assured, He will not hear you on that
day.
The People of
Israel (ignoring Samuel): 19 We have decided that we will
have a king who will rule over us 20 so that we will be like all
other nations and will have someone to judge us and to lead us into battle.
Narrator:
21 After Samuel had heard their demands, he told the Eternal One what
they had said.
The Eternal One
(to Samuel): 22 Do as they have asked. Give them a king.
Narrator: So Samuel told the people of Israel to
go back to their cities until he would call them together to anoint them a
king.
The Voice translation lays out the passage much like a play
script which in some senses IS a lot like how we experience the
ancient Israelites in their journey to both finding themselves and becoming
truthfully obedient to God. We are still
seeking today which winds up being the battle or bondage of the will: Our will
or God’s? That is the question.
This segment from 1st
Samuel only introduces us to the conversations and scenes between the elders
and Samuel and the conversation between God and Samuel. He does give a speech or warning to the
people after consulting YHWH but we don’t hear from people who may have
expressed another opinion. For example,
what if there was an imaginary character who turned out to be the wife of the
lead elder who was sent with the group of elders to complain and demand that
Samuel finds them a ruler and her name is Jessica?
Earlier that week she asks her husband Micah and says: “Micah, we all know how terrible Samuel’s
sons were in supposedly ruling over our people…
why on earth do you and your friends still feel another ‘cookie cutter’
king is going to be the solution to all of our problems? Are you really thinking in terms of what YHWH
wants or your own?” Micah Says to his wife:
“Jessica, we need a slick politician to be tough on foreign policy and
if need be show his muscle over our enemies… That’s what a king is supposed to
be, to do. Don’t you remember how much
we suffered? How could you say we are dishonoring God as well as not understand
what is needed for our survival?!” But
Jessica said: “Micah, why do we assume to know what we need? God knows what we need and it is not swindling,
war mongering and more death! We are
spiritually indenturing ourselves to the ways of the world not what God desires
for us at all!” Micah however stormed
out and refused to even ruminate upon his wife’s words since all he ever saw
his people experience was slavery, oppression and genuine suffering. He could not hear God calling to him that his
attitude would not work out in the long scheme of things. He assumed the facts, Samuel is just an old
man and his sons were corrupt… It was only logical to demand a king who would
be the perfect bureaucrat, card player to the world.
We are never given any such dialogue
or indication that there may have been anyone who felt like Micah’s wife,
Jessica… BUT as we see in chapters to follow this text, the Israelites do get
kings and great ones at that but the irony is that only 1,000 something years
later, they receive the real king of righteousness—Christ Jesus the Messiah;
only to reject Him and put him to death upon the Cross because he was not the
warrior-king Messiah they expected.
Going back to the poignant Words from Samuel to the
self-concerned people: (QUOTE) “16 This king, you ask for
will take your things, making them his own …17 You will essentially
become his slaves. (Is this what you
really want?) 18 One day you will cry for mercy from the Eternal One
(whom you blatantly rejected…) to save you from “this king,” you have
chosen for yourselves… but be assured, He will not hear you on that day.
(Especially since you refused to listen to me and God’s warnings…)”
Requesting a king to lead is
tantamount to a rejection of Samuel’s godly judgeship and ministry of
prophecy. The peoples’ motivation
reveals their profound dissatisfaction with who they are as a people. They complained about receiving manna in the
wilderness… though they were begin rescued for all intents and purposes by God
with this heavenly food… BUT they
chose to complain! Getting back to
Samuel, we hear their dissatisfaction in verses 19 & 20: “19…Nevertheless, the people
refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, No! We will have a
king over us, 20 That we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may govern
us and go out before us and fight our battles.” Basically they don’t want a
righteous judge or a ruler that will pursue justice… they just want a slick
politician, a bureaucrat!
The meaning of the kingship of
God, however, according to the Bible, IS the denial to humankind of the
concentration and permanence of power. The
power of God by the time of Jesus, as we know, will have a completely different
purpose and understanding. The power of
God through Christ Jesus the Messiah is transformation. As we hear from St. Paul who understands the
Lordship of Christ: (Romans 4: 24-25; Romans 5:1-5 ) “24…It will be reckoned to us who believe in
him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was
raised for our justification. 1Therefore,
since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have obtained access
to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory
of God. 3And not only that, but we also boast in our
sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and
endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and
hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
To demand otherwise is to wrest
power away from God. The ancient
Israelites were too wound up in coming to understand their place in the scheme
of things. They barely listened to Moses
as it was, and held a narrow view of who their leaders should be, yet alone
listen to God’s commands through the Prophets… This leads me back to that quote
I heard when I began developing this sermon from Luther. Let’s heard it again
in light of Samuel’s dilemma with the people of God: “This life
therefore is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness, not health, but
healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we
shall be, but we are growing toward it, the process is not yet finished, but it
is going on, this is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in
glory, but all is being purified.” ― Martin Luther.
Let’s take this apart sentence
by sentence: “This life therefore is not righteousness, but growth in
righteousness.” At the time of the Book
of Samuel, there was a political shift in both power and in the people’s sense
of justice. They were not accustomed to
experience much justice and had little structure governmentally. They lived spiritually and otherwise as a
tribal people. So perhaps they may have
thought about their lives not being truthfully righteous but needed to grow in
obedience to YHWH to be truly righteous.
Accountability is a universal
theme—by whose authority do your hearts bend to? By the time of St. Paul evangelism for Christ
Jesus, whom he knew deeply in his heart that he was the true King and Messiah
the people of God needed… He would essentially pen the very first creed:
(Philippians 2: 9-11) “9Therefore God also highly exalted him and
gave him the name that is above every name, 10so that at the
name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the
earth, 11and every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” As we may recall, Ceasar was the Roman ruler
and oppressor over Judea at the time and like most Roman rulers considered
himself a “God…” Would the Israelites of
Samuel’s time appreciate this guy even over and above YHWH?! I think they would come to greatly regret
their demand upon Samuel for an earthly king.
Getting back to the sentences
within Martin Luther’s quote: “We are not yet what we shall be, but we are
growing toward it, the process is not yet finished, but it is going on, this is
not the end, but it is the road...” Here
is another universal verse that highlights the Israelites consternation about
seeking an “earthly” king. Martin Luther
picks up upon our very human need to think in terms of our sense of time and
not God’s sense of time or better put, ‘rule’ over time. As children of God, we are always in the
process of transformation to as Christians, grow into the life of GRACE. Growing into the life of GRACE is lead by
the sovereignty of a completely contradictory king—one beyond our earthly
standards of judgment. A sovereign that
is the true Lord of our lives—Christ Jesus, Beyond sufficient as our king!
When coming to both reflect on
an Old Testament text solely as well as the theme— “Beyond Sufficient as Our
King;” who are we to understand yet alone measure God’s sufficiency? The first
semester of my seminary studies at a very liberal school, challenged all of us
to see Jesus as merely the rejected prophet… over and above Christus Victor
which illumines the TRUTH and core of GRACE:
Christ Jesus defeated Sin, Death and the Devil by the Cross and the
Resurrection. This is our Christian creed
of our more than sufficient sovereign—Jesus.
But as we know of human nature, people don’t want to have a divine King
yet alone be held accountable to the lifestyle of GRACE. We want the control, we want for ourselves a
sufficient “transactional” reign over the world and other people. The world was not made to be unto itself but
to bear transforming New fruit. We were
created to bear fruit through loving obedience and accountability to God in
relationship and neighbor with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength. The greatest commandment was spoken by the
divine, eternal one to rule over our hearts and the fruit of our lives together
upon the earth!
How little did the ancient
Israelites know about where their future would lie? Would seeing into the future have changed
their lot, truthfully and honestly? How
little WE know what IS good for us and where the future
will lead us especially since we cannot bring ourselves to understand and
accept the power of God exampled to us in Christ Jesus? We could probably share with the ancient
Israelites, the very human problem of accepting God’s power over and above our
own. The chapters to follow in the 1st
book of Samuel introduce the rise of Saul.
Chapter 12 in particular
examples the beginning of the long and winding road to the Israelites finding
themselves and struggling with their relationship to God: (Samuel tells the people) “13See,
here is the king whom you have chosen, for whom you have asked; see, the Lord has
set a king over you. 14If you will fear the Lord and
serve him and heed his voice and not rebel against the
commandment of the Lord, and if both you and the king who reigns over you
will follow the Lord your God, it will be well; 15but
if you will not heed the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the
commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will
be against you and your king. 19All the people said to Samuel, “Pray
to the Lord your
God for your servants, so that we may not die; for we have added to all our
sins the evil of demanding a king for ourselves.” 20And
Samuel said to the people, “Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil, yet
do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with
all your heart; 21and do not turn aside after useless
things that cannot profit or save, for they are useless. 22For
the Lord will
not cast away his people, for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to
make you a people for himself. 23Moreover as
for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by
ceasing to pray for you; and I will instruct you in the good and the right way.24Only
fear the Lord, and serve
him faithfully with all your heart; for consider what great things he has done
for you.”
As children of Grace who have
accepted Christ Jesus as both the ultimate sovereign and Messiah—do we allow
Him to be the Lord of our lives and grow in obedience to His will not ours? We see in the following chapters in 1st
Samuel, the ancient Israelites struggled with obedience and faithfulness to
YHWH. They are just beginning in their
steps of transition spiritually… As we
know, John the Baptist represented a transitional figure from the Old Testament
to the New, for he Baptized Jesus and was compelled to be his herald in the
wilderness… But when he saw what kind of Messiah Jesus was, he sent his
disciples to ask: 3b…“Are you the one who is to come, or are we to
wait for another?” 4Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what
you hear and see: 5the blind receive their sight, the lame
walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor
have good news brought to them. 6And blessed is anyone who takes no offense
at me.” 7As they went away, Jesus
began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the
wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? 8What
then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear
soft robes are in royal palaces. 9What then did you go out to see? A prophet?
Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10This is the one about whom it is written,
‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before
you.’
Jesus, the true king had to tell
the people John’s purpose to herald his
coming… but as we will see, the people still refused to listen and Jesus would
be crucified! (John 19) “19Pilate had an inscription written and put on the cross. It
read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” 20Many
of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified
was near the city; and it
was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. 21Then
the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the
Jews,’ but, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” 22Pilate
answered, “What I have written I have written.” Pilate was a bureaucrat
or more or less a functionary to Rome…
The scribes and the Pharisees knew how to politically manipulate functionaries
such as Pilate. They used their earthly
understanding of power against someone who proved a great threat to them and
their “rule.”
How many more times throughout
our lives together here; will we instinctually pursue worldly power? Will it be to the breaking of the world to
Christ and Satan’s final battle? Or as children of the New Covenant— can we
build upon our lives, a New life in GRACE that the true sovereign over our
lives IS Christ Jesus… and he is beyond sufficient to rule our
hearts!
AMEN
Condell Hospital Preaching Series—“Beyond Sufficient as Our King”
November 17th, 2013
1 Samuel 8 Nicole A.M. Collins
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