January 13, 2025 • 23 mins
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Welcome to the Westside church’s special Monday Morning Coffee podcast with Mark Roberts. Mark is a disciple, a husband, father and grand dad, as well as a certified coffee geek, fan of CS Lewis’ writings and he loves his big red Jeep. He’s also the preacher for Westside church.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello, and welcome to the Westside churches
special Monday Morning Coffeepodcast on this podcast, our
preacher Mark Roberts will helpyou get your week started
right. With look back atyesterday's sermon so that we
can think through it furtherand better work the
applications into our dailylives . Mark will then look
(00:28):
forward into this week's Biblereading so that we can know
what to expect and watch for.
And, he may have some extrabonus thoughts from time to
time. So grab a cup of coffeeas we start the week together
on Monday Morning Coffee withMark.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday
Morning Coffee podcast forMonday, January the 13th. I'm
Mark, and I've got my Bibleopen to the book of Samuel. I'm
holding some coffee, feelsreally nice holding coffee on a
cold morning, doesn't it? And Iam ready to talk with you about
yesterday's sermon, which plugsdirectly into daily Bible
reading. We want to start theweek with a sharp spiritual
(01:17):
focus. So pour that cup ofcoffee, get ready, get set.
Let's go. Yesterday's sermonwas designed to encourage you
to be about daily Biblereading. Talked a lot about
what happens when you do that.
I'm just gonna give you oneextra thought here. If you do
daily Bible reading, what ?
(01:37):
What's gonna happen? What'sgonna happen? You will
experience God's gloriousprovidence. Think about the
famous story of the Ethiopianeunuch and his conversion. Acts
chapter eight tells us he'sgoing down the road here he is
reading arguably the mostfamous messianic prophecy in
all of the Old Testament. Andon the next corner, they're
(01:58):
standing a gospel preacherwho's ready to help him
understand that prophecy andbecome a Christian. How did
that happen? It happenedbecause God wanted it to happen
and because God made it happenLast week, we read in the Book
of Ruth, she just happens to bein Boaz's field who just
happens to be a near redeemer,who happens to be single, who
happens to be looking for awoman of Godly character. No,
(02:21):
none of those things happen tohappen. They happen because God
made them happen. That's calledprovidence. God works all
things together. God causes andmoves and is active and alive
in this world to bring men andwomen to him and to bring men
and women closer to him. Maybeyou've had that experience of
feeling like the preacher'sbeen hiding behind your sofa
(02:42):
all week, listening toeverything going on in your
home. Well, I'm not hidingbehind your sofa. That's not
it. That's not it at all. Thepreacher does not live in your
house, but God in hisprovidence arranges for the
sermon to be talking about justwhat we need and we feel the
power of God's word in ourlives. But that doesn't just
(03:03):
happen in preaching. You readthe Bible on a regular and
consistent daily basis, youwill find that God is saying
just what you need to heartoday through His word. You'll
find that someone you meet atwork is doing exactly what you
just read about or a situationwill crop up where you will
need the courage that you justread about over and over again.
(03:27):
Daily Bible reading will equipyou to live life today because
God in his providence is usingGod's word to equip you, to
serve him and honor him andglorify him. We saw that in the
Book of Ruth. And guess whatwe're gonna see in Samuel in
our reading this week. It'sabout providence and it's about
(03:47):
letting God into our lives sothat he can do those things.
And daily Bible reading is oneof the great ways that we do
that. Speaking of daily Biblereading, let's do some of that.
Get your Bible over to oneSamuel chapter eight. Let's
read the Bible together. It isMonday and our reading for
(04:21):
Monday is all of one Samuelchapter eight. This is not a
long chapter, and again, whenyou're reading story, when
you're reading narrative, it'snot difficult to stay in the
reading. And this is anenormously important chapter.
There are a couple places inthe Bible where the ground just
changes massively. That's justa a landmark shift. And this is
(04:41):
one of those places becausewe're transitioning from
judgeship to kingship. We areending the time of Samuel. He's
the last judge, and we'rebeginning the kings with the
rise of Saul. And one of thethings to see here is why we're
transitioning out of judgesinto kings. And the answer to
that is we'll see that in ourreading today is the people
(05:02):
aren't happy with God, they'renot happy with the way God is
doing things. And thatcontributes to our
understanding of why God is sounhappy with what they ask for.
So let's work on this a littlebit. You'll notice here that
Samuel is old verse one, and heappointed or made, it's the
same word as in verse five, Aappoint for us a king. He
(05:22):
appointed his son's judges overIsrael and they're terrible
judges. They are terriblejudges. I don't know what it is
about great men in the Bible.
So many great men in the Biblehave terrible children in
Samuel. Samuel is like Davidand a bunch of other great
leaders who just don't takecare of their own family. And
so part of the problem here isthe sons verse five, don't walk
(05:46):
in your ways. And so badleadership is causing problems.
But I think more than anything,the problem here is foreign
armies and the need to have apermanent military leader who
can maintain a standing armyand lead that army into battle.
That's what's really going onhere because the people say, we
want a king to judge us likeall the nations. What they want
(06:09):
here is a military leader. Lookdown at verse 20 in verse 20,
that we may be like all thenations and that our king may
judge us and go out before usand fight our battles. Growing
up, I heard one Samuel eightused as the consummate text to
prove that we should not belike the nations. And then the
preacher would pause and saythe denominations around us.
(06:30):
And that preached really well.
But the problem here isn't justthat the people of Israel are
looking over at the Philistinesor looking over at the amite
and saying, wow, it's so coolthat they have a king. Why
can't we be cool like them?
Which has certainly been aproblem I should add among
God's people. Lots of times weare looking over at what our
religious neighbors are doingand saying, wow, why can't we
(06:51):
have a basketball court? Whycan't we have a giant
fellowship hall? Why can't wehave this big family life
center like they have overthere? That point will hold,
but that's not really what'sdriving one Samuel eight.
What's driving one Samuel eightis that they are tired of the
judge system, which works whenthey cry out to God in
repentance because one of thesenations has come and overtaken
(07:15):
them in their idolatry and intheir sin, God allowed that to
happen. And then they cry outto God and God sends a
deliverer enough with that,we're done with that. What we
want is a permanent king whocan lead us into battle and who
can keep those nations off ofus, whether we're doing what's
right or not. So the peoplearen't saying, Samuel , you
pray for us and see to see whatGod wants us to do about this.
(07:38):
See where God is on this? Thesituation isn't good and we
need God's help here. No, theyhave rejected God's solution,
which is do what's right andGod will defend you and you
won't have the AMLO heights andthe hights and the parasites
and all the other, the ites ,the termites all coming after
you. No , what we want is apermanent leader who can lead
(08:00):
us into battle. And so the Lordsays in verse seven, obey the
voice of the people for theyhave not rejected you. They've
rejected me. You . You seewhere this is? It's not about
we just wanna be cool, we justwanna look like the nation's
around us. No, we want apermanent deliverer. And so
Samuel beginning in verse 10,begins to say, this is what you
(08:22):
want. This is what it's gonnacost. And the operative word
here is the word take , whichyou need to underline in your
Bible. And that actuallybecomes a theme through the
rest of Samuel and through therest of King Solomon becomes
the ultimate personification ofthis. He just takes, takes,
takes, takes, takes. You want aking, Kings cost money. Are you
ready to pay the price to havethis amazing leader who's just
(08:47):
ready at any time with the armyto defend you? Are you sure you
want that? You have chosenverse 18, a king for
yourselves? Let's see if youreally like that because now
verse 18, the Lord will notanswer you in that day. You've
worked out your own solution tothe problem. Now you have
rejected God's solution to theproblem. And God says, obey
(09:11):
their voice. Verse 22, maybethe terrifying thing about one
Samuel eight is that it teachesus that sometimes God gives us
what we want. And that's notalways a good thing because
sometimes, like in one Samueleight, we don't want what God
wants. That's one . Samuelchapter eight, our reading for
Monday is one Samuel chaptereight. So we get down to verse
(09:32):
12 and notice there they arejust in time. Yesterday they
would've missed Samuel, but nowthey are just in time . And we
get a little look at some ofthe worship practices in the
Old Testament where worshipersshared in eating the peace or
the fellowship offering. And soSamuel and Saul are going to
meet, and I know you're gonnaask at the end of our reading
(09:53):
here, verse 14, high places ,wow, that that's really a mixed
bag. Sometimes they seem okaylike here, but sometimes
they're used to worship idolsand sometimes they're used to
mix the worship of Jehovah Godwith idolatry and are very
wrong. Maybe this sayssomething about the times and
that people spiritually aren'treally where they ought to be.
I'd love a king to move theneedle spiritually. We'll see
(10:16):
if Saul can do that. But ourreading then our reading for
today is for Samuel chapternine, verses one to 14. See you
tomorrow in Westsiders. I willsee you on Zoom tonight. It is
Tuesday. And our reading todayis First Samuel chapter nine,
(10:37):
verses one to 14. First Samuelnine, one to 14 is our reading
today we come to the end ofchapter eight yesterday, and
the question is, all right ,we're gonna have a king who's
gonna be the first king? Andthe answer to that is given to
us in chapter nine, but it isgiven to us in a unique way
that demonstrates God'sprovidence. God working through
some very ordinary means, somelost donkeys to bring Saul to
(11:00):
Samuel so that he will beanointed as the first king over
Israel. And Saul is a man ofBenjamin, verse one. And
Benjamin has not distinguisheditself. If you read about the
tribe of Benjamin in the bookof Judges, it is not by any
means the most spirituallyminded bunch of people on the
planet. And then we read aboutSaul verse two, who is a
handsome young man, but not onething is said about him
(11:22):
spiritually. That is a littleperturbing. What ? What's the
deal here? This guy doesn'tseem to have much interest in
God. In fact, in verse five,Saul says, we're all done here.
Wait , I , I can't find thesedonkeys. We need to go home. He
does not say, let's seek God.
Let's look for the Lord. Let'ssee what God wants us to do.
(11:42):
No, the servant has to say,there's a man of God and ramal
that's about five miles fromwhere Saul lived. And that's
disturbing. How does Saul notknow about Samuel when they
live so close together?
Samuel's hometown is within thecircuit of Samuel's territory,
or I should say Saul's hometownis within the circuit of
Samuel's territory. And yetSaul seems to know nothing
(12:02):
about Samuel at all. That is,yeah, that's troublesome, isn't
it? That is troublesome. It isWednesday. It is Wednesday. And
our reading today is one Samuelchapter nine, verses 15 to 27,
the rest of one Samuel chapternine. For the first time now we
begin to realize the Lord is atwork because verse 15 says,
(12:23):
now, the day before Saul came,the Lord had revealed to
Samuel, tomorrow I will send toyou a man for the land of
Benjamin. So God is the onethat is bringing this to pass.
God is providentially workingthrough situations and through
circumstances. And I do likeverse 16, I have heard their
cry. That's the cycle of thejudges people doing wrong,
(12:45):
needing deliverance, repent andturn to God. Saul shall save my
people for the hand of thePhilistines in verse 17, he
shall restrain my people. Thereis some emphasis there on not
just being a military leader,but on helping the people get
back to the Lord. And so Saulapproaches Samuel in the gate.
We'll talk a little bit aboutthe gate tonight in, in , uh,
(13:08):
Bible talk. And on Wednesdaynight we'll talk a little bit
about some of what the gatemeans there. But Samuel says,
it's me. I'm the seer. And thisis what we're gonna do. Don't
worry about your donkeys. Verse20, by the way, the Hebrew,
there is very, very difficult.
Lots of different translationsabout this business here in
verse 20 about for whom is allthat is desirable, that that
(13:29):
may be to whom will belong.
Every desirable thing inIsrael. You're gonna be
elevated to a high place. Andthen Saul says, make sure you
mark verse 21. I'm just a bingemite from the least of the
tribes of Israel and is not myclan, the humblest of all the
clans of the tribe of Benjamin.
Why then have you spoken to mein this way? This is remarkable
(13:50):
humility and it is somethingthat Saul possesses at this
moment, but that we will see hecannot hold on to . Please
remember for Samuel 9 21, atthis time, Saul is little in
his own eyes . Samuel will usethat expression and we want to
mark that down. So Samuel hasmade it or set apart for him a
(14:12):
special portion of thefellowship offering that
usually would belong to thepriest. And they set that
aside. And Saul has got to bewondering what's going on?
What, what , what will happenhere? Why am I being treated
like I'm a VIP ? And thenSamuel says, you tell your
servant verse 27 to go on.
'cause I need to tell yousomething from God. Wow.
(14:33):
Sitting on the edge of ourseats here at the end of one
Samuel, chapter nine, ourreading for Wednesday, one
Samuel chapter nine, verses 15to 27 . It is Thursday. It is
Thursday. Our reading today,first Samuel chapter 10, verses
one to 16. And I wouldn't besurprised if you haven't
already read this because it'salmost impossible to stop at
the end of one Samuel nine. Butin chapter nine, God has
(14:55):
providentially moved Saul to beexactly where he needs to be.
All these things happen. Thedonkeys just happen to get
lost, and then they happen tonot find them. And Saul happens
to get PR down and discouragedabout it precisely when they're
near Samuel's town . And theservant just happens to know
about Samuel and the youngwomen happen to know where
Samuel will be. And it happensto be on the time when, no, it
(15:16):
didn't just happen. God hasarranged all of this. And one
Samuel 10 begins the saga ofKing Saul. Some of this will be
very good and some of this willmake you wanna pull your hair
out. Saul has so much promise,and I loved yesterday's
reading, verse 21 of chapternine, I'm just a humble
benjamite. I'm a nobody. Howcan I possibly be the recipient
(15:39):
of all these great things fromGod? But Samuel verse one,
chapter 10 and verse one takesa flask of oil and pours it
upon his head and kissed himand said, has not the Lord
anointed you to be prince overhis people Israel? You shall
reign over the people of theLord and you'll save them from
the hand of their surroundingenemies. So there's gonna be
some weird things that happenin this chapter, but the point
of the chapter is to see thatGod is choosing Saul. And I'm
(16:03):
sure that Saul was thinking,what is going on and, and is
this Samuel Guy losing hismind? How? How can I be sure
that this is really the wordfrom God? You know? And I know
a lot of people jump up anddown and say, I have a word
from God. Do you ? Do youreally have a word from God?
Samuel? So Saul, this youngman, unsure of himself, humble
will be given three signs,special occurrences that would
(16:26):
mark and show him that he isGod's choice. And I do like the
word prince here in verse one.
He is not the king, king, Godis the king. He is the under
king. He's the Lieutenant King,he's the deputy king. He is in
charge of God's people here onearth, but he is not free to do
(16:48):
as he pleases. So Samuel giveshim some very specific signs so
that, and they are just superspecific. None of this can just
be coincidence so that he willknow that he has been chosen by
God. And these signs thenhappen. I think verse six is
the big sign. The spirit of theLord will rush upon you and
you'll prophesy and be turnedinto another man. So this is
(17:13):
what Saul needs to be the king.
He needs the spirit of God toenable and empower him. We've
seen that before in the Bible.
The Spirit is said, forexample, to have been upon zael
and a holy AB in the designingand construction of the
tabernacle. And then in thebook of Judges, the spirit of
the Lord comes upon Gideon andJeha and Samson. We'll see that
later in Samuel. The spirit ofthe Lord comes upon David. And
(17:36):
in fact, it becomes importantbecause the spirit of the Lord
will leave King Saul. Andthere's lots of discussion
about some of this and we cantalk a lot about , uh, what
exactly the spirit of the Lordmeans. But so many people have
tried to make this into somekind of ecstatic frenzy in
verse 10. And he's speaking ingibberish, kind of like you see
(17:58):
various charismatic groups tryto practice today. But that's,
there's nothing here to saythat. There's nothing here that
says it's that kind ofspeaking. In fact, in this day,
in the Bible's time, when thespirit of God comes upon you
and you prophesy, that doesn'tmean you speak gibberish. It
means you speak for God. Itmeans that you are preaching in
(18:18):
an inspired way. That's whatthis is all about. So there's
nothing here to say that insome ways Saul has become
charismatic or caught up insome sort of gibberish, frenzy
sorts of things. No, he'sspeaking for God because the
spirit of God has come uponhim. He's not been with these
prophets. This is completelyunexpected. But he is acting
(18:41):
like a prophet. He's doing whatprophets do. He's speaking for
God. That's our reading todayin one Samuel one , Samuel
Chapter nine, one to 16 is thereading for Thursday would
really kinda like to keep goingin one Samuel and think a
little bit more about what'shappening. Did I say one Samuel
chapter nine? It's one Samuel10 verses one to 16 would like
(19:04):
to keep going with that, butwe'll stop and give our
attention to the Psalms. Seeyou tomorrow. Our reading for
Friday takes us to the Book ofPsalms. I'm so excited about
reading the Psalms with youthis year. Love, love, love the
book of Psalms and think ifyou're seeking God's heart, the
Book of Psalms is an excellentplace to begin. Our reading for
Friday is Psalm four. This iswidely called an evening prayer
(19:27):
because of what is said inverse eight, in peace, I will
lie down and sleep. So this isan evening prayer and one of
the most important questions wecan ask about a Psalm, we
always ask this to start anyPsalm, is what kind of psalm is
it? And it is a lament, a cryfor help. Answer me. Verse one,
when I call, oh God of myrighteousness. But more than
(19:50):
just a lament, I think thePsalm develops a calm and quiet
confidence in God. The basicmessage here is that God
ensures our safety. I think thewriter here is probably David,
and he is someone who knew allkinds of trouble, particularly
physical peril. Although,although most of the time in
the Book of Psalms, David talksa lot about people hacking on
(20:12):
him with their tongues, driveshim crazy that people say mean
things about him and try totear him down with words, try
to destroy his reputation. AndI see that in verse two. How
long will you love vain wordsand seek after lies? David
hates that this may be the timeof Absalom's rebellion might be
the time when Saul was chasinghim around, but David
(20:33):
experiences that kind ofdifficulty in distress all the
time. His response to that isto call upon the Lord. And as
he's calling upon the Lord, hebegins to put together some
things that he wants to do. Forexample, I'm gonna be angry,
verse four, and not sin. That,of course is reproduced in
Ephesians chapter four andverse 26. So in the middle of
(20:54):
this, I'm not going to do wrongthings to deal with my enemies.
And then what else could I do?
I could worship God. Versefive, offer right sacrifices
and that will help me put mytrust in the Lord. I'm always a
little bit bothered by peoplewho are in a time of calamity
and they can't come to church.
Come to church and that willhelp you deal with the calamity
(21:18):
because it will refocus youupon God. And then I like verse
seven a lot, you have put morejoy in my heart than when they
have their grain and wineabound. God is the source of
true and real joy. God, I'mlooking to you to help me with
this. I'm looking for you toput joy in my heart. Having
(21:39):
said that, then in peace I canlie down and sleep for you
alone. Oh Lord, make me dwellin safety accusations, make
sleep impossible, but Godgrants security, which makes it
possible for the psalmist torest. This is a beautiful,
beautiful evening prayer and itcauses us to look to God for
(22:02):
our security and to haveconfidence that God will answer
that prayer. Thank you so muchfor listening to the podcast
this week. If it's helping you,tell somebody about it and of
course, leave us a rating and areview so more people will find
the podcast. Until next week,then, when we open our Bibles
together, again, I'm MarkRoberts and I wanna go to
(22:24):
heaven, and I want you to cometo I'll see you on Monday with
a cup of coffee.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Thanks for listening to the Westside Church of
Christ Podcast. Monday morningCoffee with Mark. For more
information about Westside, youcan connect with us through our
website, just christians.comand our Facebook page, our
music is from upbeat.io. That'supbeat with two P'S
(22:57):
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you again with a cup of coffee.
Of course, on next Monday.
Hello, and welcome to the Westside churches
special Monday Morning Coffeepodcast on this podcast, our
preacher Mark Roberts will helpyou get your week started
right. With look back atyesterday's sermon so that we
can think through it furtherand better work the
applications into our dailylives . Mark will then look
(00:28):
forward into this week's Biblereading so that we can know
what to expect and watch for.
And, he may have some extrabonus thoughts from time to
time. So grab a cup of coffeeas we start the week together
on Monday Morning Coffee withMark.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday
Morning Coffee podcast forMonday, January the 13th. I'm
Mark, and I've got my Bibleopen to the book of Samuel. I'm
holding some coffee, feelsreally nice holding coffee on a
cold morning, doesn't it? And Iam ready to talk with you about
yesterday's sermon, which plugsdirectly into daily Bible
reading. We want to start theweek with a sharp spiritual
(01:17):
focus. So pour that cup ofcoffee, get ready, get set.
Let's go. Yesterday's sermonwas designed to encourage you
to be about daily Biblereading. Talked a lot about
what happens when you do that.
I'm just gonna give you oneextra thought here. If you do
daily Bible reading, what ?
(01:37):
What's gonna happen? What'sgonna happen? You will
experience God's gloriousprovidence. Think about the
famous story of the Ethiopianeunuch and his conversion. Acts
chapter eight tells us he'sgoing down the road here he is
reading arguably the mostfamous messianic prophecy in
all of the Old Testament. Andon the next corner, they're
(01:58):
standing a gospel preacherwho's ready to help him
understand that prophecy andbecome a Christian. How did
that happen? It happenedbecause God wanted it to happen
and because God made it happenLast week, we read in the Book
of Ruth, she just happens to bein Boaz's field who just
happens to be a near redeemer,who happens to be single, who
happens to be looking for awoman of Godly character. No,
(02:21):
none of those things happen tohappen. They happen because God
made them happen. That's calledprovidence. God works all
things together. God causes andmoves and is active and alive
in this world to bring men andwomen to him and to bring men
and women closer to him. Maybeyou've had that experience of
feeling like the preacher'sbeen hiding behind your sofa
(02:42):
all week, listening toeverything going on in your
home. Well, I'm not hidingbehind your sofa. That's not
it. That's not it at all. Thepreacher does not live in your
house, but God in hisprovidence arranges for the
sermon to be talking about justwhat we need and we feel the
power of God's word in ourlives. But that doesn't just
(03:03):
happen in preaching. You readthe Bible on a regular and
consistent daily basis, youwill find that God is saying
just what you need to heartoday through His word. You'll
find that someone you meet atwork is doing exactly what you
just read about or a situationwill crop up where you will
need the courage that you justread about over and over again.
(03:27):
Daily Bible reading will equipyou to live life today because
God in his providence is usingGod's word to equip you, to
serve him and honor him andglorify him. We saw that in the
Book of Ruth. And guess whatwe're gonna see in Samuel in
our reading this week. It'sabout providence and it's about
(03:47):
letting God into our lives sothat he can do those things.
And daily Bible reading is oneof the great ways that we do
that. Speaking of daily Biblereading, let's do some of that.
Get your Bible over to oneSamuel chapter eight. Let's
read the Bible together. It isMonday and our reading for
(04:21):
Monday is all of one Samuelchapter eight. This is not a
long chapter, and again, whenyou're reading story, when
you're reading narrative, it'snot difficult to stay in the
reading. And this is anenormously important chapter.
There are a couple places inthe Bible where the ground just
changes massively. That's justa a landmark shift. And this is
(04:41):
one of those places becausewe're transitioning from
judgeship to kingship. We areending the time of Samuel. He's
the last judge, and we'rebeginning the kings with the
rise of Saul. And one of thethings to see here is why we're
transitioning out of judgesinto kings. And the answer to
that is we'll see that in ourreading today is the people
(05:02):
aren't happy with God, they'renot happy with the way God is
doing things. And thatcontributes to our
understanding of why God is sounhappy with what they ask for.
So let's work on this a littlebit. You'll notice here that
Samuel is old verse one, and heappointed or made, it's the
same word as in verse five, Aappoint for us a king. He
(05:22):
appointed his son's judges overIsrael and they're terrible
judges. They are terriblejudges. I don't know what it is
about great men in the Bible.
So many great men in the Biblehave terrible children in
Samuel. Samuel is like Davidand a bunch of other great
leaders who just don't takecare of their own family. And
so part of the problem here isthe sons verse five, don't walk
(05:46):
in your ways. And so badleadership is causing problems.
But I think more than anything,the problem here is foreign
armies and the need to have apermanent military leader who
can maintain a standing armyand lead that army into battle.
That's what's really going onhere because the people say, we
want a king to judge us likeall the nations. What they want
(06:09):
here is a military leader. Lookdown at verse 20 in verse 20,
that we may be like all thenations and that our king may
judge us and go out before usand fight our battles. Growing
up, I heard one Samuel eightused as the consummate text to
prove that we should not belike the nations. And then the
preacher would pause and saythe denominations around us.
(06:30):
And that preached really well.
But the problem here isn't justthat the people of Israel are
looking over at the Philistinesor looking over at the amite
and saying, wow, it's so coolthat they have a king. Why
can't we be cool like them?
Which has certainly been aproblem I should add among
God's people. Lots of times weare looking over at what our
religious neighbors are doingand saying, wow, why can't we
(06:51):
have a basketball court? Whycan't we have a giant
fellowship hall? Why can't wehave this big family life
center like they have overthere? That point will hold,
but that's not really what'sdriving one Samuel eight.
What's driving one Samuel eightis that they are tired of the
judge system, which works whenthey cry out to God in
repentance because one of thesenations has come and overtaken
(07:15):
them in their idolatry and intheir sin, God allowed that to
happen. And then they cry outto God and God sends a
deliverer enough with that,we're done with that. What we
want is a permanent king whocan lead us into battle and who
can keep those nations off ofus, whether we're doing what's
right or not. So the peoplearen't saying, Samuel , you
pray for us and see to see whatGod wants us to do about this.
(07:38):
See where God is on this? Thesituation isn't good and we
need God's help here. No, theyhave rejected God's solution,
which is do what's right andGod will defend you and you
won't have the AMLO heights andthe hights and the parasites
and all the other, the ites ,the termites all coming after
you. No , what we want is apermanent leader who can lead
(08:00):
us into battle. And so the Lordsays in verse seven, obey the
voice of the people for theyhave not rejected you. They've
rejected me. You . You seewhere this is? It's not about
we just wanna be cool, we justwanna look like the nation's
around us. No, we want apermanent deliverer. And so
Samuel beginning in verse 10,begins to say, this is what you
(08:22):
want. This is what it's gonnacost. And the operative word
here is the word take , whichyou need to underline in your
Bible. And that actuallybecomes a theme through the
rest of Samuel and through therest of King Solomon becomes
the ultimate personification ofthis. He just takes, takes,
takes, takes, takes. You want aking, Kings cost money. Are you
ready to pay the price to havethis amazing leader who's just
(08:47):
ready at any time with the armyto defend you? Are you sure you
want that? You have chosenverse 18, a king for
yourselves? Let's see if youreally like that because now
verse 18, the Lord will notanswer you in that day. You've
worked out your own solution tothe problem. Now you have
rejected God's solution to theproblem. And God says, obey
(09:11):
their voice. Verse 22, maybethe terrifying thing about one
Samuel eight is that it teachesus that sometimes God gives us
what we want. And that's notalways a good thing because
sometimes, like in one Samueleight, we don't want what God
wants. That's one . Samuelchapter eight, our reading for
Monday is one Samuel chaptereight. So we get down to verse
(09:32):
12 and notice there they arejust in time. Yesterday they
would've missed Samuel, but nowthey are just in time . And we
get a little look at some ofthe worship practices in the
Old Testament where worshipersshared in eating the peace or
the fellowship offering. And soSamuel and Saul are going to
meet, and I know you're gonnaask at the end of our reading
(09:53):
here, verse 14, high places ,wow, that that's really a mixed
bag. Sometimes they seem okaylike here, but sometimes
they're used to worship idolsand sometimes they're used to
mix the worship of Jehovah Godwith idolatry and are very
wrong. Maybe this sayssomething about the times and
that people spiritually aren'treally where they ought to be.
I'd love a king to move theneedle spiritually. We'll see
(10:16):
if Saul can do that. But ourreading then our reading for
today is for Samuel chapternine, verses one to 14. See you
tomorrow in Westsiders. I willsee you on Zoom tonight. It is
Tuesday. And our reading todayis First Samuel chapter nine,
(10:37):
verses one to 14. First Samuelnine, one to 14 is our reading
today we come to the end ofchapter eight yesterday, and
the question is, all right ,we're gonna have a king who's
gonna be the first king? Andthe answer to that is given to
us in chapter nine, but it isgiven to us in a unique way
that demonstrates God'sprovidence. God working through
some very ordinary means, somelost donkeys to bring Saul to
(11:00):
Samuel so that he will beanointed as the first king over
Israel. And Saul is a man ofBenjamin, verse one. And
Benjamin has not distinguisheditself. If you read about the
tribe of Benjamin in the bookof Judges, it is not by any
means the most spirituallyminded bunch of people on the
planet. And then we read aboutSaul verse two, who is a
handsome young man, but not onething is said about him
(11:22):
spiritually. That is a littleperturbing. What ? What's the
deal here? This guy doesn'tseem to have much interest in
God. In fact, in verse five,Saul says, we're all done here.
Wait , I , I can't find thesedonkeys. We need to go home. He
does not say, let's seek God.
Let's look for the Lord. Let'ssee what God wants us to do.
(11:42):
No, the servant has to say,there's a man of God and ramal
that's about five miles fromwhere Saul lived. And that's
disturbing. How does Saul notknow about Samuel when they
live so close together?
Samuel's hometown is within thecircuit of Samuel's territory,
or I should say Saul's hometownis within the circuit of
Samuel's territory. And yetSaul seems to know nothing
(12:02):
about Samuel at all. That is,yeah, that's troublesome, isn't
it? That is troublesome. It isWednesday. It is Wednesday. And
our reading today is one Samuelchapter nine, verses 15 to 27,
the rest of one Samuel chapternine. For the first time now we
begin to realize the Lord is atwork because verse 15 says,
(12:23):
now, the day before Saul came,the Lord had revealed to
Samuel, tomorrow I will send toyou a man for the land of
Benjamin. So God is the onethat is bringing this to pass.
God is providentially workingthrough situations and through
circumstances. And I do likeverse 16, I have heard their
cry. That's the cycle of thejudges people doing wrong,
(12:45):
needing deliverance, repent andturn to God. Saul shall save my
people for the hand of thePhilistines in verse 17, he
shall restrain my people. Thereis some emphasis there on not
just being a military leader,but on helping the people get
back to the Lord. And so Saulapproaches Samuel in the gate.
We'll talk a little bit aboutthe gate tonight in, in , uh,
(13:08):
Bible talk. And on Wednesdaynight we'll talk a little bit
about some of what the gatemeans there. But Samuel says,
it's me. I'm the seer. And thisis what we're gonna do. Don't
worry about your donkeys. Verse20, by the way, the Hebrew,
there is very, very difficult.
Lots of different translationsabout this business here in
verse 20 about for whom is allthat is desirable, that that
(13:29):
may be to whom will belong.
Every desirable thing inIsrael. You're gonna be
elevated to a high place. Andthen Saul says, make sure you
mark verse 21. I'm just a bingemite from the least of the
tribes of Israel and is not myclan, the humblest of all the
clans of the tribe of Benjamin.
Why then have you spoken to mein this way? This is remarkable
(13:50):
humility and it is somethingthat Saul possesses at this
moment, but that we will see hecannot hold on to . Please
remember for Samuel 9 21, atthis time, Saul is little in
his own eyes . Samuel will usethat expression and we want to
mark that down. So Samuel hasmade it or set apart for him a
(14:12):
special portion of thefellowship offering that
usually would belong to thepriest. And they set that
aside. And Saul has got to bewondering what's going on?
What, what , what will happenhere? Why am I being treated
like I'm a VIP ? And thenSamuel says, you tell your
servant verse 27 to go on.
'cause I need to tell yousomething from God. Wow.
(14:33):
Sitting on the edge of ourseats here at the end of one
Samuel, chapter nine, ourreading for Wednesday, one
Samuel chapter nine, verses 15to 27 . It is Thursday. It is
Thursday. Our reading today,first Samuel chapter 10, verses
one to 16. And I wouldn't besurprised if you haven't
already read this because it'salmost impossible to stop at
the end of one Samuel nine. Butin chapter nine, God has
(14:55):
providentially moved Saul to beexactly where he needs to be.
All these things happen. Thedonkeys just happen to get
lost, and then they happen tonot find them. And Saul happens
to get PR down and discouragedabout it precisely when they're
near Samuel's town . And theservant just happens to know
about Samuel and the youngwomen happen to know where
Samuel will be. And it happensto be on the time when, no, it
(15:16):
didn't just happen. God hasarranged all of this. And one
Samuel 10 begins the saga ofKing Saul. Some of this will be
very good and some of this willmake you wanna pull your hair
out. Saul has so much promise,and I loved yesterday's
reading, verse 21 of chapternine, I'm just a humble
benjamite. I'm a nobody. Howcan I possibly be the recipient
(15:39):
of all these great things fromGod? But Samuel verse one,
chapter 10 and verse one takesa flask of oil and pours it
upon his head and kissed himand said, has not the Lord
anointed you to be prince overhis people Israel? You shall
reign over the people of theLord and you'll save them from
the hand of their surroundingenemies. So there's gonna be
some weird things that happenin this chapter, but the point
of the chapter is to see thatGod is choosing Saul. And I'm
(16:03):
sure that Saul was thinking,what is going on and, and is
this Samuel Guy losing hismind? How? How can I be sure
that this is really the wordfrom God? You know? And I know
a lot of people jump up anddown and say, I have a word
from God. Do you ? Do youreally have a word from God?
Samuel? So Saul, this youngman, unsure of himself, humble
will be given three signs,special occurrences that would
(16:26):
mark and show him that he isGod's choice. And I do like the
word prince here in verse one.
He is not the king, king, Godis the king. He is the under
king. He's the Lieutenant King,he's the deputy king. He is in
charge of God's people here onearth, but he is not free to do
(16:48):
as he pleases. So Samuel giveshim some very specific signs so
that, and they are just superspecific. None of this can just
be coincidence so that he willknow that he has been chosen by
God. And these signs thenhappen. I think verse six is
the big sign. The spirit of theLord will rush upon you and
you'll prophesy and be turnedinto another man. So this is
(17:13):
what Saul needs to be the king.
He needs the spirit of God toenable and empower him. We've
seen that before in the Bible.
The Spirit is said, forexample, to have been upon zael
and a holy AB in the designingand construction of the
tabernacle. And then in thebook of Judges, the spirit of
the Lord comes upon Gideon andJeha and Samson. We'll see that
later in Samuel. The spirit ofthe Lord comes upon David. And
(17:36):
in fact, it becomes importantbecause the spirit of the Lord
will leave King Saul. Andthere's lots of discussion
about some of this and we cantalk a lot about , uh, what
exactly the spirit of the Lordmeans. But so many people have
tried to make this into somekind of ecstatic frenzy in
verse 10. And he's speaking ingibberish, kind of like you see
(17:58):
various charismatic groups tryto practice today. But that's,
there's nothing here to saythat. There's nothing here that
says it's that kind ofspeaking. In fact, in this day,
in the Bible's time, when thespirit of God comes upon you
and you prophesy, that doesn'tmean you speak gibberish. It
means you speak for God. Itmeans that you are preaching in
(18:18):
an inspired way. That's whatthis is all about. So there's
nothing here to say that insome ways Saul has become
charismatic or caught up insome sort of gibberish, frenzy
sorts of things. No, he'sspeaking for God because the
spirit of God has come uponhim. He's not been with these
prophets. This is completelyunexpected. But he is acting
(18:41):
like a prophet. He's doing whatprophets do. He's speaking for
God. That's our reading todayin one Samuel one , Samuel
Chapter nine, one to 16 is thereading for Thursday would
really kinda like to keep goingin one Samuel and think a
little bit more about what'shappening. Did I say one Samuel
chapter nine? It's one Samuel10 verses one to 16 would like
(19:04):
to keep going with that, butwe'll stop and give our
attention to the Psalms. Seeyou tomorrow. Our reading for
Friday takes us to the Book ofPsalms. I'm so excited about
reading the Psalms with youthis year. Love, love, love the
book of Psalms and think ifyou're seeking God's heart, the
Book of Psalms is an excellentplace to begin. Our reading for
Friday is Psalm four. This iswidely called an evening prayer
(19:27):
because of what is said inverse eight, in peace, I will
lie down and sleep. So this isan evening prayer and one of
the most important questions wecan ask about a Psalm, we
always ask this to start anyPsalm, is what kind of psalm is
it? And it is a lament, a cryfor help. Answer me. Verse one,
when I call, oh God of myrighteousness. But more than
(19:50):
just a lament, I think thePsalm develops a calm and quiet
confidence in God. The basicmessage here is that God
ensures our safety. I think thewriter here is probably David,
and he is someone who knew allkinds of trouble, particularly
physical peril. Although,although most of the time in
the Book of Psalms, David talksa lot about people hacking on
(20:12):
him with their tongues, driveshim crazy that people say mean
things about him and try totear him down with words, try
to destroy his reputation. AndI see that in verse two. How
long will you love vain wordsand seek after lies? David
hates that this may be the timeof Absalom's rebellion might be
the time when Saul was chasinghim around, but David
(20:33):
experiences that kind ofdifficulty in distress all the
time. His response to that isto call upon the Lord. And as
he's calling upon the Lord, hebegins to put together some
things that he wants to do. Forexample, I'm gonna be angry,
verse four, and not sin. That,of course is reproduced in
Ephesians chapter four andverse 26. So in the middle of
(20:54):
this, I'm not going to do wrongthings to deal with my enemies.
And then what else could I do?
I could worship God. Versefive, offer right sacrifices
and that will help me put mytrust in the Lord. I'm always a
little bit bothered by peoplewho are in a time of calamity
and they can't come to church.
Come to church and that willhelp you deal with the calamity
(21:18):
because it will refocus youupon God. And then I like verse
seven a lot, you have put morejoy in my heart than when they
have their grain and wineabound. God is the source of
true and real joy. God, I'mlooking to you to help me with
this. I'm looking for you toput joy in my heart. Having
(21:39):
said that, then in peace I canlie down and sleep for you
alone. Oh Lord, make me dwellin safety accusations, make
sleep impossible, but Godgrants security, which makes it
possible for the psalmist torest. This is a beautiful,
beautiful evening prayer and itcauses us to look to God for
(22:02):
our security and to haveconfidence that God will answer
that prayer. Thank you so muchfor listening to the podcast
this week. If it's helping you,tell somebody about it and of
course, leave us a rating and areview so more people will find
the podcast. Until next week,then, when we open our Bibles
together, again, I'm MarkRoberts and I wanna go to
(22:24):
heaven, and I want you to cometo I'll see you on Monday with
a cup of coffee.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Thanks for listening to the Westside Church of
Christ Podcast. Monday morningCoffee with Mark. For more
information about Westside, youcan connect with us through our
website, just christians.comand our Facebook page, our
music is from upbeat.io. That'supbeat with two P'S
(22:57):
U-P-P-B-E-A-T, where creatorscan get free music. Please
share our podcast with othersand we look forward to seeing
you again with a cup of coffee.
Of course, on next Monday.
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