1 Kings[1] 1-11: The Golden Days:

 

The stock market is booming—the economy is on the up.  On the international front the borders are secure and there is peace.  The people are happy.  These are days of prosperity.  The country’s leader is TIME magazine’s person of the year—he is world renowned.  Things have never been better!  But then the leader doesn’t listen to the warnings, he acts foolishly, and the country is plummeted into civil war.  Such was the reign of King Solomon.

Chapters 1-3: Solomon becomes king:

1 Kings opens with King David, Solomon’s father, well advanced in years.  Who is going to succeed him? 

One man who thinks he will, is Adonijah—probably David’s eldest surviving son.  Adonijah decides for himself that he is going to claim the title (1:5)—in so doing he is by-passing David’s right to choose his own successor.

Nathan the prophet knows that something needs to be done about this unfolding situation.  He advises Bathsheba, to go to King David and remind him that he had sworn that her son Solomon would succeed him as king.

So, with David’s approval, Solomon is anointed king (1:39).  Indeed the fact that his enthronement was masterminded by Nathan the prophet suggests that he was also God’s choice.[2]

At the beginning of chapter 2 David, nearing the time of his death, gives Solomon a charge.  He is to observe what the LORD God requires, so that he may prosper in all he does, and that the LORD might keep his promise that if David’s descendants are faithful they will never fail to have a man on the throne in Israel (2:2-4).

David also warns Solomon about two individuals Joab and Shimei, telling him that he ought to deal with these two according to your wisdom (2:6, cf. 2:9).  However, as we read on it appears that he does not deal with these men wisely.[3]  Neither does he act wisely with his hasty execution of Adonijah (2:13-25)[4], or in marrying a foreign princess (3:1).

Despite these shortcomings we get a positive comment about Solomon in chapter 3, verse 3—

Solomon showed his love for the LORD by walking according to the statues of his father David, although this positive assessment is immediately qualified, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places—this was not sanctioned, this was ‘do-it-yourself’ religion, rather than what God had decreed should take place before the Ark of the Covenant in Jerusalem.[5]

Chapters 3-11: Solomon’s reign:

a. Solomon’s wisdom (3-4): An important development occurs in Solomon’s life when the LORD appears to him in a dream.  God invites him to ask for whatever he wishes, so Solomon asks for a discerning heart in order to govern well, and to enable him to distinguish right from wrong (3:7-9).

The LORD was pleased with Solomon’s request.  Indeed not only does he grant Solomon what he asked for he also promises him riches and honour—and if Solomon walks in God's ways, a long life (3:10-15).

The rest of chapters 3 and 4 illustrate Solomon’s God-given wisdom.

Immediately we see him settle a dispute between two women over the ownership of a baby. When all Israel heard the verdict the king had given, they held the king in awe, because they saw that he had wisdom from God to administer justice (3:28).

Then Solomon appoints officials to govern the different regions of the land, a plan that brings harmony and prosperity within the kingdom (4:20).

As well as prosperity he ensures national security ruling over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt (4:21).

Solomon’s knowledge and understanding become so famous that chapter 4 ends telling us that, Men of all nations came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, sent by all the kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom’ (4:34).

b. Solomon builds the temple (5-8): Last week we saw God promise David that his son would build his house—the temple (2 Samuel 7).  We see the building of the temple in chapters 5-8.  The importance of this event can be seen in the fact that while the many years of Solomon’s reign are merely summarized, on either side of these chapters, the narrator goes into detail when telling of the construction and dedication of the temple.

The construction of the temple is the only event in the Old Testament dated with reference to the Exodus (6:1)—with the temple the Exodus is complete.  The temple replaces the tabernacle as the focus of God’s presence in the land (1 Kings 8:6-10).[6]  In chapter 8 we have the moving prayer of Solomon at the dedication of the temple, and his blessing of the people: God has kept the promise to David (8:24) and not one word has failed of all the good promises God gave through Moses (8:56).

However, in these chapters there is a question mark placed above Solomon.  The account of the building of his palace tells us that it took him longer to build it than the temple.  Does this reveal anything about his priorities?

c. Solomon’s disobedience (9-11):  In chapter 9 the LORD appears to Solomon a second time.  God reminds him of the importance of obedience and warns him especially against the worship of other gods.  These words have an ominous ring to them—there may be trouble ahead!

Then we read of the great wealth that Solomon acquires (9:10-10:29), the horses he imports from Egypt (10:28-29), and the many foreign wives who turned his heart after other gods (11:1-8)![7] 

Deuteronomy 17 had warned: The king . . . must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the LORD has told you, ‘You are not to go back that way again.’  He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray.  He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold (Duet. 17:16-17).  Solomon is acting in disobedience.

And so in chapter 11 the situation is summarized.  NB Read 11:9-13.[8]  The next instalment of the drama, which will take place after Solomon dies, will be civil war.

Conclusion:

1.  The story of Solomon’s reign is a story of God’s faithfulness to his promises:  Solomon’s reign marks the very pinnacle of the Old Testament (apart, of course, from the time before the Fall).  These are great days for God’s people.  As Solomon points out at the dedication of the temple, God has acted in line with his promises.  His promises to David—that his son would build the temple; his promises through Moses—all of which have been acted upon (8:56); and what about those promises to Abraham (people, place and blessing)?

Chapter 4 tells us that God’s people . . . were as numerous as the sand of the seashore’ (4:20); just as he had promised Abraham (Genesis 32:12).  That they were in God’s place, ‘Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt (4:21)—the area of land promised to Moses in Exodus (Exodus 23:31) and before him to Abraham (Genesis 15:18-21).  And that they were enjoying God’s blessing[9], During Solomon’s lifetime Judah and Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, lived in safety, each man under his own fig-tree’ (4:25).  God’s promise to Abraham included other nations too—that ‘all the peoples of the earth would be blessed through you’ (Gen. 12:3)—we can see signs that this is happening during the reign of Solomon, e.g. in the visit of the queen of Sheba, who praises God for the king’s wisdom and benefits from his prosperity (10:1-13).

God’s faithfulness is all the more amazing when we remember how unfaithful his people have been.

2.  The story of Solomon adds to our expectations for the ideal king:[10] Finally, over the last couple of sermons we have being looking at the qualities that will be found in God’s ideal king.  God’s ideal king will be marked by humility, trust and obedience (1 Samuel).  Add to this wisdom—wisdom which will enable him to govern justly, bringing prosperity and security to his subjects, and imparting God’s blessing to the peoples of the earth.[11]

This ideal king, is ‘one greater than Solomon’ (Matthew 12:42).  Whose reign puts Solomon’s into the shade.  Jesus, the Messiah, perfect in humility, perfect in trust and obedience, and perfect in wisdom.

Questions [Adapted from Full of Promise] Read Matt. 12:42; 27:37; and 28:18-20. 1) How does Jesus reign compare with Solomon’s?  How is it more glorious?  How is it less glorious? 2) How does the scope of Jesus rule compare to that of Solomon? (See 1 Kings 4:21). 3) What does it mean in practical terms that Jesus has authority over you? 4) What does Jesus call his disciples to do in light of the authority that has been given to him through his death and resurrection?

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[1] 1 and 2 kings were originally just one book—like Samuel, Kings was divided to fit on two scrolls.

[2] Alexander, The Servant King, p. 80.

[3] ‘While the narrator does not deny the guilt of Joab and Shimei, doubts are raised regarding Solomon’s treatment of them.  Joab is killed, still holding the horns of the altar (1 Ki. 2:28-34), an action that clearly contravenes the instructions of Exodus 21:12-14 which require that a guilty party be taken away from the alter before being executed.  In a similar fashion, the account of Shimei’s death strongly implies that Solomon overreacts when he accuses Shimei of breaking an oath prohibiting him from leaving Jerusalem (1 Ki. 2:36-46).  Whereas the original wording of the oath refers to Shimei’s leaving Jerusalem by crossing the Kidron Valley (that is, travelling eastward), Shimei in fact goes to Gath, west of Jerusalem.  Strictly speaking, Shimei does not break his oath to Solomon.  Moreover, even if Shimei is truly guilty, the punishment announced by Solomon seems overly severe.  Both of these incidents raise doubts about Solomon’s ability to govern wisely. Alexander, The Servant King, p.82.      

[4] ‘. . . the hasty execution of Adonijah because he asks to marry Abishag [see 1:1-4], suggests a considerable lack of magnanimity on the part of Solomon (1 Ki. 2:13-25).  This is especially so because Adonijah comes peacefully to Bathsheba, acknowledging Solomon as king and asking the queen mother to intercede on his behalf.  Furthermore, in spite of having promised his mother that he would not refuse her request, Solomon disregards it completely (1 Ki. 2:20-25).  Finally, Solomon’s action appears to contradict the oath that that he takes before God.  Why, one might ask, should Solomon fear Adonijah when, as he states, the Lord had established him upon the throne of his father David (1 Ki. 2:24; cf. 2:12)?’ Alexander, p.82.   

[5] Jackman, Bible Overview Lectures.

[6] ‘When the ark is brought to the sanctuary the glory of the Lord fills the house (1 Ki. 8:6-10).  This is now the place of sacrifice and of reconciliation with God.  When sin clouds the relationship of the nation to God, repentance and prayer towards the temple secures forgiveness.  Through this house and its ministry the covenant relationship is maintained (1 Ki. 8:15-53).  Even the promise to the Gentiles is focused here, for it is at the temple that foreigners can finds acceptance with God . . . a foreigner can be joined to the people of God only by coming to the temple, for it is here that God chooses to deal with those who seek him (1 Ki. 8:41-43).  Goldsworthy, According to Plan, p. 220.

[7] It needs to be stressed here that this is not a racial issue.  Ruth was a foreigner, who became a member of God’s people and whose marriage to Boaz appears to have been approved of by God.  The problem with these ‘mixed marriages’ is that these women had not turned to the LORD, they were not a part of the covenant community—God’s people, and indeed turned Solomon away from the LORD.

[8] The LORD instructs the prophet Ahijah to inform Jeroboam, one of Solomon’s official’s that he will rule over ten of the twelve Israelite tribes (11:27-39).  Solomon tries to kill Jeroboam (11:40).  Jeroboam takes refuge in Egypt.  But we are left with the impression that Jeroboam’s stay in Egypt will only be temporary.  ‘This is suggested by the immediately preceding account of King Hadad’s temporary exile in Egypt, from where he returns to Edom to become an adversary of Solomon. Alexander, p.87.

[9] To live under God’s rule is to enjoy God’s blessing—here we see the ark, the symbol of God’s rule, placed in the temple (8:21).

[10] In 1 Kings 2:4 and 8:25-26 the promise to have a descendant of David’s on the throne is conditional on that descendant’s obedience.  In 2 Samuel 7 the promise speaks of the Davidic dynasty being established forever.  Some have thought that these promises contradict each other.  However, it is possible to reconcile them.  As Alexander points out, ‘taken together, they allow for the possibility that there may be a period when the throne will not be occupied by a member of the Davidic line.  This, however, would be only a temporary situation, for God would later reinstate a descendant of David upon the throne at a later stage’.  See 1 Kings 8:46-51.  As we will see, this is what will later unfold.

[11] Alexander, The Servant King, p. 88.

2 Samuel: ‘And there’s more!’

 

The offer was full of promise—‘buy our CD rack and we will throw in a set of tumblers, and there’s more we will also give you a set of high quality stake-knives’.  Sounded great, until the stuff arrived!  The CD rack was a load of junk, you hadn’t wanted the tumblers, and the stake-knives were blunt with dodgy handles.  The whole lot simply adds to the cluster that is your kitchen.  What a disappointment, you were promised so much and you were let down.[1]

God’s promises, however, never disappoint.  Remember his promises to Abraham (people, place and blessing)? He has been acting in line with these.[2]   Now in 2 Samuel God not only keeps his promise to Abraham, there’s more, he adds on new promises—to add blessing upon blessing

Chapters 1-5—‘David king of Judah’ 

In 1 Samuel we saw the anointing of Saul as king and witnessed his persistent disobedience.  The people are not blessed during his reign.  At the end of 1 Samuel King Saul died.  The scene is now set for David to be recognised as king.  But things do not go smoothly—there is division among the Israelites.  While the tribe of Judah appoint David as their king (2:1-4), the remaining tribes support the claim of one of Saul’s sons, Ish-Bosheth to be ruler.  However, when Ish-Bosheth is murdered by two of his generals all the tribes rally behind David and anoint him as king (5:1-3).

Chapters 5-9—‘David king of Israel’ 

At last Israel has the sort of king God wants,[3] ‘a man after his own heart’ (1 Sam. 13:14).  In chapters 5 to 7 we see David, the LORD’s anointed, moving from victory to victory.  He captures Jerusalem from the Jebusites and establishes it as his capital.  At the Lord’s command he launches a successful campaign against the Philistines—securing the borders of Israel and so bringing peace to the land.

David brings the Ark—God’s earthly throne to Jerusalem.  David does not rule independently but under God.  Jerusalem is not only David’s city—it is the city of God.[4]  However David is uneasy at the contrast he sees between his palace and the tent that is used to house the ark of God.  It seems inappropriate that the earthly dwelling of the LORD—the divine king should appear inferior to his own royal residence.  So David hints to Nathan, the prophet, that he would like to build a more permanent dwelling place for the ark.

While Nathan’s initial response is favourable, that very night the LORD comes to Nathan with a message for David (7:5-16).  God has amazing plans for David’s family:[5] David’s line will rule God’s people forever, while David will not build the temple his son will, and most remarkably of all there will be a special bond between God and Israel’s king—‘I will be his father and he will be my son’ (7:14).[6]

Like many Old Testament prophesies, this prophesy is fulfilled at more than one level.  It is partially fulfilled by great King Solomon, who was to build the temple.  But it is finally fulfilled in the Lord Jesus, great King David’s greater son, the one who puts Solomon’s reign into the shadows (Luke 11:31).[7]

One line of this prophesy fits in awkwardly—when he does wrong I will punish him, God already anticipates more sin and failure and when it happens there will be consequences.

David responds to God’s promises with an outpouring of gratitude and praise (7:18-19).  Chapter 8, which condenses many years of David’s reign, tells us of more victories—which bring the conquest to conclusion.

Then, because the narrator is not only concerned with David’s kingly exploits but also his character, we have in ch. 9 a story of an act of kindness by David towards the house of Saul.  Ch. 9 gives us a wonderful picture of grace.

David wants to know if there is anyone left in the house of Saul to whom he can show kindness for the sake of his friend Jonathan (9:1).  There is, a son of Jonathan, Mephibosheth, who has been crippled in both feet from the age of five.  Mephibosheth is unable to care for himself and is living in someone else’s house.  David has him brought to the palace and we read that Mephibosheth ate at the kings table like one of the kings sons (9:11, NIV).

It is no wonder that many Christians see a parallel between the grace shown to Mephibosheth and that shown to us.

In that society Mephibosheth’s disability left him helpless, when Jesus rescues us we were crippled in our sin and unable to save ourselves.  David showed kindness to Mephibosheth ‘for Jonathan’s sake’, the Father has shown kindness to us ‘for Jesus’ sake’.  ‘And just as being seated at the kings table involved not only food but other privileges as well, so God’s salvation for Christ’s sake carries with it all the provisions we need, not only for eternity but for this life as well.’[8]  

Chapters 11-20—‘David’s sin and its consequences: The second part of David’s reign is not so happy.  In chapter 11 we read of his adultery with Bathsheba and his setting up of her husband Uriah to be killed—a serious abuse of royal power.  David’s sin has terrible consequences.

The LORD sends Nathan to confront David.  Nathan tells him of the consequences of his actions, ‘now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own (NIV).’  A spiral of death and violence now spreads from David’s household through Israel.  In chapter 15 this is seen in the revolt of David’s son Absolem.  David and his followers leave Jerusalem, preventing the destruction of the city (15:14), nevertheless, many Israelites are killed in the battle between David’s and Absolem’s supporters (18:7).  Absolem himself is killed much to David’s grief (18:15-33).

David’s return to Jerusalem is full of a sense of what has been lost (19:8-20:3).[9]     

Chapters 21-24—Summary of David’s reign: In the closing two chapters we see both the positive and the negative side of David’s reign represented.

On the one hand there are two poems which show David at his best—‘In these poems he represents the ideal ruler of Israel; it is an ideal which he has often fulfilled.’[10]

On the other hand the reference to Uriah at the very end of the list of David’s warriors (23:39) reminds us of how David had acted with brutal injustice.  Also, in the final chapter, there is a census, fuelled by royal pride, that results in a plague in Israel.

When we look back at David’s life it is no wonder that David has been described as ‘one of the most complex characters in the Bible, one of the most colourful and loveable—and one of the most exasperating.’[11]

Conclusion: You know the phrase ‘all roads lead to Rome’, in the Old Testament ‘all roads lead to Jesus’.

1. an ideal king:

In first and second Samuel we have seen the movement from rule under judges to rule under monarchy.  We might ask the question of this—‘has monarchy been good for Israel?’

The answer is both yes and no!

Yes, if the king is like obedient David; but no if he is like the disobedient Saul or David when he abuses his power.

Last week we looked at some of the characteristics we would expect to find in God’s ideal king, at the end of 2 Samuel we are still waiting for that king!

b. a promise to David

We have been looking at the promises to Abraham in these sermon, now there’s more.  God adds to those promises in 2 Samuel (look at the similarity between the promises in Geneses 12:1-3 and 2 Samuel 7).  God is adding blessing upon blessing.  All of which find their ultimate fulfilment in Jesus (2 Cor.1:20).

c. A king from Judah

In Genesis Jacob (also called Israel) blessed his twelve sons.  Over Judah he gave the following prophetic words: ‘the sceptre will not depart from Judah, nor the rulers staff from between his feet, until it comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.’ (NIV) 

A great king will come from the tribe of Judah—what tribe is David from? Judah!

While David fulfils this prophesy in Genesis 49, its ultimate fulfilment is found in another king, a descendant of David, King David’s greater son—Jesus. 

Note: 2 Samuel 7 is part of a line that leads from Genesis to Jesus: in Genesis 3:15 we have the promise of the one who will crush the serpent’s head; we then followed a line through Genesis searching for the serpent-crusher; that line led us through Abraham (who receives the promises) and to his grandson Jacob.  Jacob prophesies over Judah (49:10) so we follow that line.  Of Judah’s children Perez is given special attention (Genesis 38).  Ruth fills in the line from Perez to David.  From David we a promised a royal dynasty.  Matthew 1 informs us that the royal line from David has led to Jesus.   

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[1] Illustration adapted from Full of Promise.

[2] For example: he delivered Abraham’s descendants from Egypt and formed them into a unified distinct nation—in line with the people part of his promise; he then gave them the Law at Sinai, showing them how to live (in the Bible to live under God’s rule is to know his blessing) and the tabernacle as the focus of his presence among them—in line with blessing part of the promise; and they have been brought into the promised land—in line with the place part of the promise. 

[3] This is not to suggest that David is perfect.  We will see later that he commits adultery with Bathsheba and has her husband killed.  Even in these chapters David is not without his flaws as can be seen in his treatment of Michal (e.g. 6:20-23).

[4] ‘The coming of Jesus, his death and resurrection in Jerusalem, result in a new theology of Jerusalem, with the city’s losing its distinctive theological status as the ‘holy city’ or ‘city of God’.  In part this is because of divine judgement (see e.g. Like 13:33-35 . . .), but it is also because in the economy of salvation the city need no longer serve the same function within God’s purposes.  Christ is now in his own person the locus of God’s presence on earth, and his death the fulfilment of the temple sacrifices; the temple’s ‘dividing wall’ between Jew and Gentile is now broken down in Christ (Eph. 2:14), and by the Spirit God can be present with his people throughout the world: true worshippers need not ‘worship the Father . . . in Jerusalem’, but ‘worship in spirit an truth’ (John 4:21,24).  This is a foretaste of the heavenly worship in the New Jerusalem, where there is no temple (Rev. 21:22).  Just as the temple, according to Hebrews, was a shadow of the heavenly reality, so too the city of Jerusalem points forward to that which lies ahead.’ (New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, p.592).

[5] ‘David’s wish to build a temple for God and the Lord’s promise to establish David’s family as a royal dynasty complement each other.  This is reflected in the use of the Hebrew work bayit, which means ‘house’ and, as in the English, can refer to either a building or a family (as in ‘the house of Windsor’).  Thus David’s desire to build a house for God results in God building a house for David’. Alexander, Full of Promise, p.76.

[6] “The continuity of this covenant with the covenant to Abraham can be seen in their respective summaries.  ‘I will be their God, they will be my people’ sums up God’s purpose in the covenant with Abraham and after him, with Israel (Gn. 17:7-8; 26:12; Je. 7:23; 11:4; 30:22).  Now the promise concerning David’s son, the one who will represent the many, is given, ‘I will be his father, and he shall be my son’ (2 Sa. 7:14).  Thus, David’s son is also the son of God, and his house, throne and kingdom are established forever (2 Sa. 7:16).” Goldsworthy, According to Plan, 216. 

[7] See Roberts, The Big Picture, p. 82.

[8] Jerry Bridges, Transforming Grace.

[9] The tribal hostilities revealed in chapters 19-20 give us a hint of the coming division of the kingdom.

[10] New Dictionary of Theology, p.182.

[11] Alec Motyer, The Story of the Old Testament, p. 63.

‘Portrait of an ideal king’ Samuel (part 1):

'‘Portrait of an ideal king’ Samuel (part 1):

Imagine you have been given the responsibility of choosing a king for a country—what would you look for in your candidates?  You might want someone with an impressive background—someone with the right pedigree!  You might want someone oozing with confidence (dare I say it, even arrogance)—who lets the people know that they can depend on him.  But what about humility—would that be on your check list?  Indeed were you to meet all the monarchs of the world would humility be the quality that best sums them up?  I doubt it!

1 and 2 Samuel (originally just one book) pick up the story from Judges.  The last verse of Judges ends anticipating the coming of a monarchy (21:25). 

Chapters 1-7:  God raises Samuel up as judge and prophet:  

The book opens with the moving account of Hannah praying at Shiloh and the birth of her son Samuel.  Note the prominence given in chapter 2 to Hannah’s prayer.  This prayer introduces themes that will run right through 1 and 2 Samuel—in particular that the LORD raises up the poor and needy to royal heights, that great achievements are accompanied only with divine assistance, and that the LORD will give strength to his anointed king (we will comment more on these themes in our conclusion).

Samuel is the greatest judge to rule over Israel,  he is also a prophet , and while Samuel is a judge and a prophet he is supremely a man of prayer.  Unlike the previous judges Samuel displays no military prowess.  Indeed when the unthinkable happens—the Philistines  capture the Ark of the Covenant, Samuel relies on spiritual weapons—prayer and national repentance, to recover it.

Chapter 8:  The people request a king:  

When Samuel grew old he appointed his sons as judges in Israel.  However they did not walk in their father’s ways, they ‘accepted bribes and perverted justice’ (8:3).  The shortcomings of his sons prompted the elders of Israel to ask Samuel to appoint a king. 

Samuel was displeased with their request (verse 6), so what does he do?—he prayed to the LORD.

And the LORD told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they are rejecting, but they have rejected me as their king.  As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you.  Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do (verses 7-9, NIV).

So Samuel tells them what the king who rules over them will do—‘he will take your sons and make them serve in his army, he will take your daughters to serve him, he will take your possessions as taxes and you will be no better off’.   But the people refused to listen to Samuel.  “No!” they said.  “We want a king over us.  Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles’ (8:19-20, NIV).  

The problem is not that they want a king, but why they want a king.   They want to have a king to be like the other nations—even though the whole point of their existence was to be different from the other nations.  Indeed they want a king instead of God, rather than a king under God.

Chapters 9-15:  Saul is appointed by God, but later rejected:  

Despite the sinfulness of their request God gives them what they ask for, and Saul is anointed king.   Saul starts well—in chapter 11 he defeats the Ammonites and acknowledges that it is the LORD who gave him victory (11:13).  Things look good; it seems that this is exactly what Israel has been waiting for.

So in chapter 12, as the aged Samuel gives Israel his farewell speech, it seems that we are on the dawn of a bright new day.  As Samuel steps aside from the leadership he warns the people that it is up to them and Saul to follow the LORD.  Will the people and will Saul trust God and obey? 

Then in chapter 13 to 15 everything goes wrong.  Saul is a complete failure.  He is disobedient to God’s word—offering sacrifices when he shouldn’t;  and he disobeys God’s command not destroying the Amalekites when he should.  God is grieved by the disobedience of the anointed one.  The king in whom the people have put so much confidence is shown to be a flawed, sinful, disobedient individual.   In chapter 15 Samuel gives God’s verdict on Saul: Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king’ (15:23, NIV). 

Chapters 16-31:  David’s rise and Saul’s decline:  

What now?  We have had judges—that didn’t seem to work; we had a king—he was a failure.  What is needed is a new king, a better king!  

In God’s eyes Saul’s reign is now over (16:1).  In Saul’s place Samuel is to anoint David as king.   Now our attention is focused on the king-in-waiting.

The first major event recorded in David’s experience as the anointed one is his defeat of Goliath.  How do we understand this story as Christians?  Maybe you have heard it explained like this: ‘we are like David, and Goliath is like the difficulties we face—maybe a temptation that we struggle with, and as David was armed with five pebbles, our five pebbles are Bible study, prayer, faith, fellowship and service.  With these we defeat the foe.’  I don’t think this is a very good application because it fails to see the story’s real significance.

To get a better understanding we need to ask who David is—David is the LORD’s anointed.  So here is a picture of the LORD’s anointed one delivering God’s people.  The LORD’s anointed one standing alone in the place of many.  The LORD’s anointed one defeating the enemy of God’s people.      

Does this picture sound familiar?  It ought to when we remember that our word ‘messiah’ is derived from the Hebrew word for ‘anointed one’, and that the Greek of messiah is ‘christ’.

If we are in this story we are with those Israelites standing on the sideline helplessly watching what is going on.  We like them need a deliverer who is going to win the victory for us.  The Son of David, Jesus, the anointed one, has defeated the enemies of sin, death and Satan so that we might share in the fruits of his victory! 

David is now the toast of the town, a fact that causes Saul great jealousy.  Indeed Saul becomes so jealous that he seeks to kill David.  David has to go on the run until Saul dies on Mount Gilboa in a battle with the Philistines, which is where first Samuel ends.  The scene is now set for David to be recognised as king.

Conclusion: Portrait of a King :  

At the beginning of this sermon I asked what qualities we would look for if we were choosing a king.  1 and 2 Samuel show us some of the qualities that God looks for from his ideal king.

1.  Humility:  Humility is portrayed as essential to be a successful king.  The reason for this is because God exalts the humble but brings down the proud.  Speaking before any king had been appointed in Israel, Hannah expresses the idea that God raises up the poor and the needy to royal heights:  

The LORD sends poverty and wealth; 

he humbles and he exalts.  

He raises the poor from the dust

 and he lifts the needy from the ash heap;

 he seats them with princes

 and has them inherit a throne of honour. (2:7-8, NIV).

When it comes to their appointment both Saul and David’s humble origins receive special attention.  For his part Saul stresses the insignificance of his own family: ‘But am I not a Benjamite, from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin?(9:21, NIV)   Saul’s early humility is seen when he hides among the baggage during the selection of the king (10:22-23) and when he deals kindly with those who mock his appointment as king (10:27; 11:12-14).  

David, like Saul is exalted from lowly origins.  When Samuel visits the house of Jesse even David’s father doesn’t consider him a likely candidate for king.  He is youngest of eight sons, he is merely a lad assigned to tending the sheep.  When he takes on Goliath he is portrayed as a youth who does not have the physical strength to wear soldier’s armour.  When Saul invites David to marry his eldest daughter Merab, David replies, who am I, and what is my family or my father’s clan in Israel, that I should become the king’s son-in-law? (18:18, NIV) 

2. Trust and Obedience:  Another characteristic that God looks for in his king is that he would trust and obey!  One aspect of this trust is the recognition that great achievements are accomplished only with divine assistance.  Hannah’s prays: 

He will guard the feet of the saints,

 but the wicked will be silenced in darkness.  

It is not by strength that one prevails;

 those who oppose the LORD will be shattered 

He will give strength to his king. . . (see 2:9-10, NIV).

We saw this quality in the early stage of Saul’s reign—where he acknowledges that it is the LORD who gave him victory over the Ammonites (11:13).  However, Saul’s life is later characterised by his failure to trust and obey and he is seen to be a failure as king. 

The quality of trust and obedience that is sadly so lacking in Saul is very much in evidence in David (not that he always trusts and obeys as we will see in 2 Samuel).  We see his trust when he confronts the three metre Goliath—he remarks to Saul on that occasion, “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine’ (17:37, NIV).  Elsewhere there are frequent examples of David consulting God before undertaking military activities.

A further demonstration of David’s trust in God is his refusal to kill Saul when the opportunity arises.  Although Saul seeks David’s life, and slaughters those who aid him, David refuses to kill ‘the LORD’s anointed’ (e.g. 24:6).  Despite being the king-in-waiting David makes no attempt to grasp power by illegal means but waits patiently for God to establish him as leader over the nation.

Humility, trust and obedience are the qualities demanded of the LORD’s king.  One other thing that is needed is anointing.  Again Hannah introduces the theme:

He will give strength to his king

and exalt the horn of his anointed (2:10, NIV).

From the poetic nature of this passage it is clear that the expression ‘his anointed’ is another way of saying ‘his king’.  The anointing of Saul, and then David, designated them to be God’s chosen king over Israel.  As we have said the word ‘messiah’ comes from the Hebrew for ‘anointed one’.  So those passages describing the anointing of Saul and David are important for understanding the royal connotations underlying the word ‘messiah’.   

Where does all this talk of God’s ideal king lead us?  Well to God’s ideal king!  King David’s greater Son:  Jesus, Son of David, the Messiah/Christ—the anointed one.  Born in a manger exalted to an eternal throne!

Is Jesus our king?  Do we know the privilege of being part of his kingdom?  Are we subjects of the perfect king who rules his people in love?  And if so, do we seek to imitate our king’s humility, and trust and obedience? 

Jesus finds the lost

Robert Robinson was an English clergyman who lived in the 18th century. Not only was he a gifted pastor and preacher he was also a highly gifted poet and hymn writer. However, after many years in the pastorate his faith began to drift. He left the ministry and finished up in France, indulging himself in sin. One night he was riding in a carriage with a Parisian socialite who had recently been converted to Christ. She was interested in his opinion on some poetry she was reading. She read it to him: ?Come thou Fount of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing thy grace, Streams of mercy never failing, Call for hymns of loudest praise.? When she looked up from her reading the woman noticed Robinson was crying. "What do I think of it?" he asked in a broken voice. "Well, I wrote it. But now I've drifted away from him and can't find my way back." "But don't you see," the woman said gently, "The way back is written right here in the third line of your poem: Streams of mercy never ceasing. Those streams are flowing even here in Paris tonight." And suddenly it all became clear. Robinson knew it was true and he knew he had to act. So that night Robinson recommitted his life to Christ. Because he knew that only in Jesus is found the one who came to seek and to save what was lost.

from Matt Bell, Hull.

‘He was pierced for our transgressions’ (Isaiah 52:10-53:12)

 

When I was a student in Dublin I remember a guy coming to our Christian Union and speaking on Isaiah 53.  As a young Christian I was blown away.  Here is a song written seven hundred years before the death of Christ and it gives exact details of his suffering.  It is so clearly about Jesus that when I once read it to a youth group someone asked me which of the four gospels is this from.

This is the fourth, and final, ‘servant song’ in Isaiah.  It is made up of five stanzas, each containing three verses.

Suffering and sprinkling (52:12-15)

Behold, my servant shall act wisely.  In these ‘servant songs’ the servant can refer to the prophet Isaiah or the people of Israel, but, in this song, it can’t be either because the servant suffers here for both.  The servant is unmistakably Jesus.

The servant ‘will be high and lifted up’.  The term ‘high and lifted up’ is used elsewhere in Isaiah to speak of the LORD/Yahweh.  Our rescuer is God and man.  He is God the Son.  The name Isaiah means ‘the LORD is salvation’, and this salvation is brought about by the Lord himself!

Suddenly we see that the high and lifted up one is marred in appearance.  He is suffering.  Hundreds of years before the Romans perfected the art of crucifixion, this song will show us Jesus at Calvary.

His suffering is connected with our sprinkling.  The idea of sprinkling has a number of roots.  The priests would sprinkle a leper that had been cleansed—and we are spiritual lepers who have had our guilt washed away.  Another idea behind sprinkling is on the Day of Atonement—when the blood of a goat would be sprinkled on the seat of mercy in the temple as a picture of a saviour’s blood cleansing our sin.

Strength and weakness (53:1-3)

To whom has the arm of the Lord being revealed?  The arm of the Lord is his ability to rescue his people.  Yet this arm of the Lord is found through an ordinary and weak person.  He grew up like a root out of dry ground.  This is an unpromising person from a failed nation.  Shockingly the servant comes from a backwater of the Roman Empire, and a lesser part of that nation.  He had no beauty that we should desire him.  He was not good-looking.  He was not marked out as ‘one to watch’.  He did not have life easy—he was a man of sorrows familiar with grief.  He knew the pain of rejection.  He lost members of his family.  He was let down by his friends.  Notice our role in his rejection: he was despised and we esteemed him not.

Salvation through substitution (53:4-6)

There was once a chaplain in a Dublin university who wrote in the college paper that ‘the death and resurrection of Jesus are not the crux of Christianity.’  The irony of course is that the word crux comes from cross.  The Villiers’ School motto is actually ‘fidei coticula crux’—the cross is the touchstone of faith.  The apostle Paul can sum up all his preaching by simply saying, ‘I preach Christ crucified’.

In Hebrew poetry the main point is made at the centre of a song.  This stanza is the centre and it clearly points to Jesus on the cross.  What we have here is imputation—charging something to someone’s account.  He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities.  John Piper explains that the heart of the gospel is substitution—Jesus dies in our place. 

The result of his death is that we receive peace.  The word is ‘shalom’—which includes the idea of wholeness and well-being.  I have been asked to speak on Peace at the Christian Union in U.C.D.  I am taking this passage.  You see If God has taken away my guilt and not he sees me as righteous in Chris and removed any reason to be afraid of death and hell then all other worries are only small worries.

Not the reference to healing—by his wounds we are healed.  The primary idea here is that we are healed from the disease of sin.  But Matthew’s gospel does link this to physical healing.  God will heal all our illnesses.  There will be a time when Jesus returns and gives us imperishable bodies that will experience no sickness.  There are times, even now, that God heals in response to the prayers of his people giving us a foretaste of what is to come.  But we can see in the New Testament that God does not always heal his people in this life—the apostle Paul struggled with illness, Timothy had to take wine for his stomach and Trophimus had to be left behind in Miletus because of an illness.  In fact, most death comes through illness and we will all die unless Jesus comes back first.

I puzzled over the words of verse four—he bore our griefs and carried our sorrows.  All grief and sorrow results from the fact that we live in a world under God’s curse of death because of sin.  Jesus enters that world and suffers with us.  As he dies on the cross he experiences the pain that should be on us.  Through his suffering our suffering receives an expiry date.  He will bring us to a place where there are no more tears.

Our guilt and his innocence (52:7-9)

At the end of the last stanza there is a reference to the fact that we all like sheep had gone astray.  In this stanza Jesus is a lamb that is led to the slaughter.  Lile a sheep before its shearers is silent so he opened not his mouth.  We see this in how Jesus refused to defend himself before the Sanhedrin, Herod and Pilate.  He was assigned a grave amongst the wicked, and with a rich man in his death—there may be an emphasise here on the idea of the rich being corrupt.  Of course, this prophecy was fulfilled in his burial in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.

His delight to save (10-12)

It was the will of the LORD to crush him.  Who put Jesus on the cross?  Well we bear responsibility because it was for our sins he had to die.  The crowd who cried ‘crucify’ bear responsibility because they wanted him dead.  The Jewish authorities bear some responsibility because they pushed for his death, as do Herod and Pilate.  But ultimately it was God the Father who had him sent to die.

I remember a friend in the previous church where I was serving holding back the tears as he read the following words from the theologian Sinclair Ferguson: ‘When we think of Christ dying on the cross we are shown the lengths to which God’s love goes in order to win us back to himself.  We should almost think that God loved us more than he loves his Son.  We cannot measure his love by any other standard.  He is saying, “I love you this much” … [Through the cross] God does something to us as well as for us, he persuades us he loves us.’

He will see and be satisfied.  Jesus is satisfied with what he has accomplished through his death.  He delighted to show the love of the Father.  He sees us as his people and says, ‘you were worth it.’  He has accounted many righteous.  Not only are we forgiven, we are seen as righteous.  The Father now sees us as if we had lived the perfect life of Jesus.   The risen Jesus lives to make intersession for us—he is praying that we will make it to the end and his prayers cannot fail.

Conclusion

Right at the heart of this song is the Hebrew idea of shalom, which is a bigger word than our peace.  Through what Jesus has done of the cross we can know wholeness—we are forgiven, have a certain hope, live in the love of Christ, are empowered by his Holy Spirit and assured that death and condemnation have no hold over us.  In light of this, all other worries are small.

A few verses to conclude our thoughts.

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave himself up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, give us all things (Rom. 8:32).  This is not a ‘prosperity gospel’.  In context the ‘all things’ is what we need to grow and stay in Christ.  Trust him, his love for you is going nowhere!

Since we have been justified by his blood, how much more will be saved from God’s wrath through him (Rom. 5:9).  He has done the hard thing of taking rebels and making us his children, so he can be trusted to keep us in him and bring us through the final judgement.

Finally, cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for you (1 Peter 5:7).  Surely, as we look at this passage in Isaiah, we can be left in no doubt that he cares for us.  He suffered as we suffer, and he suffered for us, and he suffered that there would be an expiry date on all our pain.  Upon his was chastisement that brought us peace.