‘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?