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April 27, 2021
When We Get What We Ask For (Walk Thru the Bible Week 13)
The difficult period of Judges comes to an end with a godly judge named Samuel. He is not only Israel’s last judge but is a priest and prophet who helps Israel transition from a theocracy to a monarchy. God informed Samuel of his choice of Saul and then David as king over his people.
This episode complements the daily readings from our Walk Thru the Bible reading plan for April 26 - May 2, covering 1 Samuel 1-20.
Show Links:
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More info on Susan: https://www.icejusa.org/susans-blog
Transcript
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Welcome to Walk Through the Bible, Susan Michael's 12 month journey through the most exciting
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book on the planet.
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It will transform your life one page at a time.
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Be sure to subscribe for future episodes that will ignite your faith and bring your Bible
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to life.
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Now, let's join our host, Susan Michael.
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Well, hey there and welcome back.
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This is Walk Through the Bible Week 13.
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We have finished the first quarter of our year-long Walk Through the Bible.
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Isn't that exciting?
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So this week our reading was from pages 384 through 415 or it was the dates in the Daily
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Bible of March 26 through April 1.
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We read today from 1 Samuel about the story of Samuel, Saul and David.
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And I entitled this week, When We Get What We Ask For.
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So last week we talked about the very depressing period of the judges.
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Can all be summed up with the very last verse of the Book of Judges where it said, In those
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days there was no king in Israel and everyone did as he saw fit.
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It was a very, very sad period where the people fell continually into these cycles of sin
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and apostasy and idolatry and then oppression from the enemy and defeat.
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And then they would cry out to the Lord and repent and He would raise up a leader, a judge,
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to lead them into victory and to help them and they would have a period of peace.
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And then they would fall right back in to the same cycle.
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It was so painful to see it and to read about the real moral and spiritual depravity that
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some of them entered into at some point.
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But we had the highlight last week of reading the beautiful story of Ruth and we were kind
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of encouraged to know that these stories in the Book of Judges were just a few stories
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from a period of over 300 years.
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And there were many such stories like the one of Ruth as well about the everyday people
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that were living good lives and doing what they could just to survive in a very difficult
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world.
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So that was last week.
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This week we're going to come to the very end of the period of the Judges with the story
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of the last judge.
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And this story is found in the Book of First Samuel.
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And this week we have a very good judge, Samuel, and I'll tell you his story in just a minute,
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but his sons are corrupt.
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And so this leads to the people crying out for this time to come to an end and that they
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wanted a king.
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So let's get into the story.
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So we open up our story, the Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle are in Shiloh.
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And the priest there that is in charge of them, his name is Eli.
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And Eli was one of the grandsons of the high priest, Aaron.
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And his sons were very corrupt and very evil and he could not control them.
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And so we read this story of how there was a woman who was barren and she goes to the
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Tabernacle to pray and ask God to give her a son.
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And he does.
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And so she gives that son back to the Lord, which means that he was sent to Eli to serve
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with him in the Tabernacle.
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And here he is a child.
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We don't know his exact age.
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And he's living in the Tabernacle and his job was to sleep there in front of the Ark
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of the Covenant and next to the menorah to keep the menorah burning all night.
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And they are laying in front of the Holy of Holies and the Ark of the Covenant is when
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he hears the Lord calling out his name.
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And of course he jumps up and he runs to Eli thinking Eli is calling his name and finally
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determines that it was the Lord.
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But that is the story of how Samuel grows up there in the Tabernacle and in service of
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the Tabernacle.
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And he becomes the last judge of Israel.
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Now he's a good judge.
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He's not just a judge.
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He's also a prophet and he is a priest.
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Now he is not a king, but he does hold these other offices.
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And so Eli's two sons that are corrupt and who are bad priests end up taking the Ark
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of the Covenant into battle and it is captured by the Philistines.
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Now this is quite a story and the Ark of the Covenant is taken by the Philistines and put
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in Dagon's temple because it's to show that Dagon defeated the God of the Israelites.
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And so here is the proof the Ark of the Covenant is put in the temple of Dagon next to the
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statute of Dagon.
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Now we talked about the Philistines last week and how that we know from archaeology and
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we know from writings that were found in Egypt that they were a strong people, that they
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had actually fought against the Pharaoh in Egypt.
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They were defeated, but that Egypt allowed them to settle this area along the coastline.
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They were a seafaring people.
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Their God Dagon actually looked like a fish, part fish, and part reptile.
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And Dagon was a very powerful God worshipped throughout the area of Mesopotamia and Syria
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at the time.
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And so here, as I said last week, that the defeat of the army is brought about by the
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gods.
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And so when the Philistines were once again able to defeat the Israelites, but this time
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they captured their actual Ark.
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It was a real victory for their God Dagon, and that's why they put the Ark of the Covenant
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in the temple there next to Dagon.
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Dagon was a ruling God of a warrior that brought victory to his people, and here he had brought
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the Philistines victory.
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Now what happens?
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The next morning they get up, and Dagon is on his face, on the floor, prostrate on his
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face.
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What a sign that actually he did not defeat the God of Israel.
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But they prop him back up.
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They think something must have happened.
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Must be some explanation for this.
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And the next morning, what happens?
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He's on his face again.
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And this time his head has been broken off and his arms.
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Now if you know anything about warfare at the time, this is what kings did when they
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defeated another king.
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A lot of times their heads were cut off, their hands were cut off.
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It was a sign of defeat.
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And here we had a very physical sign of defeat, but it was the God of Israel defeating Dagon.
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And then of course there were plagues in the camp.
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And so the Ark of the Covenant goes on a tour of the Philistine area.
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So the Philistines had five major cities, and it seems like the Ark of the Covenant
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went to all of them.
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And in every city where they placed it, it then brought plagues, and the people got what
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they're calling tumors.
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And they were dying off, and so they take it to another city.
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The same thing would happen there.
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And finally they said, we have got to, first of all, appease the God of the Israelites so
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that we can get rid of this plague and these tumors.
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We need to get this thing back to them.
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And so they hook it up to the cows, and they put in it golden offerings, what they call
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a guilt offering, and the gold was shaped in tumors.
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So there were five tumors, and one for each of the cities that it had been put in were
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given these tumors.
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And of course there was also the mice or rats.
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So the gold was an offering, but there was probably some kind of a belief here, magic,
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paganism, whatever you want to call it, that if they made these images and sent it away,
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they were sending away the plague.
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They were getting it away from them.
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And sure enough, they did, and the Ark of the Covenant ends up back into the hands of
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the people of Israel.
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Now of course, Eli and his sons died as soon as this all took place.
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And so now the Ark is back, and Samuel is the judge, the priest, and the prophet, and
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he leads the people in a rededication to God, and he leads a very good and peaceful period
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for the people of Israel.
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But unfortunately, Samuel has the same problem Eli did in that he couldn't control his sons
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either.
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And they were evil, and the people of Israel saw this.
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And so they came to Samuel, and they said, we want a king.
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And this introduces the whole request of the people for a king and how it displeased the
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Lord.
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So I want us to take a minute and look at this, and why would that be?
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So in 1 Samuel 8 verse 5, the people say, appoint a king to lead us, such as all the
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other nations.
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And Samuel is very, very upset about this.
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And he goes to the Lord, and the Lord says to him, don't take it personally.
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I'm the one that they have rejected as their king.
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So he says, do as they ask, but warn them.
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So then Samuel warns the people about what a king is going to do to them.
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And he finds different times.
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He uses the word take.
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The king is going to take your sons into war and into service.
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It would be very dangerous.
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He's going to take your daughters.
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He's going to take your produce.
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He's going to take your servants.
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He's going to take your livestock.
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He's going to take, take, take, as opposed to the God of Israel who gives and who promises.
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This is the big difference.
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But they said, no, we want a king like the other nations.
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So God says, you know, give it to them.
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And then God chooses Saul.
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Now at this point in our story, Israel is going to transition from a theocracy where
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God is their king to a monarchy where they have a king who unites the country.
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And they have a united kingdom, a united monarchy for roughly 120 years.
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So it's going to encompass the story of Saul, of David, and of Solomon.
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But after Solomon, when we get to that point in the story, we'll see that sin abounds and
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the kingdom is divided.
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But for 120 years, it's a united monarchy.
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So in our story this week, we read that God chose Saul.
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And so Samuel has gathered everybody around and to reveal to them their leader is Saul.
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And where is Saul?
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He's hiding amongst the supplies.
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I think that is so funny.
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He's not bold and brave.
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He's tall.
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He's a head taller than everybody else.
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But he's not very brave.
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And so he's hiding in the supplies.
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They had to go find him and pull him out and bring him there.
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But Saul is just 30 years old at the time.
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But he does end up reigning for 42 years.
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And he was in the beginning a successful leader.
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He was courageous and he led the armies of Israel in victory.
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But then we read the story of how that he disobeyed the Lord when it came to the defeat
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and the plundering of the Amalekites.
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And so because of his disobedience, the Lord rejects him as king and leaves him.
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And Saul ends up tormented by an evil spirit.
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And then we read the story of David.
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So Samuel once again the last judge of Israel who is a prophet who anointed Saul and made
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him king.
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And now the Lord tells him, I've rejected Saul and I want you to go to Bethlehem to
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Jesse.
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He's got sons.
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I'm going to show you who I have chosen.
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And once again, Samuel expected it to be one of the tall sons.
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Saul had been tall.
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But no, it was the youngest son, David, who still was a shepherd out in the fields.
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So I want to, and then we all know the story, proceeds where Samuel anoints David as king,
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even though he's not yet become king, but he anoints him as leader, I should say.
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And he goes into the court of Saul and he ministers to Saul.
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As Saul is tormented by this evil spirit, David is able to minister to him and bring
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him peace.
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And then we have the story of Goliath.
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I want to take a minute here because I want you to know how accurate this story is based
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on what we know of the time and of the area.
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So the story of Goliath is about what?
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The Philistines.
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So I keep telling you, we know the Philistines were there.
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We know that they were big and strong.
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And we know that they were a real formidable enemy to the people of Israel.
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And they keep popping up in story after story.
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And so here, Goliath, one of the Philistines is taunting the armies of Israel.
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And it takes place in an area called the ELA Valley.
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But when you go with me to Israel, we hopefully will be able to stop by so you can see the
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ELA Valley and you can picture the whole story right there.
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You can see the hill range coming out from Bethlehem and where the Israelites would have
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been encamped.
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You can see where the Philistines would have been encamped.
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You've got this valley between them where this took place.
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And then you have where the Philistines would have retreated.
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You can see it all there exactly as the biblical account says.
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Of course, now David, in some of the depictions of the story, you have David looks like he's
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about a 10-year-old child, right?
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With a play, a toy, slingshot.
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That's not at all what really is going on in the story.
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David, we read from some of the other verses, is a full-grown man.
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Now he's a young man, but he's a full-grown man and he's described as a warrior.
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Slingshots were used in battles.
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It wasn't just a child's toy.
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And we know this because we have depicted on the walls of Sennacherib's palace the Assyrians
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used slingshot in battle.
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So this was something that was very, very dangerous.
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This was a real weapon, the slingshot.
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And we know from other scriptures that the people of Benjamin were known for their very
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accurate slingshots.
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And also that most of the men of Benjamin were left-handed.
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It also says that, which is an interesting little quirk, that Benjamin, which means son
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of my right hand, were all left-handed.
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Hey, you can't make this stuff up.
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So here is David, a full-grown man who knows how to use a formidable weapon, the slingshot,
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and he knows exactly where to strike Goliath, that it would not be stopped by the helmet
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or the armor, and it could be very deadly.
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And so he does it.
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Now before this, though, let's back up.
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Saul offers David his armor, and he puts it on David.
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And David says, no, no, I don't want it.
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I'm not used to it, and I don't want it.
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And sometimes this has been depicted, the armor's too big for the child, David, but
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that's not at all what the scripture says.
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It says that he wasn't used to wearing armor, and he didn't want it.
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Can you imagine if you've got to do a sling, which is an art?
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It has to be done just right, and you're going to do it in armor, and it's going to
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block your arm.
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No, he didn't want it, and so he didn't wear it.
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What's interesting here is that the armor of the king, Saul's armor, was very distinctive.
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So anybody that saw coming would know he was the king, because his armor was different
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from everybody else's.
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And for him to offer his armor to David meant that David would go out, and it would look
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like it was king Saul.
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Now we don't know that that's what he intended.
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Maybe he's just being generous by giving his armor, but it was very distinctive, and so
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David didn't want to have anything to do with it.
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Now Goliath, according to the scripture, is something like nine feet, nine inches tall.
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And I told you in a previous episode that writings in Egypt actually said that at this
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time in Canaan, or in the period up before this and leading into this time, that there
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were fierce warriors that were as tall as seven to nine feet tall.
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So to say that Goliath was nine feet, nine inches tall, it really could be.
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And so the average man at that time, however, was only five feet.
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So nine feet versus five feet, that's a huge difference.
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He was a very, very scary enemy.
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And in the story, which is also very keeping with the times, this is depicted as a fight
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between the God of Israel and the God of the Philistines.
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And that's why David goes in the might and the power of the God of Israel, that this is
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going to be his victory.
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And that is exactly the way these things were seen and viewed at the time.
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So the story of David and Goliath realized it's a very, very accurate depiction of something
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that really took place.
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And then we have the story, David goes back and he's had this great victory and Saul's
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son Jonathan loves him with his whole heart and gives him his robe and his weaponry and
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his armor.
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And some people have tried to say that there was something homosexual in this story.
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The Bible doesn't say that at all.
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Instead, the word for robe is the word that denotes a royal robe.
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And it seems like Jonathan was recognizing that he was not going to be the heir to the
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throne, that David would.
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And so he's giving him the royal robe and the royal weaponry.
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And it seems that Saul understood this because Saul then begins to send David out with the
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troops to fight the battles, not Jonathan, not even himself.
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And he refers to David as my son.
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So it seems like that maybe is what was behind that story.
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Now I want to talk about the people's desire for a king.
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There were two problems that they wanted to solve.
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One was that they did not have any national leadership.
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And we saw what happened throughout the whole period of judges.
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It was brutal and they wanted leadership.
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They were losing their unity as a people.
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So that was one thing.
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A king could have solved that problem.
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And then the second problem is, of course, that Samuel's sons were evil and nobody wanted
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them to take over after Samuel.
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Samuel had been a wonderful priest and judge and prophet.
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And so to have Samuel appoint a king over them would end that, that they wouldn't have
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to worry about his sons.
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But they didn't ask in that way.
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They didn't ask with those motives and with the right motives.
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What they said was that they wanted to be like the other nations with a king to lead
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them to war.
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So God said this was an outright rejection of him.
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He was their king.
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He was the one that led them into victory.
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And this was an outright rejection.
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It seemed like that they weren't happy with him.
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And they were looking for a human king to be like the nations.
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Something God never intended.
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He never wanted them to be like the other nations.
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He wanted them to be a separate people, a people alone, a people called out, a people
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holy and separated unto him and different from the nations.
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So their motives here were not good.
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Now God all along had intended to give them a king.
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He actually said that to Abraham and he said it to Jacob that from them would come kings.
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So he fully intended to give them a king.
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But here they were asking for one because they wanted to be like the other nations and
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because they were rejecting God as their king and at the wrong time.
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This demonstrated that they were taking this into their own power and being impatient and
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the timing was not right.
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And so God then gave Israel the monarchy.
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He gave them the king.
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And after the failings of Saul, he chose David to lead Israel.
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And God redeemed the monarchy and brought it into his covenant.
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And it's David then who he promised an everlasting kingdom through, of course, the Messiah.
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And Jesus was born as a son of David.
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So God used this and he weaved it into his amazing tapestry.
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And this is what is so encouraging.
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We may fail God sometimes.
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We may be impatient and we may ask and pray for things even when our hearts aren't right
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in it.
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And but God can use it.
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God is so much greater than our failings.
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He is so much greater than our frail human sinful beings and he can still weave his absolute
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perfect will if he has the willing vessel and he found it in David.
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So next week we're going to talk about the story of David and as he becomes king, it's
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going to be really exciting.
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So I can't wait to see you back here.
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In the meantime, we're going to be putting up our first quarter review, which is going
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to be in week 13 this week.
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And we're going to answer some of your questions.
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I hope that you sent them in.
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If not, do it real quickly in our show notes.
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We've given a link to how you can submit a question or comment.
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We want to hear from you because we want to reply to some of your questions and comments
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in these episodes that we'll release in just a couple of days from now.
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So we did it.
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We finished the first quarter of our year long walk through the Bible.
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That is so exciting.
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You really deserve to give yourself a little pat on the back and I hope you enjoy next
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week's reading about King David, the king after God's own heart.
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So I'll see you back here then.
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And until then, God bless.
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,680
Welcome to Walk Through the Bible, Susan Michael's 12 month journey through the most exciting
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book on the planet.
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00:00:08,180 --> 00:00:11,200
It will transform your life one page at a time.
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00:00:11,200 --> 00:00:15,640
Be sure to subscribe for future episodes that will ignite your faith and bring your Bible
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00:00:15,640 --> 00:00:16,640
to life.
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Now, let's join our host, Susan Michael.
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Well, hey there and welcome back.
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This is Walk Through the Bible Week 13.
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We have finished the first quarter of our year-long Walk Through the Bible.
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Isn't that exciting?
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So this week our reading was from pages 384 through 415 or it was the dates in the Daily
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Bible of March 26 through April 1.
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We read today from 1 Samuel about the story of Samuel, Saul and David.
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And I entitled this week, When We Get What We Ask For.
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So last week we talked about the very depressing period of the judges.
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Can all be summed up with the very last verse of the Book of Judges where it said, In those
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days there was no king in Israel and everyone did as he saw fit.
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It was a very, very sad period where the people fell continually into these cycles of sin
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and apostasy and idolatry and then oppression from the enemy and defeat.
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And then they would cry out to the Lord and repent and He would raise up a leader, a judge,
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to lead them into victory and to help them and they would have a period of peace.
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And then they would fall right back in to the same cycle.
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It was so painful to see it and to read about the real moral and spiritual depravity that
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some of them entered into at some point.
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But we had the highlight last week of reading the beautiful story of Ruth and we were kind
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of encouraged to know that these stories in the Book of Judges were just a few stories
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from a period of over 300 years.
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And there were many such stories like the one of Ruth as well about the everyday people
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that were living good lives and doing what they could just to survive in a very difficult
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world.
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So that was last week.
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This week we're going to come to the very end of the period of the Judges with the story
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of the last judge.
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And this story is found in the Book of First Samuel.
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And this week we have a very good judge, Samuel, and I'll tell you his story in just a minute,
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but his sons are corrupt.
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And so this leads to the people crying out for this time to come to an end and that they
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wanted a king.
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So let's get into the story.
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So we open up our story, the Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle are in Shiloh.
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And the priest there that is in charge of them, his name is Eli.
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And Eli was one of the grandsons of the high priest, Aaron.
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And his sons were very corrupt and very evil and he could not control them.
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And so we read this story of how there was a woman who was barren and she goes to the
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Tabernacle to pray and ask God to give her a son.
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And he does.
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And so she gives that son back to the Lord, which means that he was sent to Eli to serve
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with him in the Tabernacle.
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And here he is a child.
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We don't know his exact age.
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And he's living in the Tabernacle and his job was to sleep there in front of the Ark
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of the Covenant and next to the menorah to keep the menorah burning all night.
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And they are laying in front of the Holy of Holies and the Ark of the Covenant is when
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he hears the Lord calling out his name.
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And of course he jumps up and he runs to Eli thinking Eli is calling his name and finally
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determines that it was the Lord.
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But that is the story of how Samuel grows up there in the Tabernacle and in service of
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the Tabernacle.
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And he becomes the last judge of Israel.
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Now he's a good judge.
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He's not just a judge.
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He's also a prophet and he is a priest.
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Now he is not a king, but he does hold these other offices.
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And so Eli's two sons that are corrupt and who are bad priests end up taking the Ark
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of the Covenant into battle and it is captured by the Philistines.
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Now this is quite a story and the Ark of the Covenant is taken by the Philistines and put
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in Dagon's temple because it's to show that Dagon defeated the God of the Israelites.
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And so here is the proof the Ark of the Covenant is put in the temple of Dagon next to the
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statute of Dagon.
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Now we talked about the Philistines last week and how that we know from archaeology and
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we know from writings that were found in Egypt that they were a strong people, that they
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had actually fought against the Pharaoh in Egypt.
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They were defeated, but that Egypt allowed them to settle this area along the coastline.
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They were a seafaring people.
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Their God Dagon actually looked like a fish, part fish, and part reptile.
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And Dagon was a very powerful God worshipped throughout the area of Mesopotamia and Syria
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at the time.
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And so here, as I said last week, that the defeat of the army is brought about by the
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gods.
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And so when the Philistines were once again able to defeat the Israelites, but this time
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they captured their actual Ark.
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It was a real victory for their God Dagon, and that's why they put the Ark of the Covenant
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in the temple there next to Dagon.
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Dagon was a ruling God of a warrior that brought victory to his people, and here he had brought
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the Philistines victory.
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Now what happens?
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The next morning they get up, and Dagon is on his face, on the floor, prostrate on his
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face.
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What a sign that actually he did not defeat the God of Israel.
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But they prop him back up.
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They think something must have happened.
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Must be some explanation for this.
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And the next morning, what happens?
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He's on his face again.
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And this time his head has been broken off and his arms.
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Now if you know anything about warfare at the time, this is what kings did when they
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defeated another king.
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A lot of times their heads were cut off, their hands were cut off.
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It was a sign of defeat.
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And here we had a very physical sign of defeat, but it was the God of Israel defeating Dagon.
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And then of course there were plagues in the camp.
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And so the Ark of the Covenant goes on a tour of the Philistine area.
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So the Philistines had five major cities, and it seems like the Ark of the Covenant
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went to all of them.
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And in every city where they placed it, it then brought plagues, and the people got what
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they're calling tumors.
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And they were dying off, and so they take it to another city.
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The same thing would happen there.
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And finally they said, we have got to, first of all, appease the God of the Israelites so
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that we can get rid of this plague and these tumors.
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We need to get this thing back to them.
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And so they hook it up to the cows, and they put in it golden offerings, what they call
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a guilt offering, and the gold was shaped in tumors.
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So there were five tumors, and one for each of the cities that it had been put in were
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given these tumors.
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And of course there was also the mice or rats.
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So the gold was an offering, but there was probably some kind of a belief here, magic,
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paganism, whatever you want to call it, that if they made these images and sent it away,
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they were sending away the plague.
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They were getting it away from them.
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And sure enough, they did, and the Ark of the Covenant ends up back into the hands of
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the people of Israel.
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Now of course, Eli and his sons died as soon as this all took place.
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And so now the Ark is back, and Samuel is the judge, the priest, and the prophet, and
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he leads the people in a rededication to God, and he leads a very good and peaceful period
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for the people of Israel.
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But unfortunately, Samuel has the same problem Eli did in that he couldn't control his sons
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either.
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And they were evil, and the people of Israel saw this.
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And so they came to Samuel, and they said, we want a king.
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And this introduces the whole request of the people for a king and how it displeased the
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Lord.
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So I want us to take a minute and look at this, and why would that be?
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So in 1 Samuel 8 verse 5, the people say, appoint a king to lead us, such as all the
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other nations.
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And Samuel is very, very upset about this.
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And he goes to the Lord, and the Lord says to him, don't take it personally.
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I'm the one that they have rejected as their king.
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So he says, do as they ask, but warn them.
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So then Samuel warns the people about what a king is going to do to them.
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And he finds different times.
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He uses the word take.
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The king is going to take your sons into war and into service.
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It would be very dangerous.
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He's going to take your daughters.
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He's going to take your produce.
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He's going to take your servants.
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He's going to take your livestock.
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He's going to take, take, take, as opposed to the God of Israel who gives and who promises.
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This is the big difference.
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But they said, no, we want a king like the other nations.
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So God says, you know, give it to them.
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And then God chooses Saul.
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Now at this point in our story, Israel is going to transition from a theocracy where
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God is their king to a monarchy where they have a king who unites the country.
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And they have a united kingdom, a united monarchy for roughly 120 years.
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So it's going to encompass the story of Saul, of David, and of Solomon.
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But after Solomon, when we get to that point in the story, we'll see that sin abounds and
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the kingdom is divided.
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But for 120 years, it's a united monarchy.
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So in our story this week, we read that God chose Saul.
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And so Samuel has gathered everybody around and to reveal to them their leader is Saul.
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And where is Saul?
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He's hiding amongst the supplies.
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I think that is so funny.
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He's not bold and brave.
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He's tall.
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He's a head taller than everybody else.
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But he's not very brave.
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And so he's hiding in the supplies.
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They had to go find him and pull him out and bring him there.
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But Saul is just 30 years old at the time.
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But he does end up reigning for 42 years.
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And he was in the beginning a successful leader.
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He was courageous and he led the armies of Israel in victory.
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But then we read the story of how that he disobeyed the Lord when it came to the defeat
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and the plundering of the Amalekites.
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And so because of his disobedience, the Lord rejects him as king and leaves him.
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And Saul ends up tormented by an evil spirit.
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And then we read the story of David.
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So Samuel once again the last judge of Israel who is a prophet who anointed Saul and made
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him king.
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And now the Lord tells him, I've rejected Saul and I want you to go to Bethlehem to
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Jesse.
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He's got sons.
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I'm going to show you who I have chosen.
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And once again, Samuel expected it to be one of the tall sons.
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Saul had been tall.
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But no, it was the youngest son, David, who still was a shepherd out in the fields.
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So I want to, and then we all know the story, proceeds where Samuel anoints David as king,
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even though he's not yet become king, but he anoints him as leader, I should say.
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And he goes into the court of Saul and he ministers to Saul.
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As Saul is tormented by this evil spirit, David is able to minister to him and bring
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him peace.
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And then we have the story of Goliath.
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I want to take a minute here because I want you to know how accurate this story is based
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on what we know of the time and of the area.
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So the story of Goliath is about what?
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The Philistines.
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So I keep telling you, we know the Philistines were there.
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We know that they were big and strong.
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And we know that they were a real formidable enemy to the people of Israel.
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And they keep popping up in story after story.
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And so here, Goliath, one of the Philistines is taunting the armies of Israel.
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And it takes place in an area called the ELA Valley.
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But when you go with me to Israel, we hopefully will be able to stop by so you can see the
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ELA Valley and you can picture the whole story right there.
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You can see the hill range coming out from Bethlehem and where the Israelites would have
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been encamped.
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You can see where the Philistines would have been encamped.
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You've got this valley between them where this took place.
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And then you have where the Philistines would have retreated.
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You can see it all there exactly as the biblical account says.
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Of course, now David, in some of the depictions of the story, you have David looks like he's
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about a 10-year-old child, right?
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With a play, a toy, slingshot.
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That's not at all what really is going on in the story.
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David, we read from some of the other verses, is a full-grown man.
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Now he's a young man, but he's a full-grown man and he's described as a warrior.
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Slingshots were used in battles.
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It wasn't just a child's toy.
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And we know this because we have depicted on the walls of Sennacherib's palace the Assyrians
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used slingshot in battle.
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So this was something that was very, very dangerous.
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This was a real weapon, the slingshot.
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And we know from other scriptures that the people of Benjamin were known for their very
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accurate slingshots.
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And also that most of the men of Benjamin were left-handed.
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It also says that, which is an interesting little quirk, that Benjamin, which means son
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of my right hand, were all left-handed.
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Hey, you can't make this stuff up.
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So here is David, a full-grown man who knows how to use a formidable weapon, the slingshot,
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and he knows exactly where to strike Goliath, that it would not be stopped by the helmet
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or the armor, and it could be very deadly.
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And so he does it.
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Now before this, though, let's back up.
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Saul offers David his armor, and he puts it on David.
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And David says, no, no, I don't want it.
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I'm not used to it, and I don't want it.
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And sometimes this has been depicted, the armor's too big for the child, David, but
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that's not at all what the scripture says.
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It says that he wasn't used to wearing armor, and he didn't want it.
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Can you imagine if you've got to do a sling, which is an art?
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It has to be done just right, and you're going to do it in armor, and it's going to
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block your arm.
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No, he didn't want it, and so he didn't wear it.
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What's interesting here is that the armor of the king, Saul's armor, was very distinctive.
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So anybody that saw coming would know he was the king, because his armor was different
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from everybody else's.
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And for him to offer his armor to David meant that David would go out, and it would look
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like it was king Saul.
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Now we don't know that that's what he intended.
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Maybe he's just being generous by giving his armor, but it was very distinctive, and so
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David didn't want to have anything to do with it.
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Now Goliath, according to the scripture, is something like nine feet, nine inches tall.
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And I told you in a previous episode that writings in Egypt actually said that at this
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time in Canaan, or in the period up before this and leading into this time, that there
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were fierce warriors that were as tall as seven to nine feet tall.
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So to say that Goliath was nine feet, nine inches tall, it really could be.
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And so the average man at that time, however, was only five feet.
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So nine feet versus five feet, that's a huge difference.
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He was a very, very scary enemy.
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And in the story, which is also very keeping with the times, this is depicted as a fight
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between the God of Israel and the God of the Philistines.
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And that's why David goes in the might and the power of the God of Israel, that this is
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going to be his victory.
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And that is exactly the way these things were seen and viewed at the time.
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So the story of David and Goliath realized it's a very, very accurate depiction of something
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that really took place.
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And then we have the story, David goes back and he's had this great victory and Saul's
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son Jonathan loves him with his whole heart and gives him his robe and his weaponry and
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his armor.
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And some people have tried to say that there was something homosexual in this story.
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The Bible doesn't say that at all.
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Instead, the word for robe is the word that denotes a royal robe.
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And it seems like Jonathan was recognizing that he was not going to be the heir to the
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throne, that David would.
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And so he's giving him the royal robe and the royal weaponry.
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And it seems that Saul understood this because Saul then begins to send David out with the
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troops to fight the battles, not Jonathan, not even himself.
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And he refers to David as my son.
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So it seems like that maybe is what was behind that story.
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Now I want to talk about the people's desire for a king.
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There were two problems that they wanted to solve.
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One was that they did not have any national leadership.
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And we saw what happened throughout the whole period of judges.
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It was brutal and they wanted leadership.
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They were losing their unity as a people.
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So that was one thing.
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A king could have solved that problem.
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And then the second problem is, of course, that Samuel's sons were evil and nobody wanted
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them to take over after Samuel.
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Samuel had been a wonderful priest and judge and prophet.
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And so to have Samuel appoint a king over them would end that, that they wouldn't have
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to worry about his sons.
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But they didn't ask in that way.
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They didn't ask with those motives and with the right motives.
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What they said was that they wanted to be like the other nations with a king to lead
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them to war.
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So God said this was an outright rejection of him.
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He was their king.
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He was the one that led them into victory.
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And this was an outright rejection.
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It seemed like that they weren't happy with him.
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And they were looking for a human king to be like the nations.
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Something God never intended.
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He never wanted them to be like the other nations.
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He wanted them to be a separate people, a people alone, a people called out, a people
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holy and separated unto him and different from the nations.
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So their motives here were not good.
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Now God all along had intended to give them a king.
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He actually said that to Abraham and he said it to Jacob that from them would come kings.
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So he fully intended to give them a king.
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But here they were asking for one because they wanted to be like the other nations and
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because they were rejecting God as their king and at the wrong time.
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This demonstrated that they were taking this into their own power and being impatient and
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the timing was not right.
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And so God then gave Israel the monarchy.
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He gave them the king.
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And after the failings of Saul, he chose David to lead Israel.
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And God redeemed the monarchy and brought it into his covenant.
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And it's David then who he promised an everlasting kingdom through, of course, the Messiah.
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And Jesus was born as a son of David.
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So God used this and he weaved it into his amazing tapestry.
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And this is what is so encouraging.
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We may fail God sometimes.
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We may be impatient and we may ask and pray for things even when our hearts aren't right
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in it.
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And but God can use it.
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God is so much greater than our failings.
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He is so much greater than our frail human sinful beings and he can still weave his absolute
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perfect will if he has the willing vessel and he found it in David.
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So next week we're going to talk about the story of David and as he becomes king, it's
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going to be really exciting.
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So I can't wait to see you back here.
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In the meantime, we're going to be putting up our first quarter review, which is going
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to be in week 13 this week.
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And we're going to answer some of your questions.
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I hope that you sent them in.
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If not, do it real quickly in our show notes.
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We've given a link to how you can submit a question or comment.
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We want to hear from you because we want to reply to some of your questions and comments
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in these episodes that we'll release in just a couple of days from now.
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So we did it.
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We finished the first quarter of our year long walk through the Bible.
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That is so exciting.
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You really deserve to give yourself a little pat on the back and I hope you enjoy next
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week's reading about King David, the king after God's own heart.
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So I'll see you back here then.
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And until then, God bless.
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