New Days Pt 5 - Renew the Kingship
This sermon was preached at Immanuel Fellowship Church in Ellisville Missouri as part of our "New Days" series within 1 Samuel, exploring Israel's transition from tribal confederation to monarchy and what it teaches us about God's movement in our own lives and world toward his good future. For more resources on faith and Christian living, visit our website or connect with our community. You can email us at hello@ifcstl.com or call/text us at 636-431-4708
Good morning, everyone. It's good to be back in 1 Samuel today after taking a break for a few weeks. As many of you know, our normal pattern here is to pick a book of the Bible and work our way through it. We take breaks a couple of times throughout the year for more topical series like Sam just took us through, which was really good. But we try to keep the majority of our time focused on preaching through one of the books of the Bible.
We're currently working our way through 1 Samuel. I think this book has been really good for my soul. I hope it has been for you as well.
Catching Up on the Story
Before we get into our actual passage today, I want to give us just kind of a quick recap. It's been a little while since we've been in 1 Samuel, and we are ending one of the series that we've been going through. We broke this book up into sections of chapters and themes that go together, and we're ending this "New Days" series today.
So let me give us a bit of a recap to get us up to speed. I'm not going to recap the entire book, but just this New Days series.
We've gone through this transition of the tribal nation of Israel into a monarchy under Saul, who was the first king of Israel. We saw that Israel—really just a collection of loose family tribes—had grown tired of this constant back and forth that they had between following their covenant with God and experiencing the blessings of the covenant, and then turning to sin and experiencing the curses of the covenant.
They continued to follow this cycle: sin and repentance, sin and repentance. And eventually they grew tired of it. They decided that rather than turning back to God, repenting and seeking to follow the covenant, what they wanted was instead to be like all the other nations around them and have a king.
We saw that this was a complete rejection of God's leadership over them. And God says that to them.
God's Plan for a King
God had put this system in place long before they made this decision for them to have a king if they wanted one. He had even created this structure for how that king was to rule—through humility and through a system that God had set up. But the people didn't want that. They wanted a king that would be like all the other nations around them.
We discussed this tension between God's sovereign leadership of Israel and their rejection of his leadership. God warns the people that their desire to be like all the other nations was going to lead them down a bad path. We talked about how the people of Israel had a tendency to seek substitutes for God's place, and that we ourselves do that as well. We talked about how God's mercy lets us choose, even if sometimes those choices are bad.
Enter Saul
Then we saw this complicated back and forth that happens as God gives the people what they asked for. But he also is the one who chooses the king. He chooses Saul.
Physically, Saul seems to be the perfect king. He's exactly what they asked for. He's tall, he's imposing, but his attitude doesn't seem to reflect that of a leader. He struggles to lead other people. He seems unsure and afraid. In fact, he even hides when the king is being publicly chosen, and Samuel has to drag him out of hiding in the luggage.
We discussed that God often uses weak and flawed people to do his work. He works through flawed, sinful humanity to accomplish his purposes. And those purposes are not stopped, even despite the people's rejection of him.
All this culminates together in this strange situation where Saul is privately chosen by God to be the king and then publicly chosen by God to be the king. But a group of the people that the text describes as "wicked men" reject him as their king. They question him. And so things are just kind of dropped. They're left like that, with the people technically having a king, but no actual unity under that king. And so everybody just goes home.
This is where we've been up to this point. Here, the entire theme of the New Days—as we watch Israel become a nation under a king—comes to a head.
The Crisis at Jabesh-Gilead
Let me read 1 Samuel 11:1-8 for us:
Nahash the Ammonite came up and laid siege to Jabesh-Gilead. All the men of Jabesh said to him, "Make a treaty with us and we will serve you." Nahash the Ammonite replied, "I'll make one with you on this condition: that I gouge out everyone's right eye and humiliate all Israel." "Don't do anything to us for seven days," the elders of Jabesh said to him, "and let us send messengers throughout the territory of Israel. If no one saves us, we will surrender to you."
When the messengers came to Gibeah, Saul's hometown, and told the terms to the people, all wept aloud. Just then, Saul was coming in from the field behind his oxen. "What's the matter with the people? Why are they weeping?" Saul inquired. And they repeated to him the words of the men from Jabesh.
When Saul heard these words, the Spirit of God suddenly came powerfully on him, and his anger burned furiously. He took a team of oxen, cut them in pieces, and sent them throughout the territory of Israel by messengers who said, "This is what will be done to the ox of anyone who doesn't march behind Saul and Samuel." As a result, the terror of the Lord fell on the people, and they went out united. Saul counted them at Bezek. There were 300,000 Israelites and 30,000 men from Judah.
Understanding the Ammonites
We pick up this story and see that the narrative moves away from the Philistines being the main enemy, and the Ammonites come into the picture. The Ammonites were descended from Lot, who you might remember from Genesis, and they were on the edge of the territory that God gave to the Israelites.
God specifically forbids the Israelites from taking any of the Ammonites' land. The Ammonites were a cruel people. By this time, they worshiped Molech, a god of fire, who was worshiped by sacrificing babies to him. Here in this story, we can see the cruelty laid out for us as Nahash threatens to gouge out the right eye of all the people. Historically, this was specifically done to stop them from ever being able to fight again, as the shield was primarily held on the left side, blocking the view of the left eye. So they needed their right eye to fight.
The Ammonites rise up and they lay siege to Jabesh-Gilead. There's information in some ancient texts as well as histories that the Ammonites first went to war with the tribes of Reuben and Gad with great success, which is on the east side of the Jordan River. They make their way up along the Jordan River, conquering throughout Reuben and Gad. And we see that Nahash's threats to these men was being carried out throughout his time of making his way through Reuben and Gad. He was conquering, he was killing people, and he was putting out the eyes of everyone who was a survivor.
A Desperate Bargain
The rest of the people who are left hole up in Jabesh-Gilead and they are left in this terrible position. The Ammonites have been moving quickly throughout the territory and haven't given the Israelites here any chance to ask the western tribes for help.
So the men get together and they offer to surrender if a treaty can be agreed on. They say they will serve the Ammonites. Nahash agrees, but only on the condition that he can gouge out their eyes like he's been doing—to humiliate all of Israel, he says.
The elders of Jabesh get together and they decide that one last-ditch effort to find help is all they can really accomplish. And surprisingly, Nahash agrees to a seven-day pause in the conflict.
Why did he do this? Almost certainly this was arrogance on his behalf. He wanted to humiliate Israel. He's been conquering with little resistance through the tribes. No one had come to their rescue. With how scattered the tribes of Israel were, there seemed to be little chance that anyone could rally enough warriors to come and rescue the people of Jabesh-Gilead, especially in seven days. It simply wasn't enough time.
The Message Reaches Saul
So he agrees and messengers are sent throughout the tribes of Israel. I think it's worth noting here that messengers are not sent directly to Saul, despite him being made a king in the chapter before. It doesn't seem that really means anything. Nobody knows what to do with it. And Saul himself seems to be completely uninterested in actually operating as a king, just going back to farming.
The messengers travel throughout the tribes and then they arrive in Gibeah, which is in Benjamin's territory. Gibeah is a prominent city in the tribe of Benjamin. It's Saul's home where he lives and eventually becomes his capital city.
I think it's worth noting here that the people's reaction to the messengers is sorrow. I have to imagine the author chooses to show us this reaction to demonstrate that this was the widespread reaction to this message. The people weren't angry, the people weren't gathering together to fight. The people felt sorrow because they knew there wasn't anything they could do.
Saul Transformed
However, Saul comes back into the city from working with his oxen. He sees the sorrow of the people at the message and he asks what's happening. And this is when the entire narrative changes.
Up to this point, all we've seen from Saul is that he's physically impressive, but his attitude doesn't seem to be so impressive. He's timid, he's not a leader. He even goes so far as to hide when the people are gathered together to choose a king—which was an odd reaction considering God had already privately told him that he was going to be the king.
But everything changes in this moment. God himself pours his Spirit into Saul and Saul is completely changed.
This is not the first time we've seen God's Spirit enter into people throughout Scripture. It's happened with the Judges several times throughout Israel's history. Usually God's Spirit enters into a person to save his people, to lead them. And this is not even the first time that we've seen God's Spirit enter into Saul. It was in the previous chapter that God's Spirit entered into him and caused him to prophesy along with a group of prophets.
But this one is more lasting. Once God's Spirit enters into Saul here, it remains in Saul until a new king is chosen later in 1 Samuel. And God's Spirit coming upon Saul here seems to be the moment that he changes from this timid, scared farmer and becomes the powerful king that Israel needs.
Saul is filled with anger instead of the sorrow that was the reaction of the rest of the people. He takes his team of oxen, he cuts them into pieces, and he sends it throughout the tribes, threatening them if they don't join him in battle. And then the fear of the Lord comes on all the people, and they gather together at Bezek, which is across the Jordan from Jabesh-Gilead.
A Dark Parallel from Judges
Now, I want to pause in the story here for a minute. I think it's important for us to take a moment and look at some context. It's not immediately apparent unless you have a greater context of the stories of the Old Testament, but God draws a clear parallel in this story to the end of the Book of Judges. And it's worth making sure we don't miss this parallel.
The end of the Book of Judges was one of the darkest times in the history of the Israelites. We see this story that plays out in chapters 19 through 21 that is just incredibly dark. It showcases the evil that was present in the sinful hearts of the people.
I'm going to tell you this story—we're going to try to go through it quickly.
The Story from Judges 19-21
At the beginning of Judges chapter 19, it says "in those days when there was no king in Israel." We see this clear line that the author is drawing between this dark time in Israel's history and the changes that are now currently taking place as the kingdom is set up.
The story goes like this: There's a Levite living in the hill country of Ephraim that acquires a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah. She's unhappy with this Levite and she leaves him, returning to her father's house in Bethlehem. The Levite goes after her and after spending some time in Bethlehem, he takes her back with him.
They only make it as far as Gibeah—which later becomes Saul's capital city. It's late and they go into the city square of Gibeah looking for someone to let them stay the night. Hospitality in this culture was a big deal. This was a normal way of finding a place to stay—going into the city square and someone would offer them a place to stay.
However, the big deal that happens here is no one takes them in for the night. No one from Gibeah anyway. An old man from Ephraim who lives in Gibeah takes them in for the night.
The lack of hospitality from the men of Gibeah is not the end of their sin in the story. They gather together, they rush down upon the house in the night and they demand that the Levite be sent out for them to rape him. This is a clear parallel back even further to the stories in Sodom and Gomorrah.
The Levite and the Ephraimite discuss and eventually they send out this concubine. The men of Benjamin take her and they spend the night doing terrible things to her. She eventually crawls her way back to the house and she collapses at the door, dead.
When the Levite is leaving in the morning, he finds her. He tells her to get up, but when she couldn't because she's dead, he puts her body on a donkey and goes home.
If the story isn't awful enough, here it continues and it gets worse. When they get back home, the Levite cuts the woman's body into pieces and he sends her body parts throughout the tribes.
Civil War in Israel
This gets everyone's attention, as you can imagine, and they all gather together at Mizpah. They vow revenge against Benjamin and decide to go up against the men of Gibeah. They gather an army, they march toward Gibeah and then they send a message to the people of the tribe of Benjamin telling them to send out the men of Gibeah.
Benjamin refuses and they gather an army to oppose the other tribes. So now we have escalated from these terrible things that happened to all-out war between the tribes.
This battle commences and Benjamin's tribe defeats the other tribes in battle. The second day they fight again and once again Benjamin's tribe wins. The other tribes retreat to Bethel where they weep and fast before the Lord asking him for help. They offer sacrifices and they ask the priest who's serving at the Ark of the Covenant what to do.
God answers them telling them that he would give victory to them the next day. So once again they go to battle. This time through God's leadership they're able to defeat Benjamin. They kill all the men of Gibeah. They slaughter the entire town, burn it. They kill a bunch of other Benjaminites and then they destroy all the towns of Benjamin's territory. It's this mass slaughter.
A Devastating Solution
The story still isn't over. The next chapter reveals two important things that happened when the tribes gathered together at Mizpah. First, they declared that they wouldn't ever give their daughters in marriage to any man from Benjamin. Second, they declared that any tribe or part of a tribe that didn't show up to the gathering at Mizpah would be put to death.
Now together, these vows combined with the destruction that they had just committed against Benjamin probably would have completely destroyed Benjamin forever. There was no way for this tribe to regain and regrow when they were committed to destroying them.
However, since in our story in 1 Samuel we know the tribe of Benjamin still exists, we know that can't be where the story ends.
The people decide to have compassion on the tribe of Benjamin. They do it in a very strange way. They come together and they realize that there was one city that failed to show up to the collection of tribes at Mizpah: Jabesh-Gilead. Yes, the same city that is prominent in 1 Samuel.
The men of Jabesh-Gilead did not go up to attack Benjamin for whatever reason. So the other tribes again gather an army. They march to Jabesh-Gilead. They completely destroy it and kill everyone who's not a young virgin woman. And then they take all of these women to Benjamin and drop them off as wives for the survivors of Benjamin.
These 400 young women weren't enough apparently. So the final part of the story is that they tell the rest of the survivors of Benjamin to go to Shiloh where there was a festival that was going to happen. To wait there and wait for this festival to happen. And then as soon as the festival started to go up and steal any of the young women at Shiloh that they wanted, thus avoiding giving their daughters to the tribe of Benjamin because they were taking them.
And that's where the story ends. That's where the book of Judges ends.
The final line is a repeat of the beginning of the story. It says: "In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did whatever seemed right to him."
It's a very dark story. This final line—"everyone did whatever seemed right to him"—punctuates how dark it is.
Why Tell This Story?
So why tell this story? There are clear parallels drawn between our story in 1 Samuel to these chapters in Judges. This was one of the final examples given of what life was like in the tribes of Israel before there was a king.
We also have both Jabesh-Gilead and Gibeah featuring prominently in both stories. Saul cuts up an ox to send among the tribes to gather them together, similar to the concubine that's cut up and sent out in the story in Judges.
But more importantly than the similarities, I think, is the stark difference that is showcased here. We called this series "New Days" because this is a major turning point in the history of Israel. The passage in Judges tells us that this story is the result of what happens when everyone does what seems right to him or herself. Whereas now we begin to see them turn and become a kingdom where a king will lead them.
God's Sovereignty
We've talked some about God's sovereignty throughout this series, but I think our passage today and the juxtaposition of these two stories is where we need to give God's sovereignty a bit more weight in this sermon and talk about it.
When we say that God is sovereign, we mean that he's in charge. He rules the universe. There are a couple of reasons for this.
First is the fact that he created all things. As the Creator of everything, this gives God authority over all of it to do what he wishes with it.
Secondly, we see in the Bible that God has three important qualities that are true about him. And these are that he is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. Those are fancy words, but we can break them down simply. The "omni" part of the word means "all." So these break down to God being:
All-knowing
All-powerful
All-present (or present everywhere at all times)
This obviously means that God is the most knowledgeable being, the most powerful being, the most present being in the universe, which also leads to him being the only one worthy of being in control.
These things together are why we say that God is sovereign.
Scripture doesn't really give any room to disagree with those things being true about God—they are clearly laid out. We don't necessarily have time to go through all those scriptures, but if you want to, definitely let one of us pastors know, and we'd be happy to walk through that with you.
The Difficult Questions
Where the primary disagreements come in is what this means for us as humanity. What does God's sovereignty mean for us?
People disagree about what level of control God chooses to have over us as people. The question often becomes: if God is sovereign, if he's in control, why in the world would he allow us to do the things that he allows us to do?
We touched on this some when we discussed the people of Israel rejecting God as king over them. But our two stories really bring it again into the forefront.
All the way back when God created humanity, he created us in his image with a will. Not mindless robots, but creatures who had a choice. And then he gave this choice in the Garden of Eden. He created a tree—the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—and told Adam and Eve not to eat from that tree. That choice to obey him or disobey him was a very large choice. And Adam and Eve chose to disobey, which brought sin into the world.
Fast forward and we get this story out of Judges where every human is doing whatever seems right to them and it leads to this incredibly evil story.
A few minutes ago I told you about the Ammonites and how cruel and evil they were. But the people of Israel don't really seem to be much better. The fact of the matter is when people are allowed to just do whatever they think is best with no guidance, they always turn bad.
So why does God allow this? Why does God allow evil humans to keep being evil?
The reality is that if God is truly all-powerful and all-knowing and all-present, if God is truly sovereign over all the universe, then he could easily stop it. He could stop this level of evil from happening.
So why doesn't he?
God's Plan Is Underway
Well, I think on one level the answer is that he is stopping it—just not necessarily on a time frame that we would choose.
God's ultimate plan of gospel salvation is going to ultimately and finally destroy evil forever and return his creation to this status of "good" that it was when he created it. But it's not been a quick process. It's taking thousands of years.
And for someone like this poor concubine in the Book of Judges, or the men and women of Jabesh-Gilead in either story, the problem of what God is going to do about evil has much more urgent weight. They can't afford to wait thousands of years for God's ultimate plan to finish.
Okay, put a pin in that. We're going to talk about that question. We're going to try to answer it. But I think we need to finish our story here in 1 Samuel first. We need to make sure that we continue building this foundation in order for us to get there.
Victory and Renewal
So let's return to 1 Samuel. We're going to read verses 9 through 15.
Remember where we're at. Saul has organized all the tribes of Israel into an army and:
He told the messengers who had come, "Tell this to the men of Jabesh-Gilead: 'Deliverance will be yours tomorrow by the time the sun is hot.'" So the messengers told the men of Jabesh, and they rejoiced.
Then the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, "Tomorrow we will come out, and you can do whatever you want to us." The next day Saul organized the troops into three divisions. During the morning watch, they invaded the Ammonite camp and slaughtered them until the heat of the day. There were survivors, but they were so scattered that no two of them were left together.
Afterward, the people said to Samuel, "Who said that Saul should not reign over us? Give us those men so we can kill them." But Saul ordered, "No one will be executed this day, for today the Lord has provided deliverance in Israel."
Then Samuel said to the people, "Come, let's go to Gilgal, so we can renew the kingship there." So all the people went to Gilgal, and there in the Lord's presence, they made Saul king. There they sacrificed fellowship offerings in the Lord's presence, and Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.
The Rescue
We see that Saul sends the messengers back into the city telling them that the people would be delivered the next day. Now remember, the people of Jabesh-Gilead are on a time frame here. They have seven days. The text doesn't tell us how far into this seven days we are, but I have to imagine that the messengers traveling throughout Israel, Saul finally hearing word, sending his oxen throughout the country and then gathering all the people together in Bezek, would have taken some time. I would guess that they are probably pretty close to the end of the seven days.
So he sends to the people of Jabesh-Gilead and tells them that tomorrow he will rescue them. And so the people send out a message to Nahash saying, "Tomorrow we will come out and you can do whatever you want to us."
Again, this language is a direct callback to the story in Judges. If Saul doesn't show up and deliver the people of the city, then Nahash is most definitely going to do whatever he thinks is right to the city.
I think it's easy to get caught up in the story details and think that this is just a physical battle between the Ammonites and Israel. But on another level, I think we see that this is a spiritual battle between the evil of humanity doing whatever it thinks is best and God's sovereign leadership.
The good news is God doesn't lose battles.
Saul, filled with the Holy Spirit of God, leads his troops across the river. They invade the Ammonite camp and they slaughter them for hours. The destruction of the Ammonite army is so great that the survivors fleeing aren't even in groups whatsoever. They're just single men running away.
Saul Becomes King
Now we see that Saul has shown that he doesn't just physically look like a king, but he's totally reversed his previous cowardice. He's united all of the tribes into an army, led them into battle, and totally destroyed the enemy army.
Now the people are ready for him to actually be the king. They call for these wicked# New Days: God's Sovereignty and Our Choices (continued from "Saul Becomes King")
Now the people are ready for him to actually be the king. They call for these wicked men who had previously said that Saul shouldn't lead, and they threaten to kill them. But Saul, filled with the Holy Spirit, offers mercy to these men. And he points to the truth that we already know: It was actually God who provided the deliverance to the people.
In the previous chapter, in chapter 10, verse 27, the wicked men who questioned Saul and temporarily stopped the kingship asked this question: "How can this guy save us?"
Well, the answer is revealed here—by God's Spirit working through him.
Then Samuel leads the people to Gilgal where they make offerings to God. They renew the kingship, finally making Saul the king over Israel. But really, whether the people mean to or not, God has proven that he is still sovereign over their nation. Their rejection of his leadership didn't take it away—he couldn't be removed. He's still leading and guiding them through his Holy Spirit filling and leading Saul.
They aren't just renewing the kingship of Saul. They're also renewing the ultimate kingship of God over their nation. He's the one who actually saved them.
And that's where we get to the end of the story for this "New Days" series. Saul is king. Israel has become a nation. God is really the one in control. And whether the people want to acknowledge him as their sovereign leader or not, he is in control.
From here, we will continue the rest of the book with the nation of Israel as a kingdom instead of just a loose collection of tribes.
Returning to Our Question
With that context, let's take the pin out and return back to our question from before.
Why does God choose to step in and prevent this evil? Why does God fill Saul with his Spirit and save his people here? Why does God establish Saul as the king of the nation, despite the fact that the nation's desire for a king was a rejection of him in the first place? Why didn't he choose to stop the Ammonites earlier, before they even got to Jabesh-Gilead?
These questions ultimately come down to this question of evil: Why does God allow humans to continue committing evil?
Love and Responsibility
The answer, I think, comes down to love and responsibility.
When God created humans, he didn't just create another type of animal to fill the earth. He created us with a greater level of awareness. He gave us choice. He wasn't just populating the earth with another type of species. He was creating a family—people to share his love with, to share himself with.
We have this book because God wants us to know who he is, to be able to know enough about him to be able to have a relationship with him. And that's what he wanted when he created humanity: a family, a people for his own possession, humans to share his love with and to love him in return.
But that's the nature of love. It isn't love if it's forced.
God could have stopped evil in the very first place. He could have stopped Adam and Eve from eating the fruit. He's all-powerful. He's sovereign. He could have stopped them. He could have not even given them the choice.
But that's the thing. Being the one in control of the universe means that he can choose not to stop it as well. And so out of love, he did not stop evil because he wanted them to love him willingly. He didn't stop them from sinning because he loved them. And love means that they had to choose to love him in return.
But they chose not to. And things went really, really badly from that choice.
Humanity's Track Record
I don't know how long it's been since you read the first few chapters of Genesis. I just recently read through them. But if you follow the genealogy laid out from Adam to Noah, there's about 1,600 years between Adam's creation and God deciding to end humanity and restart with Noah's family.
During that time, Scripture doesn't really tell us much about what God was doing. But the lack of emphasis in the text seems to mean that God probably kind of just decided to let humanity operate pretty independently.
And it does not go well.
Genesis chapter 6, verses 5 and 6 say:
"When the Lord saw that the human wickedness was widespread on the earth, and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time, the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and he was deeply grieved."
So within about 1,600 years, humanity became so wicked and evil that God decided to put a stop to their evil. And the solution was to wipe them all out.
We Are Responsible
This is the part where we never want to admit, when we question God's response to evil, that we are actually responsible for that evil.
It might be true that God is permitting evil to happen and that he could stop it, but we are responsible for the evil in the first place. We always look for someone else to blame, but there isn't anyone else to blame. We are responsible.
But God is gracious and merciful, and he wasn't content to let it stop there. He had a plan, and that plan included humanity continuing through Noah. God was continuing to work his plan of salvation.
Now, at this point, I think the fair question is: Why did God's plan require so much time? Why not have Jesus show up much earlier?
Progressive Revelation
I'm not sure we can really answer that because we don't really understand God's full plan. But I think if we read this book—and I mean really read it, trying to understand the whole story—I think we can see that God's plan includes something that is called progressive revelation.
Now, progressive revelation is just a fancy term that means that throughout history, God has slowly revealed his plan of salvation to us in pieces. He's revealed his purposes without just dumping it all onto humanity at one time. That's what this book tells us: the story of God's salvation, God's progressive revelation throughout thousands of years about who he is and what his plan for us is.
Why Progressive Revelation?
Why did God choose to do it that way? It's probably because humanity wasn't fully capable of accepting God's full salvation, which is why God had to progressively reveal himself throughout time.
We've talked about God's leadership over Israel and his leadership over us. But part of talking about his sovereignty is how he has divinely directed the entire world's progression over history.
God's people started as a family unit and then progressed to tribes. And then here we see him advance them to a kingdom. And eventually we get to be a part of this explosive movement of churches across the world.
But not just divinely directing his people—God has also directed the advancement of humanity in so many ways: technologically, socially, economically, governmentally, so many ways. While these things may not have stopped human evil, we have seen that they have helped to limit it in some ways. We now have laws, societies, and increased accountability that helps to keep many people from living in whatever way seems right to them.
Working with Limited Understanding
Throughout our entire human history, God has worked with our limited human understanding.
Just think back to Abraham. Everyone around him categorized God along with all the other gods that the people worshiped. God was just one of the many. God had to work with Abraham's limited understanding of who he is, leading to scenes like God calling Abraham to sacrifice Isaac—because child sacrifice to gods like Molech was the normal and expected way to interact with a god at that time.
Our big-G God used that understanding of Abraham's to teach him a lesson about sacrifice and substitutionary atonement. A lesson that would eventually come back around and be increased with Passover, and then be highlighted again with the temple sacrificial system, and eventually be fully revealed with Jesus on the cross.
The point is, God has had to work with our limited human understanding and reveal his nature in pieces over thousands of years as he's also advanced humanity throughout history through all of these other ways, in order to get us to the point where we were ready for Jesus to offer salvation.
The Answer
So have we answered the question? I think we have.
Why does God allow some evil and stop others?
Because he is sovereignly guiding humanity toward his ultimate plan of salvation and because he loves each one of us too much to force us to love him in return. But he has made a way for us to be saved from our own sin, to become holy like Jesus is holy, to stop creating evil in the world.
And that way is, of course, Jesus Christ.
The gospel message of salvation through Jesus Christ is what God was progressively revealing through history and through Scripture for thousands of years until Jesus arrived and completed the revelation, allowing for us to be saved and returned into the love and family of God.
Eventually, God's family will be complete. All of those who he created, who will be a part of his people, will be gathered to him. And then he will come down, wipe away all evil, and recreate his creation so that it can once again be called good.
We Need God's Leadership
As we've seen the progression of Israel from the darkness at the end of Judges to a kingdom under Saul, what we've really seen is that the people desperately need to be led by God, that his sovereign leadership is all that keeps them from becoming just as dark and evil as the world around them. God's leadership, his salvation is all that separates them from evil.
We aren't any different than them. Whether we want to admit it or not, we need God's leadership and salvation as much as those people do.
Thanks be to God, we have greater access to the truth than they did. We have this book. And according to Paul in Ephesians 3:5, the mystery of the gospel of Jesus Christ may not have been made known to people in other generations, but it has now been revealed to us by the Spirit of God.
We have it. We have the truth.
The Gospel
We are sinners, consumed by our own evil. But God has made a way through the perfect holy life and the undeserved death of Jesus Christ, where he took our deserved punishment upon himself and gave us the fruit of his perfect life and his righteousness, allowing us to be made new and return to God's presence and his family.
Romans chapter 10, verses 9 and 10 says:
"If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation."
The process of salvation is incredibly easy, but it requires us to believe in Jesus and acknowledge him as both our Savior and our Lord.
Admitting that we've made a mess of our lives as we tried to live in the way that seemed right to us is a part of it. And asking Jesus to save us and to be our Lord is also a part of it. We have to acknowledge that we need him to lead and guide us.
Jesus is sovereign and his plan is better.
Jesus as Lord
Jesus is leading and guiding humanity toward the fulfillment of his plan. We should submit to his leading and guidance in our lives as well. He will fill us with his Spirit and lead us just like he did with Saul.
There are people who try to accept Jesus' forgiveness of sin without also accepting him as the Lord and King of their lives. It just doesn't work. I promise you, you will just continue making a mess of your own life if that's what you try to do.
Jesus' way is better.
Yesterday we had Doug Kirsch's memorial in here. And one of the things that really struck me was that everyone who spoke said that Doug's life was so wrapped around Jesus that he was the number one thing in his life.
That's how it should be. Jesus should be number one. He should be on the throne of our lives.
It's easy to say that, but it's harder to actually live it.
I was thinking yesterday, after that memorial service: Will the people at my memorial service say that Jesus was the number one most important thing in my life?
I think we should ask that question of ourselves.
A Time for Reflection
I want us to spend a few moments in reflection. This was a very dense passage. There was a lot of stories, a lot of threads woven through here. But most importantly is that question: Is Jesus the most important thing in our lives? Does Jesus lead and guide us or are we trying to take the reins on for ourselves?
I would encourage you to spend this time thinking about if you've truly submitted your life to Jesus as not just your Savior, but as your Lord. That's not just a one-time thing. It's something that we have to work at, that we have to daily give ourselves to Jesus.
Spend a few minutes with Jesus.
Communion is just this perfect example of God's progressive revelation of his salvation plan throughout history, coming to a head and inviting us in to this new covenant that he gives. The bread representing his body broken for us, the juice representing his blood poured out for us—all so that we can join his family, that we can be saved and accept his leadership and guidance.
So spend some time in reflection. Then when you're ready, come up and take communion.
Reflection Questions
As you process this sermon, consider these questions:
Re-read 1 Samuel 11:1-15. This is a tough passage. What thoughts or questions stick out to you as you read?
In 1 Samuel 11, we see Saul go from the guy hiding in the luggage to boldly leading Israel into battle. What do you suppose caused this dramatic change? How do you thunk the Holy Spirit's work in Saul compares to how the Spirit works in believers today?
In the story, why do you think Nahash agreed to give Jabesh Gilead seven days? Does this say anything about the ways God intervenes in our lives in difficult circumstances?
Pastor Jesse explained the idea of progressive revelation (that God has slowly revealed His salvation plan throughout history rather than all at once). Why might God have chosen to work this way? How does this help us understand difficult Old Testament passages?
This sermon emphasized that we can't accept Jesus as Savior without also accepting Him as Lord. What's the difference? Where do you struggle to let Jesus be Lord in your daily decisions?
Pastor Jesse asked if people at you memorial service would say Jesus was the most important thing in your life. How did that question land with you? What would you want people to say about your faith journey when you’ve finished out this life?
What was God telling you this week? What are you going to do about it?
This sermon was preached at Immanuel Fellowship Church in Ellisville Missouri as part of our "New Days" series within 1 Samuel, exploring Israel's transition from tribal confederation to monarchy and what it teaches us about God's movement in our own lives and world toward his good future. For more resources on faith and Christian living, visit our website or connect with our community. You can email us at hello@ifcstl.com or call/text us at 636-431-4708
