1 Samuel 9:3-6 - In this town there is a man of God

9:3-5

We then get the tale of Saul and his father’s donkeys. The donkeys had gone astray, and Saul’s father Kish sent Saul, along with a servant, to go and look for them. So Saul and the servant set off in search of these lost donkeys, but without success. By the time they reached the district of Zuph (probably near Ramah, where Samuel came from) Saul was ready to give up on the task. He gives as a reason that his father would start wondering where they had got to, and if some disaster had befallen them.

9:6

The servant has another suggestion. He knows there is a “man of God” nearby, this being Samuel. “Man of God” was a term applied to someone who was devoted to God, and probably had a prophetic gift. It is interesting that the servant knew of the reputation of Samuel, while Saul did not. Or if Saul did know of him, he didn’t think to go to Samuel for help.

1 Corinthians 2:15,16 - We have the mind of Christ

2:15

Being filled with the Spirit changes everything, and it changes our outlook on all sorts of matters. “Such a person is not subject to merely human judgements”. This does not mean that we are beyond criticism, but just because the world sees things differently does not mean that we are wrong about a matter. Indeed, we should not be surprised that the world sees things differently. Moreover, see how the world considers itself to be above criticism! Try criticising gender ideology, or evolution and see how it so often reacts.

2:16

Paul loves to find an Old Testament quotation to back up his point, and here he quotes from Is 40:13. God does not need anyone to teach Him (see Is 40:14 as well). Indeed it is ridiculous to imagine that God would need someone to teach Him.  Yet God has revealed the truth to us if we will accept it. We then have the mind of Christ, i.e. we see things in the same way that Christ saw and sees them. Now this is a process. We do not learn everything all at once. In that sense it is not like having a new operating system installed, in another sense it is. Being born again does radically change the way we see and do things, but we are born again, and those who are born have to grow up and mature, learning all along the way.

1 Samuel 9:1,2 - He was a head taller

9:1

We now come to the anointing of the first king of Israel, and the whole matter is rather strange. We know that Saul quickly turned out to be a disaster, and that raises the matter of why did God tell Samuel to anoint Saul in the first place. Gen 49:10 says “the sceptre shall not depart from Judah”, yet Saul is from the tribe of Benjamin. At the end of Judges we read the disaster that came from Benjamin, and how the tribe was much diminished. Perhaps the best answer as to “why” is that Saul was God’s judgement upon Israel, he was giving them the king they desired and deserved.

9:2

The narrative of Saul is mixed. 9:1 begins by describing Saul as “a man of standing”, this is a positive description of him, and here we are told that he was a “handsome young man” and a head taller than anyone else. So he was physically attractive, he had kingly stature. Although he is described as “young”, 1 Sam 13:1 tells us that he was thirty years old when he became king.

1 Corinthians 2:13,14 - Not words taught by human wisdom

2:13

So the message that Paul and his companions taught was not a message based on human wisdom, but one based on Godly wisdom. I must emphasise again that this in no way means we “kiss our brains goodbye”. Quite the opposite. We will use our minds all the more, but they will now function properly. So we preach and teach spiritual realities.

2:14

But some will not understand us. The one who is still in rebellion against God , who looks at things from a worldly perspective, will not understand. Discerning things through the Spirit is not some strange mystical experience. It is what happens when we repent and turn to God. There may be times when God does give a dream or vision, but most of the time we learn in a “normal” way. The key difference is someone submitted to God, filled with the Spirit.

1 Samuel 8:11-22 - We want a king over us

8:11-18

Samuel goes into the specifics of what a king would do. He would take their sons to serve as his soldiers, he would also take them to work the ground for himself. He would also take women to be “perfumers, cooks and bakers”. He would take the best of the people’s land, and charge them a tithe of their produce. This land and money would be given to his attendants. We see all this happening today. Governments, of course, do take our taxes, they also have vast bureaucracies, and favour their “attendants”. At some point the people would cry out, but God would not answer them, for the people were getting what they had asked for. In short they would get the government they deserved. It is far better to be under God’s rule than the rule of man.

8:19-22

The people refused to take heed of Samuel’s warnings and insisted that they wanted a king. This is perhaps like the crowds demanding that Barabas be freed rather than Jesus. People choose to reject God. They imagined that they then would be like the other nations. We need to beware of delusions. Samuel told God what the people had said, and God told him to give them their king. Samuel then sent everyone back to their own towns.

1 Corinthians 2:11,12 - Who knows the thoughts of God?

2:11

Paul now addresses the question of why do we need the Spirit to reveal to us the thoughts of God. The answer is obvious if we think about it a little. Who knows my thoughts unless I tell you, either verbally or writing them down? You would not know what I think about various Bible passages unless I revealed them to you in these blog posts. Likewise, no one can know God’s thoughts unless He reveals them to us. A fundamental point here is that God is a person (three persons, in fact, Father, Son and Holy Spirit), He is not a mere idea or force.

2:12

The defining characteristic of a Christian is that they have received the Holy Spirit. Jesus said no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again, born of the Spirit. We have received the Holy Spirit, and He sees things rather differently than the world sees them! So we should not be surprised if our outlook is somewhat different from that of the world. And a key part of the Spirit’s work is to enable us to “understand what God has freely given to us”. So how does this work in practice? Well, we read and study the Bible, the word of God, and as we do so the Spirit enables us to understand. This does not mean that we have no part to play in the process, far from it. God has given us minds, and a mind that is looking to God, rather than rebelling against Him, functions well.

1 Samuel 8:10 - Samuel told all the words of the Lord

8:10

So Samuel now tells the people what the consequences of having a king “like the nations” will be. The king will claim various things as his right. It is worth remembering that back in Deut 17:14,15 Moses had told them that they would at some point in the future ask for a king, and they were commanded to appoint a king whom God had chosen. Israel has still not done this, and will only do so when they acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Messiah. The king was also commanded not to take great wealth, nor many wives (Deut 17:16,17). He was also to be committed to the Law, and not to consider himself better than the people (Deut 17:18-20). None of the kings measured up to this, not even David who had a fair number of wives, and Solomon, of course, excelled in the number of wives game.