Wednesday, June 10, 2020

2020.06.10 Hopewell @Home ▫ 1 Samuel 9:25–10:16

Questions from the Scripture text: What did Samuel and Saul do after the feast at the high place (1 Samuel 9:25)? Where was Saul staying, and what happened the next morning (1 Samuel 9:26)? What did they do with the servant and why in 1 Samuel 9:27? What did Samuel do to Saul in 1 Samuel 10:1a? What did he say Yahweh had done, and what does he call Saul (verse 1b)? Whom does he tell him he will find where (1 Samuel 10:2)? What will the two men say his dad is worried about? Then whom will he meet where (1 Samuel 10:3)? What will they have with them? What will they give him (1 Samuel 10:4)? Then to which hill will he come (1 Samuel 10:5)? Whom will he meet there? What will they have? What will they be doing? What will happen to Saul (1 Samuel 10:6)? Then where must Saul go (1 Samuel 10:7-8)? Who will meet him there? When? To do what? What did God give Saul in 1 Samuel 10:9a? What happened (verse 9b)? What did Saul do in 1 Samuel 10:10? And what did those who knew him think of this (1 Samuel 10:11-12) What did they ask? What Saul do after prophesying (1 Samuel 10:13)? What did Saul’s uncle ask him in 1 Samuel 10:14? How does Saul answer? What else does Saul’s uncle ask in 1 Samuel 10:15? What does Saul tell him (1 Samuel 10:16)? What doesn’t Saul tell him?
In the strange account of Samuel’s anointing, the Lord teaches us that He works by His Spirit and Word.

God works by His Spirit. That’s the point of all of this strangeness. It must have been odd to the servant (1 Samuel 9:27) when Saul returned maybe dripping with oil, and definitely smelling “anointed.” But Saul was meant to connect that anointing with the most astonishing event of his day: when Saul the shy guy suddenly became a prophet at the center of attention.

Samuel had told Saul that these events were going to happen in details that ordinary huckster fortune-tellers would never have included. But he included one thing that could not be verified by observation: that it would be the Spirit of Yahweh (1 Samuel 10:6) Who would produce that which confused all who observed or heard it (1 Samuel 10:11-12). What they couldn’t guess, Saul definitively knew: this was only by the Spirit of God, wielding the power of God.

In our baptisms, when the water is poured upon us, the Lord tells us the same thing about our coming to faith, or growing in grace: this is only by the Spirit of God, wielding the power of God. Saul was to reign as king and deliver God’s people, not by Saul’s might or Saul’s power, but by God’s Spirit (cf. Zechariah 4:6).

But God the Spirit most often exercises His power not in showy displays but ordinary obedience. Our flesh tends to prefer the scintillating over the steady and faithful. So, it is very important that we receive the message of this text about how God honors His Word. God’s Spirit especially works by His Word.

Saul is about to be king over the most important (though not the most impressive) nation on earth. But he is to operate in patient obedience to what comes out of the mouth of the prophet. God will now be ruling His people by a king, but He will be ruling His king by His Word through His prophet (1 Samuel 9:271 Samuel 10:8).

Samuel could have given Saul the subsequent instructions right then. But, God wanted Saul to experience seven days of waiting (verse 8), seven days’ worth of feeling in every fiber of his being that he needs the Word of God and must submit to the prophet of God, if he’s really going to live and rule by the power of God from the Spirit of God.

Our Lord Jesus, who is our righteousness, did this perfectly. He waited upon His Father’s pouring out His Spirit to begin His public ministry, and then He did only that which came at His Father’s initiative and Word (cf. John 5:19, John 8:29, John 12:49). He constantly referred with complete submission to God’s Word, and often said or did things “so that the Scripture might be fulfilled.”

We who would live in union with this Christ, who would live by God’s power as wielded by God’s Spirit, must do so through steady and faithful obedience to God’s Word!
Where do you find God’s words, as you seek to live by God’s power? What are you doing in order to know His Word better? What are you doing to live by what you know?
Suggested Songs: ARP1 “How Blessed the Man” or TPH429 “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing”

No comments:

Post a Comment