WBS.231
FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP
OLD
TESTAMENT SURVEY – 11
THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL
1 Sam 8:19 ...we will have a king over us,
20 that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.
20 that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.
Two more judges ruled
in Israel after the book of Judges concludes.
After the death of Samson, the land of Israel was beset
with very troubling internal affairs; and the tribe of Benjamin was almost
destroyed (read Judges 19-21). The book of Judges ends with this dismal
declaration:
Judges 21:25 In those days there was no ruler in Israel: everyone did
what was right in his own eyes.
It is during this period of moral decay and
decadence that the record of 1 Samuel (Shemu'el) opens with the story of
Elkanah and his wives, Penninah and Hannah, going up from their city in the
mountains of Ephraim unto Shiloh year by year to offer sacrifices to IAUE.
There we find a Levite by the name of Eli serving as priest in the city of
Shiloh. (Eli came to be regarded as the second-to-the-last
judge of Israel.)
Hannah was barren, and Penninah mercilessly provoked
her for her inability to bear Elkanah a child. One year, as they went up
to offer sacrifices, Eli found Hannah praying before IAUE; but no words were
coming out of her mouth for her grief was so great. Eli, at first,
assumed she was drunk with wine; but upon hearing from Hannah of her reproach,
he declared to her, "Go in peace, and the
Elohim of Israel give you your petition which you have asked of Him."
(1 Sam 1:17) The following year, Hannah bore Elkanah a son...named
Samuel (Shemu'el) (Circa 1103 BC).
When the child was weaned, Hannah brought Samuel to
the house of IAUE in Shiloh and left him there to attend to Eli and to serve
before IAUE. The child grew in wisdom and in the knowledge of the
Scriptures. As he grew into manhood he became known as a prophet of IAUE
(approximately 30 years of age).
1 Sam 3:20 And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel had
been established as a prophet of IAUE.
This effectively made Samuel the next (and last)
ruler of Israel. The day finally came
when the Hebrews came to Samuel and said:
1 Samuel 8:5 Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways:
now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.
6 But the thing displeased Samuel...
This was a significant turning point in the history
of the Hebrew people. It was not Elohim's intention that His people be
like the other nations. He wanted to be their ruler; He had given them
His laws and provided for them a priesthood; but the hearts of the people were
hard and they could not maintain a consistent faithfulness to this unseen
Elohim. They wanted a king.
They wanted another Moses…someone who would hear from Elohim and tell the
people whatever it is they needed to know and do. They did not want the responsibility of
personal obedience to IAUE. If left to
their own devices, they would denigrate into imitating the rest of the evil
world around them. They would “do what is right in
their own eyes.” The problem with
that is “There is a way that seemeth right to a
man; but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (Prov 14:12, 16:25).
That is no less true today that it was 3,000 years ago.
Samuel told them that if he anointed a king for
them, the king would be oppressive. He
would conscript their sons into his service, force their daughters to work for
him, tax the people for a tenth of their produce, and generally making their
lives miserable. He warned them that they would eventually cry out to IAUE
for relief from the king, but IAUE would not answer them in that day.
Despite all this, they insisted on having a king. (This is true of anything other than IAUE that we give ourselves to
serve.)
Romans 6:16 Know ye not, that to whom ye
yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether
of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
Samuel anointed Saul to be king of Israel.
Saul was head and shoulders taller than any other man in Israel. That
alone was his qualification to be their king. Compared to the rest of
Israel, he was a giant. Virtually all of
the nations that the Hebrews had fought in order to possess Canaan were lead by
giants. The peoples that they did not
destroy still had giants among them. To have a king who was a foot taller than
the rest of the people was the first step in being like all the other nations.
Thus began "the Kingdom of Israel." (Circa 1065 BC)
The Tanak combines the two books we call I Samuel and II Samuel as the one book, Shemu'el. I Samuel contains 31 chapters and is devoted to the historical record of the reign of Saul.
Saul reigned as king for only two years before his
disobedience to IAUE cost him his anointing and the perpetuity of the kingdom
to his bloodline. Though he ruled for another 38 years, Saul ruled with
the knowledge that IAUE had promised to strip him of the kingdom. Not only would he cease to be king, his sons
would not inherit the throne. He subsequently discovered that IAUE had
transferred his anointing upon David, the son of Jesse. Much of the
historical record of I Samuel is devoted to Saul's persecution and pursuit of
David to kill him. He
apparently believed that if he could kill the one anointed to replace him on
the throne that he could secure the throne to his offspring. King
Saul's death is recorded in chapter 31 (Circa 1025 BC).
To put things into a different perspective consider the following facts:
- Eli was born when Jephtha and Jair ruled as
judges (Circa 1134 BC).
- Saul was born about the time that Samson began
to judge over Israel (Circa 1095 BC).
- Samuel was born when Eli was 31 years old, just
one year after Eli became a priest.
- Saul had been king for ten years before David was even born (Circa 1055 BC)
- Saul had been king for ten years before David was even born (Circa 1055 BC)
- David was about 25 years old when he slew
Goliath of the Philistines.
- At Saul's death, David was only 30 years old.
- At Saul's death, David was only 30 years old.
Footnote:
Let’s
put another thing into perspective.
Everyone knows the story of David and Goliath. Everyone knows Goliath was a “giant.” The Scriptures tell us in 1 Samuel 17:4, that
Goliath was six cubits and a span in height.
A cubit was not a fixed length.
It varied from culture to culture, and even from use to use. It is generally accepted to be between 18
inches and 22 inches. A span was half a
cubit. This would make Goliath anywhere
from 9’9” to 12’5”. Try to form a mental
image of what that would look like. Maybe look at the walls in your house
(probably not taller than eight or nine feet). He was taller than that.
I
am tall (6’4”); and any time a person who is even an inch taller than me walks
past me, I feel like I am small by comparison. It is an uncanny sensation. Imagine going into combat against someone who
is anywhere from half again taller than you to twice your height. That would be a Goliath; however, when Joshua
led Israel to overthrow 31 nations to conquer the land of Canaan, Goliath would
have been tiny by comparison. The giants in Canaan were anywhere from 15-35
feet tall.
Even
though standing over 7 feet tall, Saul was still small by comparison with
Goliath. The Philistine giant was calling out the Israelite giant; yet he was
answered by a young boy of 25 years of age who knew he had a covenant with
IAUE. The covenant relationship made him
more than a match for this enemy…just as it does for us, still, today.
Kingdom heart: a heart that offers
no resistance to the performance of the will of IAUE.
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