1 Samuel 13-14

In 1 Samuel 13-14, Saul's shortcomings as king come to life, reminding us that earthly leaders will always end up falling short. Despite these things, this passage also reminds us that God's presence will always be with His people. 

What things are we seeking for security and peace of mind? How does the failure of these things to satisfy us point us back to God? 

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Alright. If you brought your Bible, go ahead and grab it and turn to the book of 1 Samuel. If you didn't bring a Bible, but you have it on your phone, go ahead and open it up. 1 Samuel 13 and 14 is what we're looking at this morning. I'll give a bit of a disclaimer. Some of you know this about me already, but Sunday mornings I have a rhythm that I walk through where I get uh to the building and preach through my sermon when no one's in the room and just prepare for that. I do that early Sunday mornings, and um this morning was not able to do that. I was uh spending some time with Dave and Bree. And so um uh I feel strange saying this, but it's my disclaimer. I'm not sure what God will do here. Um, I'm not sure. I haven't I haven't worked through this sermon. I've prepared, by the way. This isn't uh let's see what the spirit does with a hundred verses. Um but it's more of a bear with me. Um we may we may uh sort of fumble through some things. Um, but it's God's word and it's powerful and effective and sharp and able to pierce and get into our lives. So, first Samuel um 13 and 14. Remember this series, uh, as is on the screen has been called, we've called it the King is coming. And that title serves um two purposes. It shows us what's happening in 1st and 2nd Samuel, God's plan to bring about a line of human kings for the people, but in that line of human kings, we know that these kings will be flawed, and we've already seen it. These kings will be flawed, they'll be just like any of us would be if we were asked to be king or queen over a people. At times they're selfish, at times they're arrogant, at times they're willfully disobedient, at times they're fearful, at times they're not willfully disobedient, they're just foolish. And uh the king is coming shows us God's plan to bring about a line of human kings to lead God's people back to himself. But the title, The King is coming, also points us forward to the king who is coming, the one true and lasting eternal King Jesus, who has come as Savior and who has promised to return as the ruling and reigning and renewing and restoring King of all kings. The king is coming, so it's pointing us forward also. And really, what we've seen already, and really what we've seen all over the Old Testament, is this longing for something better. This aching from the people, even for our own hearts, for something better. A few weeks ago we saw this of the people. They wanted someone who would step in and lead them forward. They were tired of being whipped around by the other nations, that God's judges would come and go, and God's people were tired of having an enemy attack, and then an enemy plunder them, and then a judge who would come in and rescue them, and that judge would die out, and and and they would be attacked again, and it would go back and forth, back and forth. If we could get a king like the other nations around us, then everything would be better, they say. They longed for something better. And that's the human condition, isn't it? It's where we sit also. We long for something better. We will always be dissatisfied if we're looking for something on this earth to rescue us and bring us restoration. We will always be dissatisfied. And the beginning chapters of 1 Samuel reveal that longing from the people. The judges have come and they've gone. And how does the book begin? Eli, the priest, is getting older, and his two sons have twisted the priesthood around to mean some other things, and now his sons are dead and gone. And Samuel has stepped in as the acting prophet, the acting judge, and in some ways carrying out some of the priestly responsibilities. But Samuel's sons are wicked, and they've been removed from their post. And Samuel is now getting older, and the people have asked Samuel for a king. We want a king, and so one is appointed, but he's from a lesser tribe. Even in that king, there's some uh deficiencies. He's from a lesser tribe, a no-name family, and he's insecure and he's fearful. With each step forward, there are glimpses of hope for the people. We see it coming. Here's our hope, here's our chance. And those hopes are only to be dashed, leaving the people longing for still something better. And that's us, isn't it? We're always looking for resolve, we're always looking for restoration, for rest, for hope. We're always longing for this person or this event that will bring us a sense of security. We're longing for that. So I want us just to pause right now, in the middle of all of that, and and I want us to think about something right now in your life, as an individual, for you, in your own life, that you have placed your hopes on, that you've set your hopes in fully, that would bring you a sense of security or a sense of peace in your life. We all have something. Could be something that you think, oh, that's insignificant, but it's not to you. There's something in our lives, each of us, where we have placed a sense of security, a sense of hope, a sense of, oh, a longing. That that will one day come. It will bring me peace in my life. Just pause right now and think about what that is in your life. That that brings you a sense of security. For some, that that may come very easily to mind. And it is your sense of security in this life. I don't know what what it is for you. Is it a sense of safety? Where I've got to have an action plan for every harm that may come my way. And so for me, it's this sense of safety that I'm going to grab onto. Maybe for others, it's a sense of financial stability. Where you'd say, I need to have a bailout plan in case our system of money or my system of how I've put away money if all of that crashes, I need to grab onto that and have a system. Or is it in physical security? Maybe for you it's in physical security and some some health plan that will keep you going, move you forward. We're headed into a political year. Is your sense of security in your candidate being elected? Yep, then everything will go the right way. Is that where you are moving? Would just think about where that is. I don't know, that's just a few examples. What is it for you where you have um right now a sense of I've got hope if that happens, a sense of security, a sense of peace, at rest if that if that happens. Can I just speak to two truths in that? First, listen, I'll I'll put it out there. We are called to be responsible to what God has entrusted to us. So I'm not saying that thing will let you down, so don't worry about it. That's not what I'm saying. That that thing, whatever you're putting your hope in, that that will let you down, so just shove it aside and be irresponsible. That's not what I'm saying. So that's the first truth, the first thing we have to keep in mind. We are to be responsible stewards. But secondly, however, all of the ways in which we're seeking to find a sense of security, a sense of peace, a sense of rest and hope in this life will ultimately, ultimately, big picture, ultimately, fail us in some way. So, yes, be responsible, be a responsible steward, and at the same time, our trust of God to provide for those securities in this life has to be growing, has to be increasing because what we currently have will always, always, always disappoint. Which is what we see in these two long chapters that we'll look at this morning. Hopefully you've read. Hopefully you've read ahead. If not, I'll encourage you in the in the coming weeks to be reading ahead because there's a lot to go through today. Chapters 13 and 14. We're gonna have to summarize quite a bit. We'll just touch at things here and there. So if you have your Bible, keep it open so that you can see what I'm pointing to. In the very first verse of chapter 13, if you've read ahead, you you you may have been a little bit confused by that very first verse because it's a little bit confusing, because some of the original manuscripts have probably been damaged or lost in the process of how that was all written out. But what we can assume from this is that Saul has been king for a few years. I'll just summarize it in this way. Saul has been king for a few years. He's probably in his 40s. His son Jonathan is leading a group of soldiers as well. That's how we step into chapter 13. Saul chooses 3,000 men, the elite soldiers of Israel, the top of the top. He sends 2,000, um, or he keeps 2,000 to stay with him. He sends 1,000 to go under Jonathan, his son. The others who didn't make the cut were told in verse 2, are told to go home. And so in verse 3, we get to verse 3, we see Jonathan, Saul's son, leads his group of men to fight the Philistines, and they win. And if you read ahead, you probably saw this as well. Saul blows a trumpet and announces, listen, his victory. I don't know if you caught that. He announces that Saul is the one who did this. Near and far, everyone knows that the Philistines have been defeated. And as you can imagine, the Philistines are not thrilled. And so they gather thousands of chariots and their own armies. We're told in verse 5, how big is their army? As many as the sand on the seashore in multitude. There were hundreds and thousands ready to fight against God's people. So what happens? Look at verse six of chapter 13. It says, When the men of Israel saw that they were in trouble, for the people were hard-pressed, the people hid themselves in caves and in holes and in rocks and in tombs and in cisterns. Now keep in mind who's their leader? Saul. And what do we know of Saul being announced as king? What did he do when he was announced? He was hiding. So the leader is leading his people to do exactly what he did. They run and hide, they scatter and they are hiding in caves and holes and tombs and wells. Uh, some took off across the Jordan River. And those who were left followed Saul. They were what? Trembling, we're told. This is your king. This is your leader. And so Saul's son seems to be doing okay, but Saul, as a leader, has instilled into the people a fear of God's enemy. Look at verse 8. Says he, uh chapter 13, verse 8, he waited seven days, this is Saul. Saul waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel, but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from him, from Saul. Samuel told Saul, uh, he will make his way to Gilgal in seven days. I'm coming, uh, wait. But at this point, Samuel is not there, and so Saul is anxious. And those who were once following him are now scattering away from him. He's losing his grip on even those who would follow him. So Saul decides to offer burnt offerings and peace offerings. He didn't wait for Samuel. He didn't wait for Samuel to come. He didn't wait for a priest to do what only a priest could do, offer sacrifices. We see this in Numbers chapter 18, verse 7, where we're told that the offering of sacrifices was reserved for priests only. Saul knew that. And we know that Saul knew that because Samuel shows up finally, and Saul starts to make excuses. Samuel says to Saul, What have you done? And Saul says, Well, you didn't show up. He points it back, you didn't show up like you said you would. And the people were losing hope in me, and the Philistines were rallying together to come after us. And I knew that I had not yet sought God's favor in this. This battle with the Philistines had not yet been commissioned by God, sanctioned by God, blessed by God. You weren't here, Samuel. This is on you. You weren't here yet. Verse 12. So I for look look at what it says. So I forced myself to do something I didn't want to do. But I had to. I offered the burnt offering. Saul went against God's command for his people. Saul went against something, uh, Samuel's um word to him, words of wisdom to him, uh was to do, to wait on him at Gilgal. And Saul began to make excuses, pointed fingers at everyone else but himself. And so here's what we see in the very beginning verses of this chapter. Earthly leaders are disobedient and foolish. Write it down. And if you're sitting next to your boss, give him a big elbow right now. Just hang with me for a second. Earthly leaders are disobedient and foolish. Now, I don't mean, I don't mean, don't ever trust earthly leaders. That's not what I'm saying. Don't ever trust earthly leaders because every decision they will ever make is disobedient and foolish always. That's not what I'm saying. What I mean is this, though. Our hope cannot be only and ultimately placed in earthly leaders because earthly leaders, no matter how godly they are, no matter how God-appointed they are, like Saul was, earthly leaders at some point will disappoint us because they are disobedient and foolish. Where pride sets in and gets in the way, where selfishness may get in the way, a trust in their own capabilities may get in the way, a desire to be seen as significant may get in the way. Earthly leaders are so often marked by disobedience and foolishness. If you are an earthly leader, say to yourself right now, I am disobedient and I am foolish at times. We all are. Samuel says to Saul in verse 13, you've done foolishly. He just calls it, you've done foolishly. You've not kept the command of the Lord your God. And because of that, Saul, your kingdom will not continue. Your reign is coming to an end. God is even now seeking a man after his own heart to be king, because you have been foolish and disobedient. And we're told in verse 15 that the people scattered. The people run off. Six hundred men are left with Saul. And now Jonathan joins his dad. And while the people stay in Giba, the Philistines are encamped at Mi'mash. And the Philistines send out three groups of raiders. The word there is terrorizers, destroyers. They send out three groups of people to see what's going on to surround God's people, to take over. That's their plan. They're making life miserable for the Israelite people. And so we get to verse 19, and we're told that they had even taken over their ability to make weapons for themselves. So the Israelites couldn't even make weapons for themselves or sharpen anything. They had the market, uh, the hand on the market of the blacksmiths to sharpen weapons and make weapons. The Philistines had a monopoly on that. So if you as an Israelite wanted to get your weapon sharpened or a weapon made for you, the Philistines said, huh, lucky for us, we are the ones with the blacksmiths. And they charged exorbitant amounts for them to sharpen. I'm not even sure why they would do that, but they they charge them a lot to sharpen their tools. Earthly leaders are disobedient and foolish, flawed like you and me, leading the people forward. The people are now in front of the Philistines, and the Philistines have complete control. There wasn't a spear or a sword in any of the hands of the Israelites except for Saul and Jonathan. Earthly leaders are earthly. They're flawed men and women. They are extremely skilled and gifted to lead, sure. They may be honorable, they may be ones we we look up to and want to emulate. They may be elected by the people. They may even be chosen by God, but they're still earthly. And being earthly, they're flawed like you and me. Sinful like us. They're not all knowing, they're not all wise. At times they make foolish decisions like you and me. Earthly leaders are disobedient and they are foolish. We're told at the end of chapter 13 that the Philistines are waiting in the mountain past to see what the people of God would do. They're waiting. And chapter 14 begins with Jonathan really beginning to part ways with his dad, at least for a time. Jonathan takes his armor bearer and says, Don't tell dad, but let's go and see what the Philistines are doing. Let's go up and scout out what's happening. And we're told that Saul and his 600 men were safe on the outskirts of Gibeah in the pomegranate cave. Or literally, more likely, probably, they're under the pomegranate tree. So they're resting. These 600 men are resting in the shade of a very large tree. Included in that group is Ahijah, one of the priestly line, and he's wearing an ephod, this priestly garment. And it says in verse 3 of chapter 14 that the people did not know Jonathan had gone. We're starting to see this separation, this parting of ways between Saul and his son Jonathan. Which is what I think we see in the first 15 verses of chapter 14, that earthly leaders are replaceable. Earthly leaders come and earthly leaders go. They are replaceable. They come and they go. Jonathan and his armor bearer make their way out toward the Philistines to scout out the situation. They climb up this um uh between two rocky sections of the mountain in front of Mi'kmash. They look uh out over what's going on. Look at verse six of chapter 14. I want you to see what's going on, chapter or verse six of chapter 14. It says, Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armor, come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will work for us, for nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few. There's this departure between Saul and Jonathan. First, Jonathan calls them the uncircumcised. Now, this isn't just an anatomical designation, by the way, right? This isn't just um uh Jonathan making a declaration of what they look like. This is an intentional word choice that he's using from Jonathan to communicate that what? That these people are not a part of God's covenant people. They're not a part of the covenant people of God, circumcision being the sign that they are God's people. Jonathan is very clear to say, these are not God's people. Or you we could put it this way, these people are against God. That's what Jonathan's trying to communicate. And next, Jonathan says, It may be that the Lord will work for us. So I want us to put this together and see what's going on, what Jonathan is saying to his uh armor bearer. Unlike his dad, who couldn't wait the seven days for Samuel to arrive, so he made the sacrifices unlawfully, he made the sacrifices himself. Jonathan is willing to wait. He's willing to trust that God would work for them. He understands very clearly that these are God's enemies. These people are against God, and I'm gonna wait to see what God will do here. We begin to see this departure between Jonathan and And Saul. Then he says, nothing can hinder the Lord from saving as many as he chooses. Now think of it, just think about the differences. Saul and Jonathan, just in Jonathan's statement to his armor bearer, earthly leaders are replaceable. There's always someone who might be better, right? As a leader. There's always someone who might be worse than the last leader. Knowing that, listen, knowing that has to remind us that our hope cannot ever be fully in the one in front of us right now. And I would even have you all look up here and say the same thing. Our hope can't ever be in the one in front of us right now, because there may be one who's better, there may be one who's worse. So the armor bearer says, I'm in. However, you want to lead, Jonathan, I'm in. And so Jonathan uh divides it uh derives this plan. He says, Let's show ourselves to the Philistines. If they say, wait right here, if we pop up and the Philistines say, wait right here until we come to you, then we'll wait. But if they say, Come here, then we'll go to them, knowing that the Lord has given them into our hand. Now, what do you think happens? If you've read ahead, you know. When the Philistines see that they um uh see them, they said in verse 12, All right, come on up here. They see them pop up and they say, Come on up here and and show, show yourselves. We want to show you something. And so Jonathan and his armor bearer take that and understand that to be God, saying, Yep, it's go time. And so they crawl up on their hands and knees toward the Philistines. And at the right time, the two of them, Jonathan and his armor bearer, killed 20 Philistines and sent them into a panic. All of the Philistines ran about in a frenzied panic. They were not expecting what has just occurred. While Saul didn't trust the timing of Samuel and the commands of God, making disobedient and foolish sacrifices, Jonathan knew the Philistines were enemies of God. He knew it very clearly and spoke it that way. And he trusted God to be God. While Saul was surrounded by the Philistines, sending his armies, sending his own armies into a panic, hiding in holes and caves and wells and tombs, Jonathan and his armor bearer alone killed 20, sending all of the Philistines into a panic. Here's what I think we see again. Earthly leaders are replaceable. They come and go. Things that will never last, people who will never endure. We'll put our trust in earthly leaders, and those earthly leaders are often disobedient and foolish, just like we are. We'll put our trust in earthly leaders who are replaceable. We know they come and go. Right in the middle of these two chapters is this beautiful reminder that God's presence is still with his people. His presence is still there. Even though earthly leaders come and go, and even though earthly leaders are disobedient and foolish at times, God's presence is still with his people. He realizes that in that count, Jonathan and his armor bearer are missing. He realizes that, makes note of that. And so Saul says to the priest, bring the ark of God here. Now we're not told, if you remember from several weeks ago, that the Ark of God was brought in like a good luck charm and that was wrong. We're not told here if Saul is doing what has already happened with that, or if Saul is truly desiring the presence of God with them and for them as they fought off the Philistines. Whatever the case is, Saul says to the priest in verse 19 of chapter 14, withdraw your hand. The priest in the middle of some priestly ritual is what we have to take from that. He's in the middle of something that a priest would do to obtain God's direction in what to do next. So the priest is trying to ascertain from God, what do we do next? But Saul says, what? Stop what you're doing. We're going to battle. Remove your hand from that. We're going to battle anyway. And they do. And the Philistines are still in confusion and chaos. The Israelites chased them down. They fought against them. Look at verse 23. I'm going to invite some crowd participation. Somebody read chapter 14, verse 23 aloud. Okay, that first part. So the Lord saved Israel that day. Thanks, Caleb. Who saved? The Lord. God's presence, even in the midst of some disobedient and foolish leaders, and even in the midst of like who's our leader? Is it Jonathan? Is it Saul? What's happening here? Even in the midst of that, the Lord's presence is still with his people. The Lord saved Israel that day, even though what was going on, what was going on right in front of them. God in his kindness and mercy is with his people. He's the one who's fighting their battles. He's the one who can be trusted. He will never leave or forsake his people, even with flawed human leaders, which is what we circle back to again in verse 24. That earthly leaders will always disappoint. And we see this over and over. We'll see it for the coming chapters, but we see it here in verse 24. We're told that the men of Israel had been hard pressed that day, still fighting the Philistines. They're worn down. And Saul desiring to beat the Philistines once and for all. He says, Don't let up. In fact, I'm putting an oath on you, and I'm saying to you, no one eats. Look at verse 24. No one eats until it's evening. I think we need to see what he says. No one eats until evening, and I am avenged. On my I avenge my enemies. Do you see that? Saul gets it all twisted. He says, This is about me, and this is about my enemies. It's arrogance. These are God's enemies, and vengeance is God's, but Saul makes a foolish vow nonetheless, and he says to everyone present, no food, or you will be cursed. Now, who is not with them when he says that? Jonathan. You remember that? Jonathan's not counted in that number. So the people come to a forest. There's a lot going on in these chapters, by the way. The people come to a forest where there's honey dripping down from beehives all over, it's all over the forest floor, but no one eats any of it because they know the oath that has been made, that this curse would be on them. Everyone knows that except who? Jonathan, who was not there to hear the oath. And so he puts the tip of his staff in the honey and he eats it. And we're told that his eyes become bright. It's a way of saying that he was energized, he was rejuvenated, he was ready to go. And the people say to Jonathan, Hey, your father strictly charged the people not to eat. But Jonathan says in verse 29, My father has caused trouble on the land. It would have been better if he had allowed the people to eat. This battle would have been over. We see this division between Jonathan and Saul. Even still, verse 31 tells us that they beat the Philistines that day, ending Saul's vow, because that battle has now been finished. It ends Saul's vow, and as soon as it was over, the people grab up all of the animals of the Philistines, the sheep and the oxen and the calves, and they slaughter them and they eat them instantly without draining the blood. All right, some of you like your meat rare. This was really rare, right? Eating it right away because they're famished. They just need the protein, I guess. And Saul finds out about their sin, and he says, what? He says, Bring a big stone to me, and we can use this stone to slaughter the animals. Verse 34, allowing the blood to drain out like it's supposed to. And therefore you wouldn't be sinning against God by eating the blood. So that's what they did. They bring all of their animals to this stone, slaughtering and eating. In verse 35, we're told that Saul builds an altar to the Lord, the first altar that he had built to the Lord. Wants to see that. We're going to just zoom in on little parts here. Verse 35. He builds an altar. The author is very clear to tell us it's the first altar that he had built to the Lord. This is subtle, but many believe this is the author's way of telling us that Saul had not even thought about building an altar to the Lord until now. He had been in a position of authority as king for at least two years. We're not sure on the dating, at least two years, and had not even thought to lead the people in worshiping God through sacrifices at an altar until now. Earthly leaders will always disappoint. And so Saul says, Let's go conquer the rest of the Philistines and plunder until the morning. But the priest said in verse 36, hey, let's draw near to God. Let's seek God's wisdom. So Saul hears that and he asks God, Should I go after the Philistines? Will you give them into our hand? But look at the end of verse 37. It says, What? But God did not answer him that day. Saul says, Okay, priests, I hear you. Let's ask God. So he asks God, what should we do? God did not answer Saul that day. Think about what's going on. God did not answer the man he put in place as a king. God did not answer Saul that day, and as you can probably imagine, Saul believes God did not answer him because someone, one of you, has sinned against God. That's why God's turned his back on me. He won't listen to me because one of you has sinned. So he has the priest use a method of deciding between two parties. We're going to figure this out once and for all right now, he says. And so the priest with the Urim and Thumim, a rolling of the dice, to just put it in terms that we would get. Says, who's guilty, God? Let's roll this out and see. And so he sets up the situation. He says, Is it Saul and Jonathan? He says, Is it me and my son? Or is it the people? Roll the dice. Where do the dice land? On Saul and Jonathan. And so what's he do now? We see this division. He says, Okay, God, let's roll the dice again. Is it me or my son? And the dice land on Jonathan. He's the guilty party. And so Jonathan confesses. He says, Oh, I didn't know this was going to land here, but I'll confess. I tasted a little honey from the tip of the staff. And he he says, Here I am, I'll die. To which Saul says, Yep, you'll surely die. That's fatherhood at its best, by the way. Make a note of that. Yep, you will die. But the people come to Jonathan's aid and say, No way, no way. He's the one who saved us. He's the one that did good by us. He's the one who came to our aid. Not one hair of his head will be harmed. And the people ransom Jonathan, protect him from death. Saw's vow was unable to be kept. He made this oath, but it was unable to be kept. And really, here's what we see in these and big picture in these two chapters. If we can just zoom out for a second and see what's going on, that earthly leaders will always disappoint. That Saul could lead people into war. He could. He could lead people into battle, but it might be someone else who wins that battle. In this case, Jonathan. Saul could lead people into war, but it might be someone else who would win. Saul could set up altars for sacrifices, but he couldn't force God to respond. God says, I'm not responding. God didn't answer him. Saul could speak powerful words through curses and vows, but he would never be able to fulfill their promises. Jonathan is protected from the people. And so you see all these starts from Saul, the things he wants to do and the things he's never able to do. The things he wants to do and the things he's unable to do. He is a disappointment. Earthly leaders will always disappoint. The people long for a king who would be able to fulfill their desires, one who would bring a sense of security to them, one who would bring a sense of hopeful rest to them. Instead, what's brought to them is disappointment. In fact, verse 46 tells us that Saul let up the pressure from the Philistines and they get that the chapter ends by saying that Saul lets up the pressure on the Philistines and they get away. They go safely back home. There's another disappointment. The chapter ends by telling of some of Saul's successes. So it just rattles off quickly. He fights against the Moabites and the Ammonites and the Edomites and the Philistines and the Amalekites and so on. It just lists all of his successes. But the very last verse of the chapter says, Well, look at verse 52, the very last verse. There was hard fighting against the Philistines all the days of Saul. And when Saul saw, that's always hard to say, when Saul saw any strong man or valiant man, he attached him to himself. Or in other words, Saul's lifelong thorn in the side was the Philistines. He couldn't seem to lead past them. So anytime he met someone capable to help him, he would enlist him as quickly as he could. As much as Saul tried, he was still a disappointment to the people. In fact, we'll see this in several weeks in chapter 31. It's at the hand of the Philistine that Saul dies. Friends, these two chapters uh show us that earthly leaders are disobedient and often foolish. Earthly leaders are replaceable. Earthly leaders often are a disappointment to the people who choose them, who elect them, who rally to support them. And through it all, God continues to be with his people. We see it in the first years of the reign of Saul. We see it. It's there. He was a leader, God ordained to be in that role. But I can't help but wonder if part of the reason God placed him there was to cause the people to continue to long for something better. Now, how would you like it if that was the reason you were in the position you're in currently? You're just preparing them for something better, right? No, no one would like that. But I can't help but wonder if one of the reasons that Saul is in the place that he's in is to help the person then and the reader now to see that there's something better. If Saul was the very one who made all of their wildest dreams come true, would the people long for anything greater? Have you thought about that? If that thing that came to mind earlier when I asked you to think about the thing that you're grabbing onto for all sense of security and rest and hope and all of that, if that thing actually brought you that very thing, would you ever hope for anything else? Would you ever long for anything as a replacement to that? I can't help but wonder if the very reason that God raises up Saul is that the people would long for something greater, a true and lasting savior. So let me just wrap all the way back around to something that I asked in the very beginning. Is there something in your life you set your hopes on that will bring you a sense of security, a sense of peace, a sense of hope? Can I can I just put it like this as a kindness to my own heart, a kindness to yours as we think about that thing? It's a grace from God that that thing will let you down. It's a grace from God that the thing that you would grab onto as a hope is something that would let you down. It's a grace so that your longings are actually fulfilled ultimately in the one true King, Jesus. These chapters are here for us as well. It's not just about the people, it's for us as well. To open our eyes to this very thing, I think. Samuel tells Saul in chapter 13, verse 14, that his kingdom will not continue, that God is already searching for the one who is a man after his own heart. We know, if you've read through these texts, we know that the next king is David, and repeatedly known about David is he is a man after God's own heart. But even David, listen, you know this, is flawed, disobedient, and foolish, and often a disappointment, and his kingdom will not last forever either. But there's one who's coming, Jesus, and for us he has come. His kingdom will reign forever, he will return to rule and reign and restore, making all things new. That's where we find a sense of hope and security and peace and rest. Where is it this morning that you have your hope placed, your rest, your sense of security, your sense of peace? What is it in if it's not in Jesus, Jesus alone, and all that he can accomplish, it will disappoint. It will. So I want to pray this morning for us that the Spirit, uh, as the Spirit's bringing to mind those things, that the Spirit would also give us the courage to step forward in pushing away from that. Not that that thing isn't good in our life, it's a good gift, but that that thing will never ultimately satisfy. I'm gonna pray in that direction and we'll continue to celebrate. Let's pray. God, I ask this morning that you would make sense of the things that I just said. And more than that, that your word would be seen as true, that your word would be seen as something that we're able to understand and grab onto, and that your word would be seen as as sharp, able to pierce us and get into the places that we would want to keep hidden. God, would you make sense of the things that that I said this morning? Help us to understand you, what you have for us. I think in part, God, you're showing us that the things that we would grab onto is our hope, just like the people we want a king, okay. Well, here it is, that those things would never ultimately satisfy us, that they're always going to be leaving us longing. And so as your spirit, God, is bringing those things to our minds, our hearts this morning, even this morning, in the places of grief that we're we're in right now, in the places of of maybe even celebration over something in life right now, whatever it is, everything in between, in those things, would you help us, God, help us to believe with all certainty that it is Jesus alone who will satisfy our deepest longings and relationship with Him. Help us to believe it, we ask all this in the name of Jesus. Amen.