0:00:00 - 0:00:26 We're going to take a look at first Samuel nine. There are a few principles in this chapter that I think are worth pointing out at this point. But the main one that I want to focus on is this idea that the problem is never the problem and the solution is never the solution. The point that I think this 0:00:26 - 0:00:52 chapter illustrates very well is that the Lord uses challenges in our lives to orient us towards him. He uses them to motivate us to do more and better than we would otherwise do to come closer to him. So that's the bottom line up front. Let's get started. Now, there was a man of Benjamin whose name 0:00:52 - 0:01:19 was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zor, the son of Beath. I'm probably butchering these, the son of Aphia of Benjamin, a mighty man of power. Now, I'm going to underline this because this is going to matter later. So Kish is Saul's father and he had, he had a son whose name was Saul, a choice young 0:01:19 - 0:01:40 man and a goodly and there was not among the Children of Israel, a goodlier person than he from his shoulders and upward. He was higher than any of the people. Uh that's taller, not uh wasn't smoking anything. I'm gonna highlight this as well because this is going to matter later. And so we have the 0:01:40 - 0:02:01 protagonist who is Saul, we know that later. He becomes the king of Israel, in fact, quite soon. So what's the problem? Verse three and the asses of Kish Saul's father were lost. He had some lost donkeys and Kish said to Saul, his son take now one of the servants with thee and arise go seek the asses 0:02:00 - 0:02:26 and he passed through Mount Ephraim and passed through the land of Shalisa. I'm trying really hard to make, not make a joke here about some of the names where I'm from in Baltimore. But they found them not sorry. This is my sister Shasha. Ok? If you're from Utah, you have a similar problem, but they 0:02:26 - 0:02:52 found them not. Then they passed through the land of Shalem and there they were not and he passed through the land of the benjamine, but they found them not pause. OK? So where did Saul began looking for these donkeys, right where he was? Because that's where he was already. He didn't say, hey, uh we 0:02:52 - 0:03:16 lost something from where we were. Let's go to this totally different place to begin looking because that would be a really dumb thing to do. You start where you are. And so if you have a problem, it's completely normal to start where you are. But that's where, what Saul did begins to deviate from what 0:03:16 - 0:03:40 most people do because Saul not finding them right around him. He went a little further and then he went a little further and he kept going until he had searched the entire land of the Benjamins. Remember he's from Benjamin now already, that makes a big separation between what Saul did and what most 0:03:40 - 0:03:59 people would do because most people give up a lot sooner than that. They say, oh, I can't see the solution from the chair. I'm currently sitting in. Therefore, I'm just gonna give up and pretend it's not a problem or blame someone else for it or something else. Continuing. And when they were come to 0:03:59 - 0:04:21 the land of Zoof, Saul said to his servant that was with him, come and let us return, lest my father leave caring for the asses and take thought for us. Ok? Now, this is interesting because now we see a split between the faith of Saul and the faith of his servant. And I have to stop to, to define the 0:04:21 - 0:04:43 word faith. Uh It's not this blind belief, it's something that you wish were true. It's acting according to the reasons that you have. That's it. I I saw it just yesterday a conversation and some comments on a news article where some people were were using the traditional definition. I shouldn't say 0:04:43 - 0:05:08 traditional, the modern definition of faith, which is blind belief in something you wish were true. And it was just the typical, my team versus your team conversation where all the typical religious kind of people were saying that faith means whatever you inherited as your religion and all the non-religious 0:05:07 - 0:05:25 people were saying, oh, well, that's stupid and, and superstitious. You don't have any reasons for believing this. And then the religious people were like, yeah, but that is our reason because we're religious and the discovery of truth lies outside that conversation. It's completely orthogonal. It's 0:05:25 - 0:05:49 just, well, what's, what reasons do you have to believe? What you believe? And is that what you believe? Are there better reasons to believe something different, et cetera? Anyway, if, if you find that interesting, go read this book called through Faith that I wrote. Now, Saul looked, we, we already 0:05:48 - 0:06:05 differentiated Saul from most people because he actually kept looking till he had eclipsed the entire land of Benjamin. They were in a different place and they had expanded the search to a different place. And he's like, ok, I'm tapping out, my dad's gonna be worried about us more than the donkeys at 0:06:05 - 0:06:30 this point. We've searched for too long and it's the servant who says in verse six, behold, now there is in this city, a man of God and he is an honorable man and that he say, excuse me, all that he saith cometh surely to pass. Now let us go thither peradventure he can show us our way that we should 0:06:30 - 0:00:00 go. Now, it said that Saul's father Kish was a ma a mighty man of power. Saul was no chump himself and somehow it did not cross Saul's mind that they were in the city where Samuel the prophet was. And we're going to see as the chapter proceeds that an awful lot of people knew exactly who Samuel was. 0:00:00 - 0:07:29 He was quite the celebrity. In fact, more than that, it was like that entire city. It seems like there was quite a gravity that there he the whole city kind of orbited around him somewhat, but Saul didn't know that. And that says something about him and he was ready to give up, his servant wasn't. And 0:07:28 - 0:07:48 the reason the servant wasn't willing to give up is because he said, you know, there's something else we can try because we happen to be in the very city that this man of God is in and everything he says happens. So if we go to him, maybe he could tell us where these donkeys are. And he makes a compelling 0:07:48 - 0:08:08 enough case that Saul starts thinking about it. And he says in verse seven, but behold, if we go, what shall we bring? The man for? The bread is spent in our vessels and there is not a present to bring to the man of God, what have we? And the servant answered Saul again and said, behold, I have here 0:08:08 - 0:08:31 at hand, the fourth part of a shekel of silver that will I give to the man of God to tell us our way before time in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, thus he spake come and let us go to the seer for he that is now called a prophet was before time called the seer. Then said, Saul to his servant 0:08:30 - 0:08:50 . Well said, come, let us go. So they went unto the city where the man of God was now. That's a little confusing because it said that they were already there. But I guess they were just right close to it, ok, in the vicinity. Now that I am going to point out a few things here that this is a great example 0:08:50 - 0:09:09 . There are so many things in the scriptures which you say you believe that are plainly stated that you don't believe this is one of them. And when you read through them, you just skip over them because you're not constantly filtering it through your life to say, does this align with what I do and what 0:09:09 - 0:09:29 I believe and what I say and think and feel or is there a difference? And if there's a difference, I wanna pause and I wanna parse it out and I wanna fix myself. I want to line closer to what the Lord's laying out here. So at this time, first off, we see evidence that what I was saying before that they 0:09:28 - 0:09:53 did go to this. A lot of people would go to this prophet to inquire of the Lord. Ok. But the point I wanted to make is that the first reaction of Saul to his servants saying let's go to the prophet because he can tell us where to go to find these donkeys. The first reaction of Saul was we don't have 0:09:53 - 0:10:14 anything to give him. We don't have bread, we don't have, you know, what are we going to bring him? We don't have a gift that flies in the face of the belief of most people who say that the Bible is the word of God. So I suppose they could say that this is a false belief, but it sure was the belief back 0:10:14 - 0:10:39 then. And the servant agreed. He said, well, I have a little bit of money. It's the fourth part of the shekel. Silver is not a lot of money. And that's the other part is that it didn't have to be a lot, but it happened to be all they had. All right, let's keep going point made. And I'm sure none of the 0:10:39 - 0:11:09 people that rail against those who receive money with their ministry. I'm sure none of them would accuse Samuel of being a false prophet. Would they? Hm. I fancy that. All right. Let's keep rolling. And as they went up, I'm in verse 11 and as they went up the hill to the city, they found young maidens 0:11:08 - 0:11:32 going out to draw water and said unto them is the seer here. And they answered them and said he is behold, he is before you make haste. Now for he came today to the city for there's a sacrifice of the people today in the high place. Couple notes here, one, they asked these ladies, these young ladies 0:11:31 - 0:12:00 if they knew about the seer and we know from other parts of the scriptures that uh typically the the guys and didn't talk to the girls. Now how far outside of the norm they had branched to have this conversation. I don't know, but at a minimum, they made use of the resources before them to solve the 0:12:00 - 0:12:18 problem that they had. So their first problem was they had some lost donkeys. And now they had decided that at this part of their journey, the, the way they were going to try to solve that problem was to find the seer and hope that he could help them. Now with that in mind, when they saw these ladies 0:12:18 - 0:12:36 going to get water, they said, hey, maybe they know and they stopped and asked them, they didn't say, oh, we're on a mission from God to find the seer. And therefore we're just gonna beeline for wherever the heck we feel like we should go and completely ignore any sign posts along the way or other means 0:12:35 - 0:00:00 of getting directions because we know what we're doing. And that is the attitude of so many people. They're like, oh, well, if I needed to know something, God would tell me, yeah, maybe or maybe he's just gonna send some young maidens fetching water. Who happened to know the answer to your question? 0:00:00 - 0:13:28 So, do you use the resources all around you all the time? Because remember this is God's creation. He's got tools all around you. Everything you see in your life is a tool that he can use to bring you closer to him. All right, let's continue. Verse 12, we read, oh, I did make this point. They say make 0:13:28 - 0:13:55 haste now for he came today to the city for there's a sacrifice of the people today in the high place. A couple of points here. One, it's very clear that these ladies think that if they don't hurry up and get to where they need to go, they're going to miss him. Timing matters a lot. Often. The other 0:13:55 - 0:14:19 thing. So, so if they hadn't talked to these ladies, maybe they just would have sauntered around the city. And even though they were in the right place, they never would have met Samuel. The other thing is that they tell them where to find him. They say he's in the high place. Now, why would the prophet 0:14:18 - 0:14:47 be in a high place? Why would he be at the place that the people were going to make a sacrifice? This is a literal description, but the message extends into the figurative as well. People who are closer to God, live closer to God. If you want to find them orient yourself towards God and start walking 0:14:46 - 0:00:00 . They're up the mountain, they're up the mountain in the high place. 13. As soon as you come into the city, you shall straightway, find Him before he go up to the high place to eat for the people will not eat until He come because He Doth bless the sacrifice. And afterwards they eat that be Bidden. 0:00:00 - 0:15:32 Now therefore, get you up for about this time, you shall find him. So they knew where he was going to enter into the city before he got to the high place. There's a lot of good information here and um maybe the best way to give this to you briefly or at least point you in the right direction is to think 0:15:32 - 0:15:57 about the difference between knowing Jesus before he began his public ministry. And after in one way, it was a blessing to know him before because you could have interacted with him for many more than three years. And you could have seen how he was in very normal life. If you waited until the public 0:15:57 - 0:16:21 ministry, there would have been many more obvious signs of his divinity. But also those signs would have been further away in the high place, further away from normal life. Do you understand that it's a trade off? But the message here is if you wait till he's in the high place. You're not gonna find 0:16:21 - 0:16:52 him because you can't go in there because it's only for them that are Bidden that are invited. Isn't that interesting? So you can go reread everything that talks about the supper of the Lord if you'd like very close parallel there. Now, what authority did these young maidens have? You know what their 0:16:52 - 0:17:12 authority was? They knew they had the information that was their authority. They were right. It turns out truth is the only authority you need. And without it, no authority really matters very much at all. It's a funny idea. Huh? These young ladies knew where Samuel was going to be and they were correct 0:17:11 - 0:17:34 and they told Saul and his servant, hey, this is where you wanna be at this gate. Get there right now. Or else you're gonna miss out and here's what's gonna happen after that. He's gonna go into this high place because there's a sacrifice that the people have made or will make. And they were right. Those 0:17:33 - 0:17:53 ladies, they weren't priests, they weren't kings, they weren't, they didn't have some title. They were at the bottom of the social hierarchy at that time and they were doing menial work, you know, effectively, they were going to clean out the chicken coop kind of thing. Just go get the water that we 0:17:53 - 0:18:24 need again. All right. Now it gets really interesting. 14 and they went up into the city and when the which is interesting because they go up, right. They, they're not in the high place, but they're up in the city now. So they have gone up and when they were come into the city, behold, Samuel came out 0:18:24 - 0:18:42 against them for to go up to the high place. So the ladies were right. He passed by just as they said, he would. Now the here's where it starts getting really interesting. Now, the Lord had told Samuel in his ear a day before Saul came saying tomorrow about this time, I will send thee a man out of the 0:18:42 - 0:19:02 land of Benjamin and thou shalt anoint him to be captain over my people, Israel that he may save my people out of the hand of the Philistines. For I have looked upon my people because their cry is come unto me. Now we read before that the people were asking for a king and Samuel tried to persuade them 0:19:01 - 0:19:24 not to do that, but they asked for a king and that was their their request. The Lord did not respond to that by giving them a king right away. Time had passed by. And it wasn't until what was the trigger event here. We just read it. He said the purpose of Saul was to save the people out of the hand of 0:19:24 - 0:19:52 the Philistines. So the Lord was stacking the deck with a solution to a problem that had not yet come to fruition yet. It was already planned and the solution was already prepared. And that very important chain of events all started with some donkeys going missing. This was all part of the Lord's plan 0:19:51 - 0:20:26 . Now, let me ask you relative to the, what's the right word here? The magnitude of becoming the first king of Israel? How big of a deal is it to lose some donkeys? It's insignificant. How major of an event is it for a servant to say, well, maybe we shouldn't quit. There's one more thing we could check 0:20:26 - 0:20:58 into how big of a deal is it to stop some young ladies doing this tedious daily work and ask for directions. And yet every single thing in this story is absolutely necessary to bring about the appointed Ed. What would have happened if Saul and the servant were unwilling to ask those young ladies for 0:20:58 - 0:21:23 directions? What would have happened if Saul said to his servant? You don't tell me what we're going to do. You're the servant. And I said, we're going back because my dad's worried about us by now. What would have happened if Saul didn't accept the servants idea for bringing his quarter of a shekel 0:21:23 - 0:21:47 as a gift? If he, if he would have said no, that's not enough. We, we can't, we'll, we'll lose face if we show up with such little amount of money or whatever. Do you see the chain of events required every single step and had any of those things? Not been a part of it. The window of what they were willing 0:21:46 - 0:22:12 to do would not have overlapped with what needed to happen. So, it's a very precarious game. It matters what you do matters and you can't say, well, who really cares about some donkeys or who really cares about asking for directions. Don't let your wife hear this, I guess with the era of smartphones 0:22:11 - 0:22:35 that has gone away. Thanks. It saved many marriages. Um But there used to be this big contention of, you know, stereotypical wife tells stereotypical husband who's lost, pull over and ask for directions and he refuses to because it's a, you know, he'll have to turn in his man card if he does that. So 0:22:35 - 0:23:03 it turns out that all these things are, are necessary and what you do matters because you have no way of knowing how much it matters. And oftentimes the really big things start with really little things in fact, because everything we do is a chain of choices. The big things always begin with, insignificantly 0:23:02 - 0:23:41 , small things. Every choice you make is a chain stretching into eternity. All right. Where did we leave off here? Oh, so they walk in to this elaborate situation that Samuel has already set up because the Lord orchestrated it. The Lord told Samuel that Saul would come and who he was and what Samuel 0:23:41 - 0:24:12 was meant to do and what Saul was meant to do and why? Now Samuel knew all this one day in advance. What did he do about it for that day? We're going to see. He, he prepared a sacrifice. He set up an event, but he didn't do anything with Saul because Saul wasn't there yet. As you draw nearer to walking 0:24:11 - 0:24:34 with the Lord, you're going to find these sorts of things happening in your life. Either. You walk into something. It's like a surprise birthday party. You had no idea and this elaborate thing has all been orchestrated and you just walk right in and God set it all up. This is, we see this again, for 0:24:34 - 0:24:56 example, it's all over the scriptures. But for example, with David and he's sitting there for years and years, he's slinging stones and he gets these situations where he has this opportunity to build his faith in God, his trust in God and his courage to, to serve for others to risk his life for other 0:24:56 - 0:25:29 people in well for sheep. At first in duty, his risk his life for his duty and he's, he fights a bear and he fights a lion and then he finds himself in the battlefield fighting Goliath and no one else had the courage two points here. One, because we're talking about Saul is the generic point of the Lord 0:25:28 - 0:25:55 sets up situations far in advance. You have no idea until you're in it and then you marvel at how intricately it has been set up. I'll, I'll make three points two. He uses people to set that up. He used Samuel to set it up and all the people that had a part in that event, which we haven't read about 0:25:54 - 0:26:18 yet, but we will, they all had a part in it too. And those maidens had a part in it, even though they weren't at the dinner as far as we know they're all puzzle pieces. The third point I want to make is that David was a king and we'll see Saul was a king. I don't know if we'll read the very next chapter 0:26:17 - 0:26:48 , but in the very next chapter, he's anointed as a king. The Lord has a pattern of appointing kings and anointing kings before they have kingdoms that are seen by the world. So we don't normally think of Abraham as a king, but he was given the land of Israel forever. Did he take possession during his 0:26:48 - 0:27:17 life? He did not, it, it's the most awkward thing in the world. He wa walked all through the country his whole life as a nomad. And from the outward perspective, he was, he wasn't squatting, he had permission, but he was camping out on the land of other people. He was a, a guest in his own land, his 0:27:17 - 0:27:42 whole life and all the people when he came onto someone's property and ostensibly asked permission if his people could be there, which normally the landowner really liked that because here's an army of men who are gonna protect you. Now, it's a, it's a uh in exchange and then there are all these nice 0:27:42 - 0:28:08 meat and cheese and other sort of cattle products. But in an exchange there, maybe some marriages can happen. You never know. But his whole life, the, the people whose property he was on thought that it was their property, but it was his property. But he acted in a certain way because it was all part 0:28:08 - 0:28:37 part of the Lord's plan. And so things can be very different than they seem in the Lord's eyes versus our eyes versus the world's eyes, right? So who knew that that David was a king after he was anointed, people didn't see that till way later when he sat on the throat and and there's a process for this 0:28:36 - 0:29:15 , you can be a king in God's kingdom and have zero subjects. And it's true for much more than just kings. So God sets things up and everything has to run its course. And there's a process and you can walk in on that and it's quite a shock when it's unveiled. Ok. So now let's get back to where we were 0:29:15 - 0:29:37 verse 17. And when Samuel saw, saw Saul, there's a tongue twister. Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said unto him, behold, the man whom I spake to thee of this same shall reign over my people. So this is amazing because as we have read and we read in a minute and you'll see even more of on the in the next chapter 0:29:37 - 0:30:02 which I don't think we'll get to. The Lord had told Samuel a tremendous amount about Saul. But you know what's funny? He was a seer, but God didn't show him what Saul looked like. Uh And I'm laughing because this is a perfect example in my opinion of the sense of humor that the Lord has to not show a 0:30:02 - 0:30:25 seer what this guy looks like, even though he showed him everything else about him, he had to tell him in the moment. And my point with this is, is the Lord's leading us to things, there are going to be gaps of understanding and that's OK. That's ok. You should expect that it shouldn't surprise you and 0:30:25 - 0:30:45 you should ask, but you should also trust that when the Lord doesn't want to tell you things for right now, there's a reason now, what's the reason that he didn't show him who Saul was? I don't know, I've never thought of that. I'd have to think about that. And if I could muster up enough interest, I'm 0:30:45 - 0:31:07 sure the Lord would tell me, ok, verse 18, then Saul drew near to Samuel in the gate and said, tell me, I pray thee where the Sears House is. And now this is hilarious because Samuel knows everything about him and he's just standing there. So s Samuel didn't react to the Lord saying this is the man by 0:31:07 - 0:31:31 running running over to him and chatting his ear off. He just stood there. So Saul knew that this is where he was supposed to meet this guy and that he should be by it some time he didn't know who he was looking for. And so Saul came to Samuel again, he did the, everything he could have done he was doing 0:31:31 - 0:31:59 , that's very important. And then he asks the guy who he's looking for if he could help him find where this guy is. And interestingly, he asks where the Sears house is when he wouldn't have been permitted to go. But I'm not sure he understood that and that might be important given the rest of his life 0:31:58 - 0:32:26 verse 19. And Samuel answered, Saul and said, I am the seer go up before me unto the high place for ye shall eat with me to day and to morrow. I will let thee go and will tell thee all that is in thine heart. Now, that's a funny thing to say, many people believe that they have everything that they could 0:32:25 - 0:32:54 ever use already within themselves to approach God. And I guess these people would just be out looking for the donkey themselves and praying and then getting angry or at least trying not to think about the fact that God hadn't told them directly where to find the donkey. So now Saul ends up face to face 0:32:53 - 0:33:21 with the seer. And the seer says the first thing he tells him is not about his donkeys that comes later. He says, you're going to go eat with me. That was not on Saul's bucket list. That wasn't why he was there. That wasn't what he was interested in. And then he says, and I'm going to tell you everything 0:33:20 - 0:33:44 that's on your heart. If some random person came up to you, which granted it was the opposite. Saul came up to Samuel. But if Samuel came up to you and said, hey, forget what you're worried about right now, come eat with me and I'm going to tell you everything on your heart. I'm going to tell you everything 0:33:44 - 0:34:14 you want in life. What would your reaction be? There's probably a collection of reactions in the crowd here, but I think a prominent one would be, I don't need you to tell me what I want. I know what I want or if they said I'm going to tell you exactly how you are as a person, you'd say one. How do you 0:34:14 - 0:00:00 know two? You don't need to tell me. I know I already know how I am. Do you think Saul knew how he was based on the rest of his life? And is he one of these people? We can kind of point the finger at and sneer and say, I'm glad I'm not like him or should we say thou art the man or um Lord? Is it? I, 0:00:00 - 0:35:16 why would someone need a seer to help them see more of how they really are. Why would it be necessary to come eat with the seer? And then he says, and as for thy masses that were lost three days ago, you see all the details he knows, set not thy mind on them for they are found and that's it. He gets 0:35:16 - 0:35:39 one sentence for his problem and it's basically don't worry about it. And then he just keeps going with the, the multitude of things that were not why Saul was there as far as Saul knew and on whom is all the desire of Israel, is it not on thee and on all thy father's house. And so Samuel is, is intentionally 0:35:39 - 0:36:08 contrasting the, the miniscule size of the problem for which Saul has, has come to the magnitude of the Lord's design for this man and the problems that the Lord is going to solve with him. And this is how it goes, that problem. That's on your mind right now. That seems like the biggest deal in the world 0:36:08 - 0:36:40 . It's no big deal, the chief purpose of that thing, whatever it is, is actually just to bring you closer to God. How by showing you more of who you really are and by revealing to you more of what God needs to do with you or rather needs you to do for Him in life. That's the point of the problem. Now 0:36:40 - 0:37:02 , do donkeys matter? Absolutely in this culture very important. And today, maybe even more important, you might not know this donkeys are really expensive anyway. They're hard to come by and they're very useful in where I live. Um, it's, it's interesting, they'll actually defend cattle from mountain 0:37:01 - 0:37:29 lions. They're, they're very defensive anyway. So donkeys are very valuable, but just because something's valuable or important doesn't mean that there isn't something much more valuable and much more important. And God uses all value as a gateway to greater value. It's really important to understand 0:37:29 - 0:38:02 your present range of value that you can perceive is extremely narrow compared to what God has and knows. And part of the purpose of being here is for Him to stretch that out. So that you see things more as they really are. And a chief mechanism that He uses to do this is exposing, exposing you to problems 0:38:02 - 0:38:29 that are beyond your ability to solve as you are right now, the problem becomes a mechanism to motivate you to become a much greater person. It's not about the problem. The problem is you, you don't have problems, you are the problem. And so he uses the external problems to motivate you to do what you 0:38:28 - 0:38:50 would never otherwise do, including to go to places and meet people, you would never go to and meet. But the end is always the same. It's to learn more than you otherwise would from God. And isn't that something you can't do it sitting in the land of Benjamin in your daddy's house, in your mommy's basement 0:38:49 - 0:39:22 , you have to be exposed to these problems and then go and seek God outside of the bounds of your ordered world. This happens geographically and it happens figuratively. It happens socially. It happens in the, in the set of people that you already know versus those you'll have to meet the places you 0:39:21 - 0:39:50 are versus the places you go, the ideas you have versus the ideas you'll need all of these things, the suffering, the limits of suffering you currently know compared to where God's going to take you all of that and more. Now, what's Saul's response to Samuel when he hits him with this? He says, am not 0:39:50 - 0:40:16 I a benjamine of the smallest of the tribes of Israel. Pause in that he is true. Benjamin was the smallest of those tribes. There was quite a little scuffle and basically the tribe of Benjamin got essentially wiped out in some time prior. And so they, they weren't, they were a very minor tribe numerically 0:40:15 - 0:40:41 . So that part is, is a valid statement. But then Sault continues and he veers into dishonesty. He says, and my family, the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin. And I told you we'd come back to it. Is that true? His dad was a mighty man of power. Could he have been the least of all of 0:40:41 - 0:41:03 Benjamin? One of those two things isn't true. And then he says, wherefore then speaks thou so to me. Now what he didn't say and he could have said, which would have been equally as dishonest. He could have said am and am I not the smallest of people in my tribe? Because he was head and shoulders taller 0:41:02 - 0:41:41 than anyone else. And goodly it says, why would a person with provable accolades? Why would a person like that go through such an effort to discredit themselves to minimize themselves? I could tell you some stories on this, but I think most of you would just rather, I didn't um one common reaction when 0:41:41 - 0:42:16 someone gets blasted with light and that, that could take many forms. One common reaction is that they take notice of things inside of them that are not quite right. And then instead of facing this newly revealed problem inside of them, they shift the blame onto other things, most notably, things that 0:42:16 - 0:42:44 they can't change. Saul can't change the fact that he is in the tribe of Benjamin. He can't change the family he's from. Although he wouldn't want to, if he could, he wouldn't change the fact that he's taller than everyone else or goodly. But that's where he shifts the blame because he doesn't want to 0:42:43 - 0:43:10 come to grips with why he feels so inadequate at what Saul is telling. I'm sorry, Samuel is telling him and what the Lord is telling him. Do you? I I highly encourage you go back and read what David says when he gets to the battlefield and he hears all these people whining and moaning about what are 0:43:10 - 0:43:42 we going to do about Goliath? He's so much stronger than we are and no one has the guts to go fight him. It's so bold and so courageous and not one word of what he says is about himself. A young man who has faced and defeated a bear and faced and defeated a lion knows that his strength is not from him 0:43:42 - 0:44:17 because you can only do those things if the Lord is with you. But when you get a taste of this, this fearless confidence in God's purpose, it renders you into a benevolent monster. You don't cower and say, oh, you know, David could have said, oh my dad never liked me and all my brothers hate me and they 0:44:17 - 0:44:38 relegated me to the, to the flock out in the wilderness because they didn't even want to be around me. And I'm only here to deliver a bunch of cheese so that maybe the officers put my brothers in a an unfair advant advantageous spot. Maybe they get sent into battle a little later or something. I'm here 0:44:37 - 0:45:04 to bribe the officers on behalf of my brothers. He didn't say any of that go read what he says. So Saul's already revealing some flaws that he has here. Now you would never catch that just by reading this verse, but I'm unpacking it because it's a good thing to think about when you look in the mirror 0:45:03 - 0:45:30 . When you know you're nothing, you're nothing is, makes you strong because it's not your strength. It's the strength of the Lord, but you have to be empty for him to fill you. Now, the good news is you are empty unless you're full of hot air. But that's, that's the best of things you could be filled 0:45:30 - 0:45:53 with. It gets worse from there. The good news is you're already empty. I'll, I'll cut to the chase. There's nothing in us that's worth very much at all. And the other good news is that all you have to do is recognize that you don't actually have to take the stuff out. It's already gone. There's nothing 0:45:52 - 0:46:22 there. It's all hot air verse 22 and Samuel took Saul and his servant and brought them into the parlor and made them sit in the chiefest place among them that were Bidden, which were about 30 persons. Now, that's pretty plain. Why was the servant there? What was his right to be there? Well, he was with 0:46:22 - 0:46:44 Saul because he served him. How did he serve Saul? We don't have all the details other than the role, but we know at a minimum he really had a material impact on whether Saul got there or not. He really did serve Saul. It probably would have been easier for that servant to not say anything, you know 0:46:44 - 0:47:02 , are you ever working with your kids or, or if you're young enough, maybe you're working with your parents or maybe you're not young and you're still working with your parents, but you're doing something you really don't wanna do, but you're obligated to be there. And then the first sign of someone 0:47:02 - 0:47:23 saying that it'd be socially acceptable to quit. Now you pack it up and gleefully you go home. Well, Saul was ready to quit and the servant said, let's not quit. I think there's one more thing we can do. That's a Hallmark of adopting the purpose of his master. It's a wonderful thing. And so he earned 0:47:23 - 0:47:44 the right to be at this dinner. That was for Saul, it wasn't for his servant and you'll see this pattern again and again in the scriptures. Why were Peter James and John invited to go on the mount with Jesus? Why was Joshua constantly in the presence of the Lord? Because he was a servant of Moses? That's 0:47:44 - 0:48:09 not my phrase. That's what the old Testament calls him is the servant of Moses. That's worth thinking about. It's significant that there were 30 persons there, but we're gonna skip over that. And Samuel said unto the cook, bring the portion which I gave thee, of which I said unto thee, set it by thee 0:48:08 - 0:48:29 . Now that's really something. And we're getting into what I already mentioned before that there's so many details about this that the Lord already told Samuel. Samuel already had it set up and the cook took up the shoulder and that which was upon it and set it before Saul. Now I'm gonna tell you something 0:48:29 - 0:48:56 that maybe you don't know what is the significance of the shoulder of an animal. There are special sacrifices that you can look up under the law of Moses that involve the shoulder of the animal. It's important, their scriptures that refer to the shoulder of men, servants of God, such as in the government 0:48:55 - 0:49:38 shall be upon his shoulder. These are connected ideas, servants of God make sacrifices. Now here, Samuel is literally in charge of an animal sacrifice and that happens in many places in the scriptures. But the servant is also a sacrifice to sacrifice. The shoulder is to bear a burden for the Lord. What 0:49:37 - 0:49:58 is the burden that Saul will bear? Well, his mission is to fight the Philistines. And what does that actually mean? It means that instead of all the Israelites living in their homes and their farms and having the Philistines come upon them and attack them and overwhelm them with problems that the people 0:49:57 - 0:50:26 cannot endure. Because if you have an entire army, attacking your family, you're in trouble unless you're Elisha and greater are them with you than them with your enemy. But anyway, if you're a family and and the army of the Philistines comes upon you, you're going to die. But if God raises up a king 0:50:25 - 0:50:48 and that king raises up an army. He can go to battle against the Philistines, not in your fields, he can take the battle to them and you can maintain your safe life within the wall of the kingdom. Figurative or literal. And then when the king establishes peace by vanquishing the enemy or weakening the 0:50:48 - 0:51:18 enemy enough that they aren't a threat to the normal people, the kingdom can enjoy peace. These are not just feudalistic concepts. In fact, you'll see the same pattern and play in the eternal kingdom of God. And I mean, in heaven, there is effectively, there is a wall and his kingdom exists inside that 0:51:18 - 0:51:55 wall. And the people inside that wall have a place of peace because of him and he has an army. He's called the Lord of hosts for a reason 25. And when they were come down from the high place into the city, so now they descend again. OK. They've, he's gone up twice. He went up to the city, he went up 0:51:55 - 0:52:23 to the high place be uh through Samuel. He got access to the high place because it's only for people who are invited, but Samuel invited him. So now he's been at the high place and he was fed in the high place. And now it says they were come down from the high place into the city. Samuel communed with 0:52:23 - 0:52:46 Saul upon the top of the house. So I had a dog, my mom actually, I guess I can't say inherited because how would my mom inherit something from her son? But, well, she, she took, um, whether I liked it or not, she took a dog that we, we had, um, we got him as a little puppy and, and she moved in with 0:52:46 - 0:53:06 us maybe when he was two or three and they just bonded really well. And so when she moved in with my brother, she, she um not quite asked, she kind of told me she's taking the dog and I was like, well, all right, I guess you're both happy with that. So fine. But he had this habit, you know, we have lots 0:53:06 - 0:53:24 of piles of snow in the winter time. So I live in Montana and he had this habit of, he would always find the tallest pile of snow and he'd lay up there curled up in a little ball and then when I would drive up, coming home from work, he'd always stand up and be really excited to see me. But he was always 0:53:24 - 0:53:53 king of the hill. Always, you'd find whatever the highest snow peak was in the, in the front yard to, to wait for when I was coming home. Um So in, in the first Jurassic Park movie, there's this famous line where Jeff Goldblum's character says in Jeff Goldblum accent and only the way he can, he says 0:53:53 - 0:54:16 nature uh finds a way. And he says that in reference to when, when he finds out that the way the park is trying to keep the dinosaurs all female, so they only breed when they want them to um was some genetic engineering where they had anyway, details. Aside, the point was that character Ian Malcolm was 0:54:16 - 0:54:41 , was foreshadowing the fact that nature always finds a way to solve problems. And I think that that is modifiable here into a much truer and more important principle which is God finds a way to testify of the truth. God finds a way to testify of the truth and it's not just that he finds a way. Everything 0:54:41 - 0:55:16 is designed to that end everything, all things testify of God, which is the same as saying all things testify of the truth. And so one way of phrasing this is that truth leaves clues. Another way of saying this is things must be what they are. And so it's very much intentional that they were on a house 0:55:15 - 0:55:44 top. Why? Well, a house is a house, but a house is also a family. And in a scriptural sense, a family is much more than a nuclear family. It's a kingdom, it's a kingdom of God. And in the ancient times, people would use the top of their house. It's extra space. Homes are really expensive to build, et 0:55:44 - 0:56:08 cetera. And maybe that's a good place to hang out in the evening when things are cool, but get some fresh air, et cetera. But these places had other significance among which is this idea of house tops. And that's not what this presentation's about. But I will talk about it at another time. But think 0:56:08 - 0:56:32 about that scripture from Isaiah, about the tops of mountains, their scriptures about from the house tops and those are all connected and very important ideas. So they go up to the city, they go up to the high place, they come back down from the high place, back into the city, but they're still in the 0:56:32 - 0:56:56 top of the house, like my dog on the top of a snow pile. He, he's gonna go as high as he can wherever he is. And you'd think that these things would just be minor and they wouldn't matter. But they do matter. It turns out these, these signs of much more important things. They're all around us all the 0:56:56 - 0:57:23 time. The Lord just showed me one today. It blew my mind and it, I just laugh about these things because they're so thorough. It's like it must be, there must be some special angel in heaven who's like the chief autist and he's in charge of orienting all of these arcane details to support a certain narrative 0:57:22 - 0:57:46 and show clues about it. And it's um you know, he's, he's probably like that ponytail character from The Simpsons if I'm remembering correctly because this is a very, very long time ago for me. But that guy who's always fact checking the nerds that he, I think he has a comic book shop. Um Anyway, you 0:57:45 - 0:58:08 can look up that meme, but that's how extensive it is. These, these signs, these clues, they're just all over the place. And I I mentioned uh the Lord revealed one to me today. Uh It has to do with the color blue and it's a certain shade of blue which I detest. And then we have a joke about it at my 0:58:08 - 0:58:27 house because all these things keep turning out this color. And I don't have a choice. My, my house is that color, the exterior of my house. And because I live in a, a northerly latitude, uh, we have a lot of UV and it, it paint doesn't last very long. And so we had to, we had to paint my house and it 0:58:27 - 0:58:45 was all fading out. And I was telling my wife how happy I was that we had to paint our house because it's, it was gonna be a lot of work. But at least we could pick a better color. And then a, a series of circumstances elapsed where we ended up having to paint it the same exact color. It was so it's 0:58:45 - 0:59:04 not faded now, but it's the same color. And I ended up buying a car that color. It's crazy. It just goes on and on and on. I painted, I built this bench for my wife. And again, series of circumstances, I ended up with a paint. That was that color, that it wasn't the same house paint. It was oil paint 0:59:04 - 0:59:26 . But long story short, it just keeps coming up and this has gone on for years and years and just today I was minding my own business and the Lord unfolded something to me and I couldn't believe it. And I was like, oh, yeah, I should have guessed. I should have guessed. All right. 1st 26 we're almost 0:59:25 - 0:59:45 through and they rose early and it came to pass about the spring of the day that Samuel called Saul to the top of the house saying up that I may send thee away and Saul arose and they both and they went out, both of them, he and Samuel abroad. And as they were going down to the end of the city, Samuel 0:59:45 - 1:00:04 said to Saul, bid the servant pass home before us and he passed on. But stand thou still awhile that I may show thee the word of God. Now you can go and read second or excuse me first, Samuel 10, the next chapter and see what Samuel says to him. But I just want to point out a few things to close this 1:00:04 - 1:00:28 out here. One verse 26 they rose early. Why do you think in all the thousands of pages of scripture that we have? You will never find one case where it says a holy man slept in, you could prove me wrong. But I don't think there's a single reference that says that you're gonna find holy men from Jesus 1:00:27 - 1:01:00 to Samuel many others. Uh And when God refers to sending prophets, he says that he sends them early, that they rose up early. Why do you think that is, do you rise up early? Ok. So now Samuel calls Saul to the top of the house again. Where does the prophet communicate in the top of the house? Uh You'll 1:00:59 - 1:01:24 find many references in the New Testament to Jesus, getting up early, going to the top of the mountains and then calling his disciples to come join him there or they go looking for him there. Those are both important and then the message is it's time to go. We have to leave. It's a funny thing to call 1:01:24 - 1:01:47 someone to the top of a house to say. So they go now right before they're at the edge of the city and that means something Samuel says to Saul, tell your servant to keep going. I've got things to tell you and he doesn't get to hear them and that matters too. Now I'll leave it to you to think about why 1:01:47 - 1:02:07 that is and to apply that to other situations where it might apply. But as well, I sort of get that stoked. So summing up the big idea in this chapter that I wanted to highlight, I'm not saying it's the most important thing here, but it's pretty important. It's definitely a contender is that God gives 1:02:07 - 1:02:34 us problems to orient us towards him. He gives us problems to motivate us to do more than more and better than we would have done to draw closer to him. And that includes leaving our comfort zones in basically every way possible. And it almost always includes other people who know more than we do. That's 1:02:34 - 1:02:53 who we're going to encounter on the way and they're instrumental and a lot of other people are instrumental too, even if they only know a little bit more than us or know something more than us. That's very specific. Like the maidens with the water. They weren't Samuel, they weren't even at that dinner 1:02:52 - 1:03:18 as far as we know, but they were key in helping Saul get there. The problem is never the problem. The problem is always you, God's purpose is for you to become better than you are. And so he uses the problems to get you moving along in that direction and it's really important.