The First Three Kings of Israel

The First Three Kings of Israel

Mark R. Perkins, Pastor

Front Range Bible Church

I) Introduction.

A) The first three kings of Israel are famous for their position, intelligence, leadership, and wisdom.

B) However, the purpose of this study is to consider their flaws and to gain insight into the present condition of our nation.

C) Of special importance will be insight into the nature of our responsibility as Christian citizens of this nation.

II) The Degenerate Time Before the Kings of Israel.

A) Judges 17:6, “In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.” This phrase is repeated exactly in Judges 21:25 and, in part, in Judges 18:1 and 19:1.

1) This is a comment of the writer and it is set forth as a bad thing. The people had judges, but they wanted a king.

2) Since this was the time of the Judges, there has to be a clear distinction between the essence of a judge and the essence of a king.

B) The purpose of the judges is outlined in Judges 2:16-19, “(16) Then the Lord raised up judges who delivered them from the hands of those who plundered them. (17) Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they played the harlot after other gods and bowed themselves down to them. They turned aside quickly from the way in which their fathers had walked in obeying the commandments of the Lord; they did not do as their fathers. (18) When the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge and delivered them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed and afflicted them. (19) But it came about when the judge died, that they would turn back and act more corruptly than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them and bow down to them; they did not abandon their practices or their stubborn ways.”

1) You can see for yourselves that the judge is not much more than a military general.

2) The purpose of the judge was to deliver Israel from the plundering tribes that targeted them.

3) Whenever a raiding group of gentiles would come into the land, the judge would organize a military defense, and then God would stand behind him.

4) The result was consistently victorious defense for Israel, but the raiding did not cease because of the Israelites’ hardness of heart.

5) The time of the judges was a time of awful idol worship for Israel. God was certainly not their king, although He should have been.

C) This distinction becomes a little more clear in 1 Samuel 8:1-9: “(1) And it came about when Samuel was old that he appointed his sons judges over Israel. (2) Now the name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judging in Beersheba. (3) His sons, however, did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after dishonest gain and took bribes and perverted justice. (4) Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah; (5) and they said to him, ‘Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations.’ (6) But the thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, ‘Give us a king to judge us.’ And Samuel prayed to the Lord. (7) The Lord said to Samuel, ‘Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them. (8) Like all the deeds which they have done since the day that I brought them up from Egypt even to this day - in that they have forsaken Me and served other gods - so they are doing to you also. (9) Now then, listen to their voice; however, you shall solemnly warn them and tell them of the procedure of the king who will reign over them.’”

1) The people of Israel believed that the function of the king was to judge his people; to administer justice on their behalf.

2) The Jews desired a king according to the evil desires of their hearts. This is not unlike the desire of apostate congregations to accumulate apostate teachers in accordance with their evil desires. Paul talked of this phenomenon in 2 Timothy 4:3.

3) Undisciplined people who are slaves to their own sinful natures will look for leadership that will give them slack so that they can maintain their lifestyles.

4) The king they looked for would be more than a military ruler, he would judge them in all their disputes.

5) Verse seven is the backbreaker; it reveals the desire of God to be king over Israel; here was the offer of divine rulership, long before there was ever a Messiah.

6) It is also important to perceive the wonderful nature of the Messiah in the God-man Jesus Christ, because He is the one who is both God and man as the king of Israel. He meets both the desire of God and the desire of the people.

7) It is especially heinous, therefore, that the people of Israel rejected their perfect Messiah.

8) Finally, God grants the Israelites’ desire for a king, but the king would not be exactly what they wanted. Samuel was to warn them in solemn fashion concerning the true nature of this king.

D) The degeneracy of Gibeah:

1) Gibeah came to characterize the degeneracy of Israel under the Judges, and the Israelites’ need for greater restraint under a king. Judges 19-21 recounts a event that was paramount in degeneracy.

2) At that time, a traveler came to Gibeah and was spending the night. Certain demon-possessed homosexual men came to the house where he was staying, and demanded that he come out to the town square and have a homosexual orgy with them.

3) Instead, the traveler and his host threw their women out to the homos in order to appease them.

4) The traveler's concubine (mistress) was raped and tortured all night by the demon homosexuals, and she died as she tried to claw her way back into the house.

5) The man then cut this woman's body into twelve pieces and sent them to the twelve tribes of Israel. He lied and exonerated his guilt, and as a result, 400,000 soldiers mustered at nearby Mizpah. They came from all the tribes.

6) What followed was a great battle, in which the people of Gibeah were destroyed.

7) But the people of Israel continued to make terrible misapplications and commit great acts of injustice against the people of the region of Benjamin. Benjamin suffered terribly because of the acts of a few and the lies of one.

E) At the same time, there was a city in the Transjordan, northeast of Jerusalem, called Jabesh-Gilead. During the degenerate time of Gibeah, the tribes of Israel sent out a muster to all the men of Israel so that they could destroy the criminal Benjaminites in Gibeah.

F) The men of Jabesh-Gilead refused to attend the muster at Mizpah, apparently for reasons of conscience, not because they were cowards, but because they did not believe that the destruction of the entire city was warranted.

G) The lynch mob of Gilead swore before God that they would kill any man of Israel who did not attend their muster, and the men of Jabesh-Gilead still would not comply (Judges 21:5).

H) Now there were about 600 surviving men from the tribe of Benjamin who had lost the battle of Gibeah before Israel, but there were no women survivors (Judges 20:48). The rest of the warriors broke out of the city and fled to the area just east of Bethel, where they holed up near the rock of Rimmon, about four miles outside of town.

I) The men of Israel then discovered the absence of the soldiers from Jabesh-Gilead, went there, and killed all the inhabitants of the town, save for 400 virgins. They had a purpose for these (Judges 21:8-12).

J) The men of Israel then felt sorry that they had cut off the inheritance of an entire tribe, so they gave the 400 virgins of Jabesh-Gilead to the 600-man remnant of Benjamin, and let them return to the land of their inheritance (Judges 21:13-24).

K) After the rehabitation of Jabesh-Gilead, about 1030 B.C. +/- 5 years, Nahash the King of Ammon came against the city and besieged it (1 Samuel 11:1).

L) The city was rescued by the intervention of king Saul, at least partly, because it was the hometown of his mother.

M) There were four stages to the making of Saul as king.

1) In 1 Samuel chapter eight, the elders of Israel demanded a king from Samuel, their great prophet. They were not specific as to who this king should be.

(1) Samuel balked at the idea, protesting that God should be the only king under a true theocracy.

(2) He also warned the people that a king would bring many abuses with him, taking people for manpower, and property for taxes.

(3) Nonetheless, God instructed Samuel to listen to the people and appoint them a king. God would give Israel a king after their own image.

(a) This is very important to observe!

(b) Since God had established the nation as His chosen institute, He had to honor the desire of His people toward a king.

(d) This is a principle: the king can never have an effect greater than the goodness of his people.

(e) A good leader brings out the potential of his people, but that potential represents goodness.

(f) A poor leader cannot ruin a good and godly people.

(g) People who live in fear are detrimental to authority. They do harm by infectious slander, suspicion, and paranoia.

(h) You must always be a person who is worthy of a good king. And, you must always be a good person who can endure a bad king, not one who participates in gossip, slander, and worse.

2) In 1 Samuel 9:15-21, God chooses Saul the Benjaminite through Samuel. Saul protests at first, but then, in chapter ten, verse one, Samuel anoints Saul privately. That anointing is the sign of God’s choice.

3) 1 Samuel 10:17-27 records the public choosing of Saul at a meeting of all the tribes. Saul showed great reluctance to become king, and he hid from the people. But then he came out, and he was a very tall man. Immediately, the people saw his potential as a leader, and proclaimed, “Long live the king!”

4) Immediately thereafter, a crisis came.

(1) Nahash the Ammonite came down from his capital in the Transjordan and assaulted the city of Jabesh-Gilead, the home of Saul’s mother.

(2) Saul rallied the army of Israel and went out and rescued the people of Jabesh-Gilead from the siege of Nahash.

(3) Samuel then gathered the people at Gilgal, the famous entry-place to the promised land. There, some 350 years before, the people of Israel had first entered Canaan. At this very place, they made Saul’s kingdom official.

N) But Saul was not a particularly virtuous man, and ultimately he became a reflection of the evil desires of the nation.

1) That Samuel found and privately anointed David points out the failure of Saul. God would not have initiated this anointment toward coronation had Saul been a good king.

2) He failed in cowardly fashion at the battle with Goliath’s Philistine army. At nearly seven feet tall, he should have been God’s champion to slay Goliath.

3) Then Saul became jealous at David’s success on the battlefield and showed consternation of God’s choice for his successor. This formed a murderous complex of sin; Saul had degenerated to an extreme.

4) And here is another important lesson: Even with the first king, there was to be no genetic dynasty! Royal succession would come on the basis of virtue and not on the basis of genetic line.

5) Despite the Israelites’ fascination with genealogies, there was certainly no compulsion from God to stay within the bounds of genetic succession.

6) Saul came from the choice of the people, and God commanded Samuel to let them have their king.

7) So now what has changed with David? Why now will they get their summer king, their great wonderful king that they have always desired?

8) It could only be that the people of Israel were prepared in their hearts to have such a great man at their head.

O) David had his chance to remove Saul from the throne, and chose not to.

1) In 1 Samuel 23-24, there is the account of Saul’s pursuit of David’s life.

(1) 1 Samuel 23:15-18 recounts the meeting between David and Jonathan, wherein Jonathan came out to the wilderness to encourage him in God. David knew that Saul sought his life, and he was in hiding.

(2) Verses 19-23 are the narrative of the Ziphite spies who came to Saul and told him of David’s whereabouts. Saul enlists them to continue their spying so that he can bring about his murderous intent.

(3) In verses 24-29, Saul and his men pursue David in the wilderness of Maon. They are just about to surround David when word comes of a Philistine incursion, and Saul has to break contact and meet the greater threat. It was a near thing nonetheless. David then shifted his hideout to the wilderness of Engedi.

(4) Then came the great opportunity of David’s life: Saul’s life was handed to him on a platter. See how David handles this.

(5) 1 Samuel 24:1-7 is one of the great passages of Scripture: (1) Now when Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, saying, ‘Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi.’ (2) Then Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the Rocks of the Wild Goats. (3) He came to the sheepfolds on the way, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the inner recesses of the cave. (4) The men of David said to him, ‘Behold; I am about to give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it seems good to you.’ Then David arose and cut off the edge of Saul’s robe secretly. (5) It came about afterward that David’s conscience bothered him because he had cut off the edge of Saul’s robe. (6) So he said to his men, ‘Far be it from me because of the Lord that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, since his is the Lord’s anointed.’ (7) David persuaded his men with these words and did not allow them to rise up against Saul. And Saul arose, left the cave, and went on his way.”

(a) David took one indulgence here by exacting the tiniest bit of revenge on Saul.

(b) Remember the context: Saul is trying mightily to kill David out of jealous hatred. And David can now end it all, as Saul is in the ultimate of vulnerable positions: squatting in a dark cave.

(d) He cuts off the edge of the robe, which, being the king’s robe, had fine embroidery sewn into it. That embroidered edge distinguished Saul from all others and identified him as king.

(e) David is such a remarkable believer that he feels guilty about this deed before his men.

(f) He identifies Saul and Saul alone as the Lord’s anointed king. He has perfect humility before his king, in spite of the fact that Saul is trying to murder him.

(g) In analysis, we would certainly conclude that Saul is abusing power here, and that he has committed crimes through the illicit use of his office. Surely we would remove this man from office as Americans!