#blessed
Preached by Benjamin Vrbicek
June 5, 2016
This morning we are continuing our sermon series through the book of 1 Samuel. In many ways, the story this morning is a lot like the first passage in the book: very, very ordinary. And in this way, it’s like much of our lives, even (in a sense) the life of local churches.To be sure, there are passages like the one I preached two weeks ago where there is an epic battle, in that case a battle between Dagon and the ark of God.Other times, there are passages, and by extension sermons, that simply provide the tiny “course corrections” we all need. The Christian life and good preaching are sometimes epic, but often it’s about the thousands and thousands of tiny, but meaningful course corrections we need because our hearts are “prone to wonder, prone to leave the God we love.”In 1 Samuel 9 we receive a strong warning to consider what it actually means to be “blessed.” We need this warning; our hearts are prone to wander; my heart is prone to wander. But as we look at the passage, we are also going to see that God is so kind and so generous that he also gives his people what they do not deserve. He gives them grace.
Scripture Reading
If you have a Bible, please follow along with me as I read 1 Samuel 9:1-27 (page 296ff).
1 Samuel 9:1-27
1 There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, son of Zeror, son of Becorath, son of Aphiah, a Benjaminite, a man of wealth. 2 And he had a son whose name was Saul, a handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people.3 Now the donkeys of Kish, Saul's father, were lost. So Kish said to Saul his son, “Take one of the young men with you, and arise, go and look for the donkeys.” 4 And he passed through the hill country of Ephraim and passed through the land of Shalishah, but they did not find them. And they passed through the land of Shaalim, but they were not there. Then they passed through the land of Benjamin, but did not find them.5 When they came to the land of Zuph, Saul said to his servant who was with him, “Come, let us go back, lest my father cease to care about the donkeys and become anxious about us.” 6 But he said to him, “Behold, there is a man of God in this city, and he is a man who is held in honor; all that he says comes true. So now let us go there. Perhaps he can tell us the way we should go.” 7 Then Saul said to his servant, “But if we go, what can we bring the man? For the bread in our sacks is gone, and there is no present to bring to the man of God. What do we have?” 8 The servant answered Saul again, “Here, I have with me a quarter of a shekel of silver, and I will give it to the man of God to tell us our way.” 9 (Formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he said, “Come, let us go to the seer,” for today's “prophet” was formerly called a seer.) 10 And Saul said to his servant, “Well said; come, let us go.” So they went to the city where the man of God was.11 As they went up the hill to the city, they met young women coming out to draw water and said to them, “Is the seer here?” 12 They answered, “He is; behold, he is just ahead of you. Hurry. He has come just now to the city, because the people have a sacrifice today on the high place. 13 As soon as you enter the city you will find him, before he goes up to the high place to eat. For the people will not eat till he comes, since he must bless the sacrifice; afterward those who are invited will eat. Now go up, for you will meet him immediately.” 14 So they went up to the city. As they were entering the city, they saw Samuel coming out toward them on his way up to the high place.15 Now the day before Saul came, the Lord had revealed to Samuel: 16 “Tomorrow about this time I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel. He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines. For I have seen my people, because their cry has come to me.” 17 When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord told him, “Here is the man of whom I spoke to you! He it is who shall restrain my people.” 18 Then Saul approached Samuel in the gate and said, “Tell me where is the house of the seer?” 19 Samuel answered Saul, “I am the seer. Go up before me to the high place, for today you shall eat with me, and in the morning I will let you go and will tell you all that is on your mind. 20 As for your donkeys that were lost three days ago, do not set your mind on them, for they have been found. And for whom is all that is desirable in Israel? Is it not for you and for all your father's house?” 21 Saul answered, “Am I not a Benjaminite, from the least of the tribes of Israel? And is not my clan the humblest of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then have you spoken to me in this way?”22 Then Samuel took Saul and his young man and brought them into the hall and gave them a place at the head of those who had been invited, who were about thirty persons. 23 And Samuel said to the cook, “Bring the portion I gave you, of which I said to you, ‘Put it aside.’” 24 So the cook took up the leg and what was on it and set them before Saul. And Samuel said, “See, what was kept is set before you. Eat, because it was kept for you until the hour appointed, that you might eat with the guests.”So Saul ate with Samuel that day. 25 And when they came down from the high place into the city, a bed was spread for Saul on the roof, and he lay down to sleep. 26 Then at the break of dawn Samuel called to Saul on the roof, “Up, that I may send you on your way.” So Saul arose, and both he and Samuel went out into the street.27 As they were going down to the outskirts of the city, Samuel said to Saul, “Tell the servant to pass on before us, and when he has passed on, stop here yourself for a while, that I may make known to you the word of God.”
Introduction
I try very hard not to repeat stories in sermons. But I’m going to make an exception on this one. So if you heard me share this story a year ago (5/3/2015), then I guess you get to enjoy it again.Twelve years ago, I worked at a Christian sports camp called Kanakuk. I was a counselor for the entire summer. I was in college at the time. This camp is in southern Missouri, and I know you think you have some humidity and heat around here, but let me tell you southern Missouri has more.And all summer, at the camp, we were rarely given desserts (which I know is not much of a hardship). Occasionally, however, we would see those who worked in the kitchen walk into a giant, walk-in freezer and bring out popsicles or ice cream sandwiches. And when they did, it was awesome.But no one—I mean no one—who didn’t work in the kitchen was allowed to go into the kitchen, especially into the sacred freezer. And let me tell you that on the hottest days of the summer, those days in late July, I longed to just stand on the fringe of the freezer as someone just cracked the door open. And many times I would think to myself, “O how blessed I would be if I could do that—stand on the edge of the freezer—let alone actually stand inside of the freezer . . . for hours.” I wanted that. I desired that. What a blessing it would be!Then one day in August, it happened. We ran out of popsicles and someone in charge said, “Hey, Benjamin, go get us some more popsicles.” So I did. And it was glorious . . . for about 30 seconds.Because after 30 seconds, standing there in my t-shirt and shorts, I started to get cold—really cold. As I remember it, I don’t think I could find the popsicles right away, and after a minute the only thing I wanted was to get out of there as fast as I could because—and this is profound—it’s freezing inside a freezer.Now, what does that have to do with anything? Well, it has everything to do with this passage. When we crack open 1 Samuel 9 and let the cool breezes blow on us, it’s like we have just walked into the freezer on a summer day. And for 30 seconds everything feels great. In fact, even next week, things continue to look pretty good for Israel. But then, things change. They can’t find the popsicles and they start to panic; they start to freeze and they are in trouble. They begin to fear that they’ve been locked in and there is no way out . . . But that’s for later this summer.For now, what we are going to see in this passage is something that is also very true of our relationship with God, namely, sometimes we ask for the wrong things and sometimes God gives them to us. And as we talk about this, this passage forces us to evaluate what it really means to be “blessed.”The roadmap for the sermon this morning is simple. Only two stops along the way. First stop: they got what they asked for. Second stop: they got what they didn’t deserve. (And I’ll just tell you this now so you don’t get nervous later: the first stop will be a good bit longer than the second stop. In fact, the second stop will be a short one.)
1. They got what they asked for.
Let’s start with this first stop, “they got what they asked for.”Now, you may be thinking: “Wait—what? I listened as you read the passage, but I didn’t hear anything about what they were asking for.” So, whether you were here last week or not, let me dive back into chapter 8 for a bit to remind you what Israel was asking for. Let me read vv. 4-5, 19-22.
4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah 5 and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.”
Then, after Samuel explains the icy winter that will someday come upon Israel in asking for this kind of king, we read this:
19 But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, 20 that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” 21 And when Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord. 22 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey their voice and make them a king.”
Israel wants a king like all the other nations. They want a king that will “go out before us and fight our battles” (v. 19).And what do they get? They get Saul. Look again how he is introduced.
1 There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish . . . a man of wealth. 2 And he had a son whose name was Saul, a handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people.
Did you see this four-fold description: wealthy, handsome, young, and tall. He’s a giant compared to everyone else. If you’re picking teams on the playground for any sport (except perhaps something like gymnastics), if you get Saul on your team, you’re blessed. This is going to go well for you. If you get this guy as your president, you’re blessed.But as the passage goes on and we learn more about Saul, and we start to get concerned. First, notice that Saul is (apparently) clueless about Samuel. By the way, the picture of Samuel thus far is that he is someone with a wide and influential ministry (4:1b; 7:15-16); he travels and he speaks and he judges “all of Israel.” In short, Samuel is a pretty big deal. Yet, Saul doesn’t know any of this. Saul’s donkeys are lost (which is a big problem if donkeys are your livelihood), and so he goes looking.And as they look, they just so happen to land in the hometown of this mega-prophet/leader and when he does, Saul’s servant has to explain to him what’s going on. Saul is kind of like, “Well, okay . . . I guess; do we have to tip the guy?” Now look at vv. 18-19b,
18 Then Saul approached Samuel in the gate and said, “Tell me where is the house of the seer?” 19 Samuel answered Saul, “I am the seer . . .”
Saul meets Samuel but he doesn’t know who he is. Now, just to be clear, it’s possible to interpret these ambiguous details in other ways, but these details (and there are others I’m not mentioning for the sake of time), they tend to stack.1 And when these details stack they tend to show a “soon-to-be” king who is spiritually clueless, that is, a king like the kings of all the other nations.In college, I had a friend (we’ll call him Brian to project the guilty). Brian was one of those guys that always wanted to be in the loop. He always wanted people to seem like he knew what was going on. This led him to, from time to time, stretching the truth. And largely Brian was, as I said of Saul, not clued-in spiritually (though I hope and pray that this has changed).Anyway, one time he was having a conversation with the senior pastor of a large church (a church of about 1,000 people). Some of us went to that church. Brian had probably been there twice. And Brian, while talking to the senior pastor of the church said, “You know, Mr. Senior Pastor, you should really check out this church [he said the name] because it’s great.” And the church he invited the senior pastor to was the church that the senior pastor was the pastor of!This is the picture we have of Saul. He asks Samuel, “Where is this seer guy?” And this makes the last verse in the chapter so ironic. Look at what it says.
27 As they were going down to the outskirts of the city, Samuel said to Saul, “Tell the servant to pass on before us, and when he has passed on, stop here yourself for a while, that I may make known to you the word of God.”
Samuel was going to make the word of God known to Saul. And he did! That’s next week’s passage. And I know you haven’t seen the end of Saul’s life yet, and right now I’m not going to leap ahead to show you, but trust me when I say that this dynamic, this not listening to God’s Word is the downfall of Saul. Though he had God’s word made known to him, though he looked the part in every way, though he even started well, he didn’t finish well. And the consequences were tragic—for him and for Israel and for the nations. Yet, it’s exactly what they asked for, though not in so many words.It’s interesting, isn’t it, how gracious God is. Sometimes he’s willing to give people things that they ask for even when he knows it’s not what will be good for them. Look at these verses from Matthew 6 where Jesus speaks about getting one’s desires met.
2 “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward . . . 5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. (6:2, 5)
Before moving to our last point, we ought to linger a bit over what this means for us. As I said at the start, Israel’s asking for a certain kind of king and getting that exact kind of king is a “cautionary tale.” It forces us to ask what it really means to be blessed.Perhaps at this point I should explain the title of my sermon, #blessed. But before I do that, let me explain the hashtag, which is really just the pound sign. (In fact, it’s funny to me when I sit at the keyboard with my kids and as they learn to type and they call the pound sign a hashtag.) The idea is this, people use it in front of a word or a phrase when they write on the internet, especially in social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. They use the hashtag to make something searchable. Sometimes people do it with huge phrases that will never be searched, but that’s just a way of making a joke. Ordinarily, it’s designed to make things searchable.So, back to #blessed. As the kids say these days, #blessed “is a thing.” You put it into a social media search and you’ll get hundreds of thousands of hits. You’ll get celebrities doing selfie videos at their mansions. There’s even one on Twitter from just a few days ago of a group selfie picture that was taken with the Pope with this hashtag.Rachel Cruze, the daughter of Dave Ramsey, has written about this. She writes,
There is a fascinating phenomenon racing through social media these days, and we’ve all seen it. It’s there, lurking at the end of half the posts you see online. It’s the smiley, happy exclamation point at the end of a friend’s latest post about her fantastic vacation. Most of the time, you can see it coming before you get to the end of the photo caption. It’s the latest weapon in the comparison-driven war of one-upmanship currently being waged on your favorite social networks. Yes, it’s true: I’m talking about #blessed.“Look at what my amazing husband gave me for our anniversary! #blessed”“Honored to accept my new position as Executive Vice President of Sales for a Fortune 500 company. #blessed”“I can’t believe this view out my new bedroom window! #blessed”“Jetting off to Hawaii for a long weekend! #blessed”“I’ve always wanted a Lexus! #blessed”“Oh, he shouldn’t have! #blessed”And the pictures—oh, the pictures. New cars. Amazing sunsets. Six-pack abs. Rooftop pools. First-class airline seats. #blessed #ilovehimsomuch #treatingmyself #YOLO2
Paul tweet
(Quick disclaimer: I have no idea if any of you have used that hashtag before. And if you did, I don’t know whether you used in an ironic, humorous way or a serious way, and if you used it a serious way, you may have meant something thoroughly biblical, i.e., blessed by God. I don’t know.)In our passage, there is the mention of a dinner party of sorts. It’s a meal that takes place after a peace offering. In total, there are 33 people there. If you were alive in 1052 BC, and you had looked at your Twitter feed the day after this dinner, perhaps you would have seen a tweet like this:
Just met Saul, Israel’s new king. The guy is a *GIANT*. #blessed3
You see, for years Israel had longed to step foot inside of the cool freezer. And now they were in. They were receiving their reward. They had a tall, dark, and handsome king.But here is the caution to us. Jason pointed this out to me this week. Saul is, essentially, a giant, right? If the average height is 5’10”, he’s 6’10”. But here’s the question: what happens when they come upon an enemy that is a giant compared to Saul? What happens, let’s just say, when they meet a Goliath? Well, we don’t have to guess. When they meet Goliath, Saul hides and sends a boy the battle.We do this in all sorts of ways. Consider this quote from supermodel, Cameron Russell,
If you are ever wondering, “If I have thinner thighs and shinier hair, will I be happier?” you just need to meet a group of models because they have the thinnest thighs and the shiniest hair and the coolest clothes and they’re the most physically insecure people on the planet.4
Friends, you may not be able to tell with your eyes and current circumstances what it means to be blessed. As the song we sang a moment ago says, “Forgive us Lord / When we lust for worldly joys / Rather than the joy you bring . . . Forgive us Lord / When we trust too much in man / Build a kingdom of our own.” The only solution is that God would give us what we don’t deserve, thus teaching us what it means to be truly blessed.Let’s transition to our last point.
2. They got what they didn’t deserve.
The second and last point is this: They got what they didn’t deserve. What do I mean by this?Well, what did Israel deserve? God says in chapter 8 that they have rejected him as their king, just like they have always done (vv. 7-8). What do you do with people that reject you? What do you want to do to people who blow you off, who disrespect you? We don’t, naturally speaking, want to give them grace. But look at vv. 15-17
15 Now the day before Saul came, the Lord had revealed to Samuel: 16 “Tomorrow about this time I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel. He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines. For I have seen my people, because their cry has come to me.” 17 When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord told him, “Here is the man of whom I spoke to you! He it is who shall restrain my people.”
Yes, behind those lost donkey’s, God is working. And their “cry,” however faulty and mixed with sin, came before God and he was moved. He gave them a king. And this king, while he ends poorly, he does have a good start. And when Israel is in a jam (several times), Saul helps them out. One of these is in the passage next week.And let’s go deeper. When things do go bad with King Saul, when it feels like they are locked inside a freezer with no way out and they are starting to spiritually freeze, guess what happens? Along comes David, a man after God’s heart. David will pick up where Saul failed and push back the Philistines.And let’s go deeper still. It’s through this kingship that the true King comes. And the true King, Jesus Christ, picks up where David failed.It’s an amazing story, this Bible. In their sinful request for a king God brings about the true king. In the sinful execution and betrayal of the Son of God on the cross, well, God was working salvation for his people.What it means to be blessed, friends, you might not be able to see with your eyes, and you might not be able to communicate it on social media. What it means to be blessed, is to receive from our huge and awesome God something that we don’t deserve: grace and love and mercy. And by the way, there is not a giant taller than God.
1
For example, the fact that Samuel is not mentioned by name (“seer,” “prophet,” “man of God’) until they meet him, which leads me to think that it’s because they didn’t know his name.
2
. See also, Desiring God
and The New York Times
.
3
Picture of Saul adapted from “The Bible” TV series, episode 4.
4
Cameron Russell quote in the book
Unoffendable
by Brant Hansen, pp. 111-112.
