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The solution to Saul's bad precedent, part 2

We know from Genesis 49:10 that the tribe of Judah was destined to provide the kings for the house of Israel. Having a king was not the problem. But Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin, of whom nothing is said about kingship. So why did God not send Samuel to Bethlehem of Judah and anoint a king there? After all, David’s father, Jesse, was alive at the time. Was not Jesse qualified to be the king of Israel?

For that matter, why had God not anointed a king for Israel sooner? After all, Israel had been living in Canaan for more than three centuries without a king but under Judges, who were military leaders. Judges 21:25 says,

²⁵ In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

This implies a certain level of chaos with no official standard of righteousness. The people remained largely ignorant of God’s law, as the book of Judges shows. In fact, in the last three chapters of Judges, the town of Gibeah in Benjamin was set forth as being particularly lawless. The tribe was almost destroyed as a result.

Gibeah was nearly completely destroyed (Judges 20:37). No doubt his father or grandfather was one of 300 survivors from the tribe of Benjamin, and his mother was either from Jabesh-gilead (Judges 21:14) or one of the girls in the staged kidnapping (Judges 21:17-23).

So why would God choose a king from the tribe of Benjamin? Worse yet, why would God anoint a king from Gibeah? We know Saul was from Gibeah, because 1 Samuel 10:26 says, “Saul also went to his house at Gibeah.”

Judah’s Disqualification for 10 Generations

The delay in appointing a king for Israel was due to the law’s restriction in Deuteronomy 23:2,

² No one of illegitimate birth shall enter the assembly of the Lord; none of his descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall enter the assembly [kahal, “assembly, congregation, church”] of the Lord.

In Genesis 38:28-30, we read how Judah, the son of Jacob, begat twins, Zarah and Pharez. They were born out of wedlock through their mother Tamar. Hence, they were illegitimate from birth. Even though the tribe of Judah was called to provide the kings of Israel, they were delayed for ten generations in fulfilling that calling. David was the tenth generation from Pharez, the first illegitimate son of Judah. (See the genealogy in Ruth 4:18-22.)

In those days, under the Old Covenant, when biological genealogy was the rule, the law applied to the ten generations from Pharez to David. Under the New Covenant, of course, there is a greater application of the law, where those who are born of the flesh cannot “enter the kahal,” that is, the church. In other words, one must be begotten from above. Legitimate sons of God are begotten, not by the flesh or by the will of man, but of God (John 1:12, 13). It is no longer about bloodline but about being begotten by the Holy Spirit, following the example of Mary being overshadowed by the Holy Spirit so that she might bring forth the Son of God (Matthew 1:18 and 20).

Hence, when the Holy Spirit begat the “new man” within us, that new man is Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27). While the carnal world may consider this new man to be illegitimate, God proclaims the opposite. The children of the flesh, then, are not qualified to inherit the Kingdom and must be “cast out” (Galatians 4:30). This is how Deuteronomy 23:2 applies under the New Covenant. God did not put away the law; He upgraded its application.

The law applies equally to the Aaronic priests whose genealogy qualified them under the Old Covenant. Today the Zionists have gathered men who, they claim, are Aaronic priests to offer sacrifices in a rebuilt temple in the earthly Jerusalem. However, they are disqualified under the New Covenant, because they are the children of the flesh, sons of Hagar-Jerusalem, illegitimate in the sight of God.

The same can be said of the descendants of Joseph (if they may be found). Just because they might claim biological genealogy back to Joseph-Ephraim does not qualify them to hold the birthright. All must be begotten by the Spirit by faith in Jesus Christ to be legitimate sons of God, as John 1:12, 13 tells us plainly.

Samuel’s Speech at Saul’s Coronation

1 Samuel 12 gives us the essence of Samuel’s speech. It begins with verse 1,

¹ Then Samuel said to all Israel, “Behold, I have listened to your voice in all that you said to me, and I have appointed a king over you.”

1 Samuel 12:13 then says,

¹³ “Now therefore, here is the king whom you have chosen, which you have asked for [shaw-al], and behold, the Lord has set a king over you.”

The prophet makes it clear that Saul was the king that the people had “chosen” and “asked for.” Saul’s name means “asked for.” Then Samuel presents the solution to this unwise prayer request. He did not tell the people to disregard Saul or to rebel against him. He told them to learn to hear God’s voice and be obedient to God, even within the context of a less-than-ideal situation.

1 Samuel 12:14, 15 says,

¹⁴ If you will fear the Lord and serve Him, and listen to His voice and not rebel against the command of the Lord, then with you and also the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God. ¹⁵ If you will not listen to the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the command of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you, as it was against your fathers.

The people had asked for a king because they did not want God to rule over them (1 Samuel 8:7). The solution is to hear/obey (shema) the voice of God, because the problem was that they lacked the ability to hear His voice. Their spiritual deafness had been established at Mount Sinai since the people refused to hear the rest of the law, as we read in Exodus 20:19,

¹⁹ Then they said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die.”

That occurred on the original Feast of Weeks, which was later called by the Greek term, Pentecost. The root problem of Pentecost is the people’s desire to have a man tell them what God says, rather than to hear Him directly. A secondary problem is the fear of death, because they do not understand that the fiery law kills the old man so that the new man may live.

Saul’s coronation on Pentecost followed the same pattern as the original Pentecost under Moses. The main difference is that earlier the people had placed their faith in Moses, while later they placed their faith in Samuel. In both cases, they had refused to hear God for themselves, preferring to remain a safe distance from the fiery law.

1 Samuel 12:17 says,

¹⁷ “Is it not wheat harvest [Pentecost] today? I will call to the Lord, that He may send thunder and rain. Then you will know and see that your wickedness is great which you have done in the sight of the Lord by asking for yourselves a king.”

As I wrote earlier, the day of “wheat harvest” was the day that the high priest offered the wheat offering to God (Exodus 34:22), signaling the start of wheat harvest. So Samuel dated the coronation of King Saul, making Saul a classic Old Testament Pentecostal.

Whereas the fire and voice of God had been seen on the mount in the time of Moses, Samuel prayed that God would “send thunder and rain,” which represented the voice of God and the outpouring of the Spirit. Once again, this provided the Israelites with an opportunity to hear and obey the voice of God and to receive the Holy Spirit. The people did not comprehend their own “wickedness.” They did not see how asking for a king was a rejection of God Himself. “Why can we not have both?” they asked.

The purpose of the thunder and rain—i.e., the outpouring of the Spirit—was to enlighten them to see their own hidden wickedness. Though Pentecost has other benefits and purposes, as seen in the New Testament, Samuel chose to focus on the root purpose of Pentecost—to hear God for themselves without needing an intermediary. God wants a direct relationship with us, not an indirect relationship.

A thunderstorm at harvest was as unusual as honor in a fool (Proverbs 26:1). When a sudden thunderstorm hit the people, they were again as fearful as their forefathers had been at Sinai. 1 Samuel 12:18, 19 says,

¹⁸ So Samuel called to the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day; and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. ¹⁹ Then all the people said to Samuel, “Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, so that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil by asking for ourselves a king.”

They had the wrong kind of fear. They were frightened by God and wanted Samuel to pray for them. Why could they not pray directly to God? At the moment they seemed to recognize their error in asking for a king, but they still missed the point. They still wanted a man (Samuel) to rule over them spiritually.

The Ultimate Solution

1 Samuel 12:20, 21 says,

²⁰ Samuel said to the people, “Do not fear. You have committed all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. ²¹ You must not turn aside, for then you would go after futile things which cannot profit or deliver, because they are futile.”

Samuel told them not to “turn aside from following the Lord.” In other words, follow the Lord, not men. If you fail to do this, “you would go after futile things that cannot profit or deliver.” When we look to men for deliverance or benefit, it is an exercise in futility. The prophet concludes in 1 Samuel 12:23-25,

²³ “Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you; but I will instruct you in the good and right way. ²⁴ Only fear the Lord and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you. ²⁵ But if you still do wickedly, both you and your king will be swept away.”

Samuel’s role was to pray for them and teach them the word of God, so they would be brought to spiritual maturity, hearing God’s voice for themselves and being led by the Spirit of Truth.

In part 3 we will look more closely at the role of legitimate leadership in the church. Does the admonition to hear God for oneself mean that we should ignore the revelation given to other people? God forbid! We need the ability to hear the word through all sources, not hearing the teacher (as a man or woman), but having the ability to discern the word of God through them.