Compassionate Leadership Rallies a Nation Part 1

Guest (Male): Walking by faith, next on Abounding Grace. We've got a very helpful study in store for you today from 1 Samuel here on Abounding Grace. Samuel had been a faithful judge over Israel and God had been nothing but good to his people. But the people of Israel lost sight of that and they cried out for a king. They rejected Samuel and the Lord without a legitimate reason. And in doing so, they were going to pay the price. But here in 1 Samuel chapter 11, Pastor Ed Taylor observes a powerful move of the Holy Spirit as good, compassionate leadership helped to turn things around. Take your Bibles out, open them to 1 Samuel chapter 11.
Ed Taylor: We're learning about a time in Israel's history where their eyes were wandering and they were looking all around them everywhere, seeing the nations that surrounded them. And as they saw the nations that surrounded them, they noticed that the pagan nations all had a king, a human king, a man that was ruling and reigning, overseeing all of their military might and overseeing all of their financial might and giving direction and giving hope to the nation. And as the nation of Israel saw these other nations and their kings, they wanted one for themselves. The elders and the leaders agreed, and so quickly the people demanded, "We want a king." Part of what they were learning in their hearts is what today we would call envy or greed. That's what's being revealed in their hearts. They're envious of other nations even to the point of being greedy. And there is a difference between the two, if you'd like to jot it down. There's a significant difference between greed and envy. Greed could be defined simply as, "I want what you have." That's a greedy heart. Envy is one step further. Envy is, "I'm upset that I don't have what you have and I'll do whatever it takes to get what you have even if it's yours." Envy is deep. It's not just "I want what you have," but "I'll do anything. I'm upset that you have it, not just that I don't have it." And I believe many times this is a vulnerability in our lives, an envy and greed over a lot of things. We think of envy and greed just as possessions, but the nation of Israel is envious of the nations around them because they don't have a king like them. They have much better than what the nations had, but that's not enough for them. That seems to be a pattern in the nation of Israel's life. They were given manna, and they were given clothes that never wore out, and they were given shade in the day and fire by night to lead them in the way, but that wasn't satisfying to them. The manna was not satisfying, what God's provision was. It's so easy for us to have envy over earthly possessions. And that's not so much the deepest vulnerability as it is for us to want comfort and ease and even prosperity. Division is one of the enemy's tools, we've learned that over and over again, but did you know envy is, too? He uses it all the time. Envy will cause us to do things that we never thought possible when overcome with this powerful emotion. Don't believe me? Consider the Scriptures. You'll recall in the life of Joseph and his brothers, what stirred them up so much? Was it just that Joseph had a coat? Well, some would conclude that that's all that upset them, but that's certainly not the case. That coat had a great representation in the life of Joseph, and that was a special love from their father and special attention. They were envious not of some coat of many colors, but they were envious truly of the special relationship that Dad had with Joseph, and what did it lead them to do? Man, they did some dastardly deeds in Joseph's life and sold him out, lied to their dad, concocted a complete fabrication of what happened. Why? Because of their envy. Not only Joseph's brothers, but it was true with this nation of Israel. What did they do when they were envious? They denied God and asked for a king for themselves. And you know what God did? He gave them Saul. He gave them what they asked. Now here's the root issue, I think, before we jump into chapter 11, at least one of them. Up until this point for the nation of Israel, you'll watch them, and up until this point even through the time of the judges overseeing them, they were living primarily a life of faith. It was one of trusting God and the leaders that He gave them. Trusting God and the men that God chose to lead them and oversee them. The men and the women, they weren't perfect, but they made mistakes and stumbled along the way. But that only opened up more opportunities to trust God. More opportunities to be defined and identified very differently from everyone else. No one else had hand-picked judges like the children of Israel. We're reminded, hold your places here in 1 Samuel, as I believe this is a word from the Lord for some of us in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Hold your place in chapter 11 of Samuel and flip over just to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 7. With each disappointment, with each discouragement, with each challenge, we have an opportunity to trust the Lord even more than we currently do, to develop our walk of faith, our trust in the Lord. And in verse 7, he says, "For we walk by faith and not by sight." We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. That is something we hold on to by faith. We walk by what we believe and not what we see because what we see doesn't always line up with the facts. So we walk by faith and I might even add we walk by faith and not feelings or any of our human senses that seem to be more real to us at times and that's the battle, isn't it? Walking by faith and in confidence and assurance and hope by faith. Trusting what God's Word said, trusting that it's going to come to pass, trusting him that he'll work all things out together for the good for those that love him, trusting him that he will perfect that which concerns us, trusting that he will finish what he started in our lives, walking by faith. Even when we don't see it, especially when we don't feel it, we walk by faith, not by sight, not by feelings. Now walking by sight will leave us very uneasy, confused, even hopeless at times. And the children of Israel are making a decision that we often make and that's simply they're trusting man and leadership and human government more than God's choice and God's will for their lives. Now just to give some background before we get into chapter 11, one of the things that the nation of Israel was looking for was military might. They're surveying the countries around them and noticing they have no military and they have no military strength. But with a king, there will come a military, protection, comfort and ease, a way of life. That's what they saw and that's what they wanted. They were surrounded by enemies large and strong. And yet what I have found that even for good practical reasons, we can quickly find excuses for not walking in faith, trusting in the Lord. And what we find throughout chapter 11, really throughout the beginning of 1 Samuel as Saul is chosen, is that God will come down to their level of unbelief to meet them where they're at and gives them a king who outwardly looks strong, mighty, and capable. And yet we find great weaknesses. He goes back and forth, strengths, weaknesses, strengths, weaknesses. And with great grace, God led Saul into a place where he could prove himself and create an environment for great leadership. And that's where we pick up in verse 1 now of chapter 11 where it says, "Then Nahash the Ammonite came up and encamped against Jabesh Gilead; and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, 'Make a covenant with us, and we will serve you.' And Nahash the Ammonite answered them, 'On this condition I will make a covenant with you, that I may put out all your right eyes, and bring a reproach on all Israel.'" "Then the elders of Jabesh said to him, 'Hold off for seven days, that we may send messengers to all the territory of Israel; and then, if there is no one to save us, we will come out to you.'" Wow, what a deal. Pushed back by the Israelites during the time of the judges, the Ammonites, which were descendants of Lot, came to attack here in chapter 11, Jabesh Gilead. They knew of their own weaknesses and offered a treaty, an agreement, but Nahash wanted some drastic conditions. He offered to negotiate with them and let the people live, but what did he want from them? He wanted in verse 2, "I want to put out all your right eyes and bring a reproach on all of Israel." So he wanted two things in this treaty. Number one, he wanted them to be permanently humiliated, as well as permanently crippled. And if you'll do that, we'll make a deal with you. Doesn't that sound like the devil to you? "I'll give you what you want but I want you permanently crippled and I want you permanently damaged, but I'll give you what you want." And it's often wrapped up in a nice pretty package with a nice pretty bow where we're able just to set aside for a moment the crippling, the humiliation that sin brings. Ammonites here become a great picture of the devil that wants to compromise and wants to make a treaty with you, wants to meet you in the middle, wants to expose even your own weaknesses and fears. He wants to gouge your right eye out. You know, the archers and the swordsmen would be handicapped in battle. It would be disastrous for them. Instead of agreeing, I love this, they ask for time to call Israel. One of the spiritual ways you could define this in your life when you're faced with some crazy proposition is you would say, "No, I need to wait on the Lord." Now, if you can't automatically see that gouging your right eye and being permanently humiliated isn't for you, then just wait on the Lord till it is. Obviously, it doesn't come that drastic, does it? If it was that drastic, we'd go, "No way." But it rarely comes that drastic, that black and white. It almost always looks so attractive and wrapped up so beautifully, never really reading the fine print. No, there's no fine print here, he lays it out. This is the way it is. Now as a side note, you'll remember that no one from Jabesh Gilead answered the call for help back in Judges. Instead, they refused. But now, when they need help, they're asking for it. And with that in mind, now look at verse 4. "So the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul and told the news in the hearing of the people. And all the people lifted up their voices and wept. Now there was Saul coming behind the herd from the field; and Saul said, 'What troubles the people, that they weep?' And they told him the words of the men of Jabesh. Then the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard this news, and his anger was greatly aroused. So he took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hands of messengers, saying, 'Whoever does not go out with Saul and Samuel to battle, so it shall be done to his oxen.' And the fear of the Lord fell on the people, and they came out with one consent. When he numbered them in Bezek, the children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand. And they said to the messengers who came, 'Thus you shall say to the men of Jabesh Gilead: Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you shall have help.' Then the messengers came and reported it to the men of Jabesh, and they were glad." Now the first thing I notice in the text is that when there was trouble, they didn't go directly to Saul or to Samuel. They went to the people. Did you notice that? They didn't go directly to the one that could help them, instead they went to the people and what did it do to them? It demoralized them. Notice back in verse 4, the messengers came to Gibeah, told the news in the hearing of all the people, and the people lifted up their voices and wept. How careful we need to be when we are carrying bad news. We really need to be mindful of who we're really supposed to deliver the bad news to because if we're not careful, we can deliver it in such a way that will demoralize people. These folks weren't raising up their voices and weeping moments earlier. And they truly can't really do anything to help. So they don't go to Saul, they don't go to Samuel, and the people are wiped out. Verse 5, Saul's coming back and he hears it, and verse 6, the Spirit of God comes upon him. It's interesting and something I think God would have us to learn is that at times of trouble, people often won't go to the one that can actually solve the problem. You might experience this in your workplace. It's one of the main sources of gossip in your workplace is that people see something and instead of taking it to the right people to solve it, they'd rather start talking to the person next to them before you know it, it's all throughout the office. And instead of helping the person, they're now making the things worse, and now everybody's demoralized. You might not work in a place where they're going to lift up their voices and weep, but you can get all kinds of people fired up because someone had a piece of information and didn't go to the supervisor. Or even, sometimes it goes to the supervisor and the supervisor will start that all. That's just bad leadership. But in general, when you and I are faced with a problem biblically, we need to go to the people or to the person that will help solve it. It happens for those of you that have children, where something happens down in the basement, they're playing and something happens, and instead of one of the kids going up and getting Mom and Dad, they just take things into their own hands and then it's an all-out fight. And then they're all demoralized. Now they're all busted. Not only are they hurt, but they're all busted and now you have to take timeouts and it's just like, "Man, why didn't you just come up and let me help you? Just let me help you." Give those in place of spiritual leadership an opportunity to help you involving the right authorities. Instead, what's done is character assassination at times and just destroying people's lives in the hearing of the people. And it's never fruitful. Let's walk through the Proverbs and just see this is a principle in the Scriptures. Turn over to Proverbs chapter 11. This is no place for the child of God to not take things to the right people. Instead to assassinate someone's character or gossip about them or try to get a group of people to agree with you, it's all just so carnal. Look at Proverbs chapter 11 verse 13. We're all prone to it. We're all prone to doing exactly what the Bible tells us not to. Notice verse 13, "A talebearer reveals secrets, but he who is of a faithful spirit conceals a matter." Or look at chapter 20 verse 19. Proverbs chapter 20 verse 19. It says, "He who goes about as a talebearer reveals secrets; therefore do not associate with one who flatters with his lips." Because you know the speaker of the tale is just as guilty as the hearer of the tale and you want to be very careful. Don't associate with them. Look at chapter 26 of the Proverbs. Chapter 26 verse 20. It says, "Where there is no wood, the fire goes out; and where there is no talebearer, strife ceases. As charcoal is to burning coals, and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife. The words of a talebearer are like tasty trifles, and they go down into the inmost body." You can see a small picture of that here where there's great trouble, but they go to the people first. Now Saul happens to be in the right area. He's coming back from faithfully taking care of the herd in the field. And in verse 6, something happens powerfully where the Spirit of God comes upon Saul. And when he heard the news, it moved him to action. Verse 6 is so encouraging. As soon as King Saul determined what the issue was, the Spirit of God came upon him and empowered him to handle it. Saul moved into action immediately and sent for help. And sent for help with a serious message. He takes these oxen, cuts them up, sends it around and said, "If you don't help, all your oxen are going to be like this." How's that for an invitation? I think they're going to respond and they do. And I see the change here. You want to see it with me? In verse 4 at the end it says, "All the people lifted up their voices and wept." In verse 6 it says the Spirit of God came upon Saul. And then in the end of verse 7, it says, "The fear of the Lord fell on the people and they came out with one consent." So a simple decision by a spiritual leader to do the right thing, to protect and fulfill his kingly duty in this case, but any leader making the right spiritual leadership decision is able to lead the people from all the people lifting up their voices and weeping to the fear of the Lord fell on the people and they came out with one consent. This is a powerful move of the Holy Spirit and it happens rather quickly. Some suspect within a day or two. It happens very, very quickly because good leadership can turn things around. Not only that, the Lord worked among the nation so that three hundred and thirty thousand people rallied together to go to battle. Go tell them we're ready to help. Now sometimes the result of the Spirit of God that coming upon a person leads to incredible fruit, right? Because in Galatians it says, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control." And you want to look for that in your life. That's the fruit of the Spirit. At other times, the Spirit of God coming upon a person will bring about a righteous indignation where you truly see something that is sinful and hurtful and it stirs you up into anger that's righteous that leads you to a spiritual action. Now, of course, with anger you have to be very careful because one of the works of the flesh is an outburst of wrath and for some it's very hard to tell the difference. But you know an outburst of wrath will be destructive, righteous anger will be productive. You can tell the difference. It will be protective and productive and will honor the glory of God. Where outbursts of wrath is more selfish, destructive, will honor the person that's flipping out. And that's not what King Saul's doing here. This is a great picture of righteous indignation. It reminds us of Jesus when he goes into the temple and sees the temple becoming a place of business. He makes a whip of cords, takes some time to put it together, think it through, and then he turns all the tables over and "What are you guys doing here?" A righteous indignation. Righteous anger, I believe can be stirred by the Spirit. Saul was upset. His brothers were in trouble, even though they had chosen to remain on the other side of the Jordan, even though they had refused to help when time came. Doesn't matter. They need help. Saul's ready to help. And he shows great potential. Man, did he have the ingredients to be a righteous king and yet we've seen so many character flaws already.
Guest (Male): Well thanks for studying the Word with us here at Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. Are you interested in hearing this study from 1 Samuel again? If so, drop by aboundinggraceradio.com or oneplace.com. And another way to listen to Pastor Ed's teachings is through the Calvary Church app. You know there's a tragic and growing crisis facing the church concerning the ministry of counseling. An increasing number of churches and church leaders are forsaking God's way of counseling and turning to man's ways. *How to Counsel God's Way* by Bob Hoekstra calls God's people to return to Jesus as our wonderful counselor. Whether you're in a position to give counsel or wanting to receive it, this book can be very helpful and a valuable addition to your library. When you give a donation of $25 or more to Abounding Grace, you're invited to request a copy of *How to Counsel God's Way*. Give us a call, 877-30-GRACE. That's 877-30-GRACE. You can also order the book online at calvaryco.store. You can also make a donation to the ministry online at aboundinggraceradio.com. And thank you in advance for helping us reach people with the love and truth of Jesus Christ here on the radio and online. Pastor Ed, let's talk for a minute about how folks can connect with us and maybe share how the Lord has used Abounding Grace in their life. Of course, all praise goes to the Lord for that.
Ed Taylor: Yeah, Larry, we really love to hear from those of you that are encouraged and blessed by the program. So please do connect with us. You can do it a couple of different ways. You can go to our website aboundinggraceradio.com and email us through there. Or go to my personal website, and I encourage you to visit my personal website because there's a lot of great information on there, and that's at edtaylor.org. But we'd love to hear how the Lord is using His Word and this radio ministry in your life. If you want to send a support donation as well, we need them, and you can just jot a note with that support. And they always put the notes on my desk. I don't see the envelopes, but I do get to see the notes and I love to read them. And many times if the Lord allows I'll jot a note back and encourage you and be mutually encouraged just like the Bible says. So reach out to us, aboundinggraceradio.com or my personal website edtaylor.org. Can't wait to hear from you.
Guest (Male): We look forward to hearing from you soon. Glad you've taken time out for our study in 1 Samuel. Join Pastor Ed each day as we continue to learn how to live by God's abounding grace. Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church Colorado here in Aurora.