Signs

And it's in that context that God in his grace, God in his unbelievable patience and mercy. Anybody here this morning glad for God's patience with you? Decides not to give them what they deserve. Anybody here happy God doesn't give you what you deserve? He gives them what they ask for.

God's going to give them a king. And so it's going to be Saul. And we've been introduced to Saul. And God has been orchestrating the choosing of Saul through some very strange details. God causes the herd of donkeys that his father owns to get lost. And so Saul and a servant go traipsing around Israel looking for the lost donkeys. And they find Samuel, and there Samuel announces to him, Saul, you're actually going to be the king.

And so as we pick up in this story, it's all about grace. This is God's grace. But God gives grace to Saul in this process because this is a big deal. One day, he's chasing donkeys. A week later, he's going to be anointed publicly as the king. That's a big deal, right? That might sound great. It would be really difficult to process and to understand and embrace. And so God is so gracious to Saul here. And I think that it's a paradigm for us as well to understand, you know, God is calling each of us. And there's grace in that call.

So let's look at this again.

1a Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head…

Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head. He anoints him. Anointing literally means to rub or pour oil over something. Of course, the word for anointing in the Hebrew is the word that gets translated into Messiah language. When we say Jesus Christ, Christ is a term for anointed one in the Greek that's coming from the Hebrew word for anointing, Messiah. So when we say Jesus Christ, we're literally saying Jesus the anointed one. Anointing is kind of a big deal.

To anoint literally means to rub or pour oil on a person. On the most basic level, on the physical level, oil in a harsh, dry climate restores skin. Right? It restores vitality. It can be used medicinally to numb pain and reinvigorate a person. And so because of this, it becomes used biblically as a symbolic representation of the power and the presence and the blessing of God upon an individual. Priests are anointed to show that they are cleansed and purified and holy to serve in the presence of the Lord. Prophets are anointed to demonstrate that they hear and receive God's word for God's people. And now for the first time a king is going to be anointed as a sign, as a symbol, as a physical representation of a spiritual reality that God is going to empower Saul to lead God's people.

1a Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head and said, “Has not the Lord anointed you to be prince over his people Israel?

So Samuel takes this flask of oil, pours it on his head, and then kisses him. He kissed him, which is not part of the anointing ritual, but it is a ritual in its own right. In the ancient Near East, to kiss someone like this is a pledge of allegiance, right? Like, so you think about Psalm 2:

12Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

This idea of, we see this, some vestiges of this in somebody kissing someone's ring, a king or a priest or something like that. This idea of allegiance.

And so think about what's happening. What do we know about Samuel? Samuel is a judge. He's the last judge. He's greatly blessed by God so that every prophecy he gives absolutely comes to pass. Samuel has been acting as Israel's judge over the entire nation in a way that nobody has since Moses. He's a deep and profound man of prayer. He's a godly man. He's highly respected in the land. And so now... Saul's this young man from an unimportant tribe who's been spending his life watching donkeys. And apparently not very well. Samuel not only anoints him, but kisses him. Endorses him. This is a blessing and an endorsement. Not only is the Lord going to be with you, Samuel's saying, I'm going to be here with you.

And then he says, has not the Lord, has not Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel, anointed you to be prince over his people? Be prince over his people. Well, you say, well, I thought he was going to be king. Well, he's going to be king. So why doesn't it say king? Great question. Thanks for asking. I think it's important that this is a Hebrew word for prince or ruler. There is a Hebrew word for king. That's not used. I think that's on purpose. This is important. Saul is going to be the leader over Israel, but Saul himself is going to have a leader in Yahweh.

Yeah, he's going to be the human king, but that doesn't mean God will cease being the king. So Samuel wants Saul to recognize right from the beginning, hey, God's got a call on your life, and you're going to do some really important things, and you're going to be given responsibility and privilege, and you need to understand that's not yours. That comes from above.

So yeah, you're going to be the king, but remember, you're the prince. There's one above you. But then it says, you shall reign over the people of the Lord, and you will save them from the hand of their surrounding enemies, which God had been doing quite well, by the way, when they were faithful to the covenant. So this shall be the sign to you that the Lord has anointed you to be prince over his heritage.

You see what he's saying here? He's just anointed him with oil. But that's a sign of the true anointing in the spiritual. He's saying, so to prove to you that God has really anointed you and I didn't just dump a bunch of oil on your head. God, in his grace, is going to give you a sign.

1c And you shall reign over the people of the Lord and you will save them from the hand of their surrounding enemies. And this shall be the sign to you that the Lord has anointed you to be prince over his heritage..

It's actually a sign of signs. There's going to be three signs that together are going to be a sign that you have been chosen, you have been identified, you have been blessed by God to lead his people. It's pretty awesome.

2 When you depart from me today, you will meet two men by Rachel’s tomb in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah, and they will say to you, ‘The donkeys that you went to seek are found, and now your father has ceased to care about the donkeys and is anxious about you, saying, “What shall I do about my son?” ’

This is interesting because this is not new information, right? In the previous chapter, chapter 9, when Saul got to where Samuel was, before he could even ask, Samuel, because he's a prophet, told him, hey, don't worry, the donkeys, they made it back home. So what we've seen in this whole story of Saul being chosen is God's sovereignty over circumstance, right? The text doesn't have to say it like flat out. It's all over the text. How do the donkeys get lost? God got them lost. How do the donkeys get back? God got them back. How does Saul learn about the donkeys? God tells him through Samuel. But now he's going to have it again. You're going to head out, and I want you to know how aware God is of you.

I want you to see, Saul, how sovereign God is in the circumstances of your world and your life. As you go, you're going to come, and you're not going to see one guy or three guys or four guys. There's going to be two guys, and they're going to come up to you, and unbidden, they're going to say to you, hey, the donkeys are okay. And now your father's worried about you, which is exactly what he had said in chapter 9 was going to happen.

And so this is a sign of God's sovereignty in his calling and his choice. Our God is sovereign. See, it's a sign of control. Saul, I'm calling you into the unknown. I'm calling you to do something that, if we're going to be honest, you're probably not going to be competent to do. I'm calling you into danger. I'm calling you into mystery. I'm calling you to walk not by sight, but by faith. And I want you to know, Saul, that I've got you. You're not going to be in control. Guess what? I am.

This is a sign of sovereignty. When God calls, it's not accidental. It's not happenstance. It's intentional and purposeful. God knows what he's doing, even when it doesn't make sense to us. Maybe especially when it doesn't make sense to us. Saul needs to know right from the beginning of this calling that it's not really going to be about him. It's going to be about the God who has called him. And that he's not going to be in control, but God will. If Saul will serve Yahweh, then Yahweh will take care of Saul. That's what's being communicated here. God's in control of all the crazy detail, even the donkeys. So trust him. Embrace the mystery.

Saul's learning right at the beginning of his calling what everyone who's been called learns about the control and sovereignty of God, the mystery of God's sovereignty, that even though he has given us freedom and the ability to choose which way that we will go, God is not limited or thwarted by our freedom, right? And that he will ultimately have his way, right?

Joseph learned this. He didn't learn it at the beginning. Poor Joseph, right? He's given this vision. He tells everybody about it. They sell him, as one does. He ends up a slave in Egypt, and God has to do this. And it looks like, well, what does it look like? It looks like jealousy. It looks like evil. What is it? It's evil. That's what it is.

And yet, what does he declare at the end of his life? Maybe the best known verse in Genesis:

20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

Saul, you thought the donkeys were lost. God knew where they were the whole time. Like, God is going to take care of you. He's in control of the details. And even if it is meant for evil, like it was in Joseph's case, God can use it for good. Now, I don't know how he does that. Anybody that tells you they know how he does that is trying to sell you something, all right?

Because His ways are not our ways. As God proclaims in Isaiah:

8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

I don't know how to resolve the philosophical tension between human freedom and divine sovereignty. I just know that what man intends for evil, God's grace and sovereignty is greater than our capacity for evil. So what man intends for evil, God can intend for good. And he can even use it to bring about the salvation of many people that they should be kept alive. God is in control even when evil is at work and at his worst.

Is that not what we celebrated last week? Is the cross not the ultimate triumph of evil? Does it not look like evil wins when Jesus says it is finished, breathes his last, his side is pierced, and blood and water flow? Does it not look... Like evil has triumphed? Was it not evil? But what man intended for evil, God intended for good. Man, this is our hope. Our hope is in the sovereignty of God. That evil and sin and death has done its very worst upon Jesus and he walked out of the tomb alive forevermore.

God's in control. Saul got this sign. I got the donkeys. I got you. I got your daddy. It's all good. Jesus said we get the sign of Jonah who goes in for three and comes out at the end alive.

40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

We've got the sign of a bloody cross and an empty tomb that God is in control.

So we can declare with Paul, maybe Paul's most well-known verse in Romans:

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Now notice what it doesn't say. It doesn't say all things will be good. That's not what it says. All things will be good. Jesus doesn't call us to a life of comfort and convenience. But what it does say is that all the things of your life, the good, the bad, the ugly, the really ugly, God can take it and work it together for good. For those that are called according to his purpose.

You look at your life right now. You look at the things that are breaking your heart, that are causing you fear and tension. The choices that you've made that are, you know, not so good. The choices that others are making that you know are not so good. All those things that are grieving you and hurting you and causing you to toss and turn at night. I'm not here to tell you, oh, those things aren't bad. It's all good. No, no, no.

The Bible doesn't do that. The gospel doesn't do that. It says, no, no, there are real, painful, evil, broken things in your life. You don't pretend that they're good. You own the brokenness and the evil that you encounter, and you trust that our God is bigger than those things. You may not see it. You may not understand it. You may not see it in your life. But it will work together for good. There will come a day when the mystery of God's wisdom begins to unfold before your resurrected eyes. And you will declare what man intended for evil, oh God, you intended for good.

Let's be clear. I've got to be clear because of the culture that we live in, because of the church culture of our age and day. Because of the abomination of the prosperity gospel that's everywhere. That God only wants you to be happy and healthy all the time. And if you just pray a prayer and you just tie the tithe or you just do this right magic religious sort of thing, then everything's supposed to be good. You're supposed to be healthy and wealthy all the time. You just name it and claim it.

And if you haven't picked up yet, I hate that abomination of a theology. It's not the gospel, it's the anti-gospel. So I got to say this, let's be clear. When Jesus calls, it's not a comfortable gospel, but it's a gospel of comfort. When Jesus calls, it's not the prosperity gospel, but it is a gospel of provision, right? When God calls you, your world might actually get more difficult. The circumstances might get more confusing. What you're promised is that in the midst of that, he's right there with you. He's right there with you. What a beautiful promise of the sovereignty of God.

Saul's given a sign of sovereignty. Then he is given a second sign:

3 Then you shall go on from there farther and come to the oak of Tabor. Three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you there, one carrying three young goats, another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a skin of wine. 4 And they will greet you and give you two loaves of bread, which you shall accept from their hand.

This is a sign of sufficiency. God's going to give him what he needs. If you remember back in chapter 9, when they got to the city where Samuel was, Saul turned to his servant. He's like, we got no bread in our bag. They've been going for days looking for the donkeys, right? They got nothing. Nothing to offer Samuel. We have no bread in our bag. Now he's got to return to his home. It's interesting. Couldn't Samuel have given him some bread?

Certainly. I mean, he fed him dinner the night before, gave him a place to sleep. Samuel doesn't give him anything. Why? Because God is going to give it to him to show to him his sufficiency for what he has called him to do. So you're going to go and you're going to find these three guys. One of them has three goats. One of them has three loaves of bread. One of them has a skin of wine. And God is going to provide. Now notice, though, he doesn't get it all.

He doesn't get it all. I'm not even sure he got what he wanted. So if you're coming along, I know what I would choose. I'm going for meat every time. It's not even a question. He doesn't get the three goats. He doesn't get all three loaves. He doesn't get any of the wine. He gets two of the loaves. He doesn't get what he wants, but he's given what he needs.

God's provision is for what he needs right then and right there in the moment. God is a provider. You know, Wanda and I were out for dinner with some of our good friends this week, and we were at Black Angus, and we were remembering a dinner we had there about seven years ago. Same friends, same restaurant. Totally different situation. We were having a dinner and we were talking about the mortgage of our church. And at that time, seven years ago, that was a dark conversation. Like we were hurting. We were stuck in a mortgage that was a black hole, never ending ball of debt and death. Pastoral exaggeration. That's what it felt like.

It's what it felt like when the loan was taken 20-whatever years ago. It was $2.8 million. You know what we owed seven years ago? $2.8 million. Whatever. It's unbelievable. Every couple of years, we had to refinance. We were stuck. We were stuck. It was brutal. We were contemplating... walking away from the facility. We were looking at every conceivable option. We knocked on every mortgage company's door that we could. No one would help us. We prayed. We fasted. Nothing happened. Nothing happened. Nothing happened. We said, Lord, we're just going to trust you. We're going to trust you. We're going to trust you.

When we weren't expecting it, when we really needed it the most, right at the beginning of COVID, a mortgage company calls us up and says, hey, we'd like to do this for you. We're like, okay. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. Play it cool, guys. It's unbelievable. Unbelievable. How God, like, I could spend hours telling you story after story in my life of how God has been the provider. Not the provider that I want, but the provider that I need. Certainly not when I think the provision should come. But he's a just-in-time God. God is our provider. Today we have an end in sight! Today we owe under a million and it will be payed off – by God’s grace – in less than 5 years.

Again, it's not a prosperity gospel, but it is a gospel of providence. That doesn't mean that it's always easy, that it always turns out well. When I moved down here to Arizona to EMC, God had called me and it didn't make sense. Like it didn't make sense on almost every level. I was leaving a church that I'd planted that was growing and God was doing amazing things. I loved where I was. But God moved, and that was painful for me. God and I fought for months about that until I surrendered and decided he probably knew what he was doing.

When we moved down here, it couldn't have been a worse time. The housing crash had happened. The house that we had had all our equity in up there. We couldn't, I mean, we ended up losing it. And I remember when we moved down here and there was chaos and that and salary and all. It was completely by faith. And I remember people telling me, some of you maybe, with really good intentions, you know, you're trusting God. He's going to take care of it. That house is going to sell. It's going to work out. God brought you down here. He's going to take care of it.

And that sounds good, right? It sounds so right. And I remember looking at people going, no, that's not how that works. God will take care of me. God will take care of my family. And he did. I don't know how he did. There was a couple of times in those early years when I literally think money magically appeared in our bank account. I can't find transactions of where it came from, but it was there. And we lost the house. Like we lost it. All that equity, all that... Do you know why? Because God called us. Because God called us to come here. This idea that, oh, if I do what God's going to call me to do, everything's going to be awesome? No, no, no. That's not how it works. But God's going to be awesome.

He doesn't get all of it. He gets just what he needs. And man, you see the thread there, don't you? Of bread. Manna in the wilderness. Got just what they needed every day. Couldn't hoard it or it would rot. They were taught for 40 years in the wilderness... That God is the provider daily. What does Jesus teach us to pray?

11 Give us this day our daily bread,

God is our provider day by day by day.

But I want you to notice one other detail in this. It says when you get there, three men are going up to God at Bethel. So these are not just three travelers. These are three pilgrims. On a pilgrimage, they're bringing offerings to God. Who are those goats for? God. Who's that bread for? God. Who's that wine for? God. Now, how is Saul going to receive his provision? God's going to provide it to him through God's people.

There's a word there for us about why we need community. Why we can't follow Jesus all by ourselves because that's not how Jesus wants us to follow him. He's going to meet our needs through his body. But also, it's God giving him what belongs to God. This is the provision that we have. God gives us everything. There's nothing that we have that ultimately doesn't belong to him. And it's a gift of his grace.

Let's go to verse 5 for the third sign.

5 After that you shall come to Gibeath-elohim, where there is a garrison of the Philistines. And there, as soon as you come to the city, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with harp, tambourine, flute, and lyre before them, prophesying. 6 Then the Spirit of the Lord will rush upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man.

The Philistines are the primary enemy of Israel in this time period. And so now he's going to come to this city where the people of Israel and the people of the Philistines are bumping up against each other. And so there's this sense already that in this sign, it's going to be a reminder of the spiritual and religious conflict that Israel is in. That we exist in this battle.

So he says there, as soon as you come to the city, you'll meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with harp, tambourine, flute, and lyre before them, prophesying. So there's going to be this group of people that are called prophets. It's probably not like the... When you think of prophet, you think somebody that declares this is going to happen on this date. This is probably not that. There's another way that the word and idea of prophecy is used in the Hebrew scriptures; that of worship.

These are worshipers and worship leaders, and they're praising God, and there may be an element of their receiving words from the Lord that they're also sharing, but he comes upon a group of people that are vibrantly and actively and energetically worshiping Yahweh. And he says that when you see them, the Spirit of the Lord will rush upon you. That's terminology that we saw all through the book of the Judges. When a judge, the Spirit would come upon them, would rush upon them. God's power, God's presence would overwhelm and come upon the one that is chosen by God to enable them to do the things that God has called them to do.

He says, when you see these others worshiping and prophesying and celebrating, the Spirit of God is going to come upon you, Saul. And you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man. God's going to do something to you, Saul. And that's good news for Saul. Because God is calling Saul to do something, to be something that he's not equipped to be or do. God calls us beyond ourselves. When God calls us, he always calls us to faith. He doesn't call us to what we know. He calls us to the unknown. He calls us into the mystery. He calls us to bring the light into the darkness. He doesn't give us coordinates and GPS. He doesn't make it simple and easy. He calls us to trust him. And because of that, He has to empower us to do that which he's asked us to do.

So you've heard, I'm sure, the old cliche. God doesn't call the equipped. He equips the called. And that's what's happening here. God doesn't call Saul because Saul is so kingly. God calls Saul and puts his spirit upon him to give him what he needs. To be a king. All week long as I was resting in this text, I just kept thinking of the Matrix; remember when Neo is training and downloads new skills, and then exclaims “I know Kung Fu!”? There's this sense of something comes upon him and he's a different guy. He's now equipped. He's empowered. God has given him what he needs that he didn't have before, that he didn't have on his own. God has filled him to be and to do what God has called him to be and to do. God doesn't call the equipped, he equips the called.

7 Now when these signs meet you, do what your hand finds to do, for God is with you. 8 Then go down before me to Gilgal. And behold, I am coming down to you to offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice peace offerings. Seven days you shall wait, until I come to you and show you what you shall do.” 9 When he turned his back to leave Samuel, God gave him another heart. And all these signs came to pass that day.

Now, when these signs meet you, Samuel says, do what your hand finds to do, for God is with you. He goes, go down before me to Gilgal, and behold, I'm coming down to you to offer burnt offerings, sacrifice peace offerings. Seven days you shall wait until I come to you and show you what you shall do. When he turned his back to leave Samuel, God gave him another heart, and all these signs came to pass that day.

It's interesting, as we keep walking through the chapter, he doesn't tell us about the first two, but he does summarize what happened to the third one.

10 When they came to Gibeah, behold, a group of prophets met him, and the Spirit of God rushed upon him, and he prophesied among them. 11 And when all who knew him previously saw how he prophesied with the prophets, the people said to one another, “What has come over the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?” 12 And a man of the place answered, “And who is their father?” Therefore it became a proverb, “Is Saul also among the prophets?” 13 When he had finished prophesying, he came to the high place.

Saul prophesied. Who's been spending his time watching donkeys, not known as a prophet, not known as a public worshiper. He's known, but he's not known for this. All of a sudden, because God does something to him, he's different. I imagine there's a few of us here this morning that can testify to that. I was blind, but now I see.

25 He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”

He's different. Like something happened to him. He's different. And everybody knows this. It says, when all who knew him previously saw how he prophesied with the prophets, the people said to one another, what's come over the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets? And there's this sense of like, who is? That doesn't compute. I remember I went to my 20th or 25th high school reunion. And I hadn't been back for a long, long time, and I wasn't then who I was then. And that whole night, it was just people going, you do what? No, you don't. I mean, God changes us.

14 Saul’s uncle said to him and to his servant, “Where did you go?” And he said, “To seek the donkeys. And when we saw they were not to be found, we went to Samuel.” 15 And Saul’s uncle said, “Please tell me what Samuel said to you.”

I love verse 15. Saul's uncle said to him, please tell me what Samuel said to you. Because Samuel's the rock star of Israel at the time, right? He's the influencer. He's the media personality. He's the guy, right? You met Samuel? What did he say? Tell me all. Start at the beginning. Give me details. It's like every conversation I have with my wife. Give me the details. I don't know. I'm a man. I don't know. I didn't say it.

Saul's uncle said, tell me what Samuel said to you. This is interesting.

16 And Saul said to his uncle, “He told us plainly that the donkeys had been found.” But about the matter of the kingdom, of which Samuel had spoken, he did not tell him anything.

Isn't that interesting? I heard a lot of commentaries, listened to a lot of people about this. Is that a good thing? Is that a bad thing? Is Saul being humble here? Is he being faithful? Is he being unfaithful? I'm not sure. I think the text leaves it ambiguous on purpose.

Here we see this guy, Saul, who's been chosen out of nowhere by God. The Spirit's come upon him, and he's trying to figure out what's going on. And he's doing the best that he can.

17 Now Samuel called the people together to the Lord at Mizpah. 18 And he said to the people of Israel, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you.’ 19 But today you have rejected your God, who saves you from all your calamities and your distresses, and you have said to him, ‘Set a king over us.’ Now therefore present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your thousands.”

20 Then Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near, and the tribe of Benjamin was taken by lot. 21 He brought the tribe of Benjamin near by its clans, and the clan of the Matrites was taken by lot; and Saul the son of Kish was taken by lot. But when they sought him, he could not be found.

Where's Saul? Anybody seen Saul? God chose Saul. Nobody could find him.

22 So they inquired again of the Lord, “Is there a man still to come?” and the Lord said, “Behold, he has hidden himself among the baggage.”

So they asked God again, right? Nobody could find him. They have to ask Yahweh. Yahweh, where is he? I like this. You can't hide from God. We hear that story over and over, don't we? Jonah, Zacchaeus. He sees you. He sees you. You can't hide. Where is he? Is there a man still to come? And the Lord said... Man, I'd love God to say something about me. But I'm terrified that it would be something like this. [Laughter] He's hiding with the donkeys. It says with the baggage, but who brought the baggage? It's the donkeys. He's hidden himself among the baggage.

Some want to say, oh, Saul's just being humble. Listen, humility is not proven by a reluctance to obey God. That's not humility. That's fear. He's been anointed. He had three signs. God's grace is everywhere on him. The donkeys were safe. He's been filled with the Spirit. He's prophesied like God. And where is he when God is announcing him to the people? He's hiding, trembling in fear. We got some hope because the Spirit came upon him. We got a little bit of reality because he's hiding in the baggage.

23 Then they ran and took him from there. And when he stood among the people, he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders upward. 24 And Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see him whom the Lord has chosen? There is none like him among all the people.” And all the people shouted, “Long live the king!”

So many times in the scriptures, when in the moment one thing is shouted, very shortly after, something else is being shouted:

9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

18 But they all cried out together, “Away with this man, and release to us Barabbas”—

25 Then Samuel told the people the rights and duties of the kingship, and he wrote them in a book and laid it up before the Lord. Then Samuel sent all the people away, each one to his home. 26 Saul also went to his home at Gibeah, and with him went men of valor whose hearts God had touched. 27 But some worthless fellows said, “How can this man save us?” And they despised him and brought him no present. But he held his peace.

Saul also went to his home at Gibeah, and with him went men of valor whose hearts God had touched. I like this little detail. God not only calling Saul to be king, Saul can't do it by himself. And so these men of valor, men of worth, men that love and trust God, men that are doing what they're supposed to. God moves upon their hearts, and they begin to follow the one that God has chosen to be king. They go with him.

Verse 27 includes the statement that some worthless fellows said, “How can this man save us?” And they despised him. They brought him no present, but he held his peace. Some worthless fellows. Now, that word worthless, we've seen that in Samuel a couple of times already. It's a word, and if you remember, it means to not point upward, to not do what it's supposed to do. It's the word Belial. In the New Testament that's become a term that means the enemy, the devil, the accuser. :Sons of Belial” are those that don't serve God. They're those that serve the rebel.

And there's this sense, like, in the midst of this, like, I love this, like, Saul is anointed as king privately, and then Saul is publicly chosen and anointed as king before all of Israel by God. Like, it's clear that God has done this. And what does Saul experience? Some people love what God is doing, and some people hate what God is doing. And that's reality. That's how that works. Because we live in a battle. We're in the midst of conflict. When God calls you and you follow, the response of others will be mixed. That's just reality. You don't get to control that. You don't get to control how people respond to how God calls you and moves in you. That's beyond your capacity or capability. What you can know is that some people will be excited and some people won't.

Jesus told us this over and over again in his ministry. John 15, right before the crucifixion, in the upper room as he's talking with his disciples, right before he's betrayed Jesus, and then brutally murdered on the cross. Jesus tells them:

18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Did Jesus do a good job at life? Did Jesus do a good job at doing what God wanted him to do? Did Jesus answer the call of God faithfully and obediently? Somehow we've convinced ourselves that if we do what God asks us to do, that everybody's going to love us and everything's going to be good and easy and we're going to coast. Jesus did it perfectly. And yeah, there were a lot of people that loved him. And there were those that murdered him because he was obedient. Jesus says, you know, when the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you. Welcome to the club. Welcome. Welcome.

If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you're not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Please hear the words of Jesus this morning. Jesus is calling you. He's calling you. He's inviting you. He's wooing you. He's calling you. It's not an easy call. It's not a simple call. It's not a comfortable call. It's not a prosperous call.

24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

When God calls, we're not in control, he is. When God calls, he doesn't call us into the known, but into the unknown. He calls us into the mystery of faith, not to solve it, but to experience it, to trust him.

In 1 Samuel 10, we see Saul, a man confronted with the mystery of God's call. He's given signs of sovereignty, sufficiency, and the Spirit's presence. This is a pattern of faith. God doesn't give Saul explanations, right? He gives him his presence. He gives Saul himself. And that's the pattern. This is where the story of Saul finds its fulfillment in Jesus. In Jesus, God doesn't just speak through a prophet. He steps into our world. He enters our suffering. He becomes flesh and dwells among us. Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God, the image of the invisible God, the radiance of God's glory, and the exact representation of his being.

3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

Jesus is the true and better king. He is the anointed one. He is the one that is truly filled with the Spirit. He is the one that is sufficient. He is the bread of life. He is the one that can meet our deepest needs.

35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

He's the presence of God with us. Emmanuel, God with us. He pours out His Spirit on all who believe.

11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

So that the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, the same spirit that rushed upon Saul, by the way, the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead now dwells in your mortal body.

Today, as we stand on the other side of Easter, we're invited not to solve every mystery, but to enter into it, to trust that God's presence is enough. Can you trust that God's presence will be enough? To believe that in Jesus we have all we need, even when we don't have all we want or hope for. Will you trust him? Will you trust Jesus, even when you can't see the whole path? Even when God's ways are mysterious and his timing is not your own, will you trust in his sovereignty? Will you trust him? Believing that the God who called and empowered Saul, the God who called and came as Jesus, is more than sufficient to meet your needs? That he can work all things together for your good? Will you follow him? Not just trust him, not just lip service, but life service? Will you follow the true King Jesus even when the way is unclear or uncomfortable? Will you step into the unknown when God calls you?

Saul was given signs to assure him. We were given a sign. The sign of the empty tomb. The sign of the nails in his wrists. The wound on his side. The resurrected king. The one who doesn't call us to a comfortable gospel, but to a gospel that brings true comfort. Peace. Peace that passes understanding in every circumstance.

7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Will you rest in the sufficiency of his grace? And Saul received just enough bread for the journey. In Christ, we're given our daily bread. Sometimes not all we want, but he will give us what we need. We love and honor and trust and follow Jesus. He's our provision, our manna from heaven, the one who sustains us when we feel empty and lost. Today, I invite you. Don't wait for the answer before you step out in faith. When God calls, respond. Don't hide among the baggage of your doubts or fears. When God calls, it may not be comfortable, but it will be full of his comfort. Let's enter the mystery together. Let's trust the sovereignty of our king, rest in the sufficiency of his grace, and walk together in the presence and power of his spirit, in Jesus, God is more than enough.

Do you believe that this morning, church? In Jesus, God is more than enough for you, for me, for every moment and every mystery we might face. May God's grace sustain us, support us, and help us to answer his call. Amen.