Serpent Crusher

And so now they're being besieged. There's a city, Jebes Gilead, in Israel that's being attacked by the Ammonites. The Ammonites, this is not just other people. These are the descendants of one of the sons of Lot. So there's some familial connections going way back in the story. And so they're being besieged by this Ammonite war band that's led by the Ammonite king. We don't know he's the king here in this chapter. We get it in the following chapters. And the king's name is Nechash. I want you to remember that name, okay? Say yes. Thank you.

So he comes, and all the men of Jebesh said to Nechash, make a treaty with us, and we will serve you.

> All the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, "Make a treaty with us, and we will serve you." (1 Samuel 11:1b)

They're ready to give up. They're ready to submit to this Ammonite king, Nakash. We will come out and we will serve you. I want you to hold on to that word, serve. It's a simple but important Hebrew word that means to work, to serve, to toil. There's nothing extremely significant in the word itself, but the significance is in how that word has been used in the story so far.

So what we have in the opening verses of chapter 11, we've got an enemy of God and God's people comes, and we have God's people just choosing to surrender and offering freely on their own that they will serve Nakash.

Akash the Ammonite said to them, okay, sounds good to me, but here's the condition. On this condition, I'll make a treaty with you. I will gouge out all your right eyes and thus bring disgrace on all of Israel.

> But Nahash the Ammonite said to them, "On this condition I will make a treaty with you, that I gouge out all your right eyes, and thus bring disgrace on all Israel." (1 Samuel 11:2)

So they think they're going to avoid getting destroyed if they go out and make this treaty and offer to serve. And he's like, yeah, cool, you're going to serve me. But here's the deal. I want to cut out all the right eyes. You're like, well, why? Okay, so in ancient times, battle was done pretty similarly for all these peoples, and you generally have a shield on your left arm and the sword in your right arm. And so imagine losing that peripheral vision. Imagine losing your right eye and trying to engage in battle and warfare. He's crippling them. He's not just disgracing them and humiliating. He's taking away their ability to fight and their power. He is stripping them of their dignity. I want you to hold on and remember that he's going after their eyes, what they see. We'll come back to that later.

Now, the elders of Jabesh said to him, give us seven days. That's an interesting number. Why seven? Why not five? Why not six? I think it's telegraphing something to us. We'll come back to that.

> The elders of Jabesh said to him, "Give us seven days' respite that we may send messengers through all the territory of Israel. Then, if there is no one to save us, we will give ourselves up to you." (1 Samuel 11:3)

Give us seven days respite that we may send messengers throughout all the territory of Israel. Then if there is no one to save us, we will give ourselves up to you. This is an interesting negotiation. I don't understand why Nakash would even entertain it. He's got the upper hand. But they're like, hey, just give us seven days and let's see if we can find somebody to come fight you. And he's like, all right, cool.

So when the messengers, so the messengers go out, the men of Jebesh, they send out messengers throughout the land. And when the messengers come to Gibeah of Saul, they reported the matter in the ears of the people, and all the people wept aloud.

> When the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul, they reported the matter in the ears of the people, and all the people wept aloud. (1 Samuel 11:4)

That's an interesting response, isn't it? They're just, they're not like, let's go fight. They're just weeping. They're so overwhelmed. They're overcome by the power of the enemy that is facing them and what's happening to the men of Gibeah and the men of Jabesh and what will happen to them if this continues on. So they're just weeping aloud.

But verse 5, now behold, Saul was coming from the field behind the oxen. So what's the anointed and appointed king of Israel doing? Plowing a field. He's not hanging out with the donkeys anymore. He went big. He got some oxen. But he's out in the field tilling, working the ground. How interesting that the king is working the ground. Hold on to that thought.

> Now, behold, Saul was coming from the field behind the oxen. And Saul said, "What is wrong with the people that they are weeping?" So they told him the news of the men of Jabesh. (1 Samuel 11:5)

And Saul hears the people weeping, and he says, what is wrong with the people that they are weeping? So they told him the news of the men of Jabesh. So he's out in the field working the ground. He hears the weeping. He comes. He's like, what's up? They tell him what's going on. And Saul's response is markedly different. It says, the spirit of God rushed upon Saul.

> And the Spirit of God rushed upon Saul when he heard these words, and his anger was greatly kindled. (1 Samuel 11:6)

I love that language. We saw that language happening in the book of Judges. It's this terminology of the Spirit of God just moving fiercely and fast upon a person to empower them and enable them to be used by God to do what they couldn't do by themselves.

We just saw Saul in chapter 10. The Spirit of God rushed upon him and he prophesied with the prophets. He worshipped with the worship leaders. But now the Spirit of God rushes upon Saul once again when he heard those words and his anger was greatly kindled.

You've got to kind of ask yourself, who's the his? Is it Saul's anger that is greatly kindled, or is it the spirit of the Lord's anger that is greatly kindled? And I think the answer is yes. I think it's both, right? God is moving here in response to the threat of Nechash and the Ammonites against Israel. And so God moves upon Saul, rushes upon him, and he is filled with a great righteous anger.

And then he gets weird. And I like it when the Bible gets weird. And remember, this is my rule of theology. When the Bible is weird, pay attention. Because those are the places of cultural and cognitive dissonance that we've got to put the work in to understand.

So he took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces.

> He took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hand of the messengers, saying, "Whoever does not come out after Saul and Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen!" Then the dread of the LORD fell upon the people, and they came out as one man. (1 Samuel 11:7)

It's like, okay, Israel's being threatened by this enemy war band, and you just get filled with the spirit of God, and you just take the oxen that you had out in the field, and you kill them and cut them into pieces. Cool, I see it. I mean, that's... but he does this and he sends them throughout all the territory of israel by the hand of the messengers and so now those of you that are paying attention right like that you're listening for the echoes are you remembering how the book of judges ended do you remember that it it was the city of gibeah. Do you remember that it was the city of Jebesh Gilead? Do you remember that the wife of the Levite who was raped and killed in the city of Gibeah, do you remember that that Levite cut her up into pieces and sent her out through the land? Do you remember that they were Benjamites and do you remember that Saul is a Benjamite? Do you remember that the response to that was Judah leading the way?

If you don't, now you do. You're welcome. So he sends them out saying, whoever does not come out after Saul and Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen. So then the dread of Yahweh fell upon the people and they came out as one man. And when he mustered them at Bezek, the people of Israel were 300,000 and the men of Judah 30,000.

> When he mustered them at Bezek, the people of Israel were 300,000, and the men of Judah 30,000. (1 Samuel 11:8)

And they said to the messengers who had come, Thus shall you say to the men of Jebesh Gilead, Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you shall have salvation.

> And they said to the messengers who had come, "Thus shall you say to the men of Jabesh-gilead: 'Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you shall have salvation.'" When the messengers came and told the men of Jabesh, they were glad. (1 Samuel 11:9)

So they send out these messengers. They know they can't stand up against Nakash and the Ammonites. They send out the messengers. Saul sends a message back. He rouses the nation as one man. A massive army comes up.

And the word there for 300,000 men and 30,000 from Judah, it's a word that I think probably means tribes rather. It's probably a smaller number, but anyway, regardless, a big army comes out, right? And so you've got this army and they say, tomorrow we're coming. So when the messengers came and told the men of Jabesh, I love when the text states the obvious, they were glad...

You think, right? They were glad. Therefore, the men of Jabesh said, Tomorrow we will give ourselves up to you, and you may do to us whatever seems good to you.

> Therefore the men of Jabesh said, "Tomorrow we will give ourselves up to you, and you may do to us whatever seems good to you." (1 Samuel 11:10)

So now they send a message out to Nakash and the Ammonites. Tomorrow we're coming out. And so there's a level of deception here. The idea of coming out to meet them, it's intentionally ambiguous. And the wording that is used can mean coming out to meet you and it can mean coming out to fight you. But they're relying on the fact that they are the weak party here and they send the messenger to say, tomorrow we're coming out. You don't got to worry. You win. You win. You win. and do to us whatever seems good to you.

And the next day Saul put the people in three companies, and they came into the midst of the camp in the morning watch.

> The next day Saul put the people in three companies. And they came into the midst of the camp in the morning watch and struck down the Ammonites until the heat of the day. And those who survived were scattered, so that no two of them were left together. (1 Samuel 11:11)

So Saul uses some strategy. He divides the men up into three companies. They surround. They wait till the end of the night. They attack right at the break of dawn. That is the best time to attack anybody if you ever have to attack someone. Just file that away to use. Hopefully never. So he's using strategery. And they attack in the morning.

And so imagine what's going on. The Ammonites, Nachash and the Ammonites, they're feeling secure. They're secure in their power. They don't think anybody's coming to Jebesh's aid. They know that they can take him. They've been told the night before, hey, we're coming out tomorrow.

They probably got a little lax in their guards. They probably celebrated early. And now as the morning is breaking and the sun begins to come up, there's Saul leading three troops of Israelite warriors. And they fight until the heat of the day. And those who survived were scattered so that not two of them were left together, which is the Hebrew way of saying they got whooped.

The battle is decisively won by Saul and the Israelites. Jabesh Gilead is rescued and saved.

then the people said to Samuel. So the battle's over. Everybody gets back. We find out Samuel's there, which we didn't know, but Samuel's there. He's the prophet. He's actually pledged allegiance in a sense to serve Saul in his kingship. Remember when he anointed him, he kissed him as well. And so it's not really a surprise that Samuel's there. And the people all gather around Samuel, the prophet of the Lord, and they say,

> Then the people said to Samuel, "Who is it that said, 'Shall Saul reign over us?' Bring the men, that we may put them to death." (1 Samuel 11:12)

Hey, you remember when we anointed Saul? There were some guys that said that wasn't a good idea. There were some guys that said, shall Saul reign over us? And they're like, look what Saul just did. He just beat Nakash and the Ammonites. Bring all the men that said shall Saul reign over us and let's put them to death. Just had a great victory. And your first gut response is, let's go kill the people that disagree with us. And then people say the Bible's not relevant for today.

Saul said, not a man shall be put to death this day. For today, Yahweh has worked salvation in Israel.

> But Saul said, "Not a man shall be put to death this day, for today the LORD has worked salvation in Israel." (1 Samuel 11:13)

Oh, how I love this response of Saul. I really, like, really treasure it. Saul responds not taking credit, not taking the glory unto himself. He says, we're not going to kill anybody today. God has just rescued Israel. Let's give God the credit. We're not going to celebrate the life that he's given by death. That's crazy talk. Yeah. Nobody shall be put to death this day. Today, Yahweh has worked salvation in Israel.

And Samuel said to the people, come, let's go to Gilgal, and there renew the kingdom. So all the people went to Gilgal, and there they made Saul king.

> Then Samuel said to the people, "Come, let us go to Gilgal and there renew the kingdom." So all the people went to Gilgal, and there they made Saul king before the LORD in Gilgal. There they sacrificed peace offerings before the LORD, and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly. (1 Samuel 11:14-15)

before the Lord in Gilgal. There they sacrificed peace offerings before the Lord, and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly. Greatly.

So in chapter 10, Saul is anointed. At the beginning of the chapter, at the end of chapter 10, he's announced and approved by God. You remember the casting of the lots. It's Saul. He's hiding with the donkeys, but it's Saul. God has chosen him. But now in chapter 11, Saul acts as king.

He gathers the people together. He leads them. He not only leads them in a victory over the enemies of God's people, but he shepherds and protects God's people from God's people. Which is 95% of what a king does, actually. So Saul is finally acting as king, and so now we have this kind of third part of the process of Saul becoming a king. He's anointed, he's announced, and now he's actually acting as king. And so they go to Gilgal and they install him as king, they offer sacrifices, and the people of God rejoice.

On its own, it's a great story. On its own, I wish the book of Samuel ended there. But it doesn't. But on its own, it's not supposed to be read. Because it doesn't take place on its own. It happens in the context of the larger story of redemption, the story of God creating a world and a people for himself, of a rebellion against that God, and of that God's absolute determination to rescue and redeem his creation from corruption.

So this story is written intentionally to echo. It reverberates with the larger story. And to truly grasp what is being communicated here, we've got to connect the dots. It takes place within the story of Scripture, the story of the true king. In order to truly understand this, we need to understand how it relates to two key passages. The first is, I already mentioned, the end of Judges, Judges 19 to 21. But it connects even much farther back to the beginning of Scripture, Genesis 1 to 3, the creation accounts.

So let's go back. Genesis chapter 2, verse 5. When no bush of the field was yet in the land, and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man... What's it say there? To work the ground.

> When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground. (Genesis 2:5)

So I like to say we're created on purpose for a purpose. Right? We have intent and design in our creation. We know that in the Genesis 1 beautiful exclamation of creation and praise that mankind is created in God's image, as God's imagers. We are to be a part of God's work of bringing order out of creation of creating beauty and causing life to thrive. This is what God does, and we as his imagers are created to join him in that work.

So in Genesis chapter 2, it kind of pans back, and it gives us this description of mankind being created, and it says when there was no order yet, when it's still just chaotic, when life is not flourishing, there's just the potential for life, but there's no man yet to work the ground. To work it. That's that same word, by the way, that was used by the men of Jebesh Gilead that said to Nakash, hey, we'll come and work for you. We'll come and serve you.

Which then, you know, my mind just starts to follow the thread and listen to the echoes. And all of a sudden I'm hearing Moses standing before Pharaoh with the staff in his hand that turns into the snake. And saying to Pharaoh, thus says Yahweh, let my people go that they may serve me. That they might work for me.

> "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.'" (Exodus 5:1)

See, God in rescuing the Israelites out of the slavery in Egypt and the servitude to Pharaoh is calling them back to their original calling to work not for Pharaoh, but to work for God. To serve not anything other than the creator, but to serve the one that made them for himself. This is what we are made to do.

So when the men of Jabesh Gilead say, hey, we will come and serve you, what a tragic statement of how far they have fallen away from their covenant-keeping God. They're volunteering. It's not just saying, we'll serve you, Nakash and the Ammonites. They're saying, we won't serve Yahweh. It's what we were created for.

In Genesis 2.15, so God forms Adam out of the dust and breathes his life into him. In verse 15 it says, then Yahweh God took the man and put him in the garden in Eden to work it and to keep it.

> The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. (Genesis 2:15)

We're so familiar with the story of the Garden of Eden and Adam and his helper wife Eve placed there within the garden. And sometimes, maybe most times, that story gets presented like this idyllic paradise, this ultimate retreat vacation that Adam and Eve are just supposed to hang out there forever and ever just frolicking through the garden. And I think that's probably the most common misperception about Adam and Eve and the creation of mankind in the garden. They were never meant to stay there.

They were meant to work it, to keep it, to guard it. And what does that mean? It means that as God caused the ground to produce and the plants to... God planted this first garden. Now he brings mankind in as his imagers, not just to keep this little garden, but to grow the garden across all of creation.

So you think back to Genesis 1, 28. God blessed them. God said to them, be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth. Fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, and every living thing that moves upon the earth.

> And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." (Genesis 1:28)

When God made man, God made man to join him in his work. To join him in his work of bringing order out of chaos and life flourishing. Adam and Eve were placed in the garden, not to hang out in the garden, but to work it. To spread it. And the idea is so simple once you begin to see it. As the glory and the beauty and the presence of God in the midst of the garden begins to expand, the glory of God spreads over all of creation as mankind works with him. This is what we were created for. This is what God designed us for.

So we're presented as God's imagers, made to join him in his work and his kingdom. Man, Adam and his partner Eve are placed within the garden, and from there the kingdom is to spread under their wise dominion. The kingdom is to spread. The kingdom is that where God's will is done. That where God's character is experienced. That where God's presence is known and So they are to spread it out, to bring creation into submission to God, to do the work of God with God and for God.

Unfortunately, as we know, that's not how the story goes. Because in chapter 3, we're introduced to a strange character. And you remember in 1 Samuel 11, the seven days. Let's wait seven days, which I think is a direct reference back to Genesis 1. But by itself, maybe you could want to debate that. But here's where the connection between 1 Samuel 11 and the Genesis creation narrative comes into crystal sharp focus. Genesis 3, you remember this. Now the serpent...

> Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. (Genesis 3:1a)

was more crafty than any beast of the field that the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, did God actually say, you know how the story goes, but the opening word of this verse, now the serpent, the Hebrew word for serpent is nakash. Just let that settle in for a second.

So when we read 1 Samuel 11, and Saul has been anointed and appointed as king, and then the enemy of God comes against God's people, and what's his name? Nakash, the serpent.

Just like the serpent came against Adam and Eve coming through Eve first. Just like the enemy of God, the first and great rebel who brought us into his rebellion against God came against Adam and Eve in the garden. Now Saul's been anointed as king. The people of God are in the land of promise that God has given them. There's no surprise that the enemy of old comes against them.

Here comes Nechash, the serpent. See, and this is the whole point of the text. Why does Israel need a king? Because they need someone that can lead them against Nechash. They need someone that can lead them against the enemy of God and his creations.

So we got this enemy. Now, you know how the story unfolds. They have the conversation. She looks at the fruit and sees that it's pleasing to the eye.

> So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. (Genesis 3:6)

You're wondering, why didn't Akash want to cut out their right eye? I think there's so many connections here between these stories. It wants us to remember what has come before. And that's hard for us, especially today, because we're such visual, short attention span squirrels. We're just constantly... In an oral society...

The ancient people of Israel sat around campfires in the dark and told their stories over and over and over and over again. So even as this is happening, oh, did you hear they're getting attacked by the Ammonites? Who's leading them? Nechash. Nechash is leading them. They know this story. It's not unexpected to them.

So, like, we keep going in Genesis 3. It says, And let me just remind you, this is not like a snake. This is not some ordinary creature. This is a spiritual divine being. I think it's, when you think of serpent here, it's better to think of dragon than snake. And it's not thinking of, like it's not like a talking snake.

This is a divine being created by God to image God in the heavenly realm as opposed to us who are created to image God in the earthly material realm. And this being has fallen. And it's brought Adam and Eve into its fallenness. And as a result, it's condemned. This heavenly being is condemned to crawl in the dust...

> The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life." (Genesis 3:14)

That's kind of important because what are we made out of? Dust. So the idea that the fallen being will now be lord over the dust is the biblical way of saying he's now the lord of death because he's introduced death into the world. But then Genesis 3.15 is everything. Everything.

because we're given the first glimpse of hope. Theologians call this the proto-evangelion, the first gospel. Genesis 3.15, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed, offspring. He will bruise your head, though you bruise his heel.

> "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." (Genesis 3:15)

God gives this first little glimpse. God's not giving up on his imagers oh yeah they've rebelled against him oh yeah they've lost so much when they chose to disobey when they chose to transfer allegiance and faith from God to something else they lost but God will not lose so God says hey here's what's going to happen from here on out there's going to be conflict there is going to be a battle

And one day, a seed, an offspring of the woman, is going to come, and he's going to get his heel bruised, but in so doing, he is going to crush the head of the serpent. So mankind gets cast out of the garden.

the direct presence of God, the participation fully in the work of God. They wanted to be on their own. God gives them what they asked for. So he sent them out from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken, to work the dust.

> Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—" therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. (Genesis 3:22-23)

And the rest of the scriptures is the unfolding of that promise in Genesis 3.15. The waiting for the seed. Waiting for the offspring that is going to crush the head of the serpent. Can you imagine Adam and Eve? They've heard this. They know the consequences of sin. They're living it. They're experiencing it. But in the midst of it, God has given this promise. And ladies, I mean, because the consequences to the woman is like, in great pain you shall give birth, right? Right?

> To the woman he said, "I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children." (Genesis 3:16a)

And so there's this tension, like childbirth is going to hurt, but childbirth is also going to be the way that salvation is experienced because from the woman will come the one that crushes the head of the Nakash. So can you imagine when outside the garden, Adam and Eve get pregnant for the first time and Cain is born?

And they're going, this is probably the one. Cain's going to do it. You're like, no, Cain didn't do that. And so as you read through the story of Scripture, that's the framework. Where's the seed? Who's the seed? Who's going to crush the head of the serpent so that we get back into the presence of God? Who's going to make this happen? Wasn't Cain. Well, it's not Abel because Cain killed Abel. So is it Seth? Is it the next one? Just keep walking through.

And then we get to Noah, right? Noah's a righteous guy. But by the time of Noah, we're in Genesis 6, and we've got the bene Elohim, the sons of God. They see the beautiful women. They come and they Create these things called the Nephilim, which is what? It's seed corruption.

> The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. (Genesis 6:4)

Right? So, oh, if the seed of the woman is going to crush the seed of the serpent, then let's mess up the seed of the woman. which is why the flood comes and cleanses from that seed corruption. And you think, oh, is Noah going to be the guy? Because Noah's righteous, and Noah builds the ark, and Noah does everything. And then it's not Noah.

She's like, who is it? Who's the seed going to be? And then we meet this guy named Abram and he and his wife Sarai and they're old and they're living with their parents and they can't have kids and God calls them and they follow and you're like, oh, maybe it's Abram. But then God comes to Abram and says, you know what? From your family will come the seed.

God makes this covenant promise to Abram. I'm going to change your name to Abraham. You're going to be the father of many nations. But that's not what's important about Abraham. What's important about Abraham is that from Abraham will come the seed. The one that was promised in Genesis 3. The seed's going to come from Abraham. And Abraham's going, well, dude, I'm 75 years old.

And me and my wife can't get pregnant. And then 10 years goes by, and then 20 years goes by, like Sarah's like 95 or 99, right? And God comes and says, all right, now you're going to get pregnant. And she giggles, as you do when you're 99, and God says you're going to get pregnant.

And so then she names her son Isaac. Laughter. And you're like, okay, maybe Isaac is the seed. Like God promised that the seed would come from Abram. It's going to be Isaac. And then it's not Isaac. And then from Isaac comes Jacob. And you're like, maybe it's Jacob. He doesn't start out well. And then it's not Jacob. And then Jacob has a bunch of sons with a bunch of wives. And you end up with the 12 tribes. And you're like, okay, somewhere this is going to come.

Where is the seed? So the story goes, Abram's family grows and grows and grows. And then God leads them supernaturally to Egypt to rescue them and save them. And then they stay there and they're enslaved. And they cry out. And God remembers his covenant. God remembers his promise. The seed's going to come from them. So God raises up Moses. And we're like, maybe Moses is the guy.

but Moses isn't the guy. Moses, yeah, he's the guy. He confronts Pharaoh. He leads them out of Egypt. He receives the law. He gives them the covenant. Moses is an amazing man of God, but he loses his temper in the wilderness, and he's not allowed to enter into the promised land. So if he can't enter into the promised land, he's not the seed.

who's going to be the seed? So then we get to Joshua, and Joshua's a good dude, right? Like, Joshua's a really good guy. He's one of the two spies that went into the land that wasn't afraid of the giants in the land. He's one of the two that wanted to trust God, but nobody listened to him. So he spent 40 years with Moses wandering through the wilderness, and when Moses died, he inherits the mantle. And so we're like, is he going to be the seed? Is he going to be the one? And Joshua leads them on the conquest, and it's beautiful.

how God works and moves through him. But he's not the seed. And in fact, he doesn't really unify them. By the end of Joshua, the people receive their allotments of the land and the people are scattered. At the end of Joshua, they're more disunified than they were in the wilderness. And then we get into the time of Judges. We spent some time last year in Judges.

It was dark. It was dark. And you remember the key line in the book of Judges. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes. But before that is this important little phrase. In those days, there was no king in Israel.

> In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. (Judges 21:25)

And everyone did what was right in their own eyes. So we have this cycle in Judges over and over again of the people failing and God raising up a redeemer, a rescuer, a savior, a judge, one who will come and fight the enemies, one who will bring the people back into alignment with the covenant. And there's this sense as we read through the Judges, oh, maybe Caleb's the guy. Maybe Ehud's the guy. Maybe this is the guy. Maybe this time. But as we walk through Judges, it doesn't get better. It gets worse.

and worse and worse because that cycle is a downward cycle, right? It just gets worse so that when we get to the end of Judges chapter 19 to 21, we get this story, this unbelievable story of this random Levite priest, this man of God who has a wife and they got trouble and he goes and gets her and They're journeying through the wilderness, and he looks, and he sees this city, and they go to find a place to stay the night, and you got Sodom and Gomorrah happen all over again in the city of Israel, in the city of Benjamin, and they demand that the man is brought out to them, and he sends out his wife instead, and she's abused and raped all night long, and in the morning, he finds her on the threshold of the door.

And so what does he do? He cuts her up and sends her out to the tribes of Israel. And Israel begins to come together. But Israel's not fighting a foreign enemy. Israel goes and fights against its own. It goes and fights against the tribe of Benjamin. And it's so successful in it, it nearly wipes out the Benjamites.

So much so that they're looking around at the end of it and going, uh-oh. Because they all made a vow, if you remember this. They made a vow, no one shall give their daughters to the Benjamites in marriage. And they're like, oh, we made this vow. We can't break this vow.

but if they don't find wives, then nothing's going to happen. And so here's the plan they come up with. They're like, who didn't come to fight against them? And they say, oh, there's this town, Jebesh Gilead. Nobody came to fight from Jebesh Gilead. And they're like, all right, let's go kill them. So they go and kill everybody in Jebesh Gilead, and when everything's done, there's 400 young virgin women left over, and they give those 400 to the Benjamites to be wives.

But then there's a whole bunch of other Benjamites that are like, well, we still don't have a wife. And so then you get this story like, okay, here's the plan. There's a great festival to God at Shiloh. And so when the festival is going, you Benjamites go hide in the trees. And when the young girls come out dancing, grab them. It's in the text. I'm not making this up. Right? Right?

Think about how stupid sin makes us, right? It's like, oh, we made this vow that we can't give our daughters, but here's how we'll get around the vow. You steal our daughters, and then we will just pretend it's all good. So here are these girls. Think about this. This story still gives me the ick.

Here are these young girls worshiping God, right? They've come to Shiloh where the ark is. They've come to worship and offer sacrifices. They're praising and dancing and celebrating God and all that God does. And then all of a sudden, some Benjaminite grabs them, steals them, takes them away from their family, from everyone that they know, forces them to marry them, and that's their life.

And their fathers and brothers, who should come and rescue them, go, oh, it's okay. And then Judges ends with that line again. In those days, there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. So the story of Judges ends by giving us a glimpse of what the solution to the problem is. The problem is,

Everyone's doing what is right in their own eyes. The solution is being intimated here. We need a king. Israel needs a king. They need to be unified. They need a righteous king. Now, of course, we look at this and go, Israel has a king. God is their king. It's no surprise as we follow along the story that when we get to Samuel, what do we have? Israel comes and they say, God, we want a king. We want a king. Because...

We've been trying to do it without a king, and it hasn't been working. And so then, think about this story, right? So we're started with Hannah. The opening of Samuel is this woman, Hannah, who can't have a child. Why is the theme of barrenness over and over and over again in the scriptures? Because what we're looking for over and over and over again in the scriptures is the seed of

So she can't have a child, and she goes to the temple, the tabernacle to pray. And you remember the whole experience with Eli and all that. And she makes a vow, and God honors that vow. And she has Samuel, who is the last of the judges, the last of the prophets, or the first of the prophets that's going to lead the people. And he is a true prophet that unifies Israel.

And do you remember Hannah's prayer in chapter 2? I just want to read part of it. Listen to what Hannah prayed after God honored her and opened her womb and allowed her to have Samuel, who she weaned and then gave into the service of Yahweh. Samuel works for God.

She wrote this, verse 6. Yahweh kills and brings to life. He brings down to Sheol and raises up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich. He brings low and he exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust.

> "The LORD kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up. The LORD makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the LORD's, and on them he has set the world." (1 Samuel 2:6-8)

And he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and on them he has set the world. He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness, for not by might shall a man be saved.

prevail the adversaries of the lord shall be broken to pieces against them he will thunder in the heavens yahweh will judge the ends of the earth he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed you see the eden imagery in that prayer as well

> "The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; against them he will thunder in heaven. The LORD will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed." (1 Samuel 2:10)

The connections between these texts. Judges ends highlighting the lack of a righteous king. Samuel begins with the promise of one. God's going to send his king. And he's going to destroy the adversaries. So if you're one of God's people and you know this story, what are you looking for in a king?

What are the expectations of a king? The introduction of Saul as king in 1 Samuel chapter 11 connects the dots to Judges 19 and 21 and Genesis 3 on purpose. Saul is being presented as the long-awaited king, the one who will crush the head of the serpent. And he does. But he doesn't. Right? Right?

Like, he does, he defeats Nakash. He scatters the enemy. Now, Nakash is going to show back up again, right? Spoilers. But in chapter 11, though, it ends, right? with Israel rejoicing, offering sacrifices, renewing the kingdom, embracing Saul as king. And Saul does what a righteous king does. He not only defeats the serpent and the enemy, he protects the people of God from themselves. It's like at the end of chapter 11, we have this like, maybe he's finally here.

The seed that is going to crush the head of the serpent. The seed that is going to lead us home. The seed that is going to set things right. Maybe it's Saul the Benjamite. And that's why I say I wish the story ended in chapter 11. Because it's not Saul the Benjamite. This is the only good thing Saul does. That's it. Like it's

all downhill from here on purpose saul will fall he will disqualify himself as king and the pattern will be repeated saul will be followed by david and david is the man after god's own heart and it looks so good and in fact god makes a covenant with david and says do you remember what the

So the seed, whoever the seed is going to be, is going to be a descendant of Abraham. Now Abraham's got a whole bunch of descendants. So now it gets narrowed down under David. David's not going to be the seed. David's a man after God's own heart and a really good king and a really terrible king. He's not the king. He's not the one. God says the one's going to come from you.

The one's going to come from you. Which is why when we get to the New Testament, the very first words of the New Testament in Matthew chapter 1, verse 1, this is a record of the genealogy of Jesus, the anointed one, the king, the Christ, son of David, son of Abraham.

> The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. (Matthew 1:1)

Seed of David, seed of Abraham. Because if he's going to be the anointed one, if he's going to be the Christ, he has to be the son of David. He has to be the seed of Abraham.

The pattern will continue in Samuel and Kings and Chronicles over and over again. Kings will rise, fail, and fall over and over again until Israel is judged in condemnation of their actions, destroyed and led into exile. And they will come back from exile. But they will come back waiting and looking for a king.

And they'll have some moments where an Israelite, a descendant of David, might sit on a throne for a little while, but it never lasts. So when we get to the New Testament, what is Israel waiting for? Israel is waiting for the return of the king, the one who will lead them to freedom, the one who will crush the head of the serpent.

Spoilers, Jesus is the long-awaited king who crushes the head of the serpent.

Matthew says it. Galatians 3.15, Paul does this really fun argument. He's like, you know, when God makes the promise to Abram, he doesn't say offsprings, plural. He says offspring, singular. So it's not a whole bunch of people that are going to do it. It's going to be one. And he's like, oh, and it's Jesus, by the way. Like he just flat out says, Jesus is the seed of Abram that was promised.

> Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, "And to offsprings," referring to many, but referring to one, "And to your offspring," who is Christ. (Galatians 3:16)

As such, he comes as the righteous king who crushes the head of the serpent. So then we have these things said of Jesus like Hebrews 2, 14. Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself partook of the same things, which is another way of saying he's the seed of a woman.

> Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil. (Hebrews 2:14)

He comes in flesh, the incarnation, Emmanuel, God in our midst. Since he came to rescue those in the flesh, he came in the flesh. He was born of Mary. He is a seed of the woman. That through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death. That is the devil. The nakash, the serpent, the evil one.

the accuser of the brethren, the enemy of God and God's purposes and people. Jesus, the son of the woman who came in flesh, came to destroy the one who has the power of death. That is the devil. Not just the devil, but the works of the devil.

Right? 1 John 3, 8. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. Let's be clear. We love ourselves so much. We're so narcissistic. We say, Jesus came to rescue us. Yeah.

> Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8)

But also know, that's part of it. It's part of a much bigger thing. He's setting it right. He's taking it back to creation's original intent. In order to rescue us, he's got to rescue us from the one who we have submitted ourselves to. So he comes to destroy the devil. He comes to destroy the works of the devil. But wait, there's more.

This is where I'll end this morning. Romans 16. Oh, I love this. Romans 16. He says, Your obedience is known to all, and I rejoice over you.

> Your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. (Romans 16:19)

but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent to what is evil. So Paul's wrapping up what is maybe arguably his greatest letter ever written, the church in Rome, Romans. And as he's wrapping it up, he's like, listen, I've heard of your obedience. It makes me so happy that you're trusting Jesus, you're following Jesus. But here's, just remember, guys, hold on to the good, reject the evil, because what we do matters.

See, what we do matters more than we think it does. What we do matters not just here in the earthly realm, it matters in the heavenly realm as well. What we do matters. Now listen to what Paul says here. I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil, for the God of peace will soon crush Satan. What's he say? Under your feet.

> The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. (Romans 16:20)

who's the serpent crusher? It's Jesus. It's God, right? But he says, so the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Jesus comes to crush the head of the serpent, and he has? And he will. Right? It's an already not yet sort of thing. Like he defeated death when he rose from the dead. And now he is bringing all enemies unto submission. And the day will come when death will be no more. We're not there yet. Death is defeated.

but death is still present. The day will come when death will be no more, when the serpent will be completely crushed. In the present, in this moment, the serpent's head is being crushed.

And Paul writes to the church in Rome, and if you were writing us today, he would say the same thing. I'm super excited that you're loving and following and trusting Jesus, but hold on to the good and reject the evil because Jesus is with you and Jesus is crushing the head of the serpent through you. What a high calling we have in Jesus.

What we do matters. Who we follow matters. How we live our life matters. The story of Scripture is the story of longing for a leader who will bring order out of chaos, who will stand up to the serpent that threatens our lives, our families, our world.

Israel looked to Saul, and for a moment, a brief, shining moment, it seemed like he might be the answer. But like every human king, like every human president, like every human judge, like every human father, like every human mother, Saul fell short. The truth is, every leader, every system, every self-made solution we look to will eventually disappoint us.

that God has not left us alone. In Jesus, the true king, the serpent is finally beaten. He steps into the battle that we could never win. He takes the wound that we deserve, and through his death and resurrection, he breaks the power of sin and the power of death. The victory is his,

The church hear this this morning. The victory is his and he shares it with us. We're imagers of God. We're to be imitators of Christ. We're to join him in the work that he is doing. Today Jesus invites you to trust him. To work for him.

to serve him for your life to matter, not in the kingdoms of this world, not in your kingdom, in God's kingdom. He is our true leader. He calls you this morning to bring your fear, your failures, your wounds, your hopes, your desire. He calls you this morning to bring everything that you are to him.

For he is the only one who can bring true peace and true healing. He is the one who brings true order out of chaos. Will you trust the king? Will you trust the one who has crushed the head of the serpent? Whose foot was bruised for you? Will you follow him? Will you let him be your king? For this isn't ancient history.

today Jesus invites you to live in his victorious reign. When shame tells you you're disqualified, Jesus says you're chosen. When addiction claims you'll never be free, Jesus breaks every chain. When broken relationships seem beyond repair, Jesus rebuilds that which has been destroyed.

Jesus is the seed the world has been waiting for. Let us trust and work for him. Amen?