Lesson 4 is entitled, Saul's Fall From Grace. Last lesson, lesson 3, we already have an indication that it's not going to go so well with Saul. He is a king like all others, and we have all kinds of warning signs and red flags and speed bumps, whatever you want to call them. We're going to see all that come to fruition here in chapters 12 through 15.
I also have a little ditty little poem that I get to a lot of my students. The fall of Saul who was once so tall, and that's the pride go up before the fall, kind of a theme, and the bigger they are, the harder they fall, all these concepts is going to play a role in his fall from grace. So we are in chapter 12. We're going to be looking at Samuel's farewell address, just to kind of connect it with the last lesson really quickly.
Chapter 11 was Saul deviating the Ammonites and King Nohosh, King serpent. We talk about all of this. After he defeats his enemies, he proves he is a valorous, and God is with him, and God, the spirit comes upon him for victory, and all the people accept him, all the naysayers, and everybody from society accepts him finally. Then in the very, very end, Samuel and the people go and appoint him king.
So he is definitively the king at this point. So now, naturally, in chapter 12, Samuel can have a farewell address, which is really a farewell chastisement and a farewell warning of sorts. And as you read this thing, it's pretty intense. It seems like Samuel is bearing a grudge a little bit.
He's very unhappy with how everything is playing out. He is obedient to God, obviously, and he appointed Saul to be their king. But he's not too happy about it, needless to say. So his final address to the people and to the king, because he's really addressing both of them as we're going to see them multiple times here.
It really echoes the farewell addresses of Moses back in Deuteronomy, the end of Deuteronomy, and Deuteronomy is a whole book of Deuteronomy, is Moses's farewell address. But at the very, very end, the admonition mentions a lot of similarities there. In Joshua, Joshua, chapter 24, both of those characters, Moses and Joshua, exhort Israel, encourage Israel to be faithful, love God. Stay faithful to him, cling to him, love him, with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.
So don't turn to the right hand or the left hand from following his ways and statutes, or else. There's a big or else all the time, and or else is not a vain or a cruel threat. It's really, or else is, if you turn from God, it's not going to go so well by your very own actions. Your only hope for peace and fulfillment and for joy is to clean to God.
If you depart from him, you're going to be miserable. And that's the way to really understand all of that. And so this is what Samuel is doing here. But like Moses, remember, now I'm sure at the multiple times throughout this chapter 12, he is in New Moses, like I shared in chapter one, and gave you a whole list of ways in which Samuel is in New Moses.
We're going to see a bunch of those here in chapter 12. He is in New Moses. Just like Joshua, he's going to exhort the people, be faithful, love God, or else, you and the king. So this comes right after the coronation event, presumably at the end of chapter 11.
Let's read verses one through three or four. See what we got here. All right, cold one. Samuel said to all Israel, Behold, I've listened to your voice and all that you have said to me.
And I've made a king over you. And now behold, the king walks before you, and I am old and gray. And behold, my sons are with you. And I've walked before you from my youth until this day.
By the way, I think that's really beautiful. That's true. And we know his story as the reader of scripture here, he had been serving them and walking among them since he was three years old, or I'm handed left to tabernacle. I think that's just kind of endearing and beautiful.
So he's like, I've been with you my whole life. Verse three, here I am, testify against me before the Lord and before is anointed. Who's ox have I taken of whose donkey have I taken of whom have I defrauded, whom have I oppressed, or from whose hand have I taken a bribe to blind my eyes with it? Testify against me and I will restore it to you.
So here he is trying to vindicate himself. And he goes on and they call witnesses, like, no, you're innocent. The Lord is witness. They're anointed as a witness.
We are witness. You are innocent of everything. There's a couple of things. Oh, really quickly, I just saw this, no pun intended here.
He says, from whose hand I have taken a bribe to blind my eyes. I think it's definitely an echo to Eli. Remember Eli was old and he was blind. He couldn't see his eyes were dim because of his corruption that he was dealing with, as well as not stopping his sons.
There's all these cool little connections here. But anyways, here's another connection for you. He keeps saying, I'm not taking anything. I'm not defrauded to you.
I'm not taking bribes. I'm not taking your belongings, right? Who's donkey have I taken from them? He keeps saying, I haven't taken anything in contrast with his words of warning back in chapter eight that when you have a king, and chapter eight versus ten and following, guess what the king is going to do?
The king is going to take this and take that. He'll take the best of your food and your belongings and your sons and your daughters to fight with him and take him to court and all this stuff, right? So the king is going to take everything from you. He says in chapter eight.
Now, as he's saying goodbye in chapter 12, he says, I haven't taken anything from you my entire life since I've been a youth. Huge contrast in declaring his innocence, but also again warning them that his leadership was pure and holy and righteous as opposed to the leadership of King Saul, certainly, but future kings as well that will do exactly what Samuel did not do and defrauded him and take whatever they want. So that's the first little insight when he's saying this and defending himself. The other insight is that this is what Moses did, right?
Again, he's a new Moses over and over again. If you go back to Numbers chapter 16, you have the story of Korah and his minions, his helpers, Nathan and Adiram and all these other individuals, 250 of them, they rebel against Moses and Aaron because they want to be priests. They're already, well, at least Korah is Levi, the others are laymen. And they rebel against Moses because they want the priests to essentially want a restoration of the firstborn priesthood that they lost to the golden calf.
I have the verse for you in your notes. In chapter 16 verse 15, Moses was very angry and he said to the Lord, do not respect their offering. I have not taken one donkey from them and have not harmed one of them. So there's a fact that's exactly what Samuel says.
I haven't taken who's donkey have I taken just like Moses. I haven't taken a donkey from them. So he is a new Moses again and he is innocent and he's worked hard his whole life to serve them and to protect them and guide them along the right way, just like Moses did. And just like Moses is a generation with rebellious and hard-hearted, guess what?
Samuel's generation is rebellious and hard-hearted. So these first few verses here, it's more than just him throwing a hissy fit. He's very upset and bears this grudge against them for wanting a king. He's actually really saying, look, they are rebelling against God first and foremost.
But as God said back in chapter 8, they are rebelling against you, Samuel, as they rebel against Moses and stainless innocent like Moses as well. So that's the first thing that he does is vindicate himself, defend his virtue, defend his integrity against the wicked people. Then in verses 6 and following, he decides to go through salvation history beginning with the Exodus all the way through the Judges to the present day. And that's important too.
In fact, you find this in a lot of recap of salvation history in the Old Testament, whether it's Joshua or here, Samuel or you go to like, let's say Ezra, the Exodus or the wisdom literature too, the Exodus is always front and center because it is the paradigm of salvation. I say this all the time, especially in the Exodus Bible study. The Exodus is the paradigm of salvation and redemption of God's people. It is chock full of all kinds of spiritual typology of our own redemption through Jesus Christ, the new Moses, the new Passover, the new man and all this stuff.
But we also need to be aware of the negative parallels, which is we don't want to be rebellious and hardhearted like the Israelites were. So Samuel here begins with the Exodus to teach them, look, God, I've done a whole bunch of beautiful things for you. He's got great and righteous deeds that he has done for you ever since he led you out of Egypt. But what have you done in response?
Let's go to verse 9, but they forgot the Lord, their God, and he's told them in the hands of Cicera. Cicera is one of the commanders in the era of the Judges. I jokingly called him Sissy for short because he ran away from the battle. He got to go back to the Bible study on Judges for that story.
The point is you guys, they all forgot to God. Now it's important to understand that forgetting is not just, I forgot that we have this. Our God is the God of Israel, right? Yahweh is his name.
They didn't forget that Israel had a God. Forgetting is the opposite of remembering quite obviously. But in Hebrew, the word for remembering to covenant specifically is zakar. It's a word that I mention pretty much in every single Bible study because it's very, very important to zakar to remember the covenant that you're in with someone and to act accordingly.
It's covenant remembrance. So God remembers his people because he's in covenant with him and he will never, therefore, forget his people. But the reverse is true all the time. The people always forget God, meaning they forget the covenant that they're in with God and they're very simple and rebellious and they depart from him in his ways.
That's what Samuel is saying here. You are forgetting your covenant's whole relationship with God and handed you over to your enemies, right? Because that's the whole point. Like if you rebel against God, well, and you do refuse God's protection and his love, well, then he's going to say fine, have it your way.
Even if they fall into the hands of Sissy, Sissarah here for sure, and others as well. So that's a big thing to keep in mind as he is rebuking them. He does rebuke them further to his own point multiple times about a king that they wanted for themselves. And I really laid into this back in chapter eight when we discussed all of that stuff.
It really truly was a rebellion against God's kingship. And a lot of that is really brought out here in chapter 12 of their wickedness as he rebukes them and chastises them. So let's see here. Let's go to chapter 12.
Let's go to verse 12. When you saw that in the harsh, that's the serpent king of the Ammonites. Remember when you saw that in the harsh, the king of the Ammonites came against you. You said to me, no, but a king shall reign over us.
When the Lord your God was your king. There it is. In 13, now behold the king whom you have chosen for whom you have asked. Behold, the Lord has said a king over you.
If you will fear the Lord and serve him and listen to his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord. And if both you and the king, he repeats his multiple times. If both you and the king, the king is not exempt from God's law just because he's your sovereign. He is subject to God's law as well.
So your king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God. It will be well. But if you will not listen to the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king. So let's see here.
Now therefore stand still and see this great thing what the Lord will do before your eyes. Is it not we harvest today? I will call upon the Lord that he may sin thunder and reign and you will know and you will see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the Lord in asking for yourself a king. All right.
And then later I'll get to the following verses in a moment where they confess, yeah, we've done wrong. But twice now, you've done very wrong. You've been very wickedly in asking for a king. So that line, you're wicked before the sight of the Lord that he said a couple of times here, like in verse 17, echoes the refrain found in the judges, that era that epoch of the judges is coming to a close now.
So multiple times I got references for you when you're notes if you have them in front of you, but multiple times in judges two, three, four, I mean, every everywhere. Okay. There's this cycle of sin and mercy as I called in that Bible study. The people do what is evil in the sight of the Lord just like now under Samuels, the leadership, he is the last judge.
They are doing what is evil before the sight of the Lord. All right. So that is a pretty big deal there by doing evil in the judges that evil that they're doing is a lot of idolatry and in sexual morality and basically practicing all of the misdeeds and shenanigans and naughtiness of the nations around about them. That's equivalent now here to asking for a king to be like all the other nations and there's more connections there.
So they're behaving like all the other nations and judges. Now they want a king like all the nations here in Samuel. And this is very wicked before the sight of the Lord because they're rejecting him. So all the subtle connections are still playing out.
And he says, look, okay, verse 13, this other point, the whole the king whom you have chosen for whom you have asked, that is the name of Saul as I pointed out before. Saul is the one asked for. So it'd be really incredible to read that in Hebrew. The king that you have asked, the one whom you have asked is Sha'ul.
So his name, you asked for him, you got him. That is an ominous statement as I pointed out in the last lesson. He is the one you asked for. So when things go bad, they go poorly, badly, and they go south, then just remember, he's the one you asked for.
Okay. So remember the warning signs that we discussed going all the way back to chapter 9 up to this point here. There's all kinds of warning signs and red flags. He's the one you asked for.
Okay. So he's warning the people be faithful or else right you and the king clean to God or things aren't going to go so well. So on that point here, there's going to be a shift in the religious leadership and some of the religious leadership in Israel. So let me read this quote to you from the revival, which says, there's a further mention here of how the kings will be tempted to supplant God, sometimes by condoning idolatry, sometimes by ignoring moral and ritual precepts.
This part of the address is carefully constructed and it provides religious keys for evaluating the behavior of each king. And here's the point that I want to share with you. The prophets will refer to these same ideas when it comes to denouncing the abuses that the kings in the ruling class will frequently commit. The role of the prophet, which Samuel assumes is a dual one in procession and instruction, in quote.
All right. So I also add admonition right there called to intercede for the prophets from this point on behalf of the kings and the people, they admonish the people, they call them back to God, they instruct them, they intercede for them. That's the role of the prophets in the era of the monarchy. And that's really, really important to understand.
So prophecy is not just, you know, some dude having a crystal ball is saying, okay, don't go down that street because there's going to be a burglar waiting to ambush you. That's not what it's all about. I'm certainly telling the future happens. But truly, the role of the prophet is to call the people back to God.
And he wrote the word is shu, S-H-U-V. I always like to think of it as shu, like you mispronouncing, you're shoving, you're shoving the people back to God. That's what the people do. So every prophet, now Samuel is basically stepping into the role of the prophet.
I'll share another quote with you momentarily. He's a prophet now. He's not really a judge. I mean, he's kind of a judge, but he's a retired judge.
He's a judge emeritus, something like that, okay? But he's really a prophet. He's going to admonish the people and admonish the kings. And that's what they all do from Elijah, Alisha, and then you get to the big boys, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Daniel, and all the minor prophets over and over again.
They're just admonishing the king. So what Samuel does here and admonishing the people and the king to stay faithful is the pattern that is now going to be set for the rest of the Old Testament or at least leading up to the exile, exile and return, okay, in a predominant way. So the prophets going up with a malachi is admonishing the people, calling them back to God, shooting them, shoving them back to God. So this is the shift that is going on here with his farewell address.
He's becoming his role as prophet is being more emphasized. And just by the way, I would say since I've talked about the typology of Saul being anointed king, the typology we talked about in the last lesson, we'll review it quickly in the next lesson, we by our baptism are united to Christ. And so we participate in his threefold office of priest prophet and king. So any time that we admonish someone to come back to God and say, you know what?
It's been a long time since you've been to Mass. Come to Mass with me or hey, things are going so well. Why don't you pray, pray more, read the Bible more. And whatever it might be, when we do that, we are exercising our role as prophet and calling other people to come back to God, okay?
So it's very related to us as well. So at that point, okay, he's moving on now. He is reviewing the people and he's calling for a sign. He says, his rebuke and his chastisement is going to be accompanied by a visible sign.
He says, is it not the great wheat harvest? He's going to call thunder and lightning, a big old storm essentially to come down. And that's exactly what happens in verse 18 saying, you'll call upon the Lord and the Lord sent thunder and rang that day and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. And they said, pray for your servants to the Lord your God that we may not die, for we have added to all of our sins this evil to ask for ourselves the king.
All right, so this storm is really, really interesting here. Storm of thunder and lightning, it's during the late spring wheat harvest where normally it didn't rain in that time period and that time of the year I should say. So it's exactly what they wouldn't expect to have a storm just automatically show up and just rain down on their wheat harvest and the fields of wheat there when it's supposed to be dry. It also doesn't make me wonder, this is not from a commentary or anything but periodically have these crazy thoughts.
So take it for what it's worth, but I wonder if it's a destructive punishment as well. If this is a tremendous storm of thunder and rancid there's hail involved and it's frightening them, it's not just the fact that it shows about it nowhere but it's very a kind of violent storm. It makes me wonder if it's destructive, it's destructive punishment on their crops because that's part of the punishment of Deuteronomy. If you rebel against the Lord and act contrary to his commandments then there will be these little curses that come upon you.
And so it just makes me kind of wonder if it's also a little bit of a punishment there and not just an abracadabra sign. Hey, you guys were bad. They're suffering in some way by having the crops be somewhat destroyed, just a little personal thought of mine. But they are afraid and surprise surprise, this is another deja vu moment.
When I call this deja vu scripture, they've seen this before, but if you go back to the Exodus story, Moses brings the people to Mount Sinai and then there's this theophany or this manifestations of God's power. So let me read here to you Exodus 20 verses 18 through 20 and you're going to see the parallels. When all the people perceive the thunder and the lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled. They soiled themselves, they're that frightened.
They stood up our off and said to Moses, you speak to us and we will hear but do not let God speak to us lest we die. And Moses says, do not fear for the Lord has come to test you that the fear of him may be before your eyes and that you may not sin. So back in Exodus, Moses on the mountain speaking to the people, God manifests his power, his might through a storm, great magnificent storm, thunder and lightning and the trumpet and their fires, pretty magnificent. Everybody soils themselves and they're greatly afraid.
That's kind of what's going on here to a lesser extent but certainly the parallel. The same was in New Moses. I'd be very interested to know exactly so they're here on Gilgong, just a thought is coming to me right now. Is there a mountain on Gilgong?
I have to look that up and you can look that up yourself if you do the homework. I wonder if this is another mountain scene. But nevertheless, Samuel is a great new Moses figure. He calls down another storm.
The people soil themselves, they're greatly afraid and they ask for Samuel to intercede as the people ask Moses to intercede. When they get you got the same parallel, the generation of Moses is wicked and the generation of Samuel here is wicked for asking for a king. He's got more connections with the Exodus and Moses for you. So Israel does repent of their sin.
As they said, verse 20 of following, Samuel is going to console them. He warns them, but he consoles them and prays for them just like Moses did. Again, more echoes to the Exodus. Let me read verses 25 and I'll break it down.
Samuel said to the people, fear not. You have gone and done all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, serve the Lord with all of your heart and do not turn aside after vain things which cannot profit or save. I just love that one liner. Do not turn aside after vain things which cannot profit or save.
I really love them. For they are vain. I will not cast away his people for his great names take because it is pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself. Moreover as for me, far be it for me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you.
I will instruct you in the good and the right way. Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all of your heart for consider what great things he has done for you. But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away both you and your king. So here he's warning them, exhorting them, consoling them, reassuring them that he's going to care for them and pray for them.
So there's a number of parallels here as well. So this command, he says twice, actually verse 20, as well as 24, serve the Lord your God faithfully, love him with all of your heart. That is 100% an echo to Deuteronomy chapter 6, the great Shama prayer where Moses says to the people, love the Lord your God with all of your what, your heart, your soul and your strength. So when he says serve the Lord with all of your heart, love him with all of your heart, he says with all of your heart, that is an echo to Moses' command back in Deuteronomy 6.
And then here in the middle in verse 22, it says it is pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself. He's saying that you are God's special possession. That is a call back to Exodus 19 when Israel first gets to Mount Sinai and God says to you, I'll make you a king of a priest and holy nation for you are my own special possession. If you obey, of course, and if you obey, you are my special possession.
So there's another call back there. Then he promises, I'm going to pray for you all of his life. This is my duty. That's what Moses does over and over again as well, right?
Moses is the great intercessor for Israel. How many times did Moses save their rear end over and over again? That's what Moses is, whole life was saving Israel's rear end over and over again praying for them, interceding for them, just like Samuel is doing right here. He promises to pray and interceded his whole life.
It's really beautiful, all the connections to the Exodus. All right, so here's one little quick, quick quote from the Navarre again. From now on, Samuel's role will be purely that of a prophet. He will confine himself to interceding before God and pointing out the successes and failures of Saul and David.
As I said earlier, with a similar quote from the same location there in the revival, this is now a shift. The era of the judges is over. Samuel is a meritist. But now the role of the prophet is really going to be developing, certainly with Elijah and Alisha and the rest of them.
That is to call the people back to God. That's the shift that we're seeing here with Samuel. That makes sense. That's chapter 12.
Now we're going to get in chapters 13, 14, and 15. It's very sad, very tragic, very disappointing story of the fall of Saul who was once so tall. It's really sad. It's very, very disappointing because if you go back, actually it makes me think, if you go back to chapter 10 verse 9, after Saul is anointed, God gave him another heart.
He prophesied. He was one of the prophets temporarily. God gave him another heart and came upon him. And so you're thinking, this is really beautiful.
Saul has got this great chance and got his guiding him. But then the great question with all the warning signs and red flags was simply, well, hold on, is he going to maintain this relationship with God or not? Is he going to maintain his heart? And I want you to keep that in mind.
In chapter 10, 9, God gave him a heart, but will he keep that heart for God or not? Obviously the answer is no, spoiler alert. But let's look here in chapter 13, 14, and 15 to see how this takes place.