Faithfulness: King
God Remains Faithful
1 Samuel 8:4-11 -20, 11:14-15
Rev. Tim Callow
Preached Sun. June 6th, 2021
Paul tells us in Romans that we have been grafted into Israel, the unnatural branch into the natural tree. If we have been grafted into Israel then Israel’s story becomes our story. When we read the Old Testament we are not just reading what God did for Israel, we are reading how God worked through Israel for us. We learn more about the character of God, and the character of humanity. Most strikingly, we learn about the faithfulness of God even in the midst of our own faithlessness.
Through the course of the summer I am going to be focusing on the Old Testament readings. We will cover 1st and 2nd Samuel, the story of David. We will pick up that story with the people demanding a King so that they might be like the other nations. We will conclude with King Solomon dedicating the Temple at the height of Israel’s powers. There will be battles, intrigue, romance, murder, and betrayal. Through it all we will see God working through David and others, whether he works through their successes or their failures. Their good works or their horrific sins. Through it all we find humanity acting faithfully or unfaithfully. But God always acts faithfully. As Paul writes in 2 Timothy, “If we deny him, he will also deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful — for he cannot deny himself.”
This morning the people of Israel are unfaithful, and yet God takes their unfaithfulness and will eventually use it for his own purpose. The people of Israel had never had a human King. Instead, they operated as independent tribes, occasionally ruled by a military leader called a Judge when needed. Samuel was that Judge. And Samuel was obedient to the true King of Israel: the Lord. Through Samuel God beat back their adversaries. But the people feared that Samuel’s sons were unfaithful, and so they wanted a King.
They wanted a King, they said, so that they could be like the other nations. You see, the other nations that surrounded them all had Kings who would fight their battles for them. They didn’t have to worry about finding a Judge, or coordinating the forces of their tribes. The King simply handled all military affairs so they could go about their business at home. The Kings of the nations won battles and brought glory and riches to their nations. Israel wanted to be like the other nations, they wanted the fame and fortune that can come with a King.
This displeased Samuel, but God reminded him the people were not rejecting Samuel. The people were rejecting the Lord. But the Lord was prepared to give them the King they asked for, as long as they understood what they were asking for. So Samuel told the people what a King would do, if they were to get one:
These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots; and he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his courtiers. He will take one-tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and his courtiers. He will take your male and female slaves, and the best of your cattle and donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take one-tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; but the LORD will not answer you in that day.
“He will take, he will take, he will take.” The Kings of the earth win their battles and earn their glory because the Kings of the earth are always taking. They are always taking the wealth of others. Whether that wealth be the wealth of the nations, or whether that wealth be a portion of the wealth of their own people. If the King of Israel will be like the Kings of the nations, he will take, and it will be oppressive and burdensome.
But none of this bothers the people. They grow even more determined to have a King reign over them. So Samuel relents, and anoints Saul King. Saul, in the end, becomes a King who takes. He, too, acts like the Kings of the nations. Paranoid, fearful, arrogant, and acquisitive.
We the Church can fall into a similar temptation. When ministry grows difficult we may say to ourselves we want to be like the nations. We look for the quick fix and see what we might imitate, who we might imitate. We look for success in those our society deems successful people. And there we might find a hidden snare.
Or too in our own lives, to make it more personal, we may find ourselves tempted by the trappings of worldly success to act in ways that are contrary to the life of a disciple. We may be tempted to greed and take and take. We might be tempted to backbiting or politicking. We might be tempted to envy and curse the successes of others.
But despite the faithlessness of Israel, and despite our own faithlessness, God always remains faithful. Even though God says Israel demands a King because they are rejecting him, yet God chooses to work through Israel’s Kings. God remains with David, God blesses Solomon. But most importantly God becomes Israel’s last and greatest King: Jesus Christ. And while the Kings of the earth, the Kings of the nations, may accumulate glory and wealth by taking and taking and taking, Jesus shows his glory in what he gives. He gives healing. He gives forgiveness. He gives his Spirit. He gives his very life. Though we may be unfaithful, God remains faithful. Despite our sins and our mistakes, God remains faithful. We are sooner to deny God than he is to deny us. He is patient, and loving, and merciful to the last. And his plans can never be frustrated.