Day 88 of the podcast, reading 1 Samuel 9-11 NET, read along at:
https://netbible.org/bible/1+Samuel+9-11/
This is day 88 of our journey.
Today, Israel gets a king. When God set Israel apart, it was established that God himself would be their king and they would be his people. Despite Samuel’s clear warnings about how much having a human king would cost them as a people, Israel rejects the Lord and asks to be like the pagan nations that surround them. We first meet Saul as a handsome young man chasing donkeys and God tells Samuel to anoint him as king. He was exactly the type of man that Israel would want as king...tall, good looking, and rich but, unfortunately, he wasn't neccesarily wise and shows no real evidence of an authentic spiritual life. On his way home, God's power comes over Saul and he prophesies but, even after experiencing the power of the Lord first hand, he wasn't changed and continued to live only for himself. Later, after Saul reluctantly is set up as king in the presence of the whole community, he leads the Israelites to defeat the Ammonites who have been oppressing God's people.
Join me in 1 Samuel 9-11 as Israel's monarchy is established.
Key verses:
1 Samuel 9:17
When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said, “Here is the man that I told you about! He will rule over my people.”
1 Samuel 10:24
Then Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see the one whom the Lord has chosen? Indeed, there is no one like him among all the people!” All the people shouted out, “Long live the king!”
1 Samuel 11:15
So all the people went to Gilgal, where they established Saul as king in the Lord’s presence. They offered up peace offerings there in the Lord’s presence. Saul and all the Israelites were very happy.
All Scriptures are from the NET.
