Trusting God’s Timing | Israel’s Struggle with Faith! | 1 Samuel 8-10

INTRODUCTION

In our daily lives, we always encounter challenges that prompt us to find solutions. Man wanted to move and he invented the wheel. Today, we are living in the age of AI, Google, ChatGPT, software etc; all these are invented to solve man’s problem. These are all good and we use it when we need it. Do you know that there are other problems in human life for which you need God to solve it? The mistake most of us do is that for problems that only God can solve, we go the natural way: We see a problem, we strategize a fix, and we tell God how to solve it. This is what we call getting ahead of God.

Getting ahead of God often creates problems in our lives. For example: Abraham and Sarah got ahead of God. They saw the problem, they strategized a fix, and they got ahead of God. It creates more problems. Not waiting for God is a temptation for us, it was obviously a temptation for Israel too. Today, we are going to see the benefits of waiting on God’s timing versus the perils of impatience and our timing.

CONTEXT

God brought Israel out of Egypt to the promised land and God had been faithful to them. He had given them a leader whenever they needed a leader. If they obeyed God, Israel lived in peace. But if they got into the ways of the Canaanites around them and they began to serve other gods, God would bring discipline to them. The people would repent and God would raise up a judge. He would give them a leader who would rescue them.

When you come to 1 Samuel 7, Israel had a great revival under the leadership of Samuel. When you come to Chapter 8, about 50-60 years have gone by. At this moment, Samuel was their leader. But they went ahead of God and asked Samuel for a king.

The question is: Was this God’s choice for a king or was this Israel’s choice for a king?

1 Samuel 8:1-3

¹When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as Israel’s leaders. ²The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second was Abijah, and they served at Beersheba. ³But his sons did not follow his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice.

So first we had Eli who let his sons be priests when they weren’t honouring God. Well, then comes Hannah, her prayer, her son, Samuel. Now, Samuel is doing the same thing that Eli did; preferring his sons, giving them a place of judgeship when they’re not deserving of that. Plus there was no precedent for a dynasty. Samuel, prophet, priest, and judge, there’s no precedent for him to create a dynasty and pass it on to his sons. So Samuel has disappointed us.

1 Samuel 8:4-5

⁴So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. ⁵They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”

They are presenting two problems and a solution:

• You are old.
• Your sons do not follow your ways.
• Appoint a king to lead us.

So their fear, they are finding a solution for themselves. It just happened in 1 Samuel 4. The Philistines were attacking Israel and they got the ark and put it on the battlefield.

They assess the problem, and create a strategy. Now back to 1 Samuel 4, the Philistines were a real problem. Right now this is a real problem. Samuel is old and his sons don’t walk in his ways. They have a real problem, but they are not waiting for the direction of the Lord. They are getting ahead of God.

1 Samuel 8:6-7

⁶But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. ⁷And the LORD told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.

Samuel was feeling rejected.

Rejection is one of the ways the enemy uses to keep us in bondage. Rejection hurts and is very painful. One Oxford study says that “Rejection is both a cause and consequence of depression.”

Rejection attacks our identity. Samuel was very shaken and he felt that people were rejecting him. God is telling him here don’t take this personally, they have not rejected you Samuel but they have rejected me as their king. This isn’t about you, this is about me.

When people reject you:

They are having a problem either with their self.

They are having a problem with God.

If you are rejected know, “It is not about me, it is their relationship with the Lord.”

Israel was really rejecting at this moment to live by faith. They were rejecting the idea of having to trust God for a leader when they needed a leader.

Did you know that living by faith can be fatiguing?

It can test our patience.

We can doubt God.

Waiting on the Lord can be fatiguing.

Israel wanted a king like all the other nations. So God decided that he would give them a king who was like the other nations. Saul would be Israel’s king, and David would be God’s king.

God told Samuel this is what the king is going to do:

1 Samuel 8:11-20

¹¹He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. ¹²Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.¹³He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. ¹⁴He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants.

¹⁵He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. ¹⁶Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. ¹⁷He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. ¹⁸When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but the LORD will not answer you in that day.”¹⁹But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. ²⁰Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”

Israel’s Motivation

They clearly understood their motivation. Their motivation was we, “Israel, we live by faith. We wait for God to raise up a judge. Look at all these other nations. They have a King. When their King disappears, they know exactly what they’re going to have. The son becomes a King. They all have dynasties. They don’t have to live by faith. We’re the only ones in this situation that have to live by faith. We would like a King over us like all the other nations, because it’s fatiguing to live by faith.”

1 Samuel 8:22

The LORD answered, “Listen to them and give them a king.” Then Samuel said to the Israelites, “Everyone go back to your own town.”

1 Samuel 9:1-2

¹There was a Benjamite, a man of standing, whose name was Kish son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bekorath, the son of Aphiah of Benjamin. ²Kish had a son named Saul, as handsome a young man as could be found anywhere in Israel, and he was a head taller than anyone else.

Kish was a man of wealth. He had some donkeys. The donkeys had become lost. So his son, Saul, along with the servant, goes to search for the donkeys. Struggling to find the donkeys, they think to themselves, “Maybe we should go find the man of God in the city. Perhaps he can show us the way that we should go.” But then there was this problem. “We don’t have anything to give him. The bread in our sacks is empty.” So the servant happened to have half a shekel of silver. He saved the day.

In every marriage, right, there is someone who saves the day. Earlier before the Gpay and online transfer days, we want to get something but we do not have the money. Glory then says, “Just a minute and she will have some case somewhere in her bag.”

1 Samuel 9:11-12

¹²As they were going up the hill to the town, they met some young women coming out to draw water, and they asked them, “Is the seer here?” ¹²“He is,” they answered. “He’s ahead of you. Hurry now; he has just come to our town today, for the people have a sacrifice at the high place.

So they went up to the city and they saw Samuel coming out toward them on his way to the high place. They are meeting Samuel for the first time. Now Saul did not know who Samuel was. Samuel knew who Saul was because God had prepared him.

1 Samuel 9:15-16

¹⁵Now the day before Saul came, the LORD had revealed this to Samuel: ¹⁶“About this time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin. Anoint him ruler over my people Israel; he will deliver them from the hand of the Philistines. I have looked on my people, for their cry has reached me.”

1 Samuel 9:17-20

¹⁷When Samuel caught sight of Saul, the LORD said to him, “This is the man I spoke to you about; he will govern my people.” ¹⁸Saul approached Samuel in the gateway and asked, “Would you please tell me where the seer’s house is?” ¹⁹“I am the seer,” Samuel replied. “Go up ahead of me to the high place, for today you are to eat with me, and in the morning I will send you on your way and will tell you all that is in your heart. ²⁰As for the donkeys you lost three days ago, do not worry about them; they have been found. And to whom is all the desire of Israel turned, if not to you and your whole family line?”

NLT You and your family are the focus of all of Israel’s hopes.”

1 Samuel 9:21

Saul answered, “But am I not a Benjamite, from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why do you say such a thing to me?”

So in this confrontation, Saul is like, “All of Israel’s hopes are on me and our family. My trive is the smallest and my clan is the least. I am not fit for the job.”

1 Samuel 9:22-24

²²Then Samuel brought Saul and his servant into the hall and seated them at the head of those who were invited about thirty in number. ²³Samuel said to the cook, “Bring the piece of meat I gave you, the one I told you to lay aside.” ²⁴So the cook took up the thigh with what was on it and set it in front of Saul. Samuel said, “Here is what has been kept for you. Eat, because it was set aside for you for this occasion from the time I said, ‘I have invited guests.’” And Saul dined with Samuel that day.

In the morning, Samuel says to the servant, “You go on ahead. I want to talk to Saul.”

1 Samuel 10:1

Then Samuel took a flask of olive oil and poured it on Saul’s head and kissed him, saying, “Has not the LORD anointed you ruler over his inheritance? (This is a private anointing at Ramah. This is just Saul and just Samuel, and he prophesies over Saul) You will reign over the Lord’s people and save them from the power of their enemies round about.

1 Samuel 10:2-7

²When you leave me today, you will meet two men near Rachel’s tomb, at Zelzah on the border of Benjamin. They will say to you, ‘The donkeys you set out to look for have been found. And now your father has stopped thinking about them and is worried about you. He is asking, “What shall I do about my son?”’ ³“Then you will go on from there until you reach the great tree of Tabor. Three men going up to worship God at Bethel will meet you there. One will be carrying three young goats, another three loaves of bread, and another a skin of wine.

⁴They will greet you and offer you two loaves of bread, which you will accept from them. ⁵“After that you will go to Gibeah of God, where there is a Philistine outpost. As you approach the town, you will meet a procession of prophets coming down from the high place with lyres, timbrels, pipes and harps being played before them, and they will be prophesying. ⁶The Spirit of the LORD will come powerfully upon you, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person. ⁷Once these signs are fulfilled, do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you.

1 Samuel 10:9-10

⁹As Saul turned to leave Samuel, God changed Saul’s heart, and all these signs were fulfilled that day. ¹⁰When he and his servant arrived at Gibeah, a procession of prophets met him; the Spirit of God came powerfully upon him, and he joined in their prophesying.

Just do what your hands find to do. God is with you. Just do what your hands find to do. If you are waiting for something or a direction in your life, just do what your hands find to do.

• God Gave Saul Another Heart.
• The Spirit Of God Rushed Upon Saul.
• Saul Turned Into Another Man.

What do those things mean? Because they have some similarities to New Testament ideas of being born again or filled with the Spirit. But it cannot be that because we know that the Holy Spirit has not come to fill people until after Jesus ascended into heaven and the Spirit was sent down. So this is not the Spirit of God to come into him and to fill him. We find in the Old Testament sometimes that the Spirit of God would come upon someone for a specific task. God did this as he chose to do it. This is one of those examples.

1 Samuel 10:11

When all those who had formerly known him saw him prophesying with the prophets, they asked each other, “What is this that has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?”

That became a saying. Now Saul faces a challenge that some of us have faced as well. He has received a change in his life. So his challenge is to live a new life in front of his old crowd. It’s not easy to be a different person, to be a new person. Of course, for us New Testament Christians, we have the Spirit of God and we can be very different in front of people. One of the hardest things is being very different in front of family. The the writer put this little dialogue between Saul and his uncle in here.

1 Samuel 10:14-16

¹⁴Now Saul’s uncle asked him and his servant, “Where have you been?”

“Looking for the donkeys,” he said. “But when we saw they were not to be found, we went to Samuel.”

¹⁵Saul’s uncle said, “Tell me what Samuel said to you.”

¹⁶Saul replied, “He assured us that the donkeys had been found.” But he did not tell his uncle what Samuel had said about the kingship.

About the matter of the kingship, he did not tell him anything.

Saul Feels Very Inadequate for the Job

Saul Did Not Talk to His Family About the Kingship.

1 Samuel 10:17-19

¹⁷Samuel summoned the people of Israel to the LORD at Mizpah ¹⁸and said to them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I brought Israel up out of Egypt, and I delivered you from the power of Egypt and all the kingdoms that oppressed you.’¹⁹But you have now rejected your God, who saves you out of all your disasters and calamities. And you have said, ‘No, appoint a king over us. ’So now present yourselves before the LORD by your tribes and clans.”

Samuel is saying, “You want a King? All right, let’s get down to the business of King making.”

1 Samuel 10:20-22

²⁰When Samuel had all Israel come forward by tribes, the tribe of Benjamin was taken by lot. ²¹Then he brought forward the tribe of Benjamin, clan by clan, and Matri’s clan was taken. Finally Saul son of Kish was taken. But when they looked for him, he was not to be found. ²²So they inquired further of the LORD, “Has the man come here yet?” And the LORD said, “Yes, he has hidden himself among the supplies.”²³They ran and brought him out, and as he stood among the people he was a head taller than any of the others.

Saul Hid Himself

1 Samuel 10:24-27

Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see the man the LORD has chosen? There is no one like him among all the people.” Then the people shouted, “Long live the king!” ²⁵Samuel explained to the people the rights and duties of kingship. He wrote them down on a scroll and deposited it before the LORD. Then Samuel dismissed the people to go to their own homes. ²⁶Saul also went to his home in Gibeah, accompanied by valiant men whose hearts God had touched. ²⁷But some scoundrels said, “How can this fellow save us?” They despised him and brought him no gifts. But Saul kept silent.

Saul Was Despised by Some.

Some people were obviously bringing presents because these people were bringing no presents. What was Saul’s response to these worthless fellows? The chapter ends by saying he held his peace.

Saul Kept Silent.

Saul has done some good things right here. Now we know some of the history of Saul after this.

What I want to do is wrap up our lesson today with some lessons for leading.

1. To Rely On God’s Equipping.

All of us need to realize that we are equipped by the Lord and need to learn to rely on God’s equipping. It was not easy for Saul to take up the kingship, but God equipped him. But where God guides, God provides. God provided an equipping for Saul generally and specifically.

How Did God Equip Saul?

• God Gave Saul Another Heart.
• The Spirit Of God Rushed Upon Saul.
• Saul Turned Into Another Man.

That was the equipping of the Lord. Do you know that God does the same thing for us?

2 Peter 1:3

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

So generally this is how God equips us.

Now specifically, how did God equip Saul? Well, God told him via Samuel that “You will save them from the hand of the surrounding enemies.” God spoke a word to him and said, this is my task for you.

The Apostle Paul in the book of Acts he is in the city of Corinth and he’s frustrated with the rejection from the Jews. He is like, “I’m just going to go to the Gentiles now.”

Acts 18:9-10

⁹One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision” “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking, do not be silent. ¹⁰For I am with you and no one will attack you to harm you. For I have many people in this city.” ¹¹So, Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half, teaching the word of God.

There’s a good example of specific equipping.

APPLICATION

Maybe God has specifically given you direction. Maybe you’ve received it from the word. Maybe you know you are supposed to be doing something. So God equips us generally by his Spirit and he equips us specifically.

2. Anticipate Opposition.

Believers will face. Leaders will face opposition. Before Saul had even done a thing, some people despised him.

There will always be people who will have a problem with authority. This is just the way it is. People struggle with leaders when they’re struggling with God. People struggle with leaders when they struggle with themselves. Do not run away from the opposition.

3. Learn to Hold Your Peace.

Saul was wise at the end of this chapter to hold his peace and not struggle with these people who were despising him. We don’t need to confront everyone who opposes us. We need to have discernment in this, but very often it’s wise to give grace and space. We try to prove our point in front of our despisers. It is better to keep quiet in front of those who mock and accuse us. We don’t have to prove a point. It is the Lord who fights for us.

Give them grace, give them space, but don’t get frustrated.

James 1:19-20

¹⁹My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, ²⁰because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.

If Saul had gotten angry at this moment and fussed with them, this would not bring about anything good, and “man’s anger does not produce the righteousness of God.”

4. Wait on God’s Timing and God’s direction.

I want to use this to tie up the reminder not to get ahead of God because this is a chronic problem in our lives. We think that we are smart enough to see the problem, strategize the fix and then we will often tell God what the solution is, we want to take control. The lesson we learn is “Don’t get ahead of God. Wait for God’s timing.”

Israel could have said, “God we are seeing the same problem. Samuel is old. His sons don’t walk in his way. We are going to need a solution. I will wait for your solution.” But very often we come to God with our solution. I fear those time that there has been times that God has let me have my solution, may be you too.

ILLUSTRATION

In the book, “Evidence Not Seen” by Darlene Deibler Rose. She was a missionary in the Netherlands as World War II was moving forward. It was imminent that Japan would invade this island that they were on, and she was with a group of missionaries on a Wednesday knowing this, Dutch policemen came to them and said, “There is a ship that anchored in the harbour and we will come back on Friday. We are instructed to evacuate any foreigners. We will come back on Friday with a truck and anyone who wants to go to this ship, now is your time. If you don’t leave now, I don’t think you will leave.”

So the man in charge of this mission group, Dr. Jeffrey he told all of the missionaries, “I want every one of you to not talk to each other about this. I want you to go and take the next 24 hours and you pray, and you seek the Lord and you find out what God is telling you to do in this situation. When we come back on Friday those who feel like God has told them to get on the truck go out to the ship go, if God has not told you to do that just stay You go, take time, listen to the Lord and you wait.”

The truck arrived on Friday and not one of them felt as though they were to leave. They knew that obviously they were going to be captured, they would be prisoners of war if they did not get on that truck and yet they had taken the time to pray and God told them, “No, just stay where you are.”

The leader wrote, “Some three days later, it was reported that the ship had sunk. There were no known survivors, then I knew why God had said don’t go.” It is imperative that we know the voice of the Shepherd and learn to follow him when he speaks. We must be obedient no matter what he says to us, it may mean our life. Wait for God’s timing, God’s direction.

CONCLUSION

Trust in God’s timing is essential; impatience can lead to unforeseen consequences, but waiting on the Lord brings blessings and true provision.

LIFE APPLICATION POINTS

Trust in God’s Timing

In what areas of your life are you struggling to wait for God’s timing? How can you surrender these to Him?

Avoid Getting Ahead of God

Think of a time when you took matters into your own hands. What were the outcomes? How can you learn to wait for God’s guidance in future situations?

Recognize God’s Provision

Reflect on how God has provided for you in the past. How does remembering His faithfulness help you trust Him in current challenges?

Handle Rejection with Grace

How do you typically respond to rejection? What steps can you take to see rejection as a reflection of others’ struggles rather than your worth?

Embrace God’s Equipping

Identify the unique ways God has equipped you for His work. How can you use these gifts to serve Him more effectively?

Practice Patience and Faith

What specific situations in your life require more patience and faith? How can you actively practice waiting on the Lord in these areas?