Serve Yahweh With All Your Heart

The elders of Israel are afraid because there are armies around them. The Philistines have been a long-standing threat and now they fear the Ammonites so they come to Samuel and asked for a king. In their minds, a king would establish an army and protect them, but they have forgotten, they have the best protection possible, the Lord is on their side. Samuel reminds them in 1 Samuel 10:18–19 “Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel: ‘I brought Israel up from Egypt, and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you.’ But the Lord listens and chooses Saul who is anointed as king and Samuel reminds them of the covenant, God’s promise to them in 1 Samuel 12:14 “If you will fear Yahweh, and serve him, and listen to his voice, and not be rebellious against what Yahweh says, and both you and the king who rules over you will follow after Yahweh your God, all will be well”. Then Samuel closes with a final reminder, in 1 Samuel 12:24 “Only fear Yahweh and serve him faithfully with all of your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you”.

You Today Have Rejected Your God

1 Samuel 10:10-19
We don’t find out why until later, but the elders of Israel have asked Samuel to appoint a king. Samuel asks the Lord in

1 Samuel 8:7 Then Yahweh said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people concerning all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them”.

So the Lord tells Samuel to anoint Saul, which he does first privately in 1 Samuel 10:1, and then Samuel gives Saul four signs that will confirm that the Lord has named him King over Israel. The last of these is that in

1 Samuel 10:8 Then you will go down before me to Gilgal. Look, I am coming down to you to offer burnt offerings and to make fellowship offerings. You must wait seven days until I come to you. Then I will let you know what you should do.”

So Saul goes on his way, and in

1 Samuel 10:17 “Then Samuel summoned the people to Yahweh at Mizpah”

It is important to understand here, the reason the people were asking for a king. They were afraid, in

1 Samuel 12:12 “And when you saw that Nahash, the king of the Ammonites, was coming against you, you said to me, ‘No! A king shall reign over us,’ although Yahweh your God is your king”.

Now, Samuel speaks what the Lord has said to him, and it is that He, the Lord, delivered them from “all the kingdoms that were oppressing them”. How is it that they could reject the Lord and ask for a king? Yet this is exactly what they did so in

1 Samuel 10:18–19 and he said to the Israelites, “Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel: ‘I brought Israel up from Egypt, and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you.’ 19 But you today have rejected your God who always delivers you from all of your calamities and your distresses. You have said to him, ‘No, but you must appoint a king over us!’ So then present yourselves before Yahweh by your tribes and by your clans.”

Do You See Him Whom Yahweh Has Chosen

1 Samuel 10:20-27

The Spirit of God Rushed Upon Saul

1 Samuel 11:1-7

Yahweh has Provided Deliverance

1 Samuel 11:8-15

Take Your Stand so That I May Judge You Before Yahweh

1 Samuel 12:1-7

Here is the King You Have Chosen

1 Samuel 12:8-18
As Samuel is rehearsing their history to them, he reminds them that in the past in

1 Samuel 12:10 So they cried out to Yahweh and said, ‘We have sinned, because we have forsaken Yahweh and have served the Baals and the Ashtoreths. But now deliver us from the hand of our enemies and we will serve you!’

and the Lord delivered them. But now, instead of recognizing their error, they, in 1 Samuel 12:12 “you said to me, ‘No! A king shall reign over us,’ although Yahweh your God is your king”. Now, Samuel says in

1 Samuel 12:13 “So then look! Here is the king you have chosen, for whom you have asked! Look, Yahweh has placed a king over you!

But the Lord is not looking to destroy them because they have rejected him, Samuel reiterates the covenant that they have with the Lord with one addition, the covenant is now for “you and the king who rules over you” in

1 Samuel 12:14 If you will fear Yahweh, and serve him, and listen to his voice, and not be rebellious against what Yahweh says, and both you and the king who rules over you will follow after Yahweh your God, all will be well.

but there is one consequence of their actions, and Samuel says to them, in

1 Samuel 12:16 “So then take your stand again and see this great thing that Yahweh is going to do before your eyes”.

Samuel calls for a demonstration of the power of the Lord in a way that they will understand. As it says in 1 Samuel 12:17 “Is the wheat harvest not today?” and certainly Samuel knows that it is. He then calls for “thunder and rain”, which would damage their harvest, especially because “That season in Palestine occurs at the end of June or beginning of July, when it seldom or never rains, and the sky is serene and cloudless … The people regarded it as a miraculous display of divine power, and, panic-struck, implored the prophet to pray for them”.¹