"Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister (serve to bring up) questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith " (1Tim. 1:4)

The History of What Happened With The Kings - April 22, 2023 - Dr. David Antion

A lot of people don't know, but the book of Joshua and Judges was one scroll. Joshua, Judges, one scroll, and First Samuel, second Samuel, first and Second Kings were all one scroll of the Bible. And they basically have, like, the same pattern, the history of what happened with the kings, how the monarchy got started.

But when we look at the book of Deuteronomy, and especially Deuteronomy chapter 28, the last book of the Torah, before we get to Joshua and Judges, okay, we see this, and you'll see it played out in Joshua and Judges. And God told them this way. I won't read the whole chapter of Deuteronomy.

It's long, but here's Deuteronomy, chapter 28, verse one. Now it shall be if you diligently obey the Eternal, your God, if you diligently obey the YHWH, your God, that four letter tetragrammaton, meaning the everliving being careful to do all his commandments, which I command you today, the Eternal, your God, will set you on high above the nations of the earth. You'll be set up high.

You'll be prosperous. You'll have this. And all these blessings will come upon you and overwhelm you.

They will overwhelm you, overtake you, if you obey the Eternal, your God, once again, everything is based on you have to obey. You have to do what God is telling you to do. Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country, whether it's in your towns or out in the fields.

Blessed shall be your offspring of your body and the produce of the ground and the offspring of your beasts. You got cattle, you got camels, you got sheep. Everything is going to be blessed with the increase of your herd and the young of your flock.

Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl where you need your bread. You're going to have plenty of food. You're going to have plenty of cattle.

Blessed shall be you when you come in. Blessed shall be you when you go out. The Eternal will cause your enemies who rise up against you.

Notice one of the things here is not for Israel to conquer other people and to enlarge their territory. The whole blessing here and the protection is that the Eternal will cause your enemies who rise up against you. You're not rising up against them.

You're not an aggressive nation. They will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you. They will come out against you one way.

They'll flee from you seven ways. The Eternal, the ever living, will command the blessings upon you in your barns, in you, in all that you put your hand to. He will bless you in the land which the Eternal, your God, gives you.

The Eternal will establish you as a holy people to Himself as he swore to you. If you keep the commandments of the Eternal, your God, Yahweh, your Elohim, and walk in his ways, so all the peoples of the earth will see you are called by the name of the Eternal, and they will be afraid of you. Now, notice there are no promises of the resurrection, no promises of eternal life.

These are all mundane, physical, earthly promises. Your land will be good, you have plenty of food, your cattle will be good, your children will be healthy, you will be healthy. And so on verse chapter 28.

Dropping down now to verse 15. But it shall come about that if you do not obey the Eternal, your God to observe all his commandments and his statutes, with which I charge you today. This is Moses talking to the people that all these curses, instead of blessings you're going to have, curses will come upon you and overwhelm you, overtake you, just surround you.

Curse it shall you be in the city, cursed shall you be in the country. Curse it shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Instead of being blessed, it's going to be cursed.

Cursed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground, the increase of your herd and the young flock. Your children will be cursed and will have troubles. You're going to have birth defects and this and that.

You're going to have this problem and that problem. The curse shall you be when you come in, and curses shall be when you go out. The Eternal, your God, will send upon you curses, confusion, and rebuke in all that you undertake to do until you are destroyed until you perish quickly on account of all the evil of your deeds because you have forsaken me.

This is what God is saying. The Eternal will make the pestilence cling to you, diseases until he has consumed you from the land where you are entering to possess it. Now, they were going into what we call the promised land, and now we're going to see, what did they do? They violated these things.

Now, you're not losing eternal life because it was not promised eternal life. All these mundane blessings of land, of food, of good things, of health, children that are healthy, cattle that are healthy, everything that's good and healthy will be taken away if you do not obey God. So we have the picture of the books of Joshua and judges picture Israel coming into the land of promise and what happens to them when they disobey.

And specifically, you have the Book of Judges, where one of the current and repeated statements is, there was no king in Israel. And everybody did. Every man did what was right in his own eyes.

Now, the judges were supposed what were the judges supposed to do. They were supposed to bring about the right practices of worshipping God. They were supposed to correct all unethical behavior. Okay? If Israel starts to go on the wrong way, worshipping other gods, worshipping false gods, turning away, and doing the kind of evil things that they see in the nations around them.

They were sent into captivity. The nation would rise up and take Israel captive. Then they would cry out in their captivity.

When some other nation rules over you, and you see armed guards going up and down the street, and you've got to toe the line, and they take your food, and they take you to know, use the taxes and take you, you they cried out. They cried out for a judge, and then they sent about, and the judge came about to try to make all these reformations and also to establish an independent military power for Israel. However, some of the judges fell into errors.

They fell into errors themselves, and they became something that should not have been. For instance, you take a look at Samson. What was Samson doing? Samson loved the women over the Philistine women.

He was over there converting with them, utilizing them, having sex with them. And that's how he got in. Finally got involved with Delilah, and then he lost.

He was not always a war. He didn't listen to his parents. Now he fought them.

He was a Nazarite. Yes. And there was a curious thing of a Nazarite.

They're not supposed to touch a dead body, but he grabs the jawbone of a donkey, an ass, and he's bashing the helmets of the Philistines, and he kills a lot with them. But here's how the Book of Judges ends. With one judge after another.

Jeppa made a false, terrible promise. I'll sacrifice whatever comes out to see me. Gideon, he had to have assurance.

He's worried about how many men he's got. Well, how about if I put at least promise me I will get the victory? These were fallible men.

Fallible. All of them? Some of them. How about Barack? He went with Deborah.

He was sort of diffident, fearful of Deborah. Said, let's go. Okay, I'll do it if you go.

If you go, I won't do it. So at the very end of Judges, we have this statement. I'm going to read it in the Complete Jewish Bible, judges 21, verse 25.

At that time, there was no king in Israel. A man simply did whatever he thought was right. Here's.

It is from the common English Bible. In those days, there was no king in Israel. Everybody did whatever he wanted.

From the Darby translation, in those days, there was no king in Israel. Every man did what was right in his own eyes. See, without good leadership, even gross violations of idolatry abounded, along with immoral behavior and violence of every kind.

You know, during the Judges period, they almost lost the entire tribe of Benjamin. There were internecine, inter, tribe fights, killing each other, destroying each other. And in Judges, the Book of Judges, there is no happy ending.

No happy ending. It ends with that very same statement. In those days, there was no king.

Everybody did what was right. Now, at the time of Samuel, Samuel comes along and he was born from his mother and she wanted to have a baby. She promised of God given she'll turn it over after she weans him.

So she sent him to there Samuel, it's this time that you have the rise of what are called prophets. The Hebrew word is nabi. N-A-B-I or naviab.

And a V can be translated the same way, nabi. Let me read first Samuel, chapter ten. It's an unusual way of talking about the prophets.

Here we are. When they came to the hill there, behold, a group of prophets met Him. And the Spirit of God came upon him mightily so that he prophesied among them.

It came about when all who knew him previously saw that he prophesied now with the prophets, that the people said to one another what has happened to the Son of Kish? Now, this is Saul. This is the first King of Israel. King Saul.

He comes about, he meets these prophets and he now is prophesying himself. Is Paul? Is Saul among the prophets? This is First Samuel, chapter ten, verse eleven. Now, verse twelve.

A man there said now after now who is their Father? Therefore it became a proverb, is Saul among the prophets? When he had finished prophesying, he came to the high place. Now we don't know what he prophesied, we don't know if he spoke for God. Did he predict something? We don't know.

But take a look at how this thing worked. Let's look at First Samuel, chapter 50, chapter 19. Then it says verse 20.

Now chapter 19 of First Samuel, verse 20. Then Saul sent messengers to take David. It's going to grab him and take him, capture him, arrest him.

But when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, with Samuel standing and presiding over them. Now Samuel was presiding over this group of prophets. The Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul and they also prophesied.

Now you see, these prophets usually had instruments of playing their string instruments, rhythm instruments, they were doing something and somehow that star stirred up people, stirred up something. The Spirit of God came upon these messengers, Saul, and they also prophesied. When it was told Saul, hey, you sent these messengers to your policeman, you sent your Gestapo or whatever you want to call them, your FBI, whatever you call, you sent them to pick up David and instead, they joined the prophets.

So when it was told Saul in verse 21, he sent other messengers and they also prophesied. So Saul sent messengers again the third time and they also got caught up in the Spirit of God and they also knew what did they prophesy? I don't know. You don't know.

Nobody knows. It's not written here. Then he himself here's.

Now, Saul, he went to Rayma and he came as far as the large well that is in Sekur. And he asked and said where are Samuel and David? And someone said, Behold, they are at Naoth in Rayma.

He proceeded there to Naoth and Rima. And the Spirit of God came upon him also, so that he went along prophesying continually until he came to Naoth and Rayma. He also stripped off his clothes, and he too prophesied before Samuel and laid down naked all that day and all that night.

Therefore they say Saul is Saul also among the prophets. This is the second time the question comes up, is Saul among the prophets? Now notice he stripped off his clothes and lay naked. Well, we don't do that today. Nobody does that.

And it says, the Spirit of God, something, the wind of God, the air of God, the Spirit of God came on them. Now you'll see what happens here in chapter eight of First Samuel. First Samuel, chapter eight.

I'm going to begin in verse one. It came about when Samuel now Samuel was also supposed to be a prophet. He was over the prophets.

He was supposed to be a prophet, but he was also a judge, okay? He was also a judge. And like a priest, he was a kingmaker as well, because he was the one that decided that Saul would be the first king. And then he also decided David would be king.

One. Samuel, chapter eight, verse nine, verse one. It came about when Samuel was old that he appointed his sons judges over Israel.

Now, this is a classic, because the very thing that Samuel saw when he was growing up, Eli or Ellie, he worked for the high priest, the priest at that time, and he was in the temple and he watched while Eli's sons departed. They did evil. And now what was happening, Samuel's sons.

So here is it. Now, the name of the firstborn was Joel, and the name of the second was Abijah. They were judging in Beersheba.

So his sons were taking over. See, they became sons. They became judges over Israel.

Verse three. His sons, however, did not walk in his way. They didn't imitate their father but turned aside after being dishonest, gaining whatever they could do to pocket the money for themselves.

And they took bribes and they perverted justice. Then all the elders of Israel gathered together. Now, here are the people.

Here's one thing you can never do. I think Abraham Lincoln said this. I think this is his statement.

You can fool some of the people all of the time. They're just foolish people. You can deceive them anytime, anytime, all the time.

You can fool all of the people some of the time. You might be able to get away with it sometime, Abraham Lincoln's statement, but you just can't fool all of the people all of the time. They will finally see through it.

So here came the elders of Israel gathered together. They came to Samuel at Rayma, and they said to him, behold, you have grown old and your sons do not walk in your ways. We don't like your sons.

Your sons are not you. They don't have your character, they don't have your goodness, they don't have your intelligence. They don't have your moral stature.

No. Now appoint us a king. Appoint a King for us to judge us like all the other nations.

We need a king. Now, your sons are not going well, so we need somebody. But the thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, Give us a King to judge us.

And Samuel prayed to the Eternal. He didn't know what to do. Now, here are the people forcing this issue.

The Eternal said to Samuel, listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. Who was the king? God was the king over Israel. He was Israel's ruler and he set the standards.

God was their King, but Samuel was the judge. But now his sons didn't fall. Walk in his ways.

And this is what happens. What did Deuteronomy say? Well, you don't obey me, what happens? You're going to be cursed in the city. Cursed.

So here and now, all of a sudden, Samuel finds they're rejecting him and they're rejecting God. So the Journal said they rejected me, that I should not be King over them. Verse eight.

Like all the deeds which they have done since the day I brought them from the land of Egypt, even to this day, in that they have forsaken me and served other gods. So they are doing it to you also. They're going to forsake you, Samuel.

Now then, listen to verse eight. What does God say? Now then, listen to their voice. However, you shall certainly warn them and tell them of the procedure of the King who will reign over them.

You got to tell them about a king, what a king will do, what a king has. The King is going to have a big castle. The King's going to have a big home.

The King's going to use the taxes. They're going to tax them. So Samuel gives them the warning.

You'll see, it dropping down to verse eleven, starting in one. Samuel eight. Verse eleven.

He said this is the procedure of the King who will reign over you. He will take your sons and place them for himself in his chariots and among his horsemen, and they will run before his chariots. He will appoint to himself commanders of thousands and of some to do his plowing to reap this harvest.

They will make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. So he's going to employ the government's, going to employ all these people making things for war. He will also take your daughters for perfumers and cooks and bakers.

He will also take the best of your fields and your vineyards and your olive groves and give them to his servants. We need it. We need it for our army.

We need it for our people. From the servants of my house, he will take one 10th of your seed and of your vineyards and give them to the officers and to his servants. He will take your male servants and your female servants and your best young men and your donkeys and use them for his work.

He will take a 10th of your flocks and you yourselves will become his servants. Then you will cry out on that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves. But the Eternal will not answer on that day.

You're going to cry out and God's not going to come in. Meet your king directly. You're going to have to work through the king.

So what do they say? Now, Samuel warns them all the way up to verses 15 through 18. Now, in verse 19, what do they say? Nevertheless, this is first Samuel, chapter eight, verse nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel and they said, no, but there shall be a king over us. See, we learned the lesson from Judges.

There was no king in Israel. Now, there was a good man, Samuel, but he was followed by his sons. And they're not good, though they think they have a king, that we also may be like all the other nations.

Now, I want you to notice that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles. They want that king to be a powerful man, to get out there and fight our battles. And what was the king? He was the anointed one.

They anointed the king, and Samuel anointed someone. Now, Samuel had heard all the words of the people. He repeated them in the hearing of the Eternal, in the eternal's hearing.

And the Eternal said to Samuel, listen to their voice and appoint them a king. So Samuel said to the men of Israel, go every man to his house. Everybody go back to your city.

And who did he point first? He looked he found the tallest man. This guy looked great. The first king was King Saul, who was sort of well, I don't know what you call him.

Like a dope. I'm sorry. He was sort of dope.

He misunderstands you remember? He makes unwise decisions. He became like one of the prophets.

He just fell in line with the prophetic music and so on. He becomes jealous of those under him. And specifically, he became jealous of David.

Specifically, he tries to trip David up. And the very first thing after David killed Goliath and everything, who does he try to trip up? He said, I'll give David my daughter McCall, and she'll ruin his life. Evidently, she was a tough woman, but she actually fell in love with David.

But that didn't work. And then what did Saul do? He tries to kill David, Saul's son, on the other hand, Jonathan loved David, and the two of them formed a covenant that they would always have one another's backs. They would always be there together, and they formed that special covenant.

Saul at his time controlled little but the tribe of Benjamin. He didn't really venture out much. He fought enemies, he killed thousands, and he was strong.

But during this time he turned on David and he actually got so crazy, he wanted to kill David in spite of David doing everything to try to explain to him, I'm not trying to hurt you, Saul, I'm not your enemy. In one of the cases, you see in One Samuel, chapter 24. Now, when Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, saying, behold, David is in the wilderness of Ngeti.

I was there that spring, the spring of Ngeti in that wilderness area, and it goes from the spring all the way up into the mountains. And there are caves up there. You can go up there, sheep and cattle.

And then in Getty, they had the ibis, they were there. And the little animals look like deer. They're not much bigger than the small deer.

Then Saul took 3000 chosen men from all of Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the flocks of wild goats. At that time, evidently, they had wild goats like these. eBECS, they were like goats.

He came to the sheepfolds on that day where there was a cave, and Saul went in to relieve himself. These caves, by the way, can go way back into the mountain. I don't know how they got there.

I don't know whether somebody dug them originally, but they go way back into the mountain. Now, David and his men were sitting in the inner recesses of the cave. They were way back in the cave.

Saul came into the cave to relieve himself, to go to the bathroom. There's no bathroom. He's just going to do it out there.

And first Samuel, chapter 26 well, first, let me explain here what David does. His men say, oh, he's been delivered into your hand. This is the time God wants you to kill him.

He's here, look at him. He's in no position to fight. Now take your sword and whack him.

When he's done, God has delivered him into your hands. And David said, no, no, I am not going to lift my hand against the Lord's. What anointed? What does the word Messiah mean? The anointed one.

What does the word Christ mean in Greek? The anointed one. It means the anointed one. At that time, the anointed one was the king of Israel.

The king was their, quote, Messiah. They always looked for the Messiah who was going to deliver them from out, from under all these evils and bring about all kinds of wonderful things. So David, instead of killing him, he goes up.

Saul had tossed his robe over and David got up and cut a piece of the robe off. Saul, when he finished left. And after he left, David came out to the mouth of the cave and said, Saul.

Saul, I could have killed you. I have a piece of your robe. Look at your robe.

It's cut off. I have it right here. I am not your enemy, Saul.

I'm not trying to kill you. Saul, please don't. Why? Why are you after me? Why are you trying? I'm just a flea.

I'm nothing. But you're trying to kill me. Well, that didn't work on another occasion.

In one Samuel, chapter 26, beginning in verse six, the Hittite and to Abashai, the son of Zariah, JOEB's brother, saying, who will go down with me to Saul's camp? And Abishai said I will go down with you. So David and Abishey came to the people by night. Now, here's Saul's camp.

He's still looking for David, trying to kill him. And David said, let's go down to that camp at nighttime. So they went.

And behold, Saul lay sleeping inside the circle of the camp with his spear stuck in the ground close to his head. Abner and the people were lying around him. Now, Abner was on at this time, Saul's side.

They were lying around. Abishai said to David, today God has delivered your enemy into your hand. Now, therefore, please let me strike him with a spirit to the ground.

And once one stroke and I will not strike him a second time, I'll just kill him real quick and it will be over. David said to Abishey, do not destroy him for who can stretch his hand against the Lord's anointed and be without guilt? David also said, as the Lord lives, surely the Lord will strike him on his day and his day will come when he does. And he will go down into battle and perish the eternal forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the Lord's anointed.

Again, David's calling the king. And David himself was the Lord's anointed. But now please take the spear that is at his head and the jug of water and let's go.

We're going to take his spear and the jug of water. So they take the spear and the jug of water and then David again saul. Saul, I took your spear.

I have it here. I could have killed you. I was in your camp.

It was right by your head. Look around for it. It's not there.

Here it is. I've got it. I could have killed you.

I'm not your enemy. I'm trying to tell you I'm not doing anything. All to talking to a dope.

And Saul at one point says, David, you are more righteous than I owe my son David. All my son David. But when David comes close to him, he wants to kill him again.

He wants to kill him. And he never did make friends with David. He finally died in the battle.

Now, meanwhile, I'm going to read you a passage here that you are hardly going to believe. And I'm going to read First Samuel, chapter 27.

Then David said to himself, beginning in verse one now I will perish one day by the hand of Saul. He's not going to stop. There is nothing better for me than to escape into the land of the Philistines.

Saul then will despair of searching for me anymore in all the territory of Israel, and I will escape from his hand. So David arose and crossed over him and 600 men who were with him. They went to Aches, the son of Mak Mayok, the king of Gaff.

The Philistines had different kings and different places. He was the king of Gaff, so David went to him. David, listen to this, verse three.

David lived with Akesh at Gath. He and his men, each of his with his household. The men brought their families.

Even David with his two wives, Hinowan, from the Jesuits, and Abigail from the Carmelites, who was Nabal's widow. He took Abigail, two of his wives went, and they lived in the territory of the Philistines. Now it was told Saul, that David had fled to Gath, so he no longer searched for him.

David said to Aikesh, if now I have found favor in your sight, let them give me a place in one of the cities or in the country that I may live there. For why should your servant live in the royal city with you? I'm not expecting you to promote me or give me everything. Just let me live over here.

So Ikesh gave him Ziklag on that day. Therefore, Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day. So David took over that city.

Now listen to this, verse seven. The number of days that David lived in the country of the Philistines was a year and four months, 16 months. Now, David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites and the Gearsites, the Pericytes, and the Amalekites, for they were the inhabitants of the land from ancient times as you come to shore, even as far as the land of Egypt.

Now listen to verse nine. David attacked the land and did not leave a man or a woman alive. And he took away the sheep, the cattle, the donkeys, the camels, and the clothing.

Then he returned to the camp of Akesh. Akesh said, Where have you made a raid today? Where have you gone to take a raid and wipe out people? David said against the Negev of Judah. The Negev is this long area that goes from the valley like a little ditch.

It's more than a ditch, but it's not a big valley. It's a negative. And it comes from up by the Sea of Galilee, all the way down close to the Dead Sea.

Past the Dead Sea. David said, against the Negev of Judah and against the Negev of the Jarah. My lights.

And against the Negev of the Kenites. David did listen to verse eleven. David did not leave a man or a woman alive to bring to Gaff saying otherwise they will tell about us.

Saying so has David done. And so has been his practice all the time he has lived in the country of the Philistines. And Cash believed David.

In other words, David said I'm loyal to you, I'm coming over here against my country. And so Akash believed david. Instead he has surely made himself hateful among his own people, israel.

He invaded several little towns and killed every man and every woman. Therefore he became my servant forever. David's, David can live here.

David can be here. David's going to fight for us because David has turned against Israel. Did you ever notice David became a traitor to his own country, to King Saul, and to the Israelites?

He invaded Judah. He killed every man and every woman in some of these towns. So now he wants to be a part of the Philistines, but some people still don't trust him.

We'll talk more about King David, some of the things he did, and some of the things that are not so good. And therefore when we exalt, we only exalt one person, the human person who became the Messiah. And we exalt our Lord God.

That's what we do. Join me in prayer as we end today's service. And we'll have part two of this intriguing thing, all the way down to the kings and all the way down to David.

King Solomon. We'll talk more about taking a look at some of the insights we see. Heavenly Father, thank you for today, thank you for Your blessings, thank you for Your mercies, thank you for Your word and all the lessons and all the understanding that we get from it.

We give you praise, we give you honor, we give you glory and we give you thanks for all your people who faithfully look to you, faithfully serve you, faithfully love you and love one another, and pray for one another as we're instructed to do. That we might be healed, that we might be saved, that we might overcome our troubles and problems. Thank you, Father, for listening to the prayers.

Thank you for intervening. Thank you for giving comfort and giving solace and giving direction to Your people. We give you thanks now for today's service.

We ask Your blessing on all Your people everywhere. And we know that we all have blessings galore if we just look ground. So we praise Your name and thank You for all good things through Jesus Christ, who made it all possible by his wonderful sacrifice to the One who will come, the real King for all of us.

In his name, we pray. Amen.