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Brendan's Bytes: 1 Samuel 15
5 Plays4 months ago
Brendan teaches 1 Samuel 15
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Transcript
Samuel's Anointing of Saul
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Speaker
And then we get to 1 Samuel chapter 15.
00:00:07
Speaker
Samuel said to Saul, I am the one the Lord sent to anoint you, king over his people Israel. So listen now to the message from the Lord. Hmm.
00:00:18
Speaker
Why would Samuel introduce himself in such an obvious way?
00:00:24
Speaker
Perhaps because the very prophet who anointed him would soon be declaring the removal of that anointing.
God's Judgment on the Amalekites
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Speaker
This is what the Lord Almighty says, that the Lord of the angel armies, is the Lord of the heavenly hosts. I will punish the Amalekites for what they did when my people left Egypt.
00:00:46
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Think of the story when Joshua was fighting against the Amalekites and he prayed that the sun would remain the sky. Okay, that's these wicked people. And the king of the Amalekites was named Agag.
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And the Malachites literally translates as to wring one's neck like a bird. This was a nation of murderers, a nation of killers, a nation of beheaders.
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Murder was in their history. Murder was in their soul. Murder was a main preoccupation of theirs.
Sowing and Reaping: God's Role as a Farmer
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They stole they killed and they destroyed. But they ticked off the wrong God. Because our God is a farmer. Our God is an agriculturalist. i want you ala that And what you sow, you will reap.
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Planting and harvesting are naturally supernatural laws.
Saul's Disobedience Against the Amalekites
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So the Lord says, put all of them to death. And also their animals, the cattle, the sheep, the camels and the donkeys.
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Nothing can be preserved. Nothing of theirs can be kept.
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So Saul summoned the men and he mustered them. 200,000 foot soldiers and 10,000 from Judah. He's increased in number from miserly 600.
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People are beginning to trust him again. They're turning out full force.
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So, in verse 7, Saul attacked the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, near the eastern border of Egypt. But he did not kill Agag, their king, those are evil and reprehensible of them all.
00:02:45
Speaker
No, he kept him alive. As a slave, as a plaything. Everyone else he totally destroyed with sword. ah kitchen But in addition to that...
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He and his men also kept the sheep alive, and the cattle, fat calves, lambs, everything that in their eyes was good or pleasing.
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But everything that was despised and weak, they destroyed.
Tales of Misguided Actions and Theft
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Story time. When I was a university student, i People say i was a thief. Let's say I had sticky fingers, you know, as was a student, um I needed food.
00:03:34
Speaker
And I did have a penchant for, you know, taking things which weren't always mine. and Or if I could borrow someone else's Wi-Fi, right? am Or mine's into a cafe, i was that annoying customer who would take like, you know, 50 sachets of sugar, but even though I'd only bought one cup of tea.
00:03:55
Speaker
And I remember there was one night, my cousin and I were invited to a hotel for a pastor's appreciation evening. that We're not pastors.
00:04:06
Speaker
um But youth leaders, which we were, were invited. So you know we were there the whole night. We were given a meal for Christmas and whatever else. It was lovely. And at the end of the night, and i kind of looked around the tables and I saw that not all the pastors had eaten all their men's pies, all their food, all their dinner.
00:04:26
Speaker
And they hadn't used all the sugar on the tables and their tea and coffee.
00:04:33
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So I said to myself, well, The hotel is probably just going to bin all of this. They're probably not going reuse it. um So it would be a sin, a grievous sin to leave it there, to be binned.
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We're in the Western world. We have responsibility to use everything.
00:04:53
Speaker
So i went around the dining hall afterwards and I would take this and put it in my jacket pocket and take this in my jacket pocket. would take those mince pies and put them in my inside jacket pocket.
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That leftover potato and put that in my inside jacket pocket. I'd take those vegetables and put them in my trouser pocket. Big bowls of sugar, was taking those too.
00:05:19
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I was leaving that place like 14 kilograms heavier with all the things that I was taking. if And my cousin caught me and was like, Brendan, what are you doing?
00:05:32
Speaker
She just said, you look as obvious as you're concealing nothing. This is, you have no mystique about you. It's so obvious what you're doing. um And I just said, well, you know what? It was all included in the price, wasn't it?
00:05:47
Speaker
And she said, Brendan, what price? We came here for free. We didn't pay anything. But I said, well, someone's paid and I'm going to honor their financial resource.
00:05:59
Speaker
So I got down to the reception area and and some of you are like, how is this related? am' I watching a different video? Do I fall asleep and now I get another video is playing? I'll circle back to my point.
00:06:13
Speaker
So I got down to the reception area and on the reception desk, the receptionist was on the phone. And a meter away, there was a big basket full of apples.
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And I said to myself
00:06:29
Speaker
to steal a big basket full of apples right under the receptionist's notes. Oh, it would be my greatest achievement in life. So I kind of walked on over. did he did he director dream And I grabbed the big basket of apples.
00:06:47
Speaker
pushed them all down my shirt, or toppled them down my shirt, zipped it up, and I was running to the door. And i was half a meter away from the door. One next thing. Out it appears from nowhere this massive, seven feet tall, stocky, burly, Nigerian security guard.
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What do you think you are doing? He asked.
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Speaker
I'm a student, I replied. i live below the poverty line. ah come from Nigeria. Let me tell you about the poverty line, he said.
00:07:27
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And then he began giving me a lecture on theft. And then the course of his enunciation, said that his wife was sleeping with his best friend and didn't realize that he knew and blah, blah, blah, blah.
00:07:41
Speaker
Sub story. But then my friend Sharon came along and distracted him. And I snuck out the door with all my apples and mince pies sugar. was great. Brilliant. it was my greatest achievement.
00:07:53
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So I hopped in the car. And on way back, I went.
00:07:58
Speaker
um You know what? When you're 17 years of age, that's a cute story. Some of you might think it's pathetic. I felt like a rock star. I felt I was so edgy and like a dangerous Christian Um, but if you're doing that in your 31, it's a little bit concerning. It's a little bit pathetic.
00:08:19
Speaker
In fact, it's majorly concerning. If you're stealing people's Wi-Fi through the walls in your that's totally and utterly a crime and you again just can't justify it.
00:08:33
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If you're 30 years old or 40 years old or 50 years old and you're stealing from the local supermarket, I mean, there comes a point you just have to get arrested and they throw away the key.
Selective Obedience and Rationalizing Sin
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But what's happened in this story is the Amalekites, they are the threat that want to wring your neck and pop your head off. They want to behead you.
00:09:00
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But you know, so will deal with the little sin. Well, I'm not gonna steal apples from a hotel restaurant anymore. Well, I'm not gonna take sachets of sugar anymore.
00:09:14
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But he's keeping the king alive. I'll still rob a bank.
00:09:19
Speaker
Logical, illogical, obviously illogical, makes no sense.
00:09:25
Speaker
Or maybe, you know, when someone's a teenager, And they get hooked on pornography. Let's just go there. Hello. 21st century reality. And they might say, oh, well, you know, as a teenager, I was watching it 49 times a week. But now i'm I'm older and I'm married and I only do it once a week.
00:09:45
Speaker
Yeah, but that's coming adultery in your heart. That's perverted and it's detrimental for your marriage and your child rearing.
00:09:57
Speaker
So what Saul is doing here is he's making a decision. What sin is acceptable and what's unacceptable. What he's willing to deal with and what he will not deal with.
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What he's willing to call evil and disgusting and reprehensible and despicable and get rid of and actually what he's kind of okay with. It's fine in his eyes.
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It's a plaything. It's not a threat. It's not dangerous. Because it's all chained up. He's got it down on the floor in chains and his hands and his knees.
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it's fine. he can control it. He is in charge. Mr. Nobody, who was the lowest of all the people in the nation, the least of the smallest tribe, he and he alone has solved the issue to the sin problem.
00:10:55
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Keep it alive. Put on the floor. Tell it you're the boss. Tell it you're in charge. And that's solved the problem. It's ludicrous. Absolutely nonsense.
God's Regret and Saul's Monument to Himself
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So the Lord has a conversation with Samuel and says in verse 11, I regret that I have made Saul king. Now some people might say, well, God, why did you?
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God sees every person exactly as they are.
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as they were, as they will be, as they can be, as they should be, as they would be if. He sees everything all at once. But he sees the best in every person because he's the one who's put the best in them.
00:11:41
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And he'd given Saul his anointing. But Saul, with an act of his will, decided to give God the middle finger again and again and again.
00:11:53
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So the Lord Saul has turned away from me. He's not carried out my instructions. And Samuel was angry he cried out to the Lord all that night. And we know that Saul had absolutely turned from God because in their interactions that follow, Saul says, you know, tell me about the Lord, your God. Pray that the Lord, your God, will bless me and forgive me and restore the anointing and and kingship to me.
00:12:21
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So already there is a distinction here. He's not the Lord my God. No, he's he's the God of the prophets.
00:12:32
Speaker
So verse 12, early in the morning, Samuel got up and went to meet Saul. And in Carmel, Saul had erected a monument onto himself.
00:12:46
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Saul was determined to be Samuel. He was not okay with just being king. wanted to be the priest and the prophet.
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And know he really and truly wants to be the God-man, Jesus.
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The king of Israel.
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ah priest and prophet. And now he's even setting himself up a monument in his own honor. He sees himself as god.
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Verse 13, Saul's little bit deluded and goes, Samuel, the Lord bless you. Look, I've carried out the Lord's instructions, the letter. I've dotted every eye I, I've crossed every T. And Samuel says, then why can I hear, and boo.
00:13:35
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Do you think I'm thick? Do you think I'm stupid?
00:13:41
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And Saul does the responsible thing, the Adam and Eve approach. He blames somebody else. You know, think of in Genesis 3, when Jesus said, Adam, where are you? What's going on? What happened?
00:13:55
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And Adam says, it was the woman's fault. And by the way, God, you made her. And Eve says, me.
00:14:07
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I feel faint. It was the devil. Yeah, same thing here.
00:14:15
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And Saul blames the soldiers. The very same people he had cursed, hexed and vexed, and bound by an oath of his own vain imagination, only short time earlier.
00:14:32
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And he says, the soldiers brought them from the Amalekites. They, my soldiers, God's army, spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God.
00:14:45
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But we destroyed the rest, so I did the right thing. They are the ones you're actually angry with. They are the naughty ones. Ugh, commoners, plebs. And
00:14:58
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at this point, Samuel at the end of his tether with Saul.
Samuel's Confrontation and Saul's Decline
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And he's heard all the crap he can handle. And he says, enough.
00:15:10
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Let me tell you what God told me last night. And he says, point blank, you were the lowest man in your household.
00:15:24
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Your household was the smallest of all the clans in the smallest tribe in our small nation.
00:15:35
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But God looked at you. He saw you. And he's saying, I make you king over my people.
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And if my people live properly, the nations of the world will be blessed. They'll get saved. They'll turn to me.
00:15:57
Speaker
But you're also an instrument of wrath. You are an instrument of judgment. I am Lord of the harvest. And when I say someone's evil is a stench in my nostrils, you have a responsibility to act on that.
00:16:11
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And you didn't. You lied. You deceived. You kept the worst of the worst, Agag.
00:16:25
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And Saul still does not want to take responsibility. But I did obey the Lord, he lies. i went on the mission the Lord assigned to me.
00:16:38
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I didn't do it, but I went.
00:16:42
Speaker
How often do we use that excuse in our lives? I completely destroyed the Mabakites. And then he whispers in his breath, I just happened to take the king back. And again, the soldiers are to blame.
00:16:55
Speaker
The soldiers took the sheep and cattle and plunder. The best of what was devoted to God. to God did not ask for an animal devotional. He wanted them butchered, killed, done away with.
00:17:12
Speaker
And Samuel says it to him, In verse 22, does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as then obeying the Lord?
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Would the Lord rather you do without or you obey? Are you a Jesuit?
00:17:33
Speaker
To obey is better than sacrifice. Just in case Saul didn't catch his drift, he just had to say it straight out. And to heed, to obey,
00:17:44
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is bad to them the fat of rams. Okay, he's running out of ways to say this very same thing. For rebellion is like the sin of divination. Which makes sense. I mean, Saul had literally bound the people with a curse only a chapter earlier. um You know, if you eat, you're gonna be killed. You're gonna damn us all.
00:18:10
Speaker
And arrogance, like the evil of idolatry, And know, when we first met Saul, he had very low self-esteem. So he suddenly he was given power, a position, a title, and the insecurity all came out in the form of arrogance and pride. And we know that's a problem for him because he literally set up a monument to himself, like worshipping himself.
00:18:35
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And because you have rejected the word of the Lord. And remember, the word of the Lord is another name for Jesus. Because you've rejected the Bible, the Torah, the scriptures, the God-man, Jesus Christ, Jesus the Anointed One, Jesus the Messiah.
00:18:52
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He has rejected you as king.
00:18:58
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And Saul says, I've sinned. I've violated the Lord's command and your instructions. And now the truth comes out. I was afraid of the men, and so I gave in to them. He still doesn't go into the whole setting up a monument to himself sin.
00:19:13
Speaker
We're just not going there. Now I beg you, forgive my sin and come back with me so that may worship the Lord. I think that's very interesting.
00:19:26
Speaker
There's one thing about doing something wrong and saying I'm sorry, please forgive me. That was such an idiotic mistake. Yeah, hands in the air. I got that wrong.
00:19:38
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I made the wrong decision. I'm sorry. That's one thing.
00:19:43
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But come back with me. That kind of makes it seem like I still want the perception that I'm good with God. I still want to create the illusion that you and I are good, Samuel.
00:19:58
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That I'm still validated by you. My kingship is still affirmed by you. My anointing is still being acknowledged by you. That's what I take from this, personally.
00:20:11
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He doesn't want any word getting out whatsoever he's lost the anointing.
00:20:20
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And Saul does not get the answer he wants. Samuel says, no, I'm not going back with you, that's not happening. So Saul grabs his robe,
00:20:32
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And tears it. Now if I were Samuel. I would be livid. I probably would have beaten Saul with my staff. But instead. Samuel says. This is a prophetic moment.
00:20:44
Speaker
And the same way you've just torn my clothes. And I'm the one. anointed you. I'm the one who announced that you were God's chosen. Well now the flip side.
00:20:55
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Has occurred. Now the opposite is being done. This same prophet is now declaring that as you have torn my robe, as you've torn my cloak, my clothes, so the kingdom is being torn from you this day, right now.
00:21:11
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And you will be replaced by one who is far better than you.
00:21:20
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Saul still kept the crown. He shouldn't have, but he did.
Saul's Retained Title but Lost Favor
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He still kept the title.
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He still kept the palace, if you will.
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He still received the people's taxes. They still served him. They still gave him the title, O King, Your Majesty.
00:21:45
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But the anointing was gone. And yeah we've actually seen this happen even in in real time. prophet went to Barack Obama a number of years ago.
00:21:59
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And Obama was never a good man. um He was always evil and reprobate. I believe you're going to find out even more than you currently know about how evil he was in the days to come.
00:22:11
Speaker
I don't think you have to wait very long for that to happen. But there was one night when he prayed, I was, oh God, please make me president of the United States of America. And a prophet came to him and said, God heard your prayer. And he's saying, yes, don't screw it up.
00:22:29
Speaker
But the same way that Sowell's job was to wipe out the Amalekites, those who wanted to wring the neck of God's people like they were birds, like they were chickens.
00:22:41
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Obama had a job to wipe ISIS off the face of the earth, to make the world a safer place to live in. But he didn't do that. and Instead, he went on a tour of the Middle East apologizing for how wicked, evil, and reprobate and depraved America was,
00:22:59
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And compared it to Muslim nations.
00:23:04
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And because he did not do his job and his heart was completely and utterly against God and in no way for the things of God, it was against the people of God, that same prophet then declared, your anointing is gone. And what happened the day after that was the presidential seal, the eagle, fell off his podium.
00:23:30
Speaker
Now, from that day forward, he became an absolute joke. Nothing he tried to accomplish what was done. He just became an object failure. um His media establishment, his file of profits, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, and all those, could say whatever they wanted to. As many books and biographies could be written of about him as people wanted.
00:23:53
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But he really and truly emerged as one of Um, the least successful and most disgraced US presidents of them all.
00:24:05
Speaker
And you see by the end of his presidency how grey he looked, just how old, how worn, how tattered by comparison. And you know what? He went on to fight another election against an absolute buffoon who wasn't even powerful enough to take him down.
00:24:23
Speaker
um ah he He kept the the crown, the throne, if you will, for eight years in total. But the uniting was gone. So God had to raise up a David in Donald Trump to actually turn the nation back towards righteousness.
00:24:42
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um And we can see Joe Biden as an extension of Barack Obama. someone who did not win the 2020 election, someone who was illegitimate, so illegitimate in fact, that there have been many reports that there are multiple Joe Bidens running around out there, old men, tall men wearing face coverings,
00:25:11
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um people signing formal documents and legislation under They named Joe Biden, but signatures did not match up.
00:25:24
Speaker
So it obviously was not him. So there were multiple Joe Bidens, right? but you see a guy just does not have his mind, had no wits about him whatsoever, was an absolute clown, couldn't string a sentence together.
The Rise of a New King
00:25:37
Speaker
That is what happens to Saul just after this chapter. That's how quickly he descends into madness, lunacy, depravity, the stupidity on the inside came out of the whole world to see.
00:25:55
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We're living in very prophetic days, friends. So Saul is Barack Obama, minds Joe Biden, today.
00:26:09
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And then Samuel says, bring me Agag, king of the Amalekites.
00:26:16
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Agag came to him in chains.
00:26:22
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And he thought, surely the bitterness of death is past.
00:26:29
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Surely all the wicked evil things that they had planned for me are in the past, gone, done away with.
00:26:38
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But what kings won't do What prime ministers won't do, what presidents won't do, what politicians won't do, prophets will. And Samuel picked up a sword hacked him into pieces and said, as your sword has made women childless, so will your mother be childless among women.
00:27:03
Speaker
Again, Samuel knew he served the Lord of the Harvest.
00:27:09
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and as Agag had sown seeds of murder, and infanticide,
00:27:17
Speaker
home wrecking.
00:27:22
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So those just desserts were given to him and he reaped on his own head fiery coals.
00:27:35
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Verse 34, then Samuel left for Ramah where he lived. But Saul went up to his home in Gibeah. And until the day Samuel will died, he refused to see Saul again. He would not go near him.
00:27:50
Speaker
And the Lord regretted that he'd made Saul king over Israel.
00:27:59
Speaker
What happens next?
00:28:02
Speaker
Saul's downward spiral continues, and he becomes the arch-villain of the story of 1 Samuel.
00:28:12
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but instead, the Lord seeks out a most unusual candidate to become the new king of Israel in a rags to riches storyline that redefines the rest of the Bible.
00:28:28
Speaker
And the Lord builds up a hero who becomes the second most famous person in the Bible after Jesus. But you'll see him next time.
00:28:41
Speaker
Bye, friends.