Sermon From Shepherd to King 1 Samuel 15,16,17 June 27, 2021

Today’s sermon touches on the sequence of events that led to David becoming King of Israel … this is a survey of some of the larger events and theological issues surrounding Israel’s monarchy and God’s expectations of leadership.

As a first step, let’s remember the contrast between God and Pharaoh back in the days of the Exodus from Egypt. Pharaoh was the king of death … his orders to the Hebrew slaves were simple … WORK AND DIE – DON’T WORK AND DIE. Pharaoh’s law was death, plain and simple. The Hebrew slaves were things not people. They were tools of production, expendable, of little or no value as individuals, and they were despised. The had no choice, they were slaves. Their lot in life was to labour until spent.

God sent Moses to lead the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt and into a new way of living. God raised up leaders to point the way toward God’s new life.

Its’ important to see that the Hebrew slaves now had choice … to go or to stay, to listen to or to ignore God’s call through Moses. And God’s call was not merely to be free people, that’s far too simple and theologically inaccurate. God’s call was to invite the slaves to freely align themselves with the God of life and to reject the oppressive power of Pharaoh which only led to death.

God, the King of Life, offered the Hebrew slaves a new and different law … Jesus’ summary of the law is instructive /// love God, love your neighbour, love yourselves. God’s law offered the Hebrew slaves the freedom to choose to be loyal to each other and to God … to choose to observe a Sabbath, a day of worship and rest … to choose life in its broadest and healthiest expressions ... to choose to serve, follow, and love God with all their hearts and minds and strength AND to coexist with neighbours in a positive, caring and kind way … the Hebrew slaves had the choice to experience life to the full as a loyal and faithful people of God.

God, the King of life, didn’t want subjects … didn’t wield an oppressive, heavy-handed authority … to paraphrase Walter Brueggemann, God, the King of life, invited the Hebrew people into a glad, imaginative, faithfulness.
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Big point here … God’s kingly rule was completely different from that of Pharaoh. God would exercise a positive, kindly authority that chose Israel to be a light to the nations, if they freely chose to be loyal and faithful. It was a complete repudiation of Pharaoh’s example of life-snuffing, authoritarian, wastefulness.

Fast forward … the now ex-slaves have just completed the 40-year trek in the wilderness. They have a new law … the law of life and love. They have a new King, who actually puts up with their whining and testing and gives them water, manna, quail … and second chances when they get tired of waiting for Moses to come down the mountain with the commandments … remember the golden calf?
God fumes for but a moment, yet the law of life is still in effect. The ex-slaves prepared to cross the river into the new land which God had promised to them … a home of their own, with God leading the way.

If we look carefully at these stories, from the time of slavery in Egypt through to the reigns of Saul and David we notice a continuing tendency on the part of God’s chosen people to fall away, to be rebellious, to make poor choices, to ignore or abandon God’s guidance. And we also notice that God, for the most part, is kinder and more gracious than people deserve … God does not abandon, not condemn, not rescind the offer of new life. Yes there are consequences, and most certainly God voices displeasure at times, but God’s place as the complete opposite of Pharaoh is never in doubt. God, as King, is a model of leadership unlike any other.

Back to the former slaves now having crossed into the Promised Land.

Moses had died and a new leader named Joshua mediated between God and the people. This pattern of God-appointed leaders called Judges was God’s preferred way of moving forward. They were primarily concerned with encouraging the people to remain faithful to God … not accepting false gods, not descending into chaos. And, as we can easily imagine, the Judges had their failings. Time and again, some of the Judges became corrupt and less than faithful … just as the people themselves, at times, chased unfaithfulness.

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It was and is the continuing story of the human need for God’s grace and forgiveness. The last verse of the book of Judges (21:25) describes utter chaos. “In those days there was no king in Israel: all the people did what was right in their own eyes.” They were not doing what was right in God’s eyes. Leadership had failed. Something needed to happen here.

The idea of a human king was not spoken of positively in these times… God was the King of life. God’s appointed judges were mediators … the spokespeople for God and also a way of the people addressing concerns to their God. The biblical concern was that a human king would supplant God and fall prey to the temptations of power and abuse, as were clear in the reign of Pharaoh. The desire for a human king over God’s people is variously described as not trusting God and as an evil choice. (1 Sam. 8:7, 12:19) Yet, the people hungered for a king of their own. And mysteriously, God, the King of life, allowed this process to unfold.

Fast forward … God and the old prophet/judge/seer named Samuel worked together to anoint Israel’s first king. The time of the judges was over. It comes as no surprise that Saul had his problems, failings … from Moses through the Judges to Saul and David, the story is consistent … God raises up leaders, they have some good moments, they have their issues as well. There is no perfect system when it comes to human beings.

Saul’s reign ends with a whimper, and even before Saul dies, David is chosen, anointed, and on track to become one of the most celebrated figures in the Bible.

It happens again and again in the Bible, that God calls the unlikely one to exercise leadership. In David’s case he is a shepherd, the youngest in his family, not trained as a solider. In fact the biblical account in 1 Samuel 16:12 reports that David was … “ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome.” What? Surely these attributes were not what qualified him for the job? In fact, one verse later it is that the Spirit of God came upon him powerfully … that was what qualified him most for the job as King of Israel … not what was within him, but God’s Spirit upon him!!

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David’s battle with Goliath also reveals some interesting qualifications … David had no need or use for typical armour, he was too small … the story implies that God watches over him. David was not afraid to take on a huge challenge … he was a shepherd used to protecting his sheep from predators … he stood before Goliath and invoked the strength of God to be sufficient for his needs … lastly, there is an implied humility in David in contrast to the claims and verbal intimidation of Goliath.

At this point David is not yet king, but Saul’s reign is clearly coming to an end. And this is where we leave the story for today.

From Pharaoh’s oppressive, death-dealing reign, to the ups and downs of the Judges, to Saul’s final grasping for power even as it was slipping through his fingers, we see God revealing an incredible, alternate form of leadership. And we also see how God expected, hoped that human leadership would follow His example.

God’s continuing leadership in our world and in our churches is gracious, forgiving, life-affirming, fair … the word magnanimous includes these and many other positive attributes. God also has high hopes and expectations for human leadership … we are expected to be magnanimous in our dealings with each other, and frankly, with the world at large. Yes, we fail and yet the example of God is before us, and the expectations are there, and God’s grace enables us to make amends with God and with each other, and then God also empowers us to move forward.

Two words express key attributes required of God’s leaders … loyalty and humility. Loyalty encompasses faithfulness and trustworthiness … not simply loyalty to God and trustworthiness in doing God’s work, but loyalty to one another and trustworthiness in our interactions. Humility ask us to be unpretentious and unassuming, also gentle in our leadership.

From clergy to kings, from church elders to royal advisors, from government back-benchers to prime ministers … all leadership is called by God to repudiate all the ways of Pharaoh, and to adopt the magnanimous ways of God.
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Lastly in these days of unmarked graves found at the Residential Schools in Kamloops and Marieval …

…. and likely on the properties of other such ‘schools’

… we remember that there were 11 schools run by the Presbyterian Church, two of which were Birtle Residential School in Manitoba, and Cecelia Jeffry Residential School near Kenora, Ontario, run by our church until 1969.

… we remember that we are called to an incredible humility and gentleness as we consider the involvement of our church and the involvement of other denominations in our government’s policy of forcibly assimilating aboriginal children into a culture not their own.

… and in that remembering we commit ourselves to be God’s gracious people, magnanimous and humble in all our dealings, and renouncing any tendency toward oppression and abuse in our personal lives, our church life, and our public lives.

We call upon God to grant us grace and bless our endeavours as we commit to being God’s faithful people in this time. Amen.