What keeps you up at night? Ever experience the syndrome where you cannot turn your mind off because you’re thinking about stuff? I fall asleep rather easily, but if I wake up in the middle of night, usually to use the restroom, anxious thoughts can creep in my mind, and it can be so difficult to shut them down.
Chapman University has a Survey of American Fears, nine years running. Before continuing to read this post, what fears do you think make Chapman’s 2023 Top Ten Fears list? The fears that come to my mind are personal financial instability, political turmoil, the environment, and something bad happening to my family. What about you? Here’s the 2023 list of what Americans report makes them afraid or very afraid:
1. Corrupt government officials (60.1%)
2. Economic/financial collapse (54.7%)
3. Russia using nuclear weapons (52.5%)
4. US involvement in World War (52.3%)
5. People I love becoming seriously ill (50.6%)
6. People I love dying (50.4%)
7. Pollution of drinking water (50.0%)
8. Biological warfare (49.5%)
9. Cyber-terrorism (49.5%)
10. Not having enough money for the future (48.0%)
How does your list compare?
Because Chapman University has been studying fear for nine years, they’ve seen significant changes in people’s impressions of fear. Environmental concern is decreasing, while concern about war is on the increase. Makes sense when we consider that there was no war in Ukraine or Israel nine years ago. New life circumstances can make us feel new fears.
Rather than be subject to the swirling storms of local, national or international events, is there any way we Christians can find stability in the midst of what might cause us fear? Come to think of it, Is all fear bad? What does the Bible say about fear? As we continue studying 1st Samuel, chapters 11 and 12 have a lot to say about fear. Read them this weekend, and then I look forward to studying them with you on the blog next week.
All week long on the blog, I’ve been trying to answer the question: “What I wish I would have known before becoming a pastor.” In this final post in the series, I have a few more responses.
I wasn’t prepared for the Christianity of it all. My life is in large part wrapped up in our church family. Christians, Christians, and more Christians. That’s not wrong. But it sometimes can get too Christiany. It doesn’t help that I’ve also taught classes in exclusively Christian settings at LBC, Messiah or India, which admittedly has been my choice. But when you only have educational degrees and professional experience in pastoral ministry, Bible and theology, you are kinda limited. Years ago I looked into becoming a chaplain in the National Guard, and I was close to doing it. I would have still been full-time pastor at Faith Church, but I would have been part-time with the Guard. I often wonder if I should have done that rather than getting my doctorate. My point is that sometimes pastors can get stuck in a total Christian world. That’s not a good thing.
I wasn’t prepared for the complexity of cultural change. Every local church is a culture unto itself. Any organization has its own culture. That’s normal. What I didn’t realize is how complicated it can be for those cultures to change. In 22 years I have seen Faith Church change. Sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes joyfully, sometimes in turmoil. I don’t believe I have always led well, or that I have handled change well. It’s very tricky. But I believe that over the last 16 years since I became senior pastor, we have changed for the better, that there is a vibrant health in our church family. I love how people are stepping out of their comfort zone to serve in many ways. I love how we are emphasizing the Fruit of the Spirit. I am grateful to God for that, and for the people’s choice to pursue the Fruit of the Spirit!
I wasn’t prepared for the nonstop struggle with “bigger is better.” While I am very glad that Faith Church has changed in a healthy direction, I recognize that we are smaller than when I started. And I always struggle with the “bigger is better” mentality. That’s another one I didn’t realize about pastoral ministry.
I have not been able to shake the mentality that “bigger is better”. Even though I know that mentality is not founded on Scripture, the idea that “bigger is better” is so deeply entrenched in our culture, even in our Christian mindset, that I can often feel like a failure. Let me give you a recent example.
A few weeks ago, Faith Church held our annual Super Mission Sunday. Our guest speakers were missionaries from our congregation who have been serving in Kenya for 15 years. And people showed up. No doubt there were visitors specifically for the missionaries. No doubt Super Mission Sunday is a draw. And our attendance was high, 95 people. But the primary reason for that attendance is because a large percentage of the 110 or so of us that call Faith Church our home church attended.
The next week? 59. 34 fewer people. I thought about writing the missionaries to say they need to speak every week. I’m joking! But I will admit that I carry emotion about that. I carry self-worth about that. And I have carried that every week for the 16 of my 22 years that I have been senior pastor.
But here’s the truth. Bigger is not necessarily better. I’m preaching to myself. Instead, a healthy church is one that is growing and flowing with the Fruit of the Spirit, making disciples, following the mission of Jesus in our local community. I am thrilled how Faith Church is doing that in so many ways. Helping at CVCCS in their food and clothing bank. Helping with CV SEEDS teaching English and providing meals and childcare. Helping lead worship at the Prison. Helping resettle refugees with Church World Service. I could go on and on.
I also didn’t know how deeply joyful being pastor of Faith Church would be. I’ve been here longer than any other pastor in the church’s history, and part of that is God’s grace and strength, and part of that is the church family’s graciousness and love. Together, seeking God, pursuing his mission in our local community
So what do I wish I’d known before becoming a pastor? So much! And yet pastoral ministry is like most anything. You learn as you go. You change. You grow. Faith Church and my wife and I have done that together. Being a pastor is a privilege, and it is a heartache. It is filled with both joy and sadness. It involves the sacrifice of time, self, finances. It is also receiving the gift of growing, learning, and change.
Michelle and I were young parents of 2 children when we started at Faith Church on October 1, 2002 as youth/associate pastor. The church family has been with us as we had two more children, then many years later added two daughters-in-law, and now two grandchildren. They have walked with us through the ups and downs of life. We thank you, Faith Church.
Pastors are spiritual vending machines. Well, not really, but some people view their pastors and ministry staff like they view vending machines. You put your money in, you get your spiritual goods and services out.
We live in a consumer society, so it is very common for people to view most everything in our lives from the framework of consumerism, including pastors. But let me turn the tables. Should pastors view the congregation as consumers who give us money? Some pastors do, often devising ways to justify their congregations enriching them. Private jets. Mansions. Luxury vehicles. But that would be wrong for pastors to view their congregations as vending machines. Should it not also be wrong for congregations to view their pastors likewise?
To illustrate how pastors could view their ministry through a consumerist lens, I’ve joked that I could offer BOGO deals. You know BOGO? Buy One Get One. You buy a baptism and I’ll throw in a wedding. You buy an infant dedication and I’ll throw in a funeral.
That might come across very cynical, but I don’t think I’m cynical about it.
At Faith Churchg I haven’t talked about this in years, because I haven’t needed to. Instead, what I have seen from the family of Faith Church is many serious about discipleship to Jesus. For example, when I went on sabbatical in 2018, people stepped out of their comfort zones, serving in ways that previously only I had served. Hosting worship services, for example. From 2008 until 2018, for ten years I was the host nearly every Sunday morning. But when I was not here because I was on sabbatical from January through March of 2018, a rotation of people hosted. They enjoyed it so much, we just kept it going after my sabbatical was over. Having a variety of hosts with a variety of approaches, in my opinion, is a wonderful demonstration of people using their gifts.
Consider the alternative: relying on the pastor to do the work. Historically in the American church, that pastor-reliant mindset was prevalent. The pastor is paid to do ministry, while the people receive the ministry. That mindset is wrong. That consumer mindset goes against what Paul teaches in the epistles.
In 1st Corinthians 12, Paul gives us the metaphor of the church as the body of Christ, and that each part is valuable. Each person is different, each with gifts and abilities, yet all are equally valuable and needed. In Ephesians 4:11-12, he teaches the APEST model of ministry,
“So Christ himself gave the Apostles, the Prophets, the Evangelists, the Pastors [or Shepherds] and Teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”
What Paul is saying is that people in churches should not think that they are paying the pastors to do all the work for them. Instead, Paul says in verses 11-12, the job description of pastors is to equip the people to do works of service. In the church, the people are not consumers, they are producers. In the church, there are not spectators, there are participants. Disciples of Jesus are people who are actively practicing their gifts for the mission of the Kingdom. I hope I am helping the people in my congregation grow as disciples of Jesus so that they can do the work of the mission.
But have I helped them grow as disciples of Jesus? If I said, “I have been amazing, and the people of the church have been difficult,” that is not true. I have made plenty of mistakes. I am not and never will be a perfect pastor. There are aspects of pastoral ministry that I will always struggle with. I enjoy the teaching and preaching aspects of pastoral ministry far more than the shepherding parts of pastoral ministry.
Back to that list of APEST gifts from Ephesians 4:11-12. I am more inclined to the role of teacher and prophet than I am to the role of shepherd. The word “pastor” comes from the role of actual shepherds who have animals, sheep. Think about the idea of a pasture, what we would call a pastoral scene. Think of green rolling hills, meadows, where sheep graze, and a shepherd walking around making sure all is well with the sheep. A shepherd cares for the sheep. That’s where we get the idea of a pastor being a shepherd to his flock, the congregation.
Just because I favor teaching, I have still sought to faithfully fulfill the pastoral role, but I sometimes have to force myself, and that means sometimes I know I haven’t done well with it. Many of those times, it is my wife Michelle prompting me, reminding me, to check in with someone. Michelle often asks me about a situation. We are a team in this.
Another part of pastoral or shepherding ministry is confrontation. People confronting me, and me needing to confront others. I did not know the toll that would take on my over the years.
When it comes to all aspects of pastoral ministry, whether confronting which I think I’m terrible at, or teaching with I think I’m better at, I know I have room to grow in that area of ministry too. Shepherding doesn’t come as naturally to me as I feel teaching does.
What I am getting at is that some pastors are not natural extroverts. I absolutely love people and enjoy being around people, but I often have to get up from being perfectly satisfied alone in a corner and go to people. That doesn’t mean I don’t love the people in the church. In fact my action of stepping out of my comfort zone is a sign that I do want to reach out because I overcome my inclination to just stay put.
That might be part of the reason why I have been so surprised and frankly struggled with the dynamic of people leaving the church. I have to work hard to reach out, and then people leave?
I also didn’t realize how death would feel. Maybe 10 years ago, there was a 7 month period when 8 people died, and at least one per month. I couldn’t get away from it. It affected me emotionally.
All this to say, I didn’t realize how much pastoral ministry could hurt. It is a fact that I will not always be pastor of Faith Church. Obviously, I don’t know when that day will come. But it will come. And there will be a new pastor. The same goes for your church. I encourage you, if you haven’t already, start now practicing seeing pastors as people. Not vending machines, but people.
In high school I worked at Hess Bros Fruit Company, packing bags of apples into boxes. Bags come down the conveyor, and I would gently place the bags in boxes, close the box lid, and send it down the line to the box-taping machine. Then I would do it again. And again. And again. For hours. Endless boxes of apples. I love apples, and Hess Bros apples are delicious, but it got to a point where I grew to hate the nonstop deluge. If you’ve worked a conveyor line, maybe you know the feeling.
I did not expect the same feeling grow would inside me about preaching.
Preaching isn’t about me and what I have to say. It’s about God speaking through his word. My goal is to present the teaching of God’s inspired word week in, week out. A particular sermon might not speak to some people. That’s normal. But I hope many sermons do minister to most people.
When it comes to preaching, though, I didn’t realize how preaching and teaching can sometimes feel like a factory job. I love preaching, I love studying the Bible. But there are weeks it feels like a factory job, cranking out yet another sermon. I didn’t expect that. And it is why I am deeply grateful for my church’s Pastoral Relations Committee years ago giving me one Sunday per month off from preaching. I’m super thankful for the people, mostly from Faith Church, who fill in for me. It’s amazingly refreshing to have that monthly week off from preaching. I believe the week off has made my preaching better, and it has been wonderful for the church family to hear other voices on a regular basis.
Something else I knew growing up in Lancaster, but that I didn’t expect, was how it would feel that Lancaster County has so many churches. Some estimate we have 700 churches in our county. I never imagined how picky people can be about church.
But it’s not just all the churches in Lancaster. We also live in a connected world. Local churches are competing with television church, internet church, YouTube preachers. I didn’t realize how it would feel to be in competition with other churches and pastors, and especially one of the consequences of competition: losing.
I didn’t realize how it will feel when you invest in peoples’ lives, and they move on from the church. People will come and go. Again, that’s basic humanity. Before I became pastor I could have told you intellectually that, yes, of course people will leave the church. What I could not have told you is how it will feel. It can hurt. It happens so many times, you can get PTSD from it, which is what my counselor said I was experiencing in 2015. You can grow cold and callous. You can pretend it doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t affect you. But it does.
Because our church family is a massive part of our lives, my wife, Michelle, and I have tried to invest ourselves in their lives. Some moreso, some less. But the result is that it hurts when someone leaves the church, especially for a reason we disagree with. That feels hard. When they leave without talking, without giving a reason, without conversing, it is particularly unsettling.
Before I became pastor I also didn’t realize that some people will look at you mostly as their pastor, and less so as a person. In other words, in some people’s eyes, you are fulfilling a role in their lives. You are their pastor. They can have all sorts of expectations for how you are to fulfill that role. Some expectations they never tell you, some you disagree with, some you cannot possibly fulfill. Sometimes we only learn what those expectations are when a person tells us we didn’t fulfill the expectation, and they are upset.
One way these expectations manifest themselves that I wasn’t prepared for is that people sometimes think they pay the pastor to perform a role. Those persons expect it to be a one-directional transactional relationship. They pay you to care for them. You are not paying them to care for you. Thus some people view their pastor as a role, not a relationship. I didn’t expect that.
From their point of view, then, it’s usually not personal when they leave the church. But from the perspective of the pastor, it can still really feel personal, hurtful.
In my first year as senior pastor of Faith Church, I showed a video clip from the R-rated movie The Matrix, attempting to illustrate a sermon. I could have shown a brief clip from the film that was relatively tame, but, no, I had the great idea of showing a ten-minute clip, including then scene where a totally naked (though you never see his private parts) Neo is awakened to see the real world in which robots have enslaved humans in pods, harvesting human energy to run the world. I was about to learn a tough lesson about pastoral ministry.
As I mentioned in the previous post, before becoming pastor, I knew that we humans, myself included, can sometimes be difficult. What I didn’t know is how it would feel being a pastor to 100+ people for 22 years. There is a messiness in being paid to pastor people, even when those people are lovely. It can get especially messy when you are being paid to pastor people whom you think are sometimes difficult.
It goes both ways. There is a messiness of being paid to pastor people who think you, the pastor, are difficult, because I am difficult sometimes. I have made mistakes, I have failed my congregation sometimes, I have my tendencies that are sometimes frustrating.
Needless to say, the clip I showed from The Matrix was not appropriate for worship.
At the time, though, while I knew it was edgy, I didn’t think deeply about how it would come across to the congregation as a whole. By the end of the clip, about 15-20 people had gotten up and walked out of the service. The next week of my life was awful, and I learned a lot. So many phone calls, emails, meetings because of my mistake. I started the very next worship service with an apology.
Since that sermon, which was in January 2009, I don’t believe I’ve had anyone walk out of a sermon again, except one time. A few years ago I was preaching a sermon in a series entitled “False Ideas Christians Believe,” (blog posts on the series starts here) and a first time visitor walked out of the sermon, after I made the suggestion that God is not obligated to bless us when we sacrificially give our lives and money to him (blog post with that specific sermon here).
My point in all this is to say that I had no idea before becoming pastor what it would feel like to be messy people together. I have been messy together with some of them for 22 years. Frankly, it is exhausting. You can’t get away from it. As pastor you are paid to do it, whether you like the mess or not.
So how do you make it 22 years? Many pastors don’t. Average pastoral tenure is 5-7 years. One way, among many, that pastors can increase longevity is the importance of learning nuance when it comes to people. No person is simply one way. No person is totally great, or totally difficult. We humans are filled with nuance. The person we typically characterize as difficult will do something gracious and loving and caring. The person we typically see as so much fun and interesting will say something hurtful and painful.
In my first few years of being senior pastor, I would stand up to preach, looking the congregation in front of me smiling, Bibles open, paying attention, not sleeping or dozing off at all ever (ha!), and I would think, “What could I possibly have to say to them? They already know all this. Look how godly and together they are.”
It’s been many years now since I thought that way. I know the church family better than I did in 2008, and we all have issues. We all need to hear God’s word on a regular basis. I don’t say that because I now know about all the issues of my congregation, and thus I feel more confident that they need to hear what God says.
Instead, I know we always all need to hear God’s word on a regular basis because all humans, me included, do not have life all figured out. We always need God to speak to us. We all need humble teachable hearts, so that we can learn to grow the Fruit of Spirit more in our lives.
“What do you wish you would’ve known before becoming a pastor?”
We pastors talk about it all the time amongst ourselves. We rarely if ever talk about it with the people we pastor. Yet that’s what I did this past Sunday at Faith Church. Why? Once per quarter I pause my sermon series and have a current events sermon or a Q & A sermon, and one of the people in my church family asked that question.
It felt risky. I was nervous. It felt risky to answer the question, “What do you wish you would’ve known before becoming a pastor?” with the people that I pastor because by far the most significant aspect of pastoral ministry is the people I pastor.
In other words, in answering this question, much of how I was going to answer that question is what I think about my congregation. What has it been like to be their pastor? I’ll be blogging about it in this and the next four posts.
Here goes!
First of all, my wife, Michelle, and I did not realize how being pastor is a life for the pastor’s whole family. It’s not as if it is my thing alone, and Michelle and our kids are uninvolved. It is a family venture. Obviously, Michelle and I are the most significantly involved in hands on ways. But I don’t think I realized how much being a pastor automatically affects the whole family. In many ways that is a good thing. It is sometimes a difficult thing.
For example, Michelle and I talk about how saying “Yes” to church functions often means saying “No” to family functions. We learned in our missionary year in Jamaica that you do not sacrifice family on the altar of ministry. But scheduling ministry doesn’t always fit nicely into a schedule. You sometimes have to sacrifice. There are only 24 hours in the day, and many times “Yes” to church is a “No” to something else. Pastoral ministry in a church our church’s size (110 people) is not a clock in, clock out job. We didn’t expect how difficult it could be sometimes to have a healthy work/life balance. Often it is imbalanced.
But it is not all bad. Pastoral ministry can also be very joyful for our family. The church building has been a second home in some ways, and the church family a second family, for us for our kids. Our Faith Church family has loved us and our kids.
When it comes to pastoral ministry, I also don’t think I realized how much it is US. It is Joel and Michelle. I don’t think we realized how much Michelle would give to the life of the church, to the people of the church. This is not a complaint, but a reality. Because pastoral ministry is a life, we live church, we talk about it, discussing it frequently. Michelle is involved in nearly every way, yet my name is the only one on the paycheck.
When I say that pastoral ministry is a life, as I said, a pastoral couple doesn’t clock out. There have been moments when we clock out: vacations in state parks with no internet or cell service, and during sabbatical. But for the vast majority of our 22 years, because we live in a connected world, we are on. In the office, at meetings, and at home, phone calls, email, and texting and social media. We didn’t realize how it would feel for us to be connected to 110 people. We are always on yellow alert. We are often unable to disengage, waiting for what is next, what needs to be done, what is going on in someone’s world. This is not a complaint. Just a description of a reality that I didn’t fully understand before becoming a pastor.
And that brings to me back the people.
On the one hand, unless I say “Pastoral ministry has been perfect, amazing, wonderful, joyful, and fulfilling,” because I will have to talk about the ways pastoral ministry is difficult, this week’s posts could come across as complaining or ungrateful or self-serving. But on the other hand, if all I said was “It’s been amazing,” you would know right away that I am not telling the truth. So I need to tell the truth, and that means I need to talk about the people I pastor.
Sometimes people are difficult, sometimes very difficult. But you might respond, “Didn’t you already know that?”
Of course I knew that before becoming a pastor. It’s Humanity 101. We all know that people can be difficult. Difficult people are a part of our families, our neighborhoods, our schools, our workplaces, and we sometimes have lifelong close friends who are difficult. Difficult people are part of church families too.
You know the people in your life you think are difficult. Before you start naming names in your head, remember that someone can likely name you as difficult sometimes too. My wife will tell you that I can be really difficult sometimes. I will tell you that she can be difficult too. My guess is that all spouses would be able to share ways their spouse is difficult. All kids would be able to share how their parents are difficult. All parents would be able to tell us how their kids are difficult.
This is humanity.
So how did I not know this about being a pastor of people? I’ll answer that in the next post.
For the past few years at Faith Church, one Sunday per quarter, I take a break from the sermon series, and I have a Current Events sermon. In those sermons, I scour the headlines, and study Scripture to try to help us think Christianly about the headlines. As always, I’ve blogged those sermons here. We’ve talked about war, Covid, politics, artificial intelligence, and even lawn care.
What I have been surprised to learn is how much the headlines are the same…quarter after quarter after quarter. Last quarter, in place of a Current Events sermon, I did a Question and Answer sermon. I invited my congregation to submit questions, and I tried to do the same as I do for Current Events sermons: study the Scripture to help us think Christianity in answering those questions.
This quarter, though, I did not receive any questions. But I still have one left over from last quarter, one that I didn’t have time for in the previous Q & A week. I started working on answering the question, thinking it would be brief, and then I thought I would tackle a current events issue as well. As I typed my answer the question, more and more and more came out. Frankly, entire books and seminary courses are about this.
The question I didn’t answer last quarter? “What do you wish you would’ve known before becoming a pastor?”
It feels very risky to answer that question in a sermon. Why? Join me on the blog next week to find out!
A few years ago I was in a doctoral class about leadership, and we were talking about the American presidential election coming soon. My professor made what I thought was a very irresponsible comment, “The person in the White House matters very little.” My professor is a deep thinker, so I was surprised to hear him make a suggestion that seemed so obviously wrong. Isn’t the President of the USA the most powerful person in the world? Doesn’t the President of the USA have immense influence?
I’ve come to agree with my professor. Why? Keep reading.
What have we learned this week about the story of Israel’s first king from 1st Samuel chapters 8-10? That Saul is the king who didn’t want to be king, it seems. That God chose Saul because he is tall. No doubt many people would consider Saul leadership material because of his imposing size. But physical dimensions of height and weight and muscles and speed and military skill do not guarantee a good king. How will things turn out for this king who doesn’t want to be king? In the coming weeks, we’ll find out. For now, let close out chapter 10.
Samuel tries to set the tone for the launch of Saul’s monarchy. In verse 25, we read, “Samuel 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.”
The rights and duties of kingship.
A few years ago I preached through Deuteronomy, which is a book where Moses reviews the Law of God with the people, right as they were on the verge of entering the Promised Land, which was decades, maybe even a century of so before the time of Saul. In Deuteronomy chapter 17, God talks with the people about a future time when they would ask for a king. He says that the king must write down his own copy of the Law and study it. The king, therefore, is to be basing their life, their thinking, their choices, on God’s law. God, then, is primary. The king is not to think of themselves in a self-sufficient way. Instead, the king was to depend on God. This gets us back to what we learned in 1st Samuel chapter 8: Israel’s king was supposed to see God as their true king.
At the conclusion of chapter 10, Saul, though king, goes home. There is no capital city, no palace, no throne at this point. We hear the good news that he already has some new friends, “whom hearts God has touched.” They are valiant men, so this seems like the beginning of Saul’s personal guard.
But look at verse 27, all is not well. Some scoundrels despise Saul, an ominous sign for the future, though the nation has its first king. We learn that in response to these scoundrels, Saul kept silent. Again, he is the king who is not acting like a king. The reality is that while there will be some good kings eventually in Israel, there is no king like God. There is no human that can act like the one true king.
This story calls us to evaluate if we have given our allegiance to the one true King. This story invites us to examine our hearts and minds. Have we put too much stock in earthly leaders? A political party or governmental ruler can do good. God works through people. But have we allowed other humans to occupy spaces in our desires, hopes and dreams that only God can truly occupy?
The person in the White House or Governor’s Mansion can do good, and they can do harm. But only Jesus is our king. What can it look like for you to live your life worshiping the King of kings and Lord of lords?
We’ve been hearing all our lives that whichever is the current election cycle is the most important in American history. One party will tell you that if the other party gets in the White House, or if the other party gets the majority, then the nation is going to fall apart. Every single election we hear that. Those kinds of dire predictions of disaster are rarely true. But we can allow our hearts and minds to become gripped with fear.
Instead, let us grip the King of kings, for he is our hope. He came to bring us life that is truly life: abundant flourishing life now, and the hope of eternal life in heaven.
This week I’ve been blogging about the story of Israel asking for a king. God is their king, but they want a human king. Amazing God grants their wish, and in the last post we met the king. He’s a man name Saul.
As the story in 1st Samuel chapter unfolds, Saul searches for his father’s lost donkeys, who have wandered off. Saul and his assistants eventually come to the town where Samuel the prophet was staying. In chapter 9, verse 16, we read that God, the day before, had told Samuel about Saul. Samuel sees Saul, and we read in verse 17 that God confirms, “This is the man…he will govern my people.”
In verses 18-27, the two men have an encounter. Samuel doesn’t just launch right into the big news from God that Saul is to become king. Samuel takes it slowly. In verse 20 he says to says to Saul that Israel’s desire has turned to Saul, hinting at something bigger.
Saul is immediately hesitant. In verse 21, he basically says, “I’m a nobody from a nobody clan and tribe, what are you talking about?” Saul is from the tribe of Benjamin, and that is notable because it was the tribe of Benjamin that committed horrible atrocities which are detailed in the final chapters of the book of Judges. Those atrocities would have very much been in the memories of the people. Some people who had lived through those dark days were likely still alive in Saul’s day. In other words, the tribe of Benjamin had a bad reputation. Maybe Saul is ashamed.
But Samuel plows forward, undeterred by Saul’s hesitation. Samuel seats Saul at the head of a table at a party with 30 people and gives Saul a choice cut of meat in front of them. This seems like the moment to make the big announcement!
Still Samuel does not mention about Saul becoming king, though. Maybe Samuel is just wisely warming Saul up to the idea. The next morning before Saul heads home (because Samuel assured Saul the donkeys had been found), Samuel pulls Saul aside and says “I have a message for you from God.”
In chapter 10, finally, Samuel gives Saul the message from God that Saul is God’s choice to be king over Israel, and then Samuel anoints Saul as king. It’s a private ceremony. No one knows about this. Samuel then gives Saul very strange instructions for a newly anointed king. Saul will meet prophets who are prophesying, Samuel says. Then Samuel says this to Saul in chapter 10, verses 6 and 7,
“The Spirit of the Lord will come powerfully upon you, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person. Once these signs are fulfilled, do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you.”
Sure enough, the Spirit empowers him, and Saul returns to Gibeah, his hometown. Saul starts prophesying just like the prophets. When the Scripture uses the word “prophesying” here, it does not mean “predicting the future.” It is more likely describing ecstatic speech, almost like speaking in tongues. The prophets and Saul, in other words, are worshiping and glorifying God. They are joyfully filled with the Spirit.
Eventually, Saul stops prophesying, and his uncle asks him what Samuel said to Saul. I would be very curious too! Saul met the famous judge of Israel, the prophet Samuel, and as a result, Saul starts prophesying! That’s not normal. Clearly something happened when Saul met Samuel. Of course Saul’s uncle wants to know what’s up? But Saul says nothing about being made king over all Israel! Surprising? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe Saul has a shy streak. Maybe he feels awkward.
There are plenty of times when we are with people who have big news, but they don’t tell it. Then when you’re with someone else who tells you about the first person’s big news, you think, “What? I was just with them, and they didn’t say anything about it.” Some people hate drawing attention to themselves. And they will not share things even with their closest friends, which can come across hurtful because even if you are shy, you should share life with your closest friends.
But the news eventually gets out. You can’t keep it quiet forever. In Saul’s case, Samuel gathers all the people of Israel to Mizpah, which was a traditional gathering place for meetings of great national importance. There he gives the people this message from God in verses 18-19,
“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.’ But 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 has reviewed the belligerent attitude of the people that brought them to this point. Now it was time to make the choice of king public to the nation, but in verses 20-22, when Saul is chosen, he is nowhere to be found. It takes God to reveal where Saul is hiding! How about that? More unkingly behavior from the king.
In verses 23-24, some people find Saul, bring him out, and they notice that he is unusually tall. In front of all the people, Samuel confirms that God has chosen him, and the people shout, “Long live the king!”
What have we learned this week about Israel getting its first king? Check back to the next post, as we conclude this week’s blog series with some suggestions for how we might apply 1st Samuel 8-10 to our lives.
In the previous post, we learned that after the Israelite elders ask Samuel to give them a king, God warns them that while having a king might sound effective or powerful like the nations around them, it could easily backfire. That warning didn’t make a dent in the elders’ desire for a king. In 1st Samuel 8 verses 19-20, the people seem to intensify their request for a king, citing how a king will lead them and fight their battles.
What are they talking about? It sounds to me like they want a super soldier. A super hero. One man to go out before them and fight their battles? Perhaps they are blinded by desire. They want a king so badly, they have become totally unrealistic in their expectations. One man cannot possibly fight their battles for them.
Before we get too hard on the Israelites, do we not do the same? We American Christians can fool ourselves into believe that if so-and-so gets elected, then they will make things better in our country. “If our guy becomes President,” we say or we feel inside, “then finally we’ll be okay.” We, too, can put way too much emphasis and hope in humans to bring peace and flourishing around us. We should look ourselves in the mirror and ask, are we guilty of the same misplaced hopes that they Israelites are demonstrating in this passage?
Despite their unrealistic expectations, chapter 8 concludes with God instructing Samuel to give the people a king. God’s words in verse 22 are some of the saddest words in the Bible. There is God, the one true king, the only one worthy to be king, the only one with power, and he and says, “Listen to them and give them a king.” I suspect there is a disappointment in God’s tone.
It reminds me teenage or young adult kids explaining a business idea to their parents, then asking their parents for a loan. Inwardly, the parents are thinking “That’s the stupidest idea I ever heard,” but outwardly they say, “Okay, I’ll loan you the money,” knowing they aren’t getting any money back from this venture.
It reminds me of Jesus’ story of the Prodigal Son who says to his father, “Give me my share of the inheritance now,” which is culturally-speaking equivalent to saying, “Father, I want you dead now.” But the Father gives the son the money, knowing the son is not in any place emotionally, spiritually, or in maturity to use the money wisely.
So in verse 22, Samuel tells the people to go home, and in chapter 9, verses 1-2, we meet an Israelite man named Saul, who is both handsome and tall. That means he was recognizable. He might be assumed to be intimidating or capable with a sword. Maybe he could be the superhero king the Israelite elders desire?
We’ll find out how Saul responds in the next post.
Engaging Scripture 