Which King Can Save the World? From Saul to David

Introduction

What kind of leader can truly save the world? This Form Sunday teaching, the third session of the series The Most Beautiful of Stories, asks the question on biblical ground by picking up Israel's thread: after Joshua, the judges, the people's moral ruin, the rise of kings, the promise of an eternal kingdom, the split, and the exile. At every stage, the same question returns: who can bring the people back under God's rule and blessing? It is neither the king after man's own heart (Saul), nor even the king after God's heart when he falters (David, Solomon). It is the king promised to David, the one who will accomplish what the others could not sustain.

Message Outline

1. After Joshua: chaos when everyone does what seems right in their own eyes

• Joshua dies, and a generation rises up "who did not know the LORD" (Judges 2:7-21).
• God raises up judges (military leaders and deliverers like Gideon, Samson, Deborah), who help for a time, then die, with no one to succeed them.
• The book closes with this terrible sentence: "In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25).
• "Follow your heart" is a cute slogan; but if the heart is corrupt, that's putting a 5-year-old behind the wheel. The last four chapters of Judges prove it: rape, murders, forced marriages, total collapse.

2. The specifications for the king we need

• A monarchy would at least guarantee succession, which the judges could not offer.
• The king must solve two problems: enemies on the outside, disobedience on the inside.
• Like Christopher Nolan's Batman: defeat the villains, and help a corrupt population learn to respect the law again.

3. Saul, the king after man's own heart

• He is young, tall, handsome, a head taller than everyone else (1 Samuel 9:1-2). He has everything going for him.
• He is anointed by the prophet Samuel: he is a "christ," literally someone who receives anointing to do God's work.
• His fatal flaw: he believes himself above the law. He does not see himself under God's authority, but in place of God.
• He ends up rejected, then killed on the battlefield, the fate of anyone who tries to be his own boss.

4. David, the king after God's own heart

• Small, barely considered by his own father, left in the fields with the goats while his brothers are presented (1 Samuel 16:6-7).
• His central quality: he knows that the true king is God. "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
• David puts Goliath in his place (1 Samuel 17:41-47): the small, weak one, but confident in God, triumphs so that the glory returns to God, an image of the cross, not a lesson in self-motivation.
• Patient David waits for God to install him in his place: he holds back from killing Saul when the opportunity arises, because God controls his timing.
• Devout David restores God's law to the center (2 Samuel 6:12-15): he brings the ark back to Jerusalem amid shouts of joy.

5. The promise to David: an eternal kingdom and an eternal king (2 Samuel 7)

• David wants to build a house for God; God turns the promise around: it is he who will build a house for David.
• God promises two linked things: an eternal kingdom for a descendant of David, and an eternal blessing for the people (verses 9 to 11).
• After Moses, it was: obedience = blessing. With David, it becomes: the king = blessing. The people will be blessed through a king descended from David who will settle the problem of sin. No strings attached.

6. Solomon, a teaser of paradise, then the collapse

• Solomon's reign is Israel's "golden decades": wisdom, prosperity, security, diplomatic peace, culture, science, the dedication of the Temple, the Queen of Sheba coming from the ends of the earth (1 Kings 4:20 - 5:14; 8:1-13; 10:1-13).
• It's concrete: paradise is not "disembodied spirits on a cloud with a harp." It's an endless feast, a cultural golden age, needs met, justice reigning, and God at the center.
• But Solomon marries 700 foreign princesses and 300 concubines, and starts following their gods (1 Kings 11:1-6). The decline begins.
• After him, the kingdom tears apart: Judah in the south, Israel in the north. 200 years later, the northern kingdom falls to the Assyrians. A century more and Jerusalem is destroyed, Judah deported to Babylon.
• Good king = good news. Bad king = bad news. And if Solomon's reign is a picture of paradise, the exile gives a glimpse of hell.

7. Hope carved in stone: the promise still stands

• Everything is destroyed, the people are in exile, but the final page of 2 Kings shows a king from David's line still alive, released from prison and fed at the table of the king of Babylon (2 Kings 25:27-30).
• The promises to Abraham and David were not cancelled by the exile. God committed himself. A king will come who will do more and better than David and Solomon.
• That king is Jesus. The whole Bible is there to lead us to him.

Key Takeaways

• When everyone does what seems right in their own eyes, we don't become more free, we hit rock bottom. The Bible is far more realistic than our slogans about "following your heart."
• Saul was the leader we would have chosen (young, handsome, tall). God, instead, chooses David (the forgotten youngest son left in the fields), to show that the true king is him.
• "Christ" is not Jesus' last name. It's a title: the one who receives the anointing to be the king designated by God.
• Our rates of anxiety and depression are exploding because, by making ourselves the ultimate boss, everything rests on us. Living under the reign of a good king, himself submitted to God, is what makes life truly livable.
• Paradise is not an ethereal abstraction. Solomon gives a concrete teaser of it: abundance, justice, culture, God at the center. What Jesus will offer will be more than that.
• When you hit rock bottom, the answer is never in your circumstances: it is in the promises of God, which remain carved in stone.

Personal Application

1. Which "camp" do you recognize yourself in most right now: the one still waiting for a providential man (or woman) in politics, or the one who has decided that the best leader to have is yourself?
2. Where do your hopes really rest? A program, a leader, a personal achievement, or the king God has promised?
3. Is there an area of your life where you live like Saul, believing yourself above what God asks, rather than under his authority?
4. David waited years between his anointing and the throne, without taking justice into his own hands. Where do you struggle right now to wait on God's timing?
5. When you think of paradise, what does it really look like to you? Does the teaser given by Solomon's reign (justice, abundance, God at the center) expand your imagination?
6. What promise of God can you go reread this week to hold on, if you feel like you're hitting rock bottom?

Verses Cited

• Judges 2:7-21 · After Joshua, the generation that did not know the LORD
• Judges 21:25 · "Everyone did what was right in his own eyes"
• 1 Samuel 9:1-2 · Saul, young, handsome, a head taller than everyone else
• 1 Samuel 16:6-7 · God looks at the heart, not the appearance
• 1 Samuel 17:41-47 · David against Goliath: the victory belongs to the LORD
• 2 Samuel 6:12-15 · David brings the ark back to Jerusalem
• 2 Samuel 7 · The promise of an eternal kingdom to David
• 2 Samuel 23:3-4 · David's last words on the righteous king
• 1 Kings 4:20 - 5:14 · Life under Solomon's reign
• 1 Kings 8:1-13 · The dedication of the Temple
• 1 Kings 10:1-13 · The Queen of Sheba
• 1 Kings 11:1-6 · Solomon's decline
• 2 Kings 25:27-30 · A king from David's line still alive in exile

Further reading

• Which Book of the Bible Should You Start With?
• One-Year Bible Reading Plan
• Taking Notes During Your Bible Reading

Frequently Asked Questions

"Follow your heart" : why does the Bible say exactly the opposite?

The slogan is cute; but everything depends on the state of the heart. The book of Judges paints a chilling portrait of what a society becomes where "everyone does what seems right in their own eyes": rape, murders, forced marriages, total collapse. Without authority above us, what we reap isn't more freedom, it's more violence. The Bible doesn't ask you to deny your desires; it asks you to recognize that a heart not remade by God is not a reliable guide. True freedom begins when we let ourselves be led by a king better than ourselves.

Why did God choose David, the youngest, rather than Saul, who had everything going for him?

Because Saul was the king we would have chosen, and David the one God sees. Saul stood a head taller than everyone; David tended the goats. But Saul believed himself above the law, while David knew that the true king is God. "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7). God is not looking for a leader who will replace him; he's looking for someone who will submit to him and through whom he will be glorified. This is also why David facing Goliath foreshadows Jesus on the cross: the weak one who wins, so that the glory returns to God.

If Solomon's kingdom collapsed, what's the point of the promise made to David?

That's precisely where the promise becomes central. By the end of 2 Kings, everything has been destroyed: Jerusalem, the Temple, the kingship. But in the book's last four verses, a descendant of David (Jehoiachin), is released from prison and eats at the table of the king of Babylon (2 Kings 25:27-30). The line holds. The promise holds. God has committed himself to bringing a king from the house of David who will reign forever and bless his people unconditionally. That king is Jesus. When you hit rock bottom, the answer is not in your circumstances; it is in the promises of God, carved in stone.