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WEEKLY
Volume 2 Number 52
25 May 2008
King Saul, a Failure
(Message delivered by Rev
Hien Nguyen at the Worship Service, 2:00 pm, May 18, 08)
Text:
1 Sam 15:22-25
We have learnt about demons and their unclean
influences and wicked activities. Our Lord Jesus Christ has warned us
that when the unclean spirit finds a person whose heart is “empty,” he
will take with himself “seven other spirits more wicked than himself,
and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is
worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked
generation” (Matt 12:43-45). It is a serious warning for each of us:
we shall be worse if the Lord departs from us due to our disbelief,
arrogance, disobedience or rebellion. King Saul is a good illustration
for this warning. He started his life and ministry well but ended badly
and shamefully due to his rebellion against God and His Word. Truly,
“Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof” (Eccl
7:8). May the Lord help you and me humbly trust in Him and rely on Him
in full submission and dependence so that we may be found faithful until
the end.
We thank God for preserving His Word for us today so
that we may know not only about Him and His Truth but also about man.
There are many good examples in the Scripture for us to follow as well
as many bad ones for us to avoid. Today, we shall have a look at King
Saul’s life and ministry recorded in the first book of Samuel, and let
us draw some lessons from his failures as a warning for our lives and
ministry.
King Saul, a Good Start
Israelites were God’s covenant people, who had a
special privilege to enjoy God’s teaching, control, guidance, blessings
and loving care, “to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and
the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and
the promises; Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning
the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen”
(Rom 9:4-5). Actually, God was their divine King, but they took that
privilege for granted and wanted to be like other nations, requesting to
have a human king over them, not realising that by doing this, they
rejected God as their divine King. God said to Samuel, “they have not
rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over
them” (1 Sam 8:7), and Samuel said to them, “And when ye saw that
Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, ye said unto
me, Nay; but a king shall reign over us: when the LORD your God was your
king” (12:12). God gave them a king, King Saul, as they requested,
with a warning, “If ye will fear the LORD, and serve him, and obey
his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then shall
both ye and also the king that reigneth over you continue following the
LORD your God…But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed,
both ye and your king” (12:14, 25).
A Diligent Man with Good Looking Appearance:
Saul was tall with a very good looking appearance, “a choice young
man, and a goodly: and there was not among the children of
Israel a goodlier person than he: from his
shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people”
(1 Sam 9:2). He was a diligent and obedient son when his father asked
him to seek the asses (v 3) and it took him three days going here and
there to search for them (v 20).
A Humble but Unregenerate Man:
Saul highly respected Samuel and went to see him for
help, “Behold now, there is in this city a man of God, and he is an
honourable man; all that he saith cometh surely to pass: now let us go
thither; peradventure he can shew us our way that we should go” (1
Sam 9:6). When Samuel anointed Saul to be king over Israel, Saul humbly
said, “Am not I a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of
Israel? and my family the least of all the
families of the tribe of Benjamin? wherefore then speakest thou so to
me?” (9:21). When his uncle wanted to know
what Samuel said to Saul, he did not tell him about “the matter of
the kingdom” (10:16). Saul was shy and “hid himself among the
staff” when Samuel caused “all the tribes of
Israel” to come to
witness God’s chosen king (10:20-22).
After the victory in his first battle against the
Amonites, Saul acknowledged God’s help and deliverance and spared the
lives of those who despised him, “there shall not a man be put to
death this day: for to day the LORD hath wrought salvation in Israel”
(11:13). However, as an unregenerate man, Saul later exposed his
arrogant and rebellious nature.
The First Anointed King:
Then, Saul was the first king of Israel, who was chosen and anointed by
God (1 Sam 9:15-17; 10:1) and was also among the prophets when the
Spirit of the Lord came upon him (10:6-12). With God’s sovereign help,
Saul sent his messengers to “all the coasts of
Israel” and gathered
them under him because “the fear of the LORD fell on the people, and
they came out with one consent” (11:7). God used Samuel and King
Saul to unite all the tribes of Israel into one nation (cf. 10:20).
Sadly, Saul lacked a personal knowledge and fear of the Lord, as a
result, he neither trusted in the Lord nor submitted to Him and His Word
wholeheartedly. His selfish ambitions, self-will, self-love,
self-promotion, and arrogant rebellion brought him to destruction.
King Saul, a Failure
Failure to Keep a Living Fellowship with God in
Personal Devotion and Worship: Unlike
David, who had a close fellowship with God in personal prayer and
devotion and worship (1 Chron 16:7; Ps 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, et al),
Saul failed to have this. It is disappointing that “Saul built an
altar unto the LORD: the same was the first altar that he built unto the
LORD” (1 Sam 14:35) after a few years of his reign! Later he did not
do that again! It is more disappointing when Samuel told Saul that the
Lord rejected him because he had rejected God’s Word, Saul requested
Samuel to turn again with him so that he might worship the LORD,
Samuel’s God, not his God, saying, “turn again with me, that I may
worship the LORD thy God” (15:30). Saul, whose heart was far from
God, did not worship God because he knew God or loved God, but because
of men! Our Lord said to the Jewish leaders in His days, “This people
draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips;
but their heart is far from me” (Matt 15:8). How about you and me?
Failure to Trust in Him:
If Saul had trusted in the Lord, he could have stood alone with God and
would not have feared men or the enemies. Sadly, when he saw his mighty
enemies coming up, his people scattering from him, and Samuel coming
late, he foolishly offered a burnt sacrifice, breaking God’s commandment
(13:8-13). When the giant Goliath blasphemously challenged God’s people,
Saul and all Israel “were dismayed, and greatly afraid” (17:11)
while the young David did not fear Goliath, but trusted in the Lord and
defeated this giant, saying, “the LORD saveth not with sword and
spear: for the battle is the LORD’S, and he will give you into our
hands.” (17:47-51). How about you and me? Do we still trust in the
Lord even when others forsake us and we have to stand alone, facing
danger, even death?
Failure to Fear God, Love Him and Obey His
Word: God’s commandment is “And
thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy might” (Deut 6:5) and the proof of love is
obedience to His Word (John 14:23), but Saul failed to do both and this
is evil in God’s sight. When God commanded him to utterly destroy the
Amalekites and all the livestock, Saul did not fear God enough to obey
His voice to the jot and tittle, but
admitted, “I feared the people, and obeyed their voice” (15:24).
While he only partly obeyed God’s Word and spared king Agag and “the
best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord,” he
thought that he had performed it, “I have performed the commandment
of the LORD” (15:13-15)! God means what He says and says what He
means, but Saul failed to listen to God’s Word carefully with reverence
and failed to perform it carefully and wholeheartedly. Partly believing
or obeying God and His Word is not believing or obeying Him and His Word
at all, and that is evil in God’s sight, “Wherefore then didst thou
not obey the voice of the LORD, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst
evil in the sight of the LORD?” (15:19), “For rebellion is as the
sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because
thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from
being king” (15:23). Sadly nowadays, many neither honour God’s Word
nor wholeheartedly and carefully obey it to the jot and tittle, but
arrogantly question, criticise, cast doubt, and scissor God’s Word here
and there. How about you and me? Do we tremble at God’s Word? “to
this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit,
and trembleth at my word” (Isa 66:2).
Failure to Acknowledge God’s Kingship and His
Grace: Saul failed to see that it was
God’s grace alone that he was chosen to be king, that God should still
be the sovereign King over his life and all the people, and that he was
called to minister to God’s people and not lord over his own people and
to extend God’s kingdom and not his own kingdom. Thus, Saul spared no
effort to maintain his own “kingdom” by any means even in hunting for
David’s life, his rival (1 Sam 23:7-8) and wickedly commanding to kill
85 priests and “Nob, the city of the priests, smote he with the edge
of the sword, both men and women, children and sucklings, and oxen, and
asses, and sheep, with the edge of the sword” (22:18-19).
Failure to Appreciate God’s Presence:
Saul did not show great regret or repentance
when Samuel announced that the Lord had rejected him (15:23, 26) and he
did not seek to be reconciled with the Lord in humble repentance even
though “Saul was afraid of David, because the LORD was with him, and
was departed from Saul” (18:12). David is different,
after committing sins, he repented right away and fervently prayed,
“Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from
me.” (Ps 51:11). Do you and I appreciate God’s presence in our lives
and regard all things but loss so that we “may win Christ and be
found in Him” (Phil 3:8-9)?
Failure to Admit Personal Weakness and Sins
with Sincere Repentance before God:
Saul always blamed others for his mistakes and transgressions but failed
to sincerely and wholeheartedly repent before the Lord. After foolishly
offering a burnt sacrifice, Saul said to Samuel, “Because I saw that
the people were scattered from me, and that thou camest not within the
days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered themselves together at
Michmash” (13:11) and after failing to obey God’s Word regarding the
Amalekites, he said to Samuel, “But the people took of the spoil,
sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly
destroyed… because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice”
(15:21, 24). It is disappointing that Saul failed to wholeheartedly
repent before the Lord nor ask the Lord to forgive him, but only asked
Samuel to forgive him, “Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin,
and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD” (15:25). How
about you and me?
Failure to Die to Self:
Saul did not care as much about God’s
judgement as about his self-image. Fearing that he might lose face and
honour before the people if Samuel forsook him, Saul “laid hold upon
the skirt of Samuel’s mantle…then he said, I have sinned: yet honour me
now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and
turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD thy God” (15:27,
30). Seeing that God was with David and used David to defeat the giant
Goliath and the enemies, Saul did not thank God and praise the Lord, but
instead, became very angry and envied David when the women sang,
“Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands”
(18:7-8). Through Saul’s life, we see that he failed to die to his
self-will, self-glory, self-promotion, self-defence, and selfish
motives. How about you and me? Do we die to self daily and let the Lord
Jesus live out His life in us and through us, “yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me” (Gal 2:20)?
Conclusion
Dear friends, when “the Spirit of the LORD
departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him”
(1 Sam 16:14) and made his life wicked and worse, even inquiring of a
witch in his great distress (28:7-19)! It is a serious warning for each
of us. May the Lord help us die to self and know Him more, appreciate
His presence and grace, fear Him, trust in Him, humbly submit to Him and
carefully obey His Word to the jot and tittle so that we may enjoy His
presence, grace and blessings until the end. Amen.
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