God had told him to destroy everything. And did not the Lord anoint you king over Israel? Why did you swoop down on the spoil, and do evil in the sight of the Lord? Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king. God was clearly very upset about what Saul did.
It is possible that Saul became proud and started acting independently of God. But was that a reason for God to reject Saul the way he did? There is no doubt that God was upset with king Saul. There were other men of God in the Bible who did just as bad and even worse than Saul without being rejected by God. Joshua So Joshua made peace with them, and made a covenant with them to let them live; and the rulers of the congregation swore to them.
Why have you done this? God chose David to replace Saul as King. The shew bread was only for the priests. David ate the shew bread that only the priests were allowed to eat. Saul made a sacrifice without waiting for Samuel. Not much different really. But God condemned Saul and not David. I think that what David and Solomon did was worse than what Saul did, and what Joshua did was equally as bad. But of the four, God rejected Saul. Although God was angry with Solomon, He did not take away the kingdom from him.
You judge for yourself if Saul was genuinely repentant. But what about Solomon? Well guess what? Solomon did the same thing. So he makes a very familiar move. He throws other people under the bus, and makes excuses for himself. His true heart is revealed. He wants to look good in front of the people. He wants power and influence. And then they part ways. No blame shifting, no downplaying, no excuse making. Of the many things we learn in this passage, the thing I want you to take with you this morning is the importance and the blessing of obeying the voice of God.
Hebrews —2 — v1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son , whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. For us today, and for the rest of time, Jesus is that mouthpiece. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. We no longer need to wrestle with the minutiae of the technical outworking of Old Testament law in the modern day.
We obey Jesus. We no longer need to worry about whether a human being who is claiming to speak for God these days is a true and false prophet. That type of prophecy is done. We listen to Jesus. We have his revelation in the New Testament. Which his why we must read this book, know this book, and preach this book. God knew exactly what would happen when he made Saul King. He knew exactly what would happen to the people when they put their trust in a human king over God.
He gave them what they were asking for as a lesson to them. Trusting this truth, that God is all knowing, is especially important when it seems the odds are against us. Instead of trusting God to protect them, just like he always had, they feared and demanded a human solution to the problem. This got them in trouble. It is easy to say we trust God when things are going well.
And we are not. Trusting in human strength and human wisdom gets us in trouble. Unknown to him, the Israelites had been asking God to give them a human king, like the other nations around them. When the prophet Samuel prayed about this to the Lord, the answer came quickly. Samuel spoke the warning to the people about how a king would take their sons to be warriors, and their daughters to be workers in the royal household.
A king would also use their choicest crops and livestock himself, and make them his slaves. Still, the Israelites demanded to have a king. God relented, and chose Saul. On a search for missing donkeys, Saul encountered the prophet, who had been sent to meet him. They ate together, and the next day Samuel told him he was to be king and anointed him with oil.
Samuel instructed Saul to leave that town and to join up with a group of prophets in Gibeah for a time of worship. He then returned home to wait for him. Seven days later, Samuel gathered the nation at Mizbah. He announced that according to their demands, God would be giving them a king. He singled out the tribe of Benjamin, then the clan of Kish, then Saul individually as the chosen king.
Saul had tried to hide among some nearby supplies. But God revealed him, and the young man was presented to the assembly. Saul quickly became a leader, rescuing men at Jabesh Gilead, and called the people to worship the Lord for their success. He was then confirmed as king in his home of Gilgal.
He reigned for 42 years. King Saul was courageous in battle. He was a generous king. Early in his reign he was admired and respected by the people. Saul could be impulsive, acting unwisely. His jealousy of David drove him to madness and a thirst for revenge. More than once, King Saul disobeyed God's instructions, thinking he knew better. God wants us to depend on him.
When we do not and rely instead on our own strength and wisdom, we open ourselves to disaster. God also wants us to go to him for our sense of worth. Saul enjoyed his popularity with the people, forgetting he had been appointed king by God.
Saul's first allegiance was to God, as is ours. We should not forget, as Saul did, that we are all servants of God first. Saul's jealousy of David blinded Saul to what God had already given him. When we compare ourselves with others, we become confused. We want what they have instead of using what God has equipped us with for our own specific mission.
We can stray from God and try to get what we want on our own. Life with God has direction and purpose. Life without God is meaningless. God expects total obedience, not partial obedience with excuses. When God ordered Saul to completely destroy the Amalekites, including their livestock, Saul spared their king and some of the choice animals. Saul then lied to Samuel, saying the livestock would be used for a sacrifice.
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