Early Reign And Rejection Of Saul As King Part II

We want to continue our study of the first book of Samuel, this very interesting book in the Old Testament. We told you when we began the study of this book that the book would be comprised primarily of the lives of three men---Samuel, Saul and David. At the present time, we are looking together at the life of Saul. In our last study we began a discussion of the early reign and rejection of Saul as king, which is described for us in I Samuel, chapters 13-15. We said that in this particular portion of the Word of God, the Spirit of God was pleased to select certain military endeavors out of the early reign of Saul and put them together, not suggesting that they all happened one after the other, but put them together because in those early military endeavors there were certain attitudes manifested, attitudes on the part of Saul that necessitated his rejection as king.

Keeping in mind that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable, we expect to learn some lessons from this portion of the Word of God. Keeping in mind that the Apostle Paul said that the Old Testament Scriptures were written as illustrations, as types, as pictures, from which we might draw truths for our own spiritual lives, we expect to find in this particular portion of I Samuel those attitudes concerning which we need to be on our guard because the attitudes manifested by Saul which resulted in his rejection as King are illustrative of the attitudes we can manifest in our lives which will grieve the Spirit of God and bring the disapproval of God upon our lives. So let us learn what we can.

With that thought in mind, we remind you that we looked at the first attitude illustrated in this series the last time we were together with you, which we entitiled The Foolishness of Saul. When we said we were going to consider with you that attitude, we said we were not talking about some silly action, but rather we were talking about a very serious offense. Time does not permit a review of everything we said, but you will remember that at this particular time where this attitude was manifested by Saul, he was meeting with some of his people at Gilgal, waiting for Samuel to come that a sacrifice might be offered in order that the blessing of God might be sought upon this particular military assault against the Philistines.

Samuel was late in coming, the Philistines were getting closer, Saul's armies were being scattered, and with all of those thoughts in mind, he decided that he would take it upon himself to offer this sacrifice before God.

We learn that this was a foolish action because when Samuel said to Saul, ``Thou hast done foolishly," we learned that the word foolishly is the translation of a Hebrew word that speaks of lightly esteeming, not showing the proper respect. Here Saul did not show the proper respect for the authority of God, for the commands of God. He did not show the proper respect for God's plan and purpose in his life. And we are reminded today that you and I cannot expect the blessing of God---yes we will even need to look for the chastening hand of God---if we lightly esteem sacred things. It is a serious thing indeed.

The second attitude, one with which we began our discussion today, as far as new thoughts are concerned, I have expressed in the words Saul was a troubler of Israel.The exact words of that particular attitude are presented to us in I Samuel, chapter 14, verses 29-30, where we read:

We will explain the latter part of this verse later on. At the moment, we want to think only of the attitude of which Jonathan accused his father, Saul, when he said, ``My father hath troubled Israel."

Exactly what do we mean by that? I am going to suggest that we are using it in our discussion the same way that the Spirit of God used it in I Chronicles, chapter 2, verse 7, because this word troubler is defined for us in that portion of the Word. Notice I Chronicles, chapter 2, verse 7, where we read:

This portion in I Chronicles is a geneology, and in the geneology a man by the name of Achar, better known to you as Achan, is listed with the descriptive phrase the troubler of Israel, who transgressed in the thing accursed. You remember the story. Josuha led the children of Israel into the land, and in the battle of Jericho, they were told that they must not touch anything for themselves, that all was to be destroyed or dedicated to God. You remember Achan found a Babylonian garment and a bit of gold and he decided to take it for himself and he buried it. He hid it and in the next battle there was defeat instead of victory. Joshua said, ``There is something wrong. God has promised us victory. Why are we defeated?" Time does not permit the details, but eventually it was discovered that Achan's sin held back the blessing of God upon the nation of Israel.

Joshua said to Achan, ``Who are you who has troubled Israel?" Achan was remembered in the recorded geneology as the man who troubled Israel, and how was it he troubled Israel? By bringing about the discipline of God on the nation of Israel because of his sin. That is, he created trouble for others by his own disobedience to God.

You are probably thinking---and rightly so---what has this to do with Saul? If you look up here in I Samuel, chapter 14, again and notice verse 24, you will notice Saul made an oath. It is expressed in these words:

What does this mean? Saul wanted victory and he said, ``I am taking an oath that I will surely punish the man who eats anything before I win a victory. I am taking an oath, and I will see to it that that man is cursed before God if he eats anything before the victory is won."

Jonathan, his son, went out in a special campaign against the Philistines. He did not know about this oath which Saul had taken. He wasn't there when Saul announced it, so Jonathan found some honey out in the wilderness and he and his servants ate of the honey, and they found through the eating of the honey a special surge of energy that made it possible for them to win the victory. Then later on, when Saul attempted to go against the Philistines, there was no victory. People said that something was wrong, and Saul said that something was wrong. Someone said, ``Someone has eaten some food and violated Saul's oath, and Saul said, ``Who did it?" Nobody said anything, so he called the priest and used the manner in that day of determining the answer to questions, the drawing of lots out of a little pocket that was in the breastplate of the priest. They cast the lots and Saul said, ``If the lot falls on me or even my son, Jonathan, I am still going to keep my word." Sure enough, the lot fell upon Jonathan, and Saul was furious. He said, ``You are responsible for our defeats today, and I am going to treat you like I would anybody else. I am going to kill you because you dared to do this thing."

Jonathan said, ``But I didn't know about the oath, and I needed strength to go against the enemy, so I ate of the honey." Saul said, ``It makes no matter. I am going to kill you." But the people said, ``You are not going to kill him. Jonathan has won a tremendous victory today against the Philistines, and you are not going to kill him," and they rescued Jonathan from the hands of Saul.

When we read our original text, when Jonathan said, concerning his father, ``My father has troubled Israel this day," he said to the people, ``Don't you see how my eyes are enlightened." That is not a very good thing for us as far as understanding what he meant. What he actually said was, ``Don't you see how bright my eyes are? While the rest of you are all droopy eyed, you look like you are ready to die. You don't have any strength. Look how bright my eyes are, and the reason my eyes are brighter and the eyes of my servant are bright is because we have eaten some honey." That is when he learned about the curse.

This is not a strange phrase, enlightened eyes. You and I use that same kind of language. In our everyday living, we see someone and say, ``My, you must feel bad. Your eyes look bad." Or we speak of someone and say, ``They look so good. Their eyes were so bright and cheery." The eyes are the mirrors of the inner man quite often, and this is all that Jonathan meant.

I trust you are thinking with me today and you are probably saying to yourselves, ``I still don't get the point." I am sure you don't. We had to have all the background before we could drive home the truth. How was it Saul troubled Israel? Well, first let me say to you that Saul troubled Israel because he made the oath out of sheer pride and self-conceit. It wasn't something that he was lead of God to do. He did it because he was a vain, selfish man, and in so doing, he made necessary an ineffective army that could not carry out God's demands

The people themselves were caused to sin because later when they did win a partial victory, they slew the animals which were left by the fleeing Philistines; but in slaying the animals, they ate the meat and the blood together which was a direct violation of the law of God. That caused Saul a great deal of grief so that he set up a rock where the animals might be slain and properly drained before they were eaten, but already the people had violated the law of God. Then Saul put the people in a place where it was impossible for God to answer their prayers because God does not answer the prayers of our hearts when we have unconfessed sin in our lives.

Finally, Saul's vain conceit caused the people to lose their respect for God's anointed authority. This was the attitude that caused God to reject Saul as king. He acted foolishly.

Let's pause for a moment and make some practical applications to our own lives. Are we guilty of the very attitude of which Saul was guilty, of acting foolishly, in the sense as we would put it today, of getting ourselves out on a limb because of our vain conceit and saying something in our lives that are binding upon others to the extent that we make it necessary for them to displease God? Think about that. Then just make it a general application. How often have we done things, how often have we said things, yes how often have we planned things out of pure vain conceit that has brought the discipline of God in our lives? This is indeed a serious thing.

In the time remaining I want you to think with me concerning the third attitude which resulted in the rejection of Saul as king. I have expressed it in the words Saul was guilty of rebellion against God. Saul was guilty of rebellion before God. It is described in I Samuel, chapter 15, verses 22-23, where we read:

Saul was guilty of rebellion. Samuel said, ``Thou hast rebelled." Why did Samuel speak this way to Saul? When you have time, I hope you will read in detail these passages of Scripture we are summarizing for you. Here in chapter 15, God sent out an order that Saul should kill every Amalekite in the land, every animal, everything and just put God's judgment on these people. The next time we are together we will explain why God did that. Today we are only thinking of the attitude that resulted in the rejection of Saul as king, but God gave the order. Saul went out against the Amalekites, and instead of obeying God's order in detail, he spared King Agag alive, he spared the best of the livestock and he very joyfully went on his way saying, ``I have done what God wanted me to do."

But Samuel came to visit with him and to check up on the progress of the campaign, and as Samuel approached the camp, he heard the bleeting of sheep and the lowing of oxen. He knew that the Israelites hadn't taken any to war, so when he came to Saul, he said, ``Have you done what God told you to do?" And Saul responded, ``Oh yes. I am so glad to see you. I have done everything God told me to do, every single thing." Then Samuel asked him a question which I have always enjoyed as far as the thrust of it is concerned. He said, ``Well, if you have done everything that God told you to do, what does it mean when I hear the bleeting of the sheep and the lowing of the oxen?"

I want to stop here for just a second and say, you know we may try to cover up. We may put out the very finest front making people think that we have obeyed God, but sooner or later, there will be a bleeting sheep or a lowing oxen that will let folk know it is just a front and nothing else. Our colloquialism today is, the skeleton will come out of the closet. In the words of the Scripture, the sheep will begin to let you know it is there as well as the oxen.

``What meaneth the bleeting of the sheep and the lowing of the oxen?" Then Saul was caught. He knew that he was wrong, and he immediately began to pass the buck, as we would say today. He began to make excuses. He said, ``The people did all this. They made me do this. They said that we need to keep the oxen for the sacrifice. God would be pleased if we offered all these oxen for sacrifices." Then Samuel drove home the truth to him in the verses we read in your hearing, and we have summarized those for you today that we might learn what Saul had to learn: Obedience is better than sacrifice.

In the Old Testament, that meant that God was more interested in a man's obedience than he was in bringing an animal sacrifice. It doesn't mean that the animal sacrifice wasn't necessary, but He was saying that He is more interested in obedience than the sacrifice. Today we would say that God is more interested in your obeying His Word than He is in your attending all the church services that you can possibly attend. That is not to say that you should stay away from church. It is simply putting things in the right perspective that God wants obedience to His Word.

James puts it very well when he said, ``You can say to a man, `God loves you,' and he can be standing there with his stomach growling, half naked because he doesn't have enough clothes to cover him. Is he going to believe that God loves him? Sit him down to a good meal. Put clothes on him, then say to him, `God loves you.'" That is what we are talking about. Obedience is better than sacrifice.

The second thing we would remind you of: Rebellion is as witchcraft. The second summary that we have from the lesson Samuel gave to Saul is that rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft. Rebellion? What rebellion? This matter of diobeying the commands of God is as evil as people consulting witches. It doesn't mean that it is the same thing, but witchcraft was a terrible thing in the sight of God and still is, and rebellion is just as simple as doing something he wanted to do instead of what God wanted him to do. He thought it was not very much, but God said, ``It is as evil as dealing with the Devil.

My, that is a tremendous thought, isn't it? When you consider that when you rebel against God by simply not doing what He tells you to do, it is as bad as dealing with the Devil. It is serious, isn't it?

One last thought of the summary of Samuel's rebuke is expressed in the words stubbornness is as evil as idolatry. You say, ``I thought he said he was rebellious." He did, but he also said that stubbornness is as the sin of idolatry because stubbornness is the root of rebellion. Stubbornness is the translation of a Hebrew word which may be translated ``to press or to urge, to keep on keeping on about something until you finally get what you want." That is exactly what Saul did. He wanted to run things. He didn't want God to do it, and he kept on and on until he had his way and God said, ``I can't use a man like that. I am not going to let you be king any longer."

So God says to your heart and to mine, Friend, that He can't use us if we are foolish. God can't use us if we are making things that make trouble for other people, and God can't use us if we are rebellious against Him.