The Digression of King Saul

There are two well-known individuals in the Bible that bear the name of “Saul”; one was the first king of Israel, the second would be renamed Paul and would become an Apostle.  Ironically, King Saul started his reign as a faithful servant of God and would later digress into wickedness, while our introduction to Saul (later called Paul) informs us that he was persecuting the church of God  (Acts 7:58; Acts 9).  While the change in the Apostle Paul can be discussed at a later time, we will spend some time looking at the digression of King Saul; how does a faithful servant fall so far? How did his faith fail?

In 1 Samuel 15:15, while Saul was speaking to Samuel, he stated that the people had not destroyed the goods of the Amalekites because they wanted “to sacrifice to the Lord YOUR God” (emphasis added).  While this is not the first instance in which we see King Saul digressing, his attitude towards God in this passage marks the true problem and not just a symptom.  The phrase “the Lord your God” is used frequently throughout the Bible, but the context of the phrase dictates whether it is a sign of respect or a sign of disobedience; in this instance, King Saul was rebelling against the commands of God and his attitude indicates that he no longer believed God to have authority over him.  As noted, this accentuates the real problem and not the symptom; in earlier chapters, Saul presumed to offer sacrifices that were meant for only a priest (1 Samuel 13:8-14).  Was the offering of the sacrifice the true problem or was it a symptom of the problem?

The activities of disobedience (offering the sacrifice or refusing to destroy Amalek) were truly sins against God, but they stemmed from a heart that no longer acknowledged the power and authority of God.  Not that in response to Samuel, Saul said that he “felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering” (1 Samuel 13:12).  By what authority? What lead to this digression away from trusting in God and submitting to His almighty authority?

Saul Chosen as King

When David was chosen to be the one who would follow Saul as King, God told Samuel “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him.  For the Lord does not see as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).  And yet, our introduction to Saul included that there “was not a more handsome person than he” and that from “his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people” (1 Samuel 9:2).  At the anointing of Saul, there was no mention concerning his heart; at that point, it is clear that he was a servant of God (he prophesied in 1 Samuel 10:10-13), so obviously God was with him at that point.  However, Saul had only reigned two years when he chose to make the sacrifice in 1 Samuel 13:1, 8-14. 

Saul’s Pride

While it is not explicitly stated within the Scriptures, it appears that Saul’s pride lead to his digression; consider the rash vow in 1 Samuel 14:24.  In this passage, Saul stated that “Cursed is the man who eats any food until evening, before I have taken vengeance on my enemies”; he was clearly focused on his own desires rather than what God wanted him to do.  Later, when Saul discovered that Jonathan had eaten, he refused to acknowledge the ridiculous nature of his rash vow and commanded that Jonathan be executed (the people of Israel refused to a part of this evil; 1 Samuel 14:44-45).  Saul’s pride is again emphasized in 1 Samuel 18:6-9; here, the people were praising David for the death of Goliath (1 Samuel 17) and Saul was “very angry, and the saying displeased him” because they placed him at a lesser value than David.  Further, Saul said, “Now what more can he have but the kingdom?” Additionally, Saul believed that he had the power to thwart the plans of God; he frequently tried to kill David so that he would be unable to reign in his or Jonathan’s place.  In 1 Samuel 20:31, Saul stated that if Jonathan wanted to reign, David would have to be killed; the pride and arrogance inherent in such a thought is astounding.  The true depths to which Saul had sunk was shown through his willingness to murder the priests who had helped David and his men in 1 Samuel 22:6-23; the Israelites with Saul would not kill the priests!

What we learn from Saul is that pride fails, that we are not as powerful as we think that we are, and that God is always in control.  In addition to this, we learn that while we respect our leaders and we submit to them, we are not required to obey ungodly commands (note again Saul’s command to execute Jonathan and the priests).  

There are many other passages that we could examine in order to understand the digression of Saul; for instance, he consulted a medium in 1 Samuel 28, which again shows that he no longer cared about the commands of God.  In the end, we see that Saul did not have a heart dedicated to God; while other men, such as David, committed sin against God, their hearts drove them to repent and submit to God, but Saul relied only on himself.

Love the Brethren

In 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, the Apostle Paul provided a detailed description of love; the essential nature of love is that it is all encompassing and that it drives our every motive.  In the overall context of this passage, Paul was correcting the attitude of the Christians; if we tie what Paul wrote in chapter 13 to the rest of the book, we note that the Corinthians had been envious, they had paraded themselves, they had rejoiced in iniquity, and their love for one another had failed.  Their care for one another was lacking because of their own selfish ambitions; desires for their own “rights” (as some today call it) trumped their willingness to look out for the spiritual wellbeing of one another.  This was accentuated by their desire for the “best” spiritual gifts, their sectarianism concerning by whom they had been taught, and participating in the activities directed towards idols (this is not a comprehensive list).  A key element in Paul’s description of love is that Christians need to consider the wellbeing of one another; this is something that needs to be on our mind with each decision that we make.  Does our decision glorify God? Does it help others in reaching their goal of heaven? Does it help me present myself as a servant of God who has denied the things of this world?

How imperative is it that we love one another? In 1 John 3:10, we read that in “this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.”  After referencing the murder of Abel by his brother Cain, John also wrote that “Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” (1 John 3:15).  In writing this, John was not literally stating that we are murderers, but that the end result is the same if we hate rather than love one another.

In Philippians 2:1-4, Paul again wrote on the concept of loving one another and expressly stated that we should overlook our own desires in light of those of our brethren.  Nothing is to “be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.  Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others” (2:3-4).  Why are such passages so important to us today? Many Christians speak about how much love they have for one another, and indeed that is likely to be their intent; however, what do their actions more often portray? Remember that the Christians in Corinth believed themselves to be longsuffering and loving of the brother in error, but Paul corrected their attitude and their method of discipline in 1 Corinthians 5. 

There is an attitude the creeps up now and then that can be summed up as “If that person doesn’t like what I’m doing, then that is THEIR problem and not mine”.  There are a plethora of topics through which this attitude is manifested, but perhaps the most common one (or at least the one we will use as an example) will be on the topic of modesty.  Too often, it is expressed that how we dress should not impact the spiritual lives of others and that our “freedom” (although this is not an established concept from Scripture) should not be impeded by the perceived weakness of others.  Is this an appropriate attitude for a Christian to parade around with?

Consider that John also wrote that “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us” (1 John 3:16).  What if Jesus had the attitude that we too often have towards one another? What if Jesus stated that His life should not have to be sacrificed for our iniquities? Instead, Jesus led the way for us and in “this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him” (1 John 4:9).  Therefore, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11) and “we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16).  If we are unwilling to forego immodest apparel for our brethren, would we be willing to lay down our lives for the brethren? Are we echoing the love of God (1 John 3:16, 4:7-11) if we do not care for the spiritual welfare of our brethren? Or are we allowing things to be “done through selfish ambition” (Philippians 2:3)?

Part of what leads to such an attitude is that we do not concentrate on having a godly perspective rather than a worldly one; in other words, we allow the cares and desires of this world to outweigh what God would have us desire.  Are we keeping up with the latest fashion? Do we look good in our clothes? Do people of the world find us attractive? While many argue that it is merely for the sake of comfort that they wear immodest apparel, are we being honest with ourselves when make such an argument? For instance, how many times do young ladies wear shorts that are hardly longer than underwear compensate by wearing a sweatshirt or coat? How often do young men do the exact same thing? Is this for comfort in the heat, or is it for something else?

In 1 John 2:15-17, we are told not to “love the world or the things in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – is not of the Father but is of the world.  And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”  If our main concern is keeping up with the latest fashion or being seen as attractive by the world, then we clearly have placed the love of the world over the love of the Father.  If we refuse to consider the spiritual wellbeing of our brethren in order that we might wear our favorite shirt, shorts, dress, etc., then “the love of the Father” is not in us.  Additionally, John wrote that “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:8).  Do we consider the needs of our brethren ahead of our own desires?

As Paul wrote, “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seeks its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). 

Are We Americanized Christians?

Our government has granted us the “right” to speak freely about our beliefs and to voice our opposition even of the government itself; while this is a great blessing in some ways, it has certainly Americanized many modern Christians.  What that means is that we Christians too often forget our place and our duties within the physical world and assume that if we disagree with a governmental edict that we have the “right” to rebel.  Unfortunately, this simply is not a Scripturally sustainable perspective! While the argument could be sustained that we are to be submissive to the authorities so long as they do not specifically require us to go against God’s will (Acts 4), we too often misconstrue that principle.  Simply because the authorities advocate and may even require certain practices that we do not like does not give us the right to rebel; we must still be submissive.

Too often, modern American Christians take the Americanized view of the world and believe that we have the right to be belligerent in our attitudes and in our actions, that we can rebel against anyone and anything that we deem to be exerting undue authority over us.  This is a very selfish attitude to have and it certainly is not one that the Scriptures support.  We are to submit to the government (Romans 13, 1 Peter 2:13-17), submit to other Christians (Ephesians 5:15-21), submit to the elders (1 Peter 5), wives to husbands and husbands to Christ (Ephesians 5:22-33), submit to God (James 4:7), and the list goes on.  We are commanded to "live peaceably with all men" (Romans 12:17-19).  Becoming a Christian does not free us from our responsibilities in this physical life, even if we deem those circumstances to be unjust; conversion does not free the convicted criminal, nor does it free a slave (1 Corinthians 7:17-24, Philemon 1:1-25).

Would we have the attitude of Naaman's slave girl in 2 Kings 5? While we could devise all sorts of convoluted arguments to claim that this girl wasn’t a slave or that she didn’t have it as bad as slaves in other time periods, that simply isn’t substantiated by the text.  This girl was a captive and a slave.  By modern standards, even many Christians would argue that she had the right to rebel since slavery is wrong! But this girl shows the true nature of a follower of God; rather than dwelling on her own undesirable plight of being a slave girl in a pagan household, she selflessly thinks of the well-being of her master…yes, her slave master! Would a modern Americanized Christian be so selfless? 

The other day, a fellow evangelist admonished those who read his post to think about the content rather than immediately trying to think of possible exceptions; I make the same admonishment here! Rather than trying to look for passages that fit with our Americanized view of Christianity, let us think about how God would have us to act.