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.
