November 14, 2012
Saul's Disobedience Continues
1st Samuel 15:1-35
I The Amalekite Problem 1-3
II Saul Disobeys God 4-9
III Saul Loses his Kingdom and Mentor 10-35
Two brothers, were arguing about the wisdom, of their parents. "Father is very wise," said the first brother. "We should listen to him and do what he says."
The second brother disagreed, "Father is not so wise! We are just as smart as he is. I'll prove it to you!"
The next day, the second brother went into the woods near his home and captured a small bird. He brought the bird home and said to his brother, "Let's go find our father. I will show you that he isn't so smart!"
The two brothers went into the father's study, the second one holding the small bird between his cupped hands. "Father, I have a question for you,' he said. "I hold a small bird in my hands. Tell me, is this bird dead or alive?
The boy was confident that his father would not answer correctly, because if he said the bird was dead, the boy would simply open his hands and show that the bird was alive. If the father answered that the bird was alive, he would crush the bird between his hands and reveal that the bird was dead. Then he would prove to his brother, that his father was not so wise after all.
The boys' father considered the question for a moment and said, "My son, the answer, is in your hands."
Sometimes we come to our Heavenly Father with questions that are just as impossible to answer----"Will this treatment heal my loved one's cancer? Why is our daughter getting a divorce? What should we do about a teenaged child and their loneliness? How can I protect my baby from ever getting hurt? Can the "less-paying" job, we had to take, pay the bills? What does the future hold?
------and for Saul----how can I totally annihilate all those Amalekites, and destroy all their stuff, without a backward glance?
Whether we realize it or not, much of the time,we expect God, to arrange our lives for us, and to make everything work out, in a perfect way. Because, if we answer the question, "what does the future hold" truthfully, isn't that what we think, our all-powerful, all-knowing, loving God is supposed to do?
Well, the answer is No!!!!! That is not what God is supposed to do! In His wisdom, God created us with free-will. He says the same thing to us, that the father, in the story says to his son, "My child, the answer is in your hands."
Don't get me wrong, God does know the future----and He most certainly, has the power to determine it----but, He has graciously given us, control over our own lives. He created us in His image----with the ability to choose---- to be able to decide what we will do, and how we will live and whom we will serve.
He chose, not to be a cosmic puppeteer, who arbitrarily pulls the strings of our lives, and makes us into people who would automatically, without doubt and without question, love and honor Him. Instead, He gave us the ability to decide for ourselves, whether to love Him or not, whether to obey Him or not, and whether to serve Him or not. He wants us to have eternal life----but the answer is in our hands… Deut 30:19 says "Today, I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now, I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live."
God gave Saul the choice to serve Him and obey Him and to be His chosen one, but Saul couldn't see beyond what was right in front of him, so he chose his own ideas and his own wisdom and his own desires, instead of the Lord's, over and over again. He wouldn't listen to Samuel, no matter what he said, and consequently, he lost God's blessing in his life. And, he never did learn total obedience to the Lord------
What about us? where are we on the barometer of obedience? I think most of us would say that we want to obey all the time, but for various and sundry reasons, we wind up obeying, only some of the time.
My prayer for us, is that this lesson, has taught us, that obedience to the Lord is not a "sometimes" proposition----it's an "all-the-time" responsibility----and that we should never take it lightly. We are frail human beings and we do mess up from time to time, and God knows that, but our desire should be, to obey the Lord, in every situation, no matter what the cost might be.
The Amalekite Problem 15:1-3
God commanded utter destruction of the Amalikites, because they were a band of guerilla terrorists, who made their living by attacking other nations and carrying off their wealth and their families. They were descendants of Esau, which made them cousins of the Israelites. They were the nation that attacked the Israelites 1st, right before they entered the Promised Land, under Joshua, after they had escaped Egypt.
The Israelites were in a weary and worn-out state, and the sneaky, cowardly Amalekites, attacked the people who were lagging behind---the ones who were very young, very old and sick or infirm. And, they continued to invade Israelite camps, at every opportunity that they got. God knew that the Israelites would never be able to live at peace, in the Promised Land, as long as the Amalekites existed. He also knew that their corrupt, evil, idolatrous and human sacrificing, religious practices, threatened Israel's relationship with Him.
God knew that the only way to protect the Israelite's bodies, and their souls, was to utterly destroy the Amalekites and all their possessions, including their idols. No one and nothing could be allowed to live. Although this seems severe to us----the command came from a perfectly just God, and was His perfectly just way, of judging sin. Allowing them to live, would have been the same thing to us, as playing around with sin. Sin is addictive----we may think we can let it go, but the truth is, sin won't let go of us. It may offer us a thrill, or a measure of excitement or a momentary high, but, in the end, it will always lead to heartbreak and many times, to death. God doesn't enjoy meting out punishment, but He won't allow sin to continue forever.
(Burt Hunter, a newspaper reporter and photographer in Long Beach California, found himself on a strange mission one foggy morning. He was scheduled to interview and take pictures of a female snake charmer.
When Burt got to her house, he was so surprised to find out that she lived in a very nice upper-class neighborhood. And the woman herself, didn't look like someone who played with snakes. Burt couldn't help mentioning that fact to her. "I don't understand why a wealthy, attractive woman , such as yourself, is engaged in this kind of business, " he said, "it seems awfully dangerous to me."
The woman smiled and said, "Oh I don't do it because I have to. It's a fascinating hobby. I really like the element of danger involved. Someday soon, I plan to give it up and spend more time with my flowers. I can quit this any time I want to."
While Burt set up his equipment, the woman brought in baskets containing the cobras. She confidently lifted some of the deadly snakes as he snapped pictures of her handling them.
After replacing the snakes in their baskets, she cautioned, "Be especially quiet now and don't make any quick moves. Im going to take out my newest snake. It isn't completely used to me yet.
The woman lifted the new snake out of its basket, then suddenly stiffened. "Something's wrong" she whispered to the photographer. "I'm going to have to put him back." She opened the basket slowly and began to lower the snake into it.
With a lighting-fast jab, the cobra buried its fangs into the woman's wrist. The woman forced the snake into the basket and clutched her arm.
She spoke calmly to Burt, "Go quickly to my medicine chest and bring back the snake serum. Hurry!" Trembling, Burt ran to the restroom and returned with a precious vial.
The woman instructed him to take out the syringe and fit the needle on it. Then she told him how to withdraw the serum. Burt struggled with the unfamiliar task, his hands shaking badly. He braced his arm against the table as he tried desperately to get the needle into the vial. Suddenly he gasped. His clumsy fingers had crushed the tiny bottle. The serum, now useless, dripped through his fingers and onto the floor.
"Tell me", he urged, "where can I get another one?"
In a quiet voice she responded, "That was my last one."
The woman's agony ended when she died a few hours later.)
Sin is like that for us---- too many times we flirt it----we try to play around with it and try not to get caught by it---we think we can control it----but we can't, because it always winds up, controlling us. When we find ourselves falling into a sin or having already, fallen into one----we can't let, even a smidgen of it remain----we have to get rid of it completely---otherwise it will wind up, rearing its ugly head, in a bigger or stronger way; or morphing itself into something attractive, to trick us into falling for it again-------sin is sin is sin-----it won't back down and it won't give up and it won't go away----the Lord has already given us the victory over sin---just like He gave the Israelites, the victory of the Promised Land----but, in order to claim that victory, we have to obey the Lord's direction and His instruction, no matter what it is. Saul, never did get that truth, to lodge into his heart and mind, so he wound up living a wasted life.
II Saul Disobey's God 15:4-9
Saul and his men didn't destroy all the plunder from the battle, like God had commanded them to. Saul spared the king, Agag and the choicest of livestock, and there is no telling what else. He picked and chose what he destroyed and what he saved. Saul's decision not to destroy all of the Amalekites, made major trouble for the Israelites down the road----the last descendant of Agag was Haman, the crooked official, who sought to use the power of the Persian Empire, to eliminate the Jews, during the days of Queen Esther and King Xerxes.
The law of devoting something----setting it aside----entirely for destruction was well known to the Israelites. Anything under God's ban was to be completely destroyed. (Deuteronomy 20:16-18 says, "In those towns that the Lord your God is giving you, as a special possession, destroy every living thing. You must completely destroy the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, just as the Lord your God has commanded you. This will prevent the people of the land from teaching you to imitate their detestable customs, in the worship of their gods, which would cause you to sin deeply against the Lord your God." )
God established this law, in order to prevent idolatry from taking hold in Israel, because many of the valuables, they took for plunder, were idols. To break this law was punishable by death. (Joshua 7 is about Ahan's sin in Ai) Saul's action showed disrespect and disregard for God, because it purposefully disobeyed his command. When we gloss over sin, in order to protect what we have, or for material gain, we aren't just disobeying God, we are out right defying Him---- basically, shaking our fist in His face. Saul defended himself----trying to justify his partial obedience as though it was full obedience. But partial obedience is selective obedience, which is just another form of disobedience.
The problem with Saul was, that he didn't take seriously enough, the fact that he was God's anointed one, and he had a commitment to obey. He had been chosen and designated, by God, to do what God wanted done, and to act as God's representative, to His people. There are things that happen in the world that so anger God, that they make it essential for Him to take action against them. The Amalekites and their heinous deeds, angered God that much! And God had called Saul to the task of destroying them completely and Saul had failed, miserably, because he thought he knew better than God did.
The Kenites were another group of people,who lived in the area, that were cousins to Israel, through the ancestery of Abraham. They had striven to get along with Israel----- even to help them. They were living among the Amalekites and Saul gave them a chance to escape-----and because they Kenites took that chance---their lives and their nation were spared. We are like the Kenites, and if we want to escape God's discipline on the nation we live in, we need to find a way to disassociate ourselves from the Amalekite lifestyle, that is going on all around us. We need to individually, and collectively, be the people, who are called by His name, who humble themselves and pray and seek His face and turn from their wicked ways---so that He will hear from heaven and will forgive our sins and will heal our land. (1st Chronicles 7:14)
Saul Loses His Kingdom and His Mentor 15:10-35
When God said He was sorry that He had made Saul king, He wasn't saying that He'd made a mistake. God's comment was an expression of sorrow, not an admission of error. An omniscient God can't make a mistake, so He couldn't change His mind. But God's heart was grieved at Saul's willful rebellion----so He changed His attitude toward Saul, when Saul changed his and began to walk further and further away from the Lord. It doesn't seem like Saul's heart belonged to God, any more, if it ever had. He belonged to his own interests. Saul even built a monument to honor himself----totally different form how Moses and Joshua built monuments to God, to honor Him, alone.
Saul thought he had won a great victory over the Amalekites, but God saw it as a great failure, because Saul had disobeyed Him and then lied to Samuel about the results of the battle. Saul may have thought that his lie wouldn't be detected or that what he did wasn't wrong. But Saul was just deceiving himself.
Dishonest people, will eventually begin to believe the lies that they construct around themselves. Then, they lose the ability to tell the difference between the truth and the lies. By believing your own lies, you deceive yourself, you alienate yourself from God and you lose creditability in all your relationships. But, In the long run, honesty will win out.
When Samuel rebuked Saul for his flagrant disobedience to God's command, Saul claimed innocence, and blamed the rest of the people for taking the plunder for "sacrificial purposes". But Samuel saw right through Saul's explanation and pointed out God's priority, concerning the "why and the how and the when", of sacrifice. (1st Samuel 15:22 "…what is more pleasing to the Lord, your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to His voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.") This teaches us that sincere obedience, is a prerequisite, for pleasing God, in our service to Him. Outright disobedience is basically an act of idolatry, because it elevates self, above God.
Samuel wasn't saying that sacrifice wasn't important-----he was urging Saul to look at his reasons for making the sacrifice, rather than at the sacrifice itself.
A sacrifice, was a ritual transaction between a person and God, that outwardly and physically, demonstrated a relationship between them. But, if a person's heart is not truly repentant or if he doesn't truly love God, the sacrifice is a hollow ritual. Religious ceremonies or rituals are empty, unless they are performed with an attitude of love and obedience. Being "religious"-----going to church, serving on committees, giving to charities, teaching Sunday School, being a deacon, attending a bible study, claiming to be a Christian; are not enough, if we don't have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus, and if we aren't doing them, out of love and devotion and obedience to the Him, first and foremost.
Rebellion and stubbornness are serious sins. They involve much more than being independent and strong minded. The Lord can use independence and strong-mindedness, but He will not use rebellion and stubbornness. Scripture equates them with witchcraft and idolatry, which are sins that are worthy of death. (Exodus 22:18 "You must not allow a sorceress to live.", Lev. 20:6 "I will turn against those who who commit spiritual prostitution by putting their trust in mediums or in those who consult the spirits of the dead. I will cut them off from the community.", Deut. 13:12-15 "When you begin living in the towns the Lord your God is giving you, you may hear that scoundrels among you are leading their fellow citizens astray by saying,'Let us go worship other gods'----gods you have not known before. In such cases, you must examine the facts carefully. If you find that the report is true and such a detestable act has been committed among you. You must attack that town and completely destroy all its inhabitants as well as all the livestock.", Micah 5:10-15 " In that day", says the Lord, "I will slaughter your horses and destroy your chariots. I will tear down your walls and demolish your defenses. I will put an end to all witchcraft and there will be no more fortune-tellers. I will destroy all your idols and sacred pillars, so you will never again worship the work of your hands. I will abolish your idol shrines with their Ashterath poles and destroy your pagan cities. I will pour out my vengeance on all the nations that refuse to obey me." )
Saul became both rebellious and stubborn, so its little wonder that God finally rejected him, and took away his kingdom. Rebellion against God, is perhaps, the most serious sin of all, because as long as a person is rebelling, the person is closing the door to forgiveness and to restoration with God. God will do everything He can, for as long as He can---to give a person a chance to repent and choose obedience----but He will not wait forever.
Saul's excuses had come to an end. It was the time for reckoning. (For each of us, there was a day, when we had to stand before a Holy God and give Him an account of our lives so far, and to declare to Him, who we were going to serve----and someday, there will come another day, when we will stand before Him, and give an account, of how we have served Him and His kingdom.)
That day had come for Saul----- and all he could do, was give excuses for his behavior. I don't want us to be like that. I want our service to the Lord and to each other, to be a blessing, that pleases God, not one, that brings Him grief.
We need to understand that God wasn't rejecting Saul as a person; Saul could still seek forgiveness and restore his relationship with God, but it was too late to get his kingdom back. If we don't act responsibly with what God has given or entrusted us with, eventually, we will run out of excuses, and then time, or God's hand, will allow it to stop growing, or to be taken away from us. All of us one day will have to give an account of our actions. (Romans 14:12 "Yes, each of us will give a personal account to God.")
I told you last week, that I don't believe that Saul understood the sovereignty of God. And, I don't believe that he understood the vileness and the entrapment-nature, of sin either. He thought, because he had partially obeyed, that he had done enough of what he was supposed to do, that neither God nor Samuel could find fault with him. In his mind, he must have thought, that maybe he hadn't done everything that God had told him to do, but at least he wasn't a horrible, murdering king, like Agag and at least, he didn't govern wicked people like the Amalikites.
Saul just couldn't see that his sin, was pride in the fact, that he honestly thought, that he knew better than God. He didn't understand, like a lot of people don't understand, that there is no such thing, as a little bit of sin, or partial sin (its the same thing as, you can't be a little bit pregnant)-----sin is sin is sin and it's all level at the cross. No one sin, is any greater, than any other. We can't rank a sin, according to how bad we think it is or how minor we think it is---like, we think that white lies are not as bad as murder or that gossip is not as bad adultery.
In society's eyes, the consequences for specific sins, may vary with severity----but in God's eyes, they're all the same---and Jesus made them level at the cross----there is nothing that cannot be forgiven.
Saul knew what the Lord had commanded him to do!----And to know what the Lord wants us to do, and to not do it, is outright disobedience. If we behave like that, we should be shaking in our boots, knowing that God's discipline will come. But Saul, was more concerned about what others would think about him, than he was about the status of his relationship with the Lord. He begged Samuel to go with him to worship, as a public demonstration, that Samuel still supported him. If Samuel had refused, the people probably would have lost all confidence in Saul. I believe that Samuel loved Saul and that he didn't want to give up on him. Scripture says that he was grieved in his heart, and that he had stayed up and prayed for Saul, the whole night, before going to find him and stripping him of his spiritual calling.
I think Samuel, after first refusing him, went with Saul, because of the love and loyalty that he had for him----- and because, he needed to right the wrong, in front of the Israelites, that Saul had neglected to do. He didn't want Saul's disobedience to be an example for the people. So, he went with him, and did Saul's dirty work, by exacting God's judgement, with his graphic execution of Agag----but once he was done, He walked away, leaving Saul, on his own, without spiritual guidance or support.
Saul functioned as the man in political power for a long time, after that,(40 years) but he was never, the man of God's choice, again.
How awful---can you imagine, what life would be like, with no hope, no encouragement, no blessing, no peace and no words from the Lord, separated from Him, because of our own stubborn selfishness? I think it, literally, would be hell. I believe that's what makes hell, hell----separation from God.
"Susan Maycinik wrote this, for an article in Discipleship Journal….
The line between obedience and performance can be a blurry one. Yet it's an important distinction to grasp, because obedience leads to life, and performance leads to death…
Obedience is seeking God with your whole heart.
Performance is having a quiet time because you feel guilty if your don't.
Obedience is finding ways to let the word of God dwell in you richly.
Performance is quickly scanning a passage so you can check it off your Bible- reading plan.
Obedience is inviting guests to your home for dinner.
Performance is feeling anxious about whether every detail of the meal will be perfect.
Obedience is following God's prompting to lead a small group.
Performance is reluctance to let anyone else lead the group because they might not do it as well as you would.
Obedience is doing your best.
Performance is wanting to be the best.
Obedience is saying yes to whatever God asks of you.
Performance is saying yes to whatever people ask of you.
Obedience is following the promptings of God's Spirit.
Performance is following a list of manmade requirements.
Obedience springs from fear of God.
Performance springs from fear of failure."
*******Obedience, is at the heart, of our loving God. Jesus said, in John 14:15, "if you love me, you will obey what I command". Obedience, to His way, is the center of what God wants for His children. He knows, that only then, as it says in Deuteronomy 5:29, "will it go well with them and their children forever."
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