Notes from 8-17-11

1 Samuel 13:8-14
8 He waited seven days, the time set by Samuel; but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and Saul’s men began to scatter.
9 So he said, “Bring me the burnt offering and the fellowship offerings.” And Saul offered up the burnt offering.
10 Just as he finished making the offering, Samuel arrived, and Saul went out to greet him.
11 “What have you done?” asked Samuel. Saul replied, “When I saw that the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Mikmash,

12 I thought, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the LORD’s favor.’ So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering.”
13 “You have done a foolish thing,” Samuel said. “You have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time.
14 But now your kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people, because you have not kept the LORD’s command.”

For a long time I struggled with this verse because it seemed a little harsh. Saul makes an offering because he wants God favor, and God puts an end to his kingship right then and there. Right?
Why isn't that right?

Its not right because of two simple things:
1. You can't gather God's favor by disobeying Him.
2. Saul wasn't doing it to gather God's favor, he was doing it out of fear.

Saul had an army of some 3000 odd soldiers following him, and the philistines had brought 30,000 chariots, which were the biblical equivalent of tanks. The people were beginning to scatter in fear for their lives and I can just imagine Saul standing there, watching all this and thinking to himself "This is going all wrong, we're all going to die, I need to do something." And yes, he was right, he needed to wait for God's favor. Instead he tried to substitute his own work for God's timing because he was afraid of what would happen if he didn't.

My friend Ally twittered me to tell me that God's been showing her how favor isn't really great favor unless its coming against some major obstacle. Think about that, God did want to show His favor to Israel, but He's not a God of small gestures. He wanted to show great favor, and that meant major obstacles.

1 Samuel 15:12-15
12 Early in the morning Samuel got up and went to meet Saul, but he was told, “Saul has gone to Carmel. There he has set up a monument in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal.”
13 When Samuel reached him, Saul said, “The LORD bless you! I have carried out the LORD’s instructions.”
14 But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?”
15 Saul answered, “The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the LORD your God, but we totally destroyed the rest.”

Now, as we talked about last week Saul began his kingship by hiding in the baggage, and here is where we really begin to see what Saul has built on that foundation.

Now, I will give you a little hint that will serve you well over the course of your lifetime: if you meet a person whose entire job description is pretty well summed up in "hears directly from God on a regular basis." The first thing you do should probably not be "lie through your teeth."

Now, there are at least three simple things wrong here:
1. He's straight up lying to Samuel, which basically meant God.
2. He's set up a monument in his own honor, which simply wasn't done. Monuments were to mark were God did amazing things, not when men won battles.
3. He's chosen to compromise in his obedience to God's commands.

Have your parents ever told you that "partial obedience is disobedience." Yeah, mine did too.

Now, God told Saul to utterly destroy the Amalekites and all that they owned. Nothing to be left alive. Now, I think I've presumed on Sauls motivations enough, but the truth of the matter is that he spared the King of the Amalekites and the best of their sheep and cattle. Now why would he do this?

So, lets see Samuels response to this:

1 Samuel 15:22-23
22 But Samuel replied: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the LORD?"
To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king.”

You can substitute whatever you want into that verse in exchange for burnt offerings. Going to church, wearing christian tshirts, only listening to christian music, whatever. The truth is that God desires wholehearted and full obedience, as hard and as painful as that can be. Last week I talked about the importance of not making decisions based on fear, and heres the fruit of that: Saul compromises in his obedience, choosing to obey the convention of the day, the common practice of those around him. He obeyed part of what God asked of him, and part of what the world around him expected of him, and gained nothing.


1 Sanuel 16:10-13
10 Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, “The LORD has not chosen these.”
11 So he asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?” “There is still the youngest,” Jesse answered. “He is tending the sheep.” Samuel said, “Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives.”
12 So he sent for him and had him brought in. He was glowing with health and had a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the LORD said, “Rise and anoint him; this is the one.”
13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon David. Samuel then went to Ramah.

And so here we have Saul, a man chosen by God to lead His nation but who instead followed fear and it led him to compromise. Set against that is David, whose life was characterized in many ways by his bravery and his reliance on God (and its funny how those things are so intertwined) and who was called "a man after God's own heart." Saul acted in fear from the beginning, while one of the first things David does once he comes onto the stage is still considered one of the coolest acts of bravery in the bible (which we will talk about next week).

Its funny though, David's greatest fall comes out of the same sin as Saul: hiding from his God given responsibilities. We will also talk about this in a later week.

I'm going to encourage you guys to read the whole story around the next week, and see what God will show you. Samuel 13 &15

Let us pray, that we would be people after God's own heart, that we would stand couragous in the face of the perils of the world, that we would not act in fear.