More Lessons Learned From The Life of Saul

More Lessons Learned from the Life of Saul

The underlining issue with King Saul was that he was not a
worshipper. When Samuel first met Saul and informed him that he
would be king, he gave Saul these directions: (1 Samuel 10:8)"And
you shall go down before me to Gilgal; and behold, I will come down
to you to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice peace offerings You
shall wait seven days until I come to you and show you what you
should do." The next verse says "9Then it happened when he turned
his back to leave Samuel, God changed his heart." The question
is: "What was Saul's heart originally like and what did God change
it to?" What's disturbing about Saul is that he was not inclined to
a worshipful relationship with God; thus, God had to override his
spiritual deadness to give him a heart he didn't really have. This
may seem cool until you compare Saul to David (the one Samuel said
was better than him). David sought God naturally. David had the
heart (if you want to peek inside of David's heart, open the book of
Psalm and start reading anywhere) so God added the favor. Saul got
appointed but was not truly anointed.

So it happened that 7 days passed and Saul was waiting for Samuel in
Gilgal. 1 Samuel 13 says:
8Now he waited seven days, according to the appointed time set by
Samuel, but Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were
scattering from him. 9So Saul said, "Bring to me the burnt offering
and the peace offerings." And he offered the burnt offering. 10As
soon as he finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel
came; and Saul went out to meet him and to greet him. 11But Samuel
said, "What have you done?"…13Samuel said to Saul, "You have acted
foolishly; … 14"But now your kingdom shall not endure The LORD has
sought out for Himself a man after His own heart, and the LORD has
appointed him as ruler over His people, because you have not kept
what the LORD commanded you."

Here Saul goes again not following explicit directions but doing
what he thought was a good idea. The problem was that Saul's heart
lacked reverence; therefore he offered God sacrifices without
adhering to the protocol for doing such. Check this out: Saul didn't
build his first altar until 1 Sam 14:35. So how did he offer
sacrifices without an altar? You see it wasn't the routine of
sacrifice that honored God but the heart of the worshipper who
gladly submitted to the format of proper reverent worship. It's not
so much the worship God desires as much as it is the worshipper.
Saul thought he could approach God any kind of way. Bad Decision!
Then atop all that he blamed the people again for the whole thing.
Saul was a cowardly irreverent arrogant poor excuse for a leader.
Take heed and flee from all ways that seem Saul-ish.

RevDH

P.S. Common sense says: "Learn from your mistakes." Wisdom
says: "Learn from somebody else's mistakes." … Don't be like Saul.