Sorry it has been awhile since I posted anything, but I actually started working on this entry about 3 weeks ago! It's just taken me a while to find the time to finish it.
So in January, I started leading a Bible study on the life of David. Now I have read these stories before, but only in a casual way. So it really has been rewarding to take a closer look at the Life of King David. Since Saul the first king of Israel plays such an important part in David's story, it only seemed right to start by taking a quick look at him.
And what we see is that Saul started out as a good king. After his anointing as king in 1 Samuel 10, we read about Saul's first challenge to his authority and subsequent victory. In 1 Samuel 11, Nahash the Ammonite lays seige to Jabesh Gilead. When Saul hears of this, he rallies his army and defeats the Ammonites.
Now two things stand out to me about this event. The first is what Saul was doing when he received the word of the attack on Jabesh Gilead. 1 Samuel 11:5 tells us that Saul was returning home with his oxen after working in his field. Wow! The King of Israel doing the work of a common laborer. At this point Saul was still grounded with his people.
The second is Saul's response in victory. 1 Samuel 11:12-15 some of the people wanted to kill those who had opposed Saul in becoming king. And with his popularity due to his military victory, Saul could have easily ordered this. Instead, Saul told them, "No one shall be put to death today, for this day the LORD has rescued Israel." And then Samuel taking Saul's lead, leads the people in the worship of the LORD.
But what a drastic comparision can be made between the Saul of chapter 11 and chapter 15.
Of course by chapter 15, we already know things are not going to end well for Saul. In 1 Samuel 13, his impatients in waitning on Samuel and preforming a sacrifice on his own has already led to the foretelling that the kingdom will not remain with his family. And in 1 Samuel 14 we see that Saul is not a man who can keep an oath before God (even though if he had, it would have meant the death of Jonathan).
However I believe the greatest break from God occurs in 1 Samuel 15. Here we see that Saul is given strick instructions on how to fight the Amalekites, but doesn't follow them. Instead, he spares the king's life and he takes plunder in livestock.
But notice that when Samuel hears of what Saul has done, where is Saul to be found? Verse 12 says that Saul has gone to Carmel to set up a monument (do we dare say idol?) to himself because of his victory! Where is the man that insisted of giving God the credit for victory in chapter 13?
And then to make his rebellion against God complete, he lies twice about why he allowed livestock to be taken. First in verse 21 he says the best were kept in order to sacrafice them to God. To which Samuel gives the famous line, "to obey is better than sacrafice." The second lie occurs in verse 24 when he says he allowed his men to take the animals as plunder because he was afraid of them. Saul, a man who stood literally a head and shoulders above everyone else in Israel, is more afriad of his own men than he is of God? Now you see why I call this the second lie.
So is it any wonder that in the next chapter, God has Samuel select the sheperd boy David as a new anointed one. It will be another 40 years before Saul's rebellion against God leads to his own suicide in 1 Samuel 31 and David takes the throne, but the seperation is complete here in chapter 15.
The story of Saul is the story of a man who started off right with the Lord, but allowed the power of his position to lead him astray.
