When Victory is Failure 2024-09-08
Notes
Transcript
Kids-When worship is rejected
Kids-When worship is rejected
Would your mom or dad like it if they asked you to do something and you said
“No, I’m watching a movie”?
What if you left a mess, they want you to clean up but you say
“I’m busy singing to God”
Would they say
Oh well, you don’t have to clean up your mess if you are singing to God?
No, of course not.
They want you to obey,
they want you to do your chores.
A famous lady named Elisabeth Elliot tells the story of when she and her brother Tom were small children.
Their mother would let Tom play with paper bags that she had saved as long as he put them away afterwards.
I wonder what he did with all the paper bags.
Did he draw houses on them, open them up and arrange them like houses on a street?
I wonder.
One day their mother walked into the kitchen to find Tom had left all the bags strewn all over the floor.
Tom was in another room at the piano with his father singing hymns.
When their mother called him to the kitchen to tidy up, he protested,
"But Mum, I want to sing Jesus loves me this I know."
His father, seated next to him, backed up the boys' mother by saying:
"It's no good singing God's praise if you're disobedient.
To obey is better than sacrifice."
It’s not just parents that feel that way.
So does God!
Let’s Pray.
A Mission for God
A Mission for God
A calling came to Saul.
It wasn’t the prophets idea,
this calling this mission, came from God.
1 Samuel said to Saul, “I am the one the Lord sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the Lord.
God was about to deliver judgement that he had sworn to take against the Amalekites
2 This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. 3 Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’ ”
Now you may be wondering why God gave this command. I’m told for a long time the Amalekites lived as pirates on the land.
They lived as raisers and as the Israelites left Egypt, this is what they did against God’s chosen people.
8 The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. 9 Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.”
10 So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. 11 As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. 12 When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. 13 So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.
14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven.”
15 Moses built an altar and called it The Lord is my Banner. 16 He said, “Because hands were lifted up against the throne of the Lord, the Lord will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation.”
So God, not Moses, has chosen to war against the Amalekites.
Now back to
4 So Saul summoned the men and mustered them at Telaim—two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand from Judah. 5 Saul went to the city of Amalek and set an ambush in the ravine. 6 Then he said to the Kenites, “Go away, leave the Amalekites so that I do not destroy you along with them; for you showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites moved away from the Amalekites.
Wow, victory sure gives a king a greater pool of volunteers.
Saul asked for fighters and
210,000 men have shown up to fight.
Kenites
Kenites
But who are the Kenites?
Saul says they showed kindness to the Israelites as they left Egypt.
And that is one of the reasons why Saul encouraged them to get away from the Amalekites.
The Kenites were a nomadic tribe that was friendly toward Israel.
Jethro - Moses father in Law was a Kenite, of the Midianites and he was a priest of Yahweh.
They continued to be friends with the Israelite, Jael is another famous Kenite.
She killed the Canaanite General who fled a battle and tried to hide/rest in her tent.
Even though they were nomads, some of them where known for their metal work.
7 Then Saul attacked the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, near the eastern border of Egypt. 8 He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword. 9 But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs—everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed.
Later in this chapter, Saul will claim that they only kept the best for a great offering to God.
But I seriously doubt his words were honest.
I think this was plunder they were all hoping to keep.
The problem is, God order total destruction on the Amalekites and their things, their stuff,
including
sheep
cattle
calves and
lambs.
What did God think of all this?
10 Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel: 11 “I regret that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.” Samuel was angry, and he cried out to the Lord all that night.
God regretted making Saul king
God regretted making Saul king
You may ask, did God make a mistake, in choosing Saul as their first king?
No, God gave them just the kind of man they wanted as king
He was tall
He was handsome
He grew to be a mightly and decisive him
And he grew prideful like all the other kings in the neighborhood.
When Samuel is sent to annoint the second King of Isreal
Even Samuel would have picked David’s Older brother
because of his good looks and demeaner.
but God looks on the heart.
There were some Great Times with Saul following God’s instructions,
it wasn’t all bad but Sauls pride, Saul’s people pleasing
made him a bad king.
God had know this sad day would come
but he gave the the king they wanted anyway.
God also regretted making man,
even though He said creation was Good and
He summed up all of creation as very Good.
but there were and will be bad days
where God has regrets.
There handsome king,
There handsome king,
Saul had not learned his lesson since chapter 13 where he
impatiently gave up on trusting Samuel to show up
and claimed the spiritual right to offer the sacrifice to ask for Gods help.
You remember that story, just as Saul is done with the offering, Samuel shows up.
His excuses were
you didn’t come
the men were leaving
I had to make the offering.
Let’s see how many excuses Saul gives and who he blames in this chapter
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.”
Wow, Saul is feeling pretty good about himself.
He put up a monument to what he did.
Not a monument about how God gave them a great victory
but what he did, which was a very common Kingly thing to do.
Also suggest his pride is growing.
So Samuel had to keep pursuing Saul.
13 When Samuel reached him, Saul said, “The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord’s instructions.”
It sounds like Saul is feeling pretty good about himself and all he did.
It was a big job and a dangerous job.
But did he follow God’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?”
Say excuse, if you hear an excuse
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.”
It’s those pesky soldiers again
Saul just can’t control them.
But he’s King
Samuel wasn’t buying it
16 “Enough!” Samuel said to Saul. “Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.”
“Tell me,” Saul replied.
17 Samuel said, “Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. 18 And he sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; wage war against them until you have wiped them out.’ 19 Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?”
To keep the plunder for better worship would be wrong.
To hope to keep it and get richer by is,
would be even more wrong.
Now, tell me if you hear an excuse
20 “But I did obey the Lord,” Saul said. “I went on the mission the Lord assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. 21 The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal.”
Sounds like excuses to me.
He doesn’t even cover the issue well.
He brought back the King of the whole people, he was suposed to destroy/ dedicate to God
He let the men keep some of the plunder and
the best would be devoted to God.
Doesn’t even sound like all of it
per God’s requirement in this case.
Here comes the lesson for Saul and for all who read or hear the scriptures
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.”
Obedience
Obedience
Obedience is more important than worship
It becomes a common theme through the scriptures
16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.
3 To do what is right and just
is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.
11 “The multitude of your sacrifices—
what are they to me?” says the Lord.
“I have more than enough of burnt offerings,
of rams and the fat of fattened animals;
I have no pleasure
in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
12 When you come to appear before me,
who has asked this of you,
this trampling of my courts?
13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—
I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.
14 Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals
I hate with all my being.
They have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.
15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I hide my eyes from you;
even when you offer many prayers,
I am not listening.
Your hands are full of blood!
16 Wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds out of my sight;
stop doing wrong.
17 Learn to do right; seek justice.
Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
plead the case of the widow.
Ok, that one was a bit more then just obedience
21 “ ‘This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves! 22 For when I brought your ancestors out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, 23 but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you.
you can see also
Hosea 6:6; Micah 6:6-8; Matt 12:7; Mark 12:33 and Hebrew 10:8-9.
Worship is God
We are called to worship God
We are made to worship God
It’s in our DNA
BUT
Obedience is better.
Will Saul get it?
24 Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned. I violated the Lord’s command and your instructions. I was afraid of the men and so I gave in to them. 25 Now I beg you, forgive my sin and come back with me, so that I may worship the Lord.”
It would be nice to think he really gets it, but
what he really understands is that if the prophet publicly rejects him
that will hurt his kingship.
An interesting little drama takes place with Samuel moving to leave and Saul grabbing at him and tearing off a piece of his robe.
To which the prophet declares
27 As Samuel turned to leave, Saul caught hold of the hem of his robe, and it tore. 28 Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors—to one better than you. 29 He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind.”
There’s that concept, God is not like a man, he does not change his mind.
Yet he can have regrets.
When Lazarus was dying, Jesus delayed and did not rush to his side and heal him.
This was the plan, to resurrect Lazarus, but at the scene at the tomb with all the women crying and weeping,
Jesus wept too.
Our God can feel emotional pain, even when it’s his plan that caused the pain.
30 Saul replied, “I have sinned. But please honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel; come back with me, so that I may worship the Lord your God.” 31 So Samuel went back with Saul, and Saul worshiped the Lord.
Saul was concerned
how he looked, before the elders
how he looked, before the people.
So one last time, Samuel honored him.
Samuel, carry’s out God’s will and slays Agag
Wrap up
Saul’s great victory against the Amalekites,
was a great failure in his relationship with God.
We see hints that his pride is growing.
Samuel never came to see him again after these evens and
Saul seemed to just go on with being king but not pursuing
making things right with God
God’s regrets.
The pain and disappointment with Saul leadership choices hurt God
He regretted making Saul king and yet it was in part a lesson to the people.
Tall and handsome, may not make a very good king.
God really wanted to be their king
and today He wants to be King of our hearts and lives too.
Saul sparing King Agag’s life.
Why did he do that?
The leader
the king pin of these raisers
why would Saul spare his life?
As a trophy of war
as a fellow king to visit with
or retain as a military advisor
I don’t know but it was disobedience to God.
Obedience is better then the best worship is a theme we hear over and over in scripture
it’s almost like, God meant it. .. . . . . . . . . . .
I found a quote by Mike Richardson
Sacrifice does not always require obedience however obedience always requires sacrifice.
Going back to the children's story
Tom was having fun singing hymns with his dad
At that moment an offering, a sacrifice of music was what he wanted to give.
But Obedience
to go clean up his mess, would require sacrifice
of his time and
his will, his desires, what he wanted to do.
We each face times when we have a choice to make.
our will
or His Will.
Let’s pray.