A King Driven by Fear

Prayer

Saul’s Fall as King - A King Driven by Fear

Saul’s Great Victory

So we’re picking up our story here in 1 Samuel - we left off last week having the first king of Israel anointed, Saul. If you remember, Saul was actually hiding when his name was chosen by lot - not a good sign for him, as we’ll see. But his reign actually begins really well, we’ll pick that up in 1 Samuel 11 (we’ll be covering a lot of ground today, chapters 11-15, in order to show you how Saul reigned as king and why God eventually rejects him as king.

So in 1 Samuel 11, the Ammonites come up and besiege the Israelite town of Jabesh Gilead. Realizing their situation is dire, they agree to a treaty with the Ammonites where they would be subject to them. Ammonites agree, but on the condition that they can gouge out the right eye of every one of them (rendering them ineffective in battle).

Jabesh asks if the Ammonites will give them time to ask their fellow Israelites for aid, to which the Ammonites agree. Remember, this is the way it worked before Israel had a king and a standing army. So the elders of Jabesh send out messengers - some of whom come to the area where Saul is (who after being anointed as king, returned home to work the family fields. When he finds out what is happening, he sends out messengers throughout Israel, warning the tribes that they better come together as one - and they do.

Saul leads the Israelite army in victory against Ammonites, defeating them soundly. This victory confirms Saul as king - Samuel is wise enough to gather the people together again in order to renew the kingship of Saul, now that everyone is onboard with him as king. So, chapter 11 ends with everything looking good.

However it doesn’t last long. Over the next several chapters we see a series of events where Saul proves himself to be a poor king - I want to take us through three blatant examples:

Now, a note here - the chronology in 1 Samuel is not straightforward, it’s a bit of challenge trying to figure out when things happen. We learn in chapter 13 that Saul was thirty years old when he became king, his reign lasts 42 years. And this is the next time we see Saul dealing with an enemy, this time its the Philistines. And here he has a grown son, Jonathan, who is fighting alongside him - so it must be years after his reign began.

It appears that by this time, Philistines have regained the upper hand - they have a much larger army and they have more sophisticated weaponry (including chariots) - in fact, the Israelites have no weapons at all. The Philistines have prohibited blacksmiths in Israel - so they can’t make weapons. They have to go to Philistine area and pay exorbitant prices to have their tools sharpened.

There is great fear in the land, 1 Samuel 13:6-7: When the Israelites saw that their situation was critical and that their army was hard pressed, they hid in caves and thickets, among the rocks, and in pits and cisterns. 7 Some Hebrews even crossed the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. Saul remained at Gilgal, and all the troops with him were quaking with fear.

So Saul is not instilling confidence in his army. In fact, it’s likely they are feeding off his fear. We learn that the armies are gathered to battle, and Saul is waiting for Samuel to come and make sacrifices to the Lord. But Samuel is late in coming, and Saul’s men are starting to scatter. Saul panics and decides to make the offering himself. Just as he finishes, Samuel arrives. And he is not happy:

1 Samuel 13:13-14 - “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.”

As I read what Samuel tells Saul here - God seems to be telling him that if he had been obedient, it would have been through his lineage that the Messiah would have come (established your kingdom over Israel for all time). Jesus would have been the son of Saul. But Saul was not a man after God’s own heart - next week we’ll be looking at the man who is.

So Saul is stuck with his ragtag army against the might of the Philistines. But it’s not Saul that takes action, it’s his son, Jonathan. Jonathan and his armor-bearer decide to go up to one of the Philistine outposts - and this is very telling, “But he did not tell his father.” It’s likely that Jonathan knows his father would veto the idea out of fear. But Jonathan has great faith, as he tells his armor-bearer, “Perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few.” Maybe God will help us, we’ll win even though they outnumber us.

That’s exactly what God does. The two of them attack this Philistine outpost where twenty men are stationed, defeating them. This victory emboldens the Israelites and panics the Philistines (a panic sent by God we learn). So the Israelites give chase. And it’s here that Saul shows his foolishness, 14:24, Now the Israelites were in distress that day, because Saul had bound the people under an oath, saying, “Cursed be anyone who eats food before evening comes, before I have avenged myself on my enemies!” So none of the troops tasted food.

Just think about that - Saul foolishly hampers his troops by denying them nourishment as they engage in pursuing their enemies, fighting them. Notice, too, his motivation - this is not about fighting for the Lord, or for the nation of Israel - it’s personal vengeance: “before I have avenged myself on my enemies.”

There’s only one person who breaks the oath - Saul’s own son, Jonathan. When this gets discovered, Saul decides he must put his own son to death in order to keep his oath to the Lord. (By the way, this should sound familiar - remember in the book of Judges, Jephthah, who makes the oath before he goes to battle against the Ammonites, oath that ends up with him taking the life of his own daughter?). But amazingly, it’s Saul’s own men who intervene, because they recognize that it was Jonathan who “brought about this great deliverance” for Israel. They defy the king and save Jonathan’s life.

So we have Saul making the offerings himself, making a foolish oath, and now, final example - the act that Saul does that seals his fate - leads him to be rejected by God as king.

This is chapter 15, begins with the Lord sending Saul against the Amalekites to punish them for their sins against the nation of Israel as they came up from Egypt, vv. 2-3: 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 (catch this) 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.”

So notice that God’s command here is for herem, for absolute devotion to God - in this case, destruction of all the Amalekites and all they owned (like a burnt offering, given completely over to God). So Saul summons the men of Israel, leads the attack, and destroys the Amalekites. But not completely, vs. 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.

God reveals his disappointment with Samuel, expressing his regret with making Saul king, because, as the Lord says, “he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.” So Samuel goes to Saul to share the word of the Lord with Saul, who just happens to be setting up a monument in his own honor - which says so much, he’s so pleased with himself he’s setting up monuments to himself, at the same time God is expressing his displeasure with him to Samuel.

Then this, vv. 13-14, 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?” (Don’t you love Samuel’s response - uh, what’s that I’m hearing??)

In spite of Samuel’s confrontation, Saul tries to justify his disobedience, telling Samuel that he went on his mission that God have him, completely destroying the Amalekites, other than their king - and the livestock they took as plunder, the best was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice to the Lord.

Samuel’s powerful reply, vv. 22-23, “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. 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.”

Finally, Saul confesses his sin - but in spite of his pleading, the decision is made by the Lord, who declares that he will give the kingdom to another. And we’ll pick up that story next week as Samuel goes to anoint David, a man after God’s own heart.

A Kingdom Driven by Love

There’s one common thread in all these failures, in all these acts of Saul’s foolishness and outright disobedience and that one thing is this: fear. Saul acts out of fear. Saul disobeys God because he is afraid.

When threatened by the Philistines, Saul is afraid of losing his men - and therefore losing his battle, failing as the king, the one who would lead the Israelites to victory in battle (that was the hope). So he disobeys God by failing to wait for Samuel and making the offerings himself, trying to get God on his side.

In the second example, Saul’s fear is contrasted by his own son, Jonathan, his faith. It’s Jonathan who acts in faith and attacks the Philistine outpost, it’s his victory that spurs the Israelites to victory over the Philistines. And when he makes the foolish oath (nobody eat a thing!), it’s fear that leads him to think he has to save face and kill his son. Telling that his own men don’t fear him enough not to defy him.

Finally, in the example of the attack on the Amalekites, Saul is driven by the fear of his own soldiers, as he himself as he says: “I violated the Lord’s command and your instructions. I was afraid of the men and so I gave in to them.” Disobedience driven by fear makes for a poor king.

When we (the Leadership Team) were in Dallas engaged in the Cultivating Flourishing Congregations process, we really got some great training. There was one insight that I found particularly helpful.

Talked about introducing change and what happens when you introduce change, that there is often resistance. Talked about being mindful of that - who might resist the change, and why they might resist the change (which, by the way, is not necessarily a negative thing, sometimes change should be resisted). One of the primary reasons we often resist change is not fear of the change itself, but fear of loss. Change may mean gain, but it involves loss as well. And that fear of loss comes in four main ways:

Loss of control. We fear losing control. We see that in Saul, who fears he is losing control of the situation with the army, so he makes the offering Samuel was to make himself. His impulsive oath was a way to assert control, be authoritarian.

Then there’s the loss of value, which is often held in our identity. Saul valued his role as king, the honor it gave him - he valued being admired by others. So he acted out of fear.

Loss of stability. We generally don’t like unstable situations, when things are unpredictable, unknown. It’s interesting to me that when Saul gets anointed king, where does he go? He goes home. Back to working in the fields. Because that’s familiar, stable.

Finally, there’s the loss of comfort. We fear losing our comfort. After all, who wants to be uncomfortable? Who wants to endure difficult situations?

I point all this out because if it’s fear that’s drives Saul’s disobedience, then surely that’s true for us as well. Really helpful for us to consider what fears might cause us to resist changes - or more directly, disobey God? Afraid of losing control…the things we value…our comfort…stability. And I want to particularly point it out because we’re going to be introducing changes here at PCC, changes we hope and pray will help us become more of a church that truly does help to lead others into the abundant life that comes through Jesus. In what ways might we resist those changes because of fear?

One of our main objectives we decided on (we’ll talk more about this on our lunch gathering on Sunday, October 13) is leadership development, a big part of which means shifting from being pastor-centered to greater lay leadership. As the leadership team talked about it, trying to think through where resistance might come from, it was clear that the biggest resister to this change might be me! I would be giving up control. I might have to give up my values - what I think is important. I’m going to have to focus my efforts on areas that I might not be as comfortable leading.

Another main objective, as we introduced last week, move from disciple to disciple-maker - we might love the idea, but as our history has shown, we resist doing it. Here is a place where we have been disobedient - what do we fear? Value what others think of us too much? Afraid of being seen as religious fanatics? Fear losing comfort - engaging in conversations that might be awkward, uncomfortable? Feel inadequate?

Of course, that’s just in relation to our efforts here as a church. It’s helpful to be mindful of where fear in general - of losing control or comfort or stability or value - might be moving you (or keeping you) in sinful habit. Where might you be valuing - or treasuring things more than Jesus? How might we resist giving ourselves more fully over to Jesus because we want control, stability? What fear might be keeping me from loving others?

King driven by love

Remember that early on, God decided that because of his disobedience, Saul’s kingdom would not last forever, instead he would hand the kingdom over to another, a man after his own heart. The Lord does promise to that man, David, that his kingdom will last, that one of his descendants will reign forever. That will be the Son of David, Jesus. Jesus will be a king driven not by fear, but by love.

Jesus shows us how we can become people who live in obedience, who live not in fear (think of how often Jesus says, “Don’t be afraid.” It’s a lot).

Touched on it last week - Matthew 16:24-25, Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.

We do exactly what Jesus did, lose our lives. Jesus give his life up willingly, freely, for our sake. When we deny ourselves, take up our cross, lose our life for Jesus, it puts us in a position to follow him, to live in obedience to him, as he was obedient to the Father.

Because here’s the thing, you cannot fear losing what you’ve already lost, what you’ve already given up. If I surrender my life to Jesus, if I give up control, I won’t fear losing it. If I value Jesus above everything else, in that sense “lose” it all, I won’t fear losing whatever else I have in my life. Same goes for our comfort, our stability. We, too, become people driven not by fear, but by love. Love for Jesus, love for others.

Spiritual Disciplines

Make an effort this week to be attentive to feelings of fear you may experience this week. What drives that fear, what’s behind it? Be mindful that fear may be disguised - it may come out in anger (feel threatened, fight or flight). Or depression, avoidance, procrastination (again, fight or flight). As you recognize that fear, confess it to Jesus, ask for his Spirit, his power and presence in you, to help you live in loving obedience to him.

Another discipline that would be really helpful to putting what Jesus is teaching us here is the discipline of fasting. In fasting we willingly “lose” for the sake of Jesus. We give up so that nothing else has a hold on us, mastery over us. Fasting may involve eating habits. It may be something like fasting from the need to defend yourself. Or having to have the last work in an argument or discussion. Fasting that denies us comfort in some way.

The goal in all of this is to not be like Saul. We want to be those people who practice “Lived Obedience to Jesus.” People driven not by fear, but by love.