The Problem with Religion
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Intro:
As we’ve been studying 1 Samuel, we’ve been diving in pretty deep and looking at some of the details of the text, this morning what I want to do is actually give us more of a 30,000 foot perspective. We’re going to be covering a lot of 1 Samuel this morning, in fact we’ll be covering three chapters, 1 Samuel 13, 14, and 15. As we go through this morning’s sermon, I’m going to be asking some questions. These are questions for us to just see as superfluous, but questions for us to continue to think about.
Here are some:
Why do you come to church?
How would you describe your relationship with God?
How has your understanding of God changed over the years?
What would you like your relationship with God to look like?
Before we get to these questions, let’s get that 30,000 foot perspective of 1 Samuel 13-15:
We know that Saul was selected as king by God as the kind of king the people wanted. He was tall, he was handsome, and he was strong. Yet we already had some concerns when he is selected and they go to look for him and find him hiding in the baggage. Yet, he is the Lord’s annointed.
We ended last week with Samuel’s farewell address to the Israelites. A key phrase in there was from 1 Sam 12:14.
If you will fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God, it will be well.
And so we enter the following chapters poised to watch Saul carefully and how exactly he will live as the king of Israel. And one of the first things we find is that he is faced with a battle against the Philistines, and he wins. And immediately the story takes a turn. The Philistines mount a tremendous force against Israel.
When the men of Israel saw that they were in trouble (for the people were hard pressed), the people hid themselves in caves and in holes and in rocks and in tombs and in cisterns, and some Hebrews crossed the fords of the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. Saul was still at Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling.
At this point in our story, Saul knows that it is important that he seek the Lord’s favor before he goes into battle. And so he waits 7 days, but Samuel doesn’t come. The people begin scattering from him, and Saul determines that he will take on the role of priest as well as king, and in verse 9 he offers the sacrifice. But as soon as he does it Samuel shows up and asks him why he did it. Saul tells Samuel:
Samuel said, “What have you done?” And Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines had mustered at Michmash, I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the favor of the Lord.’ So I forced myself, and offered the burnt offering.”
Saul knew, by the command of the Lord that a sacrifice needed to be made. God needed to be put first, but it wasn’t happening on his time table. And so he pushes it. He steps in and takes care of it.
As we read on in chapter 14, Jonathan, Saul’s son goes with his armor bearer and defeats the Philistines - a reason for great celebration! And we read in verse 24:
And the men of Israel had been hard pressed that day, so Saul had laid an oath on the people, saying, “Cursed be the man who eats food until it is evening and I am avenged on my enemies.” So none of the people had tasted food.
As we continue to read we find out that there is honey literally everywhere in the forest they are walking through. Jonathan did not hear his father’s oath, and he dips his staff in the honey and eats it. When they go to battle against the Philistines they strike them down and the people in their state of hunger pounce upon the spoil and take the sheep, oxen, and calves and slaughter them on the ground and begin to eat them with the blood in them (something specifically forbidden by God’s commands). So Saul builds an altar for the people to bring their sacrifices and offer them to the Lord.
Then we get to chapter 15, and Saul is told specifically to go against the Amalekites.
Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’ ”
This is actually a fulfillment of God’s judgment pronounced way back in Exodus.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”
So Saul goes up against the Amalekites and does battle with them and is victorious. So what does he do?
He sets up a monument for himself in Carmel and turns and goes on to Gilgal.
When Samuel catches up to him Saul says to Samuel,
And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed be you to the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord.”
Samuel is not impressed, because it’s not true. In fact as we read through chapter 15 what we see is that they had kept the best of the sheep and oxen, the fatted calves and the lambs and all that was good. So when Saul greets Samuel with this greeting his response is,
And Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?”
He asks Saul directly:
Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord?”
Saul defends himself with:
And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction.
But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”
Basically he says, “I did right, the people didn’t.”
Is that true? What was the command?
Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’ ”
Samuel’s response is
And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.
I want to emphasize that last part.
And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.
It’s easy for us to be judgmental of Saul. I believe this history is preserved for us to learn from. The truth is there is a bit of Saul in all of us. Let’s look back at the questions we asked at the beginning:
Why do you come to church?
How would you describe your relationship with God?
How has your understanding of God changed over the years?
What would you like your relationship with God to look like?
Why do you come to church
This question is difficult in this context, but I include it because it’s good for us to check our motives. Are we going through the motions, or are we seeking God first?
How would you describe your relationship with God?
What is your relationship with God like? My hope is that it is about relationship rather than religion. The trouble with religion is it is all about the rules. And when we make it about the rules we tend to give those rules our own interpretation. This was the sin of Saul, it was the sin of the Pharisees in Jesus time, and it is our sin too. We like to say, “Well God didn’t really mean that, this is what is meant.
How has your understanding of God changed over the years?
It is my hope that your understanding of God continues to grow, and so the answer to this question is yes. How does it change? Not by trying to create God in our own image, but by our striving each one of us to become the person God created us to be.
What would you like your relationship with God to look like?
This question is not for me to give you any kind of an answer. Seriously, what would you like your relationship with God to look like.
I meet people (mostly non-church goers) all the time that say, “I’m not religious but I’m very spiritual.” How do they know? What does that even mean?
The other phrase I hear among the non-churched is “I’m a God fearing person.” So you’re afraid of God? Or in the biblical sense you are in awe of God and worship the LORD?
If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.
By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.