How Long Will You Mourn for Saul
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· 756 viewsFailure to trust in God and listen to God comes at a heavy price.
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Good evening and welcome back!
This evening we are going to be backing up the Old Testament talking about Saul and Samuel.
And I will be reading from 1 Samuel 16, if you want to follow along in your Bibles, or on the screen.
Starting in verse 1 of that chapter . ..
Scripture Focus
Scripture Focus
The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.” But Samuel said, “How can I go? Saul will hear about it and kill me.” The Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate.” Samuel did what the Lord said. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled when they met him. They asked, “Do you come in peace?” Samuel replied, “Yes, in peace; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me.” Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
Background
Background
Just to bring us up to speed, we find ourselves in the book of 1 Samuel in a very familiar passage of scripture.
We are looking at Samuel and his trip to Jesse, when David is chosen as the next king of Israel.
However, in order to understand why Samuel had to make this journey we need to back up and look at the life of Saul and his rule.
Saul, as we all know was the first king of Israel.
Prior to Saul, the kingdom of Israel was governed by judges.
However, wanting to be more like the world the Israelites desired that a king be named among them.
If we go all the way back to 1 Samuel 8 . . .
So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”
However, Samuel who was in tune with the will of God knew that this was not the plan of God for His people
So, instead of giving into them like Aaron did in the desert with the Golden Calf, Samuel’s response was to seek out the Lord’s advice, which by the way is exactly what we should do as well when faced with any sort of decision.
Starting in 1 Samuel 8:6, we see this transpire . . .
But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.”
So, the Lord tells Samuel to give them their king if that is what they want.
He also reminds Samuel that they are rejecting God’s rule and not Samuel’s.
And even though he tells Samuel to let them have their king, God also warns them of the consequences of naming a king.
So, Samuel does it.
He tells the people how the king will draft their sons, take their land, impose taxes, and make the people slaves of the king.
However the draw of the world and of the flesh was still greater than the warning of God through Samuel, and the people’s response:
But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. Then we shall be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”
Which was a sad day for Israel.
They had in essence rejected God and God’s way for their own way and their own desires.
Their desire to just “fit in” and “be like everybody else” was so strong that they completely ignored what God was trying to tell them.
So, God a God of freewill, let’s them have their way and the search for a king was on and this search ended when Saul arrives on the scene.
The Bible tells us that Saul was a tall, powerful looking man, and physically attractive out of the tribe of Benjamin.
He was ceremonially appointed by Samuel as the king of Israel and later confirmed by the people after defeating the Ammonintes in battle.
Israel now had their king, not of God but of the world and they would pay a heavy price for it as well.
Saul Fails to Trust God
Saul Fails to Trust God
Now, some time passes by and the “people’s king” of Saul would reign for 40 years, until we pick the story back up in 1 Samuel 13, starting in verse 1 it says . . .
Saul was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned over Israel for forty- two years.
However, for the first 20 years of Saul’s reign there is nothing mentioned at all.
For 20 years God was silent.
In fact, the only time that it seems Saul was actually in fellowship with God was the first 2 years.
After that and for the next 40 years, he ruled under his own power and authority.
For 40 years, he walked in the flesh and not the Spirit.
For 40 years of his “service to God” Saul was living in the form of Godliness and not walking with God, under the anointing and leading of the Holy Spirit. Saul was, if you will “going through the motions,” or being “religious,” he was playing church!
And I thought about my own life and how for many years I wanted in and out of fellowship with God.
In fact, from **1988-2007 (19) Years I lived like this**
I existed but there was no real peace, no real satisfaction.
And this is what it was like for Saul.
However, in chapters 13 and then again in chapter 15, we find twice that God gives Saul the chance to be a Godly king over Israel.
The first of these comes with regard to the war with the Philistines. Saul had gathered himself an army of 3000 men, 2000 went with Saul and 1000 with his son Jonathan and they went to battle and defeated the garrison of Philistines.
They were able to defeat the Philistines, not through any work of Saul but through the faith of his son Jonathan.
And, if you will read closely you will find that Jonathan actually defeated the garrison, but Saul took the credit.
When the Philistines heard of this defeat they were enraged and gathered themselves 30,000 chariots and 6000 horseman and an uncountable number of infantry to go to war against Israel.
You see the Philistines were a type and shadow of the devil.
It’s just like the devil that whenever God’s people win a victory he comes back enraged and with a bigger army.
The Philistines, like the devil are trying everything they can to destroy God’s people. Then in verse 6 we find :
When the men of Israel 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. 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.
They were literally terrified of the Philistines and went and hid in the rocks, caves, and thickets. Anywhere they could get.
They were overtaken in a spirit of fear.
Here these were, God’s chosen people. Those whom had the anointing of God over their lives cowering in fear and trembling over the forces of the devil.
They had placed their faith in a man (their king) and not in God!
The man had failed them.
It is not just the Israelites though.
How many times do we retreat in fear when the devil and his demons show up with their army against us?
How many of our preachers, teachers, and members are hiding behind the songbook or in the pew because they are overtaken in a spirit of fear?
How many of us are afraid of the devil?
How many times are we afraid to tell someone that if they don’t change they are going to hell?
I don’t know about you but my Bible tells me that we are not to be that way. My Bible says:
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,
And then in the Book of Hebrews . . .
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”
God does not tell us to retreat.
God does not tell us to be afraid.
God actually tells us to stand still and watch Him work . . .
Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again.
And . . .
You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you.’ ”
The problem though, is they went to battle and didn’t have their amour on.
They were not prepared for the fight.
They left their shield of faith at home.
So, in the end they retreated and made their way over to Gilgal and the Bible says they “tarried there for seven days, according to the set time Samuel had appointed,” so they waited for seven days for Samuel to show up.
The days came and went and on the 7th day Samuel still wasn’t there.
By this time, Saul’s army was slowing slipping away and retreating back to their homes, so Saul decides he must take things in his own hands.
He grows inpatient waiting on Samuel and sends for his priest to make a Burnt Offering and a Peace Offering.
However, Saul did not put faith in the sacrifice or understand the meaning of the sacrifices but only did these for the sake of ceremony.
He did this because this was the way that it had always been done by Samuel.
He was trying to imitate what Samuel had done but He was only going through the motions.
Saul was not putting his faith in God but rather the ceremony and ritual.
He thought their salvation would be in the ceremony and ritual, not in God.
How many of us today are doing this?
How many of us come to the alter and confess our sins, not out of a broken and contrite heart but out of obligation?
How many of us go through the checklist of salvation and have a belief in God but never really trust God?
This is exactly what Saul is doing.
He isn’t trusting God, he is trusting himself.
He is leaning on his own understanding.
Then in verse 10, the scriptures state:
Just as he finished making the offering, Samuel arrived, and Saul went out to greet him. “What have you done?” asked Samuel. Saul replied, “When I saw that the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Michmash, I thought, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the Lord’s favour.’ So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering.”
The KJV says that Saul tells Samuel, that “I forced myself therefore.”
In other words God didn’t move so I decided that I needed to help Him.
God did not respond in my time so I responded for Him!
I did it my way instead of God’s way.
Saul was responding to the people and not responding to God.
Saul was trying to ease his own conscious and following his own will ignoring God’s commandments.
Because of this, Samuel reveals to Saul the consequences of his actions:
“You acted foolishly,” 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. But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.”
So, now that Saul had failed to put his trust in God for his and the Israelite’s salvation, but tried to invent his own salvation, the kingdom of God is lost to him forever.
Folks, we can’t make up our own way to God. There is only one way to God and that is through Jesus Christ. He is the only way.
Remember, Jesus said:
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.
Saul Fails to Obey God
Saul Fails to Obey God
And the worst part is, God gave Saul a second chance.
Another opportunity to repent and turn back to the Lord and to trust in God.
If we go over to chapter 15, we find . . .
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. 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. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’ ”
The Amelekite’s were the mortal enemies of the Israelites.
They hated Israel and everything about them.
Everything that God’s people stood for, the Amelekite’s stood against.
God’s people were to walk in the Spirit and the Amelekite’s walked entirely in the flesh.
So, Samuel delivers the message to Saul that God has remembered the evil atrocities that the Amelekite’s committed on the Israelites 500 years before.
This is recorded in Exodus 17, but what happened was that when the Israelites wandered in the desert the Amelekite’s were the first to attack them, when the Israelites were weary and faint, it was the Amelekite’s that attacked the feeble and weak.
They were evil and tried to destroy the Israelites in every way.
And at this point, God had given them 500 years to repent of their sins and they refused, so the judgment that God promised Moses was about to fall on them.
Not only are they the mortal enemy of the Israelites but they also represent something.
Just as the Philistines were a representation of the devil, the Amalekites are a representation of the flesh and the world that hates God’s people.
So, God tells Saul to go and to “utterly destroy all that they have.”
This means that Saul was to destroy and kill everything, every man, every woman, every child, and every animal.
They were to be completely destroyed.
He was to spare nothing!
In other words, the flesh was to be completely destroyed, nothing left behind.
So, Saul gathers an army of 210,000 men and went down to Amelek to make war. Verses 8-9 record the battle:
He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword. 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.
In other words Saul saved those things that his flesh deemed valuable.
He spared those things that he felt like he could get some benefit from.
Like many Christians today, Saul sought to destroy everything that he deemed as vile and repulsive but wanted to save the best.
Let’s put it in these terms.
As the church we are quick to judge and cast out the drunk, the drug addict, or the prostitute, one the one who embarrasses us, but how hard is it for us to hold accountable the rich politician with the lying tongue, or the big giver who is a porn addict, or the rich member who gets drunk every night?
We are willing to let these things slide because, “they give so much money,” or “they are so important…”
Let’s break it down a little further.
We are willing to give up those “fleshly things” that are of no value to us.
We pray that God deliver us from our gambling addiction or our drug addiction, but what about our addiction to money, or our addiction to television and the internet?
Flesh is the flesh.
Anything that replaces God has to be dealt with.
It has to be “utterly destroyed.”
Like many of us, Saul failed to do this.
He couldn’t let go of the flesh.
He could not live under the anointing of God.
He couldn’t walk in the Spirit.
Saul had to have it his own way.
So, Samuel now has to deal with it . . .
Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel: “I am grieved that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.” Samuel was troubled, and he cried out to the Lord all that night.
And skipping down to verse 13 . . .
When Samuel reached him, Saul said, “The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord’s instructions.” But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?”
In other words, if you did what God had commanded you, then why do I hear all these sheep and oxen?
If we have destroyed the flesh in our life, then why can we always hear the bleating of the sheep? (If we have destroyed the flesh, why do I still hear you cussing, drinking, lying, etc…)
Saul then tries to play it off that he did this for the Lord.
He tells Samuel that the people wanted to save these animals so they could “sacrifice unto the LORD your God; and the rest have utterly destroyed.” (1 Samuel 15:15).
In other words, I played the lottery so that if I won I could give ½ of it to the building fund.
Or I chose to work overtime when I didn’t have to so I could give more to the church. Liar!
You did it because the flesh told you too.
You did it, just like Saul did, because you wanted to.
God didn’t have anything to do with it.
Also you can see Saul’s turning away from God here.
He says offer a sacrifice to the LORD YOUR GOD.
Saul doesn’t say, my God or our God, he say’s your God.
Saul has completely abandoned God at this point. He is lost.
And the result?
But Samuel replied: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of 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.”
And finally . . .
Until the day Samuel died, he did not go to see Saul again, though Samuel mourned for him. And the Lord was grieved that he had made Saul king over Israel.
Altar/Challenge
Altar/Challenge
The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.”
Samuel is mourning over Saul and God interrupts his pity party and asks him, How long will you mourn over Saul?
How long will you mourn over what had to come to pass before MY will was realized?
How long are you going to feel sorry for yourself?
How long are we going to feel sorry when God’s plan is different from ours?
God tells Samuel to get up and “fill his horn with oil.” Renew himself, get filled with the Holy Spirit because I have a job for you.
I have a new King.
This king will be MY king, not the people’s king.
Rejoice because the Lord has come to save us, the Lord has come to sanctify us.
So, church How long are we going to mourn for Saul?
How long are we going to mourn because things aren’t going our way?
How long are we not going to trust God?
How long are we going to not obey God?
Saul’s chances ran out, will yours?
Let’s pray . . .