11.13.07
The Life of Saul Part 1, by Tim Marshall
Our Old Testament survey brings us to a character today that may best be described by the word enigma. Saul is an enigma to us – a puzzle and a mystery. There may be more about Saul’s life that’s unexplainable than we’re comfortable with, but God captured his story for us anyway, and He expects us to give it some thought. And so today, with God’s help, we will.
If you were here last week you remember we were introduced to Samuel, the last of the judges of Israel and probably the best. For the two weeks prior to Samuel we studied the life of his mother Hannah. She was a God honoring woman who lived in what we would call a highly dysfunctional family. God seems determined to use people like that to teach us His way.
The story of Saul takes place about 1000 years before Christ, and it marks the beginning of the period of the Kings in Israel – Saul was the first man to be named king in Israel. His life is sketched out in the book of 1 Samuel.
As a prelude to the introduction of Saul, the Biblical record tells of the day when Israel demanded that before he died, Samuel should appoint a king over them. 1 Samuel 8:5″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.”
Samuel was surprised and grieved, and took the issue to God, who helped Samuel see that it was not Samuel they were rejecting, but God. Israel no longer saw the benefits of the type of Government instituted under Moses. In that system, God was king and judges were his appointed rulers.
I read an interview recently with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas that helped me understand the Old Testament system of Judges better.
Justice Thomas suggested that the job of a judge was not to “choose right and wrong, but to choose between right and wrong”. Adam and Eve’s sin, Thomas went on to say – “was that they thought they could choose right and wrong as opposed to choosing between the two.”
Implicit in Thomas’s argument, of course, is that God already determined what is right and wrong, and He revealed that to us in His Word. It’s our job to hold our lives and actions up against that Word to determine where we stand with respect to it. Judges in Israel were appointed to help the nation with that. But they grew tired of that system, and demanded a King.
Samuel told Israel what life under a king would be like – that he would be a law unto himself and that he would take the best of the land, the best of their children and the best of their goods and services for himself. But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. 20 Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.” 1 Sam 8:19
1 Samuel 9:1 There was a Benjamite, a man of standing, whose name was Kish son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Becorath, the son of Aphiah of Benjamin. 2 He had a son named Saul, an impressive young man without equal among the Israelites—a head taller than any of the others.
Remember our study of the book of Judges – Eugene Peterson said it’s a book written to “those who believe that a strong man at the top would solve their problems.” What does this description of Saul tell you about him?
I think it says that he was just the kind of man they were looking for - a big man, an impressive man, a man who stood out in a crowd and who had no peers. Saul was just the kind of man they were looking for. Or so they thought. Saul had the stature and charisma that Israel was craving.
I met Bill Clinton once while he was President and got to shake his hand. Before the meeting I’d thought of all sorts of things to say to him but when it came down to the moment I was so struck by his stature and his presence that I forgot everything, and just said one word - “welcome”.
I think Bill and Saul had a few things in common. Bill was a strong man at the top, a Rhodes Scholar. But when we put him there, he was unable to solve our problems. Go figure. Neither will the next guy, regardless of his political party. “Some trust in horses, some in chariots”, some in kings of their own choosing, “but we will trust in the name of the Lord our God”.
If you’ll take the time this week to read the story of Saul in 1 Samuel you’ll be better off for it. But it’s not the kind of story that’s neat and tidy and leaves you with all the answers. It’s messy and disconcerting, and if you’re like me, it’ll probably leave you with more questions than answers.
You’ll be troubled by Saul’s character (despite his special relationship with God) and by God’s severe response to Saul’s failures (where’s the mercy?).
But getting rattled by the Word may not be the worst thing in the world – it may even make you more attractive to unbelievers than people who act like they do have all the answers. One of the most off-putting things about us believers is that we sometimes come across as if we have all the answers.
Read the life of Saul and you won’t be so tempted to feel that way.
I spent most of my study time this week in 1 Samuel 12. It takes place at the beginning of Saul’s reign and is subtitled “Samuel’s Farewell Address”.
In a brief introduction, Samuel reminds Israel that his leadership has not been characterized by the kind of corruption that they’re about to experience, andhe tells them one more time about how they got to this point in time.
6 Then Samuel said to the people, “It is the LORD who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought your forefathers up out of Egypt. 7 Now then, stand here, because I am going to confront you with evidence before the LORD as to all the righteous acts performed by the LORD for you and your fathers. 8 “After Jacob entered Egypt, they cried to the LORD for help, and the LORD sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your forefathers out of Egypt and settled them in this place. 9 “But they forgot the LORD their God; so he sold them into the hand of Sisera, the commander of the army of Hazor, and into the hands of the Philistines and the king of Moab, who fought against them. 10 They cried out to the LORD and said, ‘We have sinned; we have forsaken the LORD and served the Baals and the Ashtoreths. But now deliver us from the hands of our enemies, and we will serve you.’ 11 Then the LORD sent Jerub-Baal, Barak, Jephthah and Samuel, and he delivered you from the hands of your enemies on every side, so that you lived securely.
Again at the end of this brief message Samuel tells Israel to consider what great things [God] has done for you. In a way, that’s one of the top priorities of any leader – to help us remember how we got this far. Last week we saw that Samuel erected a monument called Ebenezer to help remind Israel – “hither by thy help I’ve come.” We are prone to wander and forget.
Last week we spoke about the Baals and the Ashtoreths that ancient Israel went after – false gods of the nations around them. Baal worship originated in a belief that every tract of ground owed its productivity to a supernatural being, or baal, that dwelt there. Ashtoreth was goddess of sexual pleasure.
Ancient people had a real problem with worshiping the gods of productivity and sexual pleasure - and these old stories have no relevance? Israel wanted a king to help insure their future – to fight for their right to be free to chase any opportunity they felt like chasing.
Modern men are no different. Like the sacrifice of children to Baal gods, we’ve also sacrificed a relationship with our children by being so set on productivity and money-making. And men are running after Ashtoreth in unprecedented levels, especially through the internet – some say that 60% of internet use (that’s billions of “hits” every day) is focused on pornography.
By the end of his ‘shock and awe’ message, 19 The people all said to Samuel, “Pray to the LORD your God for your servants so that we will not die, for we have added to all our other sins the evil of asking for a king.”
Here’s how Ravi Zacharias summarizes the whole life of Saul, and I think it also speaks the truth about Israel, as evidenced by their repeated demand for a king, which God finally granted.
But in getting what they wanted, they would also get much more than they bargained for…
“If you are determined in going in the wrong direction, even after repeated warnings from God, from His word and from His people, at some point God will step aside and second your motion.”
