Saul

I had been reading the book of 1 Samuel, and was intrigued by the first king of Israel, Saul.

As you probably know, the Israelites are demanding a human king to rule and judge over them, like other nations. “No, but there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.”, so said the Israelites.

To me, the ironic thing is that all the while, it is the Lord who has been delivering them from their enemies, yet they still demand another king to lead them into battles. Such is the sinfulness of the human heart to desire to lead their own fate.

God somehow still gave them a king, in the person of Saul. It is always interesting how God chooses people – He chose Saul, a Benjamite supposedly from the smallest tribe of Israel, and from the least of all families. (on the other hand, Saul is tall and handsome) I supposed God prefers to choose the humble and uses the least to confound the strong, making wise the simple.

So how did Saul fare as the first king of Israel? I would say that he started off on a good note, but ended badly.

Things he did well initially

1. God changed Saul’s heart, prophesized among the prophets
2. delivered the Israelites from the Ammonites under God’s anointing

Things he done wrongly

1. He disobeyed God by disobeying His prophet Samuel’s instructions to wait for him to come to Gilgal in 7 days time. He started to offer burnt offerings to God on his own, foolishly thinking that God would deliver them from the Philistines by doing so, while disregarding Samuel’s instructions.
2. He became increasingly ego-centric and put Israel at risk and unnecessary disadvantage by giving a foolish order. The fact that Saul said “until I have avenged myself on my enemies” tells us that Saul has made the war with the philistines a personal agenda rather than a battle for the Lord to deliver His people. Doing the right thing with wrong intentions is wrong.
3. He disobeyed God by not utterly destroying the Amalekites.

Finally, I think the most telling part about Saul was the last part when Samuel rebukes Saul and Saul pleads Samuel to honour him before Israel so that he may also worship the Lord, your God. I am deeply perplexed how Saul who has sinned against God is still so concerned about being honoured in Israel, about his personal status in the sight of men. In fact, we can see his increasingly alienation from God through his constant referral to “the Lord your God” instead of “my God” from his conversation with Samuel. In fact, I felt that Saul was trying to be “politically correct” and pious, so as to score points with Samuel so that he could make Samuel believe that he was repentant about his sin, so that Samuel would honour Saul before Israel and hence retain his kingship.

What have I learnt from Saul?

1. Success can get to your head if you do not recognize that success is given from God, not by your own cleverness and ability.
2. Obedience
3. Do the right thing with the right intentions.
4. Glorify God and not yourself before men.
5. Using God and religion for political mileage or even social standing
6. Worship the Lord my God – personal relationship with Him