MY SHORT REPORT RUTH - 1 SAM 20
The link that brought you to this page and the page title are a bit of a misnomer, because this short report is not long enough to cover so many chapters of the Bible. What the link and the title do, however, is track where we are in our plan to read through the entire Bible in 1 year. May each report pique your interest and help you to draw near to God. The Bible, James 4:8, tells us if we do so God will draw near to us. Unless otherwise noted, quotes are from the English Standard Version of the Bible. Internal links provide additional information.
BIBLE READING—WEEK 13—RUTH – 1 SAM 20: In Last week’s Short Report I looked at an important term, “angel of the LORD,” that is found in the book of Judges more times than it appears in any other book of the Bible. My conclusion--every time the term appears in Judges it directly specifies the second person of the Trinity—our Lord Jesus. This Short Report looks at a key verse, 1 Samuel 15:22, and applies it to King Saul.
In brief, after moving into the Promised Land and a long series of spiritual and political ups and downs under the leadership of their judges the Israelites asked for a king. They refused Samuel’s counsel about the heavy yoke a king would place on them and insisted on being “like all the nations” (8:20). It was not Samuel the people dismissed, but they rejected God as their king (v. 7).
Enter Saul, Israel’s first earthly king who got off to a good start but finished in tragedy because he “feared the people and obeyed their voice” (15:24). Samuel anointed Saul according to the Word of God, and a kiss and a flask of oil, which he poured on his head. Then Samuel told Saul, “And you shall reign over the people of the Lord and you will save them from the hand of their surrounding enemies” (10:1). Furthermore, Samuel gave Saul four signs and all of the “signs came to pass that day” (v. 9).
As additional proof of his kingship, Saul receives two coronations. First, when Samuel gathered the nation of Israel together at Mizpah and the second coronation occurred soon afterward when the Ammonites besieged Jabesh-gilead. When King Saul heard the news the “Spirit of God rushed upon Saul” (11:6) and he immediately raised an army and soundly defeated the Ammonites. Samuel called for the kingdom to be renewed at Gilgal, “and there they made Saul king before the Lord” (v. 15).
In his second year as king, Saul was at war with the Philistines when he failed to follow the commands of the Lord by conducting a sacrifice that only the priests were allowed to perform (13:8-14). This was the first of three major blunders and put him on the road to destruction.
The second misstep involved two reckless vows and his son, Jonathan. The first vow required his men to fight all day and into the evening without food—until Saul had vengeance on his enemies (14:24). Jonathan was unaware of his father’s vow and while on patrol in the field had eaten some honey. Later, Saul inquired of the Lord and learned that God was no longer with him. Saul then vowed the life of the one responsible, even if it meant the life of his son. They cast lots and the lot fell to Jonathan, but the intervention of Saul’s soldiers prevented Saul from taking Jonathan’s life (vv. 24-46).
Saul’s third strike, to use a baseball analogy, was in ignoring God’s command to attack the Amalekites and “devote to destruction all that they have” (15:3). Saul spared their king and allowed Israel’s army to plunder the best of the Amalekites property (vv. 1-9).
At this point, God said to Samuel, “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments” (15:11).
It is a human question born of unbelief to ask when God first felt grief over Saul, or why God put Saul on Israel’s throne in the first place. God is omniscient, all-knowing (John 21:17); He knew beforehand everything in Saul’s heart (1 Samuel 16:7) and all that Saul would do, as well as the things he would leave undone. The Bible teaches us that “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind” (Numbers 23:19), nor does he behave like a man in any way: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD” (Isaiah 55:8). Rather, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). And He does not want “that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance (2 Peter 3:9).
In the same way that God cared for Israel, the apple of His eye (Zechariah 2:8), God cared for Saul, even so, God does not force us to love Him in return. Instead, God gives His children freewill so we may choose if we love God and his Kingdom or the world. Joshua told Israel, “Choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:15).
Saul chose not to love and obey God. He showed contempt for God and His Law when he offered the sacrifice of burnt offering—he should have humbled himself before God and waited for Samuel to perform the offering.
His foolish vows were born of vanity. Saul wanted to take vengeance on Israel’s enemies and be the conquering hero—he should have humbled himself before God and given Him the glory.
Saul was told to destroy the Amalekites and all they owned. Instead he spared their king and his men kept the best of their property—Saul should have humbled himself before the Lord and loved Him and obeyed His every word.
God sent Samuel to rebuke Saul, and this is where a key verse is found: 1 Samuel 15:22 (NLT) reads, “But Samuel replied, ‘what is more pleasing to the LORD: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams’.” In short, the prophet told Saul it is better to love and obey God, and thereby stay in a right-relationship with the Lord than to fall in to sin and endure His correction and then sacrifice, even a prayer of sacrifice, to return to a right standing. At the same time, all the sacrifices and all the prayers you can offer to God are meaningless if they do not come from a humble heart.
David said it this way, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17).
In 2 Chronicles 7:14 God promises to hear the prayer of His people that humble themselves and turn away from sin, but this was not Saul’s way. He was self-centered in his relationships. He never fully submitted to God. At his best Saul was half-hearted going some of the distance but never running the race to win the prize (cf. 1 Corinthians 9:24); at his worst he blatantly disregarded the Word of God.
Add to that an overpowering since of entitlement that came from excessive pride and you understand why Samuel feared for his life when God sent him to Bethlehem to anoint a young shepherd boy as the next king of Israel (1 Samuel 16:2).
In conclusion, when Israel asked for a king so they could be like the other nations God gave them Saul, a king like the other nations had—kings that served other gods and did evil in the eyes of the Lord—such as Agag of the Ammonites who Saul spared, counter to the command of God. And like many of Israel’s future kings such as Abijam, who “walked in all the sins that his father did before him” (1 Kings 15:3).
Saul believed he could appease God by performing a sacrifice because he did not know that God looks at the heart and judges the motivations behind our actions and accepts our works on the basis of our faith: this is why obedience is better than sacrifice.
In Genesis we are told of a time when Cain and Abel brought sacrifices to the Lord. God accepted Abel’s sacrifice but not Cain’s. To Cain, God said, “If you do well [believing Me and doing what is acceptable and pleasing to Me], will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well [but ignore My instruction], sin crouches at your door; its desire is for you [to overpower you], but you must master it” (Genesis 4:7 AMP). So it was with Saul who give way to sin and was thus rejected by God, like Cain.
In brief, after moving into the Promised Land and a long series of spiritual and political ups and downs under the leadership of their judges the Israelites asked for a king. They refused Samuel’s counsel about the heavy yoke a king would place on them and insisted on being “like all the nations” (8:20). It was not Samuel the people dismissed, but they rejected God as their king (v. 7).
Enter Saul, Israel’s first earthly king who got off to a good start but finished in tragedy because he “feared the people and obeyed their voice” (15:24). Samuel anointed Saul according to the Word of God, and a kiss and a flask of oil, which he poured on his head. Then Samuel told Saul, “And you shall reign over the people of the Lord and you will save them from the hand of their surrounding enemies” (10:1). Furthermore, Samuel gave Saul four signs and all of the “signs came to pass that day” (v. 9).
As additional proof of his kingship, Saul receives two coronations. First, when Samuel gathered the nation of Israel together at Mizpah and the second coronation occurred soon afterward when the Ammonites besieged Jabesh-gilead. When King Saul heard the news the “Spirit of God rushed upon Saul” (11:6) and he immediately raised an army and soundly defeated the Ammonites. Samuel called for the kingdom to be renewed at Gilgal, “and there they made Saul king before the Lord” (v. 15).
In his second year as king, Saul was at war with the Philistines when he failed to follow the commands of the Lord by conducting a sacrifice that only the priests were allowed to perform (13:8-14). This was the first of three major blunders and put him on the road to destruction.
The second misstep involved two reckless vows and his son, Jonathan. The first vow required his men to fight all day and into the evening without food—until Saul had vengeance on his enemies (14:24). Jonathan was unaware of his father’s vow and while on patrol in the field had eaten some honey. Later, Saul inquired of the Lord and learned that God was no longer with him. Saul then vowed the life of the one responsible, even if it meant the life of his son. They cast lots and the lot fell to Jonathan, but the intervention of Saul’s soldiers prevented Saul from taking Jonathan’s life (vv. 24-46).
Saul’s third strike, to use a baseball analogy, was in ignoring God’s command to attack the Amalekites and “devote to destruction all that they have” (15:3). Saul spared their king and allowed Israel’s army to plunder the best of the Amalekites property (vv. 1-9).
At this point, God said to Samuel, “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments” (15:11).
It is a human question born of unbelief to ask when God first felt grief over Saul, or why God put Saul on Israel’s throne in the first place. God is omniscient, all-knowing (John 21:17); He knew beforehand everything in Saul’s heart (1 Samuel 16:7) and all that Saul would do, as well as the things he would leave undone. The Bible teaches us that “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind” (Numbers 23:19), nor does he behave like a man in any way: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD” (Isaiah 55:8). Rather, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). And He does not want “that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance (2 Peter 3:9).
In the same way that God cared for Israel, the apple of His eye (Zechariah 2:8), God cared for Saul, even so, God does not force us to love Him in return. Instead, God gives His children freewill so we may choose if we love God and his Kingdom or the world. Joshua told Israel, “Choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:15).
Saul chose not to love and obey God. He showed contempt for God and His Law when he offered the sacrifice of burnt offering—he should have humbled himself before God and waited for Samuel to perform the offering.
His foolish vows were born of vanity. Saul wanted to take vengeance on Israel’s enemies and be the conquering hero—he should have humbled himself before God and given Him the glory.
Saul was told to destroy the Amalekites and all they owned. Instead he spared their king and his men kept the best of their property—Saul should have humbled himself before the Lord and loved Him and obeyed His every word.
God sent Samuel to rebuke Saul, and this is where a key verse is found: 1 Samuel 15:22 (NLT) reads, “But Samuel replied, ‘what is more pleasing to the LORD: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams’.” In short, the prophet told Saul it is better to love and obey God, and thereby stay in a right-relationship with the Lord than to fall in to sin and endure His correction and then sacrifice, even a prayer of sacrifice, to return to a right standing. At the same time, all the sacrifices and all the prayers you can offer to God are meaningless if they do not come from a humble heart.
David said it this way, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17).
In 2 Chronicles 7:14 God promises to hear the prayer of His people that humble themselves and turn away from sin, but this was not Saul’s way. He was self-centered in his relationships. He never fully submitted to God. At his best Saul was half-hearted going some of the distance but never running the race to win the prize (cf. 1 Corinthians 9:24); at his worst he blatantly disregarded the Word of God.
Add to that an overpowering since of entitlement that came from excessive pride and you understand why Samuel feared for his life when God sent him to Bethlehem to anoint a young shepherd boy as the next king of Israel (1 Samuel 16:2).
In conclusion, when Israel asked for a king so they could be like the other nations God gave them Saul, a king like the other nations had—kings that served other gods and did evil in the eyes of the Lord—such as Agag of the Ammonites who Saul spared, counter to the command of God. And like many of Israel’s future kings such as Abijam, who “walked in all the sins that his father did before him” (1 Kings 15:3).
Saul believed he could appease God by performing a sacrifice because he did not know that God looks at the heart and judges the motivations behind our actions and accepts our works on the basis of our faith: this is why obedience is better than sacrifice.
In Genesis we are told of a time when Cain and Abel brought sacrifices to the Lord. God accepted Abel’s sacrifice but not Cain’s. To Cain, God said, “If you do well [believing Me and doing what is acceptable and pleasing to Me], will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well [but ignore My instruction], sin crouches at your door; its desire is for you [to overpower you], but you must master it” (Genesis 4:7 AMP). So it was with Saul who give way to sin and was thus rejected by God, like Cain.