Losing God in the Middle Lessons From King Saul

1Samuel 13: 11-12 "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 Micmash, I thought, 'Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the Lord's favor.' So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering."

Saul was the first King of Israel. His life tells a sad story of promise and failure. His life is presented in three segments in the Bible. The first is humble beginnings, where he knew who God was and gave all honor and glory due Him. The ending is where he had failed the test of prosperity, and began to believe his own press clippings, honoring himself over God. The middle portion of time is captured in the verses above, where we see a lesson in how we too can begin to fall out of line with the mind and heart of God. This middle story shows a typical pattern we too can fall into as believers if we are not careful in our own walk.

At the beginning Saul was a humble man. In fact when first approached by the Prophet Samuel to be the one that "all the desire of Israel" would turn to, this was the response from the man who would be king:

Saul answered, "But am I not a Benjamite, from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why do you say such a thing to me?" 1Samuel 9: 21

There were no ego problems with Saul in the early going. He was surprised that he would be selected at all. In fact when Samuel would publicly select Saul, he would try hiding amongst the baggage (1Samuel 10: 22). But Saul would be King and early on the Lord granted him success. He triumphed over the Ammonites and after his victory; he was afforded an opportunity to put to death any who had opposed his Kingship. His reply showed he still understood from whom all victories flow:

But Saul said, "No one shall be put to death today, for this day the LORD has rescued Israel." 1Samuel 11: 13

This is the day the Lord has rescued Israel, not Saul. Unfortunately, Saul would grow in stature and within his own mind. The Lord would reject Saul as King after an incident involving the Amalekites. The Lord had decided to use Saul to punish the wicked Amalekites and he gives him strict orders to kill everything; do not spare anyone or any animal. After the Lord gave him victory again however, Saul ignores the orders of the Lord and keeps the Amalekite King, Agag, as well as the choicest plunder. He keeps the best cattle, sheep, lambs, and calves. When the Lord sends Samuel to deal with Saul, this is what he is told:

Early in the morning Samuel got up and went to meet Saul, but he was told, "Saul has gone to Carmel. There he has set up a monument in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal." 1Samuel 15:12

The man who started out giving all glory to God is now setting up monuments in his own honor. The story continues where Saul tries to lie to Samuel, then rationalize his decision, then repent but it is too late. God has moved on and now will seek a man after His own heart; David. Saul's kingdom could have been great and vast. His success could have been legendary. Instead, he would spend the rest of his days afraid of David and aware that he and his lineage would not rule Israel. His past forever haunting his present and eliminating his future.

It did not have to be so. It also did not start with the blatant disobedience with the Amalekites and the building of a monument to himself for it. Changes this radical take some time to develop. This kind of falling away is a gradual process and the Bible gives us a story in between the choosing of Saul and his disobedience with the Amalekites to highlight the transition. This story occurs in 13^th chapter of 1Samuel and from these we draw our key verses. Saul had a confrontation with the Philistines. The Philistines outnumbered Israel and the Israelites hid in the caves, thickets, cisterns, and pits. Saul remained at Gilgal for seven days, as instructed by Samuel but when he did not see Samuel come on the seventh day, Saul took matters into his own hands and made an offering unto the Lord. He did not trust the word God had given him. He had begun to fall away and within this one paragraph response are mistakes we need to avoid if we are to avoid falling away as well

Saul replied, "When I saw the men were scattering..." verse 11 The first mistake we can make is we can start to rely upon ourselves, instead of on God. Remember, God sees things differently than us. God knows better than us. The Bible specifically warns us about failing to acknowledge God and relying upon ourselves:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3: 5-6

Saul had begun to lean on his own understanding by acknowledging the men scattering and acted upon that instead of relying on his faith and acknowledging God. The term "make your paths straight" actually refers to God making your path known. Saul had started to panic when he saw the men scattering. He then began to lean on his own understanding, failing to acknowledge God and sure enough, he ended up not knowing what path to take what to do.

We need to be careful about falling into this pattern where we start to rely upon ourselves, our surroundings or what we see and perceive. Remember, God is bigger than your circumstances. When you see your support (the men) scattering in your life and the enemy starts to set panic in your heart; that is when we need to rely upon our faith in God even more. God is love beloved and the Bible reminds us:

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 1John 4:18

Panic is not of the Lord. It is born out of trusting what you see rather than what you believe. It is in giving your circumstances more power than your God.

"...and that you did not come at the set time..." Verse 11 The second mistake we can make is that we start blaming other people or even God Himself for our faults. Once we start down the path of disobedience we can then get into the blame game. Remember the initial act of disobedience in the Garden of Eden saw Adam blame Eve and Eve blame the serpent. Man has been blaming everyone else ever since. Remember now, Saul has been asked by Samuel, "What have you done?" His response after failing to acknowledge God is to blame someone else for his mistake. In doing so however, he was also blaming God, since Samuel was the Prophet of God.

We too can get into this habit of blaming others or even blaming God. Remember, God is not out to destroy you. In fact the Bible tells us the opposite:

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11

God had plans for Saul and He has plans for you. It was not Samuel's fault that Saul acted disobediently and it will not be God's fault when we do. We need to trust God and take responsibility for our own actions.

"...and that the Philistines were assembling at Micmash. I thought, "Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal and I have not sought the Lord's favor. Verses 11 & 12 - The third mistake we can make is to start seeing perceived threats in our mind and act upon them instead of God. Here we see Saul creating scenarios in his head for how things will go wrong. He shows no faith in God, who has delivered him in the past from his enemies. We too have seen God work mightily in our lives, delivering us from strongholds and enemies time and again only to then doubt God. Saul's panic is starting to set in. He is allowing his fear to dictate to him instead of his faith. But remember the spirit of fear is not from God:

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. 2Timothy 1:7

Saul was not showing any power nor attributing any to God. He gave all of the power to his circumstances. He showed no patience or self-discipline either. We too can find ourselves in similar situations in life. Forgetting all that God has done and instead allowing our circumstances to dictate fear into our hearts, driving our faith out.

Notice the pattern here. Saul starts by allowing the fear to exist when he sees the men scattering. He then starts to blame others and when he sees Samuel is merely late; his fear begins to germinate into panic. He then creates perceived threats in his mind and trumps them up to be bigger than they really are and also, bigger than God. We too can allow our circumstances to instill fear in our hearts and weaken our faith. We too can then seek to blame anyone but ourselves, furthering our panic giving our circumstances more power than they deserve. Finally we too can start to trump up scenarios in our head to further our fear into panic. We can create scenarios in our heads to drive us further away from the faith we know we should have after watching God do so much in our lives.

Then Saul tries to wrap it all up in God. After displaying a lack of trust in God, blaming others, and allowing his fear to dictate to his faith, he then concludes that it was because he had not sought the Lord's favor. As if all of his actions up until now had been seeking God. This can be a pattern we fall into as well as Christians. We can over-spiritualize that which is not spiritual. You see this when people use the need to pray for someone as a means to spread gossip. Or when we reach a conclusion in our mind about a decision and then seek "confirmation" from God. As opposed to seeking the will of God to make the decision. What is the result then beloved? After trusting our eyes over God, blaming others or God Himself, allowing our fear to dictate to our faith, and then somehow pretending that God was in the process with us the whole time? We act impetuously and feel compelled to do something.

"So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering." Verse 12 So Saul starts to fall away. He starts to think that God is more concerned with sacrifice than obedience. So he offers a sacrifice to God with the wrong motives and the wrong heart. A heart that lacked faith, gave into fear, and blamed others for it. The Bible speaks directly to this, not surprisingly involving Saul and Samuel. After the incident with the Amalekites, Saul tries to make excuses for why he spared the best of the flocks, claiming he wanted to make sacrifices unto the Lord. Here is the sobering response from Samuel for all of us today:

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. - 1Samuel 15: 22

The Lord delights in our obedience beloved. It is what He seeks; not sacrifice. God wants us to obey Him not the rituals of man. The story of Saul is a tragic one. He could have had everything but he got ahead of God. He trusted his circumstances and leaned on his own understanding. He blamed others for his own poor decision making. He allowed fear to dictate to his faith. In the end, he tried to wrap this falling away up in God but it was too late. God knew that Saul thought of God last in the process, when he should have thought of him first. The Kingdom would be taken from him and his family. He would lose everything.

But as always, God tells us the tragedy so that we can learn from it. When we obey God and put Him first, then it doesn't scare us to see people scattering in our lives during our difficult circumstances. We act on faith that says God is bigger than our circumstances. When we obey God and put Him first, then we take responsibility for our actions and do not seek to blame anyone; especially not God. When we obey God and put Him first, we do not allow our fear to dictate to our faith. We allow the perfect peace of God to reign and rule in our lives and hearts; knowing the author and finisher of our faith is faithful to complete the good work He has started in us. He is the beginning and the end beloved; don't lose Him in the middle.

Reverend Anthony Wade April 16, 2009