The Ways of a Fool
1 Samuel 31
Like most of you, I have spent time walking in the cemetery. I like to look at the gravestones and their dates. I like to imagine what these people were like and how they lived a hundred or more years ago. What did they do for a living? Where in town did they live? Where did they go to church? Does anyone in Independence remember who they were or claim them as their ancestors? Then I go a bit further. I wonder: Are there people alive today who are serving the Lord because this person, a hundred years ago or more, led someone to the Lord who led someone else to the Lord who led them to the Lord? Do these people have spiritual grandchildren who can thank them for their influence, or did they live only for themselves so that when their children died, if they had any, the memory of their time on earth vanished with their coffin?
This, of course, leads me to ask the same questions about myself. In a hundred years, will anyone recognize my name? Will there be a great-great grandchild who will claim me as their Papa and say, “Because of that man’s faith I now have a relationship with Jesus”? When my life is over, will there be more people who are glad they knew me than there are people who are glad I am no longer a thorn in their flesh?
The good news is that my legacy, what people say about me and what they remember me for, is completely up to me. If I want to be remembered as a kind and patient man, a man who loved people and listened to their concerns, who was more interested in having money to give away than in accumulating nice cars, who relished teaching the Word and watching people grow in God and who wanted to see the Kingdom of God grow and took time to invest in that Kingdom, then that is completely up to me. How I want to be remembered is my choice.
And it is your choice, also. How you are remembered is completely up to you. Now, I’ve asked you this before, but if you could write your own epitaph (Latin: epi, over and taphos, tomb); if you were given the choice of writing what you’d like written on your tombstone, what would you want it to say? How would you want to be remembered? Some people take this idea seriously, and some people do not.
Winston Churchill knew he would not always be remembered well, for he would often clash with people because of his sharp tongue and caustic wit. When Churchill died in January 1965, he conceded that he might not be so easy to get along with it—especially for all eternity. Thinking a bit too highly of himself, Churchill has this written on his tombstone: “I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.”
I’ve shared this with you before, but why one of my favorites is what Benjamin Franklin wanted written on his tomb. Confiding in his diary, a young Franklin chose these words to be remembered by.
The Body of B. Franklin, Printer; like the Cover of an old Book, Its Contents torn out, And stript of its Lettering and Gilding, Lies here, Food for Worms.
But the Work shall not be wholly lost; For it will, as he believ’d, appear once more, In a new & more perfect Edition, Corrected and amended By the Author.
Unfortunately, when it finally came time to write his epitaph, Franklin became quite modest. His grave in Philadelphia simply reads, “Benjamin and Deborah Franklin.” I like his first choice better!
Now, what do you want yours to read? And you know that if you are sitting here this morning you still have time to amend it. Each of us can look at our life and say, “This is how I used to be and many people will remember it. But this is how I’d like to be remembered, and this is what I am going to do about it.”
Death is the great equalizer. All of us face it and talking about it can be uncomfortable. But this morning I want to make sure that when it does catch you it finds you in good standing with God, with a clear conscience and a peaceful spirit so that you can look forward to hearing God say, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matt. 25:23). In order to do this, we’re going to read about the death of Saul. READ 1 Samuel 31.
There is a sense in which King Saul did write his own epitaph and it is far from humorous. In 1 Sam. 26:21 there is a statement given by Saul that summarizes his life. After David spares Saul’s life for the second time, Saul says to David, “I have sinned. Come back home, my son, and I will no longer try to harm you, for you valued my life today. I have been a fool and very, very wrong.” The Message says, “I’ve acted the fool—a moral dunce, a real clown.” Saul began his Kingship with all kind of advantages. He was physically impressive, he had the charisma to lead people and he had the support of God but he played the fool. He became so self-centered, so egotistical, so jealous, so disobedient to God that he ended up frittering it all away. Prov. 16:25 describes Saul well when it says, “Before every person lies a road that seems to be right, but at the end of that road death and destruction wait” (The Voice). It is my sincere hope it doesn’t describe anyone here! And although Saul looked good to the world, deep in his soul he knew that God observed his heart and he said of himself, “I have been a fool.” I hope that is something that no one I know has written on their tombstone. Having said that, let’s look at some of the ways Saul played the fool so we can learn how NOT to go the direction Saul went.
If you want to know the ways of a fool, they are simple. It begins when we—
1. Neglect our mentors (1 Sam. 10:8; 13:8-9). I have had a number of people in my life who have had major spiritual impact on me. They were my mentors and my instructors. They were my “go to” people when I had big decisions to make, for I knew they would tell me the truth, even if I didn’t want to hear it. I knew I could trust them with my heart and soul because that was the way they lived their lives before God.
This is what Saul had in Samuel. He had a prophet who grew up in the presence of the Lord and who obeyed God even when he didn’t want to. But Saul neglected the words of Samuel and when he did it was the beginning of the end for Saul. In 1 Sam. 10:8, Samuel instructed Saul to go to Gilgal and wait seven days for Samuel. At the end of seven days Samuel hadn’t shown up and Saul’s men became restless and started leaving. Fearing he’d lose his men, Saul disobeys Samuel and sacrifices the burnt offering himself. When he explains himself to the prophet, all Samuel can say is “How foolish!” (1 Sam. 13:13).
A foolish person is one who neglects the spiritual mentors who have invested in their life. True spiritual leaders and mentors are hard to come by, and when you find one you need to stick close to them. They aren’t perfect, but you are still privileged to have them in your life. Listen closely to what they say and weigh carefully their advice, for when we dismiss their instructions based on our own fear and self-image, we’ve begun the slippery slope to playing the fool.
2. Disobeys God (1 Sam. 10:8; 13:13). As we have just seen, Saul didn’t wait for Samuel to officiate the burnt offering. Instead, he took it upon himself to offer the sacrifice. This is called getting ahead of God, which is always disobedient. We must understand that Saul’s sin was not to offer the sacrifice. Later David, after his sin of calling for a census of the people of Judah, offered burnt and peace offerings at the instructions of the prophet Gad (2 Sam. 24:25). In1 King 3:15, Solomon sacrificed burnt offerings and peaces offerings to the Lord after the Lord came to him in a dream and said, “What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!” (1 Kings 3:5) and Solomon replies “Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well” (1 Kings 3:9). But in Saul’s situation he disobeyed God by sacrificing when God instructed him through Samuel to go to Gilgal and wait.
Foolish people disobey God by getting ahead of God. Moving out ahead of God is the supreme signal that we lack faith in God. We decide that we, in our all years of wisdom and understanding, know better what is required than our Eternal God. In 1 Samuel 15 Samuel gave Saul instructions to completely destroy the entire Amalekite nation for opposing Israel when they came from Egypt (vs. 3). But Saul, thinking he knew better than God, saved the best sheep, goats, cattle and plunder to sacrifice to God. It was then that Samuel said, “What is more pleasing to the LORD, your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice” (1 Samuel 15:22). The reason we need to understand this principle is because obedience shows our submission to God while a sacrifice is the necessary result of our disobedience. If mankind would have obeyed God there would never have been a need for Jesus to die on Calvary to pay for our sins. Obedience comes before sin; sacrifice comes after it. Hosea 6:6 says, “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.” Jesus said in Mark 12:33, “To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
When we make a show of offering a sacrifice to God, whether it is of our time or our money, our personal wants or our career, we tend to bring with this sacrifice an attitude of, “I did this for God now He owes me something for it.” It’s like the woman who once said to Tim Keller, “I know why I want my morality to save me. If I’m saved by my good works, then like a taxpayer, I have rights. I’ve paid into the system and God owes me a good and decent life. And there is a limit to what the Father can ask of me. But if I’m saved by sheer grace, then my life belongs entirely to the Father, he owes me nothing and there is no limit to what he can ask of me.”
Saul wanted to prove to God he was willing to sacrifice and bring God good things, as if God needed sheep and goats and plunder to be satisfied. The only thing we can bring to God that satisfies Him is our obedience based in faith.
3. Excuses his disobedience (1 Sam.13:11-12). Look at Saul’s reasons for getting ahead of God’s instructions. In verses 11-12 he says, “I saw my men scattering from me, and you didn’t arrive when you said you would, and the Philistines are at Micmash ready for battle. So I said, ‘The Philistines are ready to march against us at Gilgal, and I haven’t even asked for the LORD’s help!’ So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering myself before you came.”
There is never an adequate excuse for disobeying God. Even when we don’t understand His instructions, we must still obey.
I learned this lesson in a very real way while I was living at the Little Portion. There was a relative of one of the community members who came to live with us She had a history of mental illness and our ability to help her was way beyond our experience and training. One of the single brothers had a very tender heart and wanted to befriend her. He was a divorced man with five children and his compassion was sincere. However, he had strict orders not to approach her.
One day this man and I were standing in the kitchen, talking over a cup of coffee. He began sharing with me his dilemma: he wasn’t sure he could obey the orders he’d received. He didn’t understand how not being a friend could be helpful, and was thinking about going against the directions of his superior. Knowing he had five children, I asked him, “Have you ever given an order to one of your children, only to realize later that you were wrong?”
“Of course,” he said.
“And what did you do?” I asked.
“I apologized for what I said,” he replied.
“Then let me ask you this,” I said. “Were your children right or wrong for obeying your original order?”
“Oh, they were right for obeying,” he said convincingly.
I remained silent as he stirred cream into his coffee. After a moment, it dawned on him what I had just said. He stopped stirring his coffee, looked up at me and said, “I get it. Thanks.” Although it pained his tender heart not to be friends with the woman, he understood what he had to do and he obeyed his leaders. His excuses were ready, but he stayed obedient, because obedience is always win/win.
4. Allows jealousy to reign (1 Sam. 18:9). After David started defeating the Philistines, the women from all the towns began to sing about Saul killing his thousands but David killings his ten thousands. This made Saul very angry and he said “Next they’ll be making him their king.” (1 Sam. 18:8). Then in verse 9 it says, “So from that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David.” Rick Warren said, “Anytime you feel jealous or envious, you are rejecting your own uniqueness. It’s a criticism of God’s plan for you.”
Saul didn’t need to be jealous of David. He needed to embrace David’s uniqueness the way the nation was embracing Saul’s uniqueness. We spend too many wasted hours comparing our talents, looks, weight, money, cars and success with others, when the only one we are to compare ourselves with is God. B.C. Forbes said, “Jealousy . . . is mental cancer.” And it is a cancer that kills the spirit. William Penn said, “The jealous are troublesome to others, but a torment to themselves.” And this torment that Saul was under eventually led him to our next point, which is where the fool—
5. Turns against God (1 Sam. 28). Because Saul had disobeyed his mentor and God, he had nowhere to turn when he really needed advice. With the Philistines gathered for battle, Saul was frantic with fear. He asked God what he should do but the Lord wasn’t answering him. This is when Saul turned to a medium, someone who could talk with the dead. Saul wanted to talk with Samuel in order to get some direction, but Samuel reminded Saul that the Lord had taken the kingdom out of his hands and given it to David because Saul “refused to carry out his fierce anger against the Amalekites” (vs. 18). Furthermore, Samuel told Saul that he and his sons would be joining Samuel the next day.
Nothing ever good comes when we turn against God and seek other advice. The best advice Saul ever got was to obey God and watch God bless him. But fools don’t listen to advice. Saul didn’t listen to God, Samuel, David or his son Jonathan. He was the poster child for Prov. 23:9, “Do not waste your wisdom on a fool, for he doesn’t care for anything you have to say.”
6. Commits suicide (1 Sam. 31:4). Not everyone who commits physical suicide is a fool. Many people are so mentally unstable they no longer understand their own actions. But there is also a moral and spiritual suicide we can commit. This is when we take our own life into our own hands and become our own god and judge our own life by our own standards. This is what happens when we start to turn from God and slowly walk away from our Jesus who loved us to His own death. Jesus is concerned about our eternal life, but Saul was concerned about his immediate image.
Look again at 1 Sam. 31:4. “Saul groaned to his armor bearer, ‘Take you sword and kill me before these pagan Philistines come to run me through and taught and torture me.’” He is worried that his enemies will make sport of his body or mock him in death. Charles Swindoll says, “Isn’t it interesting, he’s very concerned about his image with the enemy but shows little concern for his relationship with God whom he is about to meet? That happens when disobedience has dulled our senses. We’re very, very concerned about what people will say, but somehow we’ve lost contact with what God thinks and what God might say. There’s not a word in the record of Saul’s demise about prayer. It says only that Saul fell on his sword and died.” – David: A Man of Passion and Destiny, pg. 122.
Everyone here has played the fool at one time or another. We’ve been more concerned with what people might think about us than about what God thinks about us. Our thoughts about what we think others are thinking can lead us into a never-ended circle of doubt, disillusionment and deadly living that rejects God in favor of our own image.
I want to pray for everyone here this morning who can look at their life, both past and present, who can say, “I’ve been a fool. I thought only of myself and left God out of the picture. I want to be wise and let God direct my thoughts and my actions. I don’t want my tombstone to say, ‘I’ve been a fool.’ God has better things in store for me. I want to live for Him.”
1. What foolish thing have you done that you will definitely share with your children to keep them from doing the same?
2. What do you want your tombstone to say?
