Dealing with Fatal Flaws (Saul)
1 Samuel 8-15
Rev. Brian Bill
2/25/07
Video Clip: “Who Do You Place Your Confidence In?”
Did you notice that most people are uncertain when they’re asked this question? If we could ask this same question to people who lived during the time of Samuel, they’d probably give similar answers. A few would say that they trust God but most responses would reveal some pretty shaky spirituality.
We turn now in our study of the Old Testament to the first king of Israel, a man named Saul. Unfortunately, he fell short and he fell hard. We can learn much from him by making sure we don’t follow in his steps. Next week Pastor Dick will be preaching on the life of King David and we’ll find much more positive qualities to follow. Let’s do a little review to see where we’ve been so far in our study.
• Genesis Creation, Fall, and Patriarchs
• Exodus Captivity and Exodus
• Leviticus Offerings and Blood Sacrifices
• Numbers Wilderness Wanderings
• Deuteronomy Loving and Obeying God
• Joshua The Walls Fall When the Will Falls
• Judges Breaking the Cycle of Sin
• Ruth God Weaves His Ways for His Glory and our Good
• 1 Samuel Deal with Fatal Flaws Before They Deal With You
As we focus on the remaining chapters in 1 Samuel, I see eight errors that we need to avoid. These fatal flaws caused huge problems for God’s people. Let’s learn from these negative examples so we don’t repeat these same mistakes. Keep this phrase in mind as we go through the message: Deal with your fatal flaws before they deal with you.
1. Don’t reject God’s reign (8:1-21). Samuel is now getting old and has appointed his sons to be judges. As the people look at these sons they realize that they are not leadership material. Notice verse 3: “But his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice.” As a result, in verse 5 the people make a demand: “…now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.” Samuel is not very happy about this request and so he goes to prayer (which is his practice). God gives a surprising answer in verse 7: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.” After Samuel warns them about the burdens a king will bring, the people refuse to listen to Samuel and are adamant in their demands in verses 19-20: “We want a king over us. 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.”
What’s really going on here? While it’s true that Samuel’s sons are sinful and that the nation is not really united and their enemies are threatening to attack, there are two root causes that are still pretty common today.
• A rejection of God’s reign. This is not the first time God’s people have rejected Him. In Numbers 14:4 in the King James Version, we read this: “And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.” Instead of living in community as subjects under God’s loving and direct reign, they want to run everything by themselves. In essence they’re saying that they no longer trust God to take care of them. Frankly, they’d rather put their confidence in themselves and in a human person because they don’t believe God’s ways are good enough. Here’s the tragic irony. Every time God’s people trusted in Him they never lost a battle and yet now they want a human king to lead them. If we fast-forward from this point we’ll discover that all of Israel’s kings were bad; and only a handful of Judah’s kings were godly.
• An acceptance of worldly ways. God’s whole mission for Israel was that they not be like the other nations. They were to be different and distinct because they were His treasured possession, offering hope and light to the nations. We all know the pervasive power of peer pressure, don’t we? Romans 12:2 in the Phillips translation is helpful here: “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within…” 1 John 2:15 adds: “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
God gives them what they ask for. Psalm 106:15 in the King James says: “And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.” Friend, be careful of demanding something that is not what is best for you because God just may give it to you. Perhaps you’ve been warned but you still want what you want. One of the strongest judgments God can make is to hand us over to the desires of our own sinful hearts. Be careful about demanding something that will ultimately be destructive – God just may give it to you! He gave them what they wanted, instead of what He wanted them to have. Hosea 13:11 reveals what God was thinking: “So in my anger I gave you a king, and in my wrath I took him away.” Deal with your fatal flaws before they deal with you.
2. Don’t emphasize the external (9:2, 21). In 1 Samuel 9:2 we read that a man named Saul was “…an impressive young man without equal among the Israelites – a head taller than any of the others.” He was impressive, he was in the prime of his life and no one else was like him. On top of that, Saul was very tall. When we were up at Founder’s Week several weeks ago, I went to the bathroom and immediately noticed an extremely tall man walk in the door. He was so tall he had to duck to get in the doorway. Everyone looked at him and then I heard some guys mention that he used to play in the NBA. When he left, people literally followed him and wanted to know how tall he was. When he said he was 7’ 1” I realized that I had finally found someone who could guard me when I take the ball to the hoop. I asked him if he wanted to play a little ball but I don’t think he could even see me as he looked down! As he walked down the hallway, the crowds parted, as people stopped talking and just stared at him.
Saul probably had that kind of effect on people as he walked through a crowd. But may I point out that nothing in this text mentions his faith, or his character, or his humility, or his love? All the emphasis is on the external. This will prove to be very dangerous. Friends, we need to make sure we don’t just focus on the physical. This is not easy to do because our culture elevates the external. These are good words to keep in mind as we approach a presidential election. Remember these great words from 1 Samuel 16:7: “…The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” Here’s a good question. Do you worry more about how you look or more about how you really are? Deal with your fatal flaws before they deal with you.
3. Don’t excuse impatience (10:8; 13:7-12). After Samuel anoints Saul, he tells him to go down to Gilgal in 1 Samuel 10:8: “…I will surely come down to you to sacrifice burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, but you must wait seven days until I come to you and tell you what you are to do.” Samuel is very clear in his instructions. Saul is to wait seven days and then Samuel will come and offer sacrifices. As Saul waits for Samuel, things start to deteriorate. His soldiers are hiding in caves and 1 Samuel 13:8 tells us that they were “quaking with fear.” Some of the soldiers start to scatter and so Saul decides to make the offering himself. Just as he’s finishing the sacrifice, Samuel arrives and wants to know why he didn’t wait.
Saul stumbles through an answer in verse 11; pointing out the danger they were in and then suggests that Samuel did not arrive soon enough: “…you did not come at the set time…” He reveals what really happened in verse 12 when he says, “I thought…” That’s the problem. He thought when he should have been waiting and praying. He thought he could handle things on his own. At the end of verse 12 he says that he “felt compelled to offer the burnt offering.” In other words, he’s saying he didn’t have a choice. There’s no indication here that he repented for this act of rebellion. He blames someone else and then he blames the situation, never taking any personal responsibility. He becomes impatient and takes things into his own hands. Do you ever do that? Do you ever get impatient? Ever want to do things your way instead of God’s way? If so, meditate on Isaiah 30:18: “Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!”
Samuel doesn’t have any tolerance for how Saul tries to justify his actions in verse 13: “You have acted foolishly…you have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you.” As a result of his impatient faithlessness and his willful disobedience, Samuel declares in verse 14: “But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.” Deal with your fatal flaws before they deal with you.
4. Don’t use unwise words (14:24-28). Saul is now on a slippery slope and things go from bad to worse. In chapter 14, while his men are fighting the Philistines, he forbids them to eat anything. This puts his troops in great distress because they are weak and hungry. When they see some sweet honey oozing out of the ground they avoid eating any because they are afraid of Saul’s oath that anyone who eats will face death. Unbeknown to Saul, his own son Jonathon has not heard this rash vow and so he eats some honey and according to verse 27 his “eyes brightened.” When Jonathon is told about his dad’s dumb decision he says, “My father has made trouble for the country.” And, because they were denied food, the army was not able to accomplish all they could have, and they eventually end up sinning by breaking God’s command by eating meat with blood in it.
Saul’s words were very unwise and the consequences were very grave. He declares that Jonathon must die and thankfully he is rescued by the army. In the midst of all this, the Philistines escape. Brothers and sisters, let’s be very careful about what comes out of our mouths. Proverbs 12:18: “Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” Deal with your fatal flaws before they deal with you.
5. Don’t be puffed up with pride (15:12). Saul was a complicated person but at the root, he was a man filled with pride. He started out humble but now he wants everyone to give him homage. 1 Samuel 15:12 says that Saul set up a “monument in his own honor.” We need to make sure that our lives are not filled with pride as Proverbs 16:18 says: “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” Is this one of your spiritual soft spots? If so, deal with this fatal flaw before you fall.
6. Don’t make obedience optional (15:1-15). I heard about a young boy who wanted to buy his mom a birthday present. He went to the store and asked the clerk to show him the cookie jars. Very carefully and methodically he went to each jar, carefully lifting the lid and putting it back on. He went through all of them and his face fell as he got to the last jar. He looked at the clerk and asked, “Aren’t there any cookie jars with lids that don’t make any noise?”
In what is perhaps his biggest blunder, Saul gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar as he disobeys a very clear command. He’s told to attack and annihilate the Amalekites and to take no plunder. Once again, we see that Saul thinks he has a better plan than God does. In 1 Samuel 15:9 we read that Saul took the Amelekite king alive and kept the best of the rest for himself: “But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs--everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed.” Essentially he got rid of that which wasn’t very valuable and held on to the good stuff. God wasn’t very pleased by this. In fact, verse 11 says that God was grieved that He had made Saul king. When Samuel heard about it he became troubled and “cried out to the Lord all that night.”
Unbelievably, Saul had the gall to greet Samuel with a blessing and then he bragged in verse 13: “I have carried out the Lord’s instructions.” Samuel replies in verse 14: “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?” Saul’s answer in verse 15 reveals a lot about his heart condition.
• Blames others. Saul implies that he really had nothing to do with it: “The soldiers brought them…they spared the best of the sheep…”
• Spiritualizes the situation. Next he tells Samuel that they really took the best in order to “sacrifice to the Lord your God.” Did you catch that phrase “your” God? This reveals how far Saul has drifted, for he can’t even use the word “my” God.
• Justifies partial obedience. It’s almost as if Saul is expecting some applause from Samuel when he says, “But we totally destroyed the rest.”
In verse 16, Samuel cries out: “Stop!” He can’t bear to hear Saul blame others, to spiritualize things and to justify what he’s done. Partial obedience equals disobedience. Saul is a piece of work because he doesn’t stop. In fact, he declares in verse 20: “But I did obey the Lord.” In one of the most well-known passages in this book, Samuel replies in verses 22-23: “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. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the sin of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has rejected you as king.” God delights far more in obedience than in our performance of religious rituals. I like the New Living Translation of Hosea 6:6: “I want you to be merciful; I don’t want your sacrifices. I want you to know God; that’s more important than burnt offerings.”
Donald Gray Barnhouse once told a story of a young son of a missionary couple in Zaire. One day the little boy was out playing in his front yard, and suddenly his father appeared and very sternly said, “Phillip, obey me immediately. Drop to your stomach.” The little boy obeyed. Then the father said, “Now, start crawling toward me.” And the little boy began to crawl, not understanding what was going on. And then the father said, “Now, jump up and run to me as fast as you can.” With tears in his eyes, the little boy ran toward his father, and his father scooped him, hugged him and kissed him. He then slowly turned around and pointed to the deadly snake that was hanging from a branch directly above where the boy had been playing.
What if his son had only partially obeyed? What if he had waited? Immediate obedience literally saved his life; and it can save ours as well. God wants what is best for our lives and the only way for us to experience that is through obedience. Saul never dealt with his disobedience early on and now he’s reaping the result of his rebellion. Deal with your fatal flaws before they deal with you.
7. Don’t choose relief over repentance (16:23). After Saul disobeys he starts to disintegrate in every way. We begin to see violent mood swings, erratic behavior, homicidal anger and perpetual paranoia. In the middle of his madness he finds that when David plays his harp, the music soothes his soul. 1 Samuel 16:23: “…Then relief would come to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him.” Listen carefully. While the music seemed to help him, he still chose this over outright obedience and repentance. John Ortberg points out: “Saul is not looking for healing. He is not looking for repentance. He is not looking to set things right. He doesn’t want to do the hard work of examining his soul. He just wants to feel better. He just wants relief. He finds a form of entertainment that masks his pain and helps him make it through. But he does not change. He is distracted and relieved, but not transformed.”
Friends, we need to guard against this as well. Sometimes people choose the relief that comes from an illicit relationship, or the excitement of entertainment, or the delight of distraction at the expense of what is really needed. Do you find yourself shifting into couch-potato mode, or an insane work schedule, alcohol or drugs, or even a time-consuming hobby? Have you been covering up your pain or trying to soothe your sinfulness when what you really need is to repent and allow God to renovate your life? Don’t trade short-term relief for long-term change. Instead of filling your life with mind-numbing activities, follow the path of confession and repentance. This is the only way to get to the root of your restlessness and to truly find relief for your soul. Deal with your fatal flaws before they deal with you.
8. Don’t dabble with darkness (28:1-25). Back in 1 Samuel 15:22 we read that rebellion is like the sin of divination and now Saul has totally slid down a bad path when he dabbles with dark forces. Samuel is now dead and Saul persists in his rebellion, this time asking for the help of a medium. It’s as if he goes to everyone and tries everything but God. This practice has been outlawed by Saul himself in 1 Samuel 28:3 and yet now he’s breaking his own rule. Actually, this was a law established by God himself in Deuteronomy 18:10-12: “Let no one be found among you…who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD…”
Loved ones, the spirit world is very real and very dangerous. Our culture seems captivated by occultic practices. Using TV shows like Medium, movies that elevate evil, fortune-tellers, tele-psychics, and horoscopes Satan and his host of demons are seeking to deceive millions. I’ll say it again: Deal with your fatal flaws before they deal with you.
Action Steps
I’d like to suggest some positive action steps so that we don’t just focus on the “don’ts.”
• As you consider this list of “don’ts,” which one do you need to stop right now? What fatal flaw do you need to deal with? What will repentance look like in this area of your life?
Don’t reject God’s reign
Don’t emphasize the external
Don’t excuse impatience
Don’t use unwise words
Don’t be puffed up with pride
Don’t make obedience optional
Don’t choose relief over repentance
Don’t dabble with darkness
• In what area do you need to practice some first-time obedience? Is there an area that you’ve been withholding from God? It’s not as difficult as you might think to obey Him. Deuteronomy 30:11: “Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.” Jesus put it this way in John 14:15: “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” And 1 John 5:3 says: “This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome.”
• Think of someone going down a bad path and commit to pray for him or her. It’s fascinating to me that Samuel kept interceding for people even though they were sliding south spiritually. Listen to his commitment in 1 Samuel 12:23: “As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you.” Prayerlessness is sinfulness. If I’m not praying for you I’m sinning and if you’re not praying for me you’re sinning.
• Live in such a way that people will weep when you die. In 1 Samuel 25:1, we’re told that when Samuel dies, everyone in Israel weeps. John Ortberg suggests that they weep because of all that he had become. He was courageous, obedient, loving and had a passion for God. They cry because they’re going to miss all of that. They’re thankful for what he did for them. On the other hand, when Saul dies, we’re told that David commands the people to weep (2 Samuel 1:17-18). They weep because of all that Saul had not become. He was full of promise but never accomplished what God had for him because he never dealt with his fatal flaws. He didn’t set out to be bad; he just never gave God his full devotion. How will people remember you? What kinds of tears will be shed for you after you’re gone?
It’s interesting that the Israelites want to make a man their god but God’s way is to make God a man, the Lord Jesus Christ. He came to deliver us from the dominion of darkness and to rule and reign in our hearts. The kernel of the gospel message is found in 1 Samuel 12:22: “For the sake of his great name the LORD will not reject his people, because the LORD was pleased to make you his own.” Even though they sinned greatly, God is still gracious. For the sake of His great name, He sent His Son Jesus as Savior, Redeemer and King.
What would happen if I went around the room this morning and asked this question: Who do you place your confidence in? How would you answer? There is only one king worth following. Who is on the throne of your life? That is the great gospel invitation. Will you respond right now and submit to His reign in your life?
Every Sunday the ducks would waddle out of their house and waddle down Main Street to their church. They waddled into the auditorium and jumped into their chairs. The duck musicians waddled in and took their place and then the duck minister came forward and opened the Bible. He preached up a storm saying, “Ducks, God has given you wings! With wings you can fly! With wings you can mount up and soar like eagles. No walls can confine you! No fence can hold you! You have wings. God has given you wings and you can fly like birds.” All the ducks shouted, “AMEN!” and they all waddled home.
If you’re ready to repent and be changed so that you can soar, then please pray this prayer with me. Pray it only if you’re determined to allow God to deal with your fatal flaws: “Lord Jesus, for too long I’ve kept you out of my life. I admit that I am a sinner and that I cannot save myself. I repent of my sins and my fatal flaws by changing my mind about the way I’ve been living. By faith I gratefully receive your gift of salvation. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for coming to earth. With all my heart I believe you are the Son of God who died on the cross for my sins and rose from the dead on the third day. Thank you for bearing my sins and giving me the gift of eternal life. I accept you into my life. Be my Savior and Lord, my forgiver and king. I surrender to your leadership in my life. Make me into the person you want me to be. Amen.”
