THE RUIN OF A GOOD MAN
1 Sam 9 – 31, 1 Chron 10
Note: I have developed a set of slides on PowerPoint 10. If anyone is interested in having the .pptx file I will send it to you by Email. Send your request to me at sam@srmccormick.net with the subject Hedges of Protection Slides and I will send them directly, along with a file of sermon notes with cues for changing/animating slides in Microsoft Word.
In a few weeks we will begin a series of classes on Sunday mornings seeking lessons from the stories of Biblical characters who are either “bad to the bone,” or those who--if not “rotten to the core”--are shown in a partially negative light. Such a man was Saul, the first king of Israel. All indications are that at the start of his career as a Biblical character, he was a good and humble man.
But Saul took the road to ruin, and became deeply flawed.
The things that ruined Saul are exactly the same as those that threaten us with ruin.
The story of Saul’s life has many valuable lessons.
It begins with Samuel as the last of the judges of Israel (7:15)
I. Introduction – Saul became the king of Israel
Wanting to be like their neighbors, the people demanded a king (1 Sam 8).
God relents and chooses Saul, a very tall and good-looking farmer from Benjamin, the “least of the tribes of Israel” (9:21)
Searching for his father’s lost donkeys, he came upon Samuel’s town, and inquired of the Lord.
Samuel tells Saul the Lord has chosen him to be king, anoints him, and declares to the people at Mizpah that the Lord has chosen Saul as Israel’s king. (10:24)
When the time came to anoint Saul, he was found hiding among the baggage.
Saul was tall and good-looking and humble.
Saul went home to Gibeah and, although designated as king, resumed farming.
He served his entire time as king ruling at Gibeah. (10:26) (Jerusalem was in the hands of the Jebusites.)
II. Saul as King of Israel
Military Successes
• Defeats the Ammonites (ch 11),
• Then fights the Philistines (ch 13) - although the Philistines plagued him the rest of his life.
• *Saul’s first great failure came before a battle with the Philistines at Gilgal.
Rather than wait 7 days for Samuel to come and offer a sacrifice, Saul grew impatient and offered it himself (13:9, cf. 10:8), violating the Levitical role. Even a king did not have that privilege. Later, Uzziah paid dearly for the same sin by becoming a leper until he died (2 Chron 28:16,21).
Saul was king, but he was still subject to the commandments of God.
• *Rash vow – Saul foolishly vowed "Cursed be the man who eats food until it is evening and I am avenged on my enemies." 11:24
As a result, his men became hungry and weak, and his son Jonathan, not knowing about the vow, found and ate some honey and was strengthened.
Saul was ready to put his own son to death for innocently and unknowingly violating the silly vow, but the people interceded and practically told Saul they would not allow it.
• Then Saul was sent against the Amalekites. Read 15:1-3
*Saul’s third great failure and a major turning point for the worse
Rather than obey the Lord’s command to kill all the Amalekites, including families and animals, Saul spared King Agag and the best animals (15:3).
The report came to Samuel, and that Saul had gone to Carmel and set up a memorial for himself. (15:12)
Saul first claims to have performed the assignment, then blames “the people” for the failed mission. 1 Sam 15:15,21
• It is plain that Samuel, on the Lord’s behalf, was the ecclesiastical head of state in Israel, wielding authority over the king.
Saul was king, but he was still subject to the commandments of God.
• Saul was deposed as king by Samuel (15:28, 16:13 cf 13:14).
Saul continued to hold the reins of government, but without benefit of Samuel’s guidance or a blessing from the Lord (13:14, 15:26).
• Samuel named Saul’s sins: rebellion and presumption.
“For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king." 15:23
David, the next king of Israel would later write:
Psa 19:13 Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression.
• Samuel anointed David, a rival king, in secret (16:13)
• The spirit of the Lord departed from Saul (16:14-23).
• An “evil spirit” from the Lord tormented him (16:14).
It appears that the evil spirit produced fierce bouts of melancholy, possibly reaching to madness.
What happened to Saul’s mind?
The “evil spirit” sent by God seems to be (or cause) a kind of insanity that torments its victim?
It was not pleasant!
Some who have studied diseases of the mind would put a specific name to his disorder(s).
Maybe guilt and pride were battling for control of his mind, pulling in opposite directions.
We do best when we take what the scripture says on its face—an evil spirit was dispatched to Saul by God.
Wicked spirits are at God's command to execute his will against the disobedient.
• A musician was brought in--David, who Samuel had anointed to be king of Israel (16:16-23).
• David kills Goliath in the valley of Elah (ch 17).
• Saul elevated David over the men of war (18:5).
• As the warriors came home from battle, the women sang,
“Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” (18:7)
What a calamity that jingle touched off!
III. Saul’s fall from sanity
Turning away from God occurs by slow degrees. Saul did not turn all at once.
He seemed to become contrite and repent at times.
On numerous occasions he sought the Lord’s counsel, and once even built an altar.
After his rash vow, he was appalled that the starved men were eating the spoils with the blood in the animals’ flesh, thus “sinning against God” (14:34)
By examining Saul’s life, we can see distinct stages in his decline and fall.
• Saul was angry (18:8-9) - anger
• Saul became jealous of David - jealousy
• Saul became fearful of David, wrongly doubting his loyalty (18:8) - fear
• The wheels fall off.
• Saul repeatedly tries to kill David (18:11:19:1), even trying to get Jonathan, David’s dearest friend, to conspire against him.
Jonathan’s pleas on David’s behalf had only short-term effect on Saul.
• To add insult to injury, Saul’s son Jonathan and David were devoted best friends, and his daughter Michal fell in love with David (18:28) – other things are viewed through the lens of anger, jealousy, fear, and malice.
• David became a fugitive, fleeing for his life (ch 19-22)
• One of the places David fled for refuge was Nob, where the high priest Ahimelech and other priests lived, and where the tabernacle apparently was.
David and his men were famished, and so persuaded the high priest to allow them to eat the showbread. Doeg (doo-aig), an Edomite, saw it and reported to Saul.
• *Saul has all the priests at Nob killed by Doeg (22:6-23).
• All this time, David continues to honor Saul as “the Lord’s anointed,” sparing his life on at least two occasions (24:4, 26:9-11).
• Saul consults a medium, searching for guidance on what to do about the Philistines advancing into the valley or Jezreel (28:7ff).
Samuel was dead.
No word of the Lord came to Saul (lesson here).
Heaven was silent, closed.
Samuel’s spirit was “brought back” 28:15
It was not by the medium’s powers that Samuel appeared, or appeared to appear, but God presenting through Samuel, in reality or apparition, the impending doom in store for Saul and his sons.
• Saul, wounded in battle, falls on his own sword to avoid being made sport of (31:3-4).
His body, however, is mutilated and abused and displayed by his enemies.
IV. Lessons from Saul’s ruin
When Christian Herter was governor of Massachusetts, he was running hard for a second term in office. One day, after a busy morning chasing votes he arrived at a church barbecue. It was late afternoon and Herter was famished. As Herter moved down the serving line, he held out his plate to the woman serving chicken. She put a piece on his plate and turned to the next person in line.
“Excuse me,” Governor Herter said, “do you mind if I have another piece of chicken?”
“Sorry,” the woman told him. “I’m supposed to give one piece of chicken to each person.”
“But I’m starved,” the governor said.
“Sorry,” the woman said again “Only one to a customer.”
Governor Herter was a modest and unassuming man, but he decided that this time he would throw a little weight around. “Do you know who I am?” he said. “I am the governor of this state.”
“Do you know who I am?” the woman said. “I’m the lady in charge of the chicken.”
At a BBQ dinner, the “chicken lady” outranked the governor.
Saul came to consider himself lord of all - one who could live by his own rules.
You don’t have to be a king to follow Saul’s path to failure and ruin.
Though it does teach “lessons for leaders” they are valuable lessons for everyone.
1. A good start does not assure a good finish.
Saul began well, ended badly.
2. The “leader look” doesn’t make one a leader. Do not be fooled by external appearances. Saul was tall and good-looking, but a poor leader. Ponce de Leon, explorer of Florida and governor of Puerto Rico, was 4’11”. James Madison, who many would say was the most influential architect of the American form of government, later 4th president, was 5’4”. Henry VIII a terrible king of England, was 6’2”. Fidel Castro is 6’3”.
a. David didn’t have the “leader look.”
b. Jesus “no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him.” Isa 53:2
c. It was not the appearance of Jesus that qualified him for the greatest work ever undertaken.
God is not concerned with appearances, but what is inside a person.
3. The simplest and plainest lesson: Disobedience always leads to a bad end. It never produces a good result.
a. 12:14-15 “If you will fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God, it will be well. But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the LORD will be against you and your king.
b. To obey is better than sacrifice (15:22). Sacrifice is no substitute for obedience. (What “sacrifice” might we try to substitute for obedience?)
Disobedience may seem like a logical shortcut or to stave off some problem, but it catches up somewhere.
4. Doing part of what is right is still wrong. Ananias and Sapphira did part of a good thing, but robbed God by lying about what they were doing.
5. Blaming others doesn’t stick. (Saul – “the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord.”)
Saul’s colossal failure at Gilgal was his own.
We can talk about who’s to blame, but talk doesn’t change where the blame really lies.
6. Similarly, modifying God’s commandments to conform to our own plans, and then obeying them as altered, is plain old disobedience. We are apt to do that when we are wise in our own eyes, and deflect the wisdom that comes from above.
Jas 3:14-17 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.
a. “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord” (15:20) was a lie dressed in truth’s clothing.
It was obedience to a “doctored” command, and therefore was not obedience at all.
b. We live in a world where the “truth” is considered to be what serves each moment’s purpose. God knows the difference.
7. “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” Jas 4:8
a. Saul did not have the intimacy with God that Abraham, Moses, David, and even later kings did.
8. “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Pro 16:18
a. Too high a regard for self feeds anger and envy.
b. Saul started out hiding in the baggage, ended up building a memorial to himself.
9. Nothing good is found in occult. Saul himself had earlier banished the practice (28:3), simply following the law of God:
a. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. Deut 18:10-12
b. God himself effectively took charge and blew up the séance to present his own message.
10. Excessive focus on personal success competes against giving God glory.
David’s 10,000’s slain were in the same opponents as Saul’s. David was not Saul’s opponent!
They were both pushing on the same side of the rock they were moving.
11. The antidote to fear – perfect love. Perfect love would have perfectly solved Saul’s fear problem.
1 Jn 4:18 – “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”
Saul’s later life shouts this lesson.
At Gilgal he feared the people, or claimed to. Saul said to Samuel,
I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. 15:24
In later life, he feared David (18:12,15), who honored and served him Saul until the end, and was never a threat.
David had no intention of dethroning Saul.
Saul didn’t lose the kingdom because of David, but because of himself.
If he had loved David with the love David perfectly deserved, there would have been harmony, and Saul’s life would have been very different, free of pointless fear:
Col 3:14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
Harmony fled from Saul’s unloving life.
Harmony that love for God, his word, and his faithful servant David could have preserved, giving Saul a successful reign and a good life, with a legacy within the kingdom of Israel and for all people of all time.
A legacy of an exemplary life as God’s chosen man.
Instead, he left lessons from a ruined life.
