Teaching Obedience To The Next Generation

Today, I want to speak to parents and grandparents on raising children who have a stalwart character all their lives. Let’s look at one of the most interesting kings of ancient Israel, King Saul.

Today’s Scripture

The word of the Lord came to Samuel: 11 “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.” And Samuel was angry, and he cried to the Lord all night. 12 And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. And it was told Samuel, “Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on and went down to Gilgal.” 13 And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed be you to the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord.” 14 And Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?” 15 Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction.” 16 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stop! I will tell you what the Lord said to me this night.” And he said to him, “Speak.”

17 And Samuel said, “Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. 18 And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, ‘Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ 19 Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord?” 20 And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. 21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.” 22 And Samuel said,

“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,

as in obeying the voice of the Lord?

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,

and to listen than the fat of rams.

23 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” (1 Samuel 15:10-23).

Today we are looking at one of the three significant figures in the books of 1 and 2 Samuel: Saul. Saul’s life spirals downward to an abusive tyrant to his tragic ruin. He doesn’t start out that way. If you take the time to trace out the beginnings of his life, you’ll note that he doesn’t start out that way. When he is to be anointed as king, he actually hides in the luggage (1 Samuel 10:22). He feels unworthy in the beginning stages. In the beginning, he is even merciful to his opponents rather than seeking revenge when he came to power. Yet, Saul changes into someone who is radically different as he grows. He becomes an ugly character, someone that even hates himself. How does this happen? In a word, self-deception. When we teach obedience to the next generation, we have to highlight self-deception.

1. Teach the Next Generation to Recognize Self-Deception

Let’s see how it happens by looking at Saul a little closer. The Amalekites were a neighboring tribe and a violent people. They did atrocities and God wants Saul to engage them in battle. God instructed Saul to keep nothing after he had defeated them. He was to destroy everything of the Amalekites. He wasn’t to leave a person or an animal alive: “And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, ‘Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed’” (1 Samuel 15:18). This wasn’t so much about Saul and Israel expanded their kingdom or an act of imperialism, but it was an act of justice.

Yet, Saul kept the best of the livestock or the wealth of this tribe, and he kept their leader alive. This was clearly against what God had said. God didn’t want Saul to profit in the least bit from the Amalekites’ injustice. You don’t keep the wealth of the German people after their slaughter of millions of people in the middle 1940s. You don’t profit from their gold. God’s command was an act of justice against wicked people. God doesn’t want his people to use force to profit from others.