Lesson 207 - Senior
Memory Verse
Cross References
I An Occasion of Distress
1. The Philistines brought a great army of reprisal against Israel, [1SM:13:3-5]; [GEN:34:30]; [EXO:5:21]
2. Israel was without adequate arms for battle, and was badly demoralised, [1SM:13:6-8], [1SM:13:19-22]; [EXO:14:10-12].
II A Presumptuous Offering and the Ire of God
1. Saul waited anxiously and impatiently for Samuel seven days, [1SM:13:8]; [ROM:5:3-4]; [JAM:1:4].
2. Saul imprudently ordered a burnt offering to be made, [1SM:13:9-10]; [NUM:16:1], [NUM:16:3], [NUM:16:40]; [2CH:26:16-20]; [HEB:5:1].
3. Samuel appeared on the scene within the promised time, and questioned Saul about his actions, [1SM:13:10-12]; [GEN:3:13]; [GEN:4:10]; [JOS:7:19].
4. Saul admitted to Samuel that he had violated his conscience, [1SM:13:12]; [PS:50:16-21]; [ROM:1:32].
5. Samuel informed Saul that the kingdom was severed from him, and was to be given to another, [1SM:13:13-14]; [1SM:2:30]; [1SM:15:28]; [PS:78:70]; [ACT:13:21-23].
III Fruits of Reprobation
1. Saul was told by the Lord to destroy every living thing of the Amalekites, which he did not do, [1SM:15:1-9]; [JER:22:21]; [TIT:3:3].
2. God revealed to Samuel that Saul had not carried out His commandment, [1SM:15:10-13]; [ACT:5:3]; [2SM:12:7-9].
3. Questioned about his disobedience, Saul refused to acknowledge his guilt, remaining unrepentant, [1SM:15:14-21]; [GEN:3:12]; [GEN:4:9]; [JHN:8:44].
4. Samuel told Saul that "to obey is better than sacrifice" and that because he had rejected the Lord's word he was rejected, [1SM:15:22-29]; [ROM:1:28]; [JER:6:30]; [ISA:1:22].
5. Samuel executed Agag, and departed from Saul, to see him no more, [1SM:15:30-35].
Notes
Fearful Hearts
Saul had reigned as king but two years when Jonathan, his son, smote a garrison of the Philistines, thereby precipitating a full-scale invasion of Israel by the Philistines. Although the Israelites had no weapons of war, other than their axes and mattocks, Saul blew the trumpet and summoned the men of Israel to the coming battle. Even so, Saul found himself facing the thousands of the Philistines with only six hundred men near him.
Decisive Hour
Adversity has ever been the test for moral principles; and these circumstances tested Saul's character to the limit. He was a general without much of an army at his command, and was faced with a number of circumstances that indicated immediate and inevitable disaster. Faced with the momentary possibility that the Philistines would attack in an overwhelming rush, Saul saw that the situation demanded that some kind of constructive action be taken or the cause would be lost.
Saul doubtless felt his need of divine aid, but Samuel, the Prophet of God, was not there. Previously, Samuel had told Saul of this day, and had told him to wait seven days. Samuel also promised Saul that then he would come, offer sacrifices and burnt offerings in supplication to the Lord that God might aid them, and Saul would then be told what to do. But Samuel had not come! The seventh day had dawned, but the Prophet was not there.
Imprudent Act
Filled with anxiety and impatience because Samuel did not arrive at the earliest possible moment of his promise, Saul took matters into his own hands to find a way out of his difficulties. He commanded burnt offerings to be brought to him, and he offered them in supplication to the Lord.
Saul had sufficient knowledge of God's power that he feared to enter battle without divine aid in his behalf. Nevertheless, Saul's presumption in offering sacrifices without Samuel, God's appointed man for such work, was a hasty expedient, and a dangerous thing to do. Furthermore, it was an affront to God's holiness and majesty that God could not overlook.
The administering of offerings and sacrifices was limited to those ordained to do so and all others who dared do so were immediately under penalty of certain death, which penalty was to be exacted without delay. (See [NUM:18:7]; [LEV:17:3-9].) The New Testament says of this matter: "For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins" (Hebrews 5:1).
There were men prior to Saul's time who had dared to usurp the priest's office, doing so to their own destruction. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram had become jealous of Moses, and dared to question his God-given authority to administer the worship of God. God vindicated Moses by opening up the earth and swallowing his accusers alive. Fire also went out from God and consumed 250 of the princes of Israel for being in sympathy with them. Such was the seriousness of Saul's act. (See [NUM:16:1-50] or
).A Violated Conscience
No sooner had Saul finished offering the burnt offering than Samuel appeared and asked Saul for an explanation of his actions. Saul's answer was the confession of a guilty conscience, "I forced myself therefore, and offered a burnt offering."
Saul did not repent of this act of irreverence, and it doubtless was the groundwork for all his further and continued disobedience to the commands of God. Samuel, because of Saul's unrepentant attitude, told him that he had done foolishly, that his kingdom should not continue, and that God would find another to be captain over His people, who would be a man after his own heart ([1SM:13:13-14]).
Whatever inclinations Saul had in the past to serve God in spirit and in truth seemed to have departed from him in this crucial hour. Sinful motives came to the front, and he began to appear as a man who was proud, domineering, rash, and irreverent. There is a dark future for any man who lets such emotions as these enter his heart to guide him through life, and Saul began a life of extreme sinfulness and disobedience.
Continued Disobedience
The word of the Lord came to Saul that he was to go and destroy every living thing of the Amelekites, both man and beast -" sparing nothing. Saul gathered his army and attacked the Amalekites, slaying all the people but the king, and all the animals but those, which were the best.
The Lord revealed to Samuel Saul's disobedience, and told him, "It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments" (I Samuel 15:11). When he met Samuel, Saul said that he had performed the commandment of the Lord.
This second act of Saul's disobedience was deliberate, and was evidently performed with little concern for the right or the wrong. Saul did not hesitate to blame his people for any transgressions that were committed, and had nothing but self-justifying excuses for his disobedience.
Samuel's reply to Saul's excuses was God's own answer to all such cases of deliberate and continual disobedience: "Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry." God further told Saul, through the Prophet Samuel, "Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king" (I Samuel 15:23).
Godly Obligation
Saul's continual refusal to obey God was the revelation of the cancerous nature of sin in the heart of Saul. These acts might have seemed small but were enormous in their result. "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much" (Luke 16:10). So it was with Saul; he could se no value in being obedient in little things, not realising that great things are made up of many countless small matters.
Modern science has proved that even things great in size are made up of countless minute atoms. All the vast universe, scientists say, is made up of intricate atomic patterns, each regulated in its own region and orbit. If then, God's great creation must be obedient to the Creator's design, surely men who are made in God's own image must respect the will of God if they desire the favour of God.
In the armed forces of any nation there is a standing rule for the men to the effect that they must first learn to take commands, before they can give them. This is only another way of saying the thing Samuel so ably said to Saul, "To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams" (I Samuel 15:22).
There is no place in the kingdom of God for rebels. Saul proved himself a rebel, and the result was that Samuel rent the skirt of his mantle in demonstration of how God would rend the kingdom from him. God gave the kingdom to David, a man after His own heart. David respected God's laws and commands, and obeyed them, even though it cost him great personal sacrifice.
A great many people fail to gain entrance into the Kingdom of God because of a continual disobedience to God's Word in what they think are small inconsequential matters. God does not speak words of vanity. What He speaks is of incalculable value, for the simple reason that He is the Almighty God and there is none other besides Him. There-fore, for men to place a small value on any part or portion of what God has said or revealed is to disparage the whole of what God has said or done.
The world is full of religion, philosophies, and schemes of men that use portions of the Bible as basis and a claim for the truth of their precepts. They cast aside the rest of God's words as of little value; or they say they are outdated and of no use for men of modern times. Of such people God has said: "If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book" (Revelation 22:18, 19). (See also [DEU:4:1-2].)
Saul took away from the Word of the Lord, and God took away his name out of the Book of Life, and gave the kingdom to another. His lack of repentance brought its day of reaping "- a harvest of sorrow "- and, in the end, a suicide's death.
Questions
1. In what way did Saul first disobey the command of God?
2. Who should have offered burnt offerings unto the Lord?
3. What was Saul's second act of disobedience?
4. How did Samuel know of this act of disobedience?
5. What were Saul's excuses for his disobedience?
6. What did God say of this?
7. What will happen to all who disobey God?