Biblical Story Of Saul And The Lessons To Learn

Biblical Story Of Saul And The Lessons To Learn

Most times, receiving God’s call requires nothing from us. However, remaining in the call would require so much from us. For clarity on the above statement, let us consider the life of King Saul. Saul, son of Kish, a descendant of the smallest tribe of Israel, Benjamin, had been chosen king of Israel by prophet Samuel, as instructed by God.

Although Saul was out in search of his father’s missing donkey, he encountered Prophet Samuel who would anoint him King even though all he wanted was just a prophet who would help him find his donkey.

Before this times, Israel had no need for a leader since God had been their king himself yet they incessantly disturbed Him for a physical king and He granted their request by providing Saul.

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On his encounter with prophet Samuel, Saul was anointed, he received a new heart, he prophesied and was proclaimed King before the Israelites despite trying to hide himself from the responsibility.

Saul fought several battles and won because God was with him until he decided to selectively obey God in fighting the Amalekites.

God had instructed that he and his troop destroy the Amalekites leaving nothing alive nor bringing anything out of the land. Saul, in disobedience fought, killed but brought animals alive out of the country into his own land.

Although his intentions was to sacrifice these animals to the Lord, that was not the instruction. The instruction was to bring nothing out, dead or alive and this singular act of disobedience made the spirit of God depart from King Saul. God regretted ever making Saul King over Israel and it was on this note, He chose a new King, David, over Israel who was also anointed by Prophet Samuel.

In God’s kingdom, half obedience is no obedience. Only total obedience does it with God. As stated earlier, you may do nothing to get called of the Lord but to remain in the calling requires total obedience and submission to the one who has called you.

God’s presence did not only depart from King Saul but from time to time, an evil spirit descended on him that leaves him almost mad. Upon this new development, his men urged him to employ the services of David, an instrumentalist who was very good with the harp and each time David played the instrument to Saul, the evil spirit leaves. He was loved by the King and finally asked to stay in the palace.

It was not too long the king discovered that David was always successful with whatever he did. He killed Goliath and led troops successfully. He became well recognized amongst the people and was praised as one who has killed more people than Saul. This new progress of David aroused the King’s jealousy for David. He sensed that he would become King over his son, Jonathan, hence the hot chase to kill David.

On several occasions where he sought to kill David, David was saved by his wife, Saul’s daughter whom he had earlier married and by Jonathan, Saul’s son and David’s bossom friend. At other times,  it was his ability to dodge the King’s throws at him that saved him.

Although David got two opportunities to kill Saul while he was asleep on the mission to kill him, yet he never did despite the support of his men. He strongly believed Saul was anointed of God and he had no right to take his life. He proved these opportunities to the king with the evidences of a piece of the King’s robe, his spear and his water flask. Yet he never hurt the King.

Unfortunately for him, the Philistines got ready to war. He consulted the Lord about the war but he got no response since the spirit of God had departed from him. In his frustration, he went in disguise to seek for answers from a sorcerer as against his own decree that no one must be found seeking a sorcerer. On his request, the sorcerer conjured for him the spirit of Samuel.

Prophet Samuel confirmed God had left him,  his kingdom shall be taken over and he shall die because of his disobedience to carrying out God’s instruction in full over the Amalekites.

At war with the Philistines, his three sons were killed. He killed himself by falling on his own sword rather than have the Philistines kill him.

Biblical Story Of Saul And The Lessons To Learn

Remaining in God’s call and purposes for our lives requires that we obey God to the latter and never get familiar with his words or his instructions or try to explain his instructions away no matter how good or logical our intentions are. Since we do not always know God’s mind,  we must be careful not to take chances with God when He instructs us.

Also ,seeking other means to hearing from God when it feels like He is not answering us is not trusting God alone. If we ever get to the point where we seek God and He doesn’t show up, we must learn to be patient and wait on Him until He responds. While waiting, we must also search ourselves to be sure that we aren’t the reason behind His silence.

If God has chosen a leader for us, rather than get jealous like Saul, we should rather submit to the new leadership and lend our support. Being against the leader or mobilizing others to make their tenure difficult would mean great danger for us. Leadership in God’s kingdom is not a family business. Therefore we should not expect that leadership positions remain in our family no matter who we are and we must never fight to make that happen for ourselves or others.

Obedience is indeed better than sacrifice, good intentions or logic. In our relationship with God we must learn to prioritize obedience over all forms of reasoning. For every form of disobedience shall be duly punished by God.