Why Do God Reject King Saul

Why Do God Reject King Saul

KEY SCRIPTURE: 1 Samuel 15:22-23

1 Samuel 15:22 “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 hearken than the fat of rams.”

NOTE: Kindly Read My Dream Interpretation Book And Other Inspiring Books...

INTRODUCTION

King Saul was the first king appointed by Prophet Samuel after the people of Israelites required a king to rule over them like any other country. King Saul was the youngest son of Kish and came from the tribe of the Benjamin, one of the tribes of Israel. King Saul was a modest shepherd boy, a resident of Gibeah who was sought out by Prophet Samuel as instructed by God and anointed King over Israel. It was a period of national humiliation, for the Philistines had defeated the Israelites at Shiloh and captured the Ark of the Covenant, which symbolized the presence of God in their midst. This calamity convinced the Israelites that they must either strive for national unity with a king as leader or face complete and permanent subjugation. King Saul succeeded in freeing Israel of its enemies and extending its boundaries. He fought successfully against the Philistines, Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, Arameans, and Amalekites. He also succeeded in drawing the tribes of Israel into a closer unity.

His first mistake as a King started when he offered the sacrifice to God which was the sole duty of Prophet Samuel, this caused conflict and Prophet Samuel rebuked him and said his kingdom will not last forever. His second issue took place after he was instructed to go to the land of Amalekites and later destroy all the living things, but Saul retained the war booty of the defeated Amalekites, Israel’s traditional enemy, and spared the life of their king, Agag. Samuel publicly pronounced Saul’s deposition from the throne. Despite all his shortcomings, he never personally went to God to ask for forgiveness, he was more concerned about losing face with the people than losing face with God. King Saul was rejected by God for many reasons and in this article, few of such reasons will be mentioned.

1. HE FEARED PEOPLE’S ACTIONS AND REACTIONS: In the first mistake committed by King Saul by offering sacrifice meant to be done by prophets, he feared the reaction of people more than giving reference to the word of God. The instruction given was to wait for the prophet, but he never exhibited the quality of a good leader. A good leader must obey the commandments of God and lead the people to be good followers of God’s laws. The people of Israelites are God’s own people and God wanted them to be exemplary to others and as their king, he was meant to lead them alright and encourage them to be fervent believers in God but fearing the reactions of the people point to the fact that he can’t lead them or show them the right way to serve God. God wanted a man after his heart to lead the people of Israel, but King Saul was not that man due to the need to keep face with the people. When God calls us to his service, we are only to obey and fear him, his wordings must be obeyed to the letter and our lifestyle must promote God in all areas. King Saul had offered a sacrifice or a burnt offering out of disobedience and therefore lost the trust of God and main trust of his people that they are following a Man of God.
2. DISOBEDIENCE: King Saul was given a simple command, but he failed to accomplish that. He was asked to destroy all the living things in the land of Amalekites due to what they did to the children of Israelites by opposing them when they were going to Canaan, but he never really cared about the instruction and was more interested in what the people wanted to keep from the lots of the items discovered during the destruction. He disobeyed the instructions given and this caused God to be unhappy because he had ridiculed God twice to the people and didn’t give him the respect due to Him. Saul defended himself rather weakly by stating that he spared the best of the sheep to offer sacrifice to God and shifted the blame on the people. Samuel decried Saul’s action and denounced his non-performance of the commandments given to him by God. For this act of disobedience, he was rejected by God. As Samuel turned to go away from Saul, he held Samuel’s skirt and it got torn. Samuel then declared that as Saul had torn his robe, the Lord had torn the kingdom of Israel and had given it to his neighbor. As believers, we have been called to be obedient to all the instructions and commandments of God, when we sin against God, we make him unhappy and reject his offer for fellowship.
3. HE WASN’T REMORSEFUL: King Saul was never remorseful for the two mistakes he committed and never saw any reason to go back to God in prayers. From this, we could see that Saul never had a personal relationship with God. He sees God not as his personal God but as Prophet Samuel’s God which was while he kept finding excuses for his disobedient acts. He wasn’t remorseful because he never took time to know God, he was meant to lead the people to serve. Even after committing the acts of disobedience, and God had rejected him from being King, instead of entreating Prophet Samuel to know how to return to God, he still wanted to keep face in front of the elders and told Prophet Samuel to help pray to his God and not let the people know he had been rejected from being king. Later during the war, King Saul went to a witch doctor which shows he can’t really be the king because he will make the children of the Israelites engage in idolatry. As Christians, we should try as much as possible to not fall in sin and when we commit sin, we should be remorseful and immediately return to God. We should endeavor to live a life that is void of sins.
4. HE ALWAYS JUSTIFIED HIMSELF: King Saul didn’t count all he did as disobedience to God because he felt all he did were right; he never had a contrite heart to acknowledge the supremacy of God. When he was crowned King of the Israelites, he was given an instruction to obey the laws and commandments of God always and guide the people to listen to the words of God and make them true followers of God by his actions, but the reverse was the case. If King Saul wasn’t rejected as a King and kept leading the people, sins will abound, and everyone will try to justify why the sins were committed. We should not try to justify wrongdoings but have a repentant heart in order not to face rejection.

CONCLUSION

King Saul can be any one of us, we must be careful when we are serving God, we should have a personal relationship with God to know the God we are serving. God enjoys sweet fellowship with his creatures and always wants us to abide by his laws. We can’t break laws and expect promises. We are to surrender our wills to God, we should not please men to displease God because the consequences of that might be grievous. When you are called by God, obedience is not an option.