I Samuel 14:47:
After Saul had assumed rule over Israel, he fought against their enemies on every side: Moab, the Ammonites, Edom, the kings of Zobah, and the Philistines. Wherever he turned, he inflicted punishment on them.
Saul was a fighting King. He was a great general. He dealt all kinds of misery to Israel’s enemies from the day he took charge…. It’s not unusual for God to use gifted people when He has a job to be done. Saul’s talent was making the enemies of Israel dead. He was good at it!
God had a job that needed to be done, and don’t you know it was right up Saul’s alley… We read about it beginning in Chapter 15…
1 Samuel 15
1. Samuel said to Saul, "I am the one the LORD sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the LORD.
2. This is what the LORD Almighty says: `I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt.
3. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys….
It’s come-uppance time for the Amalekites. The word that is translated "destroy" here in verse 3 means to "Give up to God irrevocably"… Deal with it in such a way that no human hand can take it back… If it lives—don’t just kill it – burn it. If it can’t be burned, smash it, crush it until no one will ever know what it was used for…Turn everything to dust, ashes and garbage.
… 7. Then Saul attacked the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, to the east of Egypt.
8. He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword.
9. But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs--everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed.
Saul and his army are doing their version of Sherman’s march to the sea…burning everything in sight, cutting down the enemies of Israel with the sword of the Lord…when suddenly some sergeant in Israel’s army tugs on the sleeve of his commanding officer and says, "Hey captain…these are some mighty fine sheep…I’ve been checking and those cows are real healthy… seems such a waste…"
The Captain shares the idea with his General…who whispers in Saul’s ear…
"You know, if we just kept the best of the flocks and herds, think how we could improve our own livestock…think what that would mean to the Israeli economy…
"Yeah but God said…"
"Look Saul, I’m not telling you how to run your country – but I don’t think God really meant everything. I mean, look at them! Keep them for your Kingdom! We’re entitled to the spoils of war! Just give a tithe off the top for sacrifice and distribute the rest of these fine animals around the officers…"
"Well, I do try to keep the men happy…"
10. Then the word of the LORD came to Samuel:
11. "I am grieved that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions." Samuel was troubled, and he cried out to the LORD all that night.
Folks…Make no mistake. God is still God. It is high time we remembered exactly who He is and where we stand in relationship to Him. When the scripture says that God repented or grieved that he made man or that He made Saul king—he doesn’t mean that he’s changed his mind or altered his will. It simply means that God wills an alteration. God’s will is sovereign. The fickleness of man can’t stop Him. We are like spark plugs in the engine of God’s will. When one goes bad, he doesn’t change engines or buy a new car…He just replaces the bad plug. Saul is on the verge of being replaced. And this upsets Samuel.
The original language says that Samuel burned. Why? Because Samuel had the heart of a great pastor. Samuel has been Saul’s spiritual guide since the day he was anointed King. Time and again, Saul breaks the Mosaic Law and disregards the explicit instructions of God. Time and again, Samuel continues to pour himself into this young man. Samuel hopes against all hope that Saul, who possesses high military qualities, will begin to demonstrate a religious mind… that he will develop an obedient heart…
But today, Saul has pushed the limits of God’s patience. And Samuel. Samuel, like any pastor, is just a man. The honest fact is, if Saul fails, Samuel believes he has failed as well….
And he cried out to the Lord all that night…
Here the scripture is silent. We don’t know the conversation Samuel had with God. But I believe Samuel, with the broken heart of s shepherd who’s sheep has gone astray, pleads for Saul… Begs mercy for the King of Israel…all that night…
It is a lesson for the elders of our church, tucked quietly away in I Samuel: What makes God angry should make God’s people angry.. That is "righteous indignation"…And righteous indignation while it forces us to the front lines of confrontation…ought first drive us to our knees.
Which one of us would be here, in a worship service, gathered together in the name of Jesus, had not some Samuel in our past interceded for us begging mercy for the reprobate…pleading for the chains of our carnal hearts to be broken by the blood of Jesus….
Pastor: When the Board won’t listen and willfully turns a blind eye to the work of the gospel… when God’s people come Sunday after Sunday to consume the hearty farmer’s breakfast of God’s word but fail to show up day after day in the fields white unto harvest to do God’s work…When your people are content to talk about Jesus but won’t talk to Jesus on their knees…when they are satisfied to remember what Jesus did but have no idea what He is doing today…When they stare blankly at the cross they are supposed to take up daily… and then walk away hoping that tomorrow it will be a smaller, lighter cross…and if it is, then they’ll take it up and follow Jesus… When you sense your congregation has so grieved the Spirit of God that He is removing the blessing…Taking away the mission, the purpose of your church and handing it over to another whose hearts are ready to serve…
Pastor: Don’t give them up for dead! Intercede for them! Take them to the cross. Plead the blood of Jesus for their sins. Remember the heart of Samuel who said, : "As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you. And I will teach you the way that is good and right."
Intercession comes before instruction.
Communion with God before Confrontation with Man.
The Heart of a great Pastor:
Acts 20:28. Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood
This commission, this ordination comes from the Holy Spirit. It is a charge to safeguard the "King’s sheep" from poachers and wolves. The precious livestock are highly valued and very expensive! Each one has been bought with the blood of Jesus. Preserve them. Protect them.
Plead for your people. You will have far more Saul’s than you will ever see David’s…
Be Persistent in Prayer… Be Courageous in confrontation:
12. Early in the morning Samuel got up and went to meet Saul, but he was told, "Saul has gone to Carmel. There he has set up a monument in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal."
When these kinds of monuments were erected they often bore the outline or the imprint of the King or General’s hand…The thin ice Saul has been walking on is beginning to crack and he can’t even hear it. It was the hand of God that gave them the victory. It was the mighty hand of God that cursed the enemy of Israel and sealed their triumph.
But Saul erects a monument, not to God, but to himself…saying, symbolically, "by my hand our enemies were defeated here." The phrase "gone on down to Gilgal", in the original texts implies that Saul was marching in a hero’s parade. "Look at me! The Hero of Israel!" Driving the spoils of war – the evidence of his disobedience – before him…. And laughing about it.
Like when you’re 16 and your parents say, "I don’t want you going out with Larry, Moe, and Curly! Those clowns are trouble!" So you hop in the car with someone else and meet Larry, Moe and Curly somewhere in town…It wasn’t their car…You didn’t technically go out with them…And you pat yourself on the back…Cause you think you gave Mom and Dad what they wanted and still got what you wanted all at the same time…
13. When Samuel reached him, Saul said, "The LORD bless you! I have carried out the LORD’s instructions."
14. But Samuel said, "What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?"
15. Saul answered, "The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the LORD your God, but we totally destroyed the rest."
16. "Stop!" Samuel said to Saul. "Let me tell you what the LORD said to me last night." "Tell me," Saul replied.
17. Samuel said, "Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel.
18. And he sent you on a mission, saying, `Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; make war on them until you have wiped them out.’
19. Why did you not obey the LORD? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the LORD?"
God help us church! It’s evil enough when we covet our neighbors SUV….his income…her children…their house…his wife…her husband…But to covet what is God’s….
To look on that which belongs to God and conspire to steal it…To justify ourselves by giving back to God only a portion of what is wholly His to begin with!!
Don’t we do it? Don’t we?
Don’t say it can’t happen in my house!
Look around. Is there anything in our care that is truly our own….You have nothing except God gave it to you. Why the very breath you take is a gift from God.
We’ve looked on the Sabbath day, as if He didn’t give us 6 other days to call our own, and we covet it. We steal it. And then give back to Him a tithe of the Sabbath time. For 24 hours that are supposed to be His and His alone –set aside for restful worship in His divine company—we give Him 2.5 hours.
We’ve looked on our paycheck. Every cent of it belongs to God. He only asks a tenth. But we covet it. Our IRA isn’t growing fast enough for our comfort…or maybe it’s time to put the old Ford out to pasture and those new F-150’s sure look nice…so our tithe gets whittled down from our gross to our net…and when things get a little tight the tithe starts creeping down the ledger book from the first entry …lower and lower…until the "first fruits" become whatever’s left over.
We’ve looked on the church house…the House of God… and we covet it. It’s no longer a house of prayer…It’s no longer a house of confession of sin…It’s no longer a house of praise…It’s become our Christian Club house where we sing only the songs that we like and cover ours sins in the name of holiness instead of confessing them with the boldness of a sanctified heart that can’t stand one more second of the ugliness that is anti-Christ and bitter to the Spirit filled. We’ve taken the sanctuary and turned it into nothing more than a storage room for the pew we’ve branded as our own.
We’ve looked on the pulpit. And we covet. We steal it and it becomes the sounding board for our own grievances rather than the mouthpiece of God’s sacred Word.
We’ve looked on our talents and skills. And we covet. They were given to us for one purpose alone and that is to glorify God in heaven. But we’ve taken our singing voices…our computer skills…our creative abilities…our mechanical aptitudes… and twisted them for our own self serving purposes.
When was it that we first began to look on the things that were God’s and think that we had a right to them…How long will we try the limits of God’s patience…Taking from God what is fully, wholly and rightfully His and then justifying ourselves by offering back to Him merely a token piece.
20. "But I did obey the LORD," Saul said. "I went on the mission the LORD assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king.
21. The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the LORD your God at Gilgal."
The word in verse 20 that the NIV begins as "But" is a difficult word to translate. In context, it is better rendered, "Why are you screaming at me for doing what I was told to do!"
King Saul says, " I went on the mission the Lord assigned me, I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their King…"
Saul makes a cardinal mistake. But I can’t be too hard on Saul. He sounds too much like me. Saul didn’t understand that God’s will is thought out till the ends of time…His Wisdom.. His justice…His will… takes in all that will happen everywhere to everyone for all time…God doesn’t leave loose ends. His will is complete and perfect. Period. There is no such thing as "God’s will and…"
"God’s will and…" will obliterate a pastor
"God’s will and …" will split a church
"God’s will and…" will destroy a lay leader
Did you ever buy something that warned in big bold red letters: "Some assembly required". And, being a man, you tossed the instructions aside.. wheeled out your six foot by six foot deluxe craftsman tool box complete with a detachable storage compartment…Nascar bumper stickers…clip on 12v oscillating fan that you rigged to the Die Hard battery you pulled out of your brother-in -law’s Plymouth Volaire before they hauled it off to its final resting place…And now, after it’s all put together…you’ve got this bag full of important looking stuff left over….
For the sake of all that good in heaven and earth. Don’t turn it on! Especially nowhere near your wife or kids.
"And" means you have added your own solutions when you didn’t heed the instructions given to you.
"Embrace the brethren in fellowship –greet them with a holy kiss—AND be sure to sign them up in your Amway business".
"Preach the gospel of Jesus Christ – AND tell them how to vote in the upcoming election."
"When I was hungry you brought me something to eat – AND—you made sure I knew it was all your idea. No one in that church has a burden for the needy like you do."
Whatever you do to the least of these – you’ve done it to me…Jesus thanks you for the casserole…He also made a note of your haughty spirit and the harsh words you use against His church and how you work against the building of His Kingdom with your negative spirit. PS He’s never tasted a finer Potato Salad….
"Go into all the World – AND—write a check when you can send money instead of yourself…"
"Pay your tithe – AND – be sure to designate where you think it ought to be spent. God knows if you don’t tell the pastor where to spend your money it might get spent on Sunday School supplies, or a new sound system, or a missionary in a foreign field, or to pay the light bill."
When you take God’s will –plainly given to us in the pages of scripture—clearly revealed to us as God speaks through the Holy Spirit to our hearts…to our conscience…and take away from it… it is nothing less that rebellion….It is shaking a fist in God’s face saying that’s too much work…that’s not necessary…I won’t do it…
When we add to His perfect will, it is nothing short of arrogance. We say to God, " You have no idea what your doing"
And when we reject the perfect will of God, we are in danger of being rejected by God.
22. But Samuel replied: "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
23. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king."
To obey is better than sacrifice.
To obey is better than sacrifice.
If your ritual of worship doesn’t reflect a right heart it is worthless.
God doesn’t want your money.
He doesn’t want your attendance in Church
He doesn’t want your breakfast or your dinner or your midnight snack or whatever meal you decide to fast.
He doesn’t want your pulpit…or your pew…or your purse
It’s not enough.
God finds no pleasure in empty rituals.
He wants an obedient heart. He wants you. Fully. Completely. All of you. Not just your voice. Not just your Sunday mornings. He wants a relationship.
He wants to have fellowship with a man or woman after his own heart.
Someone that takes His word for what it says. Nothing more and nothing less. Someone who listens for the will of God in every aspect – the most minute details—of their lives.. Someone who will follow His will and do what he commands.
He’s searching for a heart set on fire for the gospel’s sake. A heart free of selfish motive. A heart that is bold in its honesty. Honest to God and honest to men.
24. Then Saul said to Samuel, "I have sinned. I violated the LORD’s command and your instructions. I was afraid of the people and so I gave in to them.
Saul had a little trouble with honesty. He couldn’t admit at first that he coveted what God demanded for His own. He couldn’t admit that he wasn’t strong enough to tell his soldiers NO.
Fear makes us dishonest. Fear cripples the men and women of God. I am embarrassed to say that Satan has succeeded in binding the hands of the Church with fear. Pastors can’t say what needs to be said for fear of losing a number off the roll book. Church leaders can’t say what needs to be said to their pastors for fear of splitting the church or being run out of the fellowship. Now don’t misunderstand me. There’s an awful lot of people doing an awful lot of talking that ought to get some holy duct tape stretched across their lips…I’m not talking about a spirit of dissension.. or a gossiping tongue…I’m talking about Godly correction that comes from preaching the Word of God straight –sights set dead on and both barrels loaded…I’m talking about Godly corrections that comes from embracing a fallen brother or sister in arms that are the arms of Jesus.
The Bible isn’t wishy-washy or mealy-mouthed – so why are we?
The early church grew because its members lived their faith around their friends who were outside of the faith. Jesus made it a point to find the hopeless spiritual cases on the outskirts of religious society. If we’re not doing the same…we’re not being Jesus in our communities. We are in the world not of the world…But we are still in the world. If you don’t have any unchurched friends you’re either the greatest evangelist in the world or you’ve hidden yourself behind stained glass windows and locked the door. How can you share the gospel if you don’t know anyone outside the faith? If you’re not sharing the gospel you’re not fulfilling the great commission! If you’re not fulfilling the great commission you have failed to obey the command of the Lord.
What ‘s wrong with us Church, that a pastor, as the Lord’s anointed, can’t look us in the eyes and say, "Stop! Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night! Didn’t He send you on a mission saying Go and preach the gospel; teaching them to obey everything I have commanded; baptizing them in the name of the father and the Son and the holy Ghost? Why have you not obeyed?"
What’s wrong with us Church, that a people, consecrated to God, can’t say "Pastor, the devil’s got his wicked claws deep inside you because of pornography or an extramarital affair… Brother sin is sin, but we’re not going to give you up till we’ve prayed you through the restoring power of the blood of Jesus… Pastor where are your accusers…neither do we condemn you…Go and sin no more…."
25. Now I beg you, forgive my sin and come back with me, so that I may worship the LORD."
26. But Samuel said to him, "I will not go back with you. You have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you as king over Israel!"
Church:
When we reject the Word of the Lord, we have rejected Him personally. But notice that God did not reject Saul, the man. He rejected Saul as King. It was still possible for Saul to be restored in his personal relationship with God—but his continual, willful resistance to God’s will caused him to forfeit God’s blessing.
If your church isn’t growing. If you are not fully receiving the blessings of God – is it possible that you are in continual, willful resistance to God? Is it possible that you as a person or you as a church have said You can have this much and no more…Is it possible that you have coveted the things of Almighty God and stolen from His storehouse? Is it possible that you have said wherever it is that I don’t understand God’s will or I don’t like what it is telling me, I’ll fill in the blanks with my own way…I’ll do what I want to do…
27. As Samuel turned to leave, Saul caught hold of the hem of his robe, and it tore.
28. Samuel said to him, "The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors--to one better than you.
Saul didn’t like the honesty of God’s word. He couldn’t handle it. To the very end he was reaching out to take prophet of God in hand and force him to do and to say what Saul wanted to hear. In anger he grabs Samuel and tears the hem of his robe…How long will you grapple with Almighty God. What a futile and fruitless waste of energy! Can you turn over a mountain with you bare hands? Can you blow on the waves and turn the tide?
God help us, church! Is it so important to have our own way that we would risk having the crown taken from our head and handed to another? Do we want the rocks to cry out in place of us? Will we force God to pull us like a bad plug and replace us with a new denomination – a neighbor better than us…that will preach Jesus only: crucified and risen again? The apostle Paul was right. Every doctrine of the Church is found in the cross: Jesus Christ : His earthly ministry – our challenge to imitate Christ to everyone, everywhere and in everything demand of ourselves "what would Jesus do". "Him crucified": the atoning work of Jesus that flows out of his obedience to God’s will—even to death on the cross. "And risen again": Be ye Holy as I am Holy. Dead to sin and alive in Christ. There is no Grace that brings us to perfect love except that Jesus Christ conquered death and Hell and presented Himself alive before the Father in Heaven…
29. He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a man, that he should change his mind…
The challenge of I Samuel 15 is the daily decisions we must make for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Daily confronted to choose between what is good and what is better. Good intentions of Christian service or Obedience. Good traditions of worship that fail to move us to genuine heartfelt praise and confession or Obedience. Good choices in how the money of the church relying on the limited wisdom of our own understanding or Obedience.
Micah 6: verse 6
With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
7. Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8. He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Listen to the instruction of God’s word.
Choose wisely between what is good and what is better:
To Obey is better than sacrifice.
