Pastor Edgar Mayer;
For more sermons and other writings check out pastors homepage: http://www.geocities.com/mayeredgar
The
Day Of Loss
The day when King Saul lost his kingdom,
he never really seemed to understand what was happening. From a certain
perspective he had won a mighty battle. He was the triumphant warrior king of more than 200,000
soldiers. The prophet Samuel had told
him earlier 1Samuel 15:1-3:
listen again
to what God says
Im about to get even with Amalek for ambushing Israel when
Israel came out of Egypt. Heres what you are to do: Go to war against Amalek.
Put everything connected with Amalek under a holy ban. And no exceptions! This
is to be total destruction men and women, children and infants, cattle and
sheep, camels and donkeys the works. King Saul had heard these words and therefore he was made aware of how
serious Gods sense of justice can be. Finally after waiting for three
hundred years after granting such a
long time for repentance which Amalek did not take up according to verse eighteen
they had remained wicked and according to verse thirty-three they had continued
to slay people with the sword God
finally would use King Saul to execute
his righteousness destroy everything and King Saul some time later succeeded. He had gathered a mighty army. He had attacked the
Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, to the east of Egypt (v7).
He had been awesome. He had won the war
and he felt good on the day that he lost his kingdom.
The Bible records what happened next 1 Samuel 15:10-15: . the word of the Lord came to Samuel: I am grieved
[I repent] 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. 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 honour and has turned and gone down to Gilgal. When Samuel reached
him, Saul said, The Lord bless you! I have carried
out the Lords instructions. But Samuel said, What then is this bleating of
sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear? 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.
Apparently Saul did not execute Gods
instructions to a t. He spared a few sheep and cattle and
also the life of Agog the king of the Amalekites which seemed to cause a rather harsh reaction from God. He said to
Samuel: I am grieved [I repent] that I have made Saul king, because he
has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions. With these words God determined to take the
kingship away from Saul. God was grieved but Saul evidently struggled to
understand the seriousness of his crime. When Samuel caught up with him, he
greeted him with upbeat words of faith: The Lord bless you! I have
carried out the Lords instructions. The Lord bless
you! I have carried out the Lords instructions. And when challenged about the spared life-stock, he said:
they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to
sacrifice to the Lord your God, but we totally destroyed the rest. The best sheep and cattle were for
worshipping God. Was that so bad?
How could this apply to us? Could we
ever slip like Saul and be less than precise in following the instructions of
God? For instance, Jesus also said to us Matthew 6:19: Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,
which is a bit like saying: Do
not win a battle and then store up for yourselves choice sheep and cattle.
Like Saul we are not to carry out Gods
will with an eye on the spoil of choice sheep and cattle treasures on
earth but be obedient to God who said
Matthew 6:33:
seek first his kingdom and his righteousness
Do we follow these instructions or do we
also slip up? How many treasures do you and I have and at what expense? If the
prophet Samuel were to pay us a visit, what would he say? I dont know. You
have to answer this for yourself but I think we do have sympathy for Saul and ourselves. And
for good measure we dont appreciate
being challenged in this way. The prophet Samuel seemed to be too demanding and
outright insensitive. Didnt King Saul fight a battle? Didnt he risk his life?
Didnt he work hard? Didnt he show his loyalty? Didnt he do a good job? So
why be so hard on him? What should God care about a few sheep and cattle?
This is the kind of logic that kicks in
especially on our days of victory. Right now in our congregations we can see
immense energy expended on the DangerZone kids program (Gail Jericho,
) and the upcoming Hopevale trip (Geoff
& Rosie Schefe,
) and the
establishment of the community centre in Station St (David Challenor, Alan
Maxwell,
), etc. These are all
exhausting battles which we are meant to fight with God and for God and can you
imagine how after giving your all you
might feel when the battle is won?
Right then and there it is so easy to
slip up because we tell ourselves
being exhausted but also pleased with our conduct letting our guard down for
a moment that we now do deserve a little easing of Gods
instruction. We worked so hard for him. We were so disciplined. Now it is our
time taking it a little easier. Now it seems right to demand: Give me some
spoils from the war.
Consequently and this is a familiar temptation we may take a break from keeping the
Sabbath day holy and therefore skip Sunday worship. For a while at least we
dont dress up, pack the family into the car and drive to the chapel. For a
while at least after working so hard the seventh day is going to be our day not Gods day. Then considering more spoils from the
ministry war we may retire from active
duty for a while because in our estimate we have run a small group or outreach ministry for long enough. Now we
want the time back for ourself.
And let me hasten to say this
may be sensible. There is nothing wrong with resigning from different positions
and adjusting your load but retirement from serving God is not an option. As
long as we live, we serve him and at the end of our life Jesus himself asks us
to have the following attitude Luke 17:10:
when you have done
everything you were told to do, . say, We are
unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.
Do we slip up in our obedience to God and
therefore will we lose as much as Saul who lost his kingdom? God said: I am grieved [I repent] that I have made Saul
king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my
instructions.
Saul was a fool blind to the goodness of God which was abundant
toward him and his people and even in
his case God was not quick to judge. Saul did not lose the kingdom because of
some minor slip up we wont lose anything from God because of a minor
slip up God is far too long-suffering and merciful for that but beware of an entrenched mind-set for
sin which formed in the person of Saul.
I remind you of what we already heard
and then continue the Bible reading
1 Samuel 15:12-31: Early in the morning Samuel got up and went to meet
Saul, but he was told, Saul has gone to
Samuel said, Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you
not become the head of the tribes of
But I did obey the Lord, Saul said. I went on the mission the Lord
assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites
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.
So Saul stuck to his defense of sparing
some choice sheep and cattle for worship at least first for worship and then general consumption by a hungry
king and army not to mention that these sheep and cattle would save the
Israelites from supplying their own life-stock for worship sacrifices. Saul stuck to his pious defense but God saw
through the pious veneer into the heart.
I continue with the reading:
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. 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.
As Samuel increased his pressure on Saul
and spelled out the seriousness of his disobedience, Saul finally responded but
it seemed half-hearted. Listen to the Bible text: Then Saul said to Samuel: I have sinned. I
violated the Lords command and your instructions. I was afraid of the people
and so I gave in to them. Now I beg you, forgive my sin and come back with me,
so that I may worship the Lord. But Samuel said to him, I will not go back
with you
Saul replied: I have sinned. But
please honour me before the elders of my people and before Israel; come back
with me, so that I may worship the Lord your God.
Sauls repentance was not worth much.
First, he excused himself the
animals were to be sacrificed to God first before he and his men would feast on
the meat. Then, Saul blamed the soldiers:
They took the sheep and cattle. Finally,
he blamed the people: I was afraid of them. They would have been angry
with me, if I had obeyed God.
When in the end he was cornered
by Samuel, he did say: I have sinned. I have violated the Lords command
and instructions. But he did not
really seem interested in repentance. He seemed more interested in having the
prophet Samuel come back with him and worship side by side with him as an
endorsement of his kingship before the people. Saul pleaded with Samuel, saying:
I have sinned. But please honour me before the elders of my people and
before Israel; come back with me, so that I may worship the Lord your God.
Samuel complied with Sauls wishes on
the day and avoided a public disturbance things looked okay to others but
did Saul realize that his decisions on this day of victory cost him the
kingship of
Disobedience costs us the Word of God
because we will no longer hear him. Our minds will be at the mercy of the devil
who 1 Corinthians 4:4 blinds
[original: has blinded] the minds of the disobedient [original:
unbelievers]
(cf. Ephesians 2:2; 1 John 2:9-11). Then Saul may have never noticed that his
most precious possession was taken from him not the victory, not the
kingship, not the choice sheep and cattle he retained all of that things
did look good from the outside but 1 Samuel 16:14:
the Spirit of the
Lord . departed from Saul
Do we prize the Spirit and do we know
when we have him and when not? The Bible promises us Christians 1 John 2:20:
. you have an
anointing [a deposit of the Holy Spirit] and all of you know the truth. 2 Corinthians 1:21: Now it is God
who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of
ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing
what is to come [life in heaven].
Saul was a fool! God had given him so
much victory from their enemies,
success as a king, joy and triumph. Not that much earlier when it came to choose a king for
Who are we that God would love us and
yet, he does. He sent his only begotten Son Jesus Christ to die for us on a
cross as a sacrifice for our sins
so that we would be forgiven, holy and
righteous, his children and heirs of heaven. The Bible says Ephesians 1:7-8:
In Jesus we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in
accordance with the riches of Gods grace that he lavished on us with all
wisdom and understanding. Are we
not all much richer and more fortunate than any king here on earth? God is our
God and he loves us.
It wasnt enough for Saul. He sought to
fill the void in his life not with God
not with his favour not with worshipping him not with getting lost in the
glory of God but with personal fame
and approval from people. After the victory over the Amalekites before he did
anything else, Saul 1 Samuel 15:12
set
up a monument in his own honour
And
then he was always afraid of what people might think of him 1 Samuel
15:24:
I was afraid of the people and so I gave in to them
1
Samuel 15:30:
please honour me before the elders of my people and before
Israel
How much easier it is to worry about
nothing else than pleasing God. Human fame is fickle and especially in
God was good to him and he gave him more
than one opportunity to repent. This is how God is to us: He calls you and I to repentance more than once. There are repeated warnings
but in the end we need to hear them
humble ourselves (pull down the monuments which we have built to our pride) and
turn away from sin.
Earlier in his career as king Saul went
to war against the Philistines. The situation was desperate. The people were
hiding in caves and the remaining soldiers were afraid and deserting. Saul was
in a tight spot and desperately needed the prophet Samuel to come at the
appointed time and bless the campaign by sacrificing to God. However, Samuel
was late and an anxious Saul took it upon himself to sacrifice the burnt
offering on his behalf.
This did not go down well with Samuel. 1
Samuel 13:10-15: Just as Saul
finished making the offering Samuel arrived
What have you done? asked
Samuel. Saul replied, When I saw that the men were scattering
I felt
compelled to offer the burnt offering. You acted foolishly, Samuel said.
You have not kept the commandment the Lord your God gave you
now your kingdom
will not endure
At a previous time Saul was in a similar
situation pressure from the people
to disobey the instructions of God and he did disobey with similar results a stern word of judgement from God
delivered by Samuel announcing to him that his kingdom would be taken away
from him.
What was he meant to do with this Word
of God? What are we meant to do when God pronounces judgement on us? We are to
repent. The judgement of God is not irrevocable unchangeable. There
is a way back. I read from the Bible Jeremiah 18:7-10 God said: If at any time I announce
that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if
that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on
it the disaster I had planned
For instance, this is
what happened to the city of Nineveh. The prophet Jonah announced to them:
Yet forty days and
Should he not be concerned with us? God
is a merciful God and Saul could have saved his kingdom by changing his ways
but he didnt. And so on another
day a great day of victory he lost
his kingdom not completely
he retained his kingdom as we may retain the church the institution but the Word of God and the Spirit of God
departed from him.
And we dont want that. Therefore, we
want to obey and understand the seriousness of disobedience. I close with what
Samuel explained to Saul. Weve heard the words before: 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. For rebellion is like
the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.
May our days of victory be days when we
remain especially close to God. Who needs the spoils
of war when he and his mercy are enough for us? May his Word and his Spirit delight
us for ever. Amen.