Saul: The Insufficiency of Religion


	Saul: The Insufficiency of Religion Why was it that the children of Israel asked Samuel for a king? It was so they might have something reliable in their existence apart from God. We all like to have something we can lean on, something that provides us with some sort of security. A young person may rely upon a diploma from a certain university. An older person may rely upon an amount of money in a retirement account. Many different things become "kings" that people rely upon to protect them from hardship. Even in the church life, we may seek such a king apart from the Lord. Some might argue, has not the Lord given us leaders? Yes, the Lord does provide us with more experienced saints who are able to shepherd and care for us in the church life, but if the Lord is merciful, He will not allow us to rely upon any person or thing above Christ Himself. Saul's Operating Principles Being Those of Religion Saul was very good in so many ways, yet he failed to satisfy God because he operated as one in religion. It was not that he was evil; it was his 'religiosity' that caused him to lose his value before the Lord. Let us now consider how this was. 1. In the name of Jehovah, he exercised in himself to meet man's need. The Israelites felt that as a nation they needed a king, so they asked Samuel to choose one for them. The Lord agreed to give them a king, and Saul was chosen and anointed (1 Sam. 10:1). Poor Saul! If only the people had not requested a king, he might have lived a very happy and successful life. Instead, for the past three thousand years he has been held up as "bad king" next to David's "good king." Those who think of Saul as being bad, however, have not have read what the Biblical account, for in the Bible it can be seen that Saul was actually pretty good. We might remember how he tried to hunt down and kill David, but we should also remember how Saul was given a new heart when he was anointed, how the Spirit came upon him, and how he valiantly fought against the enemies of Israel. He was not a terrible person, but he had a sad end. How was it he failed to satisfy God's heart? A King Focused Upon Man's Need Rather Than God's Heart Saul himself was made king because the people felt they needed one. God did not initiate it. Samuel had appointed his sons as governors, but they did not rule well. Therefore the people were not satisfied with them and wanted a king. They were tired of four hundred and fifty years of "off and on" leadership. They saw how the nations around them were governed by a predictable and continuous lines of kings. In fact, if their existence under the judges were compared with what they experienced in Egypt, many might feel they were better off when they were in Egypt! At least there they were in a stable environment and had enough to eat. Regardless, they were tired of the mess they felt they were in. Therefore God gave them Saul. They got what they "asked for" (the meaning of Saul's name) as they had been warned (1 Sam. 8:9-18). After he was made king, Saul felt responsible to take care of the people's needs. What he was given to rule over, however, was actually God's kingdom, not his. God's intention was that He would exercise His kingship through the king chosen from among the people, who would represent Him before the people. Instead of turning to God as the true King, however, Saul tried to take care of whatever was needed directly, on his own. Are needs real? They are. Does God require that needs be taken care of? He does. Is that reason enough to act? It is not! Why not? Because God Himself desires to be the One who meets the need. Therefore, we should not respond to a need apart from God, for when we do, we fall into religion. Due to his "religious" response, Saul lost his value before God as a man who could rule for Him. The needs we face as God's people may be urgent. Just before Saul was made king, the Ammonites had come up and laid siege to Jabesh-Gilead, a city of Israel (1 Sam. 11:1). The people of that city had asked to be given seven days to seek a deliverer in Israel, and the enemy surprisingly agreed to this. If there would be no one who could defeat them, however, the people could surrender, and their right eyes were to be plucked out and they were to serve the Ammonites as slaves in exchange for their lives. And if they did not surrender, the entire population would be put to the sword. So the need was urgent and real! As believers, we also encounter times of desperate need. How do we respond during these times? There are times of difficulty, when it seems something must be done. And particularly when you are one who is serving the Lord as someone who is exercising leadership, you will be confronted with many things that require some sort of action. How will you respond? Will you respond directly to the need, as Saul did, or will you go to the Lord to seek His heart? 2. As king he believed what God had given him could be passed on to someone he himself chose. It is very common in religion to assume that spiritual things can be passed on by way of inheritance. Even a very well-known American evangelist has passed on what he had built up to his son. We do not presume to judge that this is not something of the Lord, but in many cases spiritual men have sought to find a place for their children in what the Lord has given them. Eli allowed his sons to serve as priests when they were not worthy (1 Sam. 2:22), and even Samuel attempted to set his sons up to govern Israel after him, in spite of the fact they did not know the Lord as he did and even took bribes (1 Sam. 8:1). Samuel seems to be perfect in every way except for this. Therefore we should all be impressed with how difficult it is for a father not to want to see his son follow in his footsteps. In 1 Samuel 20:31, Saul tells his son Jonathan that by siding with David, he was forfeiting the kingdom Saul was seeking to pass on to him. In Saul's view, Jonathan was heir to his kingdom. Someone should have asked Saul, "Shall you decide who will be Israel's king? The kingdom is God's, not yours, and it is His decision who will rule!" No matter how badly Saul may have wanted Jonathan to rule after him, it was not his to decide. This intention of Saul's - to establish his descendants as Israel's monarchy by force - was very offensive to God. David's line was chosen instead, but when he set his son upon the throne it was something according to God's revelation, not something he did for his own continuation. It was what the Lord revealed to him, not something he assumed! Even among us, it is too easy to consider that the Lord's ministry should be continued by way of inheritance. We should not think of the Lord's ministry in this way. The ministry that the Lord has committed to a person operates as long as that person is present, but when that person is gone, that ministry stops with him. Even if he were to want to, he cannot pass it on to whomsoever he chooses. It is up to the Lord to raise up the next person who will work with Him in such a way. In the final entry in A Table in the Wilderness (December 31st), Watchman Nee speaks to this matter, saying that once a servant of the Lord has served his generation and has passed on, the Lord must plow up everything to open the ground for whatever He will do next, which may not happen until some time has passed. In our concept, perhaps, it should be something carried on as by way of inheritance, as a direct continuation. There is even talk about who has inherited whose ministry, or who is the successor or continuation of whom. This should not be our understanding. Such a notion is something of religion and hinders God from being the preeminent One among us. 3. As king he carried out what had been divinely committed to him by means of his self-life. God made Saul king over His people. To rule as king was Saul's divine commitment. As the divinely - appointed king, Saul had to handle many situations, but he did so by means of God's rival - the self-life. Everyone who serves God faces the same possibility. When someone has been honored by God with some responsibility, usually their immediate response is to try to be faithful to whatever has been committed to them. What form does this faithfulness take? It often takes the form of doing what is right, what is necessary, or what is expected. When you do things for God in this way, however, you are being religious if you do them apart from God. Even this message could cause you to do something that will only be religious if it is not of God Himself. Even a good message can bring in a way to do something apart from God. Whenever we think, "That's it!" or "Now I know what I should do!" or "This is the way!" then we should realize we need to stop ourselves and check with the Lord. All such things can lead us into religion if they become a means for us to do something for God independent of Him in our self-life. 4. As king he received something precious from God, yet allowed it to become more precious to him than God Himself. Saul was not a bad person. In fact, when Samuel told him he would be king, he responded very humbly, saying that he was not worthy of such an honor. He probably knew that being king would mean a lot of headaches, and he wasn't interested. Samuel, however, anointed him king anyway, and the Lord gave him a new heart (1 Sam. 10:9). A little while later, when the king was to be publicly chosen from among God's people, I believe Saul was still holding out hope that it would not be him. After all, the chances of being chosen by lot from among so many people might have made the possibility of actually being chosen king seem pretty remote at first (the casting of lots would have seemed like a lottery). But once the tribe of Benjamin was chosen, and then his clan was chosen from among Benjamin, he probably began to realize Samuel might have been right! Thus, by the time his name was called, he was nowhere to be found! Therefore the people had to ask God where he was, and God had to tell them he was hiding among all the baggage (1 Sam. 10:22)! No one could have accused Saul of being ambitious after the kingship. Saul probably did feel grateful for being given a new heart and experiencing being filled with the Spirit (1 Sam. 10:10). He might have said, "Thank you for everything, it's a great honor…but I think there's been some mistake. I don't want to be king!" Yet when the people looked at him after he had tried hiding among the piles of tents and luggage, they saw that he indeed was attractive and stood head and shoulders above the rest. He must have stood about six and a half feet tall. If anyone questioned whether he should be king, someone else might have said, "Go and stand next to him and tell us who else is like him?" Those who think Saul was a bad person have not read what the Bible has to say about him. He was not someone who was yearning after power. Instead, it seems he wanted no part in being king. It was something that had to be thrust upon him. The people thought they had found themselves the right man for the job. However, it was like someone entering into marriage; the people had no idea of what they were getting into! No matter how much they "dated" and look forward to being "married," they had no way of knowing what the reality of being "married" to such a king would be until they experienced it. At this point, they lived in sensations rather than reality, and the heady notion of having a king led them into "tying the knot" with Saul. Just as with marriage, however, many came to find out that having a king would not be as they first dreamed it would be. To this God could only say, "I tried to warn you, but you insisted." Saul and the people of Israel, however were off to a good start. He had been anointed, had been given a new heart, had been filled with the Spirit, and had been well received by the people. One further story indicates that he might have been expected to become a great king. Some worthless "sons of Belial" had questioned his being chosen king (1 Sam. 10:27). Later, after he won a great victory that established him in the eyes of the people as their true leader, he did not allow those who mocked him to be punished (1 Sam. 11:13). Saul's kingship was off to a good start. Saul Delivering The People of Jabesh-Gilead As mentioned previously, the Ammonites had invaded Israel and had demanded the surrender of the people of Jabesh-Gilead. The Ammonites in the Bible represent the flesh that wants to destroy and enslave us, and yet allows us seven days to seek help! When Saul heard of the situation, the Spirit of God came upon him, and he slew a yoke of oxen and sent the pieces throughout Israel, saying the oxen of whoever did not respond to his summons would suffer the same fate (1 Sam. 11:7). Three hundred thousand men assembled before him at Mizpah, along with 30,000 of Judah, and they totally defeated the Ammonites and freed Jabesh-Gilead. Immediately afterwards, Saul was publicly received as Israel's king in Gilgal. If Saul had been allowed to die at this point, he would have been remembered as a very promising young king. Saul's First Significant Failure: Offering An Independent Sacrifice Israel was threatened by an immense army of Philistines, "like the sand of the sea" (1 Sam. 13:5). Samuel, however, had not arrived to offer sacrifices on their behalf. Saul waited for him not simply for a day or two, but for seven days, according to the time Samuel appointed. Many among Israel had already fled to hide in caves, and the people who did follow him were beginning to desert him. Saul, as king, felt he must act. Therefore he offered the burnt offering and the peace offering without waiting for Samuel. He was very careful to offer to the Lord first before going into battle. Just as he finished, however, Samuel arrived. If the Bible did not record that Samuel later grieved over Saul (1 Sam. 16:1), it would be tempting to believe Samuel's timing was intentional! Samuel gave no apology, nor did he explain why he had been late. He simply said, "You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God…the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever, but now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart. And the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you" (1 Sam. 13:13-14). Saul must have been crushed by this word. It seems he would have been perfectly justified to say that he had never sought to be king in the first place. Anyway, wasn't God's giving without repentance (Rom. 11:29)? And since Samuel and God had forced the kingship upon him, should not Samuel have at least stayed with him rather than leaving him to try to take care of things by himself? And wasn't the whole reason he was forced to offer the sacrifice because Samuel was tardy? Wasn't then Samuel the one who was responsible, or at least God, for all his hardship? It is hard not to sympathize with Saul in this situation. It is not easy to see what he had done wrong. God had given him the kingship, a responsibility that Saul did not even want, but one he was trying to faithfully carry out as the one who had been chosen. As he waited for Samuel, the enemy gained strength while his own numbers dwindled. Didn't God expect him to save Israel? He had even offered a peace offering as well as a burnt offering. Not Seeking God It should cause us to wonder what the Lord wants from us. If we were in this situation, what should we have done? Saul should have asked God Himself what to do. If he had simply done this, God perhaps would have made clear to him that he should offer the sacrifice. Samuel then would have had nothing to say. But Saul's feeling was, "It's all on my shoulders. I must do the job I have been chosen to do." He sought to handle the situation as the circumstances dictated, rather than seeking God's direction. I hope we all could learn from this. As believers, we should never declare, "I must do it" or "I have no choice." Instead, we should always seek the Lord until we are able to say, "The Lord told me." It seems Saul did nothing wrong, but the main thing we must see is that God was not involved at all. Therefore, Saul acted religiously. God wanted to lead Saul in his decisions, God desired to be with him as he carried them out, and God desired to be present in the result of what was accomplished. Instead, Saul just did what he thought he was supposed to do. This is what religion is: you do everything you think God wants you to do, yet He Himself is not involved. The Biggest Enemy to Our Becoming Someone After God's Heart - Religion The biggest enemy we face as believers is not sin or Satan. The biggest enemy we face as believers is religion. Religion is the biggest frustration to our individual growth as those who want to follow the Lord, and it is the biggest frustration to the building up of the Body of Christ, the church. We must be those who are obedient to the unique command of Christ, which is to live by Him and take Him in everything. God's heart is that we would do everything with Him, do everything in Him, and do everything according to Him. This is the way He wants us to do everything that we do for Him. Because Saul was not seeking the Lord in this way, he could not rule as God's king over His people. This may seem severe, but Saul was not a person after God's heart; he was instead just a good religious man who was doing what he thought a good king should do. He was not acting because the Lord was with him. To God, however, this is what counts. Had Saul carried out his kingship by casting himself upon God, God would have established his kingdom. Saul, however, was not a man after God's heart; he was just a man trying to do the right thing. What satisfies God? Christ. When we have Christ, when we experience Christ, when we minister to Christ, God is satisfied. Yet how many Christians today, and even how many churches, feel they must do this or that because it is the right thing to do, rather than because the Lord led them to do it! Saul's Second Significant Failure: Not Utterly Destroying Amalek Soon afterward, Saul again displayed this fundamental problem. God wanted the Amalekites utterly destroyed (1 Sam. 15:3), yet Saul kept alive the king and the best of their sheep and so on (v. 9). He may have thought that such handsome livestock shouldn't be wasted, but rather used as sin offerings for his previous failures! When he originally set out, he probably fully intended to carry out God's command to utterly destroy Amalek from the face of the earth, but once he saw how pleasant the king was and how fine their sheep and goats were, he relented and preserved alive what he deemed best, thinking it would please Samuel to have such for offerings (1 Sam. 15:15)! We know that any idol that a believer possesses should be destroyed. What if, however, that idol was of great value? Some idols are treasured as artwork and are highly valued by collectors. Wouldn't it be reasonable, if an idol was valued at many thousands of dollars, to sell it to a collector, and then donate the money to the work of the Lord? We may easily destroy a cheap idol, but what of an idol that is of great value? I hope you would destroy it! God does not need such offerings. He is able to provide whatever His people need. Seeking To Kill David To Protect His Own Throne The Role of the Women As David became known as a great warrior, the women began to sing about it (1 Sam. 18:7). I am sorry to say this, but the behavior of the women is often a source of trouble in the church life, just as they are the source of blessing. When some sisters begin to get excited about a certain matter, I can predict that the church will experience problems. The sisters themselves may feel like they are "released," but so many churches have paid a high price due to such a "release." Therefore I ask the sisters to please never practice such a thing. So much damage has taken place among the churches because saints have gotten stirred up about something other than the Lord Himself. The long rows of colorfully-dressed women dancing, playing tambourines and singing in this way must have really been something to watch. But their boasting in David caused Saul feel like his place upon the throne was threatened. Therefore, as David played his harp to soothe him, Saul cast his spear at him, thinking to kill him by pinning him to the wall! He actually tried this twice. He knew David was anointed to be king, yet he sought to kill him. Why? It was because he wanted to protect his throne. And what prompted his jealousy? It was the women's admiration and promotion of David above their admiration and promotion of him. Yet when David had to flee Saul, did these women stand with him as he fled into the wilderness? No, they just enjoyed their boastful singing, they did not care to share in what came upon David as a result of it. Saul's Justification: Preserving Himself for the Sake of the Lord's Name Saul probably felt justified to seek David's life, for if David was anointed, that meant that he, Saul, had to die before David could take the throne. Therefore, it may have seemed to him like God was using David to bring about his death. So, in a sense, it was David or him. Saul's argument with God could have been, "I did not choose to be anointed king. You arranged the casting of the lot, and you even showed the people where I was hiding and had me brought out. And now you want to terminate me? Are not your gifts supposedly given without repentance?" Saul certainly had a right to honor his own kingship, for it was something the Lord had given to him for His own sake, but he should not have tried to kill David! Instead, he should have simply tried to carry out his kingship in a way that furthered the Lord's interests. The Lord, however, was unable to use Saul as a king who would rule His people according to what was in His heart.