Good Saul, Bad Saul - Part 1 of 3

Saul was the first king of Israel. He was chosen by God to be king after the people demanded a “man king.” Israel was God’s chosen people and God was their king, but all of the nations around them had kings and they wanted one as well. The surrounding nations posed military threats to Israel so the people were looking for a military leader that could protect them against their adversaries.

There are many lessons from the life of Saul and his selection as king that we can all learn from. He actually started out well in his role as king but his success wasn’t lasting. Saul initially had God’s favor but lost it as he began to look inward for answers rather than to God. He became prideful, disobedient and eventually paranoid - constantly looking over his shoulder. His life was marked by fear instead of faith.

Be careful what you wish for. The Israelites went to their leader Samuel (Judge & Prophet) and demanded a “man king.” Samuel did not want to grant their request but decided to pray about it. God instructed him to give them what they asked for. However, God told Samuel to warn them about the consequences of their request and give them an opportunity to change their minds.

It’s important to point out that the first thing that Samuel did after the Israelites came to him with their demand was to pray. Conversely, it seems doubtful that the Israelites did much praying before making their request.

We can always do more than pray after we have prayed but not until we have prayed.

While Samuel did not want to give them what they asked for, he chose to seek God’s will rather than his own. This is what we are doing when we earnestly seek God in prayer - we are trying to determine His will over our own. Our righteous prayers will bend our will to His.

Be careful what you wish for. God’s decision to give the Israelites a king came with this warning:

1 Samuel 8:18 “And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the Lord will not hear you in that day.”

God was allowing the Israelites to have what they wanted even though He knew that it wouldn’t be good for them and they would regret the decision. Of course, this was all part of God’s sovereign plan that led the way for Jesus to come to the earth through the lineage of King David. But, this plan also seems to be an opportunity to teach the Israelites a lesson for rejecting God as their King.

Be careful what you wish for. We all have our desires for how we want our lives to play out. We have a “script” in mind and we hope that life goes according to script. As followers of Christ, our foremost desire should be to glorify God. This means that we are willing to seek His will over our own - His script. This certainly doesn’t mean that we cannot make requests to God but those requests should come in conjunction with a desire to align our will to His.

Faith is believing in God. Trusting in Him is believing that He has our best interests at heart.

Stay hungry,

Big E

Matt. 5:6