The Flaws of King Saul I Samuel 13-28

Transcription

1 The Flaws of King Saul I Samuel 13-28

2 The people of Israel were becoming a nation And they looked around and saw that all the other nations had kings They wanted a king also The people had Samuel, he was a great spiritual leader But he wasn t a king, they wanted a king Be careful what you ask for God gave them a man named Saul, a tall and handsome young man He started out as a good king, he had a humble attitude

3 He Disobeyed Samuel & Sacrificed the Offering I Samuel 13:7-14

4 The Israelites were going into battle against the Philistines And Samuel had told Saul to wait for him on the 7th day Samuel was to make a sacrifice to God And as everyone was waiting, everyone got nervous Some of the men were scared and they started to leave for home Saul could see that his army was leaving

5 Samuel was coming, they needed to honor God with the sacrifice before the battle. And so Saul makes the decision, he would do the sacrifice He was not the religious leader but he did it anyway He thought he would lose the men for fighting if he didn t sacrifice He was more concerned about winning than about doing it right

6 He made a foolish rule for the fighting men I Samuel 14:24-27

7 The men had started the day fighting and in those days it was hand to hand combat. It was exhausting to fight The Israelites were winning, the Philistines were on the run And then King Saul made a promise to God No one was to eat anything until the Philistines were defeated This was a foolish promise made to God The men needed food to regain their energy And so, King Saul s promise actually hurt their victory

8 The army would have done better, but the promise was made and the men obeyed the promise except Jonathan, Saul s son He didn t hear the promise and so he ate some honey that he found And after the battle was over it was found out that Jonathan broke the promise made to God. Even though he didn t know about it And Saul again made a bad decision, his son was to be put to death Thankfully, the men stopped him

9 He Disobeyed God I Samuel 15:1-3, 7-24, 30 He was more concerned about what the men wanted than about obeying God

10 God told Saul to kill the Amalekites, that is, kill everything, even the animals Men, women, children, animals, no one, nothing was to live You might think that is severe, but God was judging them The Amalekites were a nomadic people that attacked and killed the Israelites many times.

11 And so Saul took the army and defeated the Amalekites He killed all the people and all the bad animals But he kept the best of the animals for the Israelites And he let King Agag live

12 And Saul thought he had obeyed the Lord This was a big victory for the army And they got all these nice animals out of the victory Saul even had a monument set up in his honor at the famous city of Gilgal. Saul was a man that wanted the praise of man He was king and he wanted everyone to think highly of him

13 Saul thought that by ½ obeying the Lord, that he fully obeyed the Lord He blamed the men for taking the best animals Saul doesn t take responsibility for disobeying God Saul cared more about what the people thought so he allowed them to keep the animals. Samuel meets Saul and confronts him with God s word To obey is better than sacrifice

14 Then Saul s true heart came out, Saul begged Samuel again Vs. 30 I have sinned. But please honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel; come back with me, so that I may worship the LORD your God. All Saul was concerned about was how he looked before the people Samuel was the religious leader of the people and Saul needed his support to look good before the people And notice that Saul didn t say, My God, but your God

15 Saul tries to kill David God does choose a man after God s heart David was chosen to be the next king and Saul was jealous Saul tried to kill David on many occasions It went on for years and David was a man in hiding

16 He Consults a Witch I Samuel 28:4-11

17 Saul asked his men to find a witch, someone who worshipped Satan Saul disguised himself and wanted to talk to the dead Samuel The Witch did as he asked and brought up Samuel By the way, this is not the way to get answers in life You don t talk to the dead or demons or Satan Samuel did answer Saul and Saul and his sons would die The Israelite army would be defeated Because Saul disobeyed God

18 What can we learn from Saul? His flaws were many, don t be Saul! Put God 1st in your life To obey God is better than anything this world can offer Don t seek out the praise of men Be more concerned about what God thinks