Prophetic Evidence of the New
In Samuel
10 we begin with Samuel and Saul talking about the coming coronation. Samuel gives Saul a few prophetic words as
evidence of God’s plan in his life. Now,
we might ask why Samuel (or God) would do this.
After all, how many times in your life does someone come up to you and
tell you about things that are going to happen in the future? It doesn’t seem to happen very often with us,
so why would it happen here?
The answer
to this question is two-fold. First,
part of the answer is that God is doing something new. Up until now, the Hebrew people haven’t been
under a king. Since they are going to be
under a king, part of why God gives this prophetic message is because He is
doing something new. God often does this,
let’s look at a few examples.
When Jesus
steps onto the scene in the New Testament, we hear God send John the Baptizer
to announce the coming of something new.
When Jesus was about to die on the cross, He announced it to His
disciples (and even the Jewish leaders in the form of parables!). When Paul was going to be charged with
opening up faith to the whole world via the Gentiles, he (and Ananias) received
a vision telling him what to expect.
When God does something new, He announces it.
This leads
us to the second reason that God gives these preparatory visions. God wants those people with whom He is going
to do something new to be prepared.
That’s quite significant. God
wants them to act boldly and confidently.
God wants them to understand what is going to happen and to step into
the role that He has asked them to play.
Look at the examples in the prior paragraph. Is each of those situations a time of
preparation? Does God not want to
prepare the people around Jesus? Does
God not want to prepare the Apostle Paul and those who would disciple him? That is exactly what is going on here with
Saul. God wants him to be prepared. I’ll say more on this later.
Disclaimer
Before I
speak on my next topic I need to make one thing very clear. Please do not confuse what I am about to say
with a conversation on salvation. I am
going to talk about Saul and his change of heart, and I do not want anyone to
make the jump that what I am talking about is actually salvation.
A New Heart
In this
story we are clearly told that God gives Saul a new heart. As he is going home, verse 6 and verse 10
clearly tells us that Saul received the Spirit of the Lord and he was changed
into a new man. Yet, we know that this
change did not stick. God rejects Saul
as king. We know that Saul does not live
up to what God has empowered him to do.
Saul does have a moment with the Spirit of the Lord, he does prophesy,
but he is not permanently changed.
I think I
see a lot of this in today’s Christianity.
In many respects, Saul is the archetypical example of the “seed on the
rocky ground” as told in the parable of the sower in Matthew 13:1-9. People receive the Word of God. They are inspired by God’s presence. Yet they wither quickly. They don’t have the staying power to put God
first. They don’t have what it takes to
make good decisions that will lead them into a lasting relationship with
God. The excitement passes; they wither
and die.
So it is,
I believe, with Saul. Saul was given
every opportunity. Saul was literally
handed the keys to the brand new shiny kingdom by God, and he didn’t make it. He didn’t last. He got distracted by the world, spiritually
withered up, and died. So we must be
careful when we read this passage about Saul that just because the Spirit of
the Lord came upon him and he was able to prophesy does not mean that the
change was permanent.
Bringing It All Together
Now, let’s
tie the two points together. At his
inauguration, Saul cannot be found. He
is hiding among the baggage. What a sad
statement. Saul has been given visions
and God had prepared him. He has had the
Spirit of God within him. He has a
strong body, a good mind, the support of loyal friends, a spiritual guide in
Samuel. He has every reason to trust in
the Lord, and what does he do? He hides
from what God has called him to do. We
should know right there that things will not go well for this first king of the
Hebrew people.
Saul fails
because Saul is unwilling to see what the Lord is doing in his midst. Saul fails to see what the Lord is doing
because he fails to humble himself to God.
Rather than humble himself and do what the Lord has clearly asked of
him, Saul asserts himself and hides.
Lord, help
us to not make this same mistake.
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I wonder sometimes why God chose Saul at all. The choice seems to fly in the face of everything God does.
ReplyDeleteWell, if you look at the comments I made for the blog post on Samuel 9, I do state that from a non-spiritual perspective Saul does accomplish some really good things. Saul does unite the Hebrew people into a much more cohesive nation. Saul does handle the Philistine challenge quite well.
ReplyDeleteIn a way, it kinda makes sense. God doesn't want them to have a king - he doesn't think it is a great spiritual move. So, if God is going to allow a non-spiritual thing to happen because His people want it, then it seems appropriate that the guy chosen is good in non-spiritual matters.
And really, David is not much better. Sure, David is certainly more repentant and humble. But he doesn't really lead the Hebrew people forward in their spirituality too much. And Solomon? The great builder of the Temple? The man who falls away from God by the end of his life?
The kings of the Hebrew people are not particularly spiritual people. I think God's okay with that because God didn't want it that way to begin with. So if you can't have a spiritual leader, you might as well have one that can accomplish worldly things!
This answer doesn't seem satisfying to me. Probably because I am so trained to say "God has a plan and is working it out" that it's weird evaluating something that isn't spiritual because it really wasn't the way God preferred it to happen. God's permissive will is not always the most comfortable place to exist.
Nice job John. If things settle down, I would like to read this every day. Proud of you and how God is using you. Mom
ReplyDeleteThanks, mom. I'd really like to have a place where I can do theology with my family on a consistent basis. I'd be neat, and the family is welcome here. I'm already doing it!
ReplyDelete