By Olubunmi Adebayo
*As indicated yesterday, we shall be looking at why the eagle of king Saul failed to fly when it should most have.*
*You must understand that king Saul was a great disappointment to God.*
*Someone who was neither from any royal family, nor with any claim to the kingship of Israel, suddenly growing wings and becoming increasingly uncontrollable to God, and discourteous to the man who anointed him king over the nation.*
*Let us hear what God said to Prophet Samuel when he finally made up His mind to do away with King Saul :*
*1 Sam 15: [11] “It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the LORD all night”.*
*Please pay attention to how Samuel felt in the verse above -“he wept all night” because of the letdown of king Saul.*
*By the time prophet Samuel would come to King Saul face to face to declare the mind of God, he told the king pointedly :*
“*….Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king”.*
*Without any controversy, Saul was rejected because he carried the wrong mentality and mindset in the execution of his assignment and ended up not being able to represent God to the people of Israel.*
*Please pay attention to the following areas of his failure :*
*1) He was guilty of disobedience packaged as “WORSHIP” to God :*
*God told him through Samuel to completely destroy the Amalekites and everything they had.*
*But Saul spared King Agag and the best sheep, cattle, and plunder. He now came up with a justification for his action, maybe he assumed God must be a fool :*
*Hear Saul – “We saved them to sacrifice to the Lord your God” (1 Sam 15:21).*
*But Samuel told him – “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice?” (1 Sam 15:22.)*
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*“Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft” (1 Sam 15:23).*
*2. LACK OF FEAR OF GOD :*
*King Saul displayed lack of respect for God by offering the sacrifice he was not meant to offer because according to him :*
*”the people were scattering and Samuel was late in arriving”. He got impatient and took a priest’s role.*
*Saul shifted the blame on Samuel for delaying in coming :*
*Saul said “I was afraid of the people and obeyed their voice”(1 Sam 15:24).*
*Meaning that Saul cared more about public opinion than God’s approval.*
*3) A HEART NOT FULLY SURRENDER TO GOD :*
*Saul who started as a humble person by making the statement – “Am I not from the smallest tribe?”(1 Sam 9:21), allowed power to influence him to the point of perversion.*
*Saul’s heart was after his self image and self-preservation. When corrected he blamed others, made excuses, and never truly repented.*
*4) LEADERSHIP FAILURE.*
*God anointed Saul to be a king-shepherd over the chosen people, but he ended up lording himself over the people by using the people for himself :*
*He went ahead to build a monument for himself in 1 Sam 15:12.*
*Not only this, he became jealous and did everything possible to kill David instead of protecting the nation of Israel. He ended up killing several priests of God, and wiping out a whole town because of his hatred for David.*
*A leader who banished witchcraft in his nation ended up consulting a medium at Endor(1 Sam 28 1-end:) instead of seeking God.*
*What does the life of king Saul teach us? We shall be looking at this tomorrow, God willing.*
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©️ Olubunmi S Adebayo.
