By Olubunmi Adebayo
*There are great lessons to learn from the life of king Saul.*
*Some of them are listed as follows :*
*1) KING SAUL WAS NOT WATCHFUL.*
*As a king, Saul was not sensitive and watchful of his high office and delicate position – high office to the people, and delicate relationship to God.*
*He behaved as if since he had become the king, he was all in all. Even Prophet Samuel who ordained him king was afraid of him :*
*1 Samuel 16:[1] And the LORD said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons.*
*[2] _And Samuel said, How can I go? if Saul hear it, he will kill me_. And the LORD said, Take an heifer with thee, and say, I am come to sacrifice to the LORD.*
*Saul forgot that there is always someone who is higher than every occupier of high office, and that person is God, who never be surpassed – he left God out of the equation of his leadership, forgetting that there is great wisdom in the words of Apostle Paul below :*
*1 Cor 10: [12] “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall”.*
*King Saul by his behavior didn’t quite show fear for God, or deference to his leader – Samuel.*
*He never related to Samuel as a mentor or a teacher.*
*2) KING SAUL NEVER KNEW THAT OBEDIENCE HAS NO SUBSTITUTE :*
*As a King, Saul wanted to substitute obedience with sacrifice. But God is no man :*
*Isaiah 55:[8] For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.*
*[9]For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.*
*Saul wanted to replace obedience to God with sacrifice. But pointedly, Prophet Samuel told Saul :*
*“To obey is better than sacrifice.”*
*Please read it in some details :*
*1Sam 15:[22] And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.*
*God demonstrated in the case of Saul that obedience has no substitute before Him.*
*3) GOD HAS NO ROOM FOR PARTIAL OBEDIENCE :*
*In the same token, Saul demonstrated a penchant for not being straight with God. This was why he thought partial obedience would suffice with God. Whereas with God, partial obedience is as good as non-obedience :*
*1 Sam 15:[18] And the LORD sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed.*
*[19] Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the LORD, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the LORD?*
*[20]And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.*
*[21]But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal.*
*4) YOUR HEART MATTERS TO GOD.*
*Saul was a man of hypocrisy. He tried to act right, without being conscious of the condition of his heart. Whereas with God, a man’s heart matters more than any other thing, including the position a man occupied.*
*God rejected Saul from being king, because “Man looks at outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”*
*5) KING SAUL DID NOT TAKE THE OPPORTUNITY OF HIS KINGSHIP SERIOUSLY.*
*Saul went from one error to another.*
*God gave him the opportunity to lead, but his heart stayed hard all through. No wonder, he was always giving God excuses for not doing things right – he never owed up to his error for once. We can easily say of Saul that he never really led well from the perspective of God.*
*The people of Israel rejected God for a king. And instead of leading the people in wisdom back to God, Saul acted as if he was on “auto – pilot.”*
*No doubt, there are great lessons to learn from the life of king Saul. I hope the above will suffice for our enlightenment today.*
Top of the day to you 👍
©️ Olubunmi S Adebayo.
