ANNOUNCER: King Saul, head and shoulders above the others, he had it made. But in the end, he had a sad legacy. He perhaps started well but made some poor, misguided decisions. But is there anything positive about his life? How should we think and what should we learn from it? An important discussion just ahead here on Grace in Focus. Thanks for being here, friend. This is a ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Find us at faithalone.org. And when you come to that website, make sure and stop by our store, see all the books that we have to offer, and a few free ebooks as well. Our newly published first volume of our Old Testament commentary is available. You will want to have it. And by the way, each May for the next two years, we will be subsequently publishing Volume 2 and Volume 3. Also at the store, Bob Wilkin’s most recent book, The Gospel Is Still Under Siege. And on our website, you can also find a way to donate, if you so choose, to our ministry. We do appreciate that. It’s faithalone.org. 

Now with today’s discussion, here is Bob Wilkin, along with Philippe Sterling. 

BOB: Philippe, we’ve been discussing King Saul, Israel’s first King. Last time we talked about his regeneration, how he was given a new heart and made into another man. And now I thought we’d look at what can we learn from his life, and even from his backsliding, or we might call degeneration, that he was acting like a degenerate man at places, not degenerate in the sense of unregenerate, but in the sense of, he was carnally-minded. He was not making good decisions. He was not making spiritually-minded decisions. He kind of reminds me of the Corinthians, right, where he says, you’re not spiritual, but you’re carnal. 

So let’s take a look at some of the things from King Saul’s life. And you have a chart, right, with the trajectory of his life. Maybe you could go over that. 

PHILIPPE: Yes, and I titled it, “The Sad Saga of King Saul.” 

BOB: I think we have a YouTube video on that. 

PHILIPPE: Yes, a YouTube video and also a couple of Grace in Focus articles on King Saul, that dwell upon the commentary. 

BOB: Right. You want to hold that up so the audience can see it? Now in January, we’re going to be doing video podcasts. And so when you come on next year, you will be able to hold it up and people will be able to see it. But for right now, just tell us about it. 

PHILIPPE: All right. Saul actually began pretty well, even though there were some early indicators also of the weakness of his dependence and walk with God, but he was privately anointed king by Samuel, and he became then a new man by the work of the Holy Spirit in him. And he’s publicly acclaimed King, but he’s kind of shy about it. 

BOB: Yeah, which is a good thing. He was a humble man in the beginning.

PHILIPPE: Which is a good thing. He initially he was a humble man. And the Ammonites, then came the army, you know, against the nation. And he bravely did rally the nation together and defeated the Ammonites and gave credit to God for that. But soon after, though, he does disobey Samuel. Samuel, had him, no, wait for me. And I’ll come and offer the appropriate sacrifices.

BOB: Seven days, right? 

PHILIPPE: Seven days and Samuel delayed. Saul grew impatient and offered the sacrifices himself. 

BOB: And he has no authority to offer sacrifices. Whether it was seven days or seven months, he’s not allowed to do that himself. 

PHILIPPE: Right. So Samuel does rebuke him for that. And he accepts the rebuke.

BOB: Which is commendable that he accepts it. 

PHILIPPE: Right. And even what that initial victory over the Ammonites and then when the nation proclaims him as king, theres a few bad characters there that don’t honor him as king. And he doesn’t react to that. He again, just bides his time does. In fact, he says, let us not kill them. So he’s showing his good traits initially. But then God gives him the command through Samuel to destroy the Ammonites. 

BOB: Completely, right.

PHILIPPE: Completely. 

BOB: All not only all of the men, but all of them. Women, children, and all the animals too, right? 

PHILIPPE: To use an Old Testament expression, they were all put under the ban. The Amalekites were people who actually persecuted Israel as they emerged out of Egypt and were making their way there. They were killing off all the stragglers in the back. And God said the Amalekites will ultimately be wholly rejected. And the judgment on them is given to Saul. And Saul does not obey completely. 

BOB: He just does what would have been popular with his soldiers. His soldiers would have liked keeping the animals. 

PHILIPPE: The best of the animals, all the booty and all of that. 

BOB: Like remember, Aiken, when Aiken is, what do he keep some silver and gold and some beautiful garments? 

PHILIPPE: Yeah, a mantle from Babylon, silver and gold and beautiful garments. 

BOB: And it’s kind of like that here. They’re saving some of the best. Now Saul is going to say the reason that they kept all that was to sacrifice all that. 

PHILIPPE: Right, they would sacrifice the best, but they had killed all the lame and all the other undesirable animals, but kept the best there. So this was a clear disobedience to Yahweh, to the Lord. So we read then the outcome of that when Samuel comes and declares the judgment of God in chapter 15 verse 11. 

If I can quote that, verses 10 and 11, “Now the word of the Lord came to Samuel saying, ‘I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me and has not performed My commandments.’ And it grieved Samuel and he cried out to the Lord all night.” And he arises early to meet Saul and Saul had actually set up a monument to himself. He had been humble earlier, but after the victory over the Amalekites, he actually set up a monument to himself. 

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PHILIPPE: “But he turned back from following the Lord,” is the expression here. 

BOB: Which is interesting because that’s a New Testament idea too. And there are some places in the Old Testament, like for example, Enoch walked with the Lord, Genesis 5 and following the Lord would be the same kind of thing as walking with the Lord. So he was not following what God had said and God gave some pretty clear commands. I mean, it was pretty simple. Just do what I tell you to do. Don’t overthink this. Kill them all. And of course, whatever Saul says for his reasoning, I think his reasoning was because, 

PHILIPPE: He did it to blame his men and then he rationalized what he did. 

BOB: But it was ultimately all on him. Because his men would have done what he said.

PHILIPPE: And so Samuel then tells him, the Lord is taking away the kingdom. That will take a while for all that to unfold, but chapter sixteen will follow, which is the anointing of David as a young man to be the king after Saul. 

BOB: So when David comes on the scene, Saul, having recognized this as a word from the Lord should have embraced him as the new king and even gone to Samuel and said, I’m ready for him to be the new king. 

PHILIPPE: I abdicate and I’ll submit to the Lord. 

BOB: He should have done that, right? And if he had, he could have extended his life instead of dying at the hand of the Philistines along with his sons. And so we can learn a lot from King Saul because he started out very well. Then he starts backsliding and initially he seems to be spiritually-minded, but later on, he becomes carnally-minded. But what’s interesting is there’s never a point at which he becomes an idolater. There’s never a point at which he turns his back on the Lord. The Lord does remove the Spirit from him. 

PHILIPPE: And he does come fully to acknowledge David as a person more righteous than he. And that he will be the king. 

BOB: Wasn’t that the case when he was going into the cave to relieve himself and then David’s, 

PHILIPPE: Right on two occasions, David spares his life. And he says, you’re more righteous than I. 

BOB: And so he’s an example of somebody who, although he was carnally-minded at the end, he was someone that was still seeking, in some sense, to please the Lord. In a misguided sense, but by the way, let’s talk for a minute about how could the Spirit be taken away from King Saul? In the New Testament nobody can take the Holy Spirit from a believer, right? 

PHILIPPE: Well, the Holy Spirit will come upon Saul, upon David, a special empowerment for given tasks, but they were not indwelt by the Holy Spirit as we are in the New Testament. 

BOB: Permanently indwelt. Didn’t Jesus say to His disciples, “The Holy Spirit has been with you, and He will be in you.” And so in the Old Testament economy, the Spirit could be with someone for a period of time, like the people building the tabernacle and building the temple. 

PHILIPPE: Bezalel and others. They were foreigners actually, but were spiritually endowed and enabled to do their task. And if you remember even concerning David, David in Psalm 51, his psalm of repentance, he asked, do not take your Holy Spirit from me. 

BOB: And that has nothing to do with regeneration that has to do with empowerment. And by the way, the case can be made that even today when the Holy Spirit permanently indwells us, there probably is special enablement today. In other words, the filling of the spirit in the book of Acts, if we look at it, sometimes it refers to someone who is simply spiritually-minded like Acts 6:3. They picked the first deacons who were full of wisdom and full of the Holy Spirit. And that meant they were wise and they were spiritual. But then there were other places where they were all together in the room and the Holy Spirit fell upon them and they spoke the word boldly. That seems to be special enablement.

PHILIPPE: From Acts chapter 4. we’re told that the whole place shook and they went out and started speaking to them boldly. 

BOB: And I personally think that does still happen today. In other words, I’m not charismatic, but I do believe, even though we don’t know for sure when it’s happening, at times I can look back to some of my speaking and say, that seemed especially effective. I wonder if the Lord was giving me special enablement. 

PHILIPPE: As I was driving over here, I was praying. One of my prayers was, “God, give me some wisdom. Enable our conversation. 

BOB: Amen. And so we can all learn a lot from King Saul and we shouldn’t just think this is a man that has nothing positive to teach us. Yes, there are some things we need to avoid that he did. But there are things he did that we should follow. Ultimately, a lot of believers don’t spend much time in the Old Testament, but that’s quite a shame, isn’t it? 

PHILIPPE: Oh, yes. I mean, as I was writing some of this commentary, often I felt my heart “burning within me.” 

BOB: Right. You were like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus and Scripture will do that to us if we’re receptive. Well, that’s so good. Well, thanks, Philippe, and thank you all. And remember, let’s keep grace in focus. 

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On our next episode: what can we learn from David, sparing King Saul’s life? Please join us again, and until then, let’s keep grace in focus.