Lessons from King Saul - Pt 1

Saul lived for one year and then became king, and when he had reigned for two years over Israel, Saul chose three thousand men of Israel. Two thousand were with Saul in Michmash and the hill country of Bethel, and a thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin. The rest of the people he sent home, every man to his tent. Jonathan defeated the garrison of the Philistines that was at Geba, and the Philistines heard of it. And Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, “Let the Hebrews hear.” And all Israel heard it said that Saul had defeated the garrison of the Philistines, and also that Israel had become a stench to the Philistines. And the people were called out to join Saul at Gilgal. And the Philistines mustered to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen and troops like the sand on the seashore in multitude. They came up and encamped in Michmash, to the east of Beth-aven. When the men of Israel saw that they were in trouble (for the people were hard pressed), the people hid themselves in caves and in holes and in rocks and in tombs and in cisterns. (1 Samuel 13:1-6 ESV). Saul was Israel's first king. Have you ever wondered why he lost favor with God? He was well qualified to be king. Better qualified, some in the world might say, than even King David. He was handsome, a young man with family position, and strong among his peers. Yet, Saul was removed from power and the kingdom was given to another. Not only would Saul no longer be king, but also even worse from an Israelite's perspective, the kingdom of Israel did not even remain in the family lineage of Saul. Today, we see the event that led to Saul’s downfall. At this point in Israel's history, they were not strong militarily. The Philistines, or the bad guys, could muster up a powerful threat to the Israelites. When Saul's men see their predicament, they ran in fear. The troops, who remained with Saul, were scared useless. Keep in mind; these are the same Israelites that God fed with manna and quail for forty years in the wilderness. This was God's people. They had been promised victory, wherever they set their feet. God had already ordained their final days, and yet when a storm arises, they run for their lives. Does this sound familiar? Ever feel really confident in your own abilities, and in your relationship to God, but then a storm comes along, which looks bigger than you can handle, and you are ready to hide your face until it passes over? It is a daily struggle to be consistent in your faith, because storms, real storms, do come your way. Sometimes we want to run and hide and at other times we try to handle them in our own way. This week, as we look at the loss of power in Saul's kingship, my prayer is that we discover the kind of person God wants us to be when the storms of life start thundering! We don’t need to run and hide or handle them in our way. There is a better way with Christ.