Jump Start # 265

1 Samuel 15:9 “But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fattlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were not willing to destroy them utterly; but everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.”

  We return to the same passage as last time. We’re not through with it yet. In our last Jump Start we explored the concept of God ordering the death of every man, woman and child of the Amalekites. God wanted that nation utterly destroyed. Utterly.

  Another lesson. Saul did not obey God. Not only did he not utterly destroy the Amalekites, but he kept or rather stole some of the animals and kept the king alive. Saul didn’t just keep some of the animals, but rather the “best” of the animals—as if they inspected and made choices. What follows is off the charts.

  God knows—He always knows. God is disappointed. He says, “I regret that I have made Saul king” (11). Samuel shows up. The first thing Saul says is, “I have carried out the command of the Lord” (13). Really? Is Saul so deceived that he thinks doing most of what the Lord says is good enough? Does close count? Samuel’s response is classic. He says, “What then is the bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?” Opps. Saul’s response? “THEY have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God; but the rest we have utterly destroyed.”

  First, Saul blames the people. They did this. This is a sign of poor leadership. A lousy leader will take credit for the good and pass responsibility for the bad. God will not accept this reason.

  Second, the people did this so they could sacrifice them to God. Wrong. God did not ask for this. Bringing God into the discussion gives the impression that wrong can now be right. God didn’t accept this.

  Third, other than that, we obeyed. Saul says, “the rest we have utterly destroyed.” That’s not what God said to do. Utterly means utterly, not mostly.

  Obedience to God is difficult. The reason is not that the commands are hard, but we get in the way. We think what would be the best. We reason. We want. We feel. We like. Because of these things, we obey God some, but not “utterly.” We obey enough to convince ourselves that we are doing a good job.

  For example, we go to church services. Many don’t. Yet while we are at church services, we play around, don’t pay attention, text on our phones,  we kill time, we waste time. Now, we tell ourselves, “at least I went to church,” but we didn’t worship completely. No utterly here.

  It’s the “utterly” part that gets us. It’s one thing to sing, but with thankfulness in your heart as God wants—that’s the utterly part. It’s one thing to give, but cheerful is what God wants—that’s the utterly part.

  King Saul expected Samuel to praise him. He thought the old prophet will finally be happy with what I did. But he wasn’t because Saul didn’t obey God completely. There was no utterly on Saul’s part. It is sad for leaders, or anyone, to blame others for their lack of responsibility. That’s the theme of the month in our society today. Because of the way I was raised, I can’t help myself. Because I carry all this baggage, I am not responsible and can’t be expected to do what others do. PLEASE. Quit being King Saul. He’s the king. He’s leading the troops. As the men started gathering the animals, it was then, that Saul should have said, “utterly, boys!”  But he didn’t.

  Don’t let our times, be a reason for you to not be what God wants. Don’t blame others. Don’t settle for partial obedience. God expects “utterly.”

Roger

Jump Start # 264

1 Samuel 15:9 “But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fattlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were not willing to destroy them utterly; but everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.”

  Our journey with Saul continues through these Jump Starts. He has defeated the Philistines, at least for now. Next, Israel goes into battle against the Amalekites. God is expanding the boarders of Israel and strengthening their position. God is also punishing this nation for what they did to Israel when they came out of Egypt. Several lessons here.

  First, God, through Samuel, told Saul to “utterly destroy Amalek.” The words were to destroy everything and everyone—including all the animals, and man, woman and child. Those words don’t set well for many folks. It is language like this that causes some to question and doubt God. How could God send his people to wipe out a nation completely. Why kill the babies? We are outraged at the senseless shooting of a nine year old girl in Tucson, but we read where God is ordering the death of all Amalekites, including the children.

  Some try to explain this by recalling what the Amalekites did to Israel. It’s pay back time. Eye for an eye concept. Others reason that by the New Testament, God changed and became more loving and gentle. That’s a weak explanation and a theology that is full of holes. Still, some just walk away in disgust. I won’t have anything to do with a God that kills babies.

  This isn’t the only time this happens. Remember Sodom and Gomorrah? God sent fire and destroyed those two cities. Were there no children at all in Sodom? I expect there was some. What happened to them? They died. What about the flood? Were there no kids alive then? Sure there were. What happened to them? They died.

  Now, several things need to run across our radar before we get too preachy at God. Remember first of all, that He is God. The book of Job reminds us that we are not in the position to question God. He is holy. His ways are righteous. He views wrong and sin a whole lot differently than we do. He has no toleration for rebellion, or sinfulness. We err greatly when we use our thinking and our standards and our society to judge the Holy God. For instance, we all know that we shouldn’t lie, but we do. No big deal we think, unless someone gets hurt. That’s not how God sees it. A little complaining here and there, we all do it, that’s life. Not to God. You see, we’ve lived in the mud so long that we’ve kinda got used to it. We all look a bit muddy, smell a bit muddy and are muddy. That’s just the way it is. Not to God.

  The prophet Isaiah says, “His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.” He isn’t like us. He sees things differently. It bothers me about Bible commentators, and even myself writing these Jump Starts, that we can figure God out and understand why He does what He does. He is God. I may never fully grasp why He does what He does, but I do know that He is Holy and Righteous.

  Why would God command the death of the kids when they sassed their parents? Why would God take life for violating the Sabbath? His ways are so holy and the bar is so high that we don’t understand such things. We try to bring God down to the mud where we are and have Him be like us. He’s not. He will not.

  Those that cannot accept such a God because He ordered the death of children, also cannot accept that God has made Hell for those who ignore Him. But He has.

  These are tough thoughts to chew on. One might think, if God was going to eliminate that nation, and kill all the adults, what would happen to the kids? They would die anyway? Or, if Israel took them in, that would mix the blood lines and that would be a problem. Kids are innocent, we reason. They would go to Heaven. And on and on we talk in Bible classes, but I find that God didn’t explain why to Samuel or to Saul or to Israel, and certainly not to Roger. He commanded. He has His reasons. He is not responsible to us. We may not understand. What are we going to do? Obey only the commands that we deem are nice? Obey the ones we like? In doing so, we make the Bible a cafeteria line where we pick out just what we want. Who then is God?

  What does this have to do with us? Everything! It is about trust. It is about obedience. It is about letting God be God. I know folks who say, ‘unless we have instruments in worship, I won’t go to church.’ The N.T. says nothing about the church using instrumental music. Are you at the cafeteria line, again? God says believers must be baptized to be saved. That’s what the Bible teaches. Some say, ‘No.’ I’ll be saved by accepting Him or loving Him without baptism. Cafeteria time again. Women preachers? Church sponsored social activities? Voting on what the church should do? By-laws and creeds? And in the midst of all this, I almost always hear, “Here’s what I think.” Who cares what you think. Who cares what I think. Let’s listen to what God says. The problem with modern religion is that we have made it a cafeteria line and everyone finds a church that serves just what they want. Forget what God said. Forget about whose on the throne, I like it, I want it, and I’m going to have it.

  King Saul didn’t do what God said. More lessons from this tomorrow. Obeying God completely, or standing in line at the cafeteria? Chew on that a while today.

Roger

Jump Start # 263

1 Samuel 14:24 “Now the men of Israel were hard pressed on that day, for Saul had put the people under oath, saying, ‘Cursed be the man who eats food before evening, and until I have avenged myself on my enemies.’ So none of the people tasted food.”

  It’s difficult being a leader—whether it is in politics, the church, a company, or even as a dad at home. Leaders are supposed to lead. They are examples and through their influence people are supposed to follow them. Part of being a leader is making decisions that are best for the people. Those decisions may not be popular, but they are necessary. Then there are the times, when leaders make a decision that is just plain bad. That is what we find here with King Saul.

  Israel is fighting the Philistines. The people are scared. God is leading them to victory, against great odds and numbers. Israel is on the advance. Saul doesn’t want to slow down. He makes the armies take a vow of fasting. They will not eat until complete victory. I expect what Saul was thinking was that this would motivate them to move faster and fight harder. Parents may say, ‘no play time until your homework is done.’ Yet, the difference is that we are talking about war not homework. The troops are fighting hand to hand combat, they are marching. Physically, they are at the end. Without food, there is no energy to keep them going. Three things happen.

  First, Jonathan, Saul’s son, and head of the armies, didn’t hear about the oath. He ate. Now, there’s a problem. The number one commander disobeyed. Secondly, Jonathan, complains about his father and states that ‘he has troubled the land.’ We remember, not too long along, when one of the top generals complained about the way the President was handling the war. He was fired. When those just under the leader undermine and complain, chaos results. Thirdly, the weary armies find animals after a battle and they ate them nearly raw. The context states, ‘the people ate them with the blood’ (32). This was a violation of God’s law. God considers life in the blood and both the Old Testament and the New Testament there are laws against eating blood. The people are so famished they don’t care.

  Saul makes sacrifices to God for the sin of the people. What a mess! All of this can be attributed to Saul’s oath of not eating. That wasn’t thought out very well. His oath put the people in a state of panic and despair.

  So what do we learn from this? First, it’s easy to bark out orders. If a leader doesn’t consider the state of the people under him, rebellion takes place. Think about the people. Companies often don’t do that any more. They think about profits and bottom lines. They break the spirit and the heart of good workers. Corporate America has developed an atmosphere in which people can be replaced. Overworked, over stressed and layers and layers of managers who bark out senseless rules or make changes that are not necessary kills the heart of the workers. What happens? People leave. Good workers go else where.

  One of the things that impresses me about Jesus coming to earth, is that He didn’t stay for a weekend. He wasn’t removed from the masses. He lived, He was, He felt what we go through. It would do well for the college president to spend a night, or better a weekend in the college dorm and eat the food the students eat. It would do well for managers and supervisors to spend sometime doing what the workers are doing.

  Secondly, leaders must realize when they’ve made a mistake. Some never do. Some will drive a company into the ground, ruin the economy of a nation, watch a church die or witness the end of their marriage rather than admit they made a bad decision. Part of being a leader is admitting that you were wrong. Apologize. Pride keeps us from doing that. It sits back and watches the nation become weary and then sin because it won’t admit the decision was wrong. Parents have to apologize to their kids once in a while. We say things, often like Saul, without thinking, and it’s too harsh, too much for little hearts to handle and they fall apart on the inside. Paul told the Colossians, ‘Fathers, do not exasperate your children, that they may not lose heart.’

  The expression, ‘lose heart,’ means to become discouraged. We’d say, ‘my heart’s not in it.’ That’s exactly where Israel was. Their heart was gone. That happens at work, at home and at church.

  Leading, means keeping the heart of the followers strong. Else what you have is slavery. And that’s exactly how so many people feel today—about work, church, family and life.

  One final thought, we are all leaders in some degree. It’s easy to complain about the leaders above us, but what kind of job are we doing? Don’t let it go to your head. Be the leader that actually leads…all the way to Heaven!

Roger