SAUL: A MAN DRIVEN BY FEAR 

 

          We are going to spend our scriptural time today looking at one Bible character.  Oftentimes when this is done we look at well known favorites like David – the man after God’s own heart; Abraham – the friend of God; Noah – the preacher of righteousness; or Moses – the great leader.  Normally we try to draw encouragement from the positive strengths of these men and from other Biblical characters, both male and female.

          Today we are going to look at Saul.  Now Saul was not a man who is characterized by having great faith, or having done great miracles or even having followed after God with great diligence.  In fact, in all the scriptures concerning Saul he has but one shining moment.  In almost all the events relaying Saul’s actions he is characterized by fear and impatience.  Today we will look at Saul – A Man Driven by Fear.

I SAMUEL 10:17-27

          Saul enters the scriptures as a dutiful son out searching for his fathers asses.  He is encouraged to go and see Samuel the prophet by a servant traveling with him.  Upon finding Samuel, he is told by him that God has selected him to be king of Israel.  Saul does not accept this news readily.  He does not seem to be thrilled about the idea of being king.  But Samuel anoints him privately and gives him a list of signs or events to help him see God's will.  Saul then heads back home and each of Samuel's prophecies occurred just as Samuel said. 

          So as we come to verse 17, it is no big surprise to Saul that he would be selected. Yet when the lot falls on him, he is no where to be found.  He is hiding in the baggage.  Now why is he hiding?  What is he afraid of?

I SAMUEL 9:1-2

 Saul's father is described as a mighty man of power.  This means he was well respected.  He sat in the gate with the city elders and he was probably wealthy.  At least he was not poor.  In verse two Saul himself is described as being a choice young man and goodly.  This is however a physical description.  Saul was a handsome man.  He was very tall and robust.  He was much bigger than all of the other people. In verse 24 of chapter 10 Samuel says that there is no-one like Saul among all the people.  So why is Saul afraid.  He comes from a good family, is not a poor man, and is nice looking, big and strong.  He has already been anointed by Samuel and his calling has been confirmed by the fulfillment of several prophesies.  Why then is he fearful? 

I SAMUEL 9:20-21

Saul is from what was at that time the smallest tribe in Israel and it was a tribe with a bad history.  At one time the tribe of Benjamin was the 7th largest tribe.  But in the end of the Book of Judges (20-21) they sinned a great sin that caused all the other tribes to rally against them and all but 600 men were destroyed.  Saul is hiding because he is afraid that the people will not accept him and that they will not follow him.  His own tribe is not large enough to offer him all the support he will need and his tribe is marred by its past.

APPLICATION -  Sometimes the past seems to stand in the way of our future.  Mistakes we have made seem to keep coming up.  It maybe the life we led or the things that people have said to us in the past, but they affect how we see ourselves.  They affect how we view our potential for success.  Things that were said or done to us in the past can make us fearful of taking chances in the future.  They can make us see ourselves as less than we are and make us afraid to try to be all that God says we can be. 

So Saul began his reign as king fearful of being rejected.  But God helps him out.  When the Ammonites came against Jabesh, Saul and the armies of Israel went to their rescue.  The Spirit of God came upon Saul and he wrought a great victory.  The people then rallied around him and proclaimed him as king. (I Samuel 11)  This is as good as it gets for Saul.  From here on out it is a downward fall.

I SAMUEL 13:1-14

The Philistines were oppressing the Israelites.  Jonathan, Saul's son attacks a small band of Philistines and wipes them out.  This angers the Philistine Lords and they gathered to fight Israel.  Saul again becomes fearful.  He is badly out manned and not only that, the men who are following him have become fearful and are running off to hide.  As the people begin to scatter Saul's fear leads him to become impatient.  Saul can not go to battle with out first sacrificing to God and asking His blessing nor, it seems, can he afford to wait any longer for Samuel, so he offered the sacrifice himself.  His fear led to his becoming impatient and this led to his making a bad decision. (If no Philistines... no impatience)

APPLICATION - Sometimes we become fearful and it leads to our making a bad decision.  Sometimes we become impatient         with waiting on God and we try to take matters into our own hands.  Sometimes it seems like He is just not going to make it in time or that we just can not wait another moment.  It seems that we must do something before things get too far out of hand.  Well that's how Saul felt.  You see it is easy to wait on God when it does not seem to be an urgent matter.  But when it seems that God is not moving and there appears to be an alternative, it becomes much harder to wait.

EXAMPLE

          When bills are mounting up and the rent needs paying and you are looking as hard as you can for a job but can't find one,       it sometimes gets hard to wait.  So people do desperate things like steal, kill or get involved in drugs.  Or suppose the reason the job keeps slipping past you is because on the application they keep asking you questions like have you ever been in jail, or fired from a job?  The question for the future will probably be, “Have you ever experimented with marijuana or other drugs”?  Now since you are a Christian, you answer yes to either of those questions and there went you chance for a job.  You are praying for God to soften someone's heart, but the bills  must be paid soon or you will have nowhere to live.  You know what the Devil says, “Well you know you can not get a job if you do not have an address and you can't get help from social services without one either”.  He says, “why don't you just check no”.  No-one will ever know and even if they do find out you will have worked at least a couple of weeks.  So, on the next application you ponder over that question.

          EXAMPLE - cheating on a test or copying someone else's home work. It's easier to say no when it is only the difference between an A or B, but when it is the difference between a D and a F, and you need the D to graduate this semester, it becomes more difficult.  It is hard to make a good quality decision when you are under    pressure, when the fear of failure or the embarrassment of disappointing parents or just plain old impatience is          hounding you.  Like Saul, under these circumstances we sometimes take matters into our own hands and make poor decisions.  Saul's impatient decision was the beginning of his down    fall.  His kingship was stripped from him, the Spirit of God left him, and an evil spirit came upon him.

          After this Saul again became fearful and lost confidence in himself.  This led to many bad decisions.  In the matter of the Amelekites, Saul fearful of losing the support of the people disobeyed God.  This sealed his fate and the Lord declared that he would not change His mind about Saul's kingship. (I SAMUEL 15)  He followed this action by becoming a jealous mad man and trying to slay David, a faithful servant and soldier.

I SAMUEL 18:6-16

Saul was afraid of David because of God’s presence in him.  The hearts of the people were turning to David and Saul could see that he was losing control and that David not Jonathan would be his successor.  Saul decides to send David out to battle hoping the Philistines would kill him.  This too turned out to be a bad decision.  David won many battles and the people loved him.  Because Saul is afraid that he is loosing his kingdom to David, he spends his remaining time as king running around the country hounding David and trying to kill him. He even wipes out a whole family of priest trying to get at David.  His fear has driven him to obsession and he can not even enjoy being king for seeking to silence his fear.

APPLICATION

Sometimes we can not enjoy what we already have for fear of losing it.  Sometimes we can get so caught up in what is going to happen next, that we forget to enjoy the moment.  Yes we are to plan for the future and make good quality decisions that will help us in the future, but we are not to let fear be the motivating factor in our planning.

EXAMPLE

          We are to plan for the end of this Earth, but the planning is not in saving enough food and water to assure that you will have a seven year supply if needed.  You can not become so fearful of the future that you spend all your resources trying to ensure the distant future and forget to live today.  If Christians must go through the tribulation period then we would also have to share all that food and water anyway.

          Finally let's look at Saul in his last day' reigning as King.

I SAMUEL 28:4-20 - Saw the Philistines and got scared.

Sought the Lord in every acceptable way and got no answer.  God did not answer him personally, through rituals nor through the minister.  This only heightened his fear.  So he resorts to sin.  He goes to a witch, when he himself has band witchcraft.  Fear and desperation will make you sin if your trust in God is shaky. 

Vs. 8 – Familiar spirit describes the alleged spirit of a deceased person because it was regarded as belonging to the family and thus on intimate terms with the deceased person.  Such a demon is well acquainted with the deceased human being and can imitate or impersonate him deceiving, the one desiring to communicate with the dead.

          This time the witch is shocked when not the demon spirit but the actual spirit of Samuel is seen coming up.  She screams because what she sees is not the expected but the unexpected.  She expected to bring up the control spirit which would impersonate Samuel, but instead shrieked in fear at what happened.  In this sole instance God sovereignly permitted the actual spirit of Samuel to speak in order to deliver a solemn rebuke to Saul.  Normally the familiar spirit would speak somewhat favorably; in this unique instance Saul was condemned to die.  Saul went to a witch in fear of the Philistines and left fearing the words that had been spoken to him.

          The point of all of this is to understand that fear can be a powerful driving factor.  But normally when we are driven by fear it is in the wrong direction.  Fear will cause one to act outside of the will of God and do what we should not do.  It will also cause one not to act in-spite of knowing the will of God.  It will cause us not to do what we should do.  Many times we allow fears generated from past experiences to linger around in our present lives and to be a stumbling block for us in how we relate to others and to hinder our effective service to God and ultimately our spiritual and personal growth.  It would behoove us all to meditate on and get a firm understanding of

          II TIMOTHY 1:7 - For God has not given us the spirit of  fear; but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

The fears that torment and drive us are not from God.  They are like any other unwanted spirit that tries to occupy and control our lives.  They result from a spirit that must be cast aside and replaced with God's power which empowers us to do all that is His will; God's love which continues in-spite of past hurt or the potential for future hurt; and a God controlled mind which will always remind us that "greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world".