The End of Saul

The life of Saul can be summed up by thinking about diet fads. To lose weight and to stay healthy, all we need is exercise and a healthy diet. We all know it. More walking, fewer bear claws. Instead, we invent ways of trying to side step those methods to make “healthy” easier. My favorite is the vibrating platform. All you need to do (besides pay $350 or 10 easy payments of $35) is stand on a vibrating platform for 15 minutes a day, 3 days a week and the pounds will start falling off. But as the Mayo Clinic put it on their website, “comprehensive research about whole-body vibration is lacking.”

At the coronation of King Saul in 1 Samuel 12:14, Samuel said these words to Saul and to the the people of God: “If you will fear the Lord and serve and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God, it will be well.” Saul knew full well what God required of him: Listen to God’s Word and obey what He said. It is God who saves, not chariots or horses or human effort. But as we see all throughout Saul’s reign, he did everything except those things. But why?

Listening to and obeying God, just like eating healthy and getting on a treadmill, are more difficult than the alternative methods that we come up with. We want the benefits of listening and obeying without having to do the hard work of listening and obeying. And we know where that method leads.

Saul, in 1 Samuel 28 knew that he was in trouble. God had stopped answering him according to any of the proper methods of communication (v. 6). He found himself surrounded by his enemies for the last time (v 4). Like old times, he sought out a medium (an ancient fortune teller) to bring up the one man in his circle who had listened to God, Samuel, to see what he should do about his situation (vv 8-16). Saul asked Samuel what was going to happen to him. Samuel’s response was, “The Lord has done to you as he spoke by me.” God stopped listening to Saul’s voice because Saul had stop listening to God’s.

God knew that our salvation could not be accomplished by taking the easy route. Sin and death are wicked enemies who are not defeated easily. It would take perfect obedience and a cruel death by execution. Jesus listened and obeyed because he knew we couldn’t. And now, all we have to do is give up our own efforts (and the latest spiritual fad), lean into that finished work of Christ, and call to God who hears us and wants to help us. God’s will for life is simple. Philippians 2:13-14 says, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” This method, when done in the community of God’s people, builds us up into Christ-likeness. Any other means leaves us flat on our face surrounded by enemies wishing we had just let God do what only God can do: save us and bring us near to Him.