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We are born with an acute sense of justice – children have a very clear and definite picture about what’s right, wrong, yours and mine.  Jill Greenberg a few years ago exploited this and made a lot of money doing it.  She was a photographer in the LA area who would set up her studio, give a child a lollipop, focus her camera and then have her assistant take away the lollipop.  The children would cry and she would take their picture. [From: http://articles.latimes.com/2006/jul/24/entertainment/et-kids24?pg=1]

A major task of parents is to move our sense of justice out so that it includes everyone and not just ourselves.  Bill Moyers explains what this increased justice looks like.  “Charity depends on the vicissitudes of whim and personal wealth; justice depends on commitment instead of circumstance. Faith-based charity provides crumbs from the table; faith-based justice offers a place at the table.” Saul however does not seem to have outgrown this sense of acute and juvenile justice.

1. I am naturally self-centered and impatient.  (1 Samuel 14:1-23)

• Jonathan starts with the Lord in mind and God grants him great success.
• Saul neglects to wait on the Lord.  (1 Samuel 14:19-20)  It seems that he is engaged in a competition with his son (1 Samuel 20:30-34).  His sense of justice dictates that he be in the middle of this fight.
• Saul wants to get in the battle with or without the Lord’s direction.  Jonathan’s very first words were entreating the Lord.  Saul cuts God off mid sentence by telling the priest to withdraw his hand from the ephod.
• At least Saul let God start talking.  We are often too busy to even ask!  We feel so confident in who we are and what we’re doing that we don’t stop to ask God.
• We carry on in our lives without a word from God and eventually interpret God’s silence as his agreement with us.

2. I tend to order my world and my faith from my point of view.  (1 Samuel 14:24-35)

• Saul makes a rash oath (1 Samuel 14:24,29) endangering the troops by threatening them against taking a lunch break.
• I’m always concerned when we start assigning spiritual consequences and spiritual motives to people.  We say, “They’re not doing this for God,” or “They’ve given into the devil.”  I have a hard enough time guessing my own motives, much less someone else’s.
• I’m more concerned when we start passing judgment for God on people.  Saul here is using the same word that God used to curse the serpent and the same word used in Deuteronomy 27 about the curses on idol makers.
• Saul leads his troops into temptation by causing a hunger so severe they violate their kosher laws. (1 Sauel 14:31-35)
• Saul here is so intent on “avenging himself” that he neglects his troops.  Worse than that he reorders God’s priorities to help him.
• We order, reorder, and invent God in our likeness to suit our needs.  Christians have done this to justify Crusades, slavery, even subjugating women and abusing children.
• We use guilt today in this way.  We use it on our spouses, children anyone we can.  We proof-text to prove our points and in turn make God into our own image.  We change God’s heart to match our own and never realize that it’s our heart God needs to change.

3. I need God’s help and a community of faith to move beyond “ME” and into healthy relationships.  (1 Samuel 14:36-46)

• God does not speak to Saul – apparently for his rash oath.  Saul has literally taken God’s name in vain and so God is silent because Saul has already done too much talking.
  • As such, Saul would execute his son to save face before his people.  Thankfully the men with Saul had more sense than he did.
  • The victory that Jonathan started was ended by Saul’s sin (1 Samuel 14:46)
  • It’s so easy to become self-absorbed, particularly today when we all need to be sensitive, when we all have needs and we all deserve so much more than we get.  Madison Avenue loves to sell things to us this way, but we all need someone to bring us back to reality.
  • How do we as believing “adults” act out of self-righteousness?  Silent treatment, hold a grudge, won’t cooperate, won’t forgive, spread rumors, bad attitude, act out aggressively or violently, withhold affection.
  • You see it every time a marriage ends because he’s not meeting my needs and I have a right to be happy.  Every time a student cheats because they have a right to pass the class.  Every time a man moves his family because his employer isn’t treating him the way he deserves.
  • Thankfully God loves you as you are, and he loves you enough not to leave you there.  Sometimes our conversion comes through community. It did for Saul and it can for us we need only to surrender to the Lord and the love of the people of faith.

Holiness literally means to be “set apart” or different.  Pragmatically holiness is internalizing the changes that God leads you to, it is becoming like Christ.  It starts with us setting apart a small part of ourselves and allowing God to transform us.  Unfortunately we are to easily satisfied with the appearance of holiness.

We see why holiness is important from Jesus’ teaching.  In Luke 6:46ff Jesus tells us that when we obey his commands and model our life after his we establish our life on the rock.  We build our house like a wise builder and build on the sure foundation of Jesus’ sinless life and perfect teaching.

The very first act of Saul’s affirmed Kingship (1 Samuel 11) Saul is told that he is not going to last as king. That’s what happens when you play games with God – you lose.  God says here in 1 Samuel 13:14 that he is now choosing someone “after his own heart” or his own choosing.

Saul had a track record of indifference –  Samuel had a track record of integrity.

• Age doesn’t equal maturity.  Saul testifies to this, the young King David has more spiritual awareness and leadership maturity than Saul ever did.
  • This is what Paul reminds Timothy of when he admonishes him to not let others look down on him because he is young! (1 Timothy 4:12)
  • Samuel has served for years (1 Samuel 12:1-2) and Saul is starting (1 Samuel 13:1).  Yet, in this short time we see the true character of Saul.  While Samuel’s has been built for a lifetime.
• You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.  Samuel’s life is more than a charade.
  • Samuel took nothing (1 Samuel 12:3-5): more importantly Samuel owed no one anything.  The people were indebted to Samuel!  Compare this with Saul who took everything. (1 Samuel 13:2).
  • We saw Saul’s indifference prior to his inauguration.  We Saul follow through with taking their very lives for service.

Saul played at holiness – Samuel practiced it.

• With Samuel they feared the Lord – 1 Samuel 12:6-18
  • Samuel kept the people’s eyes on the right issue because his eyes were fixed there.
  • If leadership is the head and a leader is the eye then wherever their gaze is fixed so to the group.
  • Coaches constantly exhort their players to keep focused, because the coach sees the bigger picture in the season not the game or the opposing players.
• With Saul they feared their enemies – 1 Samuel 13:5-7
  • Fear is a funny thing, it seems to me that we fear the most immediate threat not the greatest.  We worry about what we’ll eat for dinner, or wear – but neglect to think about feeding ourselves spiritually, or clothing ourselves with Christ.
  • We worry more about car crashes and burglary than we do our spirituality.
  • Jesus said, “I’ll show you who to fear, fear him who after destroying the body can…” (Luke 12:5)
• Jesus calls out the people that worry more about the appearance of holiness and not true holiness.  He reserves his harshest criticism for them – calling them whitewashed tombs. (Matthew 23:27)
• Is your heart aligned with the fear of God or are you consumed with worries in this world?

Saul’s authority was political – Samuel’s was spiritual.

• Here we see the split of prophet and king, spiritual leader and national leader truly take shape.  Prophet – King  (1 Samuel 12:23)
  • Aaron was the priest, but Moses spoke to God and was a Levite.
  • Joshua found himself at the tent of meeting speaking with God.
  • The judges were called by God and directed by God.  From here on out the primary means of Divine to royal communication comes through a prophet.
• This authority is deeper than the ability to tell someone to do something, it is a moral authority a matter of integrity.
• I won’t tell you who, but there are a few people in my life that if they called me on the phone and said, “God wants you to do this…” I’d do it.  Because I know that their spirituality and integrity places them in a position of authority in my life.
  • Samuel’s was to God – 1 Samuel 12:13-15.  Samuel looks beyond the kingship to the true kingship of God reminding the people to submit first to the Lord.
  • Saul’s was to himself – 1 Samuel 13:8-12.  Look at verse 12 and notice how many times “I” occurs – this reveals Saul’s focus.

How do we start?  Humility.  James 4:10 tells us to humble ourselves before God and he will lift us up.