The Gospel According to David and Saul
1 Samuel 15:7-23 (NIV)
Then Saul attacked the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, to the east of Egypt. [8] He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword. [9] But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs--everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed.
[10] Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel: [11] "I am grieved that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions." Samuel was troubled, and he cried out to the Lord all that night.
[12] Early in the morning Samuel got up and went to meet Saul, but he was told, "Saul has gone to Carmel. There he has set up a monument in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal."
[13] When Samuel reached him, Saul said, "The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord's instructions."
[14] But Samuel said, "What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?"
[15] Saul answered, "The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but we totally destroyed the rest."
[16] "Stop!" Samuel said to Saul. "Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night."
"Tell me," Saul replied.
[17] Samuel said, "Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. [18] And he sent you on a mission, saying, 'Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; make war on them until you have wiped them out.' [19] Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?"
[20] "But I did obey the Lord," Saul said. "I went on the mission the Lord assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. [21] The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal."
[22] But Samuel replied:
"Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
To obey is better than sacrifice,
and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
[23] For rebellion is like the sin of divination,
and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
he has rejected you as king."
1 Samuel 10:22-24 (NLT)
So they asked the LORD, “Where is he?” And the LORD replied, “He is hiding among the baggage.” So they found him and brought him out, and he stood head and shoulders above anyone else. Then Samuel said to all the people, “This is the man the LORD has chosen as your king. No one in all Israel is like him!”
1 Sam. 15:18 (NLT)
And the LORD sent you on a mission and told you, ‘Go and completely destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, until they are all dead.’
1 Sam. 15:19-20 (NLT)
Why haven’t you obeyed the LORD? Why did you rush for the plunder and do what was evil in the LORD’s sight?” “But I did obey the LORD,” Saul insisted. “I carried out the mission he gave me. I brought back King Agag, but I destroyed everyone else.
1. Self-deception is the infinite capacity of our human to hide the truth from itself that it finds too painful
Jeremiah 17:9 (NIV)
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
1 Samuel 15:13 (NLT)
When Samuel finally found him, Saul greeted him cheerfully. "May the Lord bless you," he said. "I have carried out the Lord's command!"
Blame-shifting is a typical characteristic of self-deception
1 Samuel 15:14-15 (NLT)
"Then what is all the bleating of sheep and lowing of cattle I hear?" Samuel demanded.
[15] "It's true that the army spared the best of the sheep and cattle," Saul admitted. "But they are going to sacrifice them to the Lord your God. We have destroyed everything else."
1 Samuel 15:17 (NIV)
Samuel said, "Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel.
1 Samuel 15:9, 12 (NIV)
But Saul and the army spared Agag…Early in the morning Samuel got up and went to meet Saul, but he was told, "Saul has gone to Carmel. There he has set up a monument in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal."
When we are small in our own eyes, that hunger will drive us to do anything to convince others and ourselves to that we are “bigger”
Whenever we try to fill our deepest hunger with something other than God, they become our emotional idols that enslave us, bring self-deception and never satisfy
2. If our deepest foundational hunger is satisfied by the unshakable love, acceptance and forgiveness of Christ, we don’t need to look elsewhere
Hebrews 10:5-10 (NIV)
Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:
"Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
[6] with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.
[7] Then I said, 'Here I am--it is written about me in the scroll--
I have come to do your will, O God.' "
[8] First he said, "Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them"…Then he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will."…by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Jesus listened, obeyed and sacrificed on our behalf so that before God, we are fully accepted, and if we fully understand that, that will motivate us to listen and obey
Psalm 139:23-24 (NIV)
Search me, O God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
3. If we know that we are deeply loved and accepted by God, instead of self-deception, we can easily admit and give up our false idols and find freedom
I am grateful to Tim Keller, from whom much of this sermon came from…