If you will fear the Lord and serve him 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. But if you will not obey the voice of
the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be
against you and your king.
Very simply put: you can’t blame it all on your king when
things start to go wrong in the kingdom. The king is not the only one
answerable to God for obedience or rebellion. The well-being of the nation is
the responsibility of the collective believers in that nation. Laziness,
negligence of God’s Word and outright rejection of God's establishment principles will bring destruction “against you and
your king.” So, Samuel laid it squarely on the shoulders of the people,
indicating to me that if they’d had integrity as God’s people, they could have
kept the king’s failures in check.
They recognized their sinfulness as pronounced by Samuel in
v.17: “your wickedness is
great, which you have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking for yourselves a
king.” They confessed their sin publicly in v.19: And all the people said to Samuel, “Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, that we may not die, for
we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for ourselves a king.”
The Jews could really grovel, when chastised by God’s
representative. Samuel reassured them that yes, they’d made a mistake. It was
one for which they would be reaping consequences for generations to come, but
they should remain faithful to God’s plan and purpose for them. They must not
reject God’s grace toward them, for to do so would bring them into Satan’s
system of evil. That would be their undoing. There is nothing profitable there. God’s formula for recovery from reversionism:
confess the sin (admit it to God), get back with God’s program and move on
toward the high ground of maturity in the faith.
And Samuel said to the
people, “Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following
the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit
or deliver, for they are empty. I Samuel 12:20-21
V.22: For the Lord
will not forsake his people, for his great name's sake,
because it has pleased the Lord to make
you a people for himself.
It is not because Israel is so righteous, that God will not
forsake them. It is for His own name’s sake. They are His people who bear His
name in the earth, and He will protect them. It is a matter of God’s integrity,
not their worthiness. They are decidedly UNworthy, as are we all.
“Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are stubborn people.” Deuteronomy 9:5-6
So, why does God continue to protect and provide for His people? Because it pleases Him (v. 22). A stubborn
child does not cease to be your child, he becomes your chastened child, because
you love him and because he belongs to you and bears your name. Believers in
Jesus Christ bear the name of Christ. We are His and it pleases Him to protect
us in the world, and to provide for us in all circumstances of life. He does
this, even as He must chastise us at times, for our stubborn foolishness. God keeps His Word. Always.
Moreover, as for me,
far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you, and I will instruct you in the
good and the right way. Only fear the Lord and serve him
faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done
for you. But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.” I
Samuel 12:23-25
The people had asked Samuel to pray for them, that they
might not die for their grievous sin against God. Samuel made it clear that he
would not cease to pray for them; not because it was an emotional issue with him,
but because neglecting to pray for them would be a sin against the Lord. That
is a truth I sometimes overlook, to my shame. That is to say, I forget that it
is a personal sin to neglect prayer on behalf of God’s people. As their prophet, Samuel assured them he would
also continue to instruct them in “the
good and the right way.”
Samuel’s advice to Israel: you have confessed your sin to
God, and determined to follow and support your king in the ways of God. Keep
your promise of genuine faithfulness in service. Remember God’s faithfulness in
His grace provision for you. BUT—
If you, Israel (client nation to God), continue in sin
(human viewpoint stupidity), your nation, your people and your king will be
destroyed. The responsibility rests on the individual believers as they walk
before the Lord, as well as the collective nation as she represents the Lord in
the earth. The king represents the nation.
As the believer goes, so goes the nation.
As the believer goes, so goes the nation.
As the nation goes, so goes the king.
Saul started strong in leadership, but it didn’t last long.
He quickly became a politician, making bad decisions and blaming it on
following the will of the people. God gave him clear instruction, but Saul’s
personal preferences got in the way of his obedience to God. Saul didn’t seem
to be evil and rebellious. He was actually quite moral in his behavior, but allowing one’s emotions to have priority over
God’s command IS rebellion. Morality is not spirituality. Don't confuse the two. If an unbeliever can do it, it is not the Christian way of life. A person can be agnostic, atheist, pagan, or a carnal-minded baby believer and be moral. You cannot be any of those things and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Spirituality requires knowledge of and obedience to the Word of God (Bible Doctrine). Also known as the Mind of Christ. Also known as divine viewpoint. Thinking truth!
Saul became a sanctimonious, arrogant, presumptuous phony
who squandered the position and abused the authority God had given him. This
could not end well.
It didn’t.
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