Would I drive 65 in a 60 if it’s 2:00 a.m?  In other words, do I obey the law as God commands me to do when I KNOW I CAN GET AWAY WITH BREAKING IT?  After all, it’s only 5 mph over the limit; and there’s not a soul in sight.  And besides, I’m in a bit of a hurry because ….  This is where the (spiritual) rubber meets the (spiritual road).  It’s the spiritual version of an athletic gut-check.  I call it a heart-check.  Here is where we “put our (spiritual) money where our (spiritual) mouth is.”  Let us take a Biblical look at some examples of spiritual heart-checks and see how the subjects fared.

In the Book of First Samuel beginning with chapter 8 we find the people of Israel, having grown tired of dealing with Samuel because of his closeness to God and his insistence that they obey Him (God), are looking elsewhere for inspiration.  Having observed the heathen people around them and noting their freedom to do as they pleased, the people of Israel decided that they had had enough of the holy man who “ruled” them according to the dictates of his God.  They told Samuel that they wanted to be “led” by a king–someone like themselves, which Samuel definitely was not.  They wanted a “regular guy” to lead them, not a “holy guy” like Samuel.  God gave them what they wanted and chose Saul, an honorable (“choice”) man who had no desire for power and who, when Samuel identified him as God’s choice to be the king of Israel, hid himself because he did not want the job.  But God chose him, gave him a “new heart” and filled him with His Holy Spirit which would lead him in every aspect of his life from that time forward.

King Saul had everything a king needed to be successful in both wartime and peacetime.  However, like everyone else who has ever lived, Saul had the POTENTIAL for self-centeredness–a spirit of carnal willfulness which he had to fight against and conquer in order to be totally controlled by God.  Such is the case with everyone who has ever walked this earth, including Jesus of Nazareth.  Self is the most powerful force one deals with in this life.  Self is more powerful than Satan. Understand this: SATAN CANNOT FORCE A PERSON TO DO ANYTHING.  HE CAN ONLY TEMPT HIM TO YIELD TO HIS HUMAN DESIRE FOR SELF-RULE.  SATAN THEN STEPS IN AND CHANNELS HIS (MAN’S) WILL TOWARD HIS (SATAN’S) WILL.  Read Bait and Switch.  Key word–Switch.

Man desires to make his own decisions.  No matter how close one is to God, there is always that “voice” that makes self-rule seem better than God-rule.  God addresses this power and man’s tendency to yield to it through the proverbist: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but that is the way to destruction” (Prov. 14:12).  Satan can gain power over a person only by playing to his self-interest and making it seem like the reasonable way to go.  He simply manipulates man’s will, but only with man’s permission.  Carnal wilfullness can destroy man’s judgment, pervert his faith and affect the love of God in his life.  As we will learn in 1 Samuel 15, self-will can even destroy a God-enthroned, God-empowered king.  Satan cannot do this, but man can if he yields to Satan’s siren call for self-assertion.  Satan could not force Adam and Eve to rebel against God.  He could only entice them to choose their will over God’s will.  Recall that when Jesus was preparing to go to the cross, His will was for some other way to accomplish His assigned task.  There was no other way.  So he said to the Father, “Not my will, but Your will be done.”  Jesus had a self-centered will like any other man.  He was Who He was and accomplished what He accomplished because in ever instance HE SUBMITTED HIS WILL TO GOD’S WILL.  HE HAD THE POWER TO SATISFY HIS OWN WILL BUT CHOSE TO SUBMIT HIS WILL TO GOD’S WILL.  

Saul had lost his humility since becoming king.  He had allowed the devil to add a pinch of leaven to his loaf and it had affected his thinking process.  In verses 1-3 the Prophet Samuel instructs him to pay close attention relative to his instructions.  He was to “smite Amalek, and utterly destroy EVERYTHING that they have.  YOU MUST KILL EVERYTHING–every man, woman, child, infant, ox, sheep, fatling, camel and ass.”  Saul gathered his army together and set off to battle, Samuel’s (God’s) instructions undoubtedly fresh in his mind.

“And Saul smote the Amalekites … and took Agag the king alive,” along with the best of the sheep, the oxen and the fatlings “AND EVERYTHING THAT WAS GOOD” (vss 7-9).  Saul had clearly defied God’s command.  Samuel was on his way.  But was he afraid to face God’s man Samuel?  Hear what he says to Samuel upon his arrival: “Blessed are you of the Lord.  I HAVE PERFORMED THE COMMANDMENT OF THE LORD ” (vs 13).  Saul’s judgment had been affected.  It was “the Lord” this and “the Lord” that.  He believed that what he had done was fine with God and Samuel.  Even after Samuel showed him his sin Saul held onto his self-ascribed rightness (vs 20).

Saul’s willfulness had led to self-deception.  Satan could not force him to disobey God, he could only entice him to do so. He not only deceived Saul, but had made him believe that God approved of his actions.  Saul obeyed God’s commands BUT ONLY AFTER VIEWING THEM FROM HIS OWN PERSPECTIVE.  Going his own way had resulted in great success.  The fact that he had not done what God had command him to do was irrelevant.  All was good, he concluded.  Victory was the only thing that really mattered.

Though Saul had access to God’s Holy Spirit, he had failed to listen to its “voice” when that voice contradicted God’s command.  He had ignored the Lord’s “voice” and had done the “sensible thing.”  Sound familiar?  God please forgive me for the times I did the same thing.  As I noted in the previous posting, God allows me zero leeway.  It is His extremely narrow, no-margin-for-error way that He has me walking.  AND I LOVE IT.  I asked for it and He answered my prayers.  If given the opportunity, I would change nothing.  I am going to sit with Christ on His throne in the Kingdom of God (Rev. 3:21).  Won’t you join me?

Samuel’s words must have stung the king’s ego: “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness as the sin of iniquity (Lawlessness) and idolatry (self-worship).  Because you have rejected the Word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king” (vs 23).  Note the conjunction of the words Samuel used to describe what Saul had done when he gave in to self-will: rejection, rebellion, witchcraft, stubbornness, iniquity and idolatry.  Those words describe all sin, regardless of how seemingly insignificant it may be.  What had seemed like the best way to go had brought down the God-chosen king of God’s chosen people.  WE MUST OBEY GOD’S WILL REGARDLESS OF THE SITUATION.  Even in the smallest of matters–we must listen to God’s voice and obey it.  There is no other way to the throne.

Because of Saul’s willfulness, his judgment had been broken and his mind had become perverted.  His secret desire for self-rule, hidden under a veneer of human goodness, eventually led to personal and national disaster.  Nothing has changed.  God is no respecter of persons.  What He commanded of Saul He commands of all who call themselves by His name.  L.J.