Saul's Disobedience: The Cost of Partial Obedience

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he is no longer the king of Israel verse 23 you have rejected the word of the Lord and he has also rejected you from being King now we know why this is because we're told he had been given an assignment the assignment was given by God he knew that was the case and his assignment is there in verse 3 he was to execute judgment upon the amalekites [00:01:22]

the issue is ethical rather than ethnic the amalekites are to be destroyed not because they are amalekites but because they were sinners and so when you take this and you stand far enough back from it in the unfolding drama of the entire Bible you realize that these events are to be viewed in light of the Supreme plan of God to provide salvation not in a disobedient King like Saul but in the obedient King namely the Lord Jesus [00:02:43]

the battles that we are fighting Are Spiritual battles Paul makes this clear in his writings he says it in for example second Corinthians 10 the weapons of our Warfare are not physical weapons we don't take up arms and go and fight people our weapons are the proclaiming of the gospel and praying for the intervention of God [00:03:34]

it is hard to tell from the text uh what was in the mind of Saul in fact it's really it's impossible to know what was in his mind whether his partial obedience was premeditated or not in other words whether when he received the command he said in the back of his mind well I'm going to do some of this but I'm not going to do all of it whether it was premeditated or not his partial obedience is unmistakable and it is this that incurs God's displeasure [00:05:02]

Saul had listened to the word of the Lord but it failed to fulfill the mission making something clear to us that is clear always in all of scripture that partial obedience is still disobedience partial obedience is still disobedience the clarity of God's word that calls us to obey his word is not a series of options whereby we can choose the parts that seem amenable to us and divorce ourselves from the parts that we don't like [00:08:04]

the response that comes from God and then from Samuel the word of the Lord came to Samuel I regret that I have made Saul King why he has turned back from following me and has not performed my Commandments so the response of Yahweh is to repent of what he has done in the authorized version to regret it in the English Standard Version to be grieved by it in the new international version [00:10:00]

what is being conveyed here is this that the response of Saul matters to God that the fact that it wasn't news to God doesn't mean that he is incapable of bemoaning a circumstance that he brought about he brought it about he bemoans the fact what do we need to know well we need to know this that God in his in himself is capable of regretting an act of foreknown evil and yet he is able to go ahead and call for it for his own Divine and wise reasons [00:11:34]

God is not changing his mind his response to bemoan the change in Saul is to let us see something of God it is it is if you like in human language and Endeavor to do what the teachers are doing in the nursery and that is to come down to the children where they are you don't expect any of them on the basis of what I'm saying now to go into the classrooms in the third hour and say hey children we're going to have a discussion this morning following the talk we're going to look together at the issues of impassibility and immutability [00:12:28]

he does it by as I say accommodating himself to us by using language that is suitable to our weakness let me just say a couple of things then before I pick up the narrative and one and this is very straightforward and it should be obvious to us all and it is a principle of biblical interpretation incidentally that the author of first Samuel clearly was not unaware of this contradiction he wrote it twice he says in verse 11 and verse 35 that God regretted making him King and in verse 29 right in the middle of it he says but God of course is not a man that he should regret things in this way [00:14:02]

and Samuel was angry and he cried to the Lord all night what a wealth is surely contained in this Samuel we've been with someone for a while haven't we Samuel the one that his mother longed for and then he came Samuel the wee boy Samuel dedicated to the Lord Samuel giving the assignment and so on and now Samuel in his bedroom as it were punching the pillow getting up making the equivalent of a cup of tea and walking back and forth in the room prowling I never bargained for this I never thought it would be like this and now you regret having made him the king [00:16:01]

I told the people if you will not obey the voice of the Lord but Rebel then the hand of the Lord will be against you Lord I'm frustrated I'm confused I'm upset I'm annoyed and Samuel was angry and he cried to the Lord all night you know God is able God is able for our Rumblings and our ramblings if you have never rumbled who's aware in the night if you have never rambled if you have never been angered by these things then I wager you're living in a in a strange world [00:17:01]

for the unfolding drama of God almighty is confusing on our best day is alarming many a day in his unsettling to us and here if nowhere else in scripture pointing us forward to Gethsemane itself where Christ is dealing with the father in relationship to the immensity of what's before him here then is some justification for as in the silent Place being very real with God who would ever accept the assignment of the prophet of God who would ever say Here I Am Lord you can take me and use me I will obey you I will serve you I will follow your word I will Proclaim it no matter what it means and no matter what it costs [00:18:01]

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