Saul’s Fall: Setting Up a Rival Kingdom

We all get caught in our sin—all of us. We are all hypocrites from time to time. But what we do next when the Holy Spirit confronts us is of life-or-death importance. At this point Saul still has an opening, a chance to choose a path toward repentance. But he hardens his heart, going further down a road that becomes harder and harder to return from.

Saul answered, “The troops brought them from the Amalekites and spared the best sheep and cattle in order to offer a sacrifice to the Lord your God, but the rest we destroyed.” (v. 15)

Look at what Saul has done here. Recall that in verse 9 the verb for “spared” was in the singular because Saul was the one that spearheaded this endeavor. Now he decides to shift blame to the people. Not only that, but like Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, he ultimately tries to pin this back on God. The people spared the best sheep to sacrifice to God! That must justify this, right?

Samuel, however, will have none of it. He stops Saul in the middle of his excuses and says, “Although you once considered yourself unimportant, have you not become the leader of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel” (v. 17). Samuel brings Saul back to the beginning, pointing out that Saul was nothing when God decided to give him an entire kingdom. He says, in essence, “God made you everything, Saul! Was that not enough for you? After all that God has given you, you feel like you need more than that?”

Saul is after a name for himself—his own kingdom, his own stature. That is why he spares Agag and keeps him prisoner. Refusing to kill Agag is not an act of mercy. No, having an enemy king in your prison is an enormous status boost. In those days conquering kings would frequently parade out all the kings they had captured—emaciated, in chains—as a sign to the world: “I am the conquering king. I am the king of kings.”

Samuel is not finished scolding Saul. Samuel sees through Saul’s revisionist history. Saul was not strong-armed into sparing some of the spoils; he pounced on them at the first opportunity he had. And when Saul responds that he did most of what God had asked, Samuel fires back: God is not nearly as thrilled with this token offering, Saul, as you might hope.

Then Samuel said: “Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? Look: to obey is better than sacrifice, to pay attention is better than the fat of rams.

“For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and defiance is like wickedness and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has rejected you as king.” (vv. 22-23)

The same could be said for many people sitting in our churches today. God is not fired up about people singing some songs, giving some of their money. What thrills God is a heart that obeys Him. What thrills God is a surrendered heart.

The alternative to full surrender is rebellion. Even 98-percent obedience is rebellion, and Samuel says that we might as well be worshiping Satan. That is a bold statement. Imagine that you went to someone’s house for dinner, and just as you were leaving, they said, “So glad you came tonight, but before you go, I want to invite you upstairs with me. I’ve got a pentagram and some candles spread out on the floor, and I thought we could have sex with some temple prostitutes, sacrifice a few goats, and generally just offer ourselves to Satan. Don’t worry, we’ll go to church on Sunday, like normal.” How would you react to that? With revulsion, of course. And that is precisely how God reacts to our half-hearted “obedience.”

Many people in our churches are giving 90-percent obedience, just like Saul, and are completely at peace with it. Some are cheating on their taxes or cheating on their school exams. Boyfriends and girlfriends are sleeping with one another under the excuse of being truly “in love.” Some people are holding on to bitterness, refusing to forgive someone they know they should forgive. Many have heard a call to ministry or missions but are actively refusing to answer. And all these seemingly small acts of disobedience are just as disgusting to God as blatant worship of the Devil.

This is difficult to believe, but there is a common denominator between any act of disobedience and Satan himself. Satan’s sin, after all, was telling God, “I want to do my own thing.” He demanded autonomy to circumvent those of God’s laws that he found offensive. When we follow in his footsteps by displaying the same attitude, we are declaring that he is our true lord.

Our conception of sin is so often warped, as if the important aspect is what you do. Sin, however, is not wicked because of what a person does but because of whose authority a person rejects. As Samuel says to Saul, “Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has rejected you as king” (v. 23).

Saul knows that something is amiss:

Saul answered Samuel, “I have sinned. I have transgressed the Lord’ s command and your words. Because I was afraid of the people, I obeyed them. Now therefore, please forgive my sin and return with me so I can worship the Lord.” (vv. 24-25)

On the surface this looks like repentance. We should pat Saul on the back and raise him up as a model for this . . . right? Unfortunately, what looks like repentance is actually a fraud. This is evident in two ways. First, for the rest of Saul’s life, he will repeat this same rebellious attitude. Repentance entails a change, but Saul never evinces one. Second, the phrase in verse 25 indicates that Saul is still thinking of the whole situation incorrectly. Saul wants to “worship the Lord,” and he is not thinking of singing some God songs together or washing someone else’s feet. Saul wants to have a national thanksgiving sacrifice on behalf of the victory. He wants a big ceremony.

The problem with this is that Samuel is the only one who can offer an official worship ceremony. If Samuel refuses, this will be a major loss of face for Saul. Sadly, this is what Saul is so worried about. His main concern is still how he looks in the eyes of the people. He is still concerned about his status.

Again, far too many people in our pews think along the same lines. Too many of us are more worried about being caught in our sin than about the flagrance of the offense before God. We would be embarrassed if our sin was exposed, but we completely ignore the fact that the person most offended, most involved—God Himself—sees and knows our sin completely.

Samuel replied to Saul, “I will not return with you. Because you rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.” When Samuel turned to go, Saul grabbed the hem of his robe, and it tore. Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingship of Israel away from you today and has given it to your neighbor who is better than you.” . . .

Samuel said, “Bring me Agag king of Amalek.”Agag came to him trembling, for he thought, “Certainly the bitterness of death has come.”

Samuel declared: As your sword has made women childless, so your mother will be childless among women. Then he hacked Agag to pieces before the Lord at Gilgal. (vv. 26-28,32-33)

You must admit: the Bible has some vivid screenwriting. Imagine Samuel turning to leave, when Saul grabs his robe. Rip! Samuel takes one look at his torn shirt and says, “God has torn the kingdom away from you, fool, and given it to a better neighbor of yours” (see vv. 27-28). That neighbor will turn out to be King David. David would not be a perfect king, but he knew how to repent; and he knew how to let repentance be about God’s kingdom, not his own.

But the cinematic spectacle does not end there. Samuel drags Agag before everyone, which does not seem to bother Agag in the least (v. 32 ESV, NIV). The scene is dripping with irony. Agag comes forward happily, thinking, “OK, I’ve killed people. You’ve killed people. I’m sure we can work out a deal. I know people with money, and no one has to walk away unhappy.” But Samuel picks up his sword and puts a bloody end to a bloody king. This is one of those gory passages people are often surprised to find in the pages of Scripture.

Saul’s disobedience offers us a crash course. This passage reveals five truths about the anatomy of disobedience.

According to Samuel, witchcraft-level rebellion is seen in any partial, conditional, or delayed obedience. If Satanists are those who worship the Devil, practical Satanists are those who do not live fully under the authority of God. We must ask ourselves: Are there areas of our lives in which we are not obeying God fully?

Those of us who are religious are often tempted to cover over rebellion with rituals, to substitute ceremony for surrender. We disobey in one area and try to “make it up” to God with some offering in another area. So we refuse the call to missions, but we resolve to tithe heavily in our local church. Or we refuse to break off the relationship with an unbeliever but resolve to share Christ with them instead. Or we refuse to give our money to God’s mission, but we resolve to “tithe of our time.”

Religion tries to pay God off. But religious people labor under the delusion that they have the right to retain control of their lives. Religion wants to obey God but on its own terms—terms that mean partial, delayed, or conditional obedience. But all of those are just various forms of disobedience.

The heart of Saul’s disobedience is that he wants to be a famous king with world-class power. That is why he spares Agag, why he keeps the spoils, why he builds a monument to himself, and why, when Samuel confronts him, his only concern is how he will look in front of the people.

Everyone has a king, something he craves and must have to feel happy and secure. Personal recognition is Saul’s king. It fuels his rebellion.

Sin always grows out of some deep soul dissatisfaction, something we feel like we must have for a happy and secure life. The man who must have respect compromises his morals for the sake of his peers. The woman who must have romance will pursue it at the cost of every other relationship in her life, dissolving marriages and breaking promises to find new lovers and better thrills. The man who must have pleasure will pursue it in drugs or alcohol or pornography, even when it is damaging to his health. The woman who must have creature comforts will do everything she can to move into a larger house and will do everything possible to avoid living in that downtown area that God has laid on her heart.

In all these our real problem, like Saul’s, is that our soul is not content in its possession of God. Our idolatrous, greedy desire for other things fuels our disobedience. Until we depose these false kings and deal with our idolatry, we will never really be able to quit sinning and truly surrender to God.

This moment is a defining one in Saul’s life. From this point on he will plummet into an epic tailspin. Instead of repenting, Saul will harden himself further. In response the Spirit of God departs from him. The absence of God and His approval leaves Saul with an enormous void in his life, and jealousy virtually consumes him. The slightest criticism will send him into a violent rage. He will spend years of his life tracking David around in the wilderness, trying to kill a man who continually goes out of his way to honor him.

Saul’s touchy spirit serves as a warning to us. Are we not like that at times? Does criticism shake us, if not completely unsettle us? Does jealousy consume our thoughts? Does being compared unfavorably with others send us into despair? We may not be as far from Saul’s mania as we imagine. Selfish desire grows out of a feeling of separation from God; and the longer we persist in maintaining that separation, the more erratic and destructive our behavior will become.

Samuel reminds Saul that God made him a king when he had previously been a nobody. This is a beautiful Old Testament picture of the gospel. Saul should have responded in gratitude because of God’s amazing grace. He should have allowed the value of God’s gift to him to break the captivating power of sin over his life. But he hardened himself against God’s grace instead.

God has said something similar to us: “When you were a sinner, I came to earth and hung on a cross for you.” The God of the universe sacrificed Himself for us and loves us immeasurably. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ, who promises goodness and mercy to us all the days of our lives. When we understand this, it liberates us from the driving need to be great. Knowing the value of God’s gift breaks us from the captivating power of sin over our lives.

The great news of the gospel is that Christ fulfilled obedience perfectly for us but then was given rejection and punishment at the end of His life. He did it in our place, suffering the penalty for Satan worshipers. He died the witch’s death so we could have the saint’s acceptance.

“To obey is better than sacrifice.” The author of Hebrews alludes to 1 Samuel 15:22, applying it to Jesus: He obeyed fully and then sacrificed Himself on top of that (Heb 10:5-10). His obedience earns our acceptance before God—the one person whose opinion matters more than any other—if we will receive it. And when we do, the power of disobedience in our lives is broken, setting us free from anxieties, dissatisfaction, insecurity, and fear.

Saul succumbs to the temptation of following the wrong narrative. He constructs a narrative that excuses his sin—blaming others for his disobedience, attempting to make up for his mistakes with other sacrifices, and generally asserting that he is still a pretty good individual. The revisionist history flows out of Saul’s mouth so freely that it seems he believes the deceitful story he has crafted to dupe others. He is falling prey to his own web of lies.

When confronted with our sin, we all find ourselves in situations similar to Saul’s. Like Saul we may rationalize our disobedience and follow a nonbiblical narrative. We can try to blame others for our disobedience, make up for our mistakes by giving extra money to the church, or point out that at least we are not as bad as that guy. But this is a path without an exit. Once we begin to rationalize, we begin to spin the web of our own demise, deceiving ourselves until, like Samuel’s robe, our lives are torn in two.

God does not want our rationalizations; He wants our repentance. He does not want our sacrifices; He wants our submission. The choice has passed for Saul but not for us. The choice between self-deception and repentance, between death and life, stands before each of us, even today.