"Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the LORD?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to listen than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of divination,
and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,
he has also rejected you from being king."
Saul said to Samuel, "I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. 1 Sam 15:22-24
Why did the Lord reject Saul? Saul had a problem with those who were in authority over him.
There is a way that seems right unto a man or woman but the end thereof brings death. Prov 14:12
Every way of a man or woman is right in their own eyes,but the LORD weighs the heart. Prov 21:2
Samuel was a Prophet and he spoke the Oracles of God and he was sent by the Lord to anoint Saul as King and give him a message. The Lord spoke through Samuel and told Saul " Go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey." 1 Sam 15:3 Saul was just anointed as King.
He was probably very proud of himself and his new position of authority but he sought to use his new authority to gain wealth unrighteously. Saul saw the wealth of the possessions in which these people had and he coveted these things not realizing that he already had them due to the fact that He had just been anointed as King.
" Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction." 1 Sam 15:9
And Samuel saw into Saul's heart and said ,
"Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel?
The LORD anointed you king over Israel. And the LORD sent you on a mission" 1 Sam 15:17
Saul saw himself as being the little. I did not see himself as being anointed and sent on a mission from the Lord. When you do not see yourself as the Lord sees you then you can sometimes bring trouble upon yourself because as a man or woman thinks in their heart about themselves so they are.
As in water face reflects face,so the heart of man reflects the man. Prov 27:19
If you think you are little then you will act as if you are little.
Saul acted as if he was a child coveting the toys of his playmates.
In order to pursue these actions Saul had to harden his heart to the Word of the Lord that was spoken to him.
"Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness,where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years." Heb 3: 7-9
Blessed is the one who fears the LORD always,but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity.
Prov 28:14
This was a willful act of rebellion on Saul's part.
Deuteronomy gives us an example of what happened to a rebellious and stubborn child.
If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, 'This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.' Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear. Deut 21:18-21
Samuel said to Saul "You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the LORD your God, with which he commanded you. For then the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The LORD has sought out a man after his own heart, and the LORD has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you." 1 Sam 13: 13-15
If you know what God has spoken to you and yet you think that you know a better way of doing things and you go ahead and do it your own way in a willful act of rebellion against the Lord how can you expect God to bless you? Saul could have kept the anointing and kept his position as King if he had only chose to listen and obey what the Lord was telling him to do but the choice is given to us. What will you choose to do my friend? What is the Lord speaking to you? I'm pleading with you my friend to obey what the Lord has spoken to you so that you will be able to keep the anointing and the position of authority that God has given you.
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