If you had asked Saul, “Do you see yourself rebelling against God after you become a king?”, I’m sure he would have given you a resounding, “No, absolutely not!”.
The reality is that most Christians don’t choose to just one day walk in rebellion against God, but they find themselves one step at a time compromising God’s commandments which leads them to disobedience.
What is it that leads one to rebellion? Saul’s life gives us some points to consider.
Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’” 1 Samuel 15:3
But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed. 1 Samuel 15:9
God didn’t give Saul a reason as to why he should destroy everything, but He did give him specific instructions to destroy everything that the Amalekites owned including their king Agag.
Saul used his own judgment as to what should be saved and what should be destroyed. Naturally, it only made sense to get rid of worthless things but save valuable spoils.
Many times the things of the spirit will not make sense in the natural. This is when we have to make a decision to walk in the spirit and not lean on our own understanding.
Saul went to Carmel, and indeed, he set up a monument for himself; and he has gone on around, passed by, and gone down to Gilgal. Then Samuel went to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed are you of the Lord! I have performed the commandment of the Lord.”1 Samuel 15:12
After his great victory, Saul became delusional. He told Samuel that he had actually performed the commandment of the Lord. The truth was that he performed only part of the commandment but not all of it. Partial obedience is still disobedience!
Full obedience is a challenge to all of us. The Lord asks us to do something, but we do it partially to the degree that makes sense or is beneficial to us. The portion that we don’t like or it doesn’t benefit us, we try to ignore it or justify it.
Saul deceived himself by believing that he was obedient to God, and as a result he confidently lied to Samuel about having followed God’s commandment.
To avoid self-deception, we need to love the truth more than ourselves. Otherwise we will give leeway to ourselves when obeying God is hard or inconvenient!
I will continue with this subject in the next devotional.