Saul was the king of Israel. He was anointed king during a time when God’s people wanted to be like all of the other nations around them (1 Samuel 8:4-5). He came from the tribe of Benjamin and stood head and shoulders above all of the other Israelites.
Saul was very successful at the beginning of his reign. Israel was very excited after Saul led them to victory over the Ammonites (1 Samuel 11:1-15). Unfortunately, Saul would go on to be a huge disappointment. He would commit one sin after another, and God would fire him as king.
Here are a few reasons why Saul was the king of failures.
Where did Saul fail?
- Saul failed to obey God. He did not obey God’s order to completely wipe out the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15:1-8). His disobedience was the main reason why God fired him (1 Samuel 15:10-15, 22-23).
- Saul failed to be humble. He would rather honor himself instead of God (1 Samuel 15:12). He would have instead killed his son than admit his mistake (1 Samuel 14:24ff).
- Saul failed to accept responsibility. He never liked to admit his sins! He always had excuses for why he didn’t obey God (1 Samuel 13:5-14; 15:15).
- Saul failed to trust God. He caved to his fears. We find countless examples of this throughout his story (1 Samuel 13:10-11; 15:24; 17:11; 22:6-19).
What can we learn?
- We always need to obey God. This point is probably why Saul is mentioned in the Bible so much. God wants us to learn from his disobedience (1 Samuel 15:22-23). Saul suffered because he always rebelled against God’s will.
- Our excuses are not going to cut it! God was never sympathetic toward Saul’s excuses. On Judgement Day, God is not going to care about our excuses. Instead, He is going to only care about our obedience (Matthew 7:21).
- We can’t be people of fear. We can’t let fear cripple and hinder us from obeying the will of God (2 Timothy 1:7).
Conclusion:
Let’s avoid having the character of the king of failures (Romans 15:4).
