The Easiest Person to Con is?

 1 Samuel 15:10-23

When a mentor has poured his life into a person whom they believe is a 2 Timothy 2:2 person, a faithful follower of Christ, and it comes with a large disappointment to the mentor when it is evident they are not.  That is where Samuel finds himself with this new king, Saul.  Verse 10-11, states; “The word of the Lord came to Samuel: “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.” And Samuel was angry, and he cried to the Lord all night. And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning.”

Now before judging Saul, it might help to reflect on some of your spiritual victories or battles.  How did you handle the spiritual triumph, I hope you were not a Saul, but often I have been in my little private world, not giving God the total glory. 

Samuel goes early to confront Saul only to be told he came to Carmel, and behold, “he set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on an went down to Gilgal.”  He did what?  You and I would never be that brash or would we?  The flesh likes to be seen as the big stuff. 

Now listen to King Saul’s greeting to Samuel and Samuel’s response; “And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed be you to the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord.” And Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?” Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction.” Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stop! I will tell you what the Lord said to me this night.” And he said to him, “Speak.”

You were thinking this might not be going where Saul wants it to go, if so you would be on the spot.  Picking up the account in verses 17-19, “And Samuel 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 and said, ‘Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord?”

A smarter man than Saul might have known you cannot con God, or His spokesman, but King Saul is going to make an effort at doing so.  Verses 20-21, “And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. But the people took of the spoil, sheep, and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”  Have you discovered the easiest person to con is yourself, that pride and greed will blind you to the truth of what God has said?

King Saul is going to have an awaking to how God looks at obedience, and it is “doing what you're told at the moment you are told,” that is not what Saul has done.  “And Samuel said,

“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.”

Tomorrow we will pick up the story of Saul’s confession, and the cost of his sin.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice