Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The King of People Pleasing | David in 22 Stories | 1 Sam. 15

Starting point is 00:00:05 Welcome to 10 minute Bible Talks where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. And I'm Patrick Miller. Right now we're working through the story of David's life in First and Second Samuel. This is the second episode in our series Through the Life of David. If you didn't listen to the introductory episode, I'd encourage you to go back and do so. I think everything will make a little bit more sense if you start there. Today we're starting with King Saul in 1 Samuel 15.

Starting point is 00:00:35 Saul was Israel's first king and David's immediate predecessor. So you might be wondering if we're doing a series on the life of David, why should we start by talking about Saul? Well, the author of these books, First and Second Samuel, likes to compare and contrast Saul and David. It's as if the author thinks that we can understand David's successes and failures better if we compare and contrast them with Saul. And we know that Saul and David can both teach us a lot about our faith

Starting point is 00:01:06 because we can learn from both positive and negative examples. When the people of Israel chose Saul as their king, they chose him for all the wrong reasons. In 1 Samuel 9, verse 2, it says that Saul was the most handsome man in Israel and was a head taller than everyone else. You can't help but think that Israel wanted a king that would look impressive on the world stage. And Saul was very physically impressive.

Starting point is 00:01:33 But the problem was that he didn't have a heart for God. Beginning in chapter 15, Samuel tells Saul to amass his army and to go wipe out the amicalites. God was going to use Israel to bring these people to justice for their rebellion against God. Samuel's instructions to Saul are very clear in verse 3. Everything is to be wiped out, including all the animals. So Saul gets his army together and engages in this battle with the amicalites, but he doesn't do what God told him. In verse 9, it says that Saul and his army, they spared Agag,

Starting point is 00:02:09 which was the king of the emacalites, and the best of the sheep and all the cattle. In fact, they spared everything that was good, but they destroyed everything that was weak and despised. So God tells Samuel that Saul has disobeyed, and that he, God, regretted making Saul the king. So the next day, Samuel goes out to meet Saul and catch this. Saul says to him, the Lord bless you.

Starting point is 00:02:36 I've carried out the Lord's instructions. In other words, he just completely denies that he has disobeyed God. And Samuel has this kind of smart aleck comeback then. Samuel responds by saying, what then is this bleeding of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear? Now, at this point, Saul's busted, right? I mean, he's obviously sinned, obviously rebelled against God, obviously not done as he was supposed to, and he's got a choice. Saul has a choice. Does he recognize his sin and repent of it, or does he kind of double down on himself and doing things his own way?

Starting point is 00:03:17 Verse 15, Saul says, the soldiers brought all these animals from the amical acts. It's the soldiers that spared the best of the sheep and the cattle. So do you see Saul's response? Instead of repenting, he starts to blame others. It's the soldier's fault. They're the ones who did this. And Saul says, I obeyed God. I went on the mission and did exactly what God told me to do.

Starting point is 00:03:45 And I brought back Agag, their king, and I brought back the best of the sheep and the cattle, just like God said. So again, Saul denied. He rationalizes. He says, look, there's a good reason for my disobedience. And that is that I brought all this to sacrifice it back to God. Finally, in verse 30, Saul says to Samuel, okay, look, I've sinned. But please honor me before the elders of my people and come back with me so that I may worship the Lord your God. So first Saul denies it, and then he blameshift, and then he just, justifies. And now in this last verse we read in verse 30, he's kind of protecting himself. He's saying,

Starting point is 00:04:31 okay, I sin, but Samuel, will you come back so that the people won't turn against me, that everybody will still like me and respect me? One of the biggest questions that we have in the Christian life is how do we respond to sin? Everybody sins. We sin in far more ways than we probably even realize. But how do we respond? When my daughter was 15 years old, she had a driver's permit. And after she finished a swim meet she was in on a Saturday, she asked me if she could drive home. And I said, sure, it's fine. But it just started raining. And so I told my daughter, I said, be careful because the rain will make everything a little bit slicker. And she drove down this kind of busy road, and it was all going fine until the car in front of her hit the brakes.

Starting point is 00:05:17 And when the brake lights came on, my daughter responded correctly. She hit her brakes. But then the car in front took their foot off the brake. The brake lights go off. And instead of just seeing how it would play out, my daughter, you know, she's only 15, she kind of hits the gas. Well, the people in front of us immediately hit their brakes again. Traffic was kind of starting to back up.

Starting point is 00:05:37 And we plowed into the car in front of us. And it was kind of a chain reaction where we hit the car in front of us, who hit the car in front of them. And I think there was four total cars. involved in the whole thing. And so there we are sitting in the middle of a busy road, busy time of day. We've just run in the back of all these cars. It looks like everybody's going to be fine. No one's hurt, but obviously a lot of damage to several cars. And the first thing that my daughter says to me is, did that just happen? And again, we're sitting there in the car together,

Starting point is 00:06:09 looking at this van we just run into. And I said, yeah, yeah, it happened. She said, This is not my fault. And I said, what do you mean is not your fault? Whose fault could it possibly be? You're the one driving the car that hit all these other cars. She said, Dad, this is your fault. At which point, I am laughing because how in the world is it my fault? I'm sitting in the passenger seat.

Starting point is 00:06:37 I had warned her that it was raining. I'm not the one that hit the accelerator and rain into all the cars. But immediately she says to me, you have created a cold. of hurry over the years in our house, and that's why I was hurrying. So at this point, I am full out laughing that my daughter has figured out a way that this is not her fault, but my fault because I've created a culture of hurry in our house. And so I responded by saying to her, if you've already figured out how this is my fault, you are ready for marriage. She said, you're never going to let me drive again, are you? And I said, dear, you can drive this car home

Starting point is 00:07:16 if it'll make it home, you can drive as soon as you say, this was my fault and I need to learn from it. And she looked at me and she said, I'm not ready to say that. I think it's a great picture of what happens in all of us when we see sin in our life. Unfortunately, our first response is to deny or to blame shift or to minimize. But that's what King Saul did. and in response to Saul's sin and rebellion, his unwillingness to repent, his unwillingness to turn away from his sin and turn back to God, God took the kingdom away from Saul, and we'll see that he eventually gives it to David. What are the marks of real repentance?

Starting point is 00:08:03 I think it starts with just by saying, I'm a sinner. I sinned here. I blew it. I got angry. I was selfish. I was complaining. I gossiped. And then after you say it, I find it helpful to just be quiet. Shut up. Because the next word that will come out of your mouth is usually the word but. And whenever you say but,

Starting point is 00:08:28 you're going to start to minimize. You're going to start to blame shift. So I was inappropriately angry. I was selfish. I was rude. Period. Full stop. And then acknowledge that before God, or if you've sinned against someone else, acknowledge how it has hurt them. When I laughed at you in front of your friends, I know that embarrassed you. When I got angry, I know that hurt your feelings. And then ask for forgiveness. God, I have sinned against you. Will you forgive me in Christ? Or if you've sinned against another person, Ask them to forgive you for the way that you have sinned against them and hurt them. If Saul had repented and sought forgiveness,

Starting point is 00:09:25 things might have turned out very differently for him. But he refused to repent and God rejected him as king. All of us have sin in our life. How will we respond? Is there any sin that God has been convicting you of recently? that you need to repent of, to acknowledge before God, and ask for his forgiveness, and ask him to change you and make you into the person that he wants you to be. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating.

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Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The King of People Pleasing | David in 22 Stories | 1 Sam. 15

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