QUALIFICATIONS OF A GODLY KING

We have watched the life of Saul for a long time now.  Good examples are getting harder to find. Perhaps we can learn from his mistakes.  It appears Saul did not possess the qualifications of a godly king. He lacked the ability and desire to keep God’s ways. Today we will examine Saul’s life in light of the qualifications of a godly king. All of us are as guilty, so we cannot point the finger of judgement. Let’s just consider this a moment to learn.

 What if Saul had found a way to develop these qualities? Think about what might have been different. If Saul had died to himself, what would have changed? What if Saul had overcome himself and developed the qualifications of a godly king?

Also, if Saul had followed God completely, we might have a whole different bloodline in the generations of Messiah. Saul would have been honored instead of becoming an example of how men go wrong. Because of Saul’s sins, God did not let this happen. 

WELCOME

Thank you for joining in with us today. This bible study is on-going and happens on this blog every Thursday. You too can be a part of our group and obtain lessons in your e-mail each time we post. Just sign the “subscribe” button at the top of this page and leave us your e-mail address. Thanks for joining us on this journey through the scriptures. Today we are looking at 1 Samuel, Chapter 14.

WHO QUALIFIES AS A GODLY KING?

We will soon see how God changed the royal bloodline of Israel’s Kingship into the hands of a godly King. First, we want to consider what happened between God and Saul.  Could the same patterns develop for those of us who call ourselves Christians today? Just what are the qualifications of a godly king?

You may ask, why should this matter to Christ followers today? Because God has given all of us a small kingdom to rule over. Your life is your kingdom. Are you ruling it by God’s qualifications or do you follow the ways of the culture around you?

Have you ever considered this?

DISCERNING THE QUALIFICATIONS OF A GODLY KING

Saul failed miserably.  In spite of the wrongness of the people choosing a man for king instead of God, God honored their wishes. Our merciful God would agree to work with the situation.  Here God showed great mercy to both the people and Saul.  God allowed the people’s choice to rule and reign as the first king over His beloved Israel. That couldn’t have been an easy choice for God to make. Saul had the blessing of being the man chosen.

God has chosen many men as the “first.” I think of Adam and how God put this mere man in charge of His whole blessed creation. God allowed Adam to make the decisions and eventually Adam made some wrong ones. That called for the “last” man who would come to right the wrongs of Adam. That was Yeshua who died for our sins. He became the “last” man who rendered the mistakes of the first man perfect. Now there will be a “last” King of all Kings who will render the mistakes of all earthly leaders. There is no debate about how godly this King is going to be.

Isn’t that amazing? 

AN ONGOING TRANSFORMATION

Still, it is shameful to know what a self-centered man can do when given complete mercy by a loving God.  Saul had every needed tool at his disposal.  God was for him. Samuel and the prophets were backing him up. The people loved him. He could have achieved anything.  God laid His very own beloved Kingdom at Saul’s feet. The Ruler of The Universe trusted Saul (a mere man) to reign and rule with honor and righteousness.

Guess what?

God has done the same for you and me. Will we be like Saul, or will we chose a different way? All Saul had to do was to follow God’s instructions.  Isn’t that all that any of us have to do? 

ATTRIBUTES OF A MAN OF GOD

SALVATION 

Let’s think about what it takes for anyone to grow into a strong follower of God. Saul wasn’t the first or the last to fail.  Many have tried and many have failed. 

To understand what it takes to succeed in a kingdom should matter to anyone choosing to follow God.

Looking at modern-day Christianity, the process seems very easy.  Simply, confess your belief in Jesus Christ.  Believe that He is The Son of God. Know that he died for your sins.  Understand that He rose from the grave. Realize that He gave all who believe in Him the gift of eternal life.  Confess your sins. Believe. Be baptized.  Begin to follow Jesus.  Keep your relationship with him.  That is all it takes to be saved. It is actually very easy. Jesus did all the hard work. Salvation is a free gift to all of us. All we have to do is receive and be thankful.

A DESIRE FOR HOLINESS

Our part of salvation is easy. Just remember, it wasn’t at all easy for Jesus. He provided us with the most precious gift when He gave His life for us.

However. salvation is just the first step in God’s complete plan for mankind.  God wishes for us to grow and be transformed.  This growth process requires the desire to be holy.  We must imitate God and His ways and desire to be holy like him.  At this point of desiring holiness, we come to the hard part of a Christian walk.  Holiness will cost us.  That gift isn’t free. It means that we must learn how to grow and change.  We must die to ourselves and begin to live for God. 

Yes, holiness is costly, but it is also rewarding. As a matter of fact, the rewards are eternal.  On earth the path to holiness requires test, trials, struggles and hardships.  There is nothing easy about this path to holiness.  You have to turn your back to the world and its ways.  A person desiring holiness must only desire to keep God’s ways. 

The world will hate you and persecute you.  You won’t win any popularity contests.  Every truth you tell will be called a lie.  This is how it works.  Holiness is costly.  It can even cost you your life. 

DID KING SAUL DESIRE HOLINESS?

So how do all of these things measure up when we look at what we know of the life of Saul?

The first thing that happens to a person who has given himself totally over to God is that other people will see a change in them.  It will be an inward change that works outward instead of an outward change that isn’t on the inside at all.

Saul had all of the outward signs of change.  Overnight, he went from being a farmer to being a King.  His clothes went from simple garments to fine royal apparel.   He was given a crown and sword.  He certainly looked the part. 

Let’s look at the rest of the qualifications:

THE COMPANY YOU KEEP

Saul hung out with prophets too.  At first those who surrounded Saul were men of God.  The company he kept looked right and good. 

The new King Saul went to the right places.  He went with the prophets to Bethel and hung out at the altar.  He didn’t look rebellious or against God.  Saul fits right in with the holy crowd of his day. 

Saul even joined in with the prophets as they brought up their sacrifices.  Actually, he had nothing to offer at first, so he worshipped with his new friends as they were making their offerings.  Saul looked like a good man who followed God.

But what was truly going on inside Saul’s heart?

By some miracle God was allowing him to be King.  Once Saul realized it, he took it all for granted.  He had no concept of the great honor that had been bestowed upon him.  His relationship from God came indirectly instead of personally.  Saul listened to all the right people.  He simply followed whatever Samuel told him God wanted.  Did Saul really believe, or was Saul just playing along because it gave him a power that he had never experienced before?

EVERYONE IS GUILTY

How many Christians do this today?

Have you ever been part of the sad scene of a broken man making a public profession of faith to a church community which has loved on his family?  Not to discount those who are sincere, but how many times do we see a drunk or drug addict make a public profession of faith just to save the relationships with his family members? 

They say they have been converted because of the leverage it gives them.  There is false hope for everyone that all will change.  It all becomes a big open song and dance in which the public participates.  Similar to how Saul, an unconfessed sinner, becomes King for a moment in time.

Then the same sinful patterns begin to return again and are repeated.  Humanity takes over. God is forgotten. False religion is always temporary.  It never lasts.  Over and over again the same sad story unfolds, and we see how that same family suffers again.  It is because the person who claimed to have turned their heart over to God, didn’t really pray.  They were using the power of religion to obtain attention for themselves.  The false appearance had allowed them to have things ordered in the way they wanted for themselves.  It is so easy, for a little while.

Saul seems to be of this type. 

AN UNWAVERING PURSUIT FOR TRUTH

The situation we described above has no elements of truth. In the end, the truth always prevails.

Another sign that Saul was lukewarm and never completely committed to God’s way is his total disregard for truth.

Jonathan’s courage was a challenge for Saul.  He was jealous and didn’t like the following that was happening between his men and Jonathan.  Instead of praising Jonathan for being honest and confessing that he had not known Saul’s orders, Saul made the moment all about loyalty to his kingship.  He could not allow even his own son to have a moment of glory.  Saul wanted all the glory for himself.  He wanted it enough to make an oath typical of the pagans in the land and to demand that all of his men should conform to it.

I think this characteristic has been common among many kings and rulers throughout the pages of history.  Constantine’s rule would be another good example.

Saul valued his own reputation for being right over the life of a son who had been loyal and good to him.  Truth was far from Saul’s goal in reigning and ruling at this point in the battle.

God’s love is a love that corrects and refines.  Saul was not being transformed for righteousness; he was bending the truth to fit his own desires. He did not accept correction and he had no desire to be refined by God.

PERSEVERANCE WHEN FACING TRIALS

Saul’s trial came when he blatantly sinned against God’s will for the day. Instead, Saul made up his own rules.  The results were that God did not answer Saul’s questions.  Was this a good time for Saul to stop, confess, turn and begin again?  Yes, but he did not.  Instead, he blamed his own son for God’s lack of communication.

Do you ever blame everyone else for the problems you bring on yourself?  If so, you might be (like Saul) ruling your kingdom erroneously.  A good King holds himself accountable first, then examines others.  Judgement first begins at home.  Saul never considered that he was the guilty party.  He always managed to blame others for his mistakes in judgment.

John 16:33 says: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

What if Saul had not worried about the eyes of the world accusing him? Couldn’t he have just stopped right there and confessed his sins?  His relationship with God would have been different.  He would have heard God’s voice again. The relationship with Jonathan would have been better.  Saul’s men would have gained a deeper respect and admiration for Saul’s righteousness before God. They would have followed him anywhere.

That didn’t happen.

A godly King desires holiness.

A KING WHO PRAYS

How many times do we see Saul making impulsive decisions without consulting God in prayer?  A godly king is a king who prays first and acts later.  We know Saul did the things of the priest when he moved the ark without using the proper methods.   Also, we have seen how he didn’t listen when God told him to do things a certain way.  Saul began to build an altar, but left without praying to follow another impulsive idea, before hearing back from God.

Kingdoms can’t run well on human impulses. Direction always has to come from God.

Sometimes God wants us to wait on answers.  The waiting period is how He refines us and shows us how to draw closer to Him.  Saul was too impatient and full of self-importance to follow that path.  He dove right into his own plans and implemented them without God’s authority. 

Prayer and fasting would have made all the difference in every situation that Saul encountered. We never hear that Saul is a man of prayer.  Prayer is born in struggles.  God gave Saul plenty of those times.  Yet, Saul chose to take the quick, easy, human answers instead of waiting in God’s presence for all the right answers.

A GODLY KING DISPLAYS GOOD FRUIT

If a man is living a life directed by God’s Holy Spirit, the fruit of his labor will be seen.  It will show up in a transformation of the way the man is living.  This will not be from religion, it will be from relationship.  The man’s ways will begin to reflect the ways of God.  At this point in Saul’s life, we see his ways reflecting the pagan cultures that prevailed throughout the land of Canaan. 

Those pagan ways were the reason God wanted the Philistines conquered and destroyed.  God had given the Canaanites many chances to turn from their wickedness, but they refused every time.  The only answer was to drive them out of the land so that God’s people could enjoy the abundant life that they had been promised for generations.

At this point in time, Saul was no longer bearing fruit for The Kingdom.  His selfish ways were not helping the people he ruled over to prosper and grow.

A GODLY KING BEARS THE SEAL OF GOD

The Seal of God is The Holy Spirit.  We receive The Holy Spirit now through faith in Jesus.  In those days, before Jesus walked the earth, a leader of God received The Holy Spirit only when God chose to let His power rest upon them.  We could compare this to a signature of authority.  It was a temporary gift in those days.  If the one with whom the spirit rested grieved the Spirit, God would remove His seal of protection from this person.

The determining factor in keeping the seal was obedience to the voice of God.  This is where Saul failed to execute his kingship properly.

Without the seal of God, a King is unable to survive trials, tests and temptations.  They begin to give into the world and become lukewarm.  This type of king will look for the easy way, the quick way, the way that most of the others around him recommend.  Such a king will quickly lose his true identity and just blend into the surrounding culture.  We can see this happening with Saul.  It is very sad to see a good king go wrong.  Brokenness comes quickly to a kingdom ruled by a broken king. 

WHERE ARE WE IN THIS PICTURE?

Let us all take a lesson from Saul.  We are constantly bombarded with the same traps that Satan used to steal away Saul’s kingship. 

Do you realize that you are a king over all that you own and possess in this life?  What are you doing with your kingdom?  Are you passionately pursuing the things that God has spoken out to you?  Further, are you even listening to hear what His voice is saying to you?  Have you become lukewarm and easily swayed?  Do you stand for truth and persevere through tests and trials with prayer?  Can you wait on God’s answers when you are in the middle of struggles?  Have you let the current culture creep into your kingdom and rule over you instead of staying with God’s ways?

WHO REFLECTS A GODLY KING?

It has been pointed out many times in this article that a godly king requires the same qualifications as a follower of Jesus Christ. Many have been chosen for this mission. They are all sealed by God’s Holy Spirit. I’ve never heard a better description of a godly Christian than the one revealed in this sermon given by Billy Graham long ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGEwHFuOgK8.

We can’t be too hard on Saul until we take a closer look at our own circumstances.  The only way to help a garden to grow is to pull out the weeds, water it daily and provide the right kinds of nutritious soil.  Every soul is a garden.  God is the miracle that helps gardens to grow and thrive. He lets us make contributions toward the greater good of the whole garden. Let’s build altars that are finished and used to offer our souls to God.  We must learn to patiently nurture them with faith and prayer. Daily we must do the work to furnish our altars to God the with the richness of The Word. 

A good king never stops tending to his kingdom. 

Next week we will continue to follow Saul’s story.  How will he adapt to the new things that God is going to place into the path of his life? 

Much more of Saul’s story is about to unfold.