The Tale Of A King – Lessons for Leaders

By Pastor Thomas Brouet

Under the rod of Moses and the military wits of Joshua, combined with the supernatural, divine intervention of God, Israel possessed the land that God had promised to Abraham and his descendants. Through many conquests they had to a large extent disposed of their enemies. Each of the twelve tribes had been assigned their portion of land and had settled in to enjoy the fulfillment of a promise God made to their father Abraham some four hundred years earlier.

The Israelites had become very comfortable in their land. They began engaging and practicing the culture of the nations they had driven out of their country; something God had prohibited. They began worshipping like the other nations and intermarriage with their former enemies had become common. They indulged the culture in a way that defied their relationship with the God Who delivered them from Egypt. The results were disastrous. God allowed them to be plundered by their enemies.

As always, whenever Israel is in trouble, God comes to their rescue. It was during this difficult period of their history that God raised up judges, ranging from Othniel to Samuel to defend and protect the Israelites from their enemies. This was a very turbulent period in the relationship between God and Israel. If it were possible for God to be used or abused, He could be considered the used and abused partner in His relationship with Israel at this point in their history.

Samuel, the last judge in Israel was getting on in years, and his sons were not walking right with God. Israel rejected their leadership and they pleaded with Samuel to find them a king like the other nations. Samuel was opposed to this idea, but they kept pleading and pleading with him until finally, he took their request to God. God told him, let them have what they want, they are not rejecting you, they are rejecting Me. Through a series of events and ceremony, Samuel anointed Saul to be the first king of Israel.
Saul was a simple man with very humble beginnings. He hailed from a simple Benjaminite family, and seems to have displayed the attitude of a coward. Saul’s heart, though, was changed after he was anointed king of Israel. With the anointing and the changing of his heart, Saul was noted to be among the prophets. He was noted for exploits; delivering God’s people from the plunder of their enemies. This changed as Saul became comfortable in the position and his life as king and the exploits of his leadership were being recognized by others. There was a shift in his attitude; and power instead of a calling, became his passion. Instead of pursuing the calling of his ministry, he became obsessed with the power of his position; slowly degrading himself and destroying his ministry and the perpetuation of it. A life that was called to succeed, became a failure. A dynasty that was established to be perpetuated was cut off suddenly.

Once the pursuit of power became the passion of Saul’s life, he began to make many foolish decisions. Disobedience to God’s commands was at the top of his resume; all hopes of the perpetuation of his kingdom were stripped away; and he was literally turned into a mad man. To put it simply, the negative impact of his life overshadowed the exploits of his kingship. For a life that was loaded with enormous potentials, Saul’s life became a tragedy. The question is, what lessons can we learn from the life of Saul?

Lessons learned from the life of Saul
1. Power out of control is like poison to the one who possesses it. Saul needed power so badly, he lived the latter part of his life like a mad man; fighting to defend his position and chasing after David, rather than leading Israel.

2. When you deny your calling and power becomes your pursuit, you have no time to mentor those with the potential to succeed you. Jonathan, the one person mentioned among Saul’s children with the potential to succeed him, was robbed by a power stricken dad of the opportunity to learn what it really meant to be the king of God’s people. It is a tragedy when the lessons of our lives are lessons of what those under our mentorship ought not to be. Sadly, that was the state of Saul’s life.

• Listen to a few statements that summed up Saul’s life:
  1 Samuel 13:13-14 (Read)

  • Samuel said to Saul, ” You have acted foolishly.” V13a This is the story of Saul’s life. Read chapter 14 for a full understanding of Saul’s folly.
  • “You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you” V13b
  • “But now your kingdom shall not endure.” Read chapter 15 for more. V14
  1 Sam 16:14

  Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord terrorized him. NASU
  The Statement that really tells the story of Saul’s kingship is found in verse 35 of chapter 15. To me this is the sum total of his life. Here is what it reads, “And the Lord regretted that He made Saul king over Israel.” If there was one word that could define Saul’s kingship, that word would be, regrettable.

The thing is, it is easy to miss what is happening in our own life when we are paying attention to what is happening in the other person’s life. You can look at Saul and say, what a tragedy; and it really is a tragedy. But am I paying attention to what is happening in my own life and ministry? Am I chasing and defending a position, or am I following my calling? Paul said in Philippians 3:14, “I press towards the goal of the prize for the high calling of God in Christ Jesus,” not a position.