First let me start with a quick review. The significance of Case Studies from the scriptures is found in first Corinthians chapter 10 verse 6 and 11. The use of Case Studies is a primary method of teaching in higher educational institutions like Harvard. They will tell you what this business did in this situation and what that business did in that situation, and how you can learn from it. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 10:6, and 11. ,/,/,/ -Here begineth the reading of God's holy word. 6 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. 11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition... - Here endeth the reading of God's holy Word. So here we see that contrary to popular opinion, we do not have to learn as a result of the hard-knocks of life. The preferred method of learning is through the life of others. What we can learn from the lives of Saul and David is taken from 1st Samuel, chapter 13, verses 13. Turn with me there. . ,/,/,/ - Here begineth the reading of God's holy Word. 13 And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the LORD thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the LORD have established thy kingdom upon Israel, forever. - Here endeth the reading of God's holy Word. Here we see that God had a plan for Saul's life, just as he has a plan for our lives. And it is a good plan. God's plan for Saul's life was to establish Saul's kingdom forever. Contrary to popular opinion, David was not God's first choice for the king of Israel. Saul was. Nevertheless, according to Paul, based on our lack of cooperation, we can cause the grace of God to be in vain. We can fork the plans or the will of God in our lives. In summary, we can learn from the life of David and Saul that God's will or his plans in our lives is not going to come to pass just because we know what it is. We have to cooperate. Nevertheless, his overall will, will come to pass, reguardless of our cooperation. If we don't do it somebody else will. This is just the basics. We can advance all the theological arguments we can muster up, predestination vs freewill, the sovereignty of God's will, reductionism vs holism. We can say what we want. In the end it is still going to be both and and not either or. For, all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: We are getting closer to the time when David becomes king. But, first we will continue with examples of Saul rebelling against God. In 1 Samuel 15:3, God spoke to Saul through Samuel the prophet. Turn with me there. ,/,/,/ - Here begineth the reading of God's holy Word. 3 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. - Here endeth the reading of God's holy Word. That was the commission, and this is because Amalek had destroyed many of the Israelites. Now, that they had come to a place where they had a kingdom, God wanted vengence on the Amalekites. This looks very harsh to us today. Truthfully in the New Testament this would not be acceptable. There is a difference after Jesus has come. He has made a difference. Let me just say quickly. The way that I adjust to all of this is, there are a number of things, but on of the most obvious is: This utter distruction of men women and children, even the cattle. I compare it to when a person has an infection or a cancer in their body. If you cannot treat it. If the cancer or the infection is beginning to spread so that the entire person is going to die. As terible as it is to think of amputating a person's arm, amputation is better than letting the entire body die. We do this all the time. We make discisions. If something is spreading that is going to kill the entire body, we amputate a limb to save the body. As terible as it is to cut a person's hand off, sometimes it is better than letting the person die. Back before Jesus came, and before people could be born again, and transformed, and delivered of deamons and these kind of things, there were entire ethnic groups or societies that were so given over to the devil, that they were demon possessed. Men women and children, even their animals were demon possessed. This can be established from different archeological things available for reading. Some of these sins were gross, even beyond what we can imagine in our societies today. And our societies are pretty gross in some of the things that it does. The beastyality, sodimy, and all these kind of things were going on then. They could not be cured of it. There was not a cure before Jesus came. So basically, it was an act of mercy. It was an act of judgement on the individuals, but it was an act of mercy on the world as a whole, to literally cut this cancer out and destroy it. So nevertheless, I believe it was justified under the old covenant. Saul was given this command to destroy all the Amalekites, men, women, children and their animals. Well he did not do it. He saved the king Agag, and brought him back, and he saved the best of the cattle, sheep and oxen, and brought them back. When Samuel came, he said he had done the will of the Lord. Samuel said to Saul in 1 Samuel 15:14:,/,/,/ - Here begineth the reading of God's holy Word. And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? - Here endeth the reading of God's holy Word. Saul had just said I have done the will of the Lord. Samuel said, if you have done the will of the Lord, then what am I hearing these animals for. I told you to destroy everything, women, children and animals. And Saul said in verse 14, they have brought them form the Amalekites: for the people... Here he is again, placing the blame on the people, saying it is the people that made me do this. Verse 15 to 17.,/,/,/ - Here begineth the reading of God's holy Word. 15 ... the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed. 16 Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the LORD hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on. 17 And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the LORD anointed thee king over Israel? - Here begineth the reading of God's holy Word. Now, before I go on, let me just say something here. Samuel is showing the root of Saul's sin. He said when you were little in your own eyes, then God anoited you, then God promoted you. But when you got lifted up, and became independent, and started doing things your way, and choosing to do not what God said, but you are going to save these animals. You decided instead of killing them, you are going to bring them back and sacrifice them. In other words when you became arrogant is when God rejected you. You know this is said over in 1 Peter 5 and it is also said in the book of Proverbs, it says that God resists the proud but giveth grace unto the humble. You know humility is a necessity with God. You have to walk humbully with God. This is a lesson that you can learn from this thing. Again, David was a humble man. He did terrible sins. He messed up. Yet, when he was rebuked, he did not place the blame on anybody else. He shouldered it himself. He repented. He layed before God. He was a humble man. Humbleness does not mean that you are perfect. Humbleness does not mean that you cannot sin. Humbleness does mean that you have a sensitive heart towards God, where you love God. You may loose your mind and go crazy sometimes, but humillity is different than arrogance. Saul got caught up in arrogance. Arrogance is not only thinking that you are better than everyone else, but pride in the sense that you are independant or have self reliance instead of God reliance. This is one of Satan's biggest inroads into our lives. This characteristic is commonly skewed toward masculinity. This is the case here. Nevertheless, the same arrogance is demonstrated with a feminant skew. It is thinking that you are worse than everyone else. It is an inferiorority complex. It is pride in the sense that everything is an attack on you. Everything is about you. That is a small twist on Saul, but I am sure that it is help for somebody, if you can receive it. Proverbs 13:10 says "Only by pride comes conteention." If you want to shut Satan out of your life, and begin to prosper, and see the blessings of God work, you have to walk humblely with God. You are not going to find God til you come to the end of yourself. At the end of yourself is where you meet God. And Saul right here is being rebuked by Samuel. Samuel is saying "When thou wast little in thine own sight, then you were made the head of the tribes of Israel". This is something that you can learn from this story of David, that you need to walk humbly with your God. His prediccessor was God's first choice, but the reason he did not continue is because he got lifted up with pride. He did his own thing, and disobeyed God. Samuel went on to say in chapter 15, verse 17 to 30 and 34. ,/,/,/ - Here begineth the reading of God's holy Word. 17 And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the LORD anointed thee king over Israel? 18 And the LORD sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed. 19 Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the LORD, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the LORD? - Here endeth the reading of God's holy Word. Now, here Samuel has rebuked Saul, and is still saying it is not his fault. You do not understand, I did obey God. Which he did not. Saul went on to say in verse 20. ,/,/,/ - Here begineth the reading of God's holy Word. 20 And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. 21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal. - Here endeth the reading of God's holy Word. Here again he is saying, it is not my fault, the people took of the spoil. He was the king. He was the one responsible. He knew what they had done. He could have commanded it. He could have obeyed God. God would not have held him guilty if the people had done all this. Saul is the one that did this. They did it with his full approval. He says the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed. See he said right here. They should have been utterly destroyed. He knew it. And Samuel went on to say:,/,/,/ - Here begineth the reading of God's holy Word. 22 And Samuel said, Hath 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 hearken than the fat of rams. - Here endeth the reading of God's holy Word. When God tells you to do something, it is not open to negotiation. You do not need to interpret it. You just need to do what God told you to do. To obey is better than to sacrifice goats and rams or whatever. You know right now I am really talking to myself, and you just happen to be listening. You know I have been restling with God for some time, and still am. God has told me to go bible simminary school and get some formal training. I have been putting it off. Trying to work and make some more money, untill I worked myself into a stroke. Now, that I am recovered and in some ways the end of a thing is stronger than the beginning of a thing. I have found a great mentor. I agree with everything he says. Got some money together for tuition. Got my health back together. Got my reading skills back together. Just when all the chips are in place and I am simply procrastinating. Not doing what God told me to do. Then the federal government wants to pay me to go back to school and study something that does not include ministry. In preparing this lesson, I know that I need to stop procrastinating, and do what God told me to do. When I do not obey God, it is just foolish. I Thank God that he can use the foolish things of men to confound the wise. So I qualify. God's next statement is quite profound. Verse 23 says.,/,/,/ - Here begineth the reading of God's holy Word. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king. - Here endeth the reading of God's holy Word. What this says is that not doing what God told you to do is rebellion and is likened unto witchchraft and idolitry. We have not placed that kind of stigma on rebellion and stubornness. Most of us would not tollerate witchchraft in our homes. If our children came home and started putting sayaunces together, or tried casting spells or get into black majic, I am shure that we would be all over them like a coat of wet paint. We would say not in this house not as long as I am breathing. You would not allow whithcraft or idolitry. You would not let them set up a shrine with some graven image and begin to worship it. Nevertheless, there are a lot of parents who would let their children go through rebellion. Talk back to them. Disrespect authority and not think a think much about it. They would think, well they are teenagers. That is normal. Now, I know that we cannot completely control our children. Yet, I am saying that we should be dealing with it. We ought to be resisting it. We ought to be doing something about it. There, are a lot of people who just do not place that kind of importance on it. We sometimes say rebellion is just normal. We should look at this a dangerous poisionous snake living in our home. Hopefully, none of us would tollerate it. Sooner or later if you allow that thing to stay in your home, it could take your life, or the life of another one of your kids. We just would not live like that. It is not worth the risk. Yet, when it comes to rebellion, then stubborness is normal. Not only with our kids, but most importantly, many of us operate in these things. We know that we are slow to obey. God has to baddger us and drive us into a corroner nearly to get us to do anything. We say, that is just the way that I am. You know what you are, if you are rebellious, it is like witchcraft. If you are stubborn it is like idolitry. Those are strong statements. These are some of the things that you can learn from the story of David. If you want to be a David instead of a Saul, quit disobeying God. Quit being rebellious. Quit being stubborn and obey God. Now we will continue with verse 24. ,/,/,/ - Here begineth the reading of God's holy Word. 24 And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice. - Here endeth the reading of God's holy Word. Here Saul had to admit, ok I am wrong. Yet, I am wrong because I feared the people, and they forced me into it. He still did not take direct responsibility. If you want to be a Saul, then that is the way you are. You dodge it. You do not admit it. It is your disfunctional family. It is the color of your skin. It is your lack of education. This happened to you. You do not understand. I was abused. Make yourself a victum. That is a Saul menality, and it leads to distruction. I you want to be a David, a man after God's own heart, start accepting responsibility for your own wrongs, and quit blamming someone else. Quit fearing what other people are going to think of you. Stop letting the tail wag the dog. Fearing what other people think of you, just is not a good enough reason. Saul went on to say in verse 25: ,/,/,/ 25 Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD. 26 And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee: for thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD hath rejected thee from being king over Israel. 27 And as Samuel turned about to go away, he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent. 28 And Samuel said unto him, The LORD hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better than thou. 29 And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent. 30 Then he said, I have sinned: yet honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD thy God. . . . 35 And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death: nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul: and the LORD repented that he had made Saul king over Israel. - Here endeth the reading of God's holy Word. There is a lot of things in there. I just need to move on. Verse 16:1 says: And the LORD said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons.