I have often wondered about King Saul, Israel’s first monarch. I have often wondered if he were truly God’s choice to be king or if he were Israel’s choice.  So many verses in the account in the book of first Samuel seem to favor one or the other proposition. It’s been weighing a lot on my mind:

The very idea of asking for a king was Israel’s choice. God is the King of Israel.  God is the lawgiver.  When Israel asked for a king so that they could become just like all the other nations around them, God took it as a rejection of his authority as King.

God consented to Israel’s request of a king. God knew by his foreknowledge and omniscience that Israel’s request for a king stemmed from a rejection of God’s rule over them, but God also saw that Israel requested for a king because they supposed that their military defeat at the hands of the Philistines was due to faulty or weak political leadership.  Israel was unwilling to introspect to find that their military defeat was a question of faith in God.  Their military defeat was ultimately attributable to spiritual disobedience; obedience to God, after all, is the very best way to show that we believe. For an educative purpose, God consented to Israel’s request.

God chose an obviously acceptable man in Saul. Saul was described by Samuel as “the desire of all Israel.”  And it is true in two ways:  all of Israel desired a king, such that in this way, Saul was the desire of all Israel; but Saul also possessed physical characteristics that are desirable for most Israelites: Saul fit the ideal of physical beauty that most of Israel would desire.  Saul had a kingly bearing, he was tall, he was good looking, he was hard-working and he belonged to a well-respected family in the tribe of Benjamin. He later proved himself to be courageous in battle, he was a skilled fighter who knew how to lead people.  Saul had passion, a fire in the belly that he could harness as inspiration in the fight.  If there were a competition and Israel could chose who their king should be, Saul would win the competition, he would be the popular choice.

God gave Israel what Israel wanted.When God chose Saul, he chose not only the man who would be king, but he chose in accordance with Israel’s desire.  God knew what sort of man Israel would love to have as king and God chose that man.  In this way, God truly gave Israel what Israel wanted.  Israel wanted a king: Israel got a king.  Israel wanted a physically attractive man with an imposing presence: Israel got a king who was physically attractive with an imposing presence.

Saul was Israel’s choice. Because God chose Saul to be king at the request of Israel: Saul was Israel’s choice.  Because God chose Saul to be king: a man who obviously fit the requirements and desire of Israel: Saul was Israel’s choice to be king.

Be careful what you ask for; you just might get it. I have often heard people say that they are searching for God’s perfect will in their lives and in the same breath, they declare that someone or something is God’s perfect will for them because that someone or something is their “heart’s desire.”  They further declare that they are sure that that someone or something is God’s perfect will because the Bible declares that if they commit their way unto the Lord, God will give them the desires of their heart.

Alas! Most christians fail to consider the entirety of the Biblical teaching on the human heart:  the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.  God will only give us the desires of our heart if our heart is clean, if the desires of our heart have been sanctified by our absolute surrender to his sovereign and perfect will.

Most christians presume that because they have been saved, and they have been pardoned from the penalty of their sins, they are now holy before God.  They are holy in that God allows them into his presence and has accepted them as sons but, God is also not satisfied until their words and deeds reflect that new nature and new position he has given them.  God goes beyond acceptance of sinners, he renews them and sanctifies them so that they may fellowship with him.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon expressed it most beautifully when he said: “This Man receiveth sinners”; not, however, that they may remain sinners, but He receives them that He may pardon their sins, justify their persons, cleanse their hearts by His purifying word, preserve their souls by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, and enable them to serve Him, to show forth His praise, and to have communion with Him. Into His heart’s love He receives sinners, takes them from the dunghill, and wears them as jewels in His crown; plucks them as brands from the burning, and preserves them as costly monuments of His mercy.” 

We have to be careful what we ask God for: as children, we must ask things in accordance with his will.  If we ask things that are not in accordance with his will, God may disregard our desires because our desires will not be good for us in the long run.  But then again, God sometimes gives us what we ask for even if it will bring leanness into our souls because it is God’s way of showing us that our desires are not as holy as we think they are.  Often God gives us our way that we may see that our way is not God’s way, that our way is second-best and God’s way is best.

This is what most christians refer to as God’s PERMISSIVE WILL: when God gives us what we ask for even if he knows that what we asked for will bring leanness to our souls, only to lead us to repentance and total dependence on him.

Saul’s kingdom was conditional. His  mandate was conditional. God made it clear that Saul’s kingdom was conditioned on OBEDIENCE: Saul’s obedience and Israel’s obedience.  Obedience is not obedience per se ( obedience for the sake of obeying) but obedience as evidence of faith.  After all, we cannot obey someone we don’t know, we do not obey someone whose authority we question; we do not obey someone we do not love and trust.  Thus, obedience is evidence of faith and God wants evidence of Israel’s faith.

We are all familiar with Saul’s story.What began as a promising reign turned out to be a reign of a madman: a paranoid man who was obsessed with power and obsessed with retaining power at all costs. We see then that when God allowed Saul to be king, it was a test of Saul’s faith and it was a test of Israel’s faith. We see also that both Saul and Israel failed God’s test.  What resulted was a further stumbling into deeper sin and deeper rebellion against God.

Saul’s story is a cautionary tale:  it cautions us to be wary of asking things of God because we just might get what we ask for.  It cautions us that what we ask for and what we get may not be good for us.  It cautions us that when we get what we asked God for, it might be a test of faith.  It cautions us that not everyone passes tests of faith.  God wants us to pass these tests, he gives us the power and favor to enable us to pass the test of faith, but still, God is weighing our hearts and our actions. He is our judge, after all and we will appear before him to give account of our lives.

Be careful what you ask for: you just might get it.  Be more careful when you get what you asked for: you might have gotten more than you bargained for.