WRITTEN WORD
Proper Authority in God
8/2/13
Saul’s Disobedience
15 Then Samuel said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you as king over His people, over Israel; now therefore, listen to the words of the Lord. 2 Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way while he was coming up from Egypt. 3 Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’”
4 Then Saul summoned the people and numbered them in Telaim, 200,000 foot soldiers and 10,000 men of Judah. 5 Saul came to the city of Amalek and set an ambush in the valley. 6 Saul said to the Kenites, “Go, depart, go down from among the Amalekites, so that I do not destroy you with them; for you showed kindness to all the sons of Israel when they came up from Egypt.” So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. 7 So Saul defeated the Amalekites, from Havilah as you go to Shur, which is east of Egypt. 8 He captured Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. 9 But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were not willing to destroy them utterly; but everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.
The time is coming where God is going to take away the authority He’s given people, which was issued originally for a season and for a specific purpose in Him. The Lord has said that their purpose was overstepped in boundaries as to what God expected them to do in the past season, or authorized them to do. He gave this Scripture above in regards to this. The Lord has said that there are many people that are about to be removed from the positions He’s allowed them to be in (Psalm 75:6-7) because of their disobedience as to the specific things He commanded them to do. The Lord has said that He allowed for these people to walk in some authority in order to teach and prepare His people for a particular task in learning to hear His voice but when they saw ‘the best of the spoil’ during the season, they were overcome by the idolatry in their hearts and instead of listening to what God directed them to do alone, they instead took what they should not have taken and while doing that, they trampled on the weak—what was ‘despised and worthless’ in the eyes of men.
1 Corinthians 1:28
He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things–and the things that are not–to nullify the things that are,
But God made a plan for those that continue to walk obediently to His Spirit’s leading. For as they continue to strip off their old nature through the Spirit’s leading, they will put on the new nature of His Son Jesus. God says to those He is currently working with and those that are about to be worked on for this cleansing, “Blessed are you for being despised and rejected for My Son’s sake. (Luke 6:22) As this only shows that you are of Me and those that claim they are mine are not (John 8:40-45). They seek to rob My true people of the best things (Myself and what I have given them, My Life in them), and claim that Life for themselves in order to honor themselves and give to themselves glory, My glory. They take away from My people what I have truly given them and shown them Myself and trample on them or Myself (the Life of Christ in them) as if it is UNDER THEIR FEET, or beneath them (Luke 10:19; Psalm 91:13)! But I say that I will trample you under My feet in the coming days with those that you have trampled on for your own glory to claim in MY NAME. Just remember what I said in Isaiah 53 of My Son, and know that a true son of mine is no greater than the Master Himself, as He experienced this same treatment– and all so that My glory may be revealed in the appointed time.”
He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
See, as God took away Saul’s authority He gave him because of his disobedience, this too shall happen to those that do not have the authority to walk in the greater authority that they claimed to have of His right now—an authority God has not given them. This will be apparent in the coming days when He reveals His true sons that have been given the authority as with David, when he dealt with the same group of people, the Amalekites (1 Samuel 30). It is important to understand that God gave these ‘Sauls’an appointed task and did work through them, however they went beyond the task given them, and continue to claim that it is Him when it’s not, but only their own selfish heart motives and desires for glorification (the works of mankind in the fleshly nature and not truly in Christ’s nature). And God will not have anyone take His glory nor His Son’s glory away from Him.
And this is part of God’s glory…your faith must match your deeds in the right Way, according to My righteousness, led by the Spirit of Grace (Hebrews 10:29-30)…this Way of living was demonstrated in and through Christ and will be demonstrated through the true Life of Christ in His true people…
All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. 33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all 34 that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
God is saying that these individuals that have gone beyond what He’s called them to do, have instead shown to be without real faith—and real faith is being led by the Holy Spirit in all things, as the Spirit is not seen but is supposed to be heard and followed. Faith is believing in the unseen (Hebrews 11:1). And isn’t the Holy Spirit not seen actually but heard (John 3:8)? This is what God is going to prove in the coming days—that there are deeds done without faith or without the leading of the Holy Spirit entirely (which are considered dead works) and it’s causing His people to be left without while the others ‘get fat’ off of His name. See, God wants His people to be fully led by the Spirit of God (or the Spirit of Grace) IN ORDER that His love, mercy, and kindness may be revealed to others and not for the people who are doing the work to be glorified in the acts but in order that Christ and the Father may be glorified in the acts (John 12:28). Just as Jesus the Son of God had a role to glorify the Father in His ‘deed’ on the cross which was demonstrated by the leading of the Holy Spirit of God, we too as His people are called to pick up our own cross or act out our deed, according to the leading of the Holy Spirit as well so that both the Father and Son may be glorified through it (Luke 9:23; Matthew 16:24).
The Lord also brought up a comparison Scripture to the one in 1 Samuel 15, which is in 1 Samuel 30 (the authority He gave David):
Now it happened, when David and his men came to Ziklag, on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the South and Ziklag, attacked Ziklag and burned it with fire, 2 and had taken captive the women and those who were there, from small to great; they did not kill anyone, but carried them away and went their way. 3 So David and his men came to the city, and there it was, burned with fire; and their wives, their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive. 4 Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept, until they had no more power to weep. 5 And David’s two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite, had been taken captive. 6 Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.
7 Then David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son, “Please bring the ephod here to me.” And Abiathar brought the ephod to David. 8 So David inquired of the Lord, saying, “Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?”
And He answered him, “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all.”
9 So David went, he and the six hundred men who were with him, and came to the Brook Besor, where those stayed who were left behind. 10 But David pursued, he and four hundred men; for two hundred stayed behind, who were so weary that they could not cross the Brook Besor.
11 Then they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David; and they gave him bread and he ate, and they let him drink water. 12 And they gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins. So when he had eaten, his strength came back to him; for he had eaten no bread nor drunk water for three days and three nights. 13 Then David said to him, “To whom do you belong, and where are you from?”
And he said, “I am a young man from Egypt, servant of an Amalekite; and my master left me behind, because three days ago I fell sick. 14 We made an invasion of the southern area of the Cherethites, in the territory which belongs to Judah, and of the southern area of Caleb; and we burned Ziklag with fire.”
15 And David said to him, “Can you take me down to this troop?”
So he said, “Swear to me by God that you will neither kill me nor deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will take you down to this troop.”
16 And when he had brought him down, there they were, spread out over all the land, eating and drinking and dancing, because of all the great spoil which they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. 17 Then David attacked them from twilight until the evening of the next day. Not a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men who rode on camels and fled. 18 So David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives. 19 And nothing of theirs was lacking, either small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything which they had taken from them; David recovered all. 20 Then David took all the flocks and herds they had driven before those other livestock, and said, “This isDavid’s spoil.”
21 Now David came to the two hundred men who had been so weary that they could not follow David, whom they also had made to stay at the Brook Besor. So they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him. And when David came near the people, he greeted them. 22 Then all the wicked and worthless men of those who went with David answered and said, “Because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered, except for every man’s wife and children, that they may lead them away and depart.”
23 But David said, “My brethren, you shall not do so with what the Lord has given us, who has preserved us and delivered into our hand the troop that came against us. 24 For who will heed you in this matter? But as his part is who goes down to the battle, so shall his part be who stays by the supplies; they shall share alike.” 25 So it was, from that day forward; he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day.
The Lord pointed out the differences between Saul and David in these Scriptures. They both got a word from the Lord on how to pursue the Amalekites, but only David had the true authority by God to retrieve the entire booty from the attack. As opposed to Saul who took it upon himself to take the booty from his attack on the Amalekites ordered by God, yet the difference was God didn’t want him to take any of their things. He even blamed it on the people under him claiming that theywere the ones that took the booty. Yet wasn’t Saul supposed to be the leader that God authorized over them? The Lord makes it clear that those He puts in a place of authority that do not address the people under them for any wrongdoing, are just as guilty of taking part in the wrongdoing (James 3:1), as they will incur a stricter judgment. And this is exactly what Saul was judged by God about. God knew Saul’s heart had ulterior motives which were geared towards idolatry and this is why God removed him from his position. God is about to do the same thing with many people in these coming days. They will be judged for the exact reasons He knew were in the heart of Saul (idolatry). He sees it in this people He’s about to deal with as well.
Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying, 11 “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me and has not carried out My commands.” And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the Lord all night. 12 Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul; and it was told Samuel, saying, “Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself, then turned and proceeded on down to Gilgal.”13 Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed are you of the Lord! I have carried out the command of the Lord.” 14 But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?” 15 Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God; but the rest we have utterly destroyed.” 16 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Wait, and let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.” And he said to him, “Speak!”
17 Samuel said, “Is it not true, though you were little in your own eyes, you were made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the Lord anointed you king over Israel, 18 and the Lord sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are exterminated.’ 19 Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord, but rushed upon the spoil and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord?”
20 Then Saul said to Samuel, “I did obey the voice of the Lord, and went on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and have brought back Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. 21 But the people took some of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the choicest of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God at Gilgal.” 22 Samuel said,
“Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
As in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
And to heed than the fat of rams.
23 “For rebellion is as the sin of divination,
And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
He has also rejected you from being king.”
God is going to judge many in their rebellion and in their insubordination (or defiance) to His leading in ALL things that He commands them to do. And in this judgment MANY will be removed entirely from any leadership position. He will replace them with a people that are after His heart truly, as David was—the Seed of David (2 Timothy 2:8; Acts 13:22). The greater authority that God gave David was represented in what he did with the men that went with him to battle AND didn’t. In other words, as like the Scriptures Acts 4:32-35 and James 2:14-17, David acted in love on behalf of the people making sure they were all taken care of. No one went without. In fact, he corrected the men that went with him in battle that tried to state that the men that didn’t go shouldn’t have any of their enemy’s booty. David basically represented the heart of Christ in this on how he handled it, that all people that are His have a part—no one is insignificant in who they are in Christ.
For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many.
15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? 18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. 19 And if they were all one member, where would the body be?
20 But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. 21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”22 No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.23 And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, 24 but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, 25 that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. 28 And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way.
This is the great mistake of the ‘Sauls’ out there in their disobedience, they’ve looked down upon the ones that they consider insignificant but actually have a significant part as well in the Body, as their role. The ‘Sauls’ have taken even their glory in Christ’s work in these individuals for themselves (the best of the fatlings). This should not be so because as David indicated and rebuked his men for this, he let them know that these others that did not go with him in battle, also were a part of their body of soldiers. They just had a different role. David also made sure the others, the elders were taken care of as well, when he sent parts of the booty to them. Again, showing that NO ONE lacked in anything that was needed among them, as they were all one body of people that God put together (as like the Body of Christ). This is similar to this parable:
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. 5 Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise. 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.’
8 “So when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, ‘Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.’ 9 And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius. 10 But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius. 11 And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner,12 saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.’ 13 But he answered one of them and said, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. 15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’16 So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.”
What is God saying in all this and how does it apply to David’s situation in 1 Samuel 15? The same God that directed David and ordained David to become king is the same One that ordains His people to rule with Him. It is not based off the ‘little that they may offer’ but based off whether they were chosen to work. Who God has chosen to be His and what they have to offer as to what God has given them to do, is never known to be insignificant in the kingdom work that God has commanded. Everyone must understand that. His true people will because they have not frowned down upon the simple things of God, so that they may be lifted up. But instead they’ve used them wisely to build upon what He’s given them in order to glorify Him and advance His ways in righteousness.
In the coming days God will make it clear who He has chosen for His own and what does man have in understanding what He does with what He has? God will call out and expose the evil in peoples’ hearts that have a heart like Saul. Now He will put those that were first in being ‘kings’ to a lowly or ‘last’ position—bring them low, as He did with Saul. Jesus warned of this form of stumbling among His people:
So He told a parable to those who were invited, when He noted how they chose the best places, saying to them: 8 “When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him; 9 and he who invited you and him come and say to you, ‘Give place to this man,’ and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place. 10 But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher.’ Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you. 11 For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
12 Then He also said to him who invited Him, “When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. 13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. 14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
Hear what the Holy Spirit is saying…