Brokenness, Blindness and Bias

Ronnie shared a quick word before the message:

 

Brokenness, Blindness and Bias

In 1st Samuel 9, God listens to the Israelites’ cries for a King to lead them, so they can be like the other nations with Kings. Up until that point, they were governed by Judges and God. But that wasn’t enough for them.

19 But today you have rejected your God, who saves you from all your calamities and your distresses, and you have said to him, ‘Set a king over us.’

 

So God chose Samuel to be the Israelite King. He was tall and handsome, outwardly everything that they would want for a King, and all that Israel would care about.

1 Samuel 10

Then the Spirit of the Lord will rush upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man. Now when these signs meet you, do what your hand finds to do, for God is with you. Then go down before me to Gilgal. And behold, I am coming down to you to offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice peace offerings. Seven days you shall wait, until I come to you and show you what you shall do.” When he turned his back to leave Samuel, God gave him another heart. And all these signs came to pass that day.

 

1 Samuel 11:  And the Spirit of God rushed upon Saul when he heard these words, and his anger was greatly kindled.

 

Samuel said to the Israelites:

14 If you will fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God, it will be well.

 

Saul lived for 1 year before he came king, and after 2 years of reigning, it became apparent what kind of man he was. Saul went to battle against the Philistines, with his son Jonathan winning one small battle. Then the entire army came against the Hebrews. When it came time to do a sacrifice to the Lord, like Samuel the prophet always did, Samuel did not show up on time. So Saul offered the burnt offering himself, which a King was not allowed to do.  Samuel showed up and confronted him about it.

 

11 Samuel said, “What have you done?” And Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines had mustered at Michmash, 12 I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the favor of the Lord.’ So I forced myself, and offered the burnt offering.” 13 And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. 14 But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince[b] over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.” 15 And Samuel arose and went up from Gilgal.  (The prophet left him)

 

In 1 Samuel 14, Saul made a foolish, emotional, rash vow that anyone who ate before a this particular battle was over would be cursed.  His son Jonathan unknowingly ate some honey and said there was nothing wrong with it, and that his father’s rule was wrong.  So Saul called upon the Lord for guidance, but God refused to answer him.

 

36 Then Saul said, “Let us go down after the Philistines by night and plunder them until the morning light; let us not leave a man of them.” And they said, “Do whatever seems good to you.” But the priest said, “Let us draw near to God here.” 37 And Saul inquired of God, “Shall I go down after the Philistines? Will you give them into the hand of Israel?” But he did not answer him that day.

 

 

In 1 Samuel 15, God told Saul to kill all the people and animals of the Amalekites because of what they had done to the Israelites. But Saul kept the King of Amalek and all of the animals (things of value), reasoning to himself that the Lord would be pleased with his version of doing things instead of obeying what God said.  The army only destroyed whatever was despised and worthless and kept the best for themselves. So God regretted making Saul King.

 

10 The word of the Lord came to Samuel: 11 “I regret[c] that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.”

 

13 And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed be you to the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord.” 14 And Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?” 15 Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction.” 16 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stop! I will tell you what the Lord said to me this night.” And he said to him, “Speak.”

17 And Samuel said, “Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel.18 And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, ‘Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ 19 Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord?” 20 And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. 21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.” 22 And Samuel said,

“Has 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 listen than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination,
and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
he has also rejected you from being king.”

24 Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. 25 Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may bow before the Lord.” 26 And Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you. For you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.” 27 As Samuel turned to go away, Saul seized the skirt of his robe, and it tore.28 And Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you. 29 And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret.”

34 Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. 35 And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul. And the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel.

 

1 Samuel 16 14 Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him. 

 

David came and would play a song for him, and the tormenting spirit would leave for a while. David was a source of comfort for him.

 

Then came David’s battle with Goliath that won him favor with Saul as a soldier. Saul took him into his household from that moment forward. Wherever David went, he found favor and won battles, so Saul set him over his other soldiers.

 

1 Samuel 18

 

And the women sang to one another as they celebrated,

“Saul has struck down his thousands,
and David his ten thousands.”

And Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him. He said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands, and what more can he have but the kingdom?”And Saul eyed David from that day on.

10 The next day a harmful spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he raved within his house while David was playing the lyre, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand. 11 And Saul hurled the spear, for he thought, “I will pin David to the wall.” But David evaded him twice.

12 Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him but had departed from Saul. 13 So Saul removed him from his presence and made him a commander of a thousand. And he went out and came in before the people. 14 And David had success in all his undertakings, for the Lord was with him. 15 And when Saul saw that he had great success, he stood in fearful awe of him. 16 But all Israel and Judah loved David, for he went out and came in before them.

 

28 But when Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David, and that Michal, Saul’s daughter, loved him, 29 Saul was even more afraid of David. So Saul was David’s enemy continually.

 

From that point on, Saul tried to trap and destroy him.  He actually determined to kill David.  He even killed priests who helped David, not knowing that Saul wanted him killed.  He pursued him everywhere – he was obsessed with David, couldn’t stop thinking about him.

 

 

1 Samuel 20:

and David said to Saul, “Why do you listen to the words of men who say, ‘Behold, David seeks your harm’? 10 Behold, this day your eyes have seen how the Lordgave you today into my hand in the cave. And some told me to kill you, but I spared you.[c] I said, ‘I will not put out my hand against my lord, for he is the Lord’s anointed.’ 11 See, my father, see the corner of your robe in my hand. For by the fact that I cut off the corner of your robe and did not kill you, you may know and see that there is no wrong or treason in my hands. I have not sinned against you, though you hunt my life to take it. 12 May the Lord judge between me and you, may the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you. 13 As the proverb of the ancients says, ‘Out of the wicked comes wickedness.’ But my hand shall not be against you. 14 After whom has the king of Israel come out? After whom do you pursue? After a dead dog! After a flea! 15 May the Lord therefore be judge and give sentence between me and you, and see to it and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand.”

16 As soon as David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, “Is this your voice, my son David?” And Saul lifted up his voice and wept. 17 He said to David, “You are more righteous than I, for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil. 18 And you have declared this day how you have dealt well with me, in that you did not kill me when the Lord put me into your hands. 19 For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away safe? So may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day. 20 And now, behold, I know that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand. 21 Swear to me therefore by the Lord that you will not cut off my offspring after me, and that you will not destroy my name out of my father’s house.” 22 And David swore this to Saul. Then Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold.

 

But in 1 Samuel 26, we see that Saul is back to trying to kill David.  Again, David spared his life, Saul acknowledged his own sin and David’s righteousness and went his own way.

 

18 And he said, “Why does my lord pursue after his servant? For what have I done? What evil is on my hands? 19 Now therefore let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If it is the Lord who has stirred you up against me, may he accept an offering, but if it is men, may they be cursed before the Lord, for they have driven me out this day that I should have no share in the heritage of the Lord, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods.’ 20 Now therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth away from the presence of the Lord, for the king of Israel has come out to seek a single flea like one who hunts a partridge in the mountains.”

21 Then Saul said, “I have sinned. Return, my son David, for I will no more do you harm, because my life was precious in your eyes this day. Behold, I have acted foolishly, and have made a great mistake.” 22 And David answered and said, “Here is the spear, O king! Let one of the young men come over and take it. 23 The Lord rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness, for the Lord gave you into my hand today, and I would not put out my hand against the Lord’s anointed.24 Behold, as your life was precious this day in my sight, so may my life be precious in the sight of the Lord, and may he deliver me out of all tribulation.” 25 Then Saul said to David, “Blessed be you, my son David! You will do many things and will succeed in them.” So David went his way, and Saul returned to his place.

 

In 1 Samuel 28, Saul becomes so desperate, he seeks guidance from a medium (since God would not answer him).  He knew by God’s silence that he was in the wrong. So he tried to go around God.

 

And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets.Then Saul said to his servants, “Seek out for me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her.” And his servants said to him, “Behold, there is a medium at En-dor.”

 

Samuel was King for a total of 42 years, but after 27 years he lost favor with God and David was anointed in his place.  He chose to disobey God, reasoning to Himself that he was actually obeying God.

 

 

  1. Saul was a believer in God who basically always put himself first. He trusted in his own thoughts and reasoning more than He did in God’s instructions. He actually was a very appropriate King for Israel, because as it happened in the times of the Judges, he represented the state of the heart of the Israelites – they liked God to bless them, but didn’t really want to have to obey him.He was tall and handsome and most likely well liked because of his outward appearance. He liked fame and popularity – it was important to him to be liked by people. But inside, he was flawed and broken.  He didn’t trust in God, and when the rubber met the road, he would always do what he thought best instead of what God said to do. And if God didn’t answer him in time, Saul would just do whatever he figured was best.  He changed the rules whenever it suited him to do so.This is also how many of us are.  We know what the Lord calls us to do. We know we are to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love and treat others as we want to be loved and treated.  But because of our brokenness, our desire to be liked by others, our fear of not getting what we want when we want it, we sometimes talk ourselves into going around what we know God has said and do what we want anyway.
  2. Now God can use anyone for His purpose, and when Saul was chosen as King, God gave him a new heart and sent his Spirit to rest upon Saul whenever Saul needed the Lord.Can you remember when God saved you and gave you a new heart?  Now it bothered you to sin and disobey God, whereas before, it didn’t really bother you. Your spirit became alive and you could feel the grief of God’s Holy Spirit (who came to live within you) whenever you disobeyed Him.   God can give anyone a new heart to live for Him, but it is up to us to use our will to choose His way and not our own way.
  3. After the 2nd year of his reign, Saul’s true self started coming out. While waiting for the appointed time when the prophet would offer a burn sacrifice before Saul went to war, Samuel did not show up on time.  So, knowing full well that a king was never to offer a sacrifice, Saul performed the burnt offering anyway.Samuel showed up and told him that the Lord would have let his family reign as kings forever, but because of Saul’s disobedience, the kingdom would be taken away from him and given to another who had a heart after God’s own heart (meaning, who didn’t serve his own selfish heart).Our biggest struggle as Christians is not acting according to the desires and emotions of our flesh and obeying what we know God asks from us. Sometimes we can play Christian for a while, but in the end, who and how we really are will come out and become public.
    We can only pretend for so long, because it is exhausting.  You can’t fake the fruit of the spirit – love, peace, patience…especially self-control. But if we don’t surrender to God’s control over our life, eventually we will self-destruct. We will revert to doing what makes us feel good instead of what is best according to God.
  4. Next, Saul’s emotions started taking him over. He got upset and made a rash, foolish vow that ended up endangering his own son. When Saul called upon the Lord for guidance, God did not answer him.Notice, Saul didn’t inquire of the Lord what to do BEFORE he made the rash decision that affected all of the people around him.  Only after he realized the trouble he had caused for himself and his family did he call on God.  But God doesn’t have to honor selfish prayers made by blatantly disobedient people.James 5:16 says – The effectual fervent prayer of a RIGHTEOUS man avails much, or has much power.How many of us have a habit of giving in to our emotions when they rise up?  If we don’t watch ourselves, we will give in to them more often until they finally control us. We won’t even try to fight them, or censor ourselves. And our emotions RARELY lead us to make good decisions and affect others positively. Our emotions will also rarely lead others to God.

God gave Saul one more chance to obey Him, but I think this was God’s way of showing Saul his own disobedience and desire to please himself instead of the Lord. God told Saul to destroy the Amalekites – every person AND every animal – because of how horrible they had been to the Israelites. God knew that the Amalekites were bent on the destruction of God’s people, and this was how God wanted to protect His people.

Instead, Saul and his army kept the best prizes for themselves (the King of the Amalekites to show off, and the valuable animals), destroying only what was worthless.   Samuel confronted him and asked Saul what he had done, and basically, Saul lied to his face, trying to talk his way out of it with his own version of God’s instructions. I believe he had talked himself into believing that he had obeyed the Lord, but clearly he had not.

Samuel basically said God has had enough of you. He is choosing a new king.  Then Samuel half-repented, admitting he had sinned, but then blaming it on the people. In the end, he admitted that he feared what people said more than what God said. And at that point, neither God nor Samuel had anything positive to do with Saul. He was on his own.

  1. At this point, God took His Holy Spirit from upon Saul, and sent a tormenting spirit instead.  Now, to clarify, in the Old Testament, God only sent His Spirit to rest UPON people, not live inside them. So God would send His Spirit to help people when they needed it to instruct or empower them. But it didn’t remain with them all the time.We who are saved, on the other hand, have God’s Spirit living in us, and He will not remove that Spirit from us. However, we CAN open ourselves up to other demonic spirits to torment us and affect us. We can listen to them instead of the Spirit of God, and even surrender to them to do what they want with us. They will always try to get us to do things that are contrary to the will of God.When we choose to disobey God and instead do what we want, we remove ourselves from God’s protection and provision, and open ourselves up to ruin and destruction. People often blame God when things go wrong for themselves because their sin has blinded them to the fact that their own rebellion has brought it upon them.
  2. Now, I say all of that to show you how someone can start off with the Lord and go so far astray.  Their own brokenness, the fear of man and what others might think or say, the inability or unwillingness to surrender to God’s Spirit in order to control their flesh and their emotions can lead to their destruction, even if they have had an experience with God. Self deception sets in.People start reasoning about why they did what they did, and start believing that what they did is not so bad, and then after a while, they don’t think it is wrong at all.  Brokenness that is not surrendered to God leads to self deception.  And that self-deception leads to blindness, the inability to really see ourselves, others and situations as they truly are. We filter everything through our own selfish reasoning, and that results in bias against others.People are no longer of value in themselves as people loved by God – they are only of value if they make us feel good, tell us good things about ourselves, make us feel important.  We selfishly only see their actions as for us or against us, when their words and actions may have absolutely nothing to do with us.

From hereon out, Saul started persecuting David, because David was becoming more popular than he was, and he feared losing his popularity.  As things became less and less about himself, he became more and more fearful and angry and out of control.

 

In 1 Samuel 18, the crowds sang: “Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” And Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him. And Saul eyed David from that day on. 10 The next day a harmful spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he raved within his house 12 Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him but had departed from Saul.  15 And when Saul saw that he had great success, he stood in fearful awe of him. 16 But all Israel and Judah loved David, for he went out and came in before them. 28 But when Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David, and that Michal, Saul’s daughter, loved him, 29 Saul was even more afraid of David. So Saul was David’s enemy continually.

Notice how it started with fear and jealousy of David’s popularity. But as soon as he succumbed to those feelings and thoughts, a harmful spirit came upon him, and he basically went crazy with anger.  The more people loved David, the crazier Saul got and the more he despised David.  This happened until finally it says that Saul was David’s enemy continually.

How many of us have met people who threatened our sense of security in ourselves – they were prettier, more popular, more gifted, more successful.  Something in our flesh sometimes just rises up, as if their positive traits somehow lessen ours, and we will lose friends or popularity or esteem.  At those times, we are tempted to point out what is wrong with them, like a negative caricature of themselves. We don’t see them as a whole person with good and bad qualities – they are just the “negative” version of themselves to us, and we treat them accordingly.

  1. Repeatedly, David would go to him and say, “why do you hate me? why do you pursue me?”  He would prove his good intentions toward Saul, and at that moment, Saul would acknowledge his own wrong thoughts and actions and realize that David was not bad and evil.But it wouldn’t be long before Saul’s own selfishness, insecurity and brokenness would allow those negative thoughts and feelings to take control again, and the obsession with killing David would return. This happened twice between David and Saul, and each time, Saul would return to trying to kill David.Sometimes it is our own insecurities, fear that there truly is something wrong with us, that causes us to dislike other people whom we fear will reveal negative things about ourselves. Perhaps we are afraid they will simply get what we want for ourselves, and we resent them.It is very hard to keep those feelings to ourselves, isn’t it?  When we don’t like someone, we have a tendency to want to talk to others about them. We may tell ourselves we are only venting, or maybe we think we are protecting others from what we imagine are bad qualities of the other person by exposing them.  But the truth is that, at those moments, we most likely are NOT seeing others as they truly are.

    Because of our brokenness, we have become blind to the truth, and negatively biased toward other people.  Then we start speaking to others about what we perceive they have done wrong, and we affect the way other people see them as well.  If we were honest with ourselves, sometimes I think we do it on purpose as a way to hurt someone that we believe has somehow caused us damage.

  2. In the end, David’s righteousness was proven by not killing or striking back at Saul whenever he was given the chance, even though Saul was trying to kill him and turn others against him. In the same way, sometimes we are the object of someone else’s bias and gossip. It would be so tempting to attack that other person, rob them of their authority by pointing out their flaws and faults. It is also normal to want to defend ourselves against accusations against us.But David would not say a word against Saul, nor take any actions to hurt Saul.  Why? Because He trusted that God was on his side, that God would eventually fulfill His promise to make David King.  Despite the rumors that Saul started that caused David to have to hide in caves for years, David did not worry about his reputation, because he knew God would vindicate David in time.And it is the same with you and me. The truth will eventually come out about us.  And even if people who speak ill of us never believe that truth, we don’t have to worry about them.  Most likely, they are speaking out of insecurity, jealousy and fear of losing something they wanted because of you.  And you can’t do anything about that.  So you have to leave them and your reputation in God’s hands, and only focus on listening to and obeying God’s voice for your own life.