KING SAUL S DIVINE REJECTION

KING SAUL S DIVINE REJECTION And Samuel said. What hast thou done? And Saul said. Because I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that thou camest not within the days appointed; and that the Philistines gathered themselves together at Michmash. Therefore said I, the Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplications unto the Lord. I forced myself therefore and offered a burnt offering. 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 forever. But now thy kingdom shall not continue; the Lord hath sought himself a man after his own heart; and the Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee. (1 Samuel 13:11-14) Now, Israel as a nation had rejected their living God to rule over them and persuaded Him to set a King over them after He miraculously brought them up out of the hand of the Egyptians and all the kingdoms that oppressed. And from the time the living God founded Israel as a nation by calling out from Haran their great grandfather Abraham and separating him and his biological seed after him to Himself and to serve Him only, they had never had an earthly king to rule over them but were divinely remotecontrolled from heaven through God-chosen spiritual leaders like Moses, Joshua, Samuel, etc. Now they had seen what other nations style of kingdoms were and wanted to be like them all to have an earthly king that would judge them and go out with them physically to fight in battles. And when God failed to persuade them against the idea, He let them fulfill the desire of their hearts and permissively chose them Saul the son of Kish to be their first king. And that act relieved the spiritual leader, Samuel, of one of his duties of a judge over them since he was previously a judge, prophet as well as a priest. Surely, Saul was a God-chosen king over Israel no doubt God equipped him spiritually by giving him another heart. And God s Spirit was also coming on him making him to prophesy and even using him in many ways as long as he was in good tune with his living God. Physically, Saul was a goodly young man who stood out among the male Israelites as the most handsome one whose body structure and height were above any of them. As a leader, King Saul began well and was God-fearing. But then that short-lived just like most God-chosen servants or leaders who usually have humble beginnings before God and their people but end up exalting themselves after ruling for sometime. He was specifically chosen to be an executive head over the physical arm of the kingdom while Prophet Samuel was an executive head over the spiritual arm of the same. Saul never was to be a priest over the people no matter he was chosen by God, anointed by Prophet Samuel and the Spirit of God on him. But as soon as God anointed Saul to be king over Israel, he displeased Him by trespassing the sacred priestly duties of Prophet Samuel and offered a burnt offering supposedly unto the living God when Samuel had delayed to come on the scene as Israel prepared to go to war against the Philistines. Page 1

Then the living God rejected Saul to continue being king over the Israelites and used Prophet Samuel to pronounce that divine rejection into Saul s ears. He was even told openly that his successor, a man after God s own heart, had been found already to be captain over the Kingdom of Israel. Nevertheless, he went on as king of Israel for more than ten years, leading them in battles. And God gave him another assignment to go and smite the Amalekites and utterly destroy them with all they had. (1 Samuel 15:1-3) But King Saul ended up fulfilling that assignment in part as he really destroyed the Amalekites but spared Agag and the best of the sheep, oxen and all that was good in his sight. In fact he destroyed everything that was bad looking and refuse but spared the good things for sacrifice unto God. Then Prophet Samuel told him as in the following quotation. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of lambs. 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 the king. (1 Samuel 15:22-23) Again he was told that, 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. (verse 28) Then later on Samuel was sent by God to anoint David the son of Jesse to be king of Israel instead of Saul while the latter still reigned over the people for more than a decade before his successor had to be enthroned fully as a king. Now, the whole purpose of writing this epistle is not to discredit King Saul for being rejected by God as king of Israel, or highlight on his failures as a leader but to enlighten the Christendom as to what happens to God-chosen leaders when they are divinely rejected. Really, there are a number of things that most Christian church believers fail to see on a church leader that is divinely rejected. And sometimes it may even take years for them to notice or be convinced that their specific leader is a complete reject before the living God. The problem is that a human being hardly sees and comprehends spiritual things done by the living God as he is carnal in nature just like in the following quoted scriptures. And it came to pass when they were come that he looked on Eliab and said. Surely the Lord s anointing is before him. But the Lord said unto Samuel. Look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature because I have refused him; for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the heart. (1 Samuel 16:6-7) In the circumstances, the Christendom is so blinded spiritually to see or notice that most of the Christian church leaders that purport to serve the living God through preaching, prophesying or doing signs and wonders and the like, were divinely rejected years back when they disobeyed God like King Saul did. It doesn t matter how great spiritually the impact of their ministries may be in the Christendom or how popular their names are globally, they may be doing those religious things while serving a divinely rejection sentence from the living God outside their church followers knowledge. Page 2

I doubt if most Israelites who at one time celebrated the choosing of Saul as their king knew that the man they loved and rallied behind had no divine mandate except humanistic one to keep on reigning over them as a king. I wonder if they knew that whatever the man was doing as a king was just being done under God s permissive will and not His perfect one. And if Saul kept on discharging his normal duties as king over Israel for a period of 37 years from the first time the divine rejection was pronounced on him until his death, the same thing is what is happening in the Christian leadership circles today. Really, there are numerous church leaders that claim to serve the living God by cushioning themselves on their bygone glory, reputation and popularity coupled with their congregations love, loyalty and sympathy on them and yet they are divine rejects before God. And some church founders or presidents even belong to such a group. Apparently such church congregations or followers seem to have no choice as they have been made to believe that real spirituality in serving God is what is being done and followed by such divinely rejected church leaders in their churches as long as those congregations material needs are being met at the end of the day. But the fact that one associates themselves with Christian leadership activities does not mean he cannot be divinely rejected no matter how good they are in delivering their homilies or prophesying, doing miracles and wonders, etc. Surely, it s really high time the Christian church believers bought eye-salve to anoint their spiritual eyes in order for them to see most of these church leaders clearly and transparently just as the living God does. Really, it s time they looked at them without their darkened church denominational glasses and they will be shocked to see that most of their leaders died spiritually long time ago and have therefore no divine mandate to hold on to their church positions as they do. The biggest problem is that most of today s Christian believers including the church leaders believe and claim that their spiritual eyesight and relationships with the living God are fine and not contradicting with God s perception over their spiritual lives as quoted in the following scriptures. I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because art lukewarm and neither cold or hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knoweth not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou mayst be rich and white raiment that thou mayst be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve that thou mayst see. (Revelation 3:15-18) Surely, Christian church believers have a spiritual deficiency as they are lacking the above specified spiritual qualities of real and genuine servants of the living God right from the church leadership to the laity. In fact, most of them don t know what exactly it takes for a person to serve and worship the living God in spirit and truth because they were exposed to Christianity Page 3

physically by their parents as their family religion without any personal conviction of their own let alone any spiritual experience with the Lord Jesus Christ. That is why most of the Christian believers so-called appear to be spiritually insane before God as they claim themselves to be rich, fully dressed and have clear eyesight spiritually while in spiritual reality they are miserably poor, naked and blind. And their spiritual condition of madness or insanity is so acute and deplorable that it hardly can be healed unless they miraculously come to their spiritual senses to repent their sins comprehensively beginning from their church leaders. Otherwise God s grace on the gentile Christian believers and every unsaved person will soon be over as it gets back to the spiritual Israelites from whom we borrowed it thereby making them that are sinners to still remain sinners and those that are righteous to still remain righteous. And he saith unto me, seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book for the time is at hand. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that s holy, let him be holy still. And behold I come quickly and thy reward is with me to give every man according to his work shall be. (Revelation 22:10-12) Now, let s have a look at a few things that characterize a divinely rejected God-chosen leader like in King Saul s life which he lived after the rejection. To begin with, for the living God to choose a man and use him for His own interest, He first of all gives him His spirit or the Holy Spirit that facilitates the spiritual relationship between the two. And without the spiritual gadget, no person can please and serve the living God obediently and spiritually, except pleasing and serving his fellow men. For to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is an enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can it be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:6-8) And this Spirit of God is exactly what came on both Saul and David when Prophet Samuel anointed them to serve as kings of Israel. And it was so that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him ANOTHER HEART and all those signs came to pass that day. (1 Samuel 10:9) Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brethren; and the spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. (1 Samuel 16:13) So, when a God-chosen and Holy Spirit anointed person gets rejected divinely, the Spirit of God leaves him completely and he becomes as carnal as he was before he got anointed. And if such a person is real child of God, the living God puts that man s mind in a spiritual jail where he permits the devil and his demons to vex that man s soul and mind as a punishment of his disobedience to God. That is what happened to the divinely rejected King Saul. The Spirit of God that came on him when he was anointed left him. And instead, evil spirits troubled him day and night. He would Page 4

only be relieved of such vexation of evil spirits when David played sweet music with his harp before him, rendering those spirits to become dormant for a while and get reactivated when that sweet music would stop. (1 Samuel 16) Therefore, this proves that a divinely rejected church leader s life is never at peace though they may pretend to be spiritually fine to the public and their congregations. They are tirelessly battling it out with those evil spirits in their minds due to the departure of the Holy Spirit from them. And as a Holy Spirit filled person is led by the same Spirit in his life, so does the evil spirit filled person. He is led by the same evil spirits in his life and cannot help that situation neither control them. They will use him in any way they want even when his human conscience is against doing such evil things. Furthermore, a divinely rejected person mostly does things haphazardly, thinking and believing that whatever he does is alright with God. And like the great Samson of old who revealed the secret behind his supernatural powers to Delilah, they believe God s Spirit is still with them and try as much as possible to serve Him and yet of their own accord. King Saul thought and believed that God s anointing was still on him as he clung on to the leadership but the fruits of his faith in God proved he was all alone without God just like any unsaved human being. Even when he trespassed Samuel s priestly duties to offer a burnt offering unto the living God of Israel, he thought it was the right thing to do before God not knowing he was sinning against him. In fact, deep down his heart he had zeal and faith to serve the living God. And no matter he knew that God had rejected him, he kept on discharging his normal duties as a leader still believing and fighting on peradventure God would forgive him. And giving up that leadership position to his neighbour was the last thing he could have done. That s typical of today s most Christian church leaders that apparently have backslidden in their faith and God has rejected them. They cling to church positions until they die no matter what evil acts they do right in their churches with their own sisters in Christ. They keep on deceiving themselves and their church followers that they are spiritually vibrant and yet the whole thing is I-cha-bod, meaning the glory of God has departed from them. You know what; a divinely rejected church leader usually gets fooled mostly by the great number of sympathizers in his congregation whose evil spirits and works are congruent to those of the leader, who usually are in majority greatly over the real Christian believers in most church congregations. To continue on, when King Saul spared Agag and some of the sheep, oxen and the like when he was told to utterly destroy the Amalekites and whatever belonged to them, he did that out of zeal to serve the living God, and did not mean to sin against Him. He thought God would understand him if he spared those animals for sacrifice since it was a common spiritual ordinance the Israelites used to do as a thanksgiving to their living God whenever they triumphed in battles. Unfortunately, the principled God meant what He commanded him to do, nothing short and nothing more. Page 5

Really, that s the way of a Christian transgressor who has exalted himself before the living God. Whatever he tries to do to please the Lord ends up hitting the wall except when he humbles himself before God and repent his sins in the right way for the Lord to forgive him. Again, when the rejected King Saul led the Israelites to fight against the Philistines after his son Jonathan had started the fight alone with his armour bearer earlier on, the king presumably put his soldiers under oath that day not to eat anything until evening so that he may win the battle divinely. However, his son Jonathan, unknowingly tasted some honey while other soldiers watched him. When confronted later in the evening before the whole group, he accepted it and was ready to die for breaking that fasting. But the whole group stood in his favour and refused him to die as quoted below. Shall Jonathan die who hath wrought this great salvation in Israel? God forbid. As the Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground, for he has wrought with God this day. So the people rescued Jonathan that he died not. (1 Samuel 14:47) Now, here was a divinely rejected king who was still discharging his duties outside the living God s mandate except for that one of the people; and who knew quite well of his rejection before God. But he was so spiritually zealous in serving the living God that he could not spare his own son from death for breaking an oath. And soon before that he had built an altar unto the same Lord that had rejected him to ask for a green light as to whether they were to go to battle against the Philistines that night or not. But God answered him not. (1 Samuel 14:35-37) Now, how could the living God stand with the whole group by refusing Jonathan to die instead of backing King Saul s command on the people? Surely Jonathan deserved death for breaking that oath, according to God s commandments regarding oaths that He gave the Israelites to follow. But again that s typical of a way of a Christian transgressor against God as said earlier on. What happened was that God s providence permitted the group to override King Saul s command just to remind him of his divine rejection as king of Israel. After all, God had already chosen a man after His own heart to succeed Saul and it was just a matter of time for the new king to be manifested. And it took more than a decade for David to be enthroned as king of Israel after King Saul had tirelessly sought his life and tried everything he could do to kill David s influence over the people. Having written to this far, I am sure you can now understand and believe that there are many Christian church leaders in the Christendom who like King Saul, are serving the living God outside His mandate as they were rejected some time back by God Himself and not their own congregations. They know very well what dirty lives they are living, as they force themselves on the Christian believers. And they have taken advantage of the spiritual ignorance and blindness that have gripped most Christian believers and keep on manipulating them spiritually in any way they want. They don t know that the living God is not mocked or deceived. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap everlasting. (Galatians 6:7-8) Page 6

Really, such Christian church leaders will pay right here on earth for trying to mock both God and His innocent children in the Christendom and for deliberately purporting to be genuine servants of God while they are at enmity with Him. And like the rejected King Saul, hell will break loose on them and evil spirits will torment their bodies and minds so much so that they will be used by the devil to fulfill every devilish act on earth for having cheated God and His children in Christianity unless they repent such cheatings comprehensively before their congregations and the living God. In closing, let every Christian believer be reminded of the following quoted scriptures. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from me ye that work iniquity. (Mathew 7:21-22) May God bless your reading of this epistle and help you use its spiritual contents to improve your spiritual life as you wait for His soon appearing. Yours in Christ Jesus, Pastor JOHN MNELEMBA. Page 7