Ten 10 Lessons from Saul's Rebellion, Part II

Ten 10 Lessons from Saul's Rebellion, Part II

5. You cannot gain by sacrifice what you lose by disobedience. 
Saul, having been found in rebellion and confronted with his sin thought he could simply rectify the error by sacrifice and all things return to normal. He was mistaken. This last episode was the last straw that broke the Carmel's back. Meanwhile, his heart was not right about the sacrifice, it was not in repentance, it was to save him some honour before his people. 

1 Samuel 15:22-23
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. 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.

6. To offer your sacrifice in obedience is better than offering sacrifice for disobedience.

7. God is long suffering but His long suffering can be eroded. 
2 Peter 3:9, 15
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 15 And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;

This longsuffering is salvation for the unbelieving. However, there comes a time when the longsuffering lapse. Failure to accept the outstretched arm of fellowship from God would lead to judgement. 

Judgement of the ungodly. Amorites example, Genesis 15:13-16
And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. 

Judgement of the man in Christ. The Church at Corinth, 1 Corinthians 11:27-32
Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

8. Disobedience of God's word is rebellion, total rejection of God.
1 Samuel 15:22-23
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. 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.

Samuel earlier told them, disobedience is rebellion.

1 Samuel 12:14-15
If ye will fear the LORD, and serve him, and obey his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then shall both ye and also the king that reigneth over you continue following the LORD your God: But if ye will not obey the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then shall the hand of the LORD be against you, as it was against your fathers.

Caleb and Joshua told Israel the same. 
Numbers 14:6-9
And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes: And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not. 

Moses said the same.
Deuteronomy 9:7, 24
Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the LORD thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the LORD. 24 Ye have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you.

9. Repentance cannot take place without godly sorrow. 
One major sign post of repentance is godly sorrow, when you're gutted for your actions and terribly sorry you acted in indiscretion, in disobedience to God. Just like rebellion and every evil that man does originates in the heart, godly sorrow also takes place in the heart.

Matthew 12:33-35
Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.

Matthew 15:17-20
Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man. 

When God would execute his work of redemption, he target the heart for regeneration.

2 Corinthians 4:3-6
But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 

Godly sorrow leads to repentance and leaves no regret.

2 Corinthians 7:10
For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

After denying for a while, Saul admitted his sin but wanted the worship to proceed to cover his honour before the people. He cared more about his public image than a right heart before God.

1 Samuel 15:30
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.

This is just as Esau who sort his father's blessing with tears from an unrepentant heart. Genesis 27:30-41, Hebrews 12:16-17

Hebrews 12:16-17
Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. 

But compare the man David, who was confronted with his sin and immediately admitted guilt and repented. 

2 Samuel 12:11-14
Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun. And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die. Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.

10. Supernatural guidance or spiritual instruction trumps intelligent but independent thinking. 
Saul's creative thinking to take what he considered good in the land of the Amalek and sacrifice them to God was ruinous eventually deinstitutionalized him and his family as king in Israel because it was a flagrant contravention of God's order.

1 Samuel 15:23
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.

Your idea may be naturally desirable, logical and by every matrix of human ingenuity beneficial but it is not what the Lord commanded - that is enough to shed it. 

Proverbs 14:12
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.