Obeyed Their Voice

Saul was not looking for a job when we met Samuel. He was looking for his father’s livestock and needed some advice. The Lord had a different plan, as He explained to Samuel:

To morrow about this time I will send thee a man out of the land of Benjamin, and thou shalt anoint him to be captain over my people Israel, that he may save my people out of the hand of the Philistines: for I have looked upon my people, because their cry is come unto me. (1 Samuel 9:16 KJV)

As with so many people God called, Saul was humble and sought to decline the honor.

And Saul answered and said, Am not I a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel? and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? wherefore then speakest thou so to me? (1 Samuel 9:21 KJV)

All that in spite of a previous description:

And he had a son, whose name was Saul, a choice young man, and a goodly: and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he: from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people. (1 Samuel 9:2 KJV)

He messed up, though. Finally, there was a situation that had a cost he could not pay. His sin was laid out before him as Samuel explained.

But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal. 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. (1 Samuel 15:21-23 KJV)

Saul recognized his sin and explained why he had acted thus.

And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice. (1 Samuel 15:24 KJV)

Obeying the people around him, Saul gave in to peer pressure. The cost was his kingdom and his life.

Oh, not at that very moment. As with Eve, some time passed after the sin when the sinner thought “Wow, I got by on that one! God must not have meant what He said.”

Wrong. Eve surely died. Saul lost his kingdom. The wages of sin remain death, as always. There are consequences that cannot be avoided, even though we stand before God and say “I have sinned. I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord.”

Do not give in to peer pressure. ‘Tis much easier to seek His will and follow Him, not fearing nor obeying those other voices.