How often is it that men start off their lives great yet finish in disaster? What is it that causes that disaster? Why do some men begin with excellence and end poorly while others begin with nothing and finish as great men? What happens with men like Saul?
There is never only one reason for anything. All we can do is examine the trends and try to build an idea of what happened.
This happened for the famous Bible character Saul. Saul was the first king of the Israelite nation. The Bible tells us he stood head and shoulders above everyone else in the nation in height (I Samuel 9:2). 1 Samuel 9 & 10 tell the story of how Saul was chosen to be king and his coronation.
What is interesting about Saul before he took the kingship was his incredible humility.
The Bible tells us a few brief stories that show how Saul was humble. On the day that Samuel tells Saul he will reign over Israel, he responds with humility, saying that he is not a man of import in the land.
“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
A few chapters later in the book we will be granted a glimpse into Saul’s coronation. When the Israelite nation was ready to crown him as their king, where was he? The Bible says he was hiding in the equipment.
“When he had caused the tribe of Benjamin to come near by their families, the family of Matri was taken, and Saul the son of Kish was taken: and when they sought him, he could not be found. Therefore they enquired of the Lord further, if the man should yet come thither. And the Lord answered, Behold he hath hid himself among the stuff.”
1 Samuel 10:21-22
Yet it will only take 5 more chapters of 1 Samuel for Saul to have the kingdom torn away from him because of his mistakes. While it is not clear how much time passed between these sections, it was long enough for Saul to lose his humility. Many people will latch onto this instance as one of those “Power corrupts” moments. But perhaps that is only a part of the story.
Saul was the first king of Israel. There was no previous model on how to be a king and how to manage that kind of pressure and power. Who was expecting a new king to behave differently than Saul did?
They could have modeled the pagan nations and their style of government. This is what Israel did when they demanded a king in the first place. That does not mean a man will know how to handle that power, however. It was a completely new position.
The fact of the matter is that Saul lost his humility.
Even Samuel would note this when Saul was losing the kingdom, saying that at one point Saul was once “little in his own eyes“. And by that, Samuel likely meant that Saul had humility before he was king.
“And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed thee king over Israel?”
1 Samuel 15:17
Samuel delivered this message immediately after Saul returned from a battle. A battle in which he was commanded to destroy everything. Saul was to take no prisoners and completely destroy the nation. But he elected to keep king Agag alive and spare the best of the animals for sacrifices, or so he claimed.
Notice the language that king Saul uses in 1 Samuel 15 when he is confronted by Samuel. First Saul gives himself the credit. When he sees Samuel he proudly boasts that he can complete the command of the Lord. Yet when Samuel asks about the sound of animals in the background, Saul immediately turns and says that the people wanted to keep those animals. So when Saul thought he was keeping the command of the Lord, he gave himself full credit. But the second he noticed disapproval in the voice of Samuel, he knew he needed to implicate the people in his wrongdoings. Saul ignored God and did what he wanted, and this would cost him the kingdom.
Let us look at the exact account in the bible.
Now the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying, 11 “I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments.” And it grieved Samuel, and he cried out to the Lord all night. 12 So when Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul, it was told Samuel, saying, “Saul went to Carmel, and indeed, he set up a monument for himself; and he has gone on around, passed by, and gone down to Gilgal.” 13 Then Samuel went to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed are you of the Lord! I have performed the commandment 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 And Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.”
16 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Be quiet! And I will tell you what the Lord said to me last night.”
And he said to him, “Speak on.”
17 So Samuel said, “When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the Lord anoint you king over Israel? 18 Now the Lord sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy 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 swoop down on the spoil, and do evil in the sight of the Lord?”
20 And Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and brought back Agag king of Amalek; I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the plunder, sheep, and oxen, the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”
When Saul wanted praise he took full responsibility for the victory. when Samuel had to correct him, Saul blamed the people. As you know the story, this book of the Bible ends with Saul’s death on the battlefield. Let’s revisit the first question we asked. What causes a man to end like this?
There is never just one explanation because there are too many variables to consider. All we know is Saul was once a humble man who gained a kingdom and gained power too rapidly and it broke him. What is the point? Humility can decay, which is why it is vital to maintain humility and watch for any drop of ego that might be creeping into our lives. there is no faster way to destroy ourselves than with ego.
Related: Humility
Related: Ego – A Defining Trait of Weak Men
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