Managing, disciplining, guiding, and caring for many children from multiple classrooms can be challenging on the school playground. As teachers, we want them to have this break to run free for a period from their schoolwork. We want them to rest from sitting and working on their tasks and projects. Students need the freedom to talk and relate to each other, too!  May lifelong friendships begin on the playground where kids are free to relate with each other. 

As teachers, we highly encourage play and building healthy relationships.  To grow healthy and wholesome relationships, the environment must be one of respect and kindness for each other.  Teachers lay the groundwork this healthy way of life.  Teachers list rules for a pleasant and caring school life. We post it in our classrooms. We often explain the many consequences that will happen if they do not obey the rules. Realizing everyone is growing and learning at different rates from different backgrounds in this way of life, no one is perfect in obeying all the rules.  Good teachers will stop, explain, and reteach the discipline of obedience then send them on their way again with love, mercy, and grace.  Most students respond well to the teacher’s wisdom and care for them. 

But some will look into the eyes of the teacher in defiance. The defiant ones will lie about what did and blame others.  Sometimes they will blame the teacher who made the “stupid rule” while accepting no responsibility for their actions.  Defiance grows from   the disrespectful traits of arrogance, ego, pride, jealousy, and envy; traits that lead to habitual hateful behaviors with self-built walls of protection from those who defy the student!  No matter the underlying, undiscovered possible circumstances are that might have lead to this behavior; out of control defiance must be halted immediately for the good of the defiant!  The defiant one must be held in check quickly and privately with wisdom and discernment for it is the defiant ones who will lie, blame others for their behavior, before coming to a place of regret for their behaviors. 

The defiant need time out and time away from others for the purpose of being retaught with understanding and careful instruction and coping skills with appropriate consequences so no more harm will come to the defiantly disobedient or to their peers.

1 Samuel 15

The Lord Rejects Saul as King

15 Samuel said to Saul, “I am the one the Lord sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the Lord. ² This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. ³ Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”

⁴ So Saul summoned the men and mustered them at Telaim—two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand from Judah. ⁵ Saul went to the city of Amalek and set an ambush in the ravine. ⁶ Then he said to the Kenites, “Go away, leave the Amalekites so that I do not destroy you along with them; for you showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites moved away from the Amalekites.

⁷ Then Saul attacked the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, near the eastern border of Egypt. ⁸ He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword. ⁹ But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs—everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed.

¹⁰ Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel: ¹¹ “I regret that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.” Samuel was angry, and he cried out to the Lord all that night.

¹² Early in the morning Samuel got up and went to meet Saul, but he was told, “Saul has gone to Carmel. There he has set up a monument in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal.”

¹³ When Samuel reached him, Saul said, “The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord’s instructions.”

¹⁴ But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?”

¹⁵ Saul answered, “The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but we totally destroyed the rest.”

¹⁶ “Enough!” Samuel said to Saul. “Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.”

“Tell me,” Saul replied.

¹⁷ Samuel said, “Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. ¹⁸ And he sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; wage war against them until you have wiped them out.’ ¹⁹ Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?”

²⁰ “But I did obey the Lord,” Saul said. “I went on the mission the Lord assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. ²¹ The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal.”

²² But Samuel replied:

“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
    as much as in obeying the Lord?
To obey is better than sacrifice,
    and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
²³ For rebellion is like the sin of divination,
    and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
    he has rejected you as king.”

²⁴ Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned. I violated the Lord’s command and your instructions. I was afraid of the men and so I gave in to them. ²⁵ Now I beg you, forgive my sin and come back with me, so that I may worship the Lord.”

²⁶ But Samuel said to him, “I will not go back with you. You have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you as king over Israel!”

²⁷ As Samuel turned to leave, Saul caught hold of the hem of his robe, and it tore. ²⁸ Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors—to one better than you. ²⁹ He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind.”

³⁰ Saul replied, “I have sinned. But please honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel; come back with me, so that I may worship the Lord your God.” ³¹ So Samuel went back with Saul, and Saul worshiped the Lord.

³² Then Samuel said, “Bring me Agag king of the Amalekites.”

Agag came to him in chains. And he thought, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.”

³³ But Samuel said,

“As your sword has made women childless,
    so will your mother be childless among women.”

And Samuel put Agag to death before the Lord at Gilgal.

³⁴ Then Samuel left for Ramah, but Saul went up to his home in Gibeah of Saul. ³⁵ Until the day Samuel died, he did not go to see Saul again, though Samuel mourned for him. And the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

God, in His wisdom and love for His people, removes Saul from his position as king. Why? Saul became God in his thinking and behaving. Saul’s thought he no longer needed to consult God—who needs God when I can do all things. With a few successes in battle under his belt, (the successes God provided miraculously), Saul’s pride and arrogance took over his whole being to the point of defying the God of all!  

Notice the many times he uses pronouns of disassociation from God as he speak to Samuel, sent by God, to deal with this defiant, in denial, disobedient king.

Samuel mourns Saul’s defiant behavior.  Samuel loved Saul.  Those who love with the love of God in them desire God’s best for others.  God’s children mourn when defiance takes over the being of loved ones in their community, rendering the defiant and disobedient unable to use the gifts God gave them for their good, the good of others, while giving all glory to God!

Samuel teaches us the character of God—

“He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind.”  How comforting and reassuring to know God will never lie to us or betray us! 

Saul teaches us the consequences of living a miserable life of trying to be God—

“This is a pivotal chapter in Saul’s story. The Lord gave him another opportunity to prove himself, but he failed again, lied about it, and was judged. Saul had a habit of substituting saying for doing and of making excuses instead of confessing his sins. No matter what happened, any negative consequence was always someone else’s fault. Saul was more concerned about looking good before the people than being good before God. Consider the stages in this event that cost Saul the kingdom and eventually his life.”—Warren Wiersbe, Wiersbe Study Bible

God’s great lesson to Saul, delivered through Samuel, and now to us—

“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord?  To obey is better than sacrifice… rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.”

Merely looking good is not what God is looking for in us. God looks deep into our hearts.

“For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” 2 Chronicles 16:9

The statement “God looks over the world for those who love him” in various translations reflects a belief that God is actively attentive and involved in the lives of those who have a loving relationship with Him. How awesome is this thought!

This idea is backed up by scriptures such as Romans 8:28, which states that God works all things together for good for those who love Him. How awesome is our God!

God’s eyes are constantly searching throughout the earth to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are fully devoted to Him. How blessed are we to know our God is God—and not us!

Yes, to trust and obey God, the One and Only God, is better!

Lord,

There is much to learn and think about concerning Your Word to us today.  Pour into my life all You want to learn, be, and do for today. I feel we have only scratched the surface of your great wisdom—but you know that. Thank you, Lord for correcting us.

In Jesus Name, Amen