GOD ALWAYS HAS A PLAN B

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Now the Philistines fought against Israel; the Israelites fled before them, and many fell dead on Mount Gilboa. The Philistines were in hot pursuit of Saul and his sons, and they killed his sons Jonathan, Abinadab and Malki-Shua. The fighting grew fierce around Saul, and when the archers overtook him, they wounded him.

Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through, or these uncircumcised fellows will come and abuse me.”

But his armor-bearer was terrified and would not do it; so Saul took his own sword and fell on it. When the armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his sword and died. So Saul and his three sons died, and all his house died together.

When all the Israelites in the valley saw that the army had fled and that Saul and his sons had died, they abandoned their towns and fled. And the Philistines came and occupied them.

The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found Saul and his sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. They stripped him and took his head and his armor, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news among their idols and their people. They put his armor in the temple of their gods and hung up his head in the temple of Dagon.

When all the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all their valiant men went and took the bodies of Saul and his sons and brought them to Jabesh. Then they buried their bones under the great tree in Jabesh, and they fasted seven days.

Saul died because he was unfaithful to the Lord; he did not keep the word of the Lord and even consulted a medium for guidance, and did not inquire of the Lord. So the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse.

1 Chronicles 10

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Sometimes you can have everything going for you and be completely blind to it, so blind to it that you make choices in life that result in you losing that everything that you had.

A perfect biblical example of this can be found in the Old Testament Saul. We’ll start looking at his life in 1 Samuel, Chapter 9.

Saul was a man who had a lot going for him before God came calling. Scripture tells us he was “as handsome a young man than could be found anywhere else in Israel” and a “head taller” too. A member of the tribe of Benjamin and son of Kish, Saul had been told by his father to go with one of the servants and find some donkeys that had become lost. The search for the donkeys was becoming fruitless and the servant suggested they return home but Saul proposed they go to a man who was a highly respected “man of God.” We get a sense the man had some psychic qualities as Saul tells the servant that he had heard that everything the man said would come true.

And so they go to meet this man of God who we’re told is named Samuel.

Now Samuel was indeed a man of God, so much so that God communicated freely with him. In fact, God had plans for Saul that he was completely unaware of. Let’s call it God’s plan A for Saul. The plan was detailed in this guidance which had been given to Samuel:

“About this time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin. Anoint him ruler over my people Israel; he will deliver them from the hand of the Philistines. I have looked on my people, for their cry has reached me.”

Wow! Was Saul’s life about to change or what? One minute, he was a donkey tender and the next he would be a God-appointed and anointed ruler over all Israel. Now that’s quite a Plan A!

And so Samuel did as the Lord commanded, inviting Saul to first dine with him and then just before sending him on his way, anointing him with oil, sharing with him that God had appointed him as “ruler over His inheritance”, and giving him the following directions:

1. Saul was to meet two men near Rachel’s tomb where he would discover the lost donkeys had been found.

2. Saul was then to go to the great tree of Tabor where he would encounter three men arriving to worship there from Bethel. The men would greet Saul and offer him two loaves of bread which he was to accept.

3. From the great tree of Tabor, Saul was to travel to Gibeah of God where a Philistine outpost was located. As he approached town, Samuel told Saul that he would meet a procession of prophets who would be coming down from the high place. The prophets would be preceded by the playing of lyres, timbrels, pipes and harps and they would be doing what all good prophets would do, prophesying of course.

It was at this place that something amazing would happen. The Spirit of the Lord will come powerfully upon Saul and he would begin to prophesy with the prophets. As a result, Saul would be changed into a different person.

Once all these things happened and the signs were fulfilled, Samuel told Saul that he could do whatever his hand finds to do for God would be with him. He could go onto Gilgal but he was to wait for seven days until Samuel arrived.

Doing what he was told to do with everything happening along the way just as Samuel had said, Saul found himself with Samuel before an assembly of the people of Israel. Samuel addressed them saying:

“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I brought Israel up out of Egypt, and I delivered you from the power of Egypt and all the kingdoms that oppressed you.’ But you have now rejected your God, who saves you out of all your disasters and calamities. And you have said, ‘No, appoint a king over us.’ So now present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and clans.”

And so the tribes presented themselves and lots were cast. The tribe of Benjamin was selected.

This was followed by the clans of the tribe of Benjamin coming forward. Lots again were cast and the clan of Matri was selected.

Scripture then tells us that Saul, son of Kish, was then selected. At first, he wasn’t to be found but when they located him and brought him to the people, a majority exclaimed, “Long live the king!” Samuel finished up the installment procedures by explaining the rights and duties of the king to the people. They were written onto a scroll which was deposited before the Lord. There was no doubt as to how the Lord expected the responsibilities of the office to be dispatched.

Saul was on top of the world and the first king of Israel, anointed not just with oil but even more importantly, anointed by the power of the Spirit of the Lord, which changed Saul’s heart and equipped him to do the Lord’s will. All he had to do was remain faithful and obedient to God in order to succeed. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen.

Before we get into the rest of the story, know and trust in this as we study Saul’s initial calling:

God can do this with anyone. Anyone.

No one is disqualified from being chosen and then anointed by the Holy Spirit into special, divine service unto the Lord Most High. Like Saul, God can summon any of us to carry out our own Plan A.

God can also revert to a Plan B if we don’t carry out his Plan A. He always has a Plan B and we’ll see that very evident in the life of Saul who had everything and ended up losing it.

Things began going south when Saul decided to disobey God and not follow His guidance. Look at this from 1 Samuel 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. 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. 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.’”

So Saul summoned the men and mustered them at Telaim—two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand from Judah. Saul went to the city of Amalek and set an ambush in the ravine. 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.

Then Saul attacked the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, near the eastern border of Egypt. He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword. 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.

Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel: “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.

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.”

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

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

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.”

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

“Tell me,” Saul replied.

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. 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.’ Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?”

“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. 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.”

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. 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.”

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. Now I beg you, forgive my sin and come back with me, so that I may worship the Lord.”

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!”

As Samuel turned to leave, Saul caught hold of the hem of his robe, and it tore. 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. 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.”

Through Samuel, God had given clear instruction. Everything that belonged to the Amalekites was to be destroyed to include all their animals. There was no gray area. No room for misinterpretation. That is unless you wanted to disobey God and then try and justify your actions with an excuse. This is clearly what Saul did here.

For when Saul attacked the Amalekites, we read where he spared their king, Agag, and kept the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs—everything that was good was held onto. If anything wasn’t good, it was destroyed. Saul wasn’t willing to go fully with God’s plan because he had his own plans. Keeping all that was good would pad his coffers and add to his power. Surely God would be fine with this, Saul must have thought. And if He objects, I can bring my men into the lie and also say that the animals could be referred to as waiting sacrifices to God. Surely that would appease Him.

That clearly wasn’t the case for as scripture revealed, God burned with anger against Saul and regretted that He had selected Him as king. He chose to reject Saul as king of Israel and as Samuel shared, would give the kingdom over to one of Saul’s neighbors.

In other words, God was going to Plan B and that Plan B would be David.

Friends, we have so much to learn from this story today. Here are some takeaways:

1. When God blesses you and gives you responsibility, cherish the blessing He has given you.

Saul, coming from Israel’s smallest tribe, was given an opportunity that no one else had been given before: the chance to be Israel’s king. What an amazing distinction! But rather than value this and seek to glorify and honor God in his divinely appointed position, Saul got tangled up in his power and somehow saw it appropriate to deviate from the plan of the One who had placed him in power. And he did so with disastrous results. This leads to the second takeaway.

2. Always remain obedient to God no matter what.

We would be well served to always remember Samuel’s words:

“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. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.”

What does God delight in? He rejoices in our obedience, not a partial compliance but a full one. To choose to do otherwise, to rebel against God, only brings His rejection and correction. Just ask Saul.

3. We shouldn’t make excuses to cover our sins.

It was bad enough that Saul disobeyed God but he made it even worse when he decided to lie and cover up his disobedience with an excuse. God told him to destroy all that belonged to the Amalekites. If God wanted the best of the plunder to be reserved for him then He would have given Saul that direction. I really think Saul believed he could wiggle away from his transgression somehow. Satan has a way of trying to convince us that a little sin is fine and if we get caught up in our sin, then we can just lie to cover ourselves. But as we see, God expects full obedience with no compromise and what do we think we’ll get away with. For God can see into the very depths of our hearts and minds. Nothing is hidden from His sight.

Saul’s chapter would end when He and all his sons were killed as they battled the Philistines on Mount Gilboa. There, the Saul who once had everything ended up losing everything including his own life. Plan A was over and God, through installing David as king, was ready to begin a Plan B with David.

In whatever God calls us to do, we had better learn from Saul and always remain obedient to God’s will and way. Otherwise, God will have to reject us and go with someone else who will get the job done.

For He always has a Plan B.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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