Three Lessons, Three Lives
Nearly 3,000 years ago, Solomon, a man noted for his wisdom (1 Kings 4:29), recorded these proverbs:
To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice. (Proverbs 21:3)
All a man's ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the LORD. (Proverbs 16:2)
There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. (Proverbs 16:25)
Do these proverbs trouble you? I know they trouble me. For more often than not, my ways seem right and innocent to me. Solomon most likely wrote these words while serving as King of Israel (c. 970 - 930 B.C.), perhaps toward the middle or latter part of his reign. However, these insights did not originate with Solomon--they were painful truths handed down by his father David, and learned bitterly by both David and his predecessor to the throne, Saul.
It was around the year 1050 B.C. that a young man named Saul was appointed by God to be the first king of Israel. Though tall and good-looking, he lived as ordinary a life as one could live. One day, his father sent him in search of some lost donkeys. Saul was ready to give up, but his servant urged him to ask for advice.
When they reached the district of Zuph, Saul said to the servant who was with him, "Come, let's go back, or my father will stop thinking about the donkeys and start worrying about us." But the servant replied, "Look, in this town there is a man of God; he is highly respected, and everything he says comes true. Let's go there now. Perhaps he will tell us what way to take." (1 Samuel 9:5-6)
Though Saul knew nothing of Samuel, the "man of God," Samuel knew of him. God had already told Samuel: "About this time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin. Anoint him leader over my people Israel" (1 Sam 9:16a). As Saul approached, God reaffirmed this, telling Samuel: "This is the man I spoke to you about; he will govern my people" (v.17). Can you picture the scene? Here a young man looking for some advice on how to best find a few lost donkeys meeting up with the prophet who will appoint him king of the entire nation.
Saul approached Samuel in the gateway and asked, "Would you please tell me where the seer's house is?" "I am the seer," Samuel replied. "Go up ahead of me to the high place, for today you are to eat with me, and in the morning I will let you go and will tell you all that is in your heart. As for the donkeys you lost three days ago, do not worry about them; they have been found. And to whom is all the desire of Israel turned, if not to you and all your father's family?" Saul answered, "But am I not a Benjamite, from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why do you say such a thing to me?" (1 Samuel 9:18-21)
The next day, Samuel would anoint Saul as king. But Saul was so overwhelmed by it all that he said nothing about it, even when asked by his uncle (1 Samuel 10:14-16). Later, Samuel summoned the people of Israel to announce God's decision to grant them a king. When Saul's name was finally announced, he was nowhere to be found!
Therefore they inquired of the LORD further, "Has the man come here yet?" And the LORD answered, "There he is, hidden among the equipment." So they ran and brought him from there; and when he stood among the people, he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders upward. And Samuel said to all the people, "Do you see him whom the LORD has chosen that there is no one like him among all the people?" So all the people shouted and said, "Long live the king!" (1 Samuel 10:22-24, NKJV)
What an incredibly humble beginning--Saul, the reluctant leader, cowering behind the equipment as his name is called. Through him, God would accomplish much. But ultimately, God rejected Saul as leader. Through Samuel, God had instructed Saul to carry out his wrath against the Amalekites. God's judgement was absolute--no one was to be spared from it (1 Samuel 15:1-3). But Saul did not carry out God's instructions; instead, he spared the leader of the country and plundered "everything that was good" (v.9) for himself. It fell on Samuel to confront him.
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." "Stop!" 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; make war on 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 voice of 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." (1 Samuel 15:12-23)
For Saul, his ways had "seemed innocent to him" at the time--just as they always had. But something had changed. His heart had been corrupted--so thoroughly that even after being confronted by Samuel, Saul still proclaimed his innocence! Clearly, he had violated God's instructions. But only after his rejection as king did Saul admit he had sinned. Too late did Saul recognize that his own conscience would not serve as the arbiter of his actions. The fact that Saul lacked guilt or felt that his actions were justified, in the end, proved immaterial.
How tragic that David, the "man after God's own heart" (1 Samuel 13:14), somehow failed to learn this lesson from his predecessor Saul. He would later commit adultery with Bathsheba and then conspire to murder her husband in an attempt to cover up his sin (Samuel 11:1 - 12:15). On the outside, David's ways seemed right to him. So much so, that David could not contain his anger when the prophet Nathan told him of a rich man who had taken a poor man's only lamb:
David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, "As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity." (2 Samuel 12:5-6)
Nathan's response dealt a crushing blow to David's righteous indignation:
Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master's house to you, and your master's wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. (2 Samuel 12:7-9)
David would suffer greatly for his sin. As he neared the end of his life, no doubt David hoped that his son Solomon would not have to suffer in the same way. Before his death, David spoke to the people--and delivered a special message to his son, the future king:
"So now I charge you in the sight of all Israel and of the assembly of the LORD, and in the hearing of our God: Be careful to follow all the commands of the LORD your God, that you may possess this good land and pass it on as an inheritance to your descendants forever. "And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever. Consider now, for the LORD has chosen you to build a temple as a sanctuary. Be strong and do the work." (1 Chronicles 28:8-10)
Solomon would indeed be strong and would do the work of building the temple. He too sought after God. But he too would fail. His love for foreign women would turn his heart away from God (1 Kings 11:1-14) and ultimately lead to a divided nation. Though Solomon had sinned, it was his son Rehoboam who would suffer the consequences. In the end, all but one tribe of Israel would be taken away from the house of David.
To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice. (Proverbs 21:3)
All a man's ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the LORD. (Proverbs 16:2)
There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. (Proverbs 16:25)
Indeed, it is with great irony that we read these three proverbs of Solomon. For beneath them we see three men, each of whom felt their ways to be righteous and yet would fall prey to sin. They understood these truths intellectually and even taught them to others--yet somehow, in the end, it didn't make a difference.
Will it make a difference for you?
Copyright © 1998 Tim A. Krell. All rights reserved. Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version (NIV), Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.