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The solution to Saul's bad precedent, part 1

King Saul set the precedent for the church as a whole during the Pentecostal Age (between Christ’s two advents). Saul was crowned on the day of “wheat harvest” (1 Samuel 12:17), which was also known as the Feast of Weeks, when the offering of wheat signaled the start of wheat harvest. Hence, Saul was a Pentecostal type, and his coronation brought “thunder and rain” as well, which prophesied of the voice of God and the outpouring of the Spirit in Acts 2:4.

We know from Scripture that Saul was legitimately anointed as the king, but that God was displeased with the people for rejecting His direct rule over them (1 Samuel 8:4, 5, 6). Even so, God gave the people their desire, saying in 1 Samuel 8:9,

⁹ Now then, listen to their voice; however, you shall solemnly warn them and tell them of the procedure of the king who will reign over them.

Prior to any of God’s verdicts, there is time to repent and to discern the will of God. But once a verdict has been issued from the divine throne, the people must live with their decisions for an unspecified amount of time. Unfortunately, most believers fail to understand that just because He answers prayer and gives them their desires, this does not mean that God is pleased. When God answers prayers that go against His own will, those answered prayers always contain a certain level of divine judgment. In other words, we are judged by our own answered prayers.

I myself had to learn this lesson by experience years ago during my 12-year training period (1981-1993). It is always better to pray to know God’s will and understand His mind, so that we can pray to establish His will rather than lean on our own understanding. Yet so often, in our spiritual immaturity, we think we know best how to reign on earth. We have too much confidence in the flesh and in our understanding of the way God ought to administer the universe.

As I awoke this morning, I was inspired to share the principles that we should all learn from the example of King Saul. Hopefully, we will be able to avoid those problems—or, at the very least, be able to cope with the long-term problems that we have inherited from other men’s past decisions.

The Nature of Kings

The Israelites wanted God to “appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations” (1 Samuel 8:5). They got their wish, and Saul was indeed a king who exercised authority “like all the nations.”

The Israelites wanted a king to “judge” them according to the definition of authority used by the nations who did not know the God of Israel. Saul started out good, but in the end his idea of authority was very much like the other nations. The same occurred in the history of the church, which soon departed from its Pentecostal high point.

Here is how Samuel described their misuse of authority in 1 Samuel 8:11-18,

¹¹ He said, “This will be the procedure of the king who will reign over you; he will TAKE your sons and place them for himself in his chariots and among his horsemen, and they will run before his chariots. ¹² He will APPOINT FOR HIMSELF commanders of thousands and of fifties, and some to do his plowing and to reap his harvest and to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. ¹³ He will also TAKE your daughters for perfumers and cooks and bakers. ¹⁴ He will TAKE the best of your fields and your vineyards and your olive groves and give them to his servants. ¹⁵ He will TAKE a tenth of your seed and of your vineyards and give to his officers and to his servants. ¹⁶ He will also TAKE your male servants and your female servants and your best young men and your donkeys and use them for his work. ¹⁷ He will TAKE a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his servants. ¹⁸ Then you will cry out in that day because of your king which you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”

Essentially, kings of ungodly nations are TAKERS, not givers. Their idea of government is that they are entitled to take all of these things, using the excuse that this is what authority means. But this is the opposite of Jesus’ concept of Kingdom government. Until we learn the difference, we are stuck with rulers who exercise authority as the nations have always done.

The Proper Use of Authority

Matthew 20:25-28 says,

²⁵ But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles [ethnos, “nations”] lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. ²⁶ It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, ²⁷ and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; ²⁸ just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

True Kingdom authority does not seek servants and slaves to serve the ruler. It seeks to serve the people, even to the point of being willing to die for them. True authority seeks ways to benefit the people, not to use authority to benefit the ruler. Rulers often ask men to die for them, using patriotism to motivate them. Jesus’ policy was like reverse patriotism.

Jesus’ practical definition of authority was that it really meant responsibility. I have often said that authority and responsibility ought to exist in equal measures.

Many well-meaning believers have adopted the ways of the world, yearning for the day when they will be given authority over the nations and “reign with Him for a thousand years” (Revelation 20:6). But how would they rule? Most of them look forward to oppressing the other nations in the way that they have oppressed us. In other words, many believers are like Jesus’ disciples who did not know the proper exercise of authority.

Without knowing how to rule properly, no one can fulfill the calling of Abraham to be a blessing to all families of the earth. Instead, many support such sins as the genocide in Gaza, which perhaps represents the apex of misrule. It seeks to TAKE and to kill any who get in their way. It seeks to enslave, rather than to set men free, because it is done by the spirit of the earthly Jerusalem, which is a house of bondage (Galatians 4:24).

In John 10:10, Jesus said,

¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Kingdom government uses authority to teach, guide, and train people toward spiritual maturity so that they can be set free. That is the ultimate principle of the Jubilee. Romans 8:20, 21 says,

²⁰ For the creation was subjected to futility [because of Adam’s sin], not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

We who are the children of the free woman (Galatians 4:26) are learning to apply the law of Jubilee, not only to ourselves as individuals but to the entire creation.