Douglas Jacoby Podcast

OT Characters: Saul

Episode Summary

Douglas continues his series on Old Testament Characters now discussing the life of Saul. In this episode Douglas talks about what we can learn from Saul's story and also what we can learn about the character of God through Saul. We hope you are challenged to "think about faith".

Episode Notes

For more additional notes and resources check out Douglas' website.

Hebrew words:

• Sha’ul – Saul, 422x in the Bible.
  • Note: Saul of Tarsus = 23x; King Saul, 399x. In 1 Sam 9-11, 13-29, 31; 2 Sam 1 etc.
  • Shaul -- mentioned 10x (e.g. Gen 36:37). It is a shame that our English Bibles do not make it clearer when names are repeated.

Further study:

• Passages covered in this podcast:
  • 1 Samuel 9:2; 10:6,9ff,22; 13:10-14; 15:10-13,16-20,22-31,34-35; 14; 15; 16; 17; 18; 19; 21; 24, 26; 28; 31
  • 2 Samuel 1
• At first, Saul is to be anointed as a "prince" (1 Sam 9:16) -- God is the true king. Further, Saul hardly acts like a king. His qualities appear only it be his family's money and his good looks. He hides among the baggage when it's time to be presented. People don't do what he says (e.g. his soldiers refuse to execute his son, Jonathan; he has forbidden witchcraft, supposedly driving the mediums from the land, but he consults one of these mediums!).
• Further: compare/contrast Saul of Tarsus || Benjamin, persecuted God’s people, but like Peter & Judas, their similarities are outweighed by their differences. One started out well and ended up terrible… the other started out terribly, and ended up a spiritual giant.

Some things we learn about God:

• God’s spirit can change even an unworthy leader into a godly man.
• However, his spirit will never force anyone against his will. We always have a choice.
• God will often leave an unworthy leader in office far past the time we would have thought he must go.
• We are never to attempt to cross the boundary between the living and the dead (séances, necromancy, witchcraft, sorcery).

For kids:

• A lesson on Hiding
  • 1 Samuel 10 (Leadership)
    • How was Saul hiding?
    • What was he supposed to do, and what was he doing instead?
    • Considering he was such a tall man, and called by God to be a leader, how do you think he felt? Why was he not more confident?
  • 1 Samuel 17 (Goliath)
    • How was Saul hiding?
    • What was he supposed to do, and what was he doing instead?
    • Considering he was the king, and God had promised victory, why do you suppose he was acting so strange?
  • Can you remember anyone else in the Bible who hid from God or from what was right?
    • Adam (hid with Eve in the Garden), Cain (hid the truth from the Lord), Moses (behind his brother)…. and many more.
    • Do we ever hide from God? How?
    • Share how you (as an adult) have hidden from God.
    • Is this silly? Does God know where we are?
    • What should we do to be more open and brave?
  • Close with a prayer.
• A lesson on Jealousy (based on his feelings about David, e.g. 18:6-12)
  • Use 1 Samuel 15 and discuss the issue of complete obedience.
  • Game:
    • Parents can have prewritten various small chores and put them in a bowl.
    • Children draw out one for the parents to do.
    • Parents deliberately don’t do all of the chores, and children identify what the parents didn’t do.
    • Parents then make excuses.  Then discuss that this is what Saul did (his disobedience and excuses).
    • Children can then take turns doing the chores (simple, quick ones like "put the pillow on the sofa," or "bring me a glass of water." etc.)
  • Discuss what keeps us from fully obeying.
    • For Saul it was pressure from other people and fear of what they would think.
    • For us it can be peer pressure, as well as laziness etc.
    • Talk about the importance of obedience for adults as well as children – so that children understand that parents have to obey too (bosses, law, government).
  • Discuss why complete obedience is important.
  • Replay the game and everyone completely obey this time round.

Key verses:

• 1 Samuel -- 10:6 Changed by Spirit of God.
• 1 Samuel -- 10:22 But still reluctant to lead.
• 1 Samuel 13, 15, 28 -- Severe disrespect for God’s word.
• 1 Samuel 18 -- Governed by jealousy.
• 1 Samuel 31 - Death on Mt Gilboa.

Next lesson: Jonathan