Saul-A Tall Man Goes Down In Short Order

How many of us, at one time or another, have struggled with the fact that there are so many people to please that there is no way on earth we could possibly satisfy them all? This is certainly a struggle among all people, as it was for King Saul in the story we look at today.
Saul was a man that had been given an opportunity to be the greatest ruler that ever reigned in Israel, yet he threw it away because he could not resist the pressure that was put upon him by the people that he ruled. A valuable lesson may be learned through his example: when you lead, you must do it in the power and movement of the Holy Spirit in your life, not leaning upon your own understanding. Pressures will come, people will tremble and, through their faint-hearted spirit, attempt to distract you from the task at hand. There is an answer to these pressures, but it is one that Saul did not find.
How can we, as future and present leaders avoid the trappings of peer pressure and independence that Saul faced? It is my desire to answer that very question and to give you the power to lead strongly and effectively, despite the problems you may face.
Ralph Ellison was a leader in his community, and because of the attitudes of his day, he was a leader in is racial group. But he too struggled with the pressure of looking only at what others thought, turning away from independent reasoning. In his writing of Battle Royal he spoke of how he was to give a speech to a group of white men that were influential and who he felt would help his cause. So desperate was he to please these men that he went through beatings and mocking simply that he might please them in some way. But as he looked back at it all he found this: “I was naïve. I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer. It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: That I am nobody but myself. But I first had to discover that I am an invisible man!”1
Ellison realized that, though he depended upon everyone else for guidance, he was made to be, simply, himself. This struggle that we all face is the exact same one that Saul faced in 1 Samuel 13. He was faced with two choices: do I please the people or do I hold strongly to what I know is right and let the people think of me what they will. We know from the story that Saul took the first option. “When the people had scattered” Saul said, “I felt compelled…” Saul was under a magnificent pressure to act and since the people were seemingly losing heart he acted foolishly.
What should he have done? Saul is one, at times, you feel fairly sorry for. He was doomed from the beginning by the very fact that his presence as a king was against the very command of the Lord in the first place. HE was a result of Israel’s weakening to the peer pressure of the sinful nations around him. So now he was expected to lead a rebellious people who would not listen to commands from God Himself. But there is no excuse for him, even though he did what the majority of us would do.
So what is the answer to our question, how can we lead and be confident in our decisions, despite the thoughts of those around us? The answer is found in 1 Samuel 13:13,14. Samuel tells Saul, “ …the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The LORD has sought for Himself a man after His own heart…” What is the answer that Samuel supplies? “If only you had not followed your own heart that is easily swayed by people! If only you would have listened to the very heart of God in your decisions! Than God would have sustained your kingdom forever!” Again an answer is found in Acts 13:22; this states that Saul was put down because he was unlike David in the fact that David was a man that “will do all my [God] will.”
Consequently this is the challenge to us. If, when faced with times of decision, we will rid ourselves of the natural inclination to please others and turn our minds to doing the will of God, then we will be able to lead with effectiveness and decisiveness. Unlike Saul who feared the people because they were trembling with fear, we must lay aside the fears of the people if they are contrary to what God has commanded us to do.
Paul gives this exhortation to the people of Galatians throughout the entire letter he wrote to them. They too had given into the pressures of those around them and in turn had moved away from the true gospel into a gospel that was dependent upon what your fellow men thought of you. Paul said that they had been “bewitched”! And near the closing of his letter he extols them to be “filled with the Spirit” and to “walk by the Spirit”.
In closing, this too must be our attitude. Leadership and all it entails cannot be done in our own strength, since in our own strength we are tossed and driven on like a rudderless ship in a squalling sea. No, the only way that we can avoid the trappings of insecurity and peer pressure is to depend upon the Holy Spirit to lead us in the right path and to give us the wisdom to make the correct decisions, despite the pressures of the people around us.
Do not lose heart! No man is perfect! But pick yourself up from your failures with the encouragement that God, who gives generously, will grant you a spirit of wisdom if you will only ask Him in sincere faith 2.



1. Ralph Ellison, “Battle Royal”, 1947.
2. James 1:5-6