SAUL BUILT A MONUMENT IN HIS OWN HONOR
I Samuel 16:14 Now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and an evil or injurious spirit from the Lord tormented him.
In some ways this can be a disturbing passage as well as hard to understand. The question might be why would the Holy Spirit leave Saul, and why would the Lord send a demonic spirit go to him? I believe this all started in chapter 15:12 where is says, “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 to Gilgal.’”
King Saul had gone from being so humble that he didn’t want any part of being king, to now setting up monuments to honor himself. Pride had took hold of Saul’s heart, and he may not have even noticed it. That’s the way pride often works. Someone may have told Saul that because he lead the Israelites into battle against the Amalekites and defeated them, the people needed to remember him and this great victory. He may have bought into it, and it lead him to sin against the Lord. All the glory and praise should go to the Lord in our life, because as it says in I Cor 10:31, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” Saul had just insulted the Holy Spirit that brought the victory for him against the Amalekites. This is why I believe the Holy Spirit departed from Saul.
For some this may sound like a small matter, but in God’s eyes it is not. Our self-pride or self-righteousness can become a sink hole that devours all that is good in our life and certainly our relationship with God. Satan and Job are both good examples of this. The difference between them was that Job repented and Satan has not. God looks for people that want to glorify him. I believe that this is why God saw David as a man after his own heart. David may have done some terrible things, but he always loved the Lord and wanted to give him all the glory. Even in the midst of David’s sin, he cried out to God not to take the Holy Spirit from him. (Psalm 51:11) It is the Holy Spirit that brings a personal relationship of God into our heart. The Holy Spirit will speak to us, comfort, teach, encourage, empower, transform us, and so many other things as well as live in us. He desires to be our best friend, and like Jesus and the Heavenly Father is the lover of our soul. It is no wonder David cried out to the Lord not to take the Holy Spirit when he had sinned.
Unlike David or Job, Saul did not humble himself when God corrected him. Instead he hardened his heart towards God in his life. This is what I believed gave Satan and the powers of darkness a foothold in his heart and life. The Holy Spirit most certainly convicted him of his sin, but I don’t believe it was a evil spirit sent from God. While God has control over the powers of darkness, it is not God’s desire to bring evil. What the Holy Spirit was doing was meant for good in bringing Saul back to a right relationship with God.
When Saul closed the door on God, the demonic forces came right in. God will always respect our free will, but the powers of darkness will not. This is why it says in Luke 11:24-26, “When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself and they go in and live there, And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.” And so it was with Saul when he hardened his heart towards God. The Holy Spirit left because he was no longer welcome, and the demons came into Saul’s heart. When the Holy Spirit comes into our heart, he brings only good. He bring a foretaste of heaven. When the powers of darkness come into our heart, we can expect a foretaste of hell. In hell there is no love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness or self-control. Some say that at least they will be with their friends if they go to hell. Well, in hell there are no friends! There is nothing good in hell, and there is nothing good apart from God in our life.
If there is one thing we must never do, and that is to harden our heart towards God. In our life there will come things that the powers of darkness will use to try to get us to turn away from God and harden our heart toward him, but we must not do it. After Saul hardened his heart towards God, he never had happiness again. He may have had wealth, prestige, honor, power and so much more, but he didn’t have the love of God in his heart anymore. Let us guard our heart and our relationship with God, always giving him all the honor and glory for all the good done in our life.
Prayer: Holy Spirit, please never leave us! We are weak and at times very foolish. Please bring us unto our salvation, so that we can be with you, Jesus and the Heavenly Father for all eternity. It is in Jesus name we ask this.
