King Saul
The king who started in genuine humility and ended consulting a witch — what pride does slowly
The Beginning: A Humble Man
Saul’s introduction in scripture is disarming. He was a tall, handsome young man of the tribe of Benjamin, and when Samuel first told him he would be king, Saul’s response was: “Am not I a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel? and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? wherefore then speakest thou so to me?” (1 Samuel 9:21). At his public coronation, they found him hiding among the baggage.
This is not a man who began by grasping for power. He was genuinely reluctant. His early reign showed real promise — military victories, popular support, the Spirit of God resting on him. He was not always what he became.
Partial Obedience as Disobedience
The turning point came twice, and both times the pattern was the same: Saul obeyed God partially, kept what he wanted to keep, and rationalized it as acceptable — even as worship. The first failure was at Gilgal, where he offered a sacrifice himself rather than waiting for Samuel, because he was afraid of losing his army (1 Samuel 13:8–14). The second was with the Amalekites, where he destroyed what was worthless and kept the best livestock, claiming he intended to sacrifice it to God.
1 Samuel 15:22
“Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.”
Samuel’s verdict was precise: “Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king.” Saul’s version of obedience was obedience that kept him in control. That is not obedience; it is management.
The Slow Unraveling
What followed was a long, painful unwinding. The Spirit of God departed from him. An evil spirit troubled him. His jealousy of David consumed him — a man he had loved and who had served him faithfully. He threw spears at David. He hunted him through the wilderness. He killed the priests of Nob for sheltering David’s flight (1 Samuel 22:18–19). He became the very thing he once fled from: a man who used power to harm the innocent.
On the eve of his final battle, with Samuel dead and God silent, Saul went to the witch of Endor to consult the dead (1 Samuel 28). He had banned such practices himself. That is the final measure of where pride had taken him: doing in desperation the very thing he had condemned.
Saul teaches what happens when a person uses spiritual gifts and positions of leadership to manage God rather than serve Him. He never stopped believing in God — he just stopped obeying Him. And that slow substitution of self-directed religion for actual covenant faithfulness is one of the most dangerous patterns in all of scripture, because it often does not look like apostasy from the outside until it is too late.