LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF KING SAUL (PART 2)
TEXT:
"And Saul said, Bring hither a burnt offering to me, and peace offerings. And he offered the burnt offering." (1st Samuel 13 verse 9, King James Version).
In the Scripture reading for today, we see how king Saul stepped out of his calling as king and attempted to assume the role assigned only to Samuel the priest. He deviated from his calling as king when he offered burnt offerings to God, a role that was exclusively assigned only to the priest.
Saul had probably thought that what he did was an insignificant matter. After all, he could have seen Samuel offer sacrifices before and felt that there was nothing particular or special about it. But before God, this was a very wrong and grievous thing to do. It meant outright disobedience. Later in the history of Israel, God repeated His displeasure towards those that didn't keep to their calling. In 2nd Chronicles 26 verses 16 to 21, King Uzziah had offered incense to God, which function was outrightly the prerogative of priests. In consequence thereof, he became instantly leprous. Again, in 1st Chronicles 13 verses 9 to 10, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzza and was struck dead because he put forth his hand to hold and rescue the Ark of God when the ox that carried it stumbled. The reason for God's anger against him was that only a Levite could do this.
The bottom line here is that these men did what they were not called by God to do. The case of Uzza was pathetic and would very much appeal to human reason; for he had an apparent good cause for putting his hand on the Ark; to wit, to rescue it from falling off the cart as the ox stumbled. But not so with God. We need to be very careful when it comes to the execution of our God given responsibilities.
Now, the question is this: at what point should a Christian assume the role of another when it becomes obvious that God's work would suffer because the one assigned to act was not available? In the case of king Saul for example, it seemed to him that Samuel was not available at the time set by him to come to offer the sacrifice; and seeing that the people had begun to scatter from him because Samuel tarried, wasn't it reasonable for him to step out into Samuel's office, to hold brief for him?
Well, not at all! God would not accept that! The answer lies in our understanding of God's calling. We need to distinguish between special callings and general callings of men by God. No doubt, God frowns at disobedience, especially when it relates to His calling and His instructions to men who have been called to serve Him. Truth is, as Christians, we enjoy a general calling by God and part of our responsibility as such is to preach the Good news to the world. But let's understand that, notwithstanding, God has given some of us some special calling to do certain things in the Church. Some of these are ministry gifts mentioned in 1st Corinthians 12 verses 28 to 30. It's in the light of this that it will be wrong to assume the responsibility of an Apostle, when one is not called by God to that office.
I remember Keneth Hagin of blessed memory who once said that the Lord had to rebuke him for his love to do the ministry of a teacher, whereas his calling was that of a prophet. He'd grown up in ministry to love to teach God's Word. But his calling was that of a prophet. According to him, this singular violation almost caused him to die prematurely had the Lord not intervened.
Cleaning up the Church auditorium, for instance, or to wash the Church toilet, among others, are general callings or responsibilities which any Christian can assume. As you arrive at Church and you discover that the Church auditorium is unkempt, you may have it cleaned up. Under such circumstances, you may step into the role of the one who had been assigned to do it, but wasn't available to do it at the said time. But the same is not true of the role of the Pastor of the Church. It's a special calling. Not everyone is called to be a pastor. For any Christian to assume the role of a Pastor without having been called by God as such will be disorderly and incoherent; except where one has been assigned to do so by authority. Anything done by anyone under such circumstances would amount to one offering "strange fire" like king Saul. It's important that we understand these things. They're issues that God takes very seriously, even today.
Had king Saul waited a bit for Samuel to arrive and reminded himself that he was just a king and not a priest; had Uzza reminded himself that only Levites could touch the Ark of the Covenant and that notwithstanding that the oxen stumbled, that it was God's responsibility to protect the Ark from falling; had pride not come upon king Uzziah and had reminded himself that he was stepping out of his authority as king when he offered incense to God, things would have been different, they would have been spared God's judgement and wouldn't be on Bible record set forth as deviants before God.
PRAYER:
Lord, help me to know and to understand my calling and to never deviate therefrom, in Jesus name.