Leadership Answers to God

1Samuel 15:20

20And Saul said to Samuel, "But I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and gone on the mission which the Lord sent me, and brought back Agag, king of Amalek; I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.

As said in a previous message, the Bible addresses all situations known to man and every human condition. King Saul had only been king of Israel for two years before he encountered, "the big head" syndrome. The situation with the Amalekites was not the first time King Saul had disobeyed a direct command. He did it with the Philistines as well in chapter 14. Saul was chastised by the prophet Samuel then. Samuel was the mouthpiece of God. He was the prophet that GOD appointed to the earthly leader of His people to help give guidance, encouragement and to understand the direction of God. The prophet is also to rebuke and speak God's judgement when necessary.

When Saul spoke to Samuel with the scripture above, he blatantly lied to him. Now Samuel was the one whom God sent to anoint Saul and make him king in the first place and Samuel reminded him of this before he went to war. Samuel gave the words of the Lord to Saul and the specific instructions were "Now go to Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey." God gave the reason as well. Amalek ambushed the people of Israel when God commanded Moses to bring them out of Egypt back in Exodus 17. Granted, God allowed the Israelites to defeat them but God wanted to be sure they had no opportunity to ambush His people again. Saul did not listen and he spared their commander in chief, King Agag. It also says that Saul and the people spared the best of the animals. When Samuel called Saul out for his disobedience, guess what he did? He blamed the people saying it was them who spared the animals. Not only was Saul disobedient but he threw his own people under the bus blaming them. Had he followed instructions and did what God said, he would've commanded them to do the same. So Saul's punishment was that he would loose the kingdom. Shortly thereafter, Samuel was sent by God to anoint David as the new king. And God sent an evil spirit on Saul as punishment for his disobedience. This is a clear example that the people will do as the leader does. The command was given to Saul. He didn't carry it out and therefore he nor his people obeyed the voice of the Lord. Subsequently, 500 years later, a descendant of Agag arose to attempt to kill the Jews via an ambush just as God knew so God had to place a Jew in a high place to protect the people.

Leadership has the distinct responsibility to obey the voice of the Lord because it is God who appoints them. They do not appoint themselves. And when the instructions are not followed, everyone suffers and the leadership answers to God good or bad. Leadership can lead the people to victory if obeying the voice of the Lord or slaughter with disobedience that there is suffering. But the worst thing a leader can do is throw those who obeyed them under the bus. God calls followers of Christ to obey leadership. And it is leadership who pays the highest price for leading anyone astray and even failing to take responsibility. So you want to lead. Are you sure?