Hero Worship
In our hearts, we are never to allow
spiritual leaders to take precedence over God.
Here's Gene:
You've got to look at this in context
because there's a subtlety here.
But when you see it in context
it becomes very clear what we're talking about.
Let's go back to 10:19--verse 19.
But today...
This is the way Samuel addressed Israel
once they knew that Saul was going to be their king.
He says:
...today you have rejected your God...
No ands, no ifs, or buts.
...you have rejected your God, who saves you
from all your troubles and afflictions.
You said to Him, 'You must set a king over us.' ...
And in doing, that you've rejected God.
Now we've seen that in previous passages
where God reassured Samuel that the people
were rejecting God, not him.
And so we read on:
...Now therefore present yourselves
before the LORD by your tribes and [your] clans."
We read on in verses 20-24:
Samuel had all the tribes of Israel come forward...
Now isn't it interesting that at this point in time,
he has told the children of Israel
that they've just walked out of the will of God
by having wrong motives?
But at the same time, He is saying:
I'm going to give you a king.
And here's the process and Samuel lays it out.
...Samuel had all the tribes of Israel come forward,
and the tribe of Benjamin was selected.
And then he had the tribe of Benjamin come forward
by its clans, and the Matrite clan was selected.
Finally, Saul son of Kish was selected.
But when they searched for him,
they could not find him. ...
And immediately we see a revelation of his weakness.
Even though he was the tallest of all,
he had a weakness.
...They again inquired of the LORD,
"Has the man come here yet?"
[And] the LORD replied,
"There he is, hidden among the supplies." ...
One of the translations said he hid in the baggage.
There he is, hidden among the supplies.
...[And] they ran [and they] got him from there.
And when he stood among the people,
he stood a head taller than anyone else.
[And] Samuel said to all the people,
"Do you see the one the LORD has chosen?
There is no one like him
among the entire population."
And all the people shouted, "Long live the king!"
And when you see that in context,
they were elevating Saul above God.
They were revealing their hearts.
And we see that from the context
because God has already made it very clear
that they had rejected Him.
It wasn't wrong to have a king
but their motives were wrong.
And so here we see an Old Testament illustration
really, of hero worship.
There's another lesson here.
And again, this emerges from the whole story.
But it's almost as if God is saying
to them through Samuel: I'm going to give you
a man and he will appear to be perfect.
He will appear to be everything
you wanted in a king.
But I've given you this person to teach you
not to put your confidence in a human being.
Because already when they went to look for him,
he was hiding in the baggage.
And there was his weakness.
But then we begin to see that
what appears to be humility,
become an incredible sense of pride and arrogance
throughout Saul's life.
In essence God is saying: I'll give you a man.
And you're going to trust him.
But he's going to fail.
Absolutely, miserably, he's going to fail.
So it's interesting, you see the balance here.
I'm going to give you the king.
And He even says: If he honors Me,
and if you honor Me, I'll bless you
even though you've made a bad choice.
Even though you've asked for something
with wrong motives. I'm going to still bless you.
And that's part of God's grace.
And God meant that.
Now ultimately of course, they didn't follow through.
And they experienced the judgment that came.
And the failure, and the disappointment,
and all that went along with that.
So the Principle basically is:
In our hearts, we are never to allow
spiritual leaders to take precedence over God.
And that's exactly what happened
when they said: Long live the king.
And so the question is:
Why is it easy for some Christians to become "pastor worshipers?"
And we might broaden that to say: Just human beings,
generally, want to honor a man, a person,
someone that they put their confidence in.
And you can see that in almost every
government situation in the world--
where we lift up a person.
And we need that security of a person.
And so even as Christians, we can do that.
Why? Why does it happen?
Well first of all, we do need someone to look up to.
That's not wrong.
We need leaders that we can trust.
They make us feel secure.
They speak the truth.
And that makes us feel good.
There's nothing wrong with that.
But our natural tendency then, is to say:
Long live the king. To elevate.
To get that out of balance.
And we've got to be very, very careful.
And there is a balance in that situation.
Because we're to respect those who lead us.
But we're to focus on God.
And we're to keep that in balance--
respect, love, appreciation--but in balance.
Never, ever to put that individual before God.
And to become what I have called
a hero worshiper.
And by the way, one of the problems here
that we have to be very careful of,
is that some leaders encourage it.
And Saul actually encouraged that.
As you follow his story, he actually encouraged that.
And there are some spiritual leaders
that encourage that.
Now it's not wrong to enjoy appreciation.
We all need that.
We all need encouragement.
We're to honor one another above ourselves.
We're to give honor to those who deserve honor.
That's biblical.
But again we've got to keep that in balance.
And as spiritual leaders, if we ever see that happening
we must be cautious to always
refocus people's thoughts,
feelings, and admiration.
And appreciation on the one
who has made all this possible.
And that's God Himself and the Lord Jesus Christ.
So again, we have the need there for a unique balance.
And I think we can learn a very practical lesson here
in relationship to what happened
in the hearts of the children of Israel.