Difficult Questions: Why Did Saul Continue to Reign?

From time to time, we dig into Scripture and seek answers to difficult questions from the Bible. Today, we are asking the question: “Once David was anointed king, why did Saul continue to reign?”

Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah. I Samuel 16:13 (KJV)

When David was anointed King by Samuel, he was young and inexperienced. He did not know how to rule. The Lord actually used David’s experiences with Saul to train him to be king. God saw him as King, but it was not yet manifested before the people. God used the time between David’s spirtual appointment as king and the physical manifestation of it to train him to reign.

Saul and David had both been anointed as king of Israel- of course both at different times. Saul was the people’s choice, but David was God’s choice.

God did accept Saul as king and gave him many opportunities to obey Him. He obeyed the Lord for a while, until He started trying to please the people more than God. He disobeyed the Lord and then tried to blame the people, not taking personal accountability for his actions. In I Samuel 13, Saul got impatient waiting for Samuel to arrive, so he took matters into his own hands and made an offering. Offerings were not part of the office of the king, and when Samuel arrived he told Saul that his disobedience meant that the his lineage would not be king after him. In I Samuel 15, Saul also disobeyed because he did not destroy all of the enemy and their goods, but kept some. At that point, Samuel told Saul that the Lord had rejected him from being king. In theLord’s sight, at that very moment, Saul ceased being king. However, it took time for David to be ready to rule and for the people to accept him as their king. Therefore, it appeared that Saul was still reigning even though he was no longer recognized by God as Israel’s king.

The bigger the call, the more time that may be needed to prepare. David was anointed king three times. In between anointings, he even served Saul and endured much mistreatment from him. God used Saul’s bad example to show David how to rule correctly. Saul was a model for David of what NOT to do as king.

David learned many lessons along the way- and so do we on the way to the place we are called to. We first learn to serve as we are being trained to reign. The experiences we have as we serve others are lessons we learn and are all part of the big picture God is painting for our lives. God gives us all opportunities over and over to fulfill His call for our lives. We can obey and learn quickly, or we can disobey and learn slowly or never at all.

Decision truly determines destiny. Every day we live, every choice we make, every thing we do, are all potentially leading us to bigger and better things. We can choose to be like Saul, who started well, but ended badly. Or, we can choose to be like David and have a heart after God and fulfill God’s purposes in our generation.