And the Spirit of the LORD will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them and shalt be turned into another man.
And it was so, that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart: and all those signs came to pass that day.
And when he came thither to the hill, behold, a company of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came upon him; and prophesied among them.
(1 Samuel 10:6, 9-10)
But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee.
(1Samuel 13:13-14)
And Saul built an altar unto the LORD: the same was the first altar that he built unto the LORD.
(1 Samuel 14:35)
I think Saul's story is a very sad story. Here is a guy who started out "small" in his own eyes and God elevated him to be king over all Israel out of the blue while he was just doing something so menial, like looking for his father's horses; and a couple of years later, God rejects him and looks for another man to be king in his place. Why? What went wrong?
In the very beginning after his first anointing by prophet Samuel, Saul got filled with the spirit of God. He ended up with a new heart. The Bible states he became a new man.
I can't help but notice that he builded his "altar" unto the LORD after - AFTER the second victory God has given him. (And really God gave that victory to his son Jonathan who believed God, not to him.) It is interesting that he's just building this altar now, a few years after he's already a king. (See 1 Samuel 14:35).
Maybe that is what is wrong. He did not have an altar to begin with. He did not have a relationship with God to begin with. So when it came to making wise decisions and obeying God, he failed. First he decided to offer the sacrifice instead of waiting for Samuel. Second, he makes a decree, after the people had fought a great battle that day, to curse any man that would eat. Then third when he finds out Jonathan ate, he was willing to kill his own son. You see him whine and pity himself because the people decided to eat, "Roll a great stone unto me this day." Talk about a man without morals and principles. A weak man. And yet when he started out he was full of faith and vigor. Full of confidence and strength.
I look at David who became king after him and his relationship with God and compare this to Saul. David started out small too. Doing his father's business in the farm; tending sheep. And we find out that he worshipped God while he was there. He had his own harp and made songs. He fought his own battles with the lion and the bear and knew, and said later on, that it was God that saved him. And even before he was anointed to be king he already had faith and love for God. That's the difference. That's what will make the difference. David had a relationship with God, Saul didn't. Saul only needed God when he's in trouble. Offers offering to God when he's in the midst of the battle. Saul remembers God only when he's in trouble, but otherwise he just existed. Not so with David. David loved God and worshipped and praised God even before he was anointed. The spirit of God had to come to Saul after he was anointed. You would think that Saul would be so in loved with God after that. I would think he would have builded an altar right there and then. David on the other hand already had his own altar even as a little boy. He loved God on his own without anybody telling him to love God. David loved God without the oil being poured on him.
Lesson learned:
Having the Holy Ghost doesn't make us perfect. I believe it gives us the power to belong to God and to connect with Him. But until we make our own altar where we can meet God on a daily basis, like Saul, we will only know "about" God and will never know Him personally, like King David did.
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