Sermon Tone Analysis

! Hidden Weaknesses—The Sinkhole Syndrome

King Saul... was aware of his abilities and gifts.... (They) made him think he could begin to make life's biggest decisions without waiting on God.

... When Samuel caught sight of Saul, the Lord said to him, "This is the man I spoke to you about; he will govern my people" (9:17).

... When Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near, the tribe of Benjamin was chosen.

Then he brought forward the tribe of Benjamin, clan by clan.... Finally Saul son of Kish was chosen.

But when they looked for him, he was not to be found....

And the Lord said, "Yes, he has hidden himself among the baggage."

They ran and brought him out, and as he stood among the people he was a head taller than any of the others.

Samuel said to all the people, "Do you see the man the Lord has chosen?

There is no one like him among all the people."

Then the people shouted, "Long live the king!" (10:20-24).

... The people then said to Samuel, "Who was it that asked, 'Shall Saul reign over us?' Bring these men to us and we will put them to death."

But Saul said, "No one shall be put to death today, for this day the Lord has rescued Israel" (11:12-13).

Saul was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned over Israel forty-two years.

... Jonathan attacked the Philistine outpost at Geba....

The Philistines assembled to fight Israel, with... soldiers as numerous as the sand on the seashore....

When the men of Israel saw that their situation was critical and that their army was hard pressed, they hid in caves and thickets, among the rocks, and in pits and cisterns.... Saul remained at Gilgal, and all the troops with him were quaking with fear.

He waited seven days, the time set by Samuel; but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and Saul's men began to scatter.

So he said, "Bring me the burnt offering and the fellowship offerings."

And Saul offered up the burnt offering.

Just as he finished making the offering, Samuel arrived, and Saul went out to greet him.

"What have you done?" asked Samuel.... "You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time.

But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the Lord's command" (13:1, 3, 5-11, 13-14).

1 Samuel 9-13

One day a few years ago in Winter Park, Florida, Mrs. Owens heard a strange sound outside her window.

When she looked out, she saw her poplar tree disappear into the earth...

There in her front lawn—where there had been solid lawn—was now a huge hole, one that was getting bigger by the second.

Before that sinkhole finished growing, it had swallowed Mrs. Owens' three-bedroom home, five neighborhood cars, the deep end of the town's municipal swimming pool, and a solid block of land.

The hole was as long as a football field and eight stories deep.

Can you imagine it?

If there is anything we take for granted it is the firmness of the earth under our feet.

But the "terra firma" under Mrs. Owens was suddenly somewhat less than "firma."

How could that happen?

Beneath that city block were limestone caverns, once filled with water but now dry.

When the caverns were filled with water they were solid.

But something had siphoned off the water, and when that hidden water was drained away, houses, cars, businesses, and streets sank down and out of sight.

Though we may not believe it, we can be victims of a certain sort of sinkhole ourselves.

We may never have our house fall into the earth, but we might easily watch our lives fall uncontrollably into a sinkhole of their own.

It makes no difference how gifted we may be personally or how much we have accomplished individually.

If we are not careful, the sinkhole syndrome can swallow us up.

In fact, there is a good case for believing that the more we accomplish, the more gifted we are, the easier it is to fall into the syndrome.

!! Searchlight on Saul

This awful possibility is no more clearly demonstrated than in the life of one distinct biblical man, a man who had perhaps more natural gifts and higher personal achievements than any individual up to his time—King Saul, the first king of Israel.

Saul was tremendously gifted.

He had an outstanding home on the towering hill of Geba and a fabulous heritage as the son of the affluent Kish.

He was even physically striking, being the tallest man of his generation—which would be quite an advantage during that time for a leader.

But he also had the gift of divine intervention in his life.

His life seemed almost charmed.

One day he left home to look for some lost donkeys, and he wandered into Samuel who recognized him immediately as the man whom God had designated to be king.

Young Saul went out to find donkeys and found his destiny instead.

That would be like a farm boy from rural Britain wandering around Westminster Abbey until all of a sudden the Archbishop of Canterbury grabs him and crowns him King of England.

But then Saul also had the gift of religious experience to add to his list.

He experienced a miraculous demonstration of God's activity in his life.

Saul, of course, expressed disbelief at Samuel's sudden and strange announcement.

So to convince the young man that he had been chosen king, Samuel told him that he would encounter two men who would tell him where his donkeys were.

Then he would meet two men who would hand him two loaves of bread.

And then, ready or not, when he returned home, young Saul would actually see two prophets descend from the "High Place" and the Spirit of God would come on him.

Then Saul would join the prophets in ecstasy and praise to God.

Samuel even told Saul that God would alter his heart.

And all of this happened exactly as Samuel described.

Add all of these prophetic advantages to Saul's character as a leader, and we have a picture of one who seemed truly ordained, chosen and set apart for very special things.

And when Saul began to lead, he did seem too good to be true.

It's one thing to be crowned a king, another to act like one.

And Saul took to it naturally.

As a leader, he was innately strong.

For instance, Israel wanted desperately to have the Ammonites' protection on the east bank of the Jordan River.

The tribes there were very tempted to succumb to the pagans' demands in return for the much-needed help.

But when the Ammonites' leader said his army would only give the protection if his soldiers could blind every Hebrew man's right eye, thirty-year-old Saul became so righteously angry that he tore an oxen into parts, sending them to all the twelve tribes of Israel.

He threatened to do the same to their oxen if they didn't band together with him to defeat such a sadistic pagan.

Yet he also had compassion on those Israelites who opposed his leadership, sparing their lives.

Over and over, we can see his gracious statesmanship, outstanding creativity, and leadership abilities—all innate gifts.

Saul was even humble.

He actually hid "among the baggage" when lots were cast for his kingship.

He had to be literally carried out to be crowned king.

In other words, Saul was the type of man every dad dreams his daughter will marry—a man of heritage, achievement, gifts, statesmanship, and leadership.

Yet we know the end of his story.

!! Saul's Sinkhole

Saul fell deep into his own personal sinkhole.

He had every advantage and he still fell into ruin.

How and why did it happen?

And most importantly, can it happen to us?

The sad answer to the last question is yes.

Saul's life shows us that we may have remarkable religious experiences, and we may encounter demonstrations of God's power that propel us ahead.

We may be born with every conceivable advantage, and yet none of these can insulate us from the danger of the sinkhole.

We often have the mistaken idea that such gifts and such religious experiences make the person who receives them "better" or at least different in a spiritual way than the rest of us.

But it just isn't true, as the reality of the sinkhole signifies.

No one is immune to life becoming a sudden spiritual sinkhole.

How does it happen?

Remember what we said earlier about the nature of sinkholes?

Everything looks firm and solid until the hidden strength, the waters, drain away from the underground, hollow caverns.

No one can see it happening or know when those hidden resources are gone, but when they are dry, everything quickly collapses.

That was Saul's dilemma.

He was relying on all those gifts, those advantages—on his own inner resources—to get by, and everything was fine for many, many years.

Then, Saul's attitude began to make a difference.

We see that change in attitude when Jonathan, Saul's son, impetuously attacked the Philistines, and the Philistines retaliated.

But the bulk of the Hebrew army ran, totally disappeared, vanishing deep into the limestone caves of the hills of Judea.

Samuel had told Saul that before he did anything he should wait seven days until Samuel could join him.

As a priest, Samuel would make an offering to God concerning the situation.

Here is the turning point in Saul's life.

Saul waited, and on the seventh day when Samuel did not arrive, the remaining army began to scatter.