Seven days and a stubborn heart prevented King Saul from being a man after God’s own heart.

According to 1 Samuel 13, the king grew weary and worried by waiting for Samuel the priest to appear and lend encouragement to the people. Taking matters into his own hands, Saul the Benjamite collected the offerings and sacrificed them as if he had the authority to do so. He did not since that priestly role belonged only to the sons of Levi and when he finished his transgression, immediately Samuel arrived and asked, “What have you done?”

Saul blamed the people for his own cowardice and compromise and even accused Samuel of driving him into the arms of situation ethics by tarrying so long. “Therefore I felt compelled,” Saul summarizes. Isn’t is sad how feelings can be so misleading -- how emotions like fear, selfishness and sloth can interrupt obedience and interfere with divine fellowship.

Samuel labeled Saul’s compromise as foolish disobedience and warned him that he would lose his crown because of the deep-seated attitude of rebellion that this one episode epitomized. “The Lord has sought for himself a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you” (1 Sam. 13:14).

As much as the expression “Man after God’s own heart” sounds purely emotional and feelings-based, it becomes clear from Samuel’s denunciation of Saul that such a status is just as much determined by an attitude of obedience to God’s will. Feelings can be deceptive -- witness Saul who felt compelled to sin. Sincere obedience to the divine command, however, can be measured and tested (2 Cor. 13:5), so that the worshiper can know he is following after God’s own heart (2 Cor. 5:9-11, 1 John 4:13).

It was David the giant-slayer who filled those shoes and was indeed later judged to be such a man (Acts 13:22). Some would respond doubtfully by noting David’s infamous sins, and while we wish he had not committed them, we take solace in the knowledge that even imperfect, penitent sinners can live and die “after God’s own heart.”
In this series of columns, we will explore that designation and pursue the goal of making it appropriate for ourselves -- people after God.