What if this advent season, instead of celebrating the birth of the Jesus, Son of David – we were celebrating Jesus, Son of Saul?

I know as a church we’re going through Acts and we’re talking about Saul/Paul a lot, but the man I am referring to here is Saul, the first king of Israel. Can you believe there was a potential for Jesus to come from the line of Saul? I promise you I’m not trying to start a weird cult.

In 1 Samuel 13 something odd is said. Samuel says to king Saul, “You have acted foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you, for now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.” Jesus’s birth would have still happened and it appears that He may have been born in the line of Saul had Saul not done what so many of us do…

If you’re familiar with Saul’s reign you know it was fraught with missteps, sin, and outright rebellion against God. In this case, Saul was instructed to wait on Samuel to come and offer a sacrifice. Like me, Saul isn’t very good at waiting and he took matters into his own hands and disobeyed the Lord’s command.

Kings didn’t sacrifice. That was a job for someone like Samuel. And in God’s structure of Israel there were fairly clear job descriptions (so to speak) for prophets, priests, and kings. All this sounds odd to us because we don’t exactly have these specific Old Testament offices in God’s people today. It would be easy to think, “What does this even have to do with me?” Well, that’s a good question.

When Saul stepped out of bounds, he was reordering God’s kingdom so that it worked more to his liking. Let’s say you had a chess board with all the standard pieces in play, but you changed the rules of how each piece moved. An onlooker passing quickly by would see the board and the pieces and could easily think, “Hey, they’re playing chess.” Yet, that game isn’t chess at all because the rules have changed.

Though you might not be tempted to grab a goat and sacrifice it the next time you’re faced with a challenging situation, contemporary people do regularly rework Christianity so that it works better for them. An onlooker quickly passing by sees someone who goes to church, tries not to cuss, avoids overt sins, wears churchy clothing and could easily think, “Hey, there’s a Christian.” Yet, apart from faith in Jesus, a reworking of Christianity isn’t Christianity.

Saul put his faith in himself. He needed that sacrifice done before a battle and Samuel was late, so Saul took matters into his own hands and made it happen. Saul looks at his situation, his life and says: “I can fix this. I got this. I’m enough to deal with this.” And the kingdom is torn from him forever. Wow.

Is there a situation that is putting a good deal of stress or pressure on you or your family? The bible tells us to be still or to wait on the Lord over 120 times. I hate to tell you, but whatever that situation is – you’re not enough. Attempting to save yourself is actually outside of your job description as a Christian. But here’s something I love to tell you: You have a King. Born in the line of David. David was just like Saul in that he was a total, broken wreck who regularly sinned against God and others. What made David different was that in the face of great trials, David would repent and resolutely place his trust in the Lord.

What about you? Is there an area in which you are being challenged to wait? To be still? Saul’s choice mattered. David’s choice mattered. So does yours.