Atheists say God wrongly turned a deaf ear to Old Testament King Saul, because he repented and asked for help. They also say God did not answer their prayers, and they were needy too, so they stopped believing in God. But does God not hear or answer needy prayers? I believe he listens to and answers truly sincere prayers, but neither Saul, nor some other people are truly sincere. So let’s look at the passages where it appears God is too harsh, then at places where it appears Saul repented and where he prayed but received no answer. Finally we will find the answers to these questions.
First, let’s look at three of the troubling passages where the Bible seems to say God was harsh with Saul. First, look at 2Sam.7:15 where God told David, “But my loving kindness shall not depart from him (David), as I took it away from Saul whom I removed from before you.” Second read in 1Sam.15:28, what Samuel told Saul: “The Lord has torn the kingdom from you and given it to your neighbor, who is better than you.” Third, read in 1Sam.16:14, “Now the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and evil spirit from the Lord terrorized him.”
Look at the first of these issues. Atheists ask why would God take his loving kindness from Saul, who appeared to love God. Saul did not love God with all his heart and all his mind and all his strength (as required in Deut.6:5.) God could only show Saul as much love as Saul would let into his heart from God. In other words, when Saul would not love God, God’s love would seem dim to Saul. Saul let his pride come between him and God. It was not that God did not want to love Saul, but God gave Saul permission (free will) to choose who he (Saul) would love, and that love was not for God.
Second, why would God tear the Kingdom from Saul when God had chosen Saul? God actually answers that in 1 Samuel 15:11a where God says, “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me and has not carried out My commands.” To love God with all our heart, mind and soul, we must obey him. Jesus clearly stated this in 1John5:3, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.” Saul was disobeying God. In that passage, he offered a sacrifice only the priest should offer. This was terribly wrong, because the king was supposed to model the right behavior to the entire kingdom, especially in respecting the priestly duties. By taking over what belonged only to a priest, Saul blasphemed God. Exodus19:22 warns that if a priest disobeys God while serving, he could die: “And also let the priests who come near to the LORD consecrate themselves, lest the LORD break out against them.” We must not take lightly what Saul did back then. That was in the Old Testament under the Mosaic Law. We have many freedoms and liberties the Israelites did not have. They had to honor priests, and priests had to honor God. Saul knew this and disobeyed anyway. This clearly shows Saul thought he was above God’s law and thus above God.
Third, what about God’s spirit departing from Saul and instead an evil spirit coming upon him? To atheists, this is a cruel action and they believe it shows God is vengeful. But let’s look at the verses just before the “evil spirit” passage. From 1Samuel8:8-9 it says, “Saul was very angry; this refrain displeased him greatly. ‘They have credited David with tens of thousands,’ he thought, but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?’ And from that time on Saul kept a close eye on David.” Verse 10 says the next day the evil spirit came upon Saul. Atheists do not realize the demonic power of unforgiving anger. Look at Ephs.4:26-27, “In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.” Saul harbored bitterness and unforgiveness and he invited Satan into his life.
Then more trouble came. In 1 Samuel 13:13, Samuel told Saul what God thought,
“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.”
All this trouble came to Saul when it looked like he repented. In 1Sam.23:21 Saul sounded pious: “The Lord bless you,’ Saul said. ‘Finally someone is concerned about me,” as if no one else cared for Saul, and thus the men who revealed David’s hiding place were heroes and the only ones looking out for Saul. And later chapter, in 1 Samuel 26:21 Saul said, “I have sinned. Return, my son David, for I will not harm you again because my life was precious in your sight this day. Behold, I have played the fool and have committed a serious error.” Also Saul spoke in 1 Samuel 15:13, “Blessed are you of the Lord! I have carried out the command of the Lord.” After that, it says in 1 Samuel 15:24, “Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned; I have indeed transgressed the command of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and listened to their voice.” And it sounds as if Saul is promising David that Saul will no longer pursue David to harm him in 1 Samuel 26:25, “Blessed are you, my son David; you will both accomplish much and surely prevail. So David went on his way, and Saul returned to his place.”
Finally comes the verse where the atheists say God was most harsh with Saul. 1Sam28:6, “He inquired of the Lord, but the Lord did not answer him by dreams or Urim or prophets.”
All of those seemingly kind things Saul said and did were fake. When Saul claimed no one was looking out for him, Saul ignored most of Israel. First David risked his life (against Goliath), and soon afterwards, Jonathan risked his life to fight Philistines when Saul was trembling in fear. Saul’s army fought all the battles Saul urged them to fight. Saul lied in saying no one was looking out for him.
Next, look at the many evil things Saul did to show he was not sorry. In 1Samuel8:17, “Saul said to David, ‘Here is my older daughter Merab. I will give her to you in marriage; only serve me bravely and fight the battles of the LORD.’ For Saul said to himself, ‘I will not raise a hand against him. Let the Philistines do that!’” This heartless man planned to use his own daughter to harm David. Saul did not even respect his own daughter. The next chapter, 1 Samuel 19:10 says, “Saul tried to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he slipped away out of Saul’s presence, so that he stuck the spear into the wall. And David fled and escaped that night.” This was a violent man.
Saul continued to commit gross acts of evil. In 1Sam.22:17-19: “Then the king ordered the guards at his side: ‘Turn and kill the priests of the Lord, because they too have sided with David. They knew he was fleeing, yet they did not tell me.’” Saul had a man named Doeg kill all those priests. Saul may have thought that if Doeg actually wielded the sword, Saul would be innocent. But he was not. Saul was responsible for destroying an entire village of innocent priests, because Saul was paranoid about David and vengeful towards anyone who helped David, even innocent priests who did not know about Saul’s evil heart.
Even after Saul’s death, David learned of more of Saul’s revenge. In 2 Samuel 21:1 it says, “Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David sought the presence of the Lord. And the Lord said, “It is for Saul and his bloody house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.” The Gibeonites made a peace treaty hundreds of years earlier with Joshua, and God demanded Israel honor it. Saul desecrated this treaty that had been made before God and murdered many innocent Gibeonites.
Yet in all of this, Saul made a monument in his own honor (1Sam.15:12) instead of honoring the Lord. Saul was not a man known for his honor of God nor of his encouragement of his own son and men. Saul looked only at himself.
When God would not answer Saul, the real reason is because Saul did not want to hear what God said. Already in his heart, Saul harbored bitter revenge, pride and an insidious desire to get his way even if he had to oppose God. Right after the verse about God not answering Saul in 1 Samuel 28:8 the Bible says, “Then Saul disguised himself by putting on other clothes, and went, he and two men with him, and they came to the woman {a medium/witch} by night; and he said, “Conjure up for me, please, and bring up for me whom I shall name to you.” As you can see, Saul did not pray and fast and repent of his sins so God would hear him. Saul demanded God answer him the same way Saul demanded Doeg murder the priests.
Let’s keep exploring. In1 Samuel 28:15, either Samuel or a demon answered Saul. The verse says, “Then Samuel said to Saul, ‘Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?’ And Saul answered, ‘I am greatly distressed; for the Philistines are waging war against me, and God has departed from me and no longer answers me, either through prophets or by dreams; therefore I have called you, that you may make known to me what I should do.’” Notice how Saul is even demanding a dead man obey Saul. He demanded Samuel do Saul’s bidding.
In this verse we see that Saul consulted with Satan’s emissary, a medium/witch to try to conjure up Samuel from the dead to speak to Saul. We cannot use Satan to reach God. Saul had become so hard hearted and hard headed that he would not listen to God. Earlier, when Samuel was alive, he had already confronted Saul for not truly seeking God’s will: 1 Samuel 15:19 “Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord, but rushed upon the spoil and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord?” Samuel had told Saul everything he needed to hear, but since it was not what Saul wanted, he was willing to try to drag Samuel’s spirit up from the dead to demand a different answer. Whether it was a demon or Samuel’s spirit, Saul received only the answer that he would die in battle against the Philistines the next day.
Atheists and others claim Saul was sorry. They say God has to answer all prayers, and God was wrong to not answer this prayer of Saul. But he did not truly repent of his sins against David (who became the next king.) Instead Saul mis-used “religious” phrases to sound pious while his heart was dishonest and murderous. Saul remained a self-righteous, arrogant, vengeful man who attacked innocent people if they got in his way.
So why do atheists say God was too harsh with Saul and on other people in Bible times? The final word on Saul’s guilt is found in the later book of 1 Chronicles 10:13-14, “So Saul died for his trespass which he committed against the LORD, because of the word of the LORD which he did not keep; and also because he asked counsel of a medium, making inquiry of it, and did not inquire of the LORD. Therefore He killed him and turned the kingdom to David the son of Jesse.” Note this verse says Saul did not “inquire” of the Lord. Some might think this contradicts the idea of Saul’s earlier “prayer.” But remember this term is “inquire of the Lord,” not “to pray.” To do this, a repentant person truly seeks God’s will not his (or her) own. Saul did not do this kind of inquiring.
People like King Saul, were sent to represent God to the people. God, through his son Jesus, has a servant’s heart and a heart of forgiveness. Saul was full of arrogance and vengeance. Saul misrepresented the Lord to God’s people. And Saul’s heart was set on murdering the innocent. God could not answer this prayer, because God had already done so. God had used Samuel and even Saul’s own son, Jonathan, to rebuke Saul, but he would not listen.
God will not waste his words on unrepentant people who will not listen. Atheists get very angry hearing this. They don’t believe they have to repent. What they really want is a fake Santa Claus in the sky who gives them everything they want, whenever they want it. But God demands obedience. He has been silent with other Israelites throughout the Bible. God could see Saul’s heart and knew he was neither sorry, nor would he obey what God did tell him.
We have so much to thank God for in that he treats us with mercy. Even Christians sometimes rebel against God. When we do, God gently reminds us (or firmly reminds us when we are not listening). But God only does this with his own children. Atheists will not hear God’s voice, because they don’t really want to hear from him, love him and obey him, or be corrected by him.
We can share this truth with atheists who claim God did not listen to them or Saul. They may listen. We can pray for them to receive God’s gift of the Holy Spirit. Some may listen, perhaps over time. For others, if they hear this story and still refuse to repent and turn to God, we can pray, but like God, we may need to not talk to them about God anymore, at least unless the Holy Spirit prompts us. I have atheist friends, and with some, God has urged me to not say anymore. It is hard, because I want to tell them so much more about God. But right now they do not want to listen (just like King Saul.) The Holy Spirit will guide us to know when to speak and when to remain silent about the Lord. But we can always pray for these atheists!
I pray we have blessed you with this post. Please feel free to use the new Facebook and Twitter sharing links I posted on my website, or just share this directly with any friends you know who might be blessed by this post. Thanks for sharing this journey with us. God bless your week!