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Part 6 of 16
Understanding King Saul and Biblical Manhood
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Dads, your presence here today matters more than you may realize. Research consistently shows that fathers carry unique spiritual influence in their families. A recent study found that adults who had a very good relationship with their father growing up showed:
You are the spiritual leader of your home, and that influence shapes whether your children will embrace and continue their faith throughout their lives.
We're working through a 52-week series on central figures of the Bible for two important reasons. First, understanding the story and arc of Scripture helps you read it for yourself, and your faith will grow exponentially. Second, outside of Jesus, not one biblical figure was perfect. Every one of them is deeply relatable to our lives. We can learn from their successes and failures alike.
Today we're looking at King Saul to understand what a godly vision for manhood looks like—not because I have it all figured out, but because his story teaches us what we should be striving for.
Israel experienced a repeating cycle throughout the period of the judges. They would follow God, then drift into idolatry. God would allow oppression from enemies, Israel would cry out, and God would raise up a judge to deliver them. Peace would follow, but then the cycle would repeat.
The book of Judges summarizes this pattern in one verse: "In those days there was no king in Israel. And everyone did what was right in his own eyes." (Judges 21:25) When everyone simply does what seems right to them, chaos results—because we all have a bent toward pride.
The very first sin in the Bible wasn't simply eating the fruit. It was the serpent's temptation: "If you eat it, you will become like God." The foundational temptation for all of us is thinking we can do it all on our own and have all the answers.
Israel came to Samuel, the judge, and demanded a king. "Let us be like all the other nations," they said. Samuel warned them: if you do this, you'll become like all the other nations around you, and you'll see what kings do to their people.
But they refused to listen. They wanted a king no matter the cost.
God spoke to Samuel about their request: "Listen to all the people and what they are saying to you. It is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king." (1 Samuel 8:7)
Samuel then warned them what a king would do—he would take their sons for his army, their daughters for his service, their fields and vineyards for himself, and their flocks as tribute. "When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen and the Lord will not answer you in that day." (1 Samuel 8:18)
But the people refused to listen. "We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations with a king to lead us and to go out before us and to fight our battles." (1 Samuel 8:19)
God allowed it. His sovereignty means that whether God wills something or allows it, nothing is out of control. God would use King Saul to move His nation forward, even through his failures.
From King Saul's life and failures, we can extract a four-part vision for what it means to be a godly man.
Saul came from the smallest tribe of Israel, Benjamin. His father was a man named Kish. When we first meet Saul, he's tending his father's cattle and flocks. He has lost some of his father's donkeys and is wandering the countryside trying to find them.
A friend suggests he visit Samuel, a godly priest who might inquire of God about the location of the donkeys. When Saul finds Samuel, the priest tells him good news: "The donkeys are at home." But then Samuel adds, "The Lord has shown me that you are to be the first king of Israel."
Saul's response? "No, no, no, not me. I'm not the right guy. I'm just a servant." He was refusing responsibility. He was being passive.
What's remarkable is that Saul was physically impressive—"a head taller than all the other Israelites" and "one of the most handsome men." Everyone looked at him and thought, "That's a king." Yet he responded with fear and reluctance.
When Samuel assembled all the tribes of Israel to cast lots before God for the new king, Saul's tribe was chosen, then his clan, then he was selected—but "when they looked for him, he was not to be found. So they inquired further of the Lord, 'Has the man come here yet?' And the Lord said, 'Yes, he has hidden himself among the baggage.'" (1 Samuel 10:22)
Even when God had chosen him, Saul was hiding.
Men, here's what you need to know: When God placed you as a father in the family you are and gifted you the children you have, He equipped you to be the father they needed. Sometimes we downplay our significance and say, "It's okay, I'll just let them be." No. You are not to be passive. You must take hold of the leadership God has placed within you and lead your families.
This culture constantly tries to diminish men. Watch TV dads and commercials—they portray men as goofier, less intelligent, less emotional, unable to care. Reject that lie. You were gifted, equipped, and called. You are not to be passive.
Teddy Roosevelt captured what active manhood looks like:
It's not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again. But who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause. At the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.
When we are passive, we negate our God-given responsibility and authority to lead our families. We allow others—the culture, the world, the winds of opinion—to lead in our place. We give up the opportunity to raise leaders instead of followers.
Every night I pray for my children the same prayer: "God, help [them] to be a leader, not a follower." Why? Because when we follow, we allow the winds of culture to tell us which way to go. But when we step up and take hold of our leadership, God can use us.
However, there's a critical balance needed here. Men who take charge without the other aspects of godly manhood create toxic masculinity. We must balance this rejection of passivity with humility.
The Bible was written over 1,500 years through 66 books by 40 different authors, yet it tells one cohesive story with no contradictions or errors. God foretold His people and reminded them of His sovereignty throughout.
350 years before Saul became king, God spoke to Moses about what would eventually happen. He told Israel what the king should do:
*When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, "Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us," be sure to put over you a king the Lord your God chooses. He must be from among your own brothers. The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them. He must not take many wives or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold. When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law taken from that of the priests who are Levites. It is to be with him and he is to read it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees, and not consider himself better than his brothers. (Deuteronomy 17:14-20)
Notice the repeated warning: Don't make it about yourself. Don't accumulate wealth. Don't acquire power. Don't exalt yourself above your brothers. Instead, the king was to daily read God's law as a reminder—not of his own plans, but of God's plans and God's character.
This is what humility looks like in leadership: remembering that you are under God's authority, not above it.
God's instruction to Israel's king was clear: do not make it about yourself. This warning appeared 350 years before Saul became king, yet it perfectly describes what Saul eventually did. Instead of remaining humble and focused on God's purposes, Saul allowed his position to feed his pride. He began accumulating wealth and power, making his kingdom about himself rather than about serving God's people.
The king was commanded to write God's law on a scroll and read it daily—not as a reminder of his own plans, but of God's plans and God's character. This daily practice was meant to keep him grounded in humility and submission. Saul failed to do this.
The word humility comes from the Latin humilitas. Interestingly, we derive two different English words from it: when we put someone else low, we get humiliation; when someone puts themselves low, we get humility. True humility is not self-degradation—it is knowing who you are while lowering yourself in service to others.
Consider two of the greatest boxers of all time. Muhammad Ali built his reputation on swagger and arrogance. He would say things like, "I am the greatest," and famously claimed, "When you're as great as I am, it's hard to be humble." There's a story about Ali on a flight defending his heavyweight title. When the captain announced incoming turbulence and asked passengers to fasten their seatbelts, Ali refused, saying, "Superman don't need no seat belt." The flight attendant reportedly replied, "Superman don't need no plane." She was right—he needed the captain, the plane, and the seatbelt because he was not as great as he thought.
Joe Louis, by contrast, was a man who withheld his power in service to others. Born and raised in Detroit, there's a story of him sitting on a bus in the 1930s when three white men began harassing him. He sat there and took it. When he reached his stop and stood up, revealing his massive frame, the men realized who they had been bothering. Louis simply reached into his pocket, pulled out a business card that read "Joe Louis boxer," and walked off the bus.
There is a profound difference between these two men. Joe Louis understood that humility is not about making less of yourself, but about knowing who you are and choosing to lower yourself in service to others.
Jesus taught us humility throughout His ministry. He said, "Whoever wants to be first will be last, but the last shall be first," and "The greatest among you should be the very slave of all." In the Gospels, we read that "the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Crucifixion was the most humiliating form of capital punishment in the first century. The criminal was stripped naked, whipped with instruments embedded with pottery and metal, then paraded through town bruised and abandoned before being nailed to a cross. The entire purpose was public shame and embarrassment—a warning to all who saw it.
In 1857, archaeologists discovered Roman graffiti dating to around 200 AD. It shows a figure worshipping a man on a cross with the head of a donkey, with the inscription "Alexamenos worships his god." This was mockery—his friends ridiculing him for worshipping such an embarrassment.
But contrast this mockery with what Paul wrote in Philippians:
"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourself. Not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who being the very nature of God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, on heaven and on earth and under earth."
Jesus was not humiliated on the cross—He was humble on the cross. There is a critical difference. He chose it. He lowered Himself willingly in service to us.
King Saul allowed his position to become his pride and made it about himself. Jesus Christ, being the very nature of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. He lowered Himself. Men must reject passivity, yet at the same time serve humbly, knowing that God has gifted us for service to others.
Saul obeyed God many times, but he also obeyed ish—partially, conveniently, on his own terms.
Before one battle, Samuel told Saul: "You must wait for me to offer sacrifices to God. You are not a priest; you have taken much blood and are not holy to enter God's presence. A priest must do this." But Saul grew impatient waiting for Samuel and offered the sacrifices himself. When Samuel arrived and asked, "What have you done?" Saul replied, "I obeyed." Samuel's response was direct: "Obeying ish is disobedience."
Many of us know what partial obedience looks like. Parents see it in their children regularly. It's the child who puts away laundry—except they shove it into the bathroom cabinet under the sink instead of in the dresser. Technically they obeyed. Not really.
But God is not looking for the bare minimum. He is calling us into total obedience. Some say Jesus came to abolish the law, so we don't have to follow it. But Jesus didn't abolish the law—He extended it. He said, "You have heard that it was said, but I am telling you," and He deepened the heart requirements, not just the external rules.
Our job is not to do the bare minimum when it comes to following the Lord. Our calling is to understand God's heart and to obey with total obedience.
A godly man values integrity above talent, success, reputation, or achievement because character is what remains when everything else is stripped away.
Saul went into battle against the Amalekites. God said, "Kill all of them and all their livestock. Make this about removing these people, not about making yourself wealthy." Saul won the battle but then decided to spare some of the people and take the best livestock for himself—the fattened calves and sheep.
When Samuel confronted him, Saul said, "I did exactly what the Lord said." But Samuel asked, "What is that bleating of sheep that I hear?" Saul claimed he kept them to offer as sacrifices to God. The truth was that Saul had erected a monument in his own honor. He had compromised his integrity for personal gain.
Samuel told him, "Because you have done this, your kingdom is being stripped from you. God will raise up a man who has a heart after him." Saul lost his kingdom because he compromised his integrity.
I was blessed to grow up with an amazing father. My parents were entrepreneurs who owned restaurants, a laundromat, an ice cream shop, a mini golf course, apartments, and sporting goods stores. In the back of the sporting goods store, they had embroidery machines and screen printing equipment.
There was a man from our church who was struggling in his marriage and had lost his job. My father offered him work, teaching him the embroidery business. After about six months, once the man had become skilled, he came to my dad and said he was leaving—he and another man with money were going to start their own screen printing and embroidery store.
My dad said, "Okay, but this is a town of 4,000 people, and there are already two shops. A third seems like oversaturation. We just ask that you don't go after our clients."
Two and a half weeks later, our phone started ringing. Our clients were calling to say the man had told them we were cheating them, that our quality was poor, and our prices were terrible. My brother and I were furious. We thought the easiest response was simple: tell the truth. In a town of 4,000, spreading the true account of what was happening would ruin his reputation.
We planned to tell the UPS driver who came by every day—he would tell everyone else in town. But before we could do it, my dad called a family meeting. It was the only family meeting we ever had.
My dad walked in and said simply, "I know a lot of people are saying a lot of things. I just want to remind you something. You're a Broadbeck, and Broadbecks don't talk bad about anybody."
That was the end of the meeting. It was a lesson in integrity.
Proverbs 10:9 says, "Whoever walks with integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out." And Proverbs also says, "A good name is more desirable than great riches. To be esteemed is better than silver or gold."
Our integrity matters. People will watch how we live our lives, not just what we say. Parents and dads, your kids are not watching what you say—they're watching what you do.
Here is what we can learn from King Saul:
God is looking for men to step up. Men who refuse to sit on the sidelines of their own calling. Men who reject passivity. Men who recognize the gifts and strengths they've been given and choose to use those in service to the one true King.
These men will walk humbly before God. They will live in wholehearted obedience to His word—not just when it's easy, not just partially, but with a sincere desire to honor God in all they do. They will hold their integrity above earthly gain, knowing that character is worth more than success, status, or applause.
These are men who remain steady when the winds of culture shift, faithful when no one is watching, and courageous when the moment demands it. Men who will leave behind more than success or accomplishment. Men who will leave a legacy of faithfulness that will echo for generations.
