I Samuel 15:13-19 “And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the Lord: I have performed the commandment of the Lord. And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed. Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the Lord hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on. And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed thee king over Israel? And the Lord sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed. Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the Lord?”
Please note that Samuel makes reference to an event that occurred in Saul’s past. While it was recorded as a single event, two things occurred in the economy of God; one physical and one spiritual. There was a physical allotment, “thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel” and a spiritual anointing, “the Lord anointed thee king.”
One of the things to be noticed is the timing of the event, “When thou wast little in thine own sight.” The word “little” means diminutive in quantity, size or number, to be least or lesser. The word “sight” means eye, outward appearance, countenance, knowledge, yourself. The physical allotment and the spiritual anointing were bestowed upon Saul by God when Saul’s perception of his outward appearance and countenance was at its least or was lesser! The thing that we need to understand is that between the allotment and the anointing, and the confrontation with Samuel; there has been no change in Saul’s person, only Saul’s perception! Saul is the same man he has always been; it just took the allotment and the anointing to reveal it! One old writer said, “Few men can stand to be great even as few men can stand to be rich. It is easier to bear poverty than riches and easier to bear mediocrity than magnificence.”
The second thing to notice is the transition, “the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel” (I Samuel 15:26). The very things that God chose to bless Saul with, He chose to take from him! The sad thing is, while they were given at the same time, they were not rescinded at the same time. Saul knew when he lost the one, but he like Samson was unaware of the fact that he had lost the other. Saul lost the spiritual anointing long before he lost the physical allotment! Like Samson, it took a physical event in the life of Saul to reveal the truth about his spiritual state. In most cases spiritual death and deficiency precedes physical death and deficiency!
The greatest curse for most is not the buffeting of Satan, but rather the blessing of substance!