Note particularly vv. 17 and 24:
17 And Samuel said, “Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. 18 And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, ‘Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ 19 Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord?” 20 And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. 21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.” 22 And Samuel said,
“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to listen than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination,
and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
he has also rejected you from being king.”24 Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. 25 Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may bow before the Lord.” 26 And Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you. For you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel” (1 Samuel 15:17-26).
Saul had low self-esteem. Yet he was not humble. In fact, his low self-esteem inspired him to exalt himself in a heinous act of disobedience. Because he thought of himself in low terms he was a people-pleaser. He ‘feared the people and obeyed their voice’ rather than obeying God.
You make think that you are being humble by patting people on the back and giving them what they want, when, in fact, you are actually exalting yourself to the heavens.
You may think that you are making great sacrifices by giving others what they want, when you are in fact disobeying God. This is no true humility. By thinking little of yourself in terms of esteem, you are actually thinking much of yourself in terms of the desired outcome.
Christ was and is no people-pleaser. He said hard words. He made hard demands. But he was and is the humblest man who ever lived. True humility is conformity to the image of Christ – not living in fear of people, but doing what is best for them even when it is going to hurt (and you will likely be the one hurting).
If you are a king, acknowledge that you are king and live like it. That doesn’t make you proud, it makes you honest. Letting others get their way isn’t necessarily humility. It may simply be cowardice.
