“As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?”
Ezekiel 33:11
Everyone God calls is tested, and every one of them fails. What separates Saul, Jeroboam, Abraham and David is not who started well, but who turned back. Two hardened their hearts and lost what God had promised; two returned and received more than they had lost.
Saul – From small in his own eyes to a monument for himself
Saul began well. When Samuel first came to him, his answer was humble:
“Am I not a Benjaminite, from the least of the tribes of Israel?”
1 Samuel 9:21
He was anointed and given a promise: God would establish his kingdom. But Saul’s failure began when he feared the people and listened to their voice. At Gilgal, with Samuel late, his excuse was “I saw that the people were scattering from me” (1 Samuel 13:11), so he offered the sacrifice himself. Samuel told him:
“You have done foolishly… For then the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.”
1 Samuel 13:13
The second test exposed the same heart. He spared the Amalekite king and the best of the livestock, then went to Carmel:
“Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself.”
1 Samuel 15:12
The man who was once small in his own eyes now built an image of himself. God said, “he has turned back from following me” (1 Samuel 15:11).
When confronted, Saul named the voice he had followed:
“I have sinned… because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.”
1 Samuel 15:24
Saul forgot that the kingdom was a gift and began to protect it with his own hand. Even his repentance was about his image: “honor me now before the elders of my people” (1 Samuel 15:30).
It cost him his whole house:
“Thus Saul died; he and his three sons and all his house died together.”
1 Chronicles 10:6
The kingdom he had guarded with his own hand passed to another family.
Jeroboam – A great promise, the same fear
Through the prophet Ahijah, God gave Jeroboam ten tribes and offered him what He had given David:
“I will be with you and will build you a sure house, as I built for David.”
1 Kings 11:38
But once he was king, fear took over. “Jeroboam said in his heart, ‘Now the kingdom will turn back to the house of David'” (1 Kings 12:26). Instead of trusting God, he made two golden calves at Bethel and Dan, with an illegal priesthood to serve them.
God sent a prophet to warn him, and when Jeroboam’s hand withered, God healed it. That was a second chance. Yet the verdict reads:
“After this thing Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way.”
1 Kings 13:33
Within two years Baasha had killed his son Nadab and wiped out his house (1 Kings 15:29). But the damage outlived his family. For about two hundred years, through nineteen kings, the calves stood at Bethel and Dan. King after king “walked in the way of Jeroboam” until Assyria carried Israel away, and 2 Kings 17:21 traces the exile straight back to the man who “drove Israel from following the LORD.”
Both men followed the same pattern: a promise, then fear, then self-effort, refusing to turn back and finally a hardened heart. The calves Jeroboam built to protect his throne are what lost it.
There is a warning here: if you start with God, you have to finish with Him. Saul began with God’s anointing and switched to his own hand when God seemed slow. You are better off not starting at all than starting in the Spirit and trying to finish in the flesh (Galatians 3:3).
Abraham – The voice of Sarai
Abraham’s failure began when he listened to another voice. After ten years of waiting for the promised son, Sarai offered another way:
“Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.
Genesis 16:2
Hagar conceived and “looked with contempt on her mistress” (Genesis 16:4). Sarai turned on Abram: “May the wrong done to me be on you!” (Genesis 16:5). The strife followed the boy. The angel had said Ishmael’s hand would be “against everyone and everyone’s hand against him” (Genesis 16:12). At Isaac’s weaning feast Ishmael mocked him, which Paul calls persecution (Galatians 4:29). Ishmael had to be sent away, and “the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son” (Genesis 21:11). Listening to the other voice broke his home.
After thirteen silent years, God appeared to him again, renewed the covenant and promised Isaac. That was Abraham’s second chance, and the next test was harder. The first asked him to wait for a son; the second asked him to give that son back.
“Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love… and offer him there as a burnt offering.”
Genesis 22:2
This time there was no other voice, no delay. This is where Abraham fully turned back: “So Abraham rose early in the morning” (Genesis 22:3). The man who once could not wait for the promise now surrendered it, and heard God say:
“For now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son… from me.”
Genesis 22:12
David – The voice of his own fear
Twice David had refused to take the throne in his own strength. But after years on the run he grew weary and listened to the voice of fear in his own heart:
“Now I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul.”
1 Samuel 27:1
For the first time, David did not inquire of the Lord. He went to Gath, lived a lie for sixteen months, and nearly fought against Israel. Sent home, he found Ziklag burned and every family taken captive, his own included. Then his own men turned on him:
“And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him… But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.”
1 Samuel 30:6
This was a harder test than En-gedi: he had lost his family, his home and his men’s loyalty. But this is where David turned back. He returned to what he had abandoned and asked God, “Shall I pursue?” God answered, and David recovered everything (1 Samuel 30:18–19), though even then some of his men refused to share the spoil with the weary (1 Samuel 30:22). Within days Saul was dead, and David’s first act was to inquire of the Lord again (2 Samuel 2:1).
The heart that turns back
Consider Caleb. Israel saw the sea part and ate manna every morning, yet tested God ten times (Numbers 14:22); after every chance, “in their hearts they turned to Egypt” (Acts 7:39). Caleb saw the same giants and trusted God:
“But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land…”
Numbers 14:24
Many chances do not change a heart. A heart that follows fully is what God looks for.
Saul and Jeroboam were not rejected because they failed; Abraham and David failed too, at great cost to their families. The difference was whether they turned back. Second chances rest on God’s character, not ours, but they are received only by those who return.
So what is God looking for? Not a flawless record, but someone who trusts Him so fully that they let Him be God. That means four things:
- Believing He is good, able and just, even when you cannot yet see the end.
- Leaving the judge’s seat to Him, instead of saving yourself with your own hand.
- Turning back when you fail, because He is after a returning heart, not a perfect one.
- Trusting Him to build the house, because only God can build a sure house; what we build ourselves, we must guard ourselves.
This promise goes back to the start of 1 Samuel. Eli’s house was collapsing because he honoured his sons above God, when a man of God brought a promise:
“And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest… And I will build him a sure house.”
1 Samuel 2:35
From then on, the question over 1 Samuel, and over every family, is who will build the house. Saul tried to secure his own and lost it. Abigail saw it in David: “the LORD will certainly make my lord a sure house” (1 Samuel 25:28). Jeroboam was offered it and traded it for golden calves.
In the next article, A Sure House, we will trace this promise from Eli’s broken household to the house God built for David, and ask what it means for our families today.
