Bible Verse: “‘I regret that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.’ Samuel was angry, and he cried out to the Lord all that night.” (1 Samuel 15:11)
Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 12:1–16:23
Ever had a moment where you thought to yourself, “That can’t be right…”?
We like to think we have the best grasp on everything, don’t we? Those things that don’t make sense are immediately viable candidates for skepticism and disbelief. When we don’t understand something, we make a space to insert ourselves and our own understanding into the situation.
Stopping to question things is a double-edged sword: one edge slicing through the ridiculous, the scams, and the bad advice; the other side, however, cuts a bit differently.
When that side of the blade is used, it reveals something of ourselves, a raw and ragged edge of pride. When we swing that edge of the sword, we make ourselves the final arbiters of what makes sense. The decisions become ours—the results and the consequences, our responsibility.
The struggle with pride is age-old and infects every one of us.
Saul was no exception, and the consequences of his pride were disastrous for himself and many others.
When God gave Saul instructions to entirely destroy Israel’s enemies, including all of their livestock (1 Samuel 15:1-9), Saul didn’t follow them. Saul thought he knew better. God couldn’t have meant for all the good things to be wasted. What good could come from destroying all the best things? Surely, keeping these things for Israel would be of great benefit.
Speculation, to be sure, but the Bible tells us that Saul kept all the best things. There are other reasons why Saul may have disobeyed God, but the bottom line is that Saul chose not to listen to Him.
The result was Saul’s loss of everything.
It may strike us as a bit absurd for Saul to ignore direct instructions from God, but if we pause for a moment, we may have to ask ourselves if we do the same thing. How many instructions from Scripture do we ignore or perhaps twist to make them mean something a little more palatable?
Do we heed the call?
Here, we will leave Saul this week. His disobedience leads us to David.
Prayer: God, I confess that there may be parts of Scripture I ignore or at least practice imperfectly. I don’t love my neighbors. I don’t pray for my enemies. I don’t rejoice in the testing of my faith. I desire to live in obedience to You. Help me where my strength fails. Amen.
Reflection: What is your least favorite instruction from Scripture? Why? Pray this week for the strength to follow Scripture fully.
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