DISCUSSION
As they say,
one poor decision often leads to another and such is the case with King
Saul. After taking matters into his own
hands with the burnt offerings, he now continues his mindset of usurping God’s
process and justifying his sin. However,
this time it is on a much larger scale.
God had instructed Samuel to tell Saul to utterly wipe out the
Amalekites because of their mistreatment of the Israelites on their way out of
Egypt. Saul, however, had other plans in
mind. He thought he could save some of
the flocks for future sacrifices and spare the King Agag by keeping him
hostage. Saul later reveals that this
was the idea of the people and that they had swayed him to keep the choice
flocks, when Saul had let the power of being King go to his head. Now, not only would his kingdom not endure,
it would be divided and God was going to give the throne to someone else. This was such a big disappointment in the
eyes of God that I Samuel 15.35 tells us that “the LORD regretted that He had
made Saul king over Israel”. Solomon
(ironically Saul’s grandson) would later tell us that “pride goes before
destruction” (Proverbs 16:18). Pride has
a very tempting, yet destructive allure.
Let’s all try to remain humble in the sight of the Lord and allow Him to
lift us up.
Prayer Requests:_______________________________________________________________