Saul and Us

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It’s amazing how relevant the Bible still is today. I have just been reading about King Saul, who did not love God, but I can learn from his life. What do inappropriate sacrifices and complete victory over an enemy army have to do with us? Here’s a couple of things.

Saul was impatient. He decided not wait for the priest Samuel (as he had been told) to sacrifice to God. Instead, he did it himself. We can grow impatient, too, and sometimes that means we take things into our own hands when we should just wait and pray.

Saul was also disobedient. He had been told by God to completely destroy a wicked enemy civilisation. He decided to keep some of the good plunder, supposedly to sacrifice to God (and probably enjoy eating after the sacrifice!) He justified his disobedience, making it look like it could be an act of worship. Aren’t we just like this?! We do something wrong and think, “Well, it’s only a little thing and besides . . . ” and we start giving ourselves supposedly good reasons for our actions.

Through Samuel, God told King Saul that He desires obedience, not sacrifice. That’s pretty big. In other places of the Bible, sacrifice is described as pleasing to the Lord. Although our acts of worship and service to God can please Him, He wants us to obey Him.

In both these instances, Saul was reprimanded and God’s blessing on his reign was removed. It’s a striking reminder to us that even seemingly little things, or wrong things that we can twist ourselves into justifying, are still displeasing to God.

– by E.M. Harding