LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF KING SAUL (PART 7).
TEXT:
"And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the LORD thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the LORD have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever. But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee." (1st Samuel 13: verses 13 to 14).
There are people who believe that since God knows everything, particularly that since He knows the end from the beginning, and because He's all powerful, only what He wills comes to pass on earth. In other words, God should be held accountable for everything, particularly the evils that happen in the world. This is not true and to me, it's tantamount to overstretching the sovereignty of God.
In the matter of king Saul, for instance, there are those who believe that God knew who Saul was and that he knew he was going to fumble in the end. With this knowledge, they assert that God had picked Saul temporarily, knowing that he would fail, so that He could bring in David, His true choice as his replacement. In other words, they believe that God had had David in mind even before He chose Saul.
But in the Scripture reading for today, we see clearly that this isn't true. The Lord God, speaking through prophet Samuel after Saul had in disobedience offered burnt offerings to God, incontrovertibly repudiates this proposition, saying in 1st Samuel 13 verse 13,
“That was stupid!” Samuel said. “You didn't obey the Lord your God. If you had obeyed him, someone from your family would always have been king of Israel." (The Contemporary English Version).
This is to mean, in effect, that Saul was God's first choice, and not David! From this verse, we see clearly that Saul's choice by God wasn't a temporary one, until David came onboard; but that Saul was indeed and without controversy or reservations, God's first choice.
Truth is, if Saul had wholly followed God and had not kept the track of disobedience, the Lord would have established his kingdom over Israel forever. In other words, we would never have heard of David in the anal of Israeli narratives. If Saul had fully followed and obeyed God, we would never have had what we now know as "the sure mercies of David" (Isaiah 55 verse 3; Acts 13 verse 34); rather, it would have been "the sure mercies of Saul". Again, it follows that since Saul hailed from the tribe of Benjamin, the kings of Israel would have devolved from the tribe of Benjamin and not from the tribe of Judah as we eventually had it. This is to mean that we would never have had king David, king Solomon, etc, in the Bible.
The bottom line of our discussion today is that Saul was in truth God's original plan for Israel, but because of his disobedience, he lost out of favor with God and in his place, He sought out a man after his own heart (1st Samuel 13 verse 14, Acts 13 verse 22). This calls for carefulness, brethren, because if today we're God's choice, chances are that we might lose that position as a result of us falling out of line with Him. In other words, if we're not careful, we can thwart God's plan for our lives, as it was with Saul. May it never be so with us in Jesus name.
PRAYER:
May You help me, Lord, to remain obedient to You and to ever be Your choice, in Jesus name.