Do We Ever Have a Good Excuse to Sin?
Saul started out good, but as things go along it
progressively gets worse and worse. In this chapter Saul attacks the
Philistines but in the process awakes the “sleeping bear” and the Philistines
assemble a massive army against Saul. His army panics and many hide or run away
altogether. This isn’t exactly the kind of spot you want to be in (although
from what we’ve learned thus far this is the kind of spot where God just might
do something really cool).
Unfortunately, Saul doesn’t wait for God. You see, Samuel
was supposed to be showing up to make sacrifices for the people but while Saul
waits, his army is hemorrhaging men right and left who are afraid of the
amassing Philistine army. So what does Saul do? He performs the sacrifices
himself in an attempt to try and muster the confidence of his army, trying to
convince them that God really is on their side. The only problem with this plan
is that Saul has no business making the sacrifices. He might be king, but he is
not prophet or priest.
As you might guess,
Samuel shows up as soon as Saul has finished with the sacrifice. Instead of
simply owning up to his sin and repenting, Saul makes excuses for why he “needed”
to disobey God’s orders. He even goes so far as saying he “forced himself” to
do the deed. In other words, he says
that is wasn’t really his fault, the circumstances and the people made him do
it, Samuel didn’t show up in time, he was really doing it for God, etc.
However, God’s commands were clear and Samuel as God’s messenger tells Saul the
consequences for his actions. His kingdom will one day be given to another.
Saul’s disobedience will have lasting and drastic consequences. He can self-justify
and make excuses all he wants but he cannot fool God.
To round out the chapter, the narrator continues to paint a bleak
picture for the Israelites. Saul has only 600 men, they are surrounded by the Philistines,
and Saul and Jonathon are the only two in the entire army that have swords. In
case you were wondering, this doesn’t look very good at all. Only God could get
them out of such a predicament. If you hadn’t read the story before, in light
of everything that has happened in this chapter so far, is seems like Saul’s
end is near…
Lessons: God takes obedience seriously…seriously, He does.
Human nature really hasn’t changed all the much over the millennia.
We still like to make excuses for why our sin isn’t really our fault. We like
to blame others or our circumstances for why we act wrongly. We let others
around us or our problems influence us more than God’s word.
God wants to use you in His plan, He wants what’s truly best
for you. So the question is, will you trust Him? Will you obey Him even when
things get tough or when you are tempted? Will you trust him when you are
pressured not to? Will you chose to obey God even when the choice is hard?
Or…
Will you make excuses, will you choose temporary happiness over
lasting peace and joy, will you blame others and give in?
We never have a good excuse to sin. God sees strait through
us to the core. He knows what really goes on and we can’t fool Him. Our choices
matter so let’s make the right ones and trust that God knows what He is doing.
It will be worth it in the end.
