This chapter frightens me.
Why, you ask? Because of passages
like Romans 11:22, "Behold therefore
the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward you,
goodness, if you continue in His goodness: otherwise you also shall be cut
off." True, Romans 11:22 is directed generally at the whole of all
Gentiles. Yet, I am a Gentile. And, I regretfully admit that I deserve His
severity daily. He has been good to me
thus far because of His mercy and grace, but I fear that I have pulled Saul-like
stunts MANY times in my Christian life.
Now, what do I mean by a "Saul-like" stunt? Well,
Saul obeyed God as far as it served his own purposes, but as soon as Saul
thought he could see an advantage for himself in disobedience... well, he did
an about-face and left God behind. Partial obedience with pragmatic and
materialistic motives was the defining philosophy of Saul's life. And, God
condemned Him for it. More precisely, he
condemned himself. Samuel condemned him.
And, we condemn him. But, Romans
2:22 asks, "You who say a man should
not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you commit
sacrilege?" Oh, it is with
deep grief that I cry out as the great prophet did in Isaiah 6:5, "Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of
unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips..."
In
this chapter we find that God told Saul through Samuel to completely eradicate
the Amalekites and everything that they possessed. Saul obeyed to a degree. He
did most of what God said. But, when he saw that some of the stuff was
valuable, he refused to destroy it as he had been specifically commanded. Of
course, he got caught. We all will be caught, won't we (Galatians 6:7, Hebrews
12:6, Ecclesiastes 12:14 & Numbers 32:23)? How horrifying though! Let's
cast our hope upon our longsuffering Lord and the promise of 1 Corinthians
11:31, "If we would judge ourselves,
we should not be judged."
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