Saul Rejected God’s Will

Read 1 Samuel 23-24
 
1 Samuel 23:7-8 Saul soon learned that David was at Keilah. “Good!” he exclaimed. “We’ve got him now! God has handed him over to me, for he has trapped himself in a walled town!”
 
SAUL doesn’t get it. He knows God has anointed David to be the next king of Israel. That is why he so desperately wants to kill David. Yet, Saul exclaims, “God has handed him over to me.” For a man whose faith journey has generally been a faithless wandering against God’s will, this is a remarkable delusion. Are these words Saul’s own self-anointing? Does he find comfort in his murderous intent with this unholy affirmation? We do that, too, don’t we? We use God’s name to affirm our own will.
    Our natural desire is to put ourselves on the same level as God. As Satan told Eve in the Garden, “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:5) Yes, mankind has certainly come to know good and evil, and we prefer evil. 
    It’s easy to pretend our lives are in step with God’s will, isn’t it? We read the Bible and find something that causes us to stop and say, “Uh oh. I do that.” But then we think of ways we can get around the “Uh, oh.” to say, “I’ll go and do it, anyway.”  We can accuse the Bible of being irrelevant to our lives, out-of-date or judgmental. We can convince ourselves, “God’s not talking to me.” And we assure our hears, “But God wants me to be happy.” Or as Saul did, we just plain ignore the truth. Ignoring God’s Word binds you to ignorance, ties you to yourself and lock you out of Jesus’ abiding peace. In contrast, the Truth will free you because the Lord is righteous; he has cut me free from the cords of the wicked. (Psalms 129:4) The LORD God cuts you free from wickedness. Think about that when you choose what to do.
 
Pause and Consider: Truth may seem inconvenient, but it is always the appropriate response.