Often those who have a relationship with God and yet choose their own desires over what He’s clearly revealed through Scripture, become blind to their own disobedience. Just as it did with Saul, idolatry blinds us to the truth. We now have exchanged the truth for deception and believe God is on our side. We think He understands our heart and thus condones our behavior or approves of our lifestyle, when in reality we are in opposition to Him and have made ourselves an enemy of God.
John Bevere.
Then Saul slaughtered the Amalekites from Havilah all the way to Shur, east of Egypt. He captured Agag, the Amalekite king, but completely destroyed everyone else. Saul and his men spared Agag’s life and kept the best of the sheep and goats, the cattle, the fat calves, and the lambs—everything, in fact, that appealed to them. They destroyed only what was worthless or of poor quality. (1 Samuel 15:7–9)
Saul almost did everything that God told him to do maybe 95%
Was Saul obedient or was he disobedient?
“Then the Lord said to Samuel, ‘I am sorry that I ever made Saul king, for he has not been loyal to Me and has refused to obey My command’” (1 Samuel 15:10–11).
Saul did not give God the worship, the obedience He deserved. He wasn’t faithful to God. J.Bevere
I have read this chapter many times this morning, and I just keep having this thought. How many times has the Lord spoken to do something and then we take it to 95% completion? We hold on to that last 5% because …….what? ……..
we know better?
“For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.” (1 Samuel 15:23 NKJV)
Because we have rejected the word of the Lord, He has rejected you from being ……..what?
Over the last couple days all my readings have had a central theme.
Worship
Saul in his own mind believed that he obeyed God. However he let his own personal desires cause deception and he believed a lie. He even said …..
1 Samuel 15:20
And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the LORD……….
When does the deceived person know he’s deceived?
Not giving God due worship—obedience to what He reveals. This core behavior leads to unknowingly exchanging the truth for a lie. so deception began to take hold of Saul. It led him to “foolish thinking” and doing “things that should never be done.” The tragic result of Saul’s idolatry was that his life grew more and more in wickedness. He became jealous, demanding, unreasonable, full of rage, a hateful attacker of God’s servants, a murderer, and even consulted a witch instead of God. These are some of Saul’s consequential character traits, all resulting from the root of his idolatry. J. Bevere
Lack of worship, leads to Idolatry, leads to pride or vice versa.
Pick your poison.
Romans 12.1 therefore I urge you brothers in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship.
The Key is worship. (My opinion)
Matthew 6.6 