Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 14-15.

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This passage highlights how King Saul went wrong, and gives us a warning of something to watch out for in our own lives.  First, Saul made a foolish vow which almost resulted in him killing his son Jonathan.  Jonathan’s life was spared only because the army insisted that Saul not kill him.  Later, God ordered Saul to conquer and completely destroy the Amalekites and their possessions.  However, Saul kept the best of the cattle and sheep captured from the Amalekites for a sacrificial feast, and spared the life of their king.  When Samuel came to him, King Saul greeted Samuel by saying that he had performed the command of the Lord.  When Samuel called him out for not completely doing as God had commanded, Saul repeated that he had done as God commanded and attempted to blame the people for his failure to destroy all of the sheep and cattle.  In doing so, he glossed over the fact that he had indeed violated God’s command by keeping Agag, the king of the Amalekites, as a captive.

Here’s the thing, I think King Saul actually believed it when he said, “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord.”  Despite the fact that he clearly had not.  He justified keeping the best of the sheep and cattle because he was going to have a big sacrificial feast.  We all too often do the same sort of thing.  We tell ourselves, “Oh, I am only doing this thing which is contrary to God’s commands in order to do this other thing to honor God.”  I thought of giving an example here, but I think that each of you can look at your lives and see the areas where you are tempted to justify violating God’s commands in order to do something which you think honors God.  We might even do what King Saul did here, blame others for our failure to fully carry out the will of God.  Let us not do that.  Let us examine our lives and our motives and seek to do away with our justifications for not following God’s instructions.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.