Verse of the Day: 1 Samuel 13:13-14, And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which He commanded you. For now the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. 14 But now your kingdom shall not continue. The LORD has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the LORD has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you.”
Saul’s beginnings were very humble, but here we see the ugliness of his pride emerge. When we compare Saul’s transgressions against the LORD in what he did, and compare it to the sins of others in the Bible, his sins seem small in comparison. This is how we, as human beings, judge the sins of others. We judge their actions. We give a pass on certain sins because those sins are not as wicked in our thinking. We will give a pass to those who cause division or are gossipers, even though everyone sees it, but we will publicly crucify others who, in our estimation, have committed the “big sins”. For this reason, we must be very careful about how we judge the actions, even the sinful actions, of others. That is why God tells us to approach those who have sinned, with humility and a heart to restore, rather than with a prideful and judgmental attitude (Galatians 6:1-3). When we take the “religious” approach, we put ourselves in the place of Jesus, who is the only Judge (John 5:22). Here, Saul’s transgression may seem small, but God went beyond measuring Saul’s actions, God measured Saul’s heart; something we are incapable of doing. Proverbs 21:2 clearly states, “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the hearts.” Saul put himself in the place of Samuel, which he had no right to do. His role as king of Israel did not automatically give him the privilege of appointing himself prophet. His position as king did not give him the freedom to overstep the boundaries of his authority before God. Not only was he now filled with pride, but he was unrepentant for what he had done. When Samuel confronted Saul, Saul made excuses, blaming Samuel’s delay, and in doing so, also blamed God, because Samuel was God’s prophet. His accusation was no different than Adam’s accusation in the Garden, in Genesis 3:12, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” In essence, Adam was blaming God for giving him Eve, who brought this trouble upon him. Like Adam, Saul refused to take responsibility for his sinful actions in his disobedience to God’s command and instructions. Although Saul’s physical actions may seem small in comparison to David’s sins of murder and adultery, God looked beyond the sinful actions to what was in the heart of each man. So it is with us today. God still judges our sinful actions the same way. We see evidence of this when we see someone who commits a grievous sin (in our estimation of things), yet they seem to suffer little consequence for it. Sadly, far too many Christians take offence to God’s choice to show mercy and grace, and decide that we have to take matters into our own hands and show that person how bad their sin was. On the other hand, we see someone we have given a “pass” to, on their sinful action(s), because we already decided that in the grand scheme of things their sin was not as bad as the other person we crucified; but then we see that God chooses to allow harsh consequences for their seemingly “small sin”. We need to be very careful about how we judge the actions of others, because only God can judge the intentions with which they were done. We must also be careful to examine our own sinful actions and ask God to reveal to us where our heart was when we sinned against Him. It may be that we are suffering harshly for a seemingly “small sin”, when all along we have harbored a greater sin in our hearts…pride or an unwillingness to repent (which usually stems from pride itself). The men and women who were forgiven greater sins than the one Saul committed were men and women who recognized that they sinned and truly repented. God therefore, seeing their hearts, measured their actions by what was in their hearts and not the actions alone. However, let us not forget that every action does result in some kind of consequence, whether good, bad, great or small.
Today, God extends an invitation to you to accept His gift of salvation (Rom 6:23). Will you accept it? Anyone who calls on Jesus, by faith, in repentance, confessing your sins, will receive eternal life. Do not put off calling on Him, and receive Him and His gift of salvation today (Rom 10:13).
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