-June 18, 2022-
Good morning, happy Saturday,
“Now the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying, ‘I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments.’ And it grieved Samuel, and he cried out to the Lord all night.”
(1 Samuel 15:10).
God gave the people what they wanted: a king like all the other nations. God gave them Saul and gave him so many chances to obey and follow Him, but he came up lacking. The last straw was when God told him to kill all the Amalekites, their king Agag, and all their livestock. Saul only partially obeyed, which is disobedience. He kept the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good. He also refused to kill king Agag.
God rejected Saul from being king. Not only that, but He regretted He had made him king. Because of this the prophet Samuel was grieved and cried out to the Lord all night. If we get grieved over the sin, wickedness, and evil in this world, we know how much more God detests it. In Noah’s day there was such great evil on the earth, that it was even worse than we see today.
Genesis 6:4-7 says, “There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men of renown. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the Lord said, ‘I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.’” But Noah and his wife and family found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
So from Scripture we know of two regrets God had: creating man and making Saul king. God repopulated the earth through Noah after the flood, and He removed Saul from being king in His timing. God dealt with sin in both cases. The lesson for us is to not grieve the Holy Spirit, but to fully obey God, fear Him, and do His will. Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:30, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” He also said in 1 Thessalonians 5:19, “Do not quench the Spirit.”
None of us as children of God want to disappoint our Lord or give Him any regrets. We want to please Him and bring glory to His name. Saul’s story is sad because he had great potential but did not live up to it. It reminds us that sometimes when we vote for a particular candidate for office, we discover things about that person that make us regret we voted for them.
Have a blessed day pleasing and obeying the Lord fully and not causing the Lord any regrets. Stay safe and healthy.
In His service,
Dean
Dean Allen's Daily Devotional 