Day 145: Saul's Death Sentence

Romans 15:1-13; 1 Samuel 27-28; Psalm 70

Romans continues to talk about accepting, encouraging, helping, and pleasing one another.  If we love others, then we stop selfishly focusing on ourselves, and can serve one another.  Our goal is not to admonish, criticize, judge, or isolate others of the faith.  We need to support each other.  If being Baptist works for them, great!  If being Pentacostal works for them, great!  If being Assemblies works for them, great!  If being Non-Denominational works for them, great!  We need to love and support one another in the cause to share the good news and help the poor.  Everything else is just opinions and doesn't matter in the grand scheme of eternity.

David sort of stumps me.  He goes on raids, destroys whole towns, lies about it, and is blessed by God.  I suppose The Lord blesses him for that because he was destroying people who were against him, pagans, I guess.  Either way, David's sagacity keeps him alive, keeps him in favor with the people that it is necessary, and maintains his leadership role.  It's just kind of tough to get.

Poor Saul, on the other hand, is really struggling at this point. Saul is trying to destroy evil, but because of his sins, The Lord has turned his back on Saul and he compromises.  One sin leads to more. Saul then conjures spirits (proving that ghosts do exist...weird) using a spiritist, trying to force God's hand.  Saul wants answers, and what does he get?  A death sentence.  There may not have even been a battle if Saul would have obeyed The Lord, and now, because God had left Saul, he was in this stinky situation and promised that his life was over.  I think of the people in today's society who make wrong choice after wrong choice, and then, when they are desperate, there is no where else to turn, they feel like their life is over. Saul's story happens. People trade in the glories of heaven for their insecurity; they trade in God's strength for sinfulness.

Psalm 70 gives a perfect conclusion, something that would have helped Saul tremendously:  we are poor and needy, but it is God who saves us.