“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding..” - Proverbs 3:5 (NIV).
A tragedy has been described as an event that results in great distress. What often is seen as a tragedy is where something that was apparently cruising normally is beset with devastating circumstances, resulting into certain loss. King Saul’s life is seen as a tragedy because it began on a high only to end up in a tragic low, with him taking his life, along with three of his sons (I Samuel 31:6). How did this tragedy happen?
Saul almost came out of nowhere to be appointed King of the Israelites. When Samuel first revealed to Saul the anointing over him, he was skeptical, “ Saul answered, “But am I not a Benjamite, from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? (I Samuel 9:21). On the day of his crowning he was nowhere to be seen. “And the Lord said, “Yes, he has hidden himself among the supplies.” They ran and brought him out, and as he stood among the people he was a head taller than any of the others. Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see the man the Lord has chosen? There is no one like him among all the people” (II Samuel 10:22-24). Its quite clear Saul came from far.
But once he settled on the throne Saul overtime lost sense of how far he had come from. He started not listening to God but followed his own ambitions. “Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel: “I regret that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions” (I Samuel 15:10).
Had Saul not lost sense how far he had come, much can be said that he would never have lost his senses that one point he sought mediums- “Saul then said to his attendants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, so I may go and inquire of her.” “There is one in Endor,” they said” (I Samuel 28:7). The tragedy of Saul was one who became so big that the God who made him be, was now second place. His life that had begun so heroically ended up as one tragedy.
What we pick from all this is that any of us could start out so well, only to lose focus and start looking to other powers. Instead of going back to the Lord who has made us; we rely on our strength or something else other than the mighty God. Saul lost humility, puffed up his wings, only to lose the crown to someone whose heart was truly after God- King David.
Prayer for today: Lord father in heaven, maker of heaven and earth, today I pray that my heart is truly centered on you, and I may not lose sense of how far you have brought me, this I pray in Jesus’s name.
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19/04/2024 - 20/04/2024 All day“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” ( Isaiah 43:19).
Just before fire was unleashed down on Sodom and Gommorah, Lot was told to pack up with his wife and two daughters and leave their homestead. Now, once out of danger, “But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt” ( Gen 19:26). Perhaps here we might pause and ask why she was bothered to look back.
Of course it could have been that old “curiosity killed a cat” mistake! Yet, it could also have been Lot’s wife was not sure where she was going and longed for her old life back. This is a common error. There was nothing stirring to look back. Just before Lot’s neighbors had attacked his house eager to rape his visitors. “They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them” ( vv 5). Was there anything worth looking back to!
The case of Lot’s wife could be anyone else’s experience. The Lord has plucked you out of some mess. You have been delivered to a new life. Yet, somehow you decide to look back, as though there was anything good and worth longing for. Sometimes it is a bitter past you have been delivered from. Other than rejoice in your new blessings you keep being drawn back!
A wise caution goes, “As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly” ( Proverbs 26:11). If the Lord has just led you out of a certain mess why look back like it was much better! Instead look ahead, for “he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past” ( vv 17- 18).
Prayer today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, I thank you for delivering me from the darkness of the past and I look forward to a bright new future in you, this I pray in Jesus’ name!
