March 12, 2024 - 1 Samuel 13-15

Sometimes, we talk about the “human condition.”  What is that?  Well, I suppose different people probably have different answers.  But, certainly, one thing can be said about all of us: We like to have things “our way.”  Burger King gets it and has for years promoted their burgers with the slogan “Have it your way.”  You know, all those other places force you to have it their way; with us you can have it your way.  Saul was preparing to go to war against the Philistines.  He gathered his troops and he waited for Samuel, God’s priest, to come and offer a sacrifice beforehand.  He waited, and he waited, and he waited.  Wanting things done on his schedule, he became impatient, and before Samuel could arrive, Saul offered up an unacceptable sacrifice.  Samuel declared to him, “You have done foolishly.  You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, with which he commanded you.  For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.  But now your kingdom shall not continue . . . because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you” (13:13-14).  How foolish to disregard God’s instruction and to go off on our own.  David understood:  “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether” (Psalm 19:7-9).

Teach me, my God and King,

in all things Thee to see,

and what I do in anything,

to do it as for Thee.

To scorn the senses’ sway,

while still to Thee I tend;

in all I do be Thou the Way,

in all be Thou the End.   -- George Herbert (1633)