The Painful Price of Disobedience

Between 1 Samuel chapters 10 and 15, we see the anointing of a shy commoner from the smallest tribe of Israel, the Benjaminites….. even in his commonality the man the Old Testament describes as “being a head taller than any of the others” was chosen as King by God and anointed as such by Samuel in front of all of Israel. 5 chapters later, he goes into battle with the Amalekites and willingly disobeys God by sparing the ruthless king Agag and the best of the kingdom’s sheep and cattle. This seemingly harmless decision ultimately costs Saul his anointing.

Even though Saul initially blames everyone but himself for his actions, I can’t help but be moved by his plea to God for a change of heart when Samuel brings him the bad news: that “…the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors” (1 Samuel 15 28). That neighbor ends up being David. It made me remember how seriously God takes disobedience. I mean how often has God told any of us to do something and we either just blatantly disobey or we “don’t get around to it”? We do it everyday just in our being human truthfully….. Fundamentally, none of us truly even deserve to be treated with any more preference than Saul, the very man God once entrusted with an entire kingdom, yet his grace and mercy continue to allow us to walk in light of his blessings even so! It’s something to be really and truly thankful for!

The story does not end there. Saul continues to spiral down a slope enveloped in paranoia, fear, and self-centeredness leading to the death of his sons and ultimately sadly to his own self destruction in suicide…. his disobedience and hardened heart eventually cost him his very life and that of loved ones.

Moral of the story is that there are many prices to disobedience (Deuteronomy 28) and the only reason we don’t experience these everyday, is because God is merciful and we have been granted redemption through Jesus Christ. Through Him, we can always come to God with repentant hearts and be made pure again :-).

NNB