DAY 100

GUARD YOUR HEART

1 Samuel 15 & 16 and Luke 10:25 – 42

Today we read of Saul, David, the Good Samaritan, and Martha & Mary – in each instance there is a commentary by God of who is doing His will – in might therefore bear some consideration.

We begin with the Old Testament and I must tell you that I feel sorry for Saul. Not only do I feel sorry for him, but when we read David’s story in the coming days and weeks, if you were to do a side-by-side comparison of Saul-to-David, there are some moments where David seems just a “bad” as Saul. Yet God removes his blessing from Saul and with regards to David, we will in the future read that “David was a man after God’s own heart.”

With that little introduction I want to dig into Saul’s situation a bit; chapter 15 provides some insight. God sends Saul to deal with a group of people, the Amalekites, who attacked Israel when they were in the desert many years ago. They attacked in a rather under handed way; they picked off the stragglers, the weak, the ones who were having trouble keeping up (cf. Deuteronomy 25:17-19).  Israel has faced them before and will have to face them again. You have read about some of these battles already in Exodus 17 and in Numbers 24 (Numbers 24 is the scene with Balaam and Balak). The Amalekites will plague Israel for much of their existence.

This all brings us back to Saul. Saul has gone in and defeated the Amalekites,  but God is not pleased. We read in vv. 24-28 that Saul did not follow God’s command. In fact he and the people he was leading kept the “spoils of war” for themselves and allowed the king to survive as a sort of trophy. Picture for a moment the fact that Saul had no problem killing every man, woman, child, and weak animal…but kept the best, the spoils, for himself and his people. We then read him telling Samuel that he kept the best to sacrifice to God. Samuel pushes the issue with Saul and Saul finally confesses that he kept the best because he “feared the people and obeyed their voice” (v.24). What unfolds is Samuel’s prophecy of the Lord’s rejection of Saul and that the nation will be divided into two.

We might simply summarize this as “Saul really messes up”. Why then when David “messes up” do we see different treatment by God? The answer I believe lies in chapter 16. The Lord is directing Samuel to anoint the next king. Son after son is paraded before Samuel, yet the Lord repeatedly says “Not this one.” Finally they go and get David (the youngest – there is that motif again) and God says, “Yes, that is the one!” Before selecting David, here is what the Scripture records God saying, “…the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as a man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but he Lord looks on the heart.”” (16:7).

The answer to why David and not Saul, the answer to why Mary over Martha, and the answer to the Good Samaritan has less, much less, to do with their “works”, and everything to do with their hearts. If their hearts (and ours) seek to be aligned with God, then we will be inclined to try and do the right “works”, and God will bless us, and even when we fail (and we will) He presence will be quick to return to those with penitent and contrite hearts.

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise

We don’t know everything about Saul, or the others. We do know that God knows all. He knows their hearts and so I come to the conclusion that I have choice about whether or not to trust God’s judgment, even when I feel sorry for some of these tragic characters.

In the end, this “faith business” really is a matter of the heart. We use our minds, but it is in our hearts that our faith is held, and therefore we must guard them (Proverbs 4:23).