Devotional - May 12, 2004

Before you get all inspired by thinking you might be the next man "after God's heart," you better think about the context in which Samuel said this.

Saul was anointed by Samuel because God chose him to govern His people. (1Sa 9:17) But, God never wanted His people to be like the nations around them who served kings. Instead, He expected every man to do what was right by virtue of their devotion to Him. God desired that His people have such a relationship with Him that they, not only respected the Law, but lived it. Then when needed, God would give insight to a prophet who would then give those instructions to the people to keep them on the right track. But the people wanted no part of that arrangement. So I ask you, did God find a man after his heart when he found Saul?

I confess that today's reference Scripture is a setup. That is, it's a fragment of the complete sentence structure and excludes a vital part in order to make a point. You've read the "b" portion of the sentence. The "foundation" and the "conclusion" of the thought are to be found in the two excluded fragments of the verse we'll call "a" and "c" respectively.

Reading the middle part of the sentence alone, it makes for a pleasing thought. It appears as if God rewarded Israel with a man who thought like He did and whose reign honored Him and blessed the people. But don't be so hasty.

What Samuel said was (and I paraphrase), "I've decided to bring disaster on your kingdom so I've found someone who will help me do that; all this because you've failed to obey me." We'll read later that God did in fact find in David, Saul's successor, someone who was truly after His heart. David, along with his his son Solomon prospered Israel for eighty years under God's blessing.

If today's lesson teaches us anything, it is that God's blessing is not always positive. Sometime God gives us the just reward of our evil intentions just to prove His displeasure. Interestingly, the Israelites didn't always discern the difference between God's positive and negative blessing. Because of their spiritual blindness, whole generations of families perished having never known his goodness. They did so because they thought they were experiencing the best God had to offer and never asked for anything else.

Is your life generating the best God has to offer or have you become satisfied with the meager return of your best effort and stopped praying for anything better?

1 Developed from Read the Bible Thru ( 1Sa. 12:1-13:23 Jn. 7:1-30 Ps. 108:1-13 Pr. 15:4 )
2. Scripture comes from the Holy Bible, New International Version; (c)1978 by New York International Bible Society