Saturday, September 27, 2014

Counteraction

1Samuel 15:9
 
9But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and was unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.
 
King Saul was given a directive. He did not obey that directive obviously. As a matter of fact, he kept what seemed good and useful to him. The Amalekites did attack the Israelites when they left Egypt. The word says that the Lord swore to have war with Amalek from generation to generation. What Saul didn't know was not only would God reject him for not completing the task he was assigned, but God would have to send someone else to clean up what he was unwilling to do. Samuel finished off Agag but five hundred years later, those associated with Amalekites still existed. So someone else had to be sent. That person was Queen Esther or Hadassah (her Jewish name). Saul had disobeyed God many times but the last straw was sparing King Agag of the Amalekites and taking all the plunder from a people who did not worship God and made sacrifices to other gods. Five hundred years later, Agag's associates resided in Babylon. Babylon is the place of captivity that God sent the people of Israel to for their continued disobedience. It was there that an associate of Agag was in a position of leadership with a plan to execute vengeance upon the people of Israel. I love Queen Esther because she is the embodiment of courage, my favorite woman of the Bible. She was willing to lose her position as queen, her reputation and even her life, for the sake of her people. Had Saul obeyed, there would've been no need for the Festival of Purim (casting of the lots) which is celebrated every year in the Jewish month of Adar or March on our calendar.
 
What is the moral of all of this? Who will God need to send to counteract your disobedience and unwillingness to do what God said for you to do? Who has to be sent who will be willing to lose their position, reputation or even their life for something greater than them? If you don't do it, will God send someone else in your bloodline later? Will God raise up a group of people from somewhere else? God's people were put in danger certainly not just physically but spiritually. There are consequences to not following what God said. You just don't know who those consequences will fall upon. In Saul's case, it fell on the people he was to lead, God's people hundreds of years later though his consequences were immediate.  Saul's consequences resulted in God rejecting him as king and picking David as the new king, sending an evil spirit upon him. His disobedience continued to the point that no one in his family would remain. Has God told you to do something? Are you willing to do it? If not, who will suffer or feel the sting for it beyond you? And who has to be sent in your place?  

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