What Were You Thinking?
Posted by: ba <ba@...>
http://www.forthright.net
Straight to the Cross
GUEST ARTICLE:
What Were You Thinking?
by Steve Preston
"In those days there was no king in Israel: every
man did that which was right in his own eyes"
(Judges 17:6, 21:25).
Generally speaking, a people left to themselves
will become corrupt. Without accepting divine
guidance, a society falls into moral decay.
Sometimes even with leadership a civilization can
become rebellious and turn against the Father of
us all.
One would think then that a man especially chosen
by God to lead the nation of Israel would be a
source of spiritual strength to the people he
leads. As it turns out, the first man chosen to be
king over Israel "did that which was right in his
own eyes" and caused Jehovah God to say, "It
repenteth me that I have set [him] to be king; for
he is turned back from following me, and hath not
performed my commandments" (1 Samuel 15:11).
Saul, the son of Kish, was made the first king
over Israel (1 Samuel 11:15). After the prophet
Samuel anointed him, Saul was told to "go and
smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they
have, and spare them not; but slay both man and
woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel
and ass" (1 Samuel 15:3).
Because Amalek fought against Israel as they left
Egypt (Exodus 17:8-13), God decreed that nation
should be destroyed, hence the instructions to
Saul. Everyone and everything pertaining to Amalek
was to be destroyed.
The instructions were simple and specific. For
someone to misinterpret what God wanted done to
the Amalekites is hard to fathom. Saul, however,
apparently did not understand. For instead of
destroying everything pertaining to the Amalekites
as God instructed, Saul "spared Agag, and the best
of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the
fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good,
and would not utterly destroy them" (1 Samuel
15:9).
What was Saul thinking? Did he not think that God
actually meant for him to destroy everything? Even
when he was confronted later by Samuel, Saul still
claimed he had "obeyed the voice of Jehovah, and
have gone the way which Jehovah sent me, and have
brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly
destroyed the Amalekites" (1 Samuel 15:19-20).
Notice that Saul claimed to have done what Jehovah
had asked of him while at the same time declaring
that the Amalekite king Agag had been spared. What
was he thinking?
What are we thinking when we sin? God has given us
specific instructions to "put to death therefore
your members which are upon the earth:
fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire,
and covetousness, which is idolatry" (Colossians
3:5).
More than once, God has told us to do only what we
have been commanded to do (Deuteronomy 5:32,
17:20, 28:14; Colossians 3:17; Galatians 1:5-9).
What are we thinking when we presume that
something we like in worship will be acceptable to
God? What are we thinking when we compromise our
faith in order to "fit in" (Galatians 2:11-14).
God's children need to think as Paul did and "have
the mind of Christ" (1 Corinthians 2:16).
Only when we do that, conform to Christ, will we
be thinking the right thing.
__________
Steve moderates the Bible Talk list, from which
this article was taken, with his permission.
http://www.topica.com/lists/list_BibleTalk
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