OUR LORD WHO FAVOURS THOSE AFTER HIS OWN HEART

Continuing with the study of Samuel chapter 2, we get to the part of the narrative where Samuel reached Gilgal and found that Saul had just completed the offering that should have been left for Samuel to do. This is how the passage proceeds;

Just as he finished making the offering, Samuel arrived, and Saul went out to greet him.

“What have you done?” asked Samuel.

Saul replied, “When I saw that the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Mikmash, I thought, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the Lord’s favor.’ So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering.”

“You have done a foolish thing,” Samuel said. “You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. 

But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.”

Samuel, finding out what Saul had done, reprimanded Saul for doing something gravely wrong and because of it, God had chosen another man to be ruler of the people of Israel.

Saul had lost his favored destiny because he had not kept the command of God and had proven to be a man who was not after God's own heart. 

If we were to be people after God's own heart, we would first have follow God's directives and second, we would have to trust God in all circumstances even when following God's directives seem to result is situations going awry.

In Saul's case,  he felt compelled to override the command of God with His own plan because he lost trust in God's plan when he saw that His army was scattering in the face of the Philistines.

Being a person after God's own heart should compel  us to stick to God's directives and trust that God can and will make all things work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.

Trust and obey; there is no other way.

Amen.