Saul’s disobedience caused
God to regret/grieve/repenteth making him king. “Then the word of the LORD came
to Samuel: “I am grieved that I have made Saul king,
because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions” (1
Sam 15:10-11a NIV). None of us want to
disappoint God. However, it gives me pause to think that whether we’re a king, a
pauper, or a middle-class American, our disobedience may cause God to regret
the position in life to which we’ve been assigned.
1 comment:
Gail;
-----Asa turned to the Lord in a big way. He turned all of Judah to Him so much that a great number of Israelites came to sojourn in Judah for the righteousness happening there. They tore down and broke up all the idols and their altars, except those in the high places. And they covenanted with God that anyone not seeking Him would be put to death. “15And all Judah rejoiced over the oath; for they had sworn with all their heart, and had sought him with their whole desire, and he was found by them, and the LORD gave them rest round about.” (II Chron 15:15) So successful was their turning to the Lord that the land had peace for over twenty years.
-----But Baashah, king of Israel, was not comfortable with Asa and Judah’s good fortune in the Lord’s delight. I suppose seeing so many of his Israelite citizen’s abandoning their allotted homeland for Judah’s fortune was a frightful thing. This trend could grow legs! So Baashah went against Judah, and began building Ramah to prevent anyone from going to or coming from Judah. Asa turned to the king of Syria, who defeated Ijon, Dan, Abel-maim, and the store cities of Naphtali. Baashah retreated from his building project in defeat.
-----But Asa forgot something. He failed to look closely and make sure the Ben-hadad/Syria puzzle piece rightly fit the space his puzzle needed filled. In his opinion, it did, so he hired that king of Syria. But God was of a different opinion. He sent Hanani the seer to Asa with a message. God had given Asa victory over the huge military forces of Ethiopia and Libya because Asa relied on God for that victory. But since he went to Syria instead of the Lord for dealing with petty little Baashah, Judah would now have plenty of war.
-----It seems to be God’s nature to honor His own word, so maybe Judah would have had plenty war even if Asa had repented. But maybe they would have been successful in those wars. But Asa would not repent. So he became very ill in his feet. And even in that he did not seek the Lord. He sought physicians. He died.
-----We reap the consequences of what we do wrong even though we repent. Yet the Lord is good and faithful to also bless us with the consequences of what we do right. Everything we do is a new base for the future which will grow out of it. So it is important to not mislay our bases. Carpenters know how important properly laid foundations are to the rest of the building project. Even though God gives us spaces in which to build repentance into our puzzles with good growing out of those rightly laid pieces, ills will yet proceed from our mislaid pieces. Our disobedience grieves the Lord. But it is the refusal to repent and lay bases for good growth which causes Him to regret what He gave.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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