Consumed - Man of Honor.

I've been reading through 1 Samuel these last few weeks. Awesome book.

I've been watching the development and character of Saul who was once just a tall, good looking sheep farmer that God designated to be the first king over his people "Israel." Saul never really gets on the ball with God. He listens at first, and does whatever Samuel (the priest and top connection to God) tells him to, but he never makes it his own. He does what's needed or whats right, but he doesn't make God his life. (It reminds me of many people I see at church who do all the right things, they come to church, lead, tithe, pray, read their Bible but they've put God in all the right places in their life but He hasn't consumed them yet.) You can tell as Saul often asks others for advice rather than God. Although, the Spirit of God was on him, he had prophesied, and knew how to do it having encounters with God - he still hadn't switched his way of thinking that this was his God and his life. An example of this happens when God tells them to destroy everything in Amalek and Saul destroys most of it then brings back the best sheep and oxen telling Samuel it's to sacrifice it to "the Lord your God." It was to Samuel's God, not Saul's God. He was just playing by the rules he had to do rather than being consumed by God.

Doing all the right and holy things, yet not being consumed is not what God desires and will still move you away. You'll feel a slight dissatisfaction and distance as if "is this everything" because you cannot have all of God without first being consumed by Him.

 So God's upset about this distrust in Him and disobedience to Him so he appoints another king. A man named David. To save time, we have to fast forward: David's anointed and the Spirit comes on Him. The Spirit leaves Saul and Saul's tormented by a demon. David plays. David defeats Goliath. Everyone celebrates David. Saul gets jealous tries to kill David. David flees with Jonathan's help. Saul's chasing down David all over trying to kill him because he's jealous.

So we have this scene that David's being chased all around. At this point David has still done nothing wrong. He's being sought after because he was really successful in battle for Saul yet people praised him more than Saul. Saul's daughter Michal is head over heals in love with him/marries him, and Jonathan his son has a special attachment to him. Everyone loves him except Saul. The reason Saul doesn't like him is because he's successful and getting more love than he is and he's afraid 'what if he turns?'

Saul has chased them (David and the other refugees) between cities, in wildernesses, and countrysides. David has still fought for his country and went down and defeated an attack on one of the cities. After the victory they had to leave before Saul came to kill them. At this point Saul and David are literally on different sides of the same mountain trying to kill and flee. A philistine attack lets them get away. Saul then comes back is in pursuit. Along the way, he stops to relieve himself in a cave. It's the same cave that David and his men are hiding in. So David sneaks around and cuts off part of Saul's robe. "His heart struck him" and he felt bad for doing such a thing to his king and the Lord's anointed. So he stopped his men from attacking and killing the one who killed their families, priests, destroyed their homes, and sent them running for their life.

Seriously?! I'd have been ticked. Saul had been trying to kill me for months because I did well or someone fear rose up in him that I wanted to kill him. I had never done anything of the sort yet he believed this. He was chasing me down attempted to kill me multiple times. Yet, he has honor and respect of him because God had chosen him to be in this place. At what point, can I hold a grudge against our president? Can I bash or unload on the leaders of the church (mine or others)? If they have been anointed (designated and set apart by God for purpose), then who am I and how can I come against them? David was such a man of honor that He respected God anointed him, even though he botched it up and did horrible things in between, he still wasn't going against him. Impressive. Massively impressive.

After Saul leaves the cave, David goes out and calls to him. He bows down to the earth and paid homage to Saul! Still showing respect and honor for the guy murdering dozens to kill him. David pretty much says, "Look, I don't know who told you I was trying to kill you but it's not true. See, God gave you into my hands today in the cave. I have a piece of your robe in my hand showing that I could have killed you, but I didn't. I don't have plans to kill you. Let God be our witness and let Him give me to you if I'm lying." Saul lifted his voice and wept crying out that David was more righteous than he. He understood what was going on and how David could have killed him. He admitted how David was to be the future king and simply asked that he not destroy or remove his household or name from the land.

As fear was confronted and discussed, through the extremely gracious acts of a man of honor, peace was restored and God's plans continued to go forth.