Good Saul, Bad Saul - Part 2 of 3
As mentioned in Part 1 of this series on the life of Saul, he got off to a good start in his role as the first king of Israel. He won his first big battle against the Ammonites and gave God the credit for the victory. He even gave grace to some Israelite detractors that weren’t pleased with him being selected as king. Leadership - check; humility - check; grace - check. A great start.
Unfortunately, this upward trajectory did not last. The downward spiral began with only “partial” obedience to specific commands that he had been given from God through Samuel. He also became impatient and began to take various matters into his own hands without waiting on guidance from God. You can clearly see the shift of his focus from a life of reverence and obedience to God to one that focused inwardly on himself. He started drinking his own kool-aid and chose to life by sight and not by faith.
2 Corinthians 5:6-7 Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord—for we walk by faith, not by sight
Living only by sight is dangerous. We are visual creatures and sight is a blessing. God gave us our eyes to see the beauty of His creation as well as the opportunities and obstacles in life. However, when we chose only to live by sight we are missing a great element of the Christian journey - walking by faith.
Walking by sight alone leads us to fear and self-absorption. We focus on our solutions, our capabilities and our agenda. Walking by faith completely changes our perspective. We recognize the presence and power of the God of the Universe in any and all situations. We live in His strength, His wisdom and under His protection.
Romans 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
The Word builds our confidence - the “world” will erode it. The more exposure that we have to God’s Word, the stronger our faith will be. We need frequent and solid doses of God’s Word or we are susceptible to living by sight alone. Our Enemy knows this and loves to distract us with all kinds of “shiny objects.” The Word of God is like meals that bring nourishment. If we go without food for a long time, we’ll resort to eating most anything. The same is true if we starve ourselves from God’s Word. We will be drawn to the “allures of the world.”
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Our hope is in the unseen - that’s faith. When we place our hope in the “seen” as we look for fulfillment - we are walking by sight. It’s really that simple.
Stay hungry,
Big E
Matt. 5:6