March 18, 2009

Reading 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel

I've been reading through the Bible and I've just finished the book of 1 Samuel and now embarking upon 2 Samuel.

I have found some interesting points while reading these two books in the Bible.

Saul was God's anointed, because Israel decided that they wanted a king. They no longer looked to God as their King, they wanted a fleshly king. Of course, being in the flesh, Saul would sin, but Saul's biggest failure in life was that he didn't repent of his sin.

See, David was also God's anointed and followed Saul as Israel's king. David had gross sins, such as calling up Uriah to be murdered and fornication with Uriah's wife, well, you probably know the story.

But the difference between Saul and David was that David always repented of his sin.

King David at Prayer, 1652 by Rembrandt van Rijn
King David at Prayer, 1652


Remember when Saul didn't totally demolish the Amalekites. He actually allowed their king to live even though God had told him to leave no one alive. Remember how he let the men keep some of the plunder from the herds to offer up as a sacrifice to God, even though God told Saul to not leave anything or anyone remaining alive.

When it was pointed out to Saul that he hadn't done these things, he made the excuse that the men wanted to keep some of the animals alive to give in sacrifice. It didn't matter that they had good intentions, they had disobeyed God.

Remember when Nathan came to David and pointed out his sin to him. David prostrated himself right there and then and asked God to forgive him.

Saul made excuses, David always repented.


Just one of the points of interest that I noted while reading the books of 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel.

2 comments:

Ginger said...

Laurie, those are GREAT points, David always repents. If we go to the Lord on our knees and ask for forgiveness, God ALWAYS forgives, if we are truly sorry. Amen!

Laurie and Bill said...

Amen, Mrs. Bee, Amen!