Embrace God's Perspective

Embrace God's Perspective

BY Paulette Fraticelli

Photo by Sara Erb

- 1 Samuel 16 : 18
He that says that he has no sin is a liar and there is no truth in him.” “All have sinned and come short of what God expects of his people.” “There are none perfect, no not one.”
I dare to say that there are very few who will read this lesson that have not been disappointed in the life of some person in whom you had placed your trust. Samuel became very disappointed with Saul.

As adults we all experience disappointment. Loved ones and trusted friends are too often the source of some of our greatest sorrows. Whether young or older Christians we must learn that we can not allow disappointment to write the script for the rest of our lives. There is always a better way and that is to embrace God’s perspective of the situation we are in. What do I mean to say? We can not let our disappointing experiences defeat us, but instead we must learn to profit and grow stronger because of them.Though God has experienced incessant disappointment as a result of the failure of His people down through the centuries, He has been able to advance his purposes for them and through them. Saul is a good example of one who served a purpose even though he was a disappointment to God. Samuel searched and found Saul—he anointed Saul as the first King, and worked hard to help him be successful. When God finally rejected Saul, it was Samuel that was hurt the most.

God approached Samuel and asked him how long he intended to morn the fact that Saul had been rejected. What God really meant was that Samuel should get over the loss and the bad feelings just because a friend had disappointed him. He was to fill his horn with oil and go find a new king, anoint him and let him get busy and lose no more time.The indication here was that they would be looking for a new king that would have many of the outward characteristics which Saul had. However God warned Samuel that he was not concerned with the outward appearance of the new King. The value of a man can always be ascertained by finding what his heart is like.
Samuel was afraid of Saul. God protected him by sending him to search for the new king before Saul was told that this was taking place. God already knew who the new king would be…he told Samuel where to go…and to look up the house of Jessie who had eight sons. Jessie and his house were consecrated because they were being prepared to make a sacrifice—which was the gift of a son. I can imagine that Jessie was becoming annoyed with Samuel by the time he had turned down all of his oldest seven sons. You could tell from the tone of voice and the way Jessie answered that he did not want to send for David who was too young and inexperienced. The choice was made and Samuel anointed David to be the one to take Saul’s place as king. Remember that at this time Saul is still king and David actually is placed in service secretly.God always prepares for his people to move in and take over on his terms and not theirs. Saul needed a harp player to play for him when he was having one of his pity parties and was told about David who had recently come into service for the king. We need to remember that Saul did not know that David had already been anointed. And he became well pleased with David and his service to the king. This continued until he found that David had been chosen as his successor and then he changed to a man of hate with murder in his mind and heart.Those who have studied history of the ancient world will tell you that there is a lot of similarity between Saul and Nero, the nutty Emperor of the Roman Empire. In verse 14 of the 16th chapter, you will find the hardest verse in this lesson to fully understand. It says, “Now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him.” This is another one of those verses that no one wants to tackle.

I searched in five different commentaries plus the footnotes of four different study bibles and found that the authors completely ignored this fourteenth verse. Dr. B. H. Carroll thinks that Saul died an unsaved man. My question is: Was he saved at one time. He must have enjoyed having the Spirit of the Lord with him—because the bible says that the spirit left him. Does that mean that he was saved and then lost? No. I don’t think this is possible. Does God intentionally torment people? I do not believe he does. But this verse says that “An evil spirit from the Lord tormented him.” So the Lord must have at least allowed the evil spirit to torment him.It appears very clear to me that Saul was a high strung, independent, self-centered man that found his life of importance slipping away from him. Because of his nervous background…always at war…always on the alert and feeling self-sufficient he now realizes that his power and prestige is slipping away and it is more than he can bear. To some degree, Saul began to lose his mind and do things that he should not do and he lost all faith in anyone, especially Samuel, and David. He saw David as a threat that would eventually destroy him.

The truth was that David was a power-house with the backing of God Almighty that would have set Saul completely free and in good standing even though he had failed so many.I can imagine that Saul was so weak of mind and losing all the power of reason he had ever had. He simply was going crazy. He believed that music was a soothing balm for his misery. David just happened to be a talented player of the harp, and was brought in to play for Saul. During these early days Saul grew to love David and was well pleased with his service. David treated him as his king and served him well. When Saul finally knew that David had been chosen by God to be his replacement he went mad.

The spirit of the Lord left him, and I really believe that this simply means that he no longer had any guidance from God. God gave up on him. His spirit no longer strove with Saul.God is all powerful and nothing is out of his reach when he needs help. He can minister to his children through his spirit in many different ways. He wanted to use David to minister to Saul but Saul would not accept him.