Slow Decline

1 Samuel 18:8-9

Saul was very angry; this refrain galled him. “They have credited David with tens of thousands,” he thought, “but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom? ” And from that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David.

The last words to Saul from Samuel was that his reign over Israel was to end. Saul was very aware of this. So when his replacement comes into place and it is obvious that there is a replacement coming, he freaks out. He becomes jealous. He becomes a control freak and then he beings the end of his reign hunting David as a criminal of Israel. But all this could have been prevented back in the other chapters as he could have give his heart to God and followed Him, with all his heart. But Saul chose not to. Thus resulting in what we see here, the beginning of the end. But it's not sudden, no it isn't it is slow fade away. Like a horrible day that never ends, is the end of Saul's reign of Israel.

There is so much to learn here, Saul has such dichotomy in his personality and it is blatant to see that there is issues, what we fail to see is that the same issues are also within us. Saul's jealousy was due to the part because he desired to be adorned and garnered with praise, his desire to be king was not out of humble origin, but of esteemed presence. He felt he was entitled to it. And what a king wanted, he got. We too like to have a certain way. Sometimes it is mostly due to our desire to do things our way. Unfortunately God's desire is not to have this type of attitude. Our attitude needs to be that of love for Him, putting Him first. If we fail to put him first we begin a slow decline to chaos.

Lord thank you for this lesson of decline. Help me to focus in upon you.

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