1 Samuel 15
1 Samuel 15, Job 37:16, Psalm 147:5
God's heart breaks when He witnesses us sin. The mourning is not from a lack of knowledge as God is unchanging and all knowing. Rather the mourning is a result of God’s love and perfect design. God loves us so much that he wants us to live into His design to see us flourish, and when we don’t live into it He knows that we will find suffering or brokenness. We see this truth very clearly here in 1 Samuel Chapter 15.
In verse 11 God says “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments…”. Later in verse 35 this idea is referred to again as the author writes “..And the Lord regretted that he had made Samuel king over Israel.” Throughout different versions of the Bible you might see the word repent or sorry instead of regret. The idea is all the same, God tells us that he is regretful and is mourning Saul as king. Now, when you think of the word regret you might wonder “how could God regret anything, does that mean he didn't know what would happen?” Not at all, the Bible tells us that God is all knowing. These verses are an example of God describing Himself with human characteristics to help us understand His heart in response to Saul. God hates sin, He is saddened by our sin and disobedience. We see him blatantly exhibit this truth after Saul is disobedient.
In this specific context God gave direct command for Saul to lead a group of soldiers against the Amalekites and spare no person or thing. Instead Saul goes and wins the battle but brings back king Agag and the best animals. You see, he was pressured by the people to bring those things back and obeyed them rather than God. Ultimately Saul rejected God and this led to God rejecting him. God hated Saul’s sin and he was removed from kingship for it.
As God’s people we should align our heart posture towards sin with Gods. Samuel gives the perfect example of this. He knew Saul’s sin and was affected greatly. He mourned and cried out to God. We as Christians should take after Samuel’s heart as he took after Gods. We should mourn sin and brokenness. We should cry out to God. Unlike these Old Testament characters we have the knowledge of the hope of Jesus and his atonement for our sins. But we should still hate sin and brokenness.
In our daily lives we have the opportunity to live in fleshly disobedience or seek to align with God’s heart towards sin. Let us be a people that understand God’s heart and live in response.
