Last week, we learned from the people’s failure in rejecting God and demanding a king.
The main application was to make God king in your life — He takes priority over everything. The temptation is to take lesser “kings” that the world has to offer.
This week we learn from Saul’s failure to give God complete obedience and the application is to humbling obey Him as King fully. The temptation is to remain oblivious to the areas in our lives where we are only half-heartedly following Jesus. Wholeheartedly give every area to Him.
Seeing the many failures in the history of Israel should be a reminder that if we try to apply this in our own strength we will wind up repeating their mistake. This makes Jesus’ redeeming work so sweet — we get to abide in HIS PERFECT KINGDOM AND HIS PERFECT OBEDIENCE which He has already set up and lived out on our behalf.
Obedience today may be to communicate the gift of salvation to those God has put in our life. To forgive others even when they hurt us deeply. To love each other, and those that don’t return the love. This is obedience in the Kingdom of Heaven. These things require wholehearted obedience which only comes as we look to Jesus who has gone before us in perfect obedience.