Bible Passage: 1 Samuel 22

David’s escape to the cave of Adullam began a gathering of people to him.

These people were scums in the eyes of Saul, but were they also worthless in the eyes of God? Apostle Paul reminds us:

         “and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the

         things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, …”

         1 Corinthians 1: 28

These people, about 400 of them, were wise enough to recognize the mark of God’s anointing on David. Therefore these people, though were broken in the spirit, were being used by God to accomplish His will in David.

In contrast, Saul was not even able to hold a candle to these “scums” of the society. He was so blinded by his pride and he allowed jealousy to get the better of him and literally ignored his conscience and worse off, he ignored the commands of God.

In this chapter, we read that because of his jealousy and hatred towards David, he killed Ahimelech the priest with his whole family, who had helped David

Saul slaughtered 85 innocent and God-fearing priests of the Lord as if all that mattered to him was his throne and his own life! There seemed to be no God in his eyes anymore.

The lesson and warning that I can gather from this chapter are that God is never partial and will never look down on the base things of the world.

No matter how lowly and poor we may be, or we are being deemed as fools in the society, God will never despise us. But as long as we know that we are the children of God, and that we understand that we belong to God and faithfully holding fast to His commandments, we can accomplish His will through His mercy and grace.

Just as Apostle Paul reminded Timothy,

         But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and

         clay, some for honor and some for dishonor.

Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor,

sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.

2 Timothy 2: 20 – 21

God is the Creator of all things, and He has the sovereignty over our lives, but His sovereignty is never in the form of tyranny towards His children. Our God is truly a Father to those who are poor in spirit.

The warning that is being revealed in this chapter is that we must esteem the commandments of God.

For all the commandments that God has spoken in the Bible are for our eternal life. The moment we doubt or treat God’s commandments as unimportant or impractical, we have actually fallen into the snares of the devil and thus creating a foothold for the devil to work in us.

Saul’s downfall is a very good example and warning for all of us, therefore we have to constantly keep our pride in check, always strive to learn the meekness and humility of Christ while dealing with people and matters in our Christian lives.

Sometimes we may dislike someone who had crossed our path, but let us always bear in mind that negative feelings towards others, especially anger is unbeneficial at all, because the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. (ref. James 1:20)

So let is all put in effort to meditate on the words of God daily and also to do them. Constantly pray for strength and wisdom to curb our pride and to learn humility.

Tomorrow is the first day of the Lunar New Year, so I wish all brothers and sisters in Christ, and all readers a happy and blessed New Year.

May God’s peace continue to rule over our hearts and may He also continue to bless us with wisdom to lead a life that is able to grow unto maturity and be conformed to His image, pleasing in His eyes.

Shalom

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