Living in the Spirit
June 8, 2015

Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 15:34-16:13

Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul. And the Lord was sorry that he had made Saul king over Israel. –1 Samuel 15:34-35

The relationship between prophet/priest and King had been severed. Saul was moving through the motions of kingship without a rudder and Samuel withdrew to grieve. Why do you suppose the Lord was sorry he had made Saul king? I don’t question that Samuel was sorry he had caved to the people’s demands that a monarchy be established. He was mad about it in the first place.  Why was God sorry?

The Hebrew word translated sorry is nacham, a root word that essentially means comfort,* here used in the form of consoling oneself. The Lord is acting in the role of a parent as God nurtured the people toward an expanding civilization requiring a different type of governance to survive and prosper within God’s realm. Not unlike a parent takes a preschooler to start Sunday school to prepare for this new ventures in the child’s life, God guided Samuel to anoint the first king and it did not work. Every stand outside the preschool classroom with a child having a temper tantrum refusing to enter? God was not necessarily sorry civilization was expanding; God was perhaps sorry that the people had wanted the king for the wrong reasons. God was also sorry that the people, Saul included, did not adapt to the change as readily as God had hoped.

Growth and maturity whether on a large scale or a small scale takes much adapting, time, and energy. It requires all those gifts of the Spirit mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12 and all of the fruits of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5. It often means we take two steps forward and one step back in our journey toward the Kingdom of God. And while the scene in front of the preschool class may flash through our minds as we watch the same child receive his or her college diploma, the final outcome is worth the effort. It is OK to learn from our mistakes, even to regret them for a time, but they must never stop us from continuing our journey with the guidance of the Spirit.

Prayer: God of Grace and God of Glory, help us be malleable to the Spirits shaping. Amen.

*http://biblehub.com/hebrew/5162.htm

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.