Since God always foresees the end of the story, we may never know why He chose to favor King Saul with the blessings and the position that He did. What we can know, however, is that God can use circumstances in our lives to purge each of us of the "King Saul" in our hearts. Are you ready to relinquish your little "kingdom" to God today?
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Transcript: Welcome to "5 Minutes with Pastor Lutzer." I'm so glad that you joined us again today as we discuss the topic, "When You've Been Wronged." If you were with us last time, you know that we talked about King Saul, the "spear-thrower," and I emphasized the fact that when someone throws a spear at you, don't throw it back.
Now, here's the remarkable thing: Saul was a man who was anointed by God; He was gifted by God. He obviously had leadership qualities. What went wrong? And why does God allow someone like that in a position of responsibility? Gene Edwards wrote a book, entitled, "A Tale of Three Kings." It's a very good book, by the way, but in that book he discusses King Saul and this is what he says, "why does God do such a thing (namely to give someone remarkable gifts and at the same time, the person turn out to be evil)? He says, "the answer is both simple and shocking. He sometimes gives unworthy vessels a great power, so that it might be eventually revealed for all to see the true state of the nakedness—the internal nakedness of that man. Remember God sometimes gives power to men for unseen reasons. A man can be living in the grossest of sin and the outward gift may continue to work perfectly." That's something to think about! And then Edwards goes on to say that God reveals the heart of man and we must see ourselves in that revelation. "Saul," he says, "is in your bloodstream, in the marrow of your bones. He makes up the very flesh and the muscle of your heart. He is mixed into your soul. He inhabits the inner part of your atoms; King Saul is one with you. You are King Saul." That's a remarkable statement. In other words, there's some Saul in us all. And what Edwards goes on to say, is that the reason that David had to flee from Saul for 10 years, living in caves, is to take the Saul out of David's heart. Think about that. It was also for the transformation of David.
Now, I don't have all the answers about all the conflicts and all the issues of reconciliation but I have to say this, that in retrospect, we can be thankful that David had to flee from Saul, because think of all the wonderful Psalms that David wrote during his times of distress. One of the verses I quote every single morning—quoted it this morning, comes from Psalm 34, "I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My mouth shall make praise of God." And it goes on and on. We're blessed as a result of that Psalm. What about Psalm 37 where it talks about the fact that I will not fear evil doers and do good and God will be with you and be still and know that He is God. We wouldn't have that Psalm. All those Psalms and many others like it were written when David was fleeing from King Saul. I think, for example, of the words of Jesus Christ, I mean they're coming to get Him, and this is one of the most remarkable statements that Jesus makes, it's found in the book of Luke, where they're coming toward Him and He indicates that He has the power to, of course, take care of them needless to say. But He says, "This hour of darkness is yours. Today, you win."
Now, I have to say that if you're living with abuse go for help immediately, I am not justifying abuse at all, but I am saying this that God sometimes gives us difficult people to reveal our own internal nakedness, our jealousies, our sense of insecurity, or whatever, and God reveals ourselves when we are up against people who often times we cannot reconcile with, we're up against a King Saul. So be encouraged today. Look at the difficult people in your life and then ask yourself what am I learning through their experience with me that will help me be more like Jesus—who was able to commit himself to God and trust God completely with his future, even though it led to suffering and the cross? Of course, the end was reconciliation with God, but also with resurrection. I guess what I'm trying to say today is: take hope. The difficult people in our lives have things to teach us. May God enable us to learn those lessons.
Now, next time we're going to talk about another family in this series. So you stay tuned. And as for today, you go with God.