February 28, 2025
Passage Read: 1 Chronicles 7-10
Meditation Verse: 10:13-14
Thought
Saul died because he was unfaithful to the Lord, yet he died around the age of 70! So it's not like his life was taken early, but he lived a full life. His life was marked by several significant events of disobedience, including the time he consulted a medium. He wanted to consult the Lord, but the Lord had long ceased to respond to him, and that was because of his disobedience. He lived many years, but cut off from the Lord, consumed with bitterness against David, and apparently unrepentant. He never made things right between himself and the Lord.
Application
Saul began in a kind of humility, but it was a humility based more on an estimate of his own abilities. It was not a humility based on the greatness of the Lord. Had he been conscious of his position before the Lord and humbled because of the greatness of God and the undeservedness of his being chosen as king, he might have honored the Lord the way God deserved, and it might have spared his life. While he lived a full life and while he may have been rich in material terms, he was cut off from the Lord and the life he lived was meaningless. Whether he lived many years or few, because he was cut off from the Lord, there was no value in those years. A full life lived cut off from the Lord is no better than dying young in judgment by the Lord. Either way, the end result is the same: eternal condemnation. So despite living a long time, Scripture rightly says that Saul was killed for his disobedience, as are all who refuse to believe and obey the Lord. But those who die at a ripe old age, having maintained a right relationship with the Lord, have an eternity enjoying God's favor ahead of them. Death is not the end of favor for them, but rather the entry into even greater blessedness. Remaining faithful to God is far more important than living a long life.