So Saul died because he was unfaithful to the LORD. He failed to obey the Lord’s command, and he even consulted a medium instead of asking the LORD for guidance. So the LORD killed him and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse. [1 Chronicles 10.13-14]
But wait, back up...
Now the Philistines attacked Israel, and the men of Israel fled before them. Many were slaughtered on the slopes of Mount Gilboa. The Philistines closed in on Saul and his sons, and they killed three of his sons—Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malkishua. The fighting grew very fierce around Saul, and the Philistine archers caught up with him and wounded him. Saul groaned to his armor bearer, “Take your sword and kill me before these pagan Philistines come to taunt and torture me.” But his armor bearer was afraid and would not do it. So Saul took his own sword and fell on it. When his armor bearer realized that Saul was dead, he fell on his own sword and died. So Saul and his three sons died there together, bringing his dynasty to an end. [1 Chronicles 10.1-6]
Could Saul's death not just be attributed to the losses of battle? Could it not be said that Saul did nothing wrong except go to war that day? Wouldn't it be acceptable to say that "stuff happens" and so Saul died that day?
Of course all the thing above could be said. But, they are only part of the story.
We are fortunate to have the whole Bible because we get the whole story - not just what happened on a single day. On a single day, Saul died because of war. But in the big picture of God's plan for Israel, Saul died because of repeated disobedience and self-reliance.
Sin was at the root of Saul's demise. Worse yet, Saul's sin caused the deaths of his sons and many others.
Why is this important? It is important because there are blessings on obedience and curses on disobedience. The writer of 1 Chronicles clearly saw the correlation of Saul's death to his disobedience. Why? Because being overcome by enemies is a curse upon disobedience!
No one wants to go where this is going today though...
Every curse is tied directly and inseperably to sin - to disobedience. Poverty, cancer, loss, diabetes, and every sort of undesirable life condition are all the result of sin. Oh sure, it is easier (and certainly less condemning) to say that "stuff happens" and that obedient and disobedient suffer alike. But to do so is simply a lie and is not supported by the cover-to-cover story of the Bible.
We should repent when we experience curses. Instead however, we are largely only further guilty of denying God's Word that defines the symptoms of "curses" as the result of disobedience (the "cause" - sin).
So, instead of repenting, we sin further in denying that God's Word is true. And, to make matters worse, we violate God even further in calling things "good" that are clearly bad! We have the audacity to call curses some sort of blessing from God as if He is making us better by them (for no other reason but to improve us as if we are good and just need to be better). Not true! Curses are punishment for sin! The clear objective of punishment is repentance.
When we experience loss of any kind, we should repent. Plain and simple, we should confess our disobedience and get obedient.
But wait! There's more!
We all know that we are incapable of being good all the time. So, naturally, we can conclude that curses are our lot in life, right? Wrong. If the Bible were about being good, then curses would in fact be our lot and destiny. But the Bible is not about being good. The Bible is about being saved. The Bible is about Jesus. Jesus died for our disobedience.
So why are we still sick? Why do we still suffer loss? Why are we still cursed?
Because even though our condition is not tied to our obedience of the Law of the Old Testament, it is still tied to obedience - the obedience of faith. Faith in Christ. Faith in our Messiah. Faith in our Deliverer. Faith that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son... Faith that we are "in Christ." Faith that we are God's family.
We remain under curses because we do not properly believe in Jesus.
My neck hurts. Why? Because I have not properly believed in Jesus. Not properly believing in Jesus carries with it all sorts of problems including doing things my own way (which ironically is disobedience in itself and worthy of curses).
Jesus was very clear about His Advent: Repentance was at the beginning of His message to earth. Next was to believe. And not just "Believe" as it makes a good wall hanging, but believe in Jesus as our Redeemer BECAUSE WE ARE SINFUL AND IN NEED OF A SAVIOR and all the blessings of Deuteronomy 28 are found in Him. Jesus lived to show us how to live. He died to prove it.
So, what do we do? Repent of our faithlessness and believe in God's redemption through Jesus. Repent and believe. Repent and believe. Repent and believe!
"Being good" is not our key to relief from the curses of Deuteronomy 28. We simply cannot be good enough - there are too many laws. But we can "be in Jesus." We can repent. We CAN repent and believe as a daily - even moment by moment - way of life.
Frankly, the more time we spend repenting is the less time we spend sinning. Think about that!
Until each of us comprehends that we are hopelessly lost in sin without Christ, we will never experience all that Christ has bought for us. Until we have come to the humility of our hopelessness, we remain in pride (listed as the first item on God's list of things He hates). And, pride is not disobedience like stealing candy, it is far worse - it is like telling Jesus, "I don't need You."
I could go on and on...
Saul died because he was unfaithful to the LORD.
Father, please forgive me for pride and arrogance in my life. Forgive me for thinking I deserve anything good. Forgive me for not trusting Jesus to be my "obedience." Forgive me for being content in curses. Forgive me for being spiritually lazy and making faithless excuses for the bad things in my life instead of repenting. Forgive me for being wishy-washy in what I believe and what I therefore say. Forgive me for not allowing Jesus to be my life and my everything. Father, please forgive me.
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