Unresolved Sin Leads to....a Rotten Life.

I recently took a look at the life of Saul. He started out pretty well. He was appointed the first King of Israel. The scripture has this to say about Saul,”A choice young man, and a goodly: and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he: from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people.” In my words he was tall, strong, and handsome. He wins his first battle. Not a bad start.
Then Saul sins. Things don't look good going into a battle and Samuel isn't showing up to offer the burnt offering to God, so Saul goes ahead and offers the burnt offering himself. Samuel shows up and Saul makes excuses. This is the first step in the wrong direction. He sinned(don't we all) and didn't repent. Repentance and confession is what clears the air between us and God. “If we confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleans us from all unrighteousness.” When we allow a known sin to go unconfessed, we are cutting our communication with God and giving Satan a foothold. As I heard one preacher say, “You gave him the foothold, and you will have a slug fest to get it back.” After Saul's sin, Samuel tells Saul that his kingdom would not continue. Saul still doesn't repent. Saul's life goes down hill from there.
Saul sins again by saving some of the spoils of war when he was commanded to destroy them. Samuel confronts him and he again makes excuses. Samuel reprimands him and Saul repents. Saul says, “I have sinned: yet honor me now, I Pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord thy God.” This next verse in John is a cross reference to that verse above. John 5:44 How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh form God only? Samuel then anoints David king over Israel.
I Sam. 16:14 But the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. My bible has a note beside the word troubled, it means that he was terrified. It is interesting to note that after the spirit of the Lord departed from him, Saul's life is filled with fear. Fear of David, fear of death, and fear of his enemies. Saul had given Satan ground in his life and that Satan was taking advantage of it.
For lack of time I am going to skip ahead a little in the story. After a battle against the philistines the women come out rejoicing and saying “ Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands. And Saul was very wroth, and the saying displeased him; and he said, They have ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands: and what can he have more but the kingdom?” Good question. All the fame that Saul used to have was now outdone by David. The Lord was with David and not with Saul. The bible says in the next verse, “And Saul eyed David from that day and forward.” Saul now adds jealousy/envy to his list of problems.
I believe that if Saul had repented to the Lord and humbled himself before Him, that the story of Saul wouldn't have ended so sadly. But he refused to humble himself. The story of Saul was a reminder to me that when I allow sin in my life, I am not only putting a block between me and God, but I am giving Satan an area of my life. It is easier to defend ground than to take it back. Just as disease spreads to all areas of the body, so sin effects many areas of our life. I know that there are areas in my own life that I am struggling with. Recently I have been struggling with jealousy/envy. It seems that someone else always has things better than I do. The other day I heard a little quote that made a lot of sense. “Its not fair to compare.” Every time I wish I had something that someone else has I am comparing what they have to what I have or don't have. The story of Saul impressed upon me the necessity of taking care of that sin properly. There are many other aspects of Saul's life that I can identify with. Pride... ya I am still dealing with that one. One other thing that jumped out at me was that not dealing with sin is a sure-fire way to live a life void of any joy.
Greg