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Showing posts from August, 2017

Saul's Slippery Slope: Final Lesson

The downfall of King Saul is marked with pride, presumption, and foolish hastiness. Rather than trusting the will of God, he became reliant in himself and in others. He also treated the commands of God with flippancy and irreverence. Because of this, Saul was tormented with nightmares and faced an onslaught of depression. It is stated in 1 Samuel 16:14, “ Now the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the LORD tormented him  (ESV).” This has been the point of much contention because some wonder over how God could do this. The Bible reveals that God is not the author of temptations (James 1:13) nor is there any darkness in Him (1 John 1:5), so how do we make sense of such a statement? We must realize the implications of the first part of verse fourteen which said that God's spirit left Saul. The departure of God's favor and presence meant that Saul would undoubtedly experience anxiety and fear. Due to the hardness of his own heart, God's hand of