The man told his doctor that he wasn’t able to do all the things around the house that he used to do. The doctor started a long and thorough examination but finally found nothing wrong with the man. When the examination was complete, the patient said, “Now, Doc, I can take it. Tell me in plain English what is wrong with me.”
“Well, in plain English,” the doctor replied, “you’re just lazy.”
“Okay,” said the man. “Now give me the medical term so I can tell my wife.”
Sometimes we know the truth but would like to camouflage it so we wouldn’t look so bad. However, a lie is a lie and it doesn’t matter how you dress it up.
Saul, the King of Israel, had a similar problem, but Samuel the prophet told it like it was.
And Samuel said, “What have you done?”
Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered together at Michmash, then I said, ‘The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the Lord.’ Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering.”
And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.
Saul was claiming a religious ritual was necessary, when in reality, obedience was necessary.
Give it some thought.
Gary