Text:
1 Samuel 13:1-15
Memory Verse:
“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” (1 Samuel 13:12). Saul experienced the superlative mercies of God by being the first king in Israel despite coming from the least of the tribes, but disobedience caused him to incur the wrath of God that terminated his kingship and truncated his life through a terrible death.
David had been an enviable beneficiary of the mercy of God. But when he
transported the ark of God contrary to the laid down principles, he experienced the terribleness of God; Uzzah was struck dead for touching the ark (2 Samuel 6:7-9). For doing the right thing in the wrong way, David saw the wrath of God that scared life out of him. God is as full of mercies as He is full of justice. Your stand for righteousness determines your experience of mercy or justice as it was with:
1. Adam and Eve who enjoyed the excellent mercy of God as God’s greatest
creatures, but their disobedience made them candidates of God’s judgement that brought mankind into sorrow and death (Genesis 3).
2. Israel as a nation experienced unusual mercies that brought them out of
Egypt with great signs and wonders, but their repeated acts of unrighteousness made them incur the wrath of God that wasted them in the wilderness and denied most of them entry into the Promised Land.
Through Jesus, you can enjoy the mercies of God that will transform you from
a hell-bound sinner into a heavenly-destined saint. But to reject Jesus automatically qualifies you for eternal judgement in the lake burning with fire
and brimstone.
Prayer Points:
1. Father, let me enjoy Your sure mercies all the days of my life.
2. Holy Spirit, please deliver me from incurring the wrath of God.
