The Apple of His eye

I was reading Samuel 13 and it was about how Saul was disobedient to God. Samuel told Saul to wait 7 days and then he would come back to Saul and make a sacrifice before the Lord so that when they went into the battle they would have God's favor. Well.. Samuel didn't come back at the appointed time and so Saul became panicky and decided to make the sacrifice himself so that he would have God's favor. Right after that Samuel comes and this is what he says;

But Samuel said, "What have you done ?" And Saul said, "Because I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the appointed days, and that the Philistines were assembling at Michmash, therefore I said, 'Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not asked the favor of the LORD.' So I forced myself and offered the burnt offering."13 Samuel said to Saul, " You have acted 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 *. (1 Samuel 13:11-13, NAS)

Harsh words for a new king. Saul did several things wrong. First of all he felt the pressure of the enemy and instead of waiting on God and his timing, he took matters into his own hands. So he decided to make the sacrifice. This is a huge mistake (sin) because God clearly commanded that only the priests could present the sacrifices. So he actually believed that God would grant him favor even though he sinned against God and his commands! This completely backfired! Now he really didn't have God's favor. In fact Samuel tells him that he will be replaced with someone who will be, "a man after His own heart." (1 Sam. 13:14)

In Contrast, when God told Abraham to sacrifice his son- he followed through completely obeying God's word to him- and God intervened. God always comes through when we obey him.

The interesting thing is that Saul ruled for forty years- without God. He became paranoid, jealous, and wanted to kill David. This would be a horrible place to be in. Saul never quite had true repentance. He always justified, reasoned, and explained away his actions. God will never honor actions that that are against his commands. We can see from Saul's actions that he was self willed, he wanted to call the shots, and he didn't have reverence for God.

I for one always want to be the apple of His eye. You can have power, fame, fortune, beauty, but its nothing without being reconciled to God. Without reconciliation we are enemies of God.