Does the son become like the father? When we look at some people in the bible we see that a godly parent does not necessarily translate to godly offspring. We only have to look at Eli and Samuel to see that. Both their sons abused their positions and did not follow God, see I Samuel 2:12-17 and 1 Samuel 8:1-5. The opposite can also be true, where a godly parent has a godly son. Take the case of Saul and Jonathon
Saul’s problems started almost at the beginning of his reign. Samuel told Saul to go to Gilgal and wait for him to come and offer burn offerings and sacrifice, 1 Samuel 10:8. At this time Samuel would tell Saul what to do.
Saul waited but by the seventh day when Samuel had not appeared, impatience got the better of him. He decided he could wait no longer for God’s appointed priest and prophet to offer the sacrifice. Saul looked at the circumstances and was afraid that the men would leave him if he didn’t act immediately, so he rashly took matters into his own hands, 1 Samuel 13:8-9.
Sometimes like Saul we may be tempted to try and force the issue, when what God wants us to do is wait. Certainly this was the case for us when we were trying to sell our house. The temptation was to rush in and drop the price so it would sell more quickly, or take out a bridging loan so we could buy the house we wanted before we sold. But God showed us this was not the way and we had to trust Him to act in his time and way. It wasn’t always easy. Waiting is not our favorite sport. But God answered and did it beautifully. In his time and way we sold and ended up in the house we now have, the house God chose for us and we couldn’t be happier.
But Saul chose not to wait for God to act and took matters into his own hands. No sooner had he acted, than Samuel appeared. Saul tried to make excuses for why he had done what he had and blamed Samuel for not coming earlier, 1 Samuel 13:11. Saul’s eyes were on the circumstances not on God.
As a result of his flagrant disobedience to God in offering the sacrifice himself, Samuel declared to Saul that ‘your kingdom will not in endure……. because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you,’ 1 Samuel 13:13. Saul acted rashly and incurred God’s wrath.
Tomorrow we’ll look at and compare Jonathan’s behavior with that of his father.
Bible verses from The New American Standard Version
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