TAKE SIN OUT OR SIN WILL TAKE YOU OUT

Acts 13:21b-22a"and he gave them Saul son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, who ruled forty years. After removing Saul..."

Saul ruled for 40 years, but ran into the Amalekite problem. During the time Israel came up out of Egypt the Amalekites were a particularly nasty people. As the Israelites wandered through the desert, the Amalekites would sneak up behind them and attack the weakest of their people (Deuteronomy 25:18). Now, many years later, God tells Saul to completely annihilate the Amalekites, to not leave anyone alive (man, woman or child), and destroy all of their possessions (1 Samuel 15:3). Saul did what God told him to do with a couple of exceptions, the first is he spared the Amalekite king Agag as a trophy, and second he kept the best of the sheep and cattle (purportedly to use as a sacrifice to the Lord). Of course the Lord knew what Saul had done and spoke to Samuel, "I am grieved that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions."

After Saul tried to make excuses for not doing exactly what the Lord told him to do, the Lord spoke through Samuel, (1 Samuel 15:22) "To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams," and (1 Samuel 15:28) "The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors -- to one better than you. He who is the Glory of Israel [speaking of God] does not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man, that He should change His mind." Samuel then told Saul to bring him Agag, king of the Amalekites and Samuel killed him on the spot.

There are a lot of interesting things going on here and lessons to be learned which we don't have time to go through in detail (for example the way Samuel deals with Agag illustrates how we must deal with sin -- immediately and without hesitation). However, I think the main point Paul is making here is this: when the Lord gives an instruction, do exactly what the Lord tells you to do. Saul died in a battle many years later and ironically, guess who killed him? An Amalekite! (2 Samuel 1:6-10) Why? Because Saul didn't kill every single one of them as God had instructed him to do. Sin is just like that. God tells us to remove something from our lives. We do it for the most part, but hang on to some remnant, perhaps (like Saul) as a trophy to our victory. But sin is like a cancer that goes untreated; it eventually grows and ultimately destroys life.

What sin has God told you to get rid of? Have you dealt with it thoroughly or have you held on to some small piece of it? Do you falsely think you have that sin under control when in truth it is only waiting beneath the surface to eventually destroy you? What is God telling you to do about that sin right now? Will you obey God, and completely turn away from that sin? Some sins are hard to eradicate from our lives. Share your struggles with a few men you trust and ask them to help you fight off this sin.

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