The genealogies seem to end rather abruptly as the Chronicler takes up the history of the Kingdom of Israel. He wants to focus on David, but he must precede this with a brief mention of Saul. Essentially, Saul was defeated and his family line wiped out because, like Israel, he was unfaithful. He was called by the Lord to destroy the Philistines but they destroyed him instead. He spent too much time and resources on chasing David around rather than doing God’s work. He ignored God and failed to pray to discern His will. Instead, he consulted a medium in an attempt to circumvent the will of the Lord. As a result the Israelites lost more territory than they had gained.
The Chronicler speaks to us of the dangers of divided loyalties. As Jesus said in Matthew 6:24 no one can serve two masters. He will invariably hate one or the other and if you serve self, as we see in the example of Saul, you will not be serving the Lord. Saul, like many of us, claimed to be the Lord’s man, but his life and deeds said otherwise. We too often claim to serve the Lord but we have one foot in the world. We copy the world’s way of doing things. We support the media and approve of what our culture teaches. We drink to excess, party and spend money on material goods all for our own benefit. And then we go to church one day a week and pretend that God approves of what we are doing. The person who wants to remain loyal to the Lord must honor Him by following Him in all things even when it is costly or looks foolish in the eyes of the world.
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