God WANTS us to be ‘DIFFERENT’ with ‘ANOTHER’ HEART!
March 23 Bible
Reading: 1 Samuel Chapters 10-12
God WANTS us to be ‘DIFFERENT’ with ‘ANOTHER’ HEART!
"Then
the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them and
be turned into another man. And let it be, when these signs come to you,
that you do as the occasion demands; for God is with you. You shall go down
before me to Gilgal; and surely I will come down to you to offer burnt
offerings and make sacrifices of peace offerings. Seven days you shall wait,
till I come to you and show you what you should do." So it was, when he
had turned his back to go from Samuel that God
gave him another heart; and all those signs came to pass that day. (1
Sam 10:6-9)
As the
current spiritual leader of Israel, Prophet Samuel had the responsibility to
carry out God’s will on behalf of the community. He therefore anointed Saul to
be the first king of Israel (10:1) as instructed by God earlier (9:16). In
order to confirm his kingly anointing,
Saul was given four signs: one that his lost donkeys would be found
(10:2), two that he would meet men
who would provide him with bread (10:3–4), three
that he would meet a band of prophets and join them in prophesying (10:5–7),
and four that he should go ahead to
Gilgal to wait for Prophet Samuel who would offer sacrifices there (10:8).
The first three signs occurred the very same day, but that was accompanied
by a radical change in Saul’s own
life and disposition (vv. 9–16). God gave him “another heart” (v. 9), a giftedness to reign as a King. It was a divine equipping of Saul with inner abilities for performing the
duties of the kingship for which he had been anointed. The Spirit of God that came upon Saul (v. 10) was to equip and empower him
to lead the people as their ruler and
to do his tasks wisely. This was the same Holy
Spirit who came upon Othniel, Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson (see Judg. 3:10;
6:34; 11:29; 13:25; 14:6, 19; 15:14). This may
have caused a genuine spiritual transformation
or an empowerment in Saul’s life!
However, we
will soon see that Saul’s subsequent attitudes and behavior do not reflect a
genuine spiritual life. Yet Saul seems to have struggled with sin and desired
to worship God (14:34, 35; 15:24–34). What we can understand is that God empowered Saul with a passion to do great
things for God and this was accompanied by an inner drive which enabled
Saul to be used by God for the deliverance of Israel from the Philistines!
This is one
of the earliest direct biblical references
to the inner changes that God makes
in those who chose to serve Him. Saul turned into “another man” with “another
heart” that was transformed and empowered by the Spirit of God. Both the
transformation and empowering of the Holy Spirit (v. 6), as well as the
regeneration of the heart were essential if Saul was to lead Israel in the
direction God intends.
