Theme Of Disobedience And Punishment

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The Bible has several episodes that highlight God’s interactions with His children. Several of these episodes have a common theme of disobedience and punishment. Humans, against what should be their better judgment, have been shown to act in contradiction to God’s instructions, and do what they think is best for them. When people flout God’s commands, instead of acting like a nagging parent, He controls them by intervening directly. To carry this out, He does not hesitate in punishing these people for their mistakes, so that they do what is right, which is the thing God wants them to do. This is heavily in contrast to what Eli is shown to act like. Eli is portrayed as a typical nagging parent who would express his displeasure to sons in a very …show more content…

God, through Samuel, commanded Saul to wage war against the Amalekites, and spare no one and nothing in the kingdom: “Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass” (1 Samuel 15:3). Instead of doing that, Saul decided it would be a better idea to keep the best of the livestock, and the king of the Amalekites alive. This was after Saul’s first act of rebellion against God, when he performed a war ritual that was supposed to be performed by a priest, who was Samuel (1 Samuel 13:9). Instead of waiting for Samuel, Saul did exactly the opposite of what was expected of him by God. This second act of disobedience made God decide that Saul was not worthy of his support to be the king, and instead, turned to look for a new one to replace him. On finding out about this, Saul reacts by saying that he only kept the animals alive so he could offer them as sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:15). To this, Samuel responds by very aptly capturing what God expects from him when he says: “And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed” (1 Samuel 15:22). Saul does realize that he has committed a serious fault in disobeying God, but God, instead of saying that he should not have done what he did and pestering him with more instruction, decides that he needs to be punished. It is apparent to God that Saul is not one to follow His instructions, so He decides that he is not fit to be the king of Israel. Just like Jonah, Saul did get a second chance, but he failed to follow God’s will yet again when he spared the Amalekite king and livestock. This resulted in him paying for his mistakes with God’s support and ultimately, his

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