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Recap In 1 Samuel 8-15, we found that the people of Israel had allowed King Saul to supplant God as the sovereign one over them and their rebellion and arrogance had so infected their kingdom that it was incapable of toppling over and becoming the “upside down kingdom” God desired it to be.
Regret and Brokenheartedness • Regret can often be described as brokenheartedness and in our text today, we see a number of different examples of brokenheartedness.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is … a condition of the heart where over time, the walls of the heart so thicken that the heart is unable to efficiently pump blood. In essence, the heart hardens and becomes virtually useless. • Spiritual hypertrophic cardiomyopathy - Saul’s regret tragically resulted in a heart hardened to God and a life oriented in opposition to Him, a life chock full of regret, despondency and hopelessness.
One cannot break a hardened heart … a hardened heart needs replacing. • Callousness – hardness of heart – presents Christians with a significant problem as much of the rejection of Christianity in our world is related to our tendency to exhibit judgement rather than brokenheartedness at the presence of sin in the lives of others. • When was the last time you felt heartbreak upon seeing the results of another’s sin?
“Until the day Samuel died, he did not go to see Saul again, though Samuel mourned for him. And the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.” (1 Samuel 15:35-16:1)
God’s Brokenheartedness • God is broken hearted at Saul’s disobedience but He is ready to move ahead with His plan to lead His people in righteousness; if fact, God is already moving beyond regret – identifying a new king for his people – even as His heart is breaking. • God deeply mourns human sin, but He never allows it to incapacitate His goodness or mercy to humankind. His judgement and wrath when they are dispensed are not delivered with gleeful joy, but with both an unfathomable brokenheartedness and a hopefulness that restoration will quickly follow.
Samuel’s Brokenheartedness • An atrial flutter … is a medical condition where stimulus to the heart results in an irregular heartbeat, almost as if the heart get “stuck” in an irregular pattern of beating. • Rather than developing a hardened heart in response to his grief and regret, Samuel experienced a “stuckness” in his heart. • We cannot exist with an irregular heart rhythm of regret and mourning forever; it will eventually bring about self-destruction.
What happened in Samuel’s life to move him past this sort of “stuckness”? • God shocked Samuel out of his regret inspired stupor by calling him to a task. He reset the rhythm in Samuel’s heart that he might be involved in resetting the rhythm of life for God’s people by anointing another king.
Taking honest stock of your heart right now, does your heart fail to break when you experience the tragic results of sin in your own life or the lives of those around you? • “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to [obedience]” (Ezekiel 36:26). • If like Saul, your heart has been hardened by regret, know that God’s heart breaks for you. He desires to intervene, repairing your brokenheartedness and enabling you to follow Him in obedience and righteousness.
Application • Do any of you feel stuck by regret or mourning because of the sins you’ve committed in life? Do any of you feel incapacitated by thoughts of “this is not how it should be” in response to the tragic examples of sin in the world around you? • If regret has entrapped us, let us recall the words of 1 John 1:9: “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness”.
Application • Sometimes, like Samuel though, it’s the failure of others that traps us in the cyclical prison of regret and mourning. • Even as we reel from regret and mourning, God is already preparing better things for us; a different way forward.
My Prayer of Challenge • Rather than developing hardened hearts or wallowing in regret – fixated on the thought that “this should be different” – we might be active in searching out the divine different that God is right now bringing into being .Might we regularly visit the office of our “great physician” Jesus Christ, avoiding the cardiac problems of Saul and Samuel and enjoying long life in Christ’s kingdom.
