For the few days, we’ll focus on the acronym REVIVE.
To bring back to life. To have another chance. To live again.
R stands for Reach.
Have you ever seen a baby or young child? They love to reach, stretching out with their arms and hands open wide. Upward and Outward. It’s a deliberate choice where one reaches and to whom one reaches.
In 1 Samuel 14:47, we find a very successful king. Saul has defeated several important enemies of Israel, including the Moabites, Ammonites, and Amalekites.
In the next chapter, 1 Samuel 15, the prophet Samuel gives Saul a divine mandate. To go find the Amalekites that Saul has subdued before. To completely decimate their human populations and all their possessions including cattle, sheep, donkeys, and other animals.
Indeed, Saul carries out this order. Except that he decides to spare King Agag and the best of the cattle and sheep. Saul disobeys God’s instructions and acts upon his own accord.
Saul’s actions make God regret He has chosen Saul as king, and God shares this grief with Samuel. The next morning, Samuel searches for Saul.
However, Samuel doesn’t know where Saul and his army has traveled to. So Samuel inquires of Saul’s whereabouts.
Now where could Saul be? Hold on to your seat. This is breaking news.
Saul had gone to Carmel to set up a monument of himself.
A monument. A monument to celebrate his success of what he has achieved. A monument to elevate himself instead of God.
Saul’s audacity in disobedience to God was put on full display in erecting a monument to himself right after a battle where he defyed God’s instructions. (And then later lied about it.)
Saul didn’t need God anymore. Saul wanted the glory for himself.
Saul was reaching to elevate self.
When we reach away from God, we declare our independence from God. The result is spiritual deterioration and eventually, a loss of a relationship with God. If we read further, we see how Saul’s rejection spirals further downward until he loses his kingship and his life.
Saul turns away from God and chooses the wrong path. What can we learn from this?
Our Reach matters. We can reach towards spiritual death or a revived life. Choose the Real Reach that leads to life.