Father's and Son's part 1

Does the son become like the father? When we look at some people in the bible we see that a godly parent does not necessarily translate to godly offspring. We only have to look at Eli and Samuel to see that. Both their sons abused their positions and did not follow God, see I Samuel 2:12-17 and 1 Samuel 8:1-5. The opposite can also be true, where a godly parent has a godly son. Take the case of Saul and Jonathon

Saul's problems started almost at the beginning of his reign. Samuel told Saul to go to Gilgal and wait for him to come and offer burn offerings and sacrifice, 1 Samuel 10:8. At this time Samuel would tell Saul what to do.

Saul waited but by the seventh day when Samuel had not appeared, impatience got the better of him. He decided he could wait no longer for God's appointed priest and prophet to offer the sacrifice. Saul looked at the circumstances and was afraid that the men would leave him if he didn't act immediately, so he rashly took matters into his own hands, 1 Samuel 13:8-9.

Sometimes like Saul we may be tempted to try and force the issue, when what God wants us to do is wait. Waiting is not our favorite sport. In fact waiting makes some of us miserable. But God has a plan and does it beautifully.

But Saul chose not to wait for God to act and took matters into his own hands. No sooner had he acted, than Samuel appeared. Saul tried to make excuses for why he had done what he had and blamed Samuel for not coming earlier, 1 Samuel 13:11. Saul's eyes were on the circumstances not on God.

As a result of his flagrant disobedience to God in offering the sacrifice himself, Samuel declared to Saul that 'your kingdom will not in endure....... because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you,' 1 Samuel 13:13. Saul acted rashly and incurred God's wrath.

Tomorrow we'll look at and compare Jonathan's behavior with that of his father.