A FALL FROM GRACE

(1 Samuel 9-15)
(Esther 1&2)

All my life, I have always tried to take precautions when dealing with God.
I have always known that God can replace anybody at any time and that calls for caution.
I am always scared of the moment I would offend him and no longer be relevant before him or needed because there is a replacement for people who fall from grace.
I am scared of him who uses the fall of one to raise another.

In every football match, the coach names his starting eleven players and have substitute on the ground in case of any injury or any need to replace a player who’s not doing well. As a player, you will need to be up and doing, performing top-notch to the best of your ability so that you will not be substituted. If, a player is not performing at his best or is slowing down the team or injured. Such a player will be replaced. Of course, a good player would want to play full 90 minutes of football and win but the authority to substitute players resides with the coach.

Since my high school days up till date, I compared this with the church. I would feel somewhat awkward whenever someone else replaces me. I always want to make myself available for the work of God because I observe that any moment I feel too big to do it, He will shock me by replacing me with someone else who would do it better than me. The fear of substitution scares me.

Pay attention to these scenarios.

Plot 1:
At a time when the Philistines were a threat to the Hebrews who were occupants in the united kingdoms of Israel, the Israelites demanded a king over their kingdom. Saul consulted with Yahweh, the supreme being. By this consultation, the man selected to become the first monarchical ruler of Israel was Saul, son of Kish, a wealthy Benjamite landowner. By divine orchestration, Saul went to Ramah even though he did not know the chief judge Samuel in person. Of course, he must have been hearing about him.

Samuel received notice from Yahweh that Saul was the man chosen to reign over Israel and at the sacrificial meal. Saul, a tall young man, was given the seat of honour, and the next day Samuel anointed him, king of Israel, in a secret ceremony. Samuel presented him to the council of judges of the tribe of Isreal and they collectively supported his appointment and confirmed it.
He was sworn into office by Cheif Judge Samuel under charismatic acclamation.
During his reign, he appointed his son Jonathan as Chief of Defense Staff and together they built a reformed military defence on an army that composed largely of volunteers. King Saul won many wars, especially over the philistines and succeeded in driving them out of the hills.

He led a successful campaign against the Amalekites in the south. King Saul appointed his cousin, Abner as the military commander. Apart from the fact that he operated his government from a splendid palace in Gibeah, he had no bureaucracy. King Saul fell from grace began when he began to have issues with his godfather(Samuel). He disagreed with Samuel on so many grounds and rode on self destruction.
He oversaw the presumption in offering unauthorized sacrifice before the battle, he did not deem it fit to wait for Samuel to perform the sacrifice before going to war. I have learnt by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion”. He also had a reluctance to devote Amalek to destruction according to the principle of holy war, Because Saul had not killed Agag, the Amalekite king, and had saved sheep and cattle meant for sacrifice, Samuel informed Saul that he had disobeyed Yahweh and was thus rejected by God, for “to obey is better than to sacrifice.”

Since Saul’s appointment was subject to Samuel’s endorsement, it was pertinent that the moment they disagreed and Samuel’s rejection of saul irrevocably withdrew the power from him. He lost popular support and suffered a mental disability.

In the same manner at which Saul was first anonymously and discreetly anointed, so also was David anointed.
Forget not that, Saul’s appointment though divine was a result of grace.
He enjoyed grace and fell from grace.

Plot 2;
If we want to trace the foundation of feminist, it is traceable to her.
Talk of beauty and elegance, she stood as an exception. She was not just beautiful but headstrong. Her name is Vashti. She was a Persian queen.
She fell from grace for knowing too much, she was a feminist. An advocate of feminism.

Vashti was invited to the courtyard by the king to show off her beauty. Her husband King Ahasuerus ruled powerfully over 127 territories from India to Ethiopia. After days of eating and drinking, he wanted to exhibit Vashti before a hall of rambunctious, drunken men. She refused and ended up being removed.

Normal human reasoning, Vashti refused because her husband, the king was in a drunken state. It repelled me.
Her boldness, in my thought ‘, what’s wrong with Vashti? She had dignity. She had self-respect. She said: ”I am not going to dance for you and your chiefs in such a drunk state.” Feminists out there would agree with me on what she stood for.

“Hey, the ways of man is not the way of God”. That was all the requirement to fall from grace. Vashti was replaced by Esther, a commoner in the palace.

Kadesh

He is a God of substitution
If I offend you, God, forgive me.
Use not my downfall to raise others.

Romans 9:16, KJV: “So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.”

Galatians 5:4

King James Bible
Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.

Martins Adedeji
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