“No
one
eats until the battle is won!” (1 Samuel 14:24)
Those words seemed like a good idea at the time. King Saul’s army was battling the Philistines and they needed all the help they could get. By putting the people under this vow, Saul was hoping to garner some favour from God and gain a victory. Unfortunately, the message did not reach everyone.
As the army cut through a grove of trees, Saul’s son Jonathan spotted some honey and ate it. Eventually, this news came to Saul and he said, “Jonathan most certainly will die. It’s out of my hands” (verse 44).
Do you see what happened there? Saul made rule and then he acted as if that rule was an unchangeable truth that he had to follow. He made a box and then trapped himself in it.
Now, you may be thinking, “Well, that is just stupid!” but we do the same thing all the time.
I know a man who beats himself up over something that he did thirty years ago. No one else remembers the incident, but he cannot let it go. That event is now the box that defines his life.
A woman had her life all mapped out. Then, one day, everything fell apart and now she cannot adjust to her new reality. The box that she is stuck in makes her miserable, but she chooses to live there anyway.
Another man has all kinds of rules for other people. He lives in the world of “should” and “ought” as in “He should do this” or “My kids ought to”. This man is always mad because no one does what he thinks they ought to do and no one fits the boxes that he has for them.
In the end, Saul did not kill Jonathan. Instead, his men convinced him that he is did not have to follow some silly rule that he made up (verse 45). The fact was that he was not trapped in the box he had created for himself. Neither are you.
Jesus died to release us from our burdens and to give us a new start.
“It is for freedom that you have been set free!” (Galatians 5:1)
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