The slippery road of a half truth

Ever been caught in a half truth and tried to squirm your way out of it? All the while knowing what you are saying is not completely right but enough to sound like the truth?
The problem with a half truth is it is also a half lie.
The Bible is an open book revealing flaws in ordinary people we sometimes elevate because of the extraordinary feats God accomplished through them.  God did not require perfection from them, only obedience...the same he requires from us today.  1 Samuel 15 is a perfect example of this.

Because of the opposition the nation of Amalek gave to the Israelites when they were passing through from Egypt, God decided to destroy their nation...everything and everyone.  Saul was given this mission to accomplish.
Enter half-truth half-lie.  Saul tries to convince the prophet Samuel he has accomplished the entire mission.  Samuel's response, “Then what is all the bleating of sheep and goats and the lowing of cattle I hear?” Gotcha, caught in the half-truth.  Saul squirms, blames his army (not once but twice) and then sugar coats the disobedience with the God element.   “It’s true that the army spared the best of the sheep, goats, and cattle,” Saul admitted. “But they are going to sacrifice them to the Lord your God. We have destroyed everything else.”

Just because Saul, you or I put the God element in the mix still doesn't make a half truth a whole truth.  Notice it was not Saul's God he refers to but Samuel's God.  Big clue into the condition of Saul's heart.

Again Samuel called him out on the lie: "Why haven’t you obeyed the Lord? 

 “But I did obey the Lord,” Saul insisted. “I carried out the mission he gave me. I brought back King Agag, but I destroyed everyone else.  Then my troops brought in the best of the sheep, goats, cattle, and plunder to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”

 But Samuel replied,

“What is more pleasing to the Lord:
    your burnt offerings and sacrifices
    or your obedience to his voice?
Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice,
    and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.
 Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft,
    and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols.
So because you have rejected the command of the Lord,
    he has rejected you as king.”

Saul had no idea the web he was spinning would become the entrapment that would change the course of his life.  Rebellion and stubbornness in our lives are like threads woven together that reflect beauty on the outside but one false move and that pattern becomes the sticky chords of entrapment and death.  Half truths always end this way, we just can't predict the moment. 

Who is your standard?

At 15 years of age Tom was diagnosed with a rare degenerative eye disease that would eventually steal his sight. Anyone who knew Tom always commented how positive his attitude was even in the face of difficult circumstance. But this was something he never anticipated nor wanted in his life. The floodgate to his emotions flung wide open in those first few days and weeks of receiving this diagnosis; shock, anger, fear, smashed hopes and dreams and anxiety to name a few. He would never be able to fulfill his dream of playing football for a big name team, never be able to drive, never see the face of the one he would hope to marry one day or even the faces of any
children God would bless their marriage with. Would anyone even want him without his sight?

His faith was tested.
Would he be able to live the words he often encouraged others with? Tom was faced with a decision we all face at some point in our lives; how and in what do we measure our value and worth? Is it in a particular physical or mental feature, a talent, a checkbook balance or material items? And what happens if one or more of these are snatched away without warning?

What we use today as a standard to measure our value and worth will either build or eventually destroy us. We must look to a standard that has always remained the same will never change according to fashion, “religious”, financial or political climates around us. We cannot look to Hollywood, a particular Wall Street or Washington, DC to determine our worth or value.

There is only one standard by which we can determine our value. God’s standard revealed in his Word. Nothing is greater than God and He holds himself true to His faithfulness and the validity of his Word. God’s value and worth He places in us is like a thread sewn throughout His word, it is strong and will never break, tear or crumble. The circumstances that come into our lives won’t scare him or change his mind about us.

God’s word says, “God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change is mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through? (Numbers 23:19)
“And he who is the Glory of Israel will not lie, nor will he change his mind, for he is not human that he should change his mind!” (1 Samuel 15:19)

Tom came to realize that God uses difficult circumstances in our lives to refine us not to define us. He was still Tom whether he could see or not.

What about you? In what or whom do you find your value and worth, and is it reliable and unchangeable?