Promising Beginning…Unhappy Endings?

This past Sunday evening, the message was on Saul’s Anointing as king over Israel (I Samuel 10). God told Samuel to anoint Saul, and set him apart as king of Israel. Saul showed much promise. But the promise he showed early on disintegrated as he revealed himself to be rash, impatient, and in the end, greedy and guilty of idolatry. All the great promise he showed early on was forfeited. We are told that the Lord regretted that Saul had become king, and God took the kingdom from him.

Others in the Bible charted a similar trajectory. Prior to Saul, we find the example of Samson. Samson was a good judge, but gave himself over to impure passion. He refused to repent. Eventually, he lost his strength and became unable to save himself. The KJV tells it well: “he wist not that the Lord had departed from him.” (Judges 16:20) His strength only returned at the end of his life when he pushed down the pillars in the building where the Philistines had him on display. In the New Testament, Judas’s case is well known. Others in the New Testament followed a similar path of departure from the faith. Demas, mentioned as one of Paul’s co-workers in Colossians 4:14, is later described as one who has departed from Paul, “having loved this present world” in II Timothy 4:10.

So, a promising beginning is not a guarantee of future usefulness.

And yet, Scripture also teaches us that a bad beginning is no guarantee of future uselessness, either. John Mark, the kinsman of Barnabas the missionary, is a great illustration. John Mark once went on a missionary journey with Paul and Barnabas. (See Acts 12:25) Mark left the mission early for reasons unrecorded. The departure apparently caused problems, though, for Paul and Barnabas got in a sharp contention over a proposal to include Mark in a new mission. (See Acts 15:37) The discussion was heated, apparently, for Paul and Barnabas depart from one another. Later on, Mark’s maturing years brought with them stability and dependablity. Paul later urged Timothy to bring Mark to him, commenting that Mark was “useful to me for ministry” ( II Timothy 4:11) Indeed he was, for we believe that this same Mark became “St. Mark the Evangelist”, the author of the Second Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Saul’s promising beginning turned out to be a sad ending; Mark’s apparently bad beginning turned out to be a blessed ending. The difference? The active, working, powerful Grace of God!

“Now all these things happened unto them for examples; and they are written for our admonition…wherefore let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” (I Corinthians 10:11-12) Amen!

©Baptist Parson, 2008