Defective View #1 - "I know better than God..."

Last week we looked at the first defective view of God.

The first account of King Saul disobeying God is presented in 1 Samuel 13. The enemy army is pressing in hard after Saul's son Jonathan attacked a small enemy outpost. The prophet Samuel had previously told Saul to wait for him to come to present offerings to God and receive further instructions from God. This was a dire situation - this was no small army. Israel was outnumbered many times over, and only a miracle could save them from this powerful enemy.

Saul waited, but not long enough. He figured that Samuel was not coming, so he would make the offering to God by himself. This was not his position to do, however, and Saul showed the first of a long string of disobedience. Saul was saying, in effect, I know better than God what to do.

When we don't wait for God and impatiently act on our own limited knowledge, aren't we doing the same thing as Saul?

For a contrast to this, check out what a valient young man named Daniel did when he was also in a dire situation. Read the second chapter of the book of Daniel to get all the details. Daniel worked as an advisor to the king of Babylon, a powerful ancient empire. The king had been having dreams and asked his advisors to interpret the dreams. However, he felt that some of the advisiors had been less that truthful with him, so he devised a plan to see how wise his advisors really were. He decreed that the advisors would need to tell him what his dream was, and if they could, then they would be wise enough to properly interpret it.

Of course the wise men protested. "There is not a man on earth who can do what the king asks! No king, however great and mighty, has ever asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or astrologer. What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among men." So the king ordered the execution of all his wise men.

When Daniel heard of this, he didn't bolt to get out of town. Instead he went right to the king, and asked for time to do as the king demanded. Pretty bold, eh?

This boldness was based on something that Daniel was ready to stake his life on - that his God, the only true God, was the revealer of mysteries! Let's see what happened, right from Daniel chapter 2:

"¹⁹ During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven ²⁰ and said:

"Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever;
wisdom and power are his.

²¹ He changes times and seasons;
he sets up kings and deposes them.
He gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to the discerning.

²² He reveals deep and hidden things;
he knows what lies in darkness,
and light dwells with him.

²³ I thank and praise you, O God of my fathers:
You have given me wisdom and power,
you have made known to me what we asked of you,
you have made known to us the dream of the king."

Saul thought he knew better than God, and acted upon it in disobedience to God. Daniel knew that only God could know the great mysteries that the king demanded to know, and he and his three friends cried out to God. God came thru!

Who do we identify more with - Saul or Daniel?

Let's be willing to realize that we don't know better than God, and when things are breaking lose all around us, let's cry out to God and ask him for his wisdom on what to do rather than taking matters into our own hands. That's just what Daniel did.