Fear (Respect) the Lord First

# 147 - Today's Du-votional comes from: 1Sa 11:6 Then the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard this news, and his anger was greatly aroused. 7 So he took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hands of messengers, saying, "Whoever does not go out with Saul and Samuel to battle, so it shall be done to his oxen." And the fear of the LORD fell on the people, and they came out with one consent. (1 Sam 11:6,7) I don't know if Saul was angry because of the threatenings of Nahash, or because of the response of the people. They clearly were intimidated by Nahash, but they needed to fear someone even more than Nahash, namely Jehovah God. Jesus reminded us of this truth in Mt 10:28 "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. So Saul, under the influence of the Holy Spirit seeks to instill a proper fear in the people. In a measured response he slaughters a yoke of oxen and sends the pieces of meat to all the tribes of Israel. His first official act as King was to tell the people they must fight, or he, acting on God's authority, will do the same to their oxen if they don't band together to fight the enemy. This visual demonstration was used as a catalyst to instill a proper fear of the Lord in the people, and with a proper fear of the Lord, they agreed to do battle as one. We are in the midst of a spiritual battle today, and we need to stop being concerned about our own oxen. We need to get our priorities straight. God can just as easily chop up our possessions and scatter them to the wind, as he did with Saul's oxen. A proper fear of the Lord realizes that all our material possessions are gifts from God. Therefore they must play second fiddle to Him. Mt 6:33 "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Don't let the fear of losing your possessions keep you from entering the battle.