1 Samuel 26:21 Then said Saul, I have sinned: return, my son David: for I will no more do you harm, because my soul was precious in your eyes this day… Behold, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly. At his first wrong step it was said to Saul by Samuel, "Thou hast done foolishly" (1 Samuel 13:13); and now (a man of about sixty years of age), looking back upon a long course of disobedience and self-will, and more especially upon his recent persecution of David, he himself said, "I have sinned... Behold, I have done foolishly, and have erred exceedingly." "There is no sinner so hardened but that God gives him now and then a ray of illumination to show him all his error." And under its influence many a man, in reviewing the past, has been constrained to make a similar confession. With reference to the case of Saul, a man plays the fool - 1. When he suffers illusive thoughts and sinful passions to find a place within him. This was the root of Saul's wasted and miserable life. How different would it have been if he had adopted proper means to expel such thoughts and passions from his breast, and prevent their return! "How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?" (Jeremiah 4:14). 2. When he listens to the false representations of wicked men, insinuating, it may be, suspicions of his best friend, and urging him to regard him as his worst enemy (1 Samuel 24:9). 3. When he acts in opposition to what he knows to be right. Saul had done so continually, following the impulses of "an evil heart of unbelief, instead of the dictates of reason and conscience. "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin" (James 4:17). 4. When he rests in feelings merely, and does not translate them into deeds (1 Samuel 24:17). They are "dead without works." Every delay to act in accordance with them weakens their power, renders it less likely that they will ever be acted upon, and prepares the way for the return of the "evil spirit." 5. When he makes good resolutions and immediately breaks them (ver. 21), thereby destroying his moral power, and hardening himself in sin. 6. When he contends against the Divine purposes in the vain hope of succeeding (ver. 25). Sooner or later he must be crushed. "Who hath hardened himself against him and prospered?" (Job 9:4). 7. When he expects to find happiness except in connection with holiness. The illusion is dispelled, if not before, at the hour of death and the dawn of eternity, and he has to confess his folly when it is too late to repair it. - D. Parallel Verses KJV: Then said Saul, I have sinned: return, my son David: for I will no more do thee harm, because my soul was precious in thine eyes this day: behold, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly. |
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